State Champ Radio Current Events
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Source: Fulton County Jail / Fulton County Sheriff’s Office
Donald Trump’s claims of presidential immunity to dismiss his hush money conviction were struck down by the presiding judge in New York, dealing him a temporary loss.
On Monday (Dec. 16), New York District Court Judge Juan Merchan ruled that Donald Trump cannot use presidential immunity as a reason to overturn his felony conviction in the “hush money” election interference case. The decision is a blow to the president-elect weeks before he is set to return to the White House and comes after he has already seen several wins in other court cases against him.
“The People’s use of these acts as evidence of the decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch,” wrote Judge Merchan in a 41-page document detailing the ruling. Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to covering up an affair he had with adult film star Stormy Daniels, which was overseen by his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000. Trump would eventually repay Cohen.
The ruling is not the definitive ending to this case. Judge Merchan has paused sentencing in the case several times, and prosecutors have signaled that they wouldn’t stand in the way of putting the case on hold until after Trump has served his time in office. While the conviction does carry a potential sentence of up to four years in prison, Judge Merchan can uphold the conviction but not impose any prison time or any other punishment. Trump can also argue for the conviction to be thrown out if he chooses to take it to the conservative Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor concerning presidential immunity in June.
Representatives for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment. Steven Cheung, a spokesman for President-elect Trump, called the decision “a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s decision on immunity,” adding: “This lawless case should have never been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed.”
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Donald Trump hosted a news conference this week at his Mar-a-Lago residence that covered a variety of topics for the incoming president-elect. Of Donald Trump’s comments made during the conference, some took note of the fact that he said he would consider pardoning New York Mayor Eric Adams if he is convicted.
Donald Trump, 78, was asked by media in attendance at the conference if he would consider pardoning Mayor Adams, who has been accused of abusing the power of his office by taking travel benefits from Turkey’s leadership and was accused of asking for illegal campaign donations from the nation. Trump said that Adams had been targeted unfairly by federal prosecutors, something he feels has happened to him as well regarding his legal matters in the state of New York.
Shortly after Trump’s event, Mayor Adams held a news conference on Monday and believes that he shouldn’t face charges in connection with his dealings with Turkish officials.
“I have an attorney that is going to look at every avenue to ensure I get justice,” Adams said. “I did nothing wrong.”
Adams’ defense attorney is Alex Spiro, who also represents Jay-Z and has done so for Elon Musk, a Trump ally, in the past.
Some observers believe Adams is cozying up to Trump and his political agenda concerning illegal immigration in exchange for a potential pardon should he face legal ramifications in connection to the donations from Turkey.
[h/t New York Times]
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty
The chief adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams resigned without warning over the weekend, as news broke of her impending indictment.
On Sunday (December 15), Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the top adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, resigned from her position. The move comes three months after she was subpoenaed by federal investigators and amid reports that a grand jury is seeking to indict her. Lewis-Martin, 63, said in a statement that she is stepping down to spend more time with her family.
“I thank God, first and foremost, for allowing me to serve the city that I love for close to 35 years through volunteerism and employment,” she said in the statement. “While I previously announced my retirement, this is still a bittersweet moment for me as government has been my life’s work.” Lewis-Martin has been a staunch ally of Mayor Adams for close to four decades, from his time as a New York City Police Department officer to holding the highest position in the city.
In a separate statement, Mayor Adams wrote that she “has not been just a friend, a confidante and trusted adviser, but also a sister.” He continued: “We’ve always talked about when this day would come, and while we’ve long planned for it, it is still hard to know that Ingrid won’t be right next door every day. I, and every New Yorker, owe her a debt of gratitude for her decades of service to our city.”
According to reports, Manhattan prosecutors who have been investigating allegations of corruption by Lewis-Martin have presented evidence to a grand jury, with the possibility of an indictment being announced this week. Federal agents seized her phones in September after she arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport from a vacation to Japan with colleagues. Sources close to the investigation state that the focus is on bribery and money laundering being part of the city’s commercial leasing properties. Federal agents also searched her Brooklyn home and seized the phones of her son and colleagues the same day.
