A new wave of development is ripping through downtown Detroit.
“Walking around Detroit in 2008 or 2009 is not the same as walking around in 2022,” said Ramy Habib, a local entrepreneur. “It is absolutely magnificent what happened throughout those 15 years.”
Between 2010 and 2019, just 708 new housing structures went up in the city of Detroit, according to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments.
Much of the new construction traces back to the philanthropic wings of large local businesses. For example, Ford Motor is nearing completion of a 30-acre mixed-used development at Michigan Central Station. The station sat abandoned for years as the city fell into bankruptcy.
Detroit’s decline into insolvency formed amid 20th century globalization in the auto industry, according to economists. The city’s population fell from 1.8 million to 639,000 in the most recent but controversial count by the US Census. “With the population leaving, with the infrastructure staying in place, it meant strains on the city. Cumulatively, they started to mount over time,” said Raymond Owens III, a former senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
The 2007-08 Great Recession left another round of scars on the city as scores of homes fell into foreclosure. The US Treasury Department has since funded the removal of 15,000 blighted structures in the city. “A lot of Black people are leaving the city. So sometimes that identity can change and shift in certain communities,” said Alphonso Carlton Jr, a lifelong Detroit resident.
Local leaders have used tax and spending policies to advance economic development downtown. In July 2022, the Detroit City Council finalized a tax abatement for the real estate developer Bedrock to finance the $1.4 billion Hudson’s site project. The abatement could be worth up to $60 million over its 10-year span. Bedrock is in a family of companies controlled by billionaire investor Dan Gilbert, who moved several of his businesses from him downtown in 2010.
Bedrock told CNBC that decision was consistent with the council’s handling of other major developments, due to high local tax rates. One local analysis suggests that in 2020, Detroit’s effective property tax rate on homes was more than double the national average. Detroit’s new tax, spending and placemaking policies have drawn the interests of bond investors in recent years, providing another source of revenue for the local government.
Watch the video above to learn more about Detroit’s escape from bankruptcy.
So far, the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping retrial is shaping up like the last case, if jury selection is any indication.
A jury was seated in one day, just like last time, with the judging handling of most of the questioning.
Most of the chosen folks don’t like the news, or pay much attention to it.
And they said they know very little about the high-profile case involving the state’s chief executive, militias and those groups’ disdain for Whitmer’s handling of the pandemic.
While several said they had heard about the case when it initially surfaced two years ago, they noted they have learned very little, if anything, about it since.
More:Will feds salvage Whitmer kidnap case? ‘The key is jury selection,’ experts say
More:2 Whitmer kidnap plot suspects found not guilty; mistrial declared for other 2
What we know about the second Whitmer kidnap jury
A diverse jury was picked this time, whereas the last jury was all white. The panel of 10 women and eight men includes two Black women and one Hispanic male.
Twelve jurors and six alternates were picked to decide the fates of Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr., who are being retried on charges they orchestrated a plot to kidnap the governor out of anger over her handling of the pandemic. Their first trial in the case ended in a hung jury, with two other defendants acquitted. Two others pleaded guilty early on and will testify in the retrial.
Seventeen of the 18 jurors picked in this sensational case are:
A chemist who said that he heard about the case in the past, and learned it was in the news again recently, but that “there’s more to the story than what you read.”
A female factory worker whose daughter-in-law got high with accused ringleader Adam Fox at a boat launch near Whitmer’s cottage. The woman disclosed during jury selection that her daughter-in-law had come into contact with the defendants at a boat launch, and she was questioned by the FBI about the encounter, but she did not remember anything because she was intoxicated. According to testimony from the last trial, Fox smoked pot with this woman on the day he went to scope out Whitmer’s vacation house. Now her mother-in-law is a juror in Fox’s case. She was initially an alternate juror, but replaced a regular juror who was dismissed on Wednesday due to illness. The new juror said that she had heard about the Whitmer case, but that she doesn’t watch the news and “doesn’t have strong political views.” When asked whether if she could be a fair and impartial juror she answered: “I feel like I could.”
A female accountant who says she doesn’t follow the news much.
A male underwriter for an insurance company who sort of follows the news.
A female interior designer who said she has no strong political views and tries not to listen to the news.
A male retiree who managed a trucking department and now goes fishing with his free time. “The news makes me angry,” he said, later adding: “My wife doesn’t want me watching the news.”
A Grand Rapids Community College student who also works at Menards as a forklift operator.
A female factory worker who makes plates for bumpers on F-150 pickup trucks, but said she’s a Chevy person. She doesn’t listen to the news, heard about the kidnapping case when it first happened, but nothing since. “I have no political views,” she said.
