[BBC] An Australian politician has been convicted of supplying drugs after he initially dismissed a video showing him snorting a white substance as a "deepfake".
Former South Australian Liberal party leader David Speirs was fined A$9,000 (£4311; $5,720) and ordered to complete 37.5 hours of community service by an Adelaide court on Thursday.
Speirs was arrested in September after footage of him snorting off a plate was published by News Corp. He initially denied wrongdoing and reportedly told the news outlet it was a "deepfake" and that he had never used cocaine.
However, he later admitted that was a lie and the ensuing scandal and charges led to his resignation from parliament.
Last month, Speirs pleaded guilty to supplying cocaine to two men in August.
Speirs' defence said he used drugs "as a form of escapism" from the stress of his work, but the offences did not occur in a work capacity.
The case had sparked intense media scrutiny, with prosecutors arguing that it was in the public's interest given Speirs' senior position in politics.
His lawyer had previously asked the court not to record the conviction so his client could travel overseas, but the magistrate said the offences were "too serious".
"The need for public denunciation for this type of offending and the need for general deterrence is too great to refrain from recording a conviction," magistrate Brian Nitschke said on Thursday.
Nitschke acknowledged Speirs' defence that the offences occurred during a time of stress but added it was "certainly no excuse".
Speirs stepped into the role of South Australia's Liberal leader in 2022 and had served 10 years as a member of parliament.
"The FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction, after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week," Kash Patel posted.
"We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse, Eduardo Flores Ruiz, allowing the subject, an illegal alien, to evade arrest."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/25/2025 11:16 ||
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Link ||
[214 views]
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#1
Maybe he’ll run across some friends on the inside.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/25/2025 11:37 Comments ||
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#2
She’ll.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/25/2025 11:38 Comments ||
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Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/25/2025 12:15 Comments ||
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#5
I expect some federal judge will quickly issue a nationwide restraining order so the Trump's evil henchmen never arrest any judge, at any level, for any crime.
Another long one with lots of details at the link.
[JustTheNews] Newly-declassified Crossfire Hurricane records reveal the key role that Andrew McCabe played in perpetuating the Russiagate hoax. There are still people who believe it.
Newly-declassified memos written by disgraced FBI official Andrew McCabe shine new light on how he kept the Trump-Russia collusion hoax investigation alive during a critical period in the first half of 2017 before he got it handed off to a special counsel.
The eight memos penned by McCabe, most of which had never been released until earlier this month, span his discussions and meetings (including with President Donald Trump) held from January 24, 2017 to May 21, 2017 — a critical time period ranging from just before the FBI sprung an interview on retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn to just after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel. The memos were more fully declassified through efforts by Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel earlier this month.
McCabe was a stalwart ally of since-fired FBI Director James Comey, coordinated closely with since-fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok on the launch and the conduct of the flawed and politicized Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and relied heavily upon disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page as his close confidante.
Pushed the Steele dossier
McCabe and Comey had pushed in December 2016 to include British ex-spy Christopher Steele's debunked dossier in the body of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on alleged Russian meddling, but they were thwarted by the NSA and CIA. The dossier was eventually included in an annex to the assessment.
By early 2017, McCabe and the FBI knew that the Steele dossier was baseless. The FBI had offered Steele an “incentive” in October 2016 of up to $1 million if he could prove the allegations in his discredited anti-Trump dossier, but the former MI6 agent was unable to back up his claims. An FBI spreadsheet from December 2016 showed nothing of any substance from the dossier could be verified. The FBI had unearthed nothing derogatory on Flynn. And an early 2017 interview of Steele’s main source — Igor Danchenko — undercut the dossier’s collusion claims.
Yet despite the huge setbacks for Crossfire Hurricane, McCabe’s newly-declassified memos show how McCabe facilitated the FBI’s targeting of Flynn, met with Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about the Flynn allegations, refused to publicly shoot down false media stories on collusion, opened a collusion investigation into Trump himself after Comey was fired, kept the Trump-Russia investigation alive and escalated it as the acting FBI director, helped successfully push for a special counsel to take the reins, and more.
McCabe did not respond to a request for comment sent to him by Just the News through his LinkedIn.
January 24, 2017 — Mike Flynn’s call with McCabe
McCabe created his first memo related to a discussion he had with Flynn just before he was interviewed by FBI agents on January 24, 2017. Versions of the memo were previously released with various redactions in 2019 and 2020, but the version released this month has the fewest redactions yet.
The FBI had been plotting how to potentially prosecute Flynn related to his December 2016 call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, including potentially under the Logan Act.
McCabe said that “I told LTG Flynn that I had a sensitive matter to discuss. I explained that in light of the significant media coverage and public discussion about his recent contacts with Russian representatives, that Director Comey and I felt that we needed to have two of our agents sit down with the General and hear from him the details of those conversations. LTG Flynn asked if I was referring to his contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the United States, and indicated that I was.”
