Whoops! There goes that leg out from under the rickety Chumph table.
Now, the next step is actually to arrest these guys. If any of them are not in Russia, they may be arrested in any US ally country, or country with which the US has extradition agreement, The US may also seize any properties and bank accounts held outside of Russia – which may be even more devastating.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential election, charging them with conspiracy to defraud the United States, the Department of Justice has announced.
In addition, three defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and five defendants with aggravated identity theft.
Mueller has been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election as well as any connections between Russia and Trump campaign associates.
Beginning as early as 2014, the Russian organization Internet Research Agency began operations to interfere with the US political system, including the 2016 elections, according to the indictment, which was released by Mueller’s office Friday.
The defendants allegedly posed as US persons, created false US personas, and operated social media pages and groups designed to attract US audiences, the indictment reads.
The Internet Research Agency had a “strategic goal to sow discord in the US political system” including the election, according to the indictment.
Russians posted “derogatory information about a number of candidates,” and by mid-2016 they supported Trump and disparaged Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. They bought ads and communicated with “unwitting” people tied to Trump campaign and others to coordinate political activities.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will announce the multiple indictments against Russian nationals and entities Friday afternoon, according to a Justice Department source.
I think I discussed a while ago that this whole thing of collusion with Russia goes a lot deeper than just the Chump and his merry band of misanthropes and traitors,
A bunch of Republicans in Congress received Russian help in their elections in exchange for…We don’t know what yet.
Putin’s favorite Bi&)*h in Congress is Republican Dana Rohrabacher, to takes orders directly from the Kremlin.
If he and Flynn were meeting during the election it opens up another path of communications between the Russians and the Chumph campaign.
Looks like lots more Republicans are going to be resigning…and/or going to jail.
I would not be surprised to learn of Flynn Indictments tomorrow.
The Washington Post reported in May that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, also a California Republican, was secretly recorded telling other party members, in what seemed to be a joke, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.”
In September, the Wall Street Journal reported that Rohrabacher offered Trump a deal that to protect Julian Assange, creator of WikiLeaks, which released emails damaging to Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 election, from legal peril. In return for not prosecuting him for his group’s 2010 leak of State Department emails, Assange would allegedly provide proof that Russia was not the source of the hacked Democratic emails. The intelligence community has pointed to Russia as the secret provider of the email trove to WikiLeaks.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team of investigators is looking into a pre-election meeting that took place in 2016 between then-Trump campaign adviser Michael Flynn and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), who has often been described as “Putin’s favorite congressman.”
NBC News is reporting that “the meeting allegedly took place in Washington the evening of September 20” last year and “was arranged by his lobbying firm, the Flynn Intel Group.”
NBC News’ report does not have any information about the nature of the meeting, although it says that it is reviewing emails sent from Flynn’s firm to Rohrabacher’s staff thanking them for arranging the meeting.
Putin’s Congressman – Rorenbacher
Rohrabacher, a California Republican who has become notorious for his efforts to advance Russian interests as a member of the United States Congress, recently had his travel privileges restricted over fears that he has been compromised by Russian intelligence officials.
The Daily Beast reported earlier this year that Rohrabacher was given instructions by Russian intelligence officials on how to alter sanctions legislation and to set up “a virtual show trial on Capitol Hill” last June, right at around the time that Donald Trump Jr. and key members of the Trump campaign met with Russian nationals who claimed to be representatives of the Russian government’s efforts to undermine the candidacy of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Rohrabacher’s original plan was to have a show trial in Congress of anti-Putin campaigner Bill Browder in which he would “confront Browder with a feature-length pro-Kremlin propaganda movie that viciously attacks him—as well as at least two witnesses linked to the Russian authorities, including lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.”
Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly probing whether former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was involved in an alleged scheme to essentially kidnap a Turkish Muslim cleric living in Pennsylvania and transport him to Turkey.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr. stood to be paid up to $15 million for delivering Fethullah Gulen to the Erdogan administration. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blames Gulen for the attempted coup against him last year and has been pushing the U.S. to extradite him. Gulen has denied the accusation.
According to the WSJ, FBI agents have spoken to at least four people about a meeting in December — after the presidential election — in which Flynn and representatives of the Turkish government discussed removing Gulen, allegedly by private jet, to the Turkish prison island of Imrali.