A male freelance graphic designer and illustrator who said he heard of the Whitmer case, but only got “broad strokes.” He said he can be fair.
A woman who works as an office administrator, doesn’t listen to the news, has a criminal justice degree and has heard about the case. “I respect both sides. I’m not biased,” she said.
A Grand Rapids woman who works at a gastronenterology office coordinating visits and referrals. She tries to avoid the news and said “I hate politics.” After she cleared the dismissal process, she disclosed that she didn’t like guns or violence, which raised concerns for the defense. But it was too late to excuse her from the case as the defense had already agreed to keep her on. She is an alternate. “I am against guns,” the woman said as the selection process was drawing to close, explaining that her mother’s husband had a psychotic breakdown and tried to kill her and her family. “I’m just against guns and violence.”
A female retiree who used to work at a plating factory running a hoist. “I just kind of lay around. … I read,” she said. “I don’t really have an opinion on the case. … I don’t really follow politics.” She said that she has strong political views on some things not tied to the case, and that she can be fair.
A Grand Haven man with no car or driver’s license who said he would need a ride to trial. He said he rarely follows the news and knows little about the case, other than hearing about it when it first happened.
A male mechanic who works with heavy equipment, including excavators. He follows mostly local news, enjoys hunting and trapping, owns a shotgun and a deer rifle.
A woman who works as a nutritionist and doesn’t really follow the news, but said that when she does she gets it from Facebook. She said she could be fair. The judge asked her whether she’d like to serve. She said yes.
A stay-at-home mom who is preparing to go on a “glamping” trip with her two sons.
This is the juror who was dismissed: A woman who works from home as an IT solution architect and said her husband has the news on constantly. She said she has some impressions about the case but she was willing to listen to the evidence and make an unbiased decision based on that. She said she has strong political views, but she did not disclose them and said she could set them aside and fairly decide the case.
The jurors are identified only by number, and descriptions of the remaining juror couldn’t be discerned from notes.
‘Only two things matter’
At the start of jury selection, Chief US District Judge Robert Jonker told the prospective jurors that the case is “potentially more challenging and potentially more interesting” than other trials, given its high profile.
“The victim is our sitting governor. There has been publicity. There have been earlier proceedings,” Jonker said, without disclosing that there was a previous trial that ended with no convictions.
Jonker stressed to the jury pool, however, that only two things matter:
“This is not a political forum. It’s not whether you like Gov. Whitmer or don’t like Gov. Whitmer. It’s not whether you think mask mandates were good policy or bad policy,” Jonker said. “Here in court… only two things matter: what the law is, and what the evidence is.”
mistrust in government
Mistrust in the government appeared to be a top priority during the jury selection process, based on Jonker’s questions and comments.
I have asked prospective jurors repeatedly about how they felt about the government, noting that the case is loaded with controversial issues: a sitting governor’s response to the pandemic, mask mandates, lockdowns and an FBI investigation into an alleged plot to kidnap her.
During jury selection in the last trial, the judge asked prospective jurors whether they could set aside their political views or any preconceived ideas about the case. But he didn’t focus as heavily on the topic of mistrust in the government as he did Tuesday, when multiple hands went up when asked whether they had reservations about being fair in this case due to mistrust of the government.
“I don’t like politicians or politics. I don’t personally trust them. … I just don’t particularly trust the government in general,” said one woman, a hairdresser. “It’s a very unpopular opinion to have to say out loud in federal court.”
Jonker told her she wasn’t alone.
“It may of course be one of the more popular opinions these days,” Jonker said before asking the woman whether she believes “the government has a bigger hill to climb.”
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“At this point in my life, I’m automatically distrusting, it’s always back there in my mind, I don’t trust authority,” the woman said.
Jonker replied:
“It’s not an isolated opinion. A lot of people have a mistrust of government,” Jonker said, before telling the jury pool the government is “entitled to a fair trial, just as the defendants are.”
Who was dismissed from the jury?
The cosmetologist was bounced from the jury pool. So were the following:
A woman who said she has multiple friends and family members who attended the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, DC, but were not part of the Capitol breach. She said they had a right to be there to express their opinions.
A woman who said she had family in the Elk Rapids area, the same city where Whitmer’s vacation home is located. “I don’t think I could be very fair,” she said.
A retired firefighter and self-described staunch conservative who said he has a strong bias against the defendants. “I hate to say that, but I feel if the case has gone this far and it makes it to court and they haven’t pleaded out, that they’re guilty. I’m sorry.”
