This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A new research project is charging that Minnesota state taxpayers are the biggest single source of funding for the Muslim terror network of al-Shabaab.
The research, published in the City-Journal, reveals that an investigation has confirmed what many suspected would happen when "a tribal mindset meets a bleeding-heart bureaucracy."
The state, under Democrat Gov. Tim Walz, who was on board in Kamala Harris' catastrophically failed 2024 presidential bid for her party, already is "drowning" in fraud. "Billions in taxpayer dollars have been stolen during the administration of Governor Tim Walz alone. Democratic state officials, overseeing one of the most generous welfare regimes in the country, are asleep at the switch. And the media, duty-bound by progressive pieties, refuse to connect the dots," the report said.
The new, and major, fraud scheme "has allegedly been perpetrated by members of Minnesota's sizeable Somali community," the research explained. "Federal counterterrorism sources confirm that millions of dollars in stolen funds have been sent back to Somalia, where they ultimately landed in the hands of the terror group Al-Shabaab."
The report noted one source confirmed, "The largest funder of Al-Shabaab is the Minnesota taxpayer."
"If you were to design a welfare program to facilitate fraud, it would probably look a lot like Minnesota's Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program. The HSS program, the first of its kind in the country, was launched with a noble goal: to help seniors, addicts, the disabled, and the mentally ill secure housing. It was designed with 'low barriers to entry' and 'minimal requirements for reimbursement.' Nonetheless, before the program went live in 2020, officials pegged its annual estimated price tag at $2.6 million," the research charged.
But costs in 2021 alone totaled $21 million, and since then annual totals have been $42 million, $74 million, $104 million.
State officials there noticed the "credible allegations of fraud, and decided to shut it down, and just weeks ago, acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Joe Thompson confirmed criminal fraud indictments against Moktar Hassan Aden, Mustafa Dayib Ali, Khalid Ahmed Dayib, Abdifitah Mohamud Mohamed, Christopher Adesoji Falade, Emmanuel Oluwademilade Falade, Asad Ahmed Adow, and Anwar Ahmed Adow.
Six of those are in the state's Somali community.
"Thompson made clear that this is just the first round of charges for HSS fraud that his office will be prosecuting," the report said.
"Most of these cases, unlike a lot of Medicare fraud and Medicaid fraud cases nationally, aren't just overbilling. These are often just purely fictitious companies solely created to defraud the system, and that's unique in the extent to which we have that here in Minnesota," Thompson confirmed.
He said many schemes operate out of rundown offices with perpetrators targeting people out of rehab and putting them on government benefits for services the companies have no intention of providing.
"What we see are schemes stacked upon schemes, draining resources meant for those in need. It feels never ending," Thompson said. "I have spent my career as a fraud prosecutor and the depth of the fraud in Minnesota takes my breath away."
Already, there have been 56 people who admitted gjuilt in a $250 million "Feeding Our Future" fraud, the report confirmed.
That purportedly was to provide daycare assistance, but it used "fake meal counts, doctored attendance records, and fabricated invoices" to demand reimbursement of nearly $200 million.
"In reality, the money was being used to fund lavish lifestyles, purchase luxury vehicles, and buy real estate in the United States, Turkey, and Kenya," the report confirmed.
David Gaither, a former state lawmaker warned that the legacy media, "alongside Minnesota's Democratic establishment, have long turned a blind eye to fraud within the Somali community."
That allows problems to explode in size.
The "fraudsters" even had cultivated appearances with Ilhan Omar, the Somali-born congresswoman from Minneapolis.
Involved in promoting "Feeding Our Future" have been Omar's deputy district director, a former state senator who ran for Minneapolis mayor, and a senior aide to Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
Federal prosecutors revealed that another fraud scheme involved boosting the number of Somali children getting federal aid for autism.
Asha Farhan Hassan, a Somali community member also named in the "Feeding our Future" case, allegedly set up a $14 million scheme using Minnesota's Early Intensive Developmental and Behavioral Intervention program.
"Hassan and her co-conspirators 'approached parents in the Somali community' and recruited their children into autism therapy services. It didn't matter, prosecutors suggested, if a child did not have an autism diagnosis: Hassan would facilitate a fraudulent one," the report confirmed.
