This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida — Gunshots erupted in the vicinity of Donald Trump on Sunday afternoon as the former president was golfing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. The president is safe.
"President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity. No further details at this time," said Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign.
Donald Trump Jr. said on X: "Again folks! SHOTS FIRED at Trump Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
"An AK-47 was discovered in the bushes, per local law enforcement. The Trump campaign has released a statement confirming former President Trump is safe. A suspect has reportedly been apprehended."
The United States Secret Service confirmed the incident, noting it's working closely with authorities and investigating.
"The Secret Service, in conjunction with the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, is investigating a protective incident involving former President Donald Trump that occurred shortly before 2 p.m. The former president is safe," the agency confirmed on X.
"Secret Service agent opened fire at suspected person with weapon while Trump was golfing, AP sources say," Meg Kinnard of the Associated Press said on X.
"Biden, Harris were briefed on reported shooting near Trump's golf course and are 'relieved' he's safe, White House says," Kinnard added.
The White House acknowledged the incident, saying: "The President and Vice President have been briefed about the security incident at the Trump International Golf Course, where former President Trump was golfing. They are relieved to know that he is safe. They will be kept regularly updated by their team."
Sean Hannity of Fox News, a resident of Palm Beach, says the shooting happened on the fifth hole of Trump's golf game, and an AK-47 weapon was recovered.
"Within seconds, the Secret Service pounced on the president and covered him," Hannity said.
"You had snipers with tripods. They knew the direction where the shots had been fired, and they had eyes on the location where the shots had been fired."
The suspect, whom media reports say is Ryan Wesley Routh, was arrested in Martin County, located just north of Palm Beach County, and his demeanor was said to be "calm."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A profile has started to take shape of Ryan Wesley Routh, the man suspected of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump on Sunday.
It happened while Trump was golfing in West Palm Beach, Florida, and he was unharmed. The suspect, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, was arrested a short time later, and of course many details remain unconfirmed at this point.
However, a New York Times piece about Ukraine included details of his life, about how he traveled to Ukraine to fight, and then turned to recruiting other fighters to travel there.
It was TheNatPulse editor, Raheem, who explained that a man identified as Routh was recruiting Afghan fighters, and openly discussed "purchasing" passports for them to travel.
At one point posts that appear to be from Routh blasted Trump, charging that his campaign slogan should be "MASA – make Americans slaves again master."
He also attacked former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, of Hawaii, who has endorsed Trump's campaign this year.
He calls her an "idiot" and suggests, "Why don't you go and join Putin and trump (sic) and be their third leg."
Social media posts also suggest he had run for mayor in Honolulu and that he has a criminal record, including one report that claimed he was convicted in 2002 of possessing a weapon of mass destruction.
One report suggested the golf course wasn't secured because Trump is not a sitting president:
And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised a state investigation into how someone with violent intentions and a gun could get onto a course where Trump was playing.
Though she has largely remained out of the political limelight in recent years, former first lady Melania Trump is making her voice heard in recent weeks, stepping forward to share her thoughts on an infamous event that took place over two years ago.
Amid Mrs. Trump's promotional activities for her upcoming memoir Melania, she has opened up about the 2022 raid on her Mar-a-Lago home and blasted the FBI for what she says was an unwarranted attack on her rights that ought to serve as a “warning to all Americans,” as Fox News reports.
The search at issue was performed as part of the government's probe of former President Donald Trump's handling of classified documents after departing the White House, and at the time it was conducted, it made headlines for the unusual intensity and broad scope of agents' actions.
As the New York Post reported at the time, agents involved in the raid delved deeply into all areas of the property, including Mrs. Trump's wardrobe.
Though the search warrant used by the FBI to conduct the search was focused on presidential records and classified information suspected to be on site, the investigative activities there were expansive, spanning more than nine hours.
Trump attorneys were not permitted inside the structures searched during the operation, leading some to worry that materials may have been planted by authorities while they ventured into what seemed to be every nook and cranny of even the family's private quarters.