A male security officer who said he reads the newspaper a lot, has read about the case, and would find it hard to set aside what he’s read. “I don’t think I’d be very fair at this point.”
Staking out Whitmer’s vacation home
Fox and Croft are being retried on kidnapping conspiracy and weapons of mass destruction charges. They are accused of, among other things, casing Whitmer’s vacation house and building explosives that would be used in the kidnapping plan.
Prosecutors said the pair and others plotted to blow up a bridge near Whitmer’s vacation house to slow down law enforcement.
According to trial testimony, Fox, while on his way to scope out Whitmer’s cottage, stopped at a bridge near her house, got out, and took a photograph of the bridge that would be an explosive target. But the defense maintains that an undercover informant came up with the idea of surveilling Whitmer’s home, planned the trip, found the address and convinced the others to make the trip. The defense also says it was the informant who suggested that Fox get out of the car and take a photo of the bridge.
The defense has long argued that the FBI tried to entrap the defendants in a kidnapping plot that was devised and run by FBI agents and informants looking to advance their careers.
The prosecution counters this is a case about violent extremists who wanted to do real harm to the governor because they disagreed with her decisions. And they didn’t just talk about it, they have argued, but took steps to make it happen, like casing her house, buying night vision goggles, building a “shoot house” that looked like her cottage for snatch-n-grab exercises and forming encrypted chat rooms to hide their plan from law enforcement.
If convicted, both men face up to life in prison.
Praise for the judge
After court was adjuurned, defense attorney Chris Gibbons said he was pleased with the jury that was empaneled, and that he would now shift his focus on convincing the jury of his long-standing claims: that the FBI orchestrated the kidnapping plot, and ran the whole show.
As for the juror who got on the panel after disclosing her dislike of guns, he said:
“It just is what it is,” Gibbons told reporters after court was added Tuesday.
“I think the judge did a nice job with voir dire today and he certainly did give us an opportunity to ask the questions we thought needed to be asked.”
Opening statements are scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that the state will be taking several new precautions in response to the Uvalde school shooting, including adding dozens of additional officers to the Uvalde school district patrol.
Abbott’s statement explained that the Texas Department of Public Safety “will be providing more than 30 law enforcement officers to campuses throughout the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) for the new school year.”
“The beginning of a new school year should be an exciting time for students and teachers, and the State of Texas is working to provide that for the Uvalde community,” Abbott said. “As a new school year begins, we must ensure students, parents, and all dedicated school personnel can look forward to new opportunities to learn and grow. Texas will keep working to provide all available support and resources to the Uvalde community as they continue to heal.”
The press release outlined other steps that have been taken to stem school shootings in the future, including $5 million to establish a “long-term Family Resiliency Center” to provide mental health services in Uvalde, and $1.25 million for trauma counseling and community outreach in the Uvalde school district.
UVALDE SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE SHOWS POLICE RESPONSE AS GUNMAN MURDERED 19 CHILDREN AND 2 ADULTS
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott attends a press conference where he signed Senate Bills 2 and 3 at the Capitol in Austin on June 8, 2021. Montinique Monroe/Getty Images
A committee of Texas state lawmakers investigating the police response to the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde in late May that left 19 students and 2 teachers dead released a 77-page report in July detailing “systemic failures” and “poor decision making” from those involved.
The investigation criticized the inaction of state and federal law enforcement, who made up the majority of responding officers. The report states that there were 91 state police officers, 149 from US Border Patrol, 25 Uvalde city police officers, 16 sheriff’s deputies and 5 officers from the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police who responded to the crime.
UVALDE, TEXAS, MAYOR ALLEGES SHOOTING INVESTIGATION A ‘COVER-UP’
The committee said law enforcement failed to quickly confront the suspect, having retreated to safety after taking gunfire and waited for backup.
“They failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety,” the report said.
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.
Federal Jury Finds Former Twitter Middle East Media Partnerships Employee Guilty of Fraud, Conspiracy, Obstruction, and Foreign Agent Charges for Bribe Scheme to Access, Monitor, and Convey User Information on Behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its Royal Family
A federal jury yesterday convicted a former Media Partnerships Manager for the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region at Twitter of acting as a foreign agent without notice to the Attorney General, conspiracy, wire fraud, international money laundering, and falsification of records in to federal investigation. The verdict follows a two-week trial before the Honorable Senior US District Judge Edward M. Chen for the Northern District of California.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Ahmad Abouammo, 44, formerly of Walnut Creek, California, and currently residing in Seattle, was employed at Twitter as Media Partnerships Manager for the MENA region. The evidence at trial demonstrated that Abouammo took bribes in exchange for accessing, monitoring, and conveying the private information of Twitter users to officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Royal family. In this position, Abouammo was responsible for protecting Twitter user information and owed Twitter his honest services from him. Twitter policies also required Abouammo to disclose violations of Twitter’s security policies and report gifts from those with business dealings with the company. When questioned about the accesses of Twitter user information and his receipt of bribes, Abouammo then lied to FBI investigators and falsified a document.