In fact, prosecutors charge, "To drive up enrollment, Hassan and her partners paid monthly cash kickback payments to the parents of children who enrolled. These kickback payments ranged from approximately $300 to $1500 per month, per child. The amount of these payments was contingent on the services DHS authorized a child to receive—the higher the authorization amount, the higher the kickback. Often, parents threatened to leave . . . and take their children to other autism centers if they did not get paid higher kickbacks."
The report cited autism program costs in Minnesota: $3 million in 2018, then up to $54 million, $77 million, $183 million, $279 million, and $399 million in 2023.
"These massive fraud schemes form a web that has stolen billions of dollars in taxpayer money. Each case we bring exposes another strand of this network," Thompson charged.
And the report revealed, "At least 28 fraud scandals have surfaced since Walz was elected governor in 2019. Most of the large-scale fraud rings, according to two former FBI officials who spoke with City Journal, have been perpetrated by members of the Somali community."
And where did the money go?
"The Somali fraud rings have sent huge sums in remittances, or money transfers, from Minnesota to Somalia. According to reports, an estimated 40 percent of households in Somalia get remittances from abroad. In 2023 alone, the Somali diaspora sent back $1.7 billion—more than the Somali government's budget for that year," City Journal said.
And the report added, "Our investigation reveals, for the first time, that some of this money has been directed to an even more troubling destination: the al-Qaida-linked Islamic terror group Al-Shabaab. According to multiple law-enforcement sources, Minnesota's Somali community has sent untold millions through a network of 'hawalas,' informal clan-based money-traders, that have wound up in the coffers of Al-Shabaab."
Confirmation came through Glenn Kerns, a retired detective who worked on a federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, who said the Somalis' money network routed huge amounts of cash to hawala networks in Somalia, with one getting $20 million in a single year.
Another investigator, who was cited anonymously, said, "Every scrap of economic activity, in the Twin Cities, in America, throughout Western Europe, anywhere Somalis are concentrated, every cent that is sent back to Somalia benefits Al-Shabaab in some way. For every dollar that is transferred from the Twin Cities back to Somalia, al-Shabaab is . . . taking a cut of it."
The Gateway Pundit lauded the work of reporters Ryan Thorpe and Chris Rufo, explaining, "This is insane."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The federal government is facing a million-dollar-plus claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act for the Biden administration's raid on a Massachusetts monastery and various related groups because authorities claimed officials there were misusing COVID funds in a case that shortly later was dropped.
It is Judicial Watch that this week announced the launch of an effort to obtain justice for the people and groups Biden targeted.
"Judicial Watch is honored to stand up for Father Andrew and Ms. Stockton for their horrendous anti-Christian mistreatment at the hands of the weaponized Biden Department of Justice," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
The case involves Father Brian Andrew Bushell, Tracey Stockton, a lawyer, the Shrine of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, St. Paul's Foundation, the Annunciation House, and the Marblehead Brewing Company, all described as "victims of the acts of federal government employees acting in the scope of their official duties."
The damages are being sought for both economic and non-economic damages that were inflicted because of government's "malicious prosecution, false arrest and imprisonment, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress."
The battle dates back to Oct. 13, 2022 when federal agents raided the St. Nicholas monastic complex in Marblehead, Mass., and arrested Father Brian Andrew Bushell, 50, and Tracey M.A. Stockton, a lawyer.
"The Biden Justice Department accused Bushell of being a 'purported' monk and alleged that he and Stockton improperly used COVID relief funds," Judicial Watch documented.
However, the case proved to have no substance and charges were dismissed later.
Bushell now is accusing former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins of weaponizing "the DOJ, FBI and other federal agents to manufacture a pack of lies to destroy St. Nicholas, me and intimidate God-fearing Orthodox Christians," Judicial Watch reported.
Later, Rollins, a Biden appointee, was publicly reprimanded by state bar regulators based on a DOJ investigation that found Rollins improperly attended a Democratic fundraising event in her capacity as a prosecutor with then-First Lady Jill Biden.
Rollins also was accused of "knowingly and willfully" making false statements while being interviewed by former Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz's office.
The dispute charges the federal government with deliberately malicious acts by "federal agents who participated in the preparation or execution of the warrants on October 13, 2022."