The Journal also reported that there is no indication, however, that there was any money was exchanged regarding this plan. Apart from this, while Flynn was a top adviser to the Trump campaign, his firm, the Flynn Intel Group Inc. was paid $530,000 for lobbying for a Dutch company owned by a Turkish businessman, work that Flynn acknowledged could help the interests of the Turkish government. He made the disclosure in March, months after he had been ousted from the White House, in paperwork filed with the Justice Department that identified him as a foreign agent.
On Election Day, Flynn wrote an opinion piece in The Hill, in which he accused Gulen of being a “radical Islamist” and a potential terrorist.
“Gülen’s vast global network has all the right markings to fit the description of a dangerous sleeper terror network,” Flynn wrote. “From Turkey’s point of view, Washington is harboring Turkey’s Osama bin Laden.” He also criticized the Obama administration for keeping Erdogan at arm’s length, given that “Turkey is really our strongest ally against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as a source of stability in the region.”
The Wall Street Journal also reported that in the discussions concerning Gulen, Flynn was ready to push for the extradition of Gulen from within the White House.
The reclusive Gulen has lived in the Poconos in a gated retreat for the last 17 years. His movement has founded charter schools throughout the U.S. He has never visited any of them and is never seen in public. Instead, he addresses his followers online.
Mueller has been investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, as well as any collusion between Trump associates and Russia.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is suddenly facing an active dilemma.
A guilty plea signed last month by one of his former Trump campaign underlings revealed this week shows he likely perjured himself during his confirmation hearing — and he doesn’t have a good option to wriggle out of it.
Sessions told Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) at the January hearing that he was “not aware” of evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump campaign communicated with the Russian government during the campaign, according to the New Republic.
He walked back those claims last month during another Senate hearing, telling Franken he “conducted no improper discussions with Russians at any time regarding the campaign or any other item facing this country.”
But court filings, and a new CNN report, show he was aware of evidence that at least one campaign associate was in contact with Russia.
George Papadopoulos, who served on the foreign policy advisory committee that Sessions oversaw, pleaded guilty Oct. 5 to lying to FBI agents in January and February.
The guilty plea Papadopoulos signed shows the campaign adviser communicated with Russians promising stolen campaign information on Hillary Clinton, and he tried repeatedly to set up meetings between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Papadopoulos told other committee members, and Trump himself, about his contacts with Russia during a March 31, 2016, meeting — and proposed arranging for the Republican candidate to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
But Sessions, then an Alabama senator and chairman of his national security team, shut down the proposal, according to one person present for the meeting and confirmed by another source.
The guilty plea shows Papadopoulos continued trying to arrange a meeting between campaign officials and Russia until at least August 2016.
J.D. Gordon, a former Pentagon spokesman and Trump campaign national security adviser who attended the meeting, told CNN that Papadopoulos “obviously went to great lengths to go around me and Sen. Sessions.”
There’s no evidence at this point to contradict Gordon’s claim — but the new revelations still leave Sessions in a position where he’s damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t.
“The good news for Sessions is that he can plausibly claim to have opposed any Russian collusion,” writes the New Republic‘s Jeet Heer. “The bad news is that, in making those claims, he opens himself up to charges of perjury.”
While the MSM is focused on the Manafort/Stone indictments and arrests – What was going on in the Papadopoulos investigation may be even more damaging to the Chumph.
It appears that not only did Papadopoulos turn “State’s Evidence”, but he may have actively participated in assisting the investigation as part of a Plea Deal Here, CNN speculates that the “proactive participation” was the rationale for withholding news of the Guilty Plea entered in July of this year for three months…
And that he was wearing a wire.
If you remember back to December, when all 11 Intelligence Agencies released a statement that the Chumph was dirty – none of the wiretaps, intercepts , and other intelligence information which led the agencies to that conclusion (no it wasn’t the dossier prepared by the former British spy) has publicly surfaced.
The indictments handed out last week also did not include some of the more obvious candidates for orange jumpsuit hood, including Michael Flynn.
This suggests there is one hell of a group of charges yet to be released, and that Mueller plans to triangulate the Chumph by first taking down his criminal associates.
What the Manafort/Stone indictments suggest, is that Mueller also has the evidence to go after the Chumph for financial and money laundering crimes, As well as to take down a number of other members of the Chumph cabal.
What the Papadopoulos take down indicates is that there is a lot more than circumstantial evidence that the Chump colluded with Putin.