“Abouammo acted in secret as an agent of a foreign government targeting dissenting voices,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “This verdict shows that the Justice Department will not tolerate any act of transnational repression and will hold accountable those who aid hostile regimes in extending their reach to our shores.”
“The Northern District of California is home to many of the most innovative technology companies in the world,” said US Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds for the Northern District of California. “One consequence of this good fortune is that companies in this district often collect and store vast amounts of data from customers and vendors. In this case, the government demonstrated, and the jury found, that Abouammo violated a sacred trust to keep private personal information from Twitter’s customers and sold private customer information to a foreign government. Abouammo’s decision to accept bribes in exchange for providing to a foreign government the protected information of customers could have untold damaging consequences. As this case demonstrates, we will not tolerate the misuse of personal information or attempts by foreign governments to recruit secret, malign agents at American technology companies. Where such misuse violates federal law, offenders will be prosecuted.”
“Any attempts by foreign governments to hijack free speech – in social media or any form – will not be tolerated here in the United States. This case is proof of the FBI’s commitment to defend our constitutional right,” said Assistant Director Alan E. Kohler Jr. of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “Authoritarian governments rely on transnational repression to shape the world in their favor and stifle dissent. We remain dedicated to protecting the United States from all foreign and domestic threats, which includes efforts by foreign governments to stalk, harass, or intimidate the people within our borders.”
“The FBI San Francisco division works tirelessly to prevent efforts by foreign governments to suppress fundamental human rights, including the free speech of dissenting voices on US social media platforms,” said Special Agent in Charge Sean Ragan of the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office. “This verdict reaffirms the FBI’s dedication to stopping transnational repression from any foreign government and sends a clear message that justice will be brought to those who threaten the freedoms of an open society.”
According to the evidence presented at trial, Abouammo began receiving bribes from an official of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as early as December 2014. The foreign official met with Abouammo in London and provided Abouammo with a luxury Hublot watch. Abouammo later acknowledged the value of the watch was $42,000 when he offered it for sale on Craigslist. After the meeting in London, Abouammo began repeatedly accessing private information about several Twitter accounts, at least one of which was an influential account who was critical of members of the Saudi Royal Family and the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Abouammo also continued to communicate with the official of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including regarding the influential critical account.
Evidence at trial further showed that after Abouammo traveled to Lebanon in February 2015. A bank account was opened in the name of his father in Lebanon and Abouammo obtained access to that bank account. The account then received $100,000 from the official of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Abouammo laundered the money by sending it into the United States in small wire transfers with false descriptions. Abouammo left his job at Twitter in May 2021 and, shortly thereafter, received another $100,000 into the bank account in Lebanon accompanied by a note from the official apologizing for the delayed payment. Abouammo responded, in part, by asking whether the official wanted any additional information from Twitter.
In October 2018, FBI agents interviewed Abouammo at his residence about his involvement in the scheme with officials of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Evidence at trial demonstrated that Abouammo provided false information to the FBI investigators and falsified an invoice for one of the payments he received from the foreign official.
Abouammo was arrested on Nov. 5, 2019. On July 28, 2020, a federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging him with acting as an agent of a foreign government without providing notice to the Attorney General; conspiracy to commit wire fraud and honest services fraud; six counts of honest services fraud and wire fraud; international money laundering; and falsification of records in a federal investigation. The jury acquitted Abouammo of five of the counts pertaining to wire fraud and honest services fraud. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on all the remaining counts.
Abouammo faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for the charge of acting as an agent of a foreign government and 20 years in prison for each of the other counts. In addition, each count for which Abouammo was found guilty carries up to a $250,000 fine and additional periods of supervised release to follow the prison term. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. A sentencing hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Assistant US Attorneys Colin Sampson and Eric Cheng for the Northern District of California and Trial Attorney Christine Bonomo of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Beth Margen and Alycee Lane. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI.
Beijing’s new trade blocks against Taiwan affect about 0.04% of their two-way trade, making them more political than economic.
Beijing took action against Taiwan following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island earlier this month despite warnings from Beijing. That included suspensions of imports of Taiwanese citrus, frozen fish, sweets and biscuits and exports of natural sands to Taiwan.
Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy, but Beijing considers the island part of its territory and a breakaway province. China says Taiwan has no right to conduct foreign relations and warned for weeks against Pelosi’s visit.
What trade numbers show
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, after arriving at the president’s office on August 3, 2022, in Taipei, Taiwan. Pelosi’s visit infuriated China, which regards the self-ruled island as its own and responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over Taipei for the first time, as well as ditching some lines of dialogue with Washington.
Handout | Getty ImagesNews | Getty Images
When it comes to Taiwan’s imports from mainland China, more than half of the $82 billion traded in 2021 were electrical machinery, electronic and technological parts as well as nuclear reactors and boilers.
As for Taiwan’s exports to China, 65% of them were also similar goods in electrical machinery, electronic and technological parts.
Drop in the ocean
On the other hand, the volume of trade in areas that Beijing has targeted is relatively small.
Exports of natural sand to Taiwan — which Beijing has targeted — were a drop in the ocean against the above figures. They amounted to about $3.5 million last year, data from the Taiwanese trade bureau showed.
They were also a small trade compared with natural sand exports from Australia and Vietnam, the biggest suppliers of natural sand to Taiwan last year. Together, they supplied about $64 million of the raw material used in construction and other industries, making up 70% of Taiwan’s purchases, according to its trade bureau.
Similarly, the targeted trade of citrus was valued at a relatively small $10 million last year, though mainland China was also Taiwan’s biggest citrus buyer, Taiwan’s trade data showed.
The agricultural products now in the headlines are only a fraction of Taiwan’s export basket. And so the headline impact on Taiwan won’t really be noticeable.
Nick Brown
Economist Intelligence Unit
Other targets such as Taiwan’s exports of bread, pastry, cakes and biscuits to mainland China were worth more than $50 million in total last year.
Beijing’s specific suspension of two kinds of frozen fishes, horse mackerel and largehead hairtail, were valued at over $3 million in 2021, according to Taiwan’s trade bureau.
“China’s economic retaliation against Taiwan is a long-standing strategy in its diplomatic playbook. That said, its decision to target relatively low-value trade items reflects the limits of its economic pressure toolbox,” said global trade lead analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit , Nick Marro.
“It’s already had restrictions on Chinese visitors to Taiwan in place for a few years, which carry more economic significance; the agricultural products now in the headlines are only a fraction of Taiwan’s export basket. And so the headline impact on Taiwan won’t really be noticeable.”
Precedents
Beijing’s trade suspensions against Taiwan are not a new phenomenon.
In previous years, tensions between the two have led to bans on mainland travelers to Taiwan.
Last year, China suspended imports of Taiwanese pineapples, citing quarantine measures over “harmful creatures” that came with the fruit. China was Taiwan’s biggest pineapple buyer up to that point.
Investment bank Natixis said that the recent Chinese trade restrictions focused on “highly replaceable food products” but not the information and communications technology sector in which the two trading partners have the most trade.
The bank also said mainland China will continue to import from Taiwan as long as it needs the goods, similar to what it has done in other trade conflicts such as the one it has with Australia and the United States.
In the China-Australia trade dispute that started in 2020, China restricted the purchase of some goods such as barley and coal but continued to buy iron ore from Australia, a key ingredient for China’s steel production and the bedrock of the countries’ trade.
There may also be other fallouts from the Pelosi visit that could hurt wider regional trade. For example, heightened military drills in the Taiwan Strait may delay shipments, analysts say.
“The shutting down of these transport routes — even temporarily — has consequences not only for Taiwan, but also trade flows tied to Japan and South Korea,” Marro said.
“It’s not just a story for Taiwan and China, but also for their neighbors, as well.”
Analysis by logistics platform Container xChange said any rerouting of shipping lines to avoid military exercises may be problematic for the trading world as it enters peak shipping season.
Container xChange Chief Executive Christian Roeloffs said, however, that supply chains have become far more resilient over the course of the pandemic.
Customer feedback shows any rerouting of vessels away from the Taiwan Strait will add a few days to ship voyages, though Roeloffs does not anticipate a massive hit to logistics costs.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has tightly limited the Justice Department’s public statements about investigations, particularly the sprawling January 6 criminal probe and especially anything having to do with the former president. The FBI search Monday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, tied to a criminal investigation into the handling of classified information, was partly engineered to avoid a spectacle, according to people briefed on the matter. Agents appeared around 10 am ET in plainclothes, not in the early-morning hours and wearing the FBI logo jackets commonly seen at searches. Trump was in New York at the time.