Judicial Watch reported St. Paul's Foundation is demanding at least $1,777,124.66 for legal fees incurred in the war, while the Shrine of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is seeking at least $518,700 in damages.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Another scientific study, published at the direction of President Donald Trump, is breaking ground because now it's been peer-reviewed, and the potential critics were unable to find anything significant to criticize in the results that found there's almost zero medical evidence to support the agenda of putting chemicals in children, or offering them body-mutilating surgeries, when they claim to be transgender.
In a report from the New York Post, it was confirmed that the study, done by the Department of Health and Human Services after Trump issued an executive order that charged U.S. doctors with "maiming" teens with such treatment, was found by experts to have no significant failings or errors.
There were nearly a dozen critics who took on the job of commenting on the study's findings, and none was able to identify a deficiency.
"They were given the chance to show mistakes, show errors. And they were not able to identify any," Dr. Leor Sapir, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and one of the project researchers, confirmed in comments to the Post. "They had some minor comments here and there, but nothing that gets to the main findings about evidence and ethics."
Sapir pointed out that includes a former president of the Endocrine Society, a group that has been a chief proponent of the radical treatments for children.
When the report first was released by Trump last summer, it charged that gender-affirming "treatment" must be brought to an end.
"The subsequent report found that many of the studies that proponents of gender-affirming care use to back their treatments were of 'very low quality,' and that little is really known about the long-term psychological and quality-of-life effects of treatment, along with how often patients regret about undertaking them. The report also noted the UK has banned the use of puberty blockers and other treatments for minors altogether," according to the Post.
The report pointed out, "Exactly what the Trump administration will do with the report remains to be seen, but Sapir said he hopes that the medical community will take a step back from the culture war debate over gender-affirming care and look at the science. 'Let's reassess. At minimum, let's allow for open debate. Let's listen to dissenting perspectives. Let's do rigorous analysis.'"
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Copies of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence used by students in the Anchorage, Alaska, school district have been slapped with a surprising disclaimer.
Now school officials are explaining it all was a "mistake."
According to a report from the Anchorage Daily News, images were posted online of a Hillsdale College handout of the Declaration and the Constitution, with the label attached that read, "The Anchorage School District does not endorse these materials or the viewpoint expressed in them."
A district official has a reason.
MJ Thim, a district official, explained in an email the stickers are meant to clarify the difference between "official district information" and materials from outside sources.
"This was our mistake. The request that came in wasn't for a flyer or poster and shouldn't have been processed through that system. We will be following up directly with the requestor to make things right," Thim said, according to ADN.
"The U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence are an important part of what students learn social studies," Thim wrote. "These founding documents are taught in every school and reflect the values we want every student to understand."
Hillsdale is a private liberal arts school in Michigan, and donates the booklets.
"Alaska's Attorney General appointee Stephen Cox is the treasurer on the board of directors for Thomas More Classical School, a Hillsdale-affiliated K-6 private school set to open in Anchorage next fall. Cox is also listed as a co-founder and past board president of the school," the report said.
Cox said on social media, said, "something has gone terribly wrong."
"A disclaimer saying the school district doesn't endorse these documents can only confuse students, by implying their own school won't stand for the first principles of our Republic. It raises important questions, and we'll get the answers," Cox said.
The College Fix said a student noticed the disclaimer, and showed it to her mom, who wrote on social media, "I was honestly stunned. These aren't controversial documents, they are the foundation of our country and what our students are supposed to be learning about. Why would a school need to distance itself from the very principles we are built on?
"I fully support transparency in education and just want to understand this policy better. Parents deserve clarity. If outside materials are being sent home, especially involving American founding documents, the messaging should be thoughtful and not confusing to families."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican, is proposing a plan that would "END the mass replacement of American workers" by dumping the federal H-1B visa program, which corporations long have used to replace U.S. workers with foreigners who work for far lower salaries.
Greene made the announcement online, "I am introducing a bill to END the mass replacement of American workers by aggressively phasing out the H-1B program. Big Tech, AI giants, hospitals, and industries across the board have abused the H-1B system to cut out our own people."
She continued, "Americans are the most talented people in the world, and I have full faith in the American people. I serve Americans only, and I will ALWAYS put Americans first. My bill ELIMINATES the corrupt H-1B program and puts AMERICANS FIRST again in tech, healthcare, engineering, manufacturing, and every industry that keeps this country running!! If we want the next generation to have the American dream, we must stop replacing them and start investing in them."