For Mayor Adams, his adviser’s resignation is a gut punch. Lewis-Martin’s departure is the latest in a string of those in his administration who have resigned early and after Adams’ federal indictment in September. Mayor Adams is set to go to trial on charges of corruption in April 2025, months before his re-election campaign officially kicks off.
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Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty
The chief adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams resigned without warning over the weekend, as news broke of her impending indictment.
On Sunday (December 15), Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the top adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, resigned from her position. The move comes three months after she was subpoenaed by federal investigators and amid reports that a grand jury is seeking to indict her. Lewis-Martin, 63, said in a statement that she is stepping down to spend more time with her family.
“I thank God, first and foremost, for allowing me to serve the city that I love for close to 35 years through volunteerism and employment,” she said in the statement. “While I previously announced my retirement, this is still a bittersweet moment for me as government has been my life’s work.” Lewis-Martin has been a staunch ally of Mayor Adams for close to four decades, from his time as a New York City Police Department officer to holding the highest position in the city.
In a separate statement, Mayor Adams wrote that she “has not been just a friend, a confidante and trusted adviser, but also a sister.” He continued: “We’ve always talked about when this day would come, and while we’ve long planned for it, it is still hard to know that Ingrid won’t be right next door every day. I, and every New Yorker, owe her a debt of gratitude for her decades of service to our city.”
According to reports, Manhattan prosecutors who have been investigating allegations of corruption by Lewis-Martin have presented evidence to a grand jury, with the possibility of an indictment being announced this week. Federal agents seized her phones in September after she arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport from a vacation to Japan with colleagues. Sources close to the investigation state that the focus is on bribery and money laundering being part of the city’s commercial leasing properties. Federal agents also searched her Brooklyn home and seized the phones of her son and colleagues the same day.
For Mayor Adams, his adviser’s resignation is a gut punch. Lewis-Martin’s departure is the latest in a string of those in his administration who have resigned early and after Adams’ federal indictment in September. Mayor Adams is set to go to trial on charges of corruption in April 2025, months before his re-election campaign officially kicks off.
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Marijuana is legal in the state of California on the medical and recreational level but there are still rules and regulations in place despite this. Authorities in a California town have a major marijuana mystery on their hands after discovering a massive stash of the plant with a reported street value of $100 million.
According to a report from local outlet VVNG, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department entered a home in Oak Hills, just outside of Hesperia, Calif. On Monday, Dec. 9, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Marijuana Enforcement Team entered a home on a search warrant and discovered trash bags of cultivated and packaged products weighing around 90,000 pounds in total.
The property contained a large metal building that caught the eye of investigators, who later revealed the contents within via a statement.
Source: San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department / SBCSD
From the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department website:
On Monday, December 9, 2024, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Marijuana Enforcement Team served a search warrant at a residence along the 5000 block of Honeyhill Road in Oak Hills. The five acre property contained a newly built, 120’ x 40’ metal building, along the east fence line. Inside this metal building, investigators located over 3000 trash bags filled with processed marijuana, stacked over 12 feet high, from end to end of the building. The trash bags each weighed approximately 30 to 50 pounds.
Over the course of two days, the Marijuana Enforcement Team, San Bernardino County Code Enforcement, and California Fish and Wildlife Department, seized 51 truck loads of processed marijuana totaling over 90,000 pounds, with a market value of over $100,000,000.00.
No arrests have been made thus far.
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Photo: Getty/San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department
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Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Amazon and Meta are contributing $1 million each to the inauguration fund for Donald Trump in an attempt to curry good favor with him.
According to reports, Meta and Amazon are donating $1 million to the inauguration fund for President-elect Donald Trump. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, made its announcement of the move on Wednesday (Dec. 11), weeks after founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Amazon announced its decision the following day, with Trump claiming that he would meet with Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos next week.
In addition, Amazon will livestream the inauguration ceremony on Prime Video, representing an “in-kind” donation totaling up to $1 million. Amazon also did the same with President Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. “Big congratulations to our 45th and now 47th President on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory,” Bezos wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Nov. 6. “No nation has bigger opportunities. Wishing @realDonaldTrump all success in leading and uniting the America we all love.”