The worst case scenario for the country is to take down the Chumph and leave the Pence standing. Suggesting Pence won’t be in the group of “unindicted co-conspirators” to use a term from the Watergate days.
Hopefully Mueller can get this thing moving soon. The Creep in Chief’s guilt never really has been an issue since the Russians stole the election for him, and if the collusion was any plainer it would be a TV Show. If we had a Congress which actually respected the Constitution and nation’s laws – they would have impeached him, tried him, convicted his…And hung him by now.
I am hoping Republicans pay dearly for attempting to cover up Chumph’s crimes starting in the 2018 Election, and his co-conspirators in the House and Senate are taken down and sent to jail as well.
Starr, being a Republican Loyalist tries to put lipstick on this pig by saying it’s only the Chumph’s cronies.
In the word’s of Gill Scott Heron’s son “H20Gate Blues” – If Nixon Knew Ag-Knew” referencing the indicted and convicted Vice President under Nixon.
The former independent counsel who prompted the impeachment of President Bill Clinton forecast criminal indictments in the Trump-Russia probe.
Former U.S. solicitor general Ken Starr told CNN’s Michael Smerconish that he believes multiple associates of President Donald Trump would be indicted in the Russia probe conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller, reported Mediaite.
“Given what we do know, especially given what happened this summer with respect to the FBI’s intrusion into Paul Manafort’s condominium, in light of the revelations that we’ve seen about General (Mike) Flynn, I have a sense that there will, in fact, be indictments,” Starr said.
Starr said he would expect some of those associates to accept plea agreements in the case, and he also believes some Russians will also be indicted.
“What I find very interesting, very briefly,” Starr said, “is in light of the information that is now coming out with respect to Russian attempts to influence both the national election and 21 different states, what I expect to see is serious consideration of indicting one or more foreign nationals.”
The former independent counsel also expects Mueller will ask the president to testify under oath in the case.
“It will probably be by invitation,” Starr said. “There will be every effort, I’m confident of Bob Mueller, h’s a complete professional with total integrity, to respect the dignity of the office of the president.”
Paul Manafort is planning to leave the country soon, after he was reportedly notified that he will be indicted by federal prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller.
The former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump has been targeted by investigators probing alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election, and a New York Times report revealed he had continued lobbying on behalf of foreign interests.
Right around the time Manafort’s home was raided before dawn by federal agents, the newspaper reported, he started working for groups allied with Iraq’s Kurdish minority to promote a referendum for independence that’s officially opposed by the U.S.
Federal prosecutors warned Manafort afterward that they planned to indict him — and the former campaign chairman began making plans to travel overseas.
Manafort has traveled to the Kurdistan region since he was approached by an intermediary for the Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani’s son, the newspaper reported.
One of his business associates is already in Iraq preparing for Monday’s referendum, and Manafort himself may soon return for the vote, the newspaper reported.
As we all know, a white policeman who has murdered a black man or child being indicted doesn’t mean much. No matter how damning the evidence or egregious the crime.
Blogger and fierce critic of President Donald Trump Louise Mensch and former Clinton White House official Claude Taylor are both saying that independent sources have separately informed them that a sealed indictment has been granted against the president.
“Separate sources with links to the intelligence and justice communities have stated that a sealed indictment has been granted against Donald Trump,” wrote Mensch and Taylor at the Patribotics blog.
They continued, “While it is understood that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution means that, until Mr. Trump is impeached, he cannot be prosecuted, sources say that the indictment is intended by the FBI and prosecutors in the Justice Department to form the basis of Mr. Trump’s impeachment. The indictment is, perhaps uniquely, not intended or expected to be used for prosecution, sources say, because of the constitutional position of the President.”
Mensch is known as something of a polemicist — some dismiss her as a crackpot conspiracy theorist — and yet, as GOP strategist and fellow Trump critic Rick Wilson pointed out on Twitter, she has been right on target with certain key findings in the secretive murk around Trump and investigations into his connections to Russia’s mafia underworld.
A Dutch TV documentary shed light this week on some of Trump’s connections to Russia’s lawless elite and explained how the intercepted communications between Trump campaign officials and Russian organized crime figures could have been discovered as part of a money-laundering and organized crime case.