A report at the Hill said Greene's plan would allow up to 10,000 H-1B visas to be awarded annually for certain positions, like physicians, but even that could be phased out.
Greene explained the visa program was set up to "fill a specialty occupational need at a given time. People should not be allowed to come and live here forever. We thank them for their expertise, but we also wish them well so they may return to their own country."
Greene charged the H-1B program is replete with "fraud and abuse."
President Donald Trump largely has agreed with such an assessment, but of late has leaned toward reforms of the system, rather than elimination.
He has taken dramatic action to address the problems, including imposing a $100,000 fee on those applying for the visas.
The Georgian said, "It's time to put American citizens first instead of foreigners first, and this has gone on and been an abuse for far too long," Greene said. "Americans deserve a future. They deserve a chance."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A plan inserted by senators into the hotly contested short-term funding for the U.S. government, which would have allowed them to sue over the actions by Joe Biden's Department of Justice to confiscate their telephone records, has hit a dead end.
The DOJ, as part of its lawfare under Biden and against President Donald Trump, schemed with telephone companies to access records of the senators' telephone calling records.
Online commentators have suggested the records were obtained because special counsel Jack Smith, running some of the lawfare against Trump, was planning to use the records in further cases against Trump had he not been elected, and possibly include the senators in some of the cases.
Smith's cases disintegrated when Trump was elected.
But some senators had inserted into the recently adopted short-term funding plan a provision allowing them to sue, "for a whopping $500,000 each," over the snooping on their records.
The provision was buried in the legislation and actually allowed senators to sue "if law enforcement seizes or subpoenas their data without proper notification."
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the House would work immediately to repeal the plan.
Johnson said, of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, "He's a principled leader; I've enjoyed working with him. We've got a great working relationship and a good friendship. He's a trustworthy, honest broker. And that's why I was so surprised when we found out about that provision. It was put in our clean CR at the last moment. I'm—just to be honest, I'm very transparent with you all—I was very angry about it."
He said House members didn't appreciate the move.
He said Thune likely "regretted the way it was done, and we had an honest conversation about that. I didn't ask him for any commitment at that time because I had a lot on my plate today, and I've been busy ever since that conversation we had early this morning."
He said he's confident of a House repeal and expects the Senate to follow.
Some of the Senate Republicans already have said they do not intend to try to make their case under the provision.
CBS reported there were eight senators whose records were demanded: Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
And already at least three, Hagerty, Johnson and Blackburn, have said they have no plans to seek compensation.
"I am for accountability for Jack Smith and everyone complicit in this abuse of power. I do not want and I am not seeking damages for myself paid for with taxpayer dollars," Hagerty said.
Blackburn added, "This fight is not about the money; it is about holding the left accountable for the worst weaponization of government in our nation's history. If leftist politicians can go after President Trump and sitting members of Congress, they will not hesitate to go after American citizens."
She said she has no plans to seek payment.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In what's being called an unprecedented step, the United Kingdom is no longer sharing intelligence with the U.S. about suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, as it does not wish to be complicit in the military strikes, believing them to be illegal.
CNN reports Britain's decision "marks a significant break from its closest ally and intelligence sharing partner and underscores the growing skepticism over the legality of the U.S. military's campaign around Latin America."
The U.K. controls numerous territories in the Caribbean where it bases intelligence assets, and for years has assisted America in finding suspected drug vessels so the U.S. Coast Guard could interdict them, sources told the network.
"The intelligence was typically sent to Joint Interagency Task Force South, a task force stationed in Florida that includes representatives from a number of partner nations and works to reduce the illicit drug trade," CNN indicated.
"But shortly after the U.S. began launching lethal strikes against the boats in September, however, the U.K. grew concerned that the U.S. might use intelligence provided by the British to select targets. British officials believe the U.S. military strikes, which have killed 76 people, violate international law, the sources said. The intelligence pause began over a month ago, they said."
Last month, Volker Türk, the U.N.'s human-rights chief, called the kinetic strikes "extrajudicial killing," saying they violate international law, and sources say the U.K. agrees with him.