Now that she is providing unprecedented insights into her life and experiences before, during and after her time as first lady, Melania Trump is making no secret about her disdain for what occurred at her Florida estate.
“I never imagined my privacy would be invaded by the government here in America,” she began.
Mrs. Trump continued, “The FBI raided my home in Florida and searched through my personal belongings.”
Extrapolating her experience to the wider citizenry, she added, “This is not just my story, it serves as a warning to all Americans, a reminder that our freedom and rights must be respected.”
Notably, Donald Trump is reportedly poised to sue the Department of Justice, hoping to recover upwards of $100 million in damages over the raid, with the former president's attorneys claiming that the search was approved with the “clear intent to engage in political persecution.”
Perhaps due to her intensely private persona, Mrs. Trump's memoir is among the most eagerly anticipated releases of the year.
Reflecting on the creative process she has undertaken, Melania Trump explained, “Writing my memoir has been an amazing journey filled with emotional highs and lows. Each story shaped me into who I am today.”
Adding that the experience has been “incredibly rewarding,” the former -- and potential future -- first lady expressed gratitude for the voluminous reminders of not just her strength, but also the “beauty of sharing [her] truth,” and hers is a life story that millions will surely be eager to read.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Long have there been attacks on reliable and cost-effective gas-powered vehicles. Back during the historic oil embargoes, critics insisted on tiny cars and high miles per gallon figures. And those pushing the multiple points of the campaign have never backed down.
But now a new ideology has surfaced in the leftist city of Denver.
It's that there apparently are too many gas stations at which consumers can refuel, so two city council members are working on a plan to correct that.
They want to ban any station from being developed within a quarter mile of another.
It is Complete Colorado that explained the ideology created by council members Paul Kashmann and Amanda Sawyer.
They "have decided that gas stations – apparently uniquely among Denver's many retail businesses – are taking too much space away from other priorities such as housing. In response to this deadly threat to housing density, they are close to proposing a zoning change precluding new gas stations from being built inside a quarter-mile buffer zone around existing stations."
The report noted it isn't the first such attack on the city's drivers, as the tax-funded Regional Transportation District complained during the COVID pandemic that parking lots should be replaced with housing.
It seems that there have been 10 new stations in the city in recent years, bringing that total to 180, not even a 6% increase.
The plan "doesn't say if this is an actual trend, a recent spurt, or how many of those (if any) are replacing stations that have closed. The report claims 318 permanently closed retail gas stations in Denver, or 77% more than the total now operating."
The report pointed out Sawyers' complaints are "somewhat ironic, " given that her own Council District 5 serves as gasoline desert, with only two stations not bordering other districts, "meaning that those low on gas already have longer drives to fill up."
Councilman Kashmann says that the city is allowing gas stations that 'people don't want and we don't need.' Except that nobody appointed Paul Kashmann the arbiter of what businesses the city needs, and that apparently people do both want and need them, given that there are enough gas purchases – even before the desired increased density – to keep them all in business," the report said.
Barron Trump was accompanied by Secret Service agents at New York University's campus as he began his first day of college.
The security detail serves as a reminder of Barron's notoriety and the constant threats facing his politically involved family.
Barron's father was almost killed by a gunman at a campaign rally in July, and the Secret Service has faced backlash over the massive security failures that led to the shooting.
It is expected that Barron will commute to school from Trump Tower, which is located nearby in Midtown Manhattan.
The 18-year-old is attending the highly selective Stern Business School in Greenwich Village, which has a 1-in-20 acceptance rate.
The only son of Donald and Melania Trump is certain to have a unique educational experience, as his first day of school made clear.
Barron entered campus surrounded by bodyguards - as he met with the school's dean, who once signed a faculty letter declaring Barron's father a "threat" to the nation. 21 Stern faculty members endorsed the letter including interim dean J.P. Eggers.
After the assassination attempt on Barron's father, many blamed dehumanizing rhetoric characterizing President Trump as a would-be dictator. In the weeks since the shooting, Democrats have gradually returned to their incendiary political rhetoric.