Last October, after playing a gig, musician Cory Jones’ car broke down. He called his brother to pick him up, and a Tow Truck to haul his car away. While waiting by the curbside was accosted by Palm Beach Gardens Police Department officer Norman Raja and shot 6 times. Jones died at the scene. There was no evidence that Jones had committed any crime, was armed, or resisted. Raja was dismissed from the force.
The former Palm Beach Gardens Police Department officer who fatally shot 31-year-old musician Corey Jones on a Florida highway in October has been arrested, according to authorities.
A grand jury found that Nouman Raja’s use of force was not justified, said Dave Aronberg, state attorney for the 15th Judicial Circuit, which covers all of Palm Beach County.
Raja subsequently faces two felony charges: one count of manslaughter by culpable negligence, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and one count of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm, punishable by up to life in prison, Aronberg said.
Raja, 32, was arrested and taken into custody today, Aronberg said. He could not comment further since the case is now pending.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 18, Jones was stranded with car troubles on I-95 in Palm Beach Gardens when Raja pulled up around 3:15 a.m. to “investigate what he believed to be an abandoned vehicle,” according to police.
When Raja exited the vehicle, he was confronted by an armed subject, police said in a statement. Raja shot Jones “as a result of the confrontation,” police said, killing him.
Phone records showed that Jones had requested roadside assistance at 1:44 a.m., according to a probable cause affidavit released by Aronberg’s office today. Almost an hour later, after the technician was unable to get his vehicle started, Jones told a bandmate that he was unwilling to leave her car for fear that his drum equipment may be stolen, the affidavit states. His bandmate drove away at 2:45 a.m. and was the last person to see Jones alive before Raja arrived on the scene.
Jones was on another call with roadside assistance when Raja arrived, and the exchange was recorded on the line, the affidavit states. After asking Jones if he was “good” more than once, Raja told him to get his “[expletive] hands up” twice before firing three gunshots in rapid succession, according to the affidavit. The call center operator that Jones was on the phone with could then be heard saying, “Oh my gosh!” while the sounds of pinging car door chimes rang in the background.
Raja was on duty at the time but was wearing sneakers, jeans, a tan T-shirt and tan baseball cap with the letters “CAT” stitched in red, according to the affidavit. He was driving a white Ford cargo van, the affidavit says. There had been a problem with late-night car burglaries in the area, and Raja was assigned to conduct surveillance on large parking lots that night, his immediate supervisor told investigators.
Raja was told to wear his tactical vest with police markings on it while he worked on the assignment “for safety reasons,” his supervisor said, according to the affidavit. Raja was not wearing the vest when he exited his car, the affidavit states.
About 33 seconds after the shooting, Raja used his personal cell phone to call 911, according to the affidavit. As the call connected, but before the operator could answer, Raja could be heard yelling “drop that [expletive] gun right now!” Raja then gave his location and said he had shot a person, requesting fire-rescue. He said he “lost contact” with the the person, which means he did not know where the person was located, according to the affidavit.
Raja described the person as a “black male wearing all black, dreads,” according to the affidavit. Raja said that he gave him commands after identifying himself, and that the man turned and pointed the gun at him and then started running.
Raja told the dispatcher he shot the man and that he had been “hit,” meaning shot “at least three to four times,” according to the affidavit.
Raja was placed on paid administrative leave following the shooting. He was eventually fired from the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department.
Additional officers then responded to the scene and found Jones’ body about 192 feet from the back of his car. A handgun was not found near Jones’ body, but instead about 72 feet from the rear of Jones’ vehicle, the affidavit says. He had purchased the gun three days before the shooting, and the box it was purchased in was found inside the car, police said.
Raja fired six shots at Jones with his personal Glock .40 caliber pistol, the affidavit states, because his department-issued firearm was in its holster inside the van.
Palm Beach County Medical Examiner Gertrude Juste ruled Jones’ death a homicide caused by a gunshot wound to his chest, according to the affidavit.
Back in the late 90’s Republicans roiled the country with an attempt to impeach a legally elected President …For having an affair with a grown woman. Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky became national news, and the Impeachment Proceedings held the country up for over a year. The Republican Speaker of he House (which tries impeachments) and Chief Prosecutor was Dennis Hastert. Of the three Reprobates who led the impeachment effort –
Newt Gingrich – Gingrich later admitted that, while he was pushing for Clinton’s impeachment, he was engaged in an affair with a Congressional aide. “There were times when I was praying and when I felt I was doing things that were wrong. But I was still doing them,” Gingrich said in 2007. He later said the situation was “complex and, obviously, I wasn’t doing things to be proud of.”