The donations come after Trump’s turbulent history with Amazon and Facebook. Trump opposed a proposed ban on social media giant TikTok, claiming that Meta would benefit if it took place. “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. He also accused Facebook of interfering in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump has also blasted Bezos, calling the “Fake Washington Post” an Amazon lobbying arm and alleging that Amazon was avoiding paying U.S. Postal Service rates in full during his first presidential administration. The two seemed to reconcile after the assassination attempt on Trump’s life in Pennsylvania in July, and Bezos recently said at the DealBook Summit last week that Trump “seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. And my point of view is, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him, because we do have too much regulation in this country.”
The moves are seen as a way to gain favor with the incoming administration – the Trump team has promised donors who contribute $1 million top-tier benefits, which include six tickets to inaugural events from January 17 to 20 as well as tickets to the ceremony and “an elegant and intimate dinner with President Donald J. Trump and Mrs. Melania Trump” on Jan. 19.
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Source: SAMUEL CORUM / Getty
President Joe Biden is issuing a record-setting amount of pardons and clemency in one day – and states that there will be more to come.
On Thursday, the White House announced that President Joe Biden was issuing clemency for almost 1,500 people sentenced to home confinement and 39 other individuals convicted of non-violent crimes. The executive action is the largest such act of granting clemency and pardons in the history of the presidency. According to the White House, President Biden had already issued more commutations of sentences in his term at this point than any other recent president.
A list of the 39 individuals who received pardons has been released by the White House, along with brief biographies for each of them. Many had been convicted of non-violent crimes and had “proven rehabilitation” through their actions afterward, with many serving in the military, and others serving their communities as nurses and addiction counselors. Some of those receiving commutations to their sentences are expected to be released this month, with others set to be freed in March 2025.
“My administration will continue reviewing clemency petitions to advance equal justice under the law, promote public safety, support rehabilitation and reentry, and provide meaningful second chances,” President Biden said in a statement. According to CNN, Biden is in constant talks with the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney as well as White House Counsel Ed Siskel.
The action comes after the president was under constant criticism from politicians and figures on both sides of the aisle after he moved to issue a blanket pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, at the beginning of the month. Hunter Biden had been convicted on tax charges as well as a charge related to having a firearm. There is no word on whether the president will consider retroactive pardons for political figures who have been marked for retribution by President-elect Donald Trump once he assumes office in late January 2025. Another question will be if President Biden will heed advice from Democratic lawmakers to commute the sentences of the 40 prisoners who remain on federal death row in the nation.
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Source: Jeff Swensen / Getty
The manifesto and online posts of the accused UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione have left many on social media taking constant notice.
The man alleged to have shot and killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Luigi Mangione, has captivated the public since the incident last Wednesday (December 4) and more so as his social media history and manifesto have been revealed. Independent journalist Ken Klippenstein published the manifesto through his Substack on Tuesday (December 10), which he shared in a post on X, formerly Twitter. Klippenstein would later chastise major outlets for not attempting to publish the manifesto in another post.
https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/status/1866587110641188940
The 262-word letter addressed to “the Feds” was found on Mangione by law enforcement officials who detained him in Altoona, Pennsylvania on Monday (December 9). Mangione called out the United States for having the “most expensive healthcare system in the world,” but being only ranked 42nd in life expectancy across the globe. He attacked UnitedHealthcare in the document, stating that it was the “largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart.” While not naming Thompson, Mangione went on to apologize for any ripple effect of chaos but wrote, “These parasites simply had it coming.” The 26-year-old would go on to say that he respected law enforcement for what they do, and stressed that he worked alone. Mangione ended the manifesto by writing that it was “not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play” — and declared that he’s simply “the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”
Mangione’s social media history has come under scrutiny since his apprehension, primarily on X, formerly Twitter, with some highlighting his first string of posts upon joining the platform back in 2016. Another user named BabsGrey highlighted a connection with books he read on Goodreads and an X-ray of someone getting spinal fusion treatment as his header on X, writing that “he must have gone through some kind of personal hell with insurance.”