President Trump has often lamented the impact of his political career on his family and their safety. A woman was arrested last year for stalking Barron and threatening to kill him while he was a student at the Oxbridge Academy.
Barron bears a striking resemblance to his father, who has spoken proudly of his son's talents and accomplishments.
There has been intense public speculation over Barron's plans for the future, and whether he will follow his father into politics.
President Trump, who went to University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, recently shared that Barron would be attending Stern.
"He was accepted to a lot of colleges," Trump told the Daily Mail. "He's a very smart guy, and he'll be going to Stern, the business school, which is a great school at N.Y.U."
President Trump has credited his son with connecting him to popular podcasters and live streamers like Adin Ross, as Trump courts young voters ahead of the presidential election.
"He knows so much about it," Trump said.
"Adin Ross, you know, I mean, I do some people that I wasn't so familiar with, different generation. He knows every one of them. And we've had tremendous success."
The father of cold case murder victim JonBenet Ramsey is hoping for a breakthrough as a new police chief takes on the decades-old investigation.
John Ramsey, who is now 80, told Fox News that there is DNA evidence that has not been tested, including the garrote around his daughter's neck and the notorious ransom note.
John found his daughter's body in the basement of the Ramsey home in Boulder, Colorado on the day after Christmas in 1996. The girl, a child beauty queen, was reported missing hours earlier by her mother Patsy Ramsey, herself a former beauty pageant winner.
An unusual, two-and-a-half-page ransom note from a "small foreign faction" was found, demanding $118,000, the same amount as John's Christmas bonus. The note and a practice draft were written on a notepad from inside the home.
The investigation was tainted at its inception by police errors, including a failure to secure the scene to protect evidence.
The police initially suspected John, a successful businessman in computer software, and Patsy. They were the only people home at the time of the murder besides JonBenet and her brother Burke.
Years later, John maintains that the police buried key evidence that did not fit their theory of the Ramseys' guilt.
"We have an unidentified male DNA result from the testing they did in 1997, which … by today's standards, it was primitive," Ramsey said. "But we have an unidentified male DNA sample, which was reported to the police in January 1997. They kept that a secret because it conflicted with their conclusion that we were guilty. How do we explain that away? Which they tried desperately to do."
The case has brought intense speculation, but the killer has never been found.
In a move that was vigorously protested by police in Boulder, former District Attorney Mary Lacy publicly exonerated the Ramseys in 2008, citing a trace amount of DNA from an unknown male.
John said the new police chief of Boulder, Stephen Redfearn, comes from "outside the system."
"He's good. I like him," Ramsey told Fox News Digital, calling his new appointment "good news."
In 1999, a grand jury recommended charges against John and Patsy Ramsey for child abuse resulting in JonBenet's death, but the district attorney at the time said there wasn't enough evidence.
Patsy Ramsey died in 2006 from ovarian cancer.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Unconfirmed reports surfaced Thursday about a daring raid carried out by Israeli special forces in Syria in the same Masyaf area that IAF fighter jets struck overnight Sunday, with the aerial bombardment allegedly acting as cover for the main operation.
The strikes, which targeted what was euphemistically referred to as a "scientific research center," was in fact an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) weapons development site, long associated with the manufacture of chemical weapons and precision missiles by the Syrian regime and Iranian forces. Some fourteen people were killed in the attack and nearly four dozen wounded according to local Syrian media.
However, Thursday's report, which emanates from a Greek political analyst specializing in the Middle East, Eva J. Koulouriotis, suggests a far more expansive operation than initially realized.
Citing an unnamed security source, Koulouriotis reported the mission was an IDF operation against an IRGC facility for the development of ballistic missiles and drones, and which also provides logistical support to Hezbollah.
Under the cover of darkness and with the air-to-surface missiles blasting the area around the facility to prevent Assad regime soldiers access, opposition Syria TV network claimed Israeli military helicopters did not land on enemy soil, rather hovering above it to allow special forces troops to rappel down to the ground. Combat helicopters and drones were also in close attendance to the military choppers.