After Gingrich announced his resignation, Republicans unanimously selected Rep. Bob Livingston (R-LA) to succeed him. Livingston represented the party as Speaker-elect in the led up to the impeachment vote.
On the day of the impeachment vote, Livingston announced he was resigning following revelations that he had engaged in an extramarital affair. According to Hustler Magazine Publisher Larry Flint, who offered a reward for information about the sex lives of members of Congress, he “found four women who said they had been involved with Mr. Livingston over the last 10 years.”
Following Livingston’s resignation, which occurred on the same day the House voted on impeachment, Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) quickly gained support of the Republican leadership to succeed him as Speaker-designate. He began formally serving as speaker in January 1999, and held that role while the Senate conducted their trial on the articles of impeachment.
On Thursday, Hastert was indicted on charges that he illegally structured $1.7 million in paymentsto an individual in an attempt to cover up prior misconduct. According to reports, the payments were allegedly intended to “conceal sexual abuse against a former male student he knew during his days as a teacher in Yorkville, Ill.” The LA Times also reported that “investigators also spoke with a second man who raised similar allegations that corroborated what the former student said.”
Indeed, Hastert is now known to have sexually raped at least 4 boys according to the prosecutors. And typically, pedophiles like Hastert molest over 100 children before they are caught.
Henry Hyde – Responsibility for determining the recommending action on the articles of impeachment fell on the House Judiciary Committee and its Chairman, Henry Hyde. However, as Time reports,
Ironically, Hyde turned out to have been guilty of his own extramarital indiscretions. In a September 1998 article, Salon.com reported that Hyde had carried on an affair with a married woman named Cherie Snodgrass during the 1960s, a story the Congressman later acknowledged was true. The admission dogged him for the rest of his political career and he was repeatedly criticized for his zeal in prosecuting Clinton while failing to mention his own transgressions.
So…Every one of the Republican leaders of the impeachment was doing the same as Clinton in terms of having affairs, and the Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert is a rapist of young boys.
Federal prosecutors on Friday detailed some of the lurid allegations of sexual misconduct against former U.S. House speaker Dennis Hastert and asked a federal judge to subject the Illinois Republican to a sex offender evaluation.
In a memo in advance of an April 27 sentencing hearing, prosecutors spelled out in graphic detail how Hastert sexually molested or inappropriately touched five teenagers who trusted him as their wrestling coach. And as Hastert rose to power, believing that his wrongdoing would never be made public, his victims struggled with the effects of the abuse, prosecutors wrote.
“He made them feel alone, ashamed, guilty and devoid of dignity,” prosecutors wrote. “While defendant achieved great success, reaping all the benefits that went with it, these boys struggled, and all are still struggling now with what defendant did to them.”
Hastert, 74, pleaded guilty last year to violating federal banking laws, admitting in a deal with prosecutors that he withdrew money from banks in increments low enough to avoid mandatory reporting requirements. Thatcharge, though, always belied the case’s actual underpinnings.
A federal law enforcement official has said Hastert withdrew the money so he could pay off someone he sexually molested decades ago. And after the first victim emerged, more people came forward alleging that they or their relatives were also victimized by the Yorkville, Ill., high school teacher and coach.
Prosecutors detailed remarkably similar stories from each of the now-grown men.
One — who said he was a 14-year-old freshman when the abuse occurred — alleged that Hastert told him to get on a table so he could “loosen him up,” then massaged and performed a sex act on him. Another — who said he was 17 years old when the abuse occurred — alleged that Hastert offered him a massage to help him cut weight, then performed a sex act on him. That victim said Hastert kept a chair in direct view of the locker room shower stalls….More here…
A Waller County grand jury has indicted Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinia – the trooper who arrested Sandra Bland – on perjury charges.
The charge is a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, Encinia could face up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
The charge stemmed from a statement Encinia made in his report of the arrest, in which said he pulled Bland out of her car to continue the investigation.
Bland, who was from Naperville, Illinois, was stopped on July 10 in Waller County. She was in Texas interviewing for a job at nearby Prairie View A&M University, a historically black college from which she was returning.
A Waller County grand jury has indicted Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Brian Encinia – the trooper who arrested Sandra Bland – on perjury charges.