McCabe said in his memo that Flynn explained that he had been trying to "build relationships" with the Russians, and that he had calls in which he "exchanged condolences." McCabe said Flynn then stated that McCabe probably knew what was said in these calls because "you listen to everything they say."
McCabe said of his talk with Flynn that “I reiterated that in light of everything that has been said about these contacts, the important thing now was for us to hear directly from him what he said and how he felt about the conversations.”
Comey later admitted in 2018 that he took advantage of the chaos in the early days of Trump’s administration when he sent FBI special agents Peter Strzok and Joseph Pientka to talk to Flynn.
“I sent them,” Comey said to MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace, prompting laughter in the audience. “Something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in … a more organized administration. In the George W. Bush administration, for example, or the Obama administration.”
“In both of those administrations, there was process, and so, if the FBI wanted to send agents into the White House itself to interview a senior official, you would work through the White House counsel, and there’d be discussions and approvals and who would be there, and I thought, it’s early enough — let’s just send a couple guys over,” Comey added.
STRZOK OVERJOYED THAT FLYNN CASE NOT CLOSED
The Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case in May 2020 stated that Strzok learned in early January 2017 that the Flynn case had not been closed despite the lack of evidence for keeping it open, and relayed the “serendipitously good” news to McCabe's special assistant Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an affair. Strzok remarked that “our utter incompetence actually helps us.” Strzok then instructed FBI agents to “keep it open for now” at the behest of “the 7th Floor” of the bureau.
The DOJ said that “the FBI kept open its counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn based solely on his calls with Kislyak — the only new information to arise since the FBI’s determination to close the case.” McCabe did not tell Flynn that he was being interviewed by the FBI as part of an investigation targeting the Trump campaign.
McCabe said in his memo that “LTG Flynn questioned how so much information had been made public and asked if we thought it had been leaked” and “I replied that we were quite concerned about what we perceived as significant leaks and that we were in the process of completing a referral to the Department of Justice requesting authority to initiate a leak investigation.” McCabe said that “I further indicated that these cases were hard to prove but that we thought the significance of this situation demanded a thorough review.”
[FoxNews] Judge blocks 2 provisions from Trump's March executive order on election integrity.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Thursday blocked a portion of President Donald Trump's executive order on election integrity, specifically provisions related to providing documentary proof of citizenship before being allowed to register to vote.
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia handed down the order in response to lawsuits filed by three separate groups of plaintiffs over five different provisions in a March 25 Trump executive order relating to election integrity. While Kollar-Kotelly dismissed requests to block three of the provisions, requests to block two other provisions pertaining to a proof of citizenship requirement for voters were granted.
The first blocked provision sought to compel the Election Assistance Commission to amend standardized national voter registration forms to require documentary proof of citizenship. The second sought to require federal agencies offering voter registration to people on public assistance to "assess" the individual's citizenship status before doing so.
"Our Constitution entrusts Congress and the States — not the President — with the authority to regulate federal elections. Consistent with that allocation of power, Congress is currently debating legislation that would effect many of the changes the President purports to order," Kollar-Kotelly, a Clinton-appointee, wrote in her order. "No statutory delegation of authority to the Executive Branch permits the President to short-circuit Congress’s deliberative process by executive order."
Kollar-Kotelly said she would not block the other provisions that the groups sought to challenge, which cover mail-in ballots and data collection on citizenship status, calling the challenges "premature" and indicating they would be best challenged at the state level.
Earlier this month, the Republican-led House of Representatives passed a bill requiring proof-of-citizenship to vote in federal elections. The measure still must pass the Senate, however, before the president can sign it into law.
Meanwhile, 25 states are considering some form of proof-of-citizenship legislation, according to the Voting Rights Lab, which is tracking such legislation. In total, 15 state constitutions have explicit prohibitions against non-citizen voting.
In addition to Trump's proof-of-citizenship orders getting shot down, two other federal judges from Maryland and New Hampshire also shot down additional orders from the president related to ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in K-12 public schools on Thursday.
The rulings followed lawsuits filed by the National Education Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. The groups argued that making federal funding contingent on whether educators squash their DEI programs violates First Amendment rights granted by the Constitution.
#2
Judges have no mid-terms. I think it is worthwhile flushing out all the bad judges at this point.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/25/2025 11:43 Comments ||
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#3
Trump is building the argument for an overdue remaking of the judiciary. The recent arrests are a good backdrop.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/25/2025 12:16 Comments ||
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#4
^For some reason I've remembered a SF story I've read a long time ago. A tyrannical POTUS designated political assassination as a federal crime. Then started pardoning assassins of his political opponents.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