Koulouriotis reported the whole operation lasted approximately an hour, during which time Israel's forces kinetically engaged the enemy in which a number of Syrian troops were killed, and two to four Iranians were captured. Israel's Channel 12 also reported a Russian communications center was among the sites targeted as part of the operation, according to the Times of Israel.
After successfully breaching the building's security, Israeli troops removed equipment and documents. They also mined the facility from the inside, largely destroying it, and were then able to evacuate under air cover.
The Alma Research and Education Center – an Israel-based organization with the mission of making in-depth geopolitical knowledge about the Middle East accessible to English speakers has a lengthy report about the Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), or in its French name: the Centre D'Etudes et de Recherches Scientifiques (CERS) on its website.
The CERS employs some 20,000 people at various sites across Syria; and the majority of the center's personnel are Syrian nationals. While some research is grounded in civilian use, much of what goes on there is set aside for military purposes, including "the development and production of modern conventional weapons based on Iranian technology on Syrian soil."
Iran's elite Qods force – whose one-time leader Qassem Soleimani was eliminated in a President Trump-ordered strike in January 2020 – as well as Hezbollah's elite Unit 9000, are in charge of security – showing how much has been invested in the Iran-Hezbollah-Syria axis.
Critically, the center is also home to chemical weapon research. Israel's attack on the facility was likely borne out of a very real fear the seemingly inexorable march to a regional conflict – starting with Hezbollah – might involve the use of chemical weapons.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – Amid all the hullabaloo of a supposed hostage deal that never was between Israel and Hamas, the situation regarding Iran's increasing proximity to achieving its nuclear goals have until recently flown somewhat under the radar. However, over the last week or so, several stories have emerged about just how close Tehran is to revealing it, too, has joined the nuclear weapons club.
On Wednesday, foreign policy analyst Walter Russell Mead argued the next administration – whether Republican or Democrat – would likely need to confront a nuclear-armed Iran, or take steps to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons, according to the Jewish Insider.
"My guess is that the next president will likely face a nuclear Iran – or face the alternative of war with Iran or accepting a nuclear Iran," Mead said in remarks at the American Enterprise Institute. "I don't think either candidate really knows what they would do under those circumstances, but I think that is something they are very likely to face."
Other outlets including the Free Press and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies have similarly posited Tehran's acceleration toward confirming its development of nuclear weapons. The so-called civilized West has attempted with varying levels of success to either deal decisively or placate Iran's nuclear ambitions for more than two decades. In an article for Slate magazine in 2010, English-American polemicist Christopher Hitchens wrote the following:
"When the day comes that Tehran can announce its nuclear capability, every shred of international law will have been discarded. The mullahs have publicly sworn – to the United Nations and the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency – that they are not cheating. As they unmask their batteries, they will be jeering at the very idea of an 'international community.' How strange it is that those who usually fetishize the United Nations and its inspectors do not feel this shame more keenly."
It could cogently be argued the notion of "international law" has already been discarded, especially since the events of Oct. 7, although the overall point about Iran's clear intentions and their flouting of the rules governing the production of nuclear weapons still holds true.
Michael Rubin, director of policy at the Middle East Forum, responded to questions from WorldNetDaily saying it was "almost inevitable" Iran will get the bomb.
"The question is whether they believe they gain more by dragging out the process and the degree to which they fear isolation following a nuclear breakout. The strategic question is whether the United States can delay Iran's nuclear acquisition until after the regime falls. After all, the problem is less an Iranian nuclear bomb, than a nuclear bomb wielded by those embracing Ali Khamenei's ideology."
In a tantalizing response regarding Mead's contention about the next U.S. president having to contend one way or another with a nuclear Iran, Rubin said the parlous condition of the Islamic Republic, which he labeled "terminally ill," might cause the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, to simply throw caution to the wind and attempt to attack Israel with nuclear weapons.