The charge is a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, Encinia could face up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
The charge stemmed from a statement Encinia made in his report of the arrest, in which said he pulled Bland out of her car to continue the investigation.
“They just didn’t believe it … a warrant will be issued and we’ll go from there,” he said.
The Office of the Attorney General, which is representing Encinia in a separate wrongful death lawsuit filed by Bland’s family, has not yet returned requests for comment. DPS did not immediately respond to request for comment.
In December, special prosecutors announced that a grand jury convened to review the circumstances surrounding Bland’s detention and death had declined to issue any indictments to jail staff or any members of the Waller County Sheriff’s Office.
The 28-year-old African-American woman was arrested during a traffic stop in July. Three days later, jail staff found her hanging from a noose in her Waller County jail cell. Her death, ruled a suicide by medical examiners, sparked disbelief from her family and outraged civil rights activists across the country, who called for greater accountability on the part of law enforcement.
The subsequent outcry led state lawmakers to call for hearings on jail procedures and safety and for state regulators to change how inmates are evaluated for mental health issues after they are arrested.
“That is completely preposterous on its face,” Jones said. “And yet, this prosecutor went above and beyond the call of duty to spend extra money and took extra time to get these cops off. Prosecutors do not act this way under ordinary circumstances. Usually, they throw the book at you and then they tell you, ‘You explain to a judge and jury why you’re innocent. This particular prosecutor did the opposite of most prosecutors in this case.”
McGinty announced on Monday that a grand jury decided not to indict officers Frank Garmback and Timothy Loehmann, who drove close to the boy as he wielded an air pellet gun. Video of the incident shows Loehmann shooting and killing Rice almost instantly after jumping out of his patrol car.
However, Jones said, McGinty brought experts in to testify to the jury on behalf of the officers, a marked departure from the norm.
“To say that nothing happened here, nothing happened that should go to a jury — how about this: no medical aid after the kid is killed? How about criminal medical neglect?” Jones asked. “How about the fact that, under ordinary circumstances, a police officer would never put themselves in peril and then shoot their way out? The fact that the police officer drove into peril and then shot his way out — there’s not a traffic ticket you could issue? There’s not a misdemeanor here?”
The decision came nearly 400 days after the boy was killed while playing in a Cleveland park.
An Ohio grand jury has declined to indict the Cleveland police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black 12-year-old in 2014.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy J. McGinty announced the decision Monday afternoon, nearly 400 days since rookie patrolman Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir Rice after responding to the scene with veteran officer Frank Garmback. The grand jury also declined to indict Garmback.
In statementsfiled with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office, both officers claimed they repeatedly yelled at Tamir to “show me your hands.” But surveillance video shows that Loehmann opened fire within two seconds of emerging from the police cruiser driven by Garmback.
McGinty on Monday called Tamir’s death a “perfect storm of human error,” not a criminal act.
“The outcome will not cheer anyone,” McGinty said, but he noted that Loehmann’s assessment that he was about to be shot was “a mistaken but sincere belief” given the stress of the situation.
“It would be irresponsible and unreasonable if law required a police officer to wait and see if the gun was real,” McGinty said.
On Nov. 22, 2014, Loehmann and Garmback were dispatched to investigate 911 calls about a “guy with a gun” pulling a weapon from his waistband and pointing it at people. The gun was later determined to be an airsoft pellet gun.
Officers said they believed Tamir to be a man in his 20s, given his size, and said the orange safety tip on his toy gun was missing. An expert hired by McGinty’s office conceded in a November report that dispatchers should have relayed to responding officers the 911 caller’s observations that “the guy with a gun” was “probably a juvenile” and that the gun was “probably fake.”
Tamir’s family reportedly was not briefed on the outcome of the grand jury investigation before Monday’s announcement, but it was an end they had anticipated.
In a statement released immediately after the announcement of no indictment, Jonathan Abady, an attorney for Tamir’s family, said they were “saddened and disappointed” by the outcome, but not surprised. The family also renewed their calls for the Justice Department to make an independent investigation into the case.
“It has been clear for months now that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty was abusing and manipulating the grand jury process to orchestrate a vote against indictment,” Abady said in the statement. “Even though video shows the police shooting Tamir in less than one second, Prosecutor McGinty hired so-called expert witnesses to try to exonerate the officers and tell the grand jury their conduct was reasonable and justified. It is unheard of, and highly improper, for a prosecutor to hire ‘experts’ to try to exonerate the targets of a grand jury investigation.”