Luigi Mangione’s twitter header has this X-Ray and his goodreads has these books…he must have gone through some kind of personal hell with insurance. pic.twitter.com/pJ3366zb5D
— Babs Gray (@BabsGray) December 9, 2024
Another user pointed out that Mangione’s last Goodreads review was of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, where he left five stars. “[H]is last Goodreads log being the Lorax is so funny. he said right that’s enough,” wrote the user named Rocky.
his last goodreads log being the lorax is so funny. he said right that’s enough pic.twitter.com/Il90Qrvzlo
— rocky (@WAYSTIAR) December 9, 2024
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Source: Tom Williams / Getty
President Joe Biden has named 40 Black women to become federal judges, shattering records and creating a new legacy on the bench.
In the final days of his administration, President Joe Biden is following through on one of his campaign promises to make the federal judiciary more diverse, appointing 40 Black women to the bench. That mark was reached when the United States Senate confirmed Tiffany Johnson on Monday (Dec. 9), to replace U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in the Northern District of Georgia.
The appointment means that Biden has named more Black women to the federal judiciary in history, more than the 26 confirmed during the two terms of President Obama. This also includes his nomination of Ketanji Brown-Jackson, the first-ever Black woman named to the Supreme Court. During President Donald Trump’s administration, there were only two Black women who were among the 234 judicial appointees confirmed, making it seven Black people overall. The numbers are highly significant as Trump is making his return to the White House in January, determined to dismantle government agencies such as the Department of Education and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Having Black women judges means that “there is a different kind of voice that can come from the Black female from the bench,” said John Jay College of Criminal Justice Professor-emeritus Delores Jones-Brown.
Having this many Black judges on the federal level is also highly important due to their “cultural presence” in places such as the South. “There are still courts in the Southern states that still don’t look like … the people they serve because Republican senators have blocked all kinds of diverse nominees, or any nominee from the Democratic president,” said Alliance For Justice Vice President of Communications Carolyn Leary Bobb. The confirmation of Johnson makes her the fifth federal judge in the state of Georgia.
Among the 40 Black women federal judges, there is also the first openly LGBTQ judge, Melissa R. DuBose, who will serve the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, and Cristal C. Brisco who will be the first Black judge to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. “Those very district court judges are usually the first ones to hear cases, and they hear many, many, many more than our circuit courts,” said legal scholar Lena Zwarensteyn, who noted that even their dissenting opinions carry so much weight.
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Source: Jeff Swensen / Getty / Luigi Mangione
Following the arrest of Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, things have been quite interesting on social media.
After it was confirmed by law enforcement that Luigi Mangione was a suspect and subsequently arrested in connection with the targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, Mangione’s social media accounts became a hotbed for attention.
Like most people his age, the 26-year-old was active on social media platforms like X, Facebook, Instagram, Goodreads, and others. Social media detectives didn’t take long to find his accounts.
At the time of this writing, his accounts on Facebook and Instgram were taken down, his Goodreads account is private,e and his X account is hilariously still active, which should tell you everything about the Elon Musk-owned platform and just how poorly run it is.
Since being pinched (arrested for those who are not hip), Mangione has gained cult-like status among those who feel he is a “hero” and has even gained 100K followers on X.
The Hypocrisy Is Loud On Social Media
There has even been a debate sparking with those on the right, yes, the same people who propped up Kyle Rittenhouse and now recently acquitted Daniel Penny, claiming that leftists are celebrating Mangione allegedly killing Thompson.
One post on X spoke on the hypocrisy going on, saying, “Conservatives condemning Luigi Mangione and calling leftists crazy for supporting him, yet they turned Kyle Rittenhouse into a celebrity after he drove to a BLM protest with an AR-15 and killed 2 people…the math isn’t matching.”
Mangione’s posts on social media have also gone viral, like a post about one of his fish being sucked into a filter and another one about his last log for Goodreads being Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax.
We are truly living in some strange times.
We don’t know if this man did the crime, but if he did, we don’t see him as no John Q either, even though we agree the United States healthcare system and insurance companies are a hot mess.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
1. Y’all are very unserious
3. Interesting observation
4. Interesting
5. Of course there are jokes
6. Britney Spears gets him hyped