It became public when Trump issued a public statement near the end of the hours-long search, portraying it as a “siege.”
Garland has repeatedly addressed why he says so little about the ongoing investigations, citing not only the department’s general policy not to comment but also as part of a strategy to protect the investigation by not letting potential targets know what the department is doing. He also has cited the importance of protecting the rights of people not yet charged with crimes so as to avoid them being tried in the public sphere before the Justice Department brings a case.
Some Justice and FBI officials, though, have argued internally that the silence is harmful to the department’s and the public’s interest, in part because Trump and allies have filled the void.
On Wednesday, the department avoided questions about the Trump search by issuing a recorded video statement on a major criminal case, charging an Iranian military official with trying to assassinate John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser.
The video statement from Matt Olsen, assistant attorney general for National Security, and Larissa Knapp, executive assistant director for the FBI’s national security branch, was unusual.
Such a high-profile case would normally be the subject of an attorney general press conference. But having a press conference this week likely would be dominated by questions about Mar-a-Lago.
It isn’t unusual for the FBI and US attorneys to issue public statements on search warrants, at a minimum confirming that investigators were carrying out court-authorized searches when their presence is plainly seen by members of the public or caught on camera.
Recently, they did so after the public noticed an FBI search of the home of Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, and after former Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark went public to complain about his home being searched.
In this instance, the only comment has come from the FBI agents’ association, which obliquely defended the conduct of agents without making reference to the Mar a Lago search.
“FBI Special Agents perform their investigative duties with integrity and professionalism, and remain focused on complying with the law and the Constitution,” Brian O’Hare, president of the FBI Agents Association, said. “As a part of this process, all search warrants executed by Special Agents are issued by federal District Court or magistrate judges, must satisfy detailed and clear procedural rules, and are the product of collaboration and consultation with relevant Department of Justice attorneys.”
FBI Director Chris Wray in Omaha on Wednesday was asked about Trump’s accusation that the agency could have planted evidence in the search and about threats against agents.
“I’m sure you can appreciate that’s not something that I can talk about so I’d refer you to the department,” said Wray, a 2018 appointee of Trump.
“As to the issue of threats, I will say that I am always concerned about violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, he said. “Any threats made against law enforcement, inducing the men and women of the FBI, as with any law enforcement agency, are deplorable and dangerous.
CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.
An Instagram influencer has been charged with murder after allegedly fatally stabbing her boyfriend inside a luxury Miami high-rise in April.
Courtney Clenney, a 26-year-old OnlyFans model, was taken into custody on Wednesday in Hawaii after being charged with second-degree murder with a deadly weapon in connection April 3 death of her boyfriend, 27-year-old Christian Obumseli, the miami herald first reported. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office is set to hold a press conference about the arrest on Thursday afternoon, citing in a press conference that the arrest report is sealed but that a “social media personality” was charged in connection with Obumseli’s murder.
Clenney’s defense attorney, Frank Prieto, confirmed the charges to The Daily Beast and said his client had been at a Hawaiian rehab facility for PTSD. The lawyer added that they are “disappointed that the State Attorney sought an arrest warrant” and noted that his client of him has “cooperated with the investigation from the beginning.”
“We are completely shocked at Courtney’s arrest based upon the clear evidence of self-defense in this matter,” Prieto said. “Obumseli attacked her and choked her that evening; Courtney had no choice but to meet force with force.”
“We will vigorously defend Courtney and clear her of this unfounded and baseless charge,” he added.
The Miami Police Department did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
The arrest marks the largest development in the investigation into the grayly slaying. The Miami Police Department previously said that on April 3, officers responded to a report of a stabbing at the One Paraiso luxury building around 5 pm, where they found Obumseli, who worked in cryptocurrency, with a “knife wound.”
“A female was located on scene and interviewed by detectives,” police said.
Obumseli was then transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead. While the details of Obumseli’s death remain unclear, a police spokesperson previously The Daily Beast that the pair “had been involved in a physical altercation” prior to the attack.
Local media reports also indicated that Clenney was detained at the scene to be taken to a mental health facility under the state’s Baker Act—which allows police to involuntarily commit an individual for up to 72 hours.
At the time, Prieto insisted that Clenney had acted out of self-defense.
“We have always offered to self-surrender if charges were filed in an effort to begin the legal process of clearing her of the charges,” Prieto told The Daily Beast on Wednesday, noting that this is “an absolute injustice to charge a victim of domestic violence and human trafficking with a crime; Courtney was clearly defending herself.”