"If the regime is collapsing anyway, what is to stop them doing that," he asked rhetorically.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, released two reports in late August regarding Iran's nuclear advances and non-compliance with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, or NPT. The reports indicate "Tehran has added to key enriched uranium stockpiles and installed hundreds of fast uranium enrichment centrifuge machines. This provides the regime with the ability to rapidly make fuel for up to 15 nuclear weapons, according to new estimates issued by the Institute for Science and International Security," as reported in an FDD news brief.
The IAEA's 35-nation Board of Governors met Monday to discuss Iran's continued failure to comply with the organization's censure resolution of June 2023. The resolution demanded that Iran "cooperate with the IAEA to resolve a multi-year investigation into the regime's nuclear weapons work, reinstate access for key agency inspectors, permit enhanced IAEA monitoring, and provide details on missing nuclear material and the construction of new nuclear facilities."
Meanwhile, neither the United States nor its European partners seem likely to censure Iran at the next IAEA meeting, i.e. they seem consigned to the reality of the worst global state sponsor of global terrorism being able to hold the world to ransom due its possession of nuclear weapons.
"Facts are stubborn," said FDD CEO Mark Dubowitz. "Most of Iran's nuclear weapons expansion has occurred since the election of Biden-Harris and their decision to abandon the pressure strategy of the previous administration."
None of this is conjecture, and recently translated Iranian parliamentary documents detail how Tehran is significantly expanding the funding and military pursuits of the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, known by its Farsi language–based acronym, SPND.
"While the new Iranian legislation doesn't specifically mention nuclear bomb development, it clearly states that SPND's mandate is to produce advanced and nonconventional weapons with no civilian oversight," according to the Free Press. "The legislation states that 'this organization focuses on managing and acquiring innovative, emerging, groundbreaking, high-risk, and superior technologies in response to new and emerging threats.'"
The SPND is home to nuclear scientists, at least six of whom Israel has been accused of assassinating. This includes Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, regarded as the chief of Iran's nuclear program, who was killed in a daring operation in November 2020, which seemed to leap straight from the pages of a spy novel. Israel allegedly attempted to take out a sixth scientist as well, although that operation was unsuccessful.
This is also not to forget Mossad agents exfiltrated a half-ton of documents from a Tehran warehouse, which Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used liberally in a presentation where he charged Iran with flat out lying about its nuclear ambitions – and he had the receipts to prove it. Rubin said Israel's purported actions had succeeded in delaying Iran's development of nuclear weapons, although he added the West's tendency to "kick the can down the road," does eventually lead into a cul-de-sac.
Indeed, even the U.S. is perturbed by Iran's seemingly brazen dash for the bomb. In July, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), a top intelligence body, released a report saying it could no longer verify Iran's nuclear pursuits were for strictly civilian purposes. This seems like an extraordinary admission that Iranian claims of the peaceful use of nuclear power were taken at face-value.
Is Iran using Middle East instability as a shield for nuclear development?
There are also concerns in Washington and Jerusalem in particular that Iran is using the current situation in the Middle East, which it has deliberately fostered, to create a smoke screen for its nuclear ambitions. And if it succeeds in manufacturing nuclear weapons, many of the options – including military – still just about on the table will immediately be swept from the board.
Ironically, the relative ease with which U.S., Israeli, French, British, and other coalition partners managed to knock its ballistic missiles out of the sky in its unprecedented April 13 assault on Israel, may have worked to focus minds on the nuclear option even more intensely.
Also, between the recent Iranian presidential election – called after the death of Ebrahim Raisi in a May helicopter crash – and the upcoming U.S. presidential election, nuclear diplomacy has largely been stalled. This does not mean, however, the stockpiling of highly enriched uranium, nor the refinement of fissile material has been similarly paused. Evidence would suggest quite the opposite. Senior U.S. officials now say Tehran could produce weapons-grade fuel in just a few weeks. Iran has also moved ahead with developing a potential delivery system for an atomic weapon: test-firing the long-range Simorgh carrier rocket in January, reported the Free Press.