Tamir’s family and their advocates have been highly critical of McGinty’s office during what they considered an unreasonably lengthy and biased investigation.
McGinty’s office released three expert reports over the past few months, all of which concluded Tamir’s fatal shooting to be “reasonable.”
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) in a statement Monday called Tamir’s death a “heartbreaking tragedy” but urged the community not to give in to “anger and frustration.”
“We have made progress to improve the way communities and police work together in our state, and we’re beginning to see a path to positive change so everyone shares in the safety and success they deserve,” Kasich said.
The Justice Department said Monday it would continue its review of the case and “determine what actions are appropriate, given the strict burdens and requirements imposed by applicable federal civil rights laws.”
In May, the DOJ concluded an 18-month investigation into the Cleveland Police Department. Its scathing report found that officers in Cleveland routinely use unjustifiable force against not only criminals and suspects, but also innocent victims of crimes.
McGinty’s office on Monday took pains to note that officers face deadly threats in the line of duty and called for “deference” to the officer’s on-the-scene judgment of how much force is necessary.
Here are the 20 reports of police misconduct tracked from Friday, August 28 through Tuesday, September 8, 2015 which were condensed from a Twitter Feed:
Charlotte County, Florida: A deputy was fired and arrested for using a law enforcement database to find information about women. He has been accused of harassment. ow.ly/RVajI
Update: Charlotte-Mecklenberg, North Carolina: The officer who fatally shot Jonathan Ferrell will not face second trial after his first ended in a hung jury. ow.ly/RVaH9
New York, New York: The City paid $57,500 to a plumber who was wrongfully arrested for carrying an illegal knife. ow.ly/RVaZA
Montgomery, Alabama: An officer was arrested along with his wife for an episode of domestic violence. ow.ly/RVO0k
Garfield, New Jersey: An officer arrested was for DUI after crashing a car while he was off duty. ow.ly/RVLYr
Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (Boston): An officer was arrested for assault at a stadium. She was already on leave for domestic violence and also has been named in a civil rights suit against the agency. ow.ly/RVN5n
Millis, Massachusetts: An officer was fired and arrested for fabricating a story about a shootout and firing his weapon into his own cruiser that had caught fire after hitting a tree. ow.ly/RVSSC
Update: Baltimore, Maryland (First reported 05-01-15): The City has agreed to pay the family of Freddie Gray $6.4 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit. ow.ly/RVWWj
Corning, Arkansas: An officer was arrested on drug and database misuse charges. ow.ly/RVXPu
Update: El Paso County, Texas (First reported 05-08-14): A now-former deputy was indicted for fondling a woman in custody. ow.ly/RWgf1
New Ulm, Minnesota: The police chief was arrested for domestic violence.ow.ly/RWj0X
Mounds, Illinois: The police chief resigned after being suspended for his actions in a bar fight. ow.ly/RWjlW
Fox Lake, Illinois: The police chief resigned after he was suspended for an altercation with a suspect. ow.ly/RWjRC
Update: Eagle County, Colorado (First reported 10-08-14): A deputy was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 90 days of work release after he pled guilty to two misdemeanors stemming from an alleged sexual assault. He also must register as sex offender. ow.ly/RWkHH
Update: Fairfax County, Virginia: The prosecutor will not seek charges in the tasing death of Natasha McKenna while in custody. http://bit.ly/1OA0HaX
Update: Clovis, California (First reported 08-25-15): An officer will not face criminal charges after domestic violence arrest. He remains on paid leave while he faces administrative charges. ow.ly/RWAEg
Columbus, Ohio: A now-former officer was indicted for stealing $90,000 in veterans’ benefits after her mother passed away. ow.ly/RWC1j
San Francisco, California: A now-former officer was arrested for grand theft and embezzlement. ow.ly/RWCff
Florida State Police: Twelve officers were fired, forced into retirement, or disciplined for participating in a bogus overtime scheme. ow.ly/RWCyh
Santa Clara County, California: Three deputies were placed on leave and arrested after the jailhouse death of 31-year-old inmate Michael Tyree. The autopsy revealed the cause of death was blunt force trauma. ow.ly/RWDYA
Btx3's Blog 