While the British embassy in Washington and the White House did not respond to requests for comment, a Pentagon official told CNN the department "doesn't talk about intelligence matters."
LibsofTikTok did proffer an opinion, saying: "They don't want us to defend our nation from drug-smuggling terrorists. The UK loves coddling criminals and terrorists."
CNN also reported Canadian officials have "made clear to the U.S. that it does not want its intelligence being used to help target boats for deadly strikes."
To date, at least 75 people have been confirmed killed by the U.S. military in the strikes.
On Monday, U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that on Sunday, "two lethal kinetic strikes were conducted on two vessels operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.
"These vessels were known by our intelligence to be associated with illicit narcotics smuggling, were carrying narcotics, and were transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route in the Eastern Pacific.
"Both strikes were conducted in international waters and 3 male narco-terrorists were aboard each vessel. All 6 were killed. No U.S. forces were harmed."
Some initial public reaction to Britain's reported suspension of intelligence-sharing includes:
"These boats carry death, so let death beget death, and I think we can manage our own pond without the assistance of British Intel. Hell, we shouldn't trust the Brits with our intel; MI6 has been a leaky ship for decades."
"Isn't America depending on U.K. for intelligence about the Caribbean a little like U.K. depending upon us for intelligence about the English Channel?"
"This is like the NYPD telling me they will no longer monitor the area around my swingset in the backyard of my California home."
"Uhh … I'm pretty sure Britain hasn't actually trusted us since 1776. They're still a little bitter over that."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The legal fight involves a rubber-recycling company and its alleged securities violations.
But the real dispute is something about which Americans must have concern: Whether those targeted by a government action have a right to a jury decision, or if some government functionary can simply rule against them and order them to pay a penalty.
The fight is being handled by the Pacific Legal Foundation.
"The Arizona Supreme Court's decision to hear this case recognizes that fundamental constitutional rights are at stake," said Adi Dynar, an attorney for the foundation. "When government agencies act as prosecutor, judge, and jury, they violate the basic American principle that everyone deserves a fair trial before an impartial jury of their peers."
It is the EFG America corporation that asked the Arizona Supreme Court to protect the constitutional right to jury trials, and the justices have agreed.
It was a state agency's bureaucrats at the Arizona Corporation Commission that forced the Mesa-based company into unfair in-house tribunals.
Last year, the commission claimed in an enforcement action that EFG America and its founder, Douglas Fimrite, committed securities violations.
"The commission refused to allow the case to be heard in superior court with a jury, instead forcing it through the agency's own administrative process where the same agency that investigated and charged EFG also judged the case," the foundation reported.
It then was the Arizona Court of Appeals that ruled against EFG, claiming that defendants have no right to jury trials.
"This decision eliminates jury trials for a significant portion of civil cases in Arizona, undermining constitutional protections that have safeguarded Americans since the founding," PLF said.
But, it noted, "Both the Arizona Constitution and the U.S. Constitution's Seventh Amendment guarantee jury trials in civil cases where the government seeks monetary penalties. The U.S. Supreme Court recently reaffirmed this principle in SEC v. Jarkesy. Now, the Arizona Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the same checks and balances protect the fundamental constitutional rights of Arizonans."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
New York has fallen.
Trevor Loudon, anti-communist researcher and author, joins Elizabeth Farah to expose how a Marxist-Islamist alliance just captured the most powerful city in America. Together, they reveal how immigrant radicalization, global communism, and Islamic networks converged to install a foreign revolutionary as mayor of New York.
Loudon traces the deep ties between CAIR, the Democratic Socialists of America, and communist regimes in Cuba, China, and Iran. He shows how these forces used immigration policy and ideological infiltration to breach America's defenses from within.
Elizabeth Farah drives the conversation to its core, warning that this is the spiritual and political beachhead of a new world revolution, one now rooted in American soil. What began as an election has become a declaration of war against the Republic.
This is America under occupation.
And the fight for her soul has begun.
WATCH on Rumble:
Join the discussion on X:
Here are the links to watch the Elizabeth Farah Show interviews on other platforms:
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
An federal appeals court has ruled that a trial court judge failed to adequately consider President Donald Trump's immunity, confirmed by a Supreme Court ruling, in a dispute created by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that claimed Trump's description of legal fees as legal fees was wrong in the so-called hush money fight.