The elevation of one or other of the U.S. presidential candidates will produce wildly different approaches to the Iran nuclear problem; a President Harris will seek, like her predecessors, to return to the negotiating table and reanimate the failed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Meanwhile, President Trump 2.0 will inevitably seek to reinstate his maximum pressure policy, immediately cutting off billions of dollars in petro-dollars and other revenue, which the Biden-Harris administration has with criminal alacrity given to Tehran. As Mead points out, by the time January comes around it might be too late to do anything about it anyway.
And what of Israel? Rubin is under no illusions as to how difficult taking out Iran's nuclear facilities would be: "The danger is that Israel can start such an operation but not finish it, simply because Iran is much larger than Iraq and Syria [Israeli fighter jets managed to take these out in one go], and its nuclear program much more dispersed. We're not talking a single sortie but rather well over a thousand, especially given the need to take out command-and-control, anti-air defenses, and enemy airfields."
However, he was unequivocal about what any Israeli leader would decide to do if Iran threatened the Jewish state. "Make no mistake, though. If Israel faces an existential threat, it will do what it needs to do; it is not simply going to acquiesce to its own destruction."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
One major city's scheme that allowed a Christian pastor to be arrested, twice, because crowds in the streets were triggered to hostility by his words has been struck down.
The demise of Seattle's "heckler's veto" agenda comes in a consent order that was entered this week in a case brought by First Liberty Institute on behalf of Pastor Matthew Meinecke.
"Meinecke was censored and arrested on two separate occasions in 2022 for simply reading the Bible to others because his gospel-oriented message triggered hostile reactions from activists," the legal team explained.
But now in the order, which affirms a "complete victory" for the pastor, Judge Barbara J. Rothstein has granted Meinecke "permanent injunctive relief from the unconstitutional police policy, compensatory damages for the wrongful arrests, and nominal damages for the constitutional violations, along with reasonable attorney fees and expenses," the institute reported.
"This result is only fitting. The government should never silence the speech of a citizen just because an audience dislikes what it's hearing," explained Nate Kellum, senior counsel. "Pastor Meinecke is thrilled to put this case behind him and get back to sharing the gospel on the streets of Seattle."
The fight erupted just a little over two years ago when Meinecke traveled to the downtown Seattle area to read his Bible aloud, hold up a sign, and hand out literature to those who wanted it.
The events first happened at a pro-abortion rally.
"Despite his evangelistic and peaceful intent, some individuals in the crowd, including Antifa members, did not receive the message well. They took Meinecke's Bible away from him, ripped out pages from it, knocked Meinecke down, and took one of his shoes," the institute confirmed.
Seattle police finally arrived, and refused him assistance, instead taking immediate action against Meinecke. They ordered him to leave, then arrested him when he declined.
"Two days later, Meinecke encountered a similar situation at the Seattle Center, a public park where the Seattle PrideFest was occurring. Hecklers mistreated Meinecke again, and Seattle police officers silenced Meinecke again, as way of addressing the problem. The officers arrested Meinecke for refusing to depart from his intended audience," the institute said.
The fight then turned to courtrooms, and it was the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that judged, "The restrictions on his speech were content-based heckler's vetoes, where officers curbed his speech once the audience's hostile reaction manifested."
And the appeals court said, "Meinecke has established irreparable harm because a loss of First Amendment freedoms constitutes an irreparable injury, and the balance of equities and public interest favors Meinecke."
A "heckler's veto" is simply when authorities shut down a speaker because someone else doesn't like the message, which has been ruled repeatedly a violation of the First Amendment.
WND reported when the conflict developed police in Seattle chose to ignore actual criminal activity that was going on, instead attacking Meinecke for his speech.
The appeals court had returned the case to the lower court with instructions for a resolution.
The judges there had said, "The prototypical heckler's veto case is one in which the government silences particular speech or a particular speaker 'due to an anticipated disorderly or violent reaction of the audience. As such, it 'is a form of content discrimination, generally forbidden in a traditional or designated public forum.' The Supreme Court has emphasized as 'firmly settled' that 'the public expression of ideas may not be prohibited merely because the ideas are themselves offensive to some of their hearers, or simply because bystanders object to peaceful and orderly demonstrations.' … 'Listeners' reaction to speech is not a content-neutral basis for regulation.' …. It is apparent from the facts, including the video available from police body cameras, that the Seattle police directed Meinecke to leave the area because of the reaction his Bible-reading provoked at the Dobbs and PrideFest protests…."