Clenney—who boasts 2 million followers on Instagram, 25,700 on TikTok, and 41,000 more on Twitter—describes herself as “that chick from the internet” on social media accounts under the name “Courtney Tailor.” On her Ella OnlyFans account, Clenney describes herself as a “Proud Texan! Full-time fitness model and foodie living with my 2 dogs, Jesse and Ranger. I just moved to Miami so I need your positive vibes! Scary BIG change for this lil texas girl.”
On April 2, an OnlyFans post on her page read, “talk dirty to me.” The day prior, her page of her posted: “I’m not always this nasty… wait, yes I am lol.”
According to the Dallas Morning Newsthe pair recently moved to Florida from Texas, and initial reports suggested the conflict that night was not the first time the couple had had a physical altercation.
“We’ve seen her hit him. I’ve never seen him hit her,” Ashley Vaughn, one of the couple’s friends, told Local10. “From what we’ve personally experienced between the both of them, we believe that Christian wouldn’t put her in a position where she would need to stab him to protect herself.” (A neighbor told the same outlet that they had witnessed Obumseli swing at her about a week before the incident.)
Another friend told the outlet the friend group in Miami was now reeling from the news—and the reality that both Clenney and Obumseli were lost to them. “We didn’t think this is how far it would have gone,” Tahki Banks said.
In a GoFundMe campaign, Obumseli’s family said the “unconscionable” tragedy occurred just a week before his 28th birthday—and it is hard to believe “someone’s selfish act ripped Christian away from this world.” Describing Obumseli as an “extremely compassionate” person with an “infectious smile that could light up any room” the family added that they were seeking justice for the “heinous act of violence.” The family did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.
“It is not enough to say we are shocked and hurting—We are utterly devastated,” the family said in the online campaign. “His murder leaves many unanswered questions and creates a void that can never be fixed or filled. Not even with time.”
With primary season heating up ahead of the 2022 midterms, TheDailyShow‘s Jordan Klepper traveled to Waukesha, Wisconsin this week for a “good old cheese and brat-fueled” Trump rally to interview a series of MAGA die-hards. And he quickly discovered that they are becoming even more unhinged as Donald Trump gets closer to announcing his re-election campaign.
The comedian tracked down voters who claim to believe in “election integrity” while at the same time supporting Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) who offered to bring a slate of fake voters to Mike Pence in an attempt to overturn the 2020 results—without any recognition of that cognitive dissonance.
“I’m not going to be a conspiracist or anything like that,” one woman insisted before using the fictional plot of the Robin Williams movie Man of the Year to prove that “they had election fraud back then.”
“Are there any lessons we can take from Mork & Mindy?” Klepper asked in response.
Then there was the man in the full Abraham Lincoln mask and stovepipe hat who thinks Trump is running the military from “behind the scenes” and said he tries to avoid consuming “the media” because it’s all a bunch of “theatrics.” That one was a layup for Klepper who replied, “And you’re not someone who gives in to theatrics.”
Later, Klepper received warnings from Trumpers about the “normalization” of pedophilia through pizza-related symbols online and agreement on Trump’s assertion that America has never “gotten to the bottom” of 9/11.
But no one could quite top the woman in the star-spangled flower crown who used the Gematria calculator on her phone to assign numerical meaning to everything from Trump to JFK Jr. to “Let’s Go Brandon.”
“So the Wisconsin MAGA-ites were turning the conspiracy talk up to letter K, which is 11,” Klepper said before ordering a slice of pizza that had “nothing to do with pedophilia.”
For more, listen to TheDailyShow‘s Jordan Klepper onThe Last Laugh podcast.
The FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence on Monday was prompted by a tip to investigators about the possibility of additional classified documents at the Palm Beach club, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
CNN previously reported that investigators from the FBI and the DOJ met with Trump attorneys at Mar-a-Lago in June, seeking more information about classified material that had been taken to Florida after Trump departed the White House. Following that meeting, where investigators looked around the room where the documents were being stored, the Wall Street Journal reports that“someone familiar with the stored papers told investigators there may be still more classified documents at the private club” beyond what Trump turned over to the National Archives earlier this year.
CNN has not confirmed the WSJ report.
Monday’s search warrant execution pertained to both the handling of classified documents and the Presidential Records Act.
For months, investigators have been looking into how Trump handled material taken with him when he left the White House after the National Archives and Records Administration referred the case to the Justice Department earlier this year.
‘Never seen anything like this’: Violent posts increase online after FBI Mar-a-Lago search
The Monday search followed a belief from authorities that the former President or his team had not returned all the documents and other materials that were property of the government, according to a person familiar with the matter. There had been suspicion that Trump representatives were not being completely truthful with investigators, according to another person familiar with the matter.