Courthousenews said it was a panel from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that returned the case to Alvin Hellerstein a district judge, in Manhattan.
The decision revived Trump's fight against the Bragg-driven case that also featured a number of holes.
The appeals judges did not direct Hellerstein's decision.
They wrote, "We cannot be confident that … the district court adequately considered issues relevant to the good cause inquiry so as to enable meaningful appellate review. For example, the district court did not consider whether certain evidence admitted during the state court trial relates to immunized official acts or, if so, whether evidentiary immunity transformed the state's case into one that relates to acts under color of the presidency."
The Manhattan DA has fought any review of his political case against Trump.
The jury's claim in the case was that Trump was guilty of 34 felonies for falsifying business records.
The report charged, "The jury found that Trump orchestrated his former personal attorney and 'fixer' Michael Cohen to pay $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who Trump was concerned would share details from their 2006 sexual encounter at an inopportune time during the election. When repaying Cohen, Trump disguised the payments as standard legal fees, sometimes signing those illicit checks from the Oval Office during his first presidential term, witnesses testified."
Legacy media reports often ignore the fact that both alleged participants in that encountered denied it happened.
Trump repeatedly has described the case as just another in the Democrat party's weaponization of the courts against him, not without evidence.
Trump already is appealing the same fight in New York state courts.
WND had reported on the state system appeal that the case all erupted because of Bragg.
When Bragg made the allegations, the judge, Juan Merchan, censored Trump's statements about the case. He allowed prosecutors to leave a vague "secondary" crime claim in place without any specifics. He delivered pro-prosecution jury instructions which seemed to allow a verdict without unanimity.
And all the while, Merchan's daughter was making money advising Democrats on issues that could include her father's courtroom rulings.
The basis of the most recent rulings is the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that presidents have complete immunity for actions as president, but not for private actions.
Trump charges that ruling means prosecutors should not have been allowed to say some of the things they claimed about him.
The Washington Examiner reported Trump's legal team confirmed the Supreme Court's decision on immunity "means prosecutors should have been barred from using evidence connected to Trump's 'official' acts as president in the case against him."
It was in 2024 that a jury in leftist-majority Manhattan said he was guilty of falsifying records dealing with a payment to onetime porn star Stormy Daniels, 34 counts total.
The errors made in the trial court, however, mean the conviction should be scrapped, the report said.
Merchan, a donor to a Democrat cause, in fact, barred some of Trump's defense evidence, including statements that appeared to exonerate him from Daniels herself, censored Trump's speech, delivered pro-prosecution instructions, and more.
"One of the mistakes some legal critics believe was committed during the trial involved allegations that the New York district attorney's office, led by Alvin Bragg, never committed itself to what the second crime was. Rather, his office theorized that the crime could have been a New York tax violation, a federal campaign finance violation, or a New York election law violation," the report explained.
The law violation brought by Bragg is a two-part crime, meaning it depends on violation of another statute, and the prosecution never clarified that. That means some members of the jury may have assumed one law, or another, leaving their verdict not unanimous.
"The court permitted the jury to convict if some jurors believed only that President Trump had conspired to violate FECA, while others believed only that he had conspired to help others commit tax fraud, and still others believed only that he had conspired to help others make false statements to a bank," appeals court filings said. "Due process and Section 17-152 do not permit a conviction based on such a haphazard 'combination of jury findings.'"
At sentencing, Merchan spent seven minutes complaining that he was limited in his sentencing, then gave Trump an unconditional discharge, allowing for no fines, jail or probation while continuing the felony convictions.
Merchan, whose daughter is a consultant who was making money off of her father's multiple rulings against Trump, claimed "extraordinary" legal protections handed to the president of the United States required him to hand down a minor sentence that Trump would allegedly not have received without being reelected.
Merchan, in extraordinary fashion, allowed a wide range of inflammatory testimony to come into his courtroom against Trump. A long list of legal experts charged that the case never should have been created by Bragg. Merchan, in fact, inexplicably told the jurors their verdict didn't have to be unanimous.
The "offenses" actually were misdemeanors until Bragg theorized they were part of the furtherance of another, unidentified, crime, and that made them felonies. Experts called Bragg's machinations "legally creative."