The 9th Circuit said, "[T]he city maintains that the police officers merely sought to relocate Meinecke's speech rather than ban it outright…. But the government cannot escape First Amendment scrutiny simply because its actions 'can somehow be described as a burden rather than outright suppression.' … Even assuming that the officers simply instructed Meinecke to cross the street, their directions burdened Meinecke's speech. Meinecke had a right, just as those participating in the anti-Dobbs rally or the celebration of PrideFest, to use public sidewalks and streets for the peaceful dissemination of his views….
"If speech provokes wrongful acts on the part of hecklers, the government must deal with those wrongful acts directly; it may not avoid doing so by suppressing the speech. … The officers could have required the protestors to take a step back from Meinecke. They could have called for more officers—as they did after Meinecke was arrested. They could have erected a free speech barricade. They could have warned the protestors that any sort of physical altercation would result in the perpetrators' arrests. And they could have arrested the individuals who ultimately assaulted Meinecke. The city did none of those things. Instead, the police report on Meinecke's arrest simply recites that '[w]hen resources allowed in the past[,] SPD would try and keep the two opposing groups separated.' That is hardly the sort of concrete proof necessary to establish that restricting Meinecke's speech was the only way to avoid violence…."
Despite evidence of multiple assaults on Meinecke, Seattle police took "no action" against the attackers.
The appeals court noted at the Pride event, attendees were "dancing near him, holding up a flag to keep people from seeing him," and making "loud noises so he could not be heard." According to his complaint, "a couple of attendees stood close to Meinecke and howled and barked like dogs, and mocked Meinecke, while he read passages from the Bible. Meinecke did not engage with them." Another individual poured water on Meinecke's Bible.
Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley wrote about the dispute, "Note the protesters stole his Bible and assaulted him. Yet, the police threatened Meinecke with arrest and then took him into custody for failing to be silenced by the mob."
He said, "The opinion is a major win for free speech at a time when this 'indispensable right' is under attack by an array of government, corporate, and academic interests. We have seen Democratic politicians use the threat of violence from the left as an excuse to bar pro-life and conservative speakers. Likewise, this has become a regular practice at universities in barring conservative speakers due to security concerns while liberal speakers are free to speak on campuses."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Multitudes have questioned how the assassination attempt by the now-dead Thomas Matthew Crooks against President Trump at a political rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, could have happened.
Congress continues to review it, and commentators have insisted the public does not yet know all the facts.
Among the unanswered is how Crooks was able to get onto the roof of a building within the sight line of Trump with a rifle on July 13. He had been spotted by rally goers, yet he was not stopped. Other questions remain today circling around the Secret Service, which in blunt terms failed that day.
The near-catastrophe already has cost the Secret Service chief her job.
But now Melania Trump, whose participation in her husband's 2024 campaigning so far has been limited, is insisting on answers.
A report at the Daily Mail says Melania has released a video raising questions about the role of law enforcement in the events that day.
She calls the attack on her husband a "horrible, distressing experience."
"Now, the silence around it is heavy," she said. "I can't help but wonder why didn't law enforcement officials arrest the shooter before the speech.
"There is definitely more to this story. And we need to uncover the truth."
The Mail report said she was hinting "at a conspiracy" over the events.
"The video ends with a shot promoting her forthcoming memoir 'Melania,' which will be released in October," the report said.
Republicans in Congress already have assembled a task force to investigate the circumstances that developed on that day in July, and the Secret Service "investigation" remains ongoing.
Stunningly, the gunman took shots at Trump from about 150 yards away, from the top of a roof that was near the outdoor rally.
It was in the seconds after the shots that Trump created what has become an iconic photographic image, when he stood up, raised his fist in the air and charged the crowd with "Fight, fight, fight."