The concern rose after the former President returned some 15 boxes of materials to the National Archives in January.
Before FBI agents arrived at Trump’s private club earlier this week and searched his residence, people around the former President had been under the impression that the probe into how he handled classified information had stalled, according to two sources familiar with the thinking.
It remains unclear why those around the former President believed the investigation had stalled, but in June, his attorneys received a letter from investigators asking them to preserve the remaining documents in his possession “until further notice,” one source told CNN.
The Mar-a-Lago search, which focused on the area of the club where Trump’s offices and personal quarters are located, marked a major escalation of the classified documents investigation. Federal agents removed boxes of material from the Palm Beach property. The Secret Service had about an hour heads up before the FBI executed the warrant, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.
The Wall Street Journal’s report comes amid increased pressure for the Justice Department to provide a public statement about the unprecedented move to search for a former President’s home.
A lineup of bullets, rockets and an armored plate pulled out of the river by the YouTubers.
Screengrab from Outdoors Weekly’s Youtube video
Within minutes of dropping their giant magnet into a river running through Georgia’s Fort Stewart, YouTubers Bryce Nachtwey and Matt Jackson were pulling up belts of rusted ammunition, mortar and armor plates.
In the eyes of a magnet fisher or treasure hunter, they had hit the tactical jackpot.
Then, they reeled in a mysterious Delta Air Lines bag stuffed to the brim with rockets. There were 86 in total, among other military equipment, the fishers counted in a YouTube video.
“This is probably the craziest thing we’ve ever found,” Nachtwey said in his YouTube video, adding that they believed the bag was full of “stolen military equipment.”
The group’s excitement was quelled, however, after they notified the authorities to turn in the items.
In the end, Nachtwey, Jackson and the third member of their group left with $340 in fines and a court date.
The team went fishing on June 24 and checked with the Department of Natural Resources before arriving at the river to magnet fish, according to the video.
After they pulled up the rockets, armor plates, bullets, navigation equipment and other items, the group called the police and a military police officer arrived to assess the situation, the video showed.
A game warden with the Fort Stewart Conservation Law Enforcement arrived and told the group they would be getting cited, according to the Military Times.
The alternative to tickets, the game warden added in the video, would be taking the group to jail for acquiring military property, even though they called authorities to handle it.
“You’re all getting tickets. You can come to court and talk to a judge,” the warden said. “The reason magnet fishing is not allowed is because of exactly what y’all got right there. You don’t know what’s going to blow up and what’s not going to blow up.”
The warden added that even if the group intended on cleaning up the waterways by removing the material, the base’s bomb disposal squad is responsible for that.
The magnet fishers reeled in stray rockets, a tank shell, navigation equipment and other items from the river. Screengrab from Outdoors Weekly’s YouTube video
In his video, Nachtwey tried to explain that the group believed that the bridge was available to fish from because it was marked as a “green area” on the DNR’s resource map for fishing.
The game warden replied that the “green areas” cleared for fishing in the state don’t apply to military property such as Fort Stewart.
“Y’all would have been better off just leaving that… down there,” the warden said in the video.
Nachtwey and the group were cited for recreating without a permit, entering a restricted area and unauthorized magnet detecting, Fort Stewart told McClatchy News in an email.
“Because Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield is an active training facility, ammunition of various sizes is fired here on a regular basis. There is always (the possibility) a potential unexploded ordnance can end up in the environment, to include rivers,” a Fort Stewart spokesperson told McClatchy News. “The risk of unexploded ordnance being present throughout the training area, regardless of how it got there, is one reason why activities like magnet detecting is not allowed.”
The three YouTubers’ court date is Sept. 9, according to the game warden.
Despite the ends, the groups’ actions were largely well-received by online viewers.
“It’s quite scary to think of all that stuff just rotting away in our streams and rivers,” one person commented.
“I understand the officer’s concern about people magnet fishing and pulling stuff like that from the river, but instead of just voicing his concern and appreciating you guys cleaning up the waterways, he wrote the ticket, which would make other people less likely to turn in the stuff they found, which is really important,” another commenter said.
A Fort Stewart spokesperson added that people should remember the “three R’s” if they ever come across something that looks like an explosive: recognize, retreat and report.
The Fort Stewart base is about 45 miles southwest of Savannah.
This story was originally published August 9, 2022 5:05 PM.
Alison Cutler is a National Real Time Reporter for the Southeast at McClatchy. She graduated from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and previously worked for The News Leader in Staunton, VA, a branch of USAToday.
