The Kentucky Supreme Court suspended an attorney in the state from practicing law for three years after he attempted to harass and intimidate other lawyers during a custody dispute involving his children.
Ben Dusing has been temporarily suspended from practicing law in the state since 2022, when a profanity-filled 2021 Facebook message he sent to opposing attorneys in his custody case came to light.
Dusing used the word "f***" almost 50 times in his 9-minute online tirade and threatened to blow up the attorneys.
He has since apologized to the court for his actions, claiming that he was advocating for court reform and fighting alleged "corruption" in the process.
His contentions were dismissed by the justices, who said that the video was “incredibly disturbing and threatening.”
Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter and Justices Debra Lambert, Kelly Thompson and Michelle Keller voted for the three-year suspension, while Justices Angela McCormick Bisig and Robert Conley thought Dusing should be permanently disbarred.
The justices also said that Dusing had a “history of engaging in frivolous litigation” during family court proceedings.
“Dusing failed to use the law’s procedures for legitimate purposes and instead intentionally sought to harass and intimidate others,” the ruling stated.
During the case against him, Dusing tried to get the judge recused and filed over two dozen appellate motions. He also tried to get the opposing attorney disqualified prior to the start of the case.
He spent seven days in jail last year for failing to abide by restrictions in communication with his ex-fiancee.
Dusing used to represent high profile clients as a federal prosecutor in the state.
He prosecuted former Cincinnati City Council member Jeff Pastor on a corruption charge, for example.
Dusing spent the last year in Ukraine as an aid runner while appealing his sentence.
As someone whose political fortunes were arguably impacted in negative fashion by big tech censorship in the last presidential cycle, Donald Trump has just made a bold statement about his intentions should he reclaim the White House.
Trump has signaled his intention to prosecute Google if he prevails in November, citing what he says is strong evidence that the company's search engine prioritizes only unflattering coverage of him and his campaign in order to boost his rival's electoral prospects, as the New York Post reports.
In the wake of the release of a study claiming that Google was taking active steps to bury website search results for the Trump campaign while simultaneously boosting the performance of Kamala Harris' campaign site and other coverage favorable to the VP, the former president held forth on actions he would like to take against the firm.
Taking to Truth Social to make his position clear, he said, “It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris.”
Trump went on, saying, “This is an ILLEGAL ACTIVITY, and hopefully the Justice Department will criminally prosecute them for this blatant interference of Elections.”
He did not stop there, adding that if the DOJ resisted the notion of charging Google for the alleged offenses, he would “request their prosecution at the maximum levels” if elected to another term in the Oval Office.
Trump's concerns stemmed from a Media Research Center study that reviewed the outcomes of two distinct Google search attempts, namely, “Donald Trump presidential race 2024” and “Kamala Harris presidential race 2024.”
The search that involved Harris' name yielded results more favorable to the Democrat's campaign, placing it just below articles about her bid pulled from left-leaning media outlets.
When Trump's name was used, his campaign site came in far lower in the rendered results and appeared underneath articles from outlets critical of the former president.
According to Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center, this is clear evidence of Google “trying to stack the deck in favor of Kamala Harris.”
Bozell continued, “Google's search engine pushes left-wing media articles favoring Kamala Harris and slamming Donald Trump,” and he warned media consumers not to trust the search results they receive from the company.
In response to the criticisms from Trump and Bozell, a Google spokesperson attempted to downplay the significance of the findings.
According to The Hill, a spokesperson for the tech behemoth said, “Both campaign websites consistently appear at the top of Search for relevant and common search queries.”
“This report looked at a single rare search term on a single day a few weeks ago, and even for that search, both candidates' websites ranked in the top results on Google,” the representative added, but whether that explanation will carry any weight with Trump -- or millions of media-skeptical Americans who tend know bias when they see it -- only time will tell.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) called for New York City Mayor Eric Adams to resign following his indictment, The Hill reported. Adams is facing corruption charges stemming from a federal investigation.
Adams was served with a five-count indictment that included charges such as bribery, wire fraud, and foreign contribution on Thursday. Adams maintains his innocence and has insisted he is staying in office for the duration.
This has become a problem for lawmakers like Nadler who see Adams as a burden to the city. "My belief is that the Mayor has lost the ability to effectively lead the City of New York, and therefore, he must resign," Nadler said in a statement shared on X, formerly Twitter.
My statement on Mayor Eric Adams: pic.twitter.com/pAovO99Gkn
— Rep. Nadler (@RepJerryNadler) September 27, 2024
Nadler isn't alone in calling on Adams to resign from office amid the scandal. Still, Nadler's statement was careful to clarify that Adams has the presumption of innocence.
"While the criminal charges outlined in the indictment by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York are very serious, Mayor Adams deserves the right to due process and to be treated as presumed innocent until proven guilty," Nadler stated. "However, there are questions of whether the Mayor can continue to effectively lead our City as Mayor at this time," he added.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) similarly demanded that Adams step down for the good of the city. "I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City," Ocasio-Cortez said in her post to X on Wednesday.
"The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening gov function. Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration. For the good of the city, he should resign," she added, referring to other officials around Adams who also have been implicated.
I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City.
The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening gov function. Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration.
For the good of the city, he should resign.…
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 25, 2024
Adams didn't respond directly to Nadler but previously reiterated that he has no plans to leave office. "From here, my attorneys will take care of the case so I can take care of the city," Adams told reporters.
"My day-to-day will not change. I will continue to do the job for 8.3 million New Yorkers that I was elected to do and the 300,000 plus employees of our city government will continue to do their job because this is what we do as New Yorkers," he claimed.
Even when it came time for Thursday's arrangement, NBC News reported that Adams was still maintaining his innocence. He pleaded not guilty before a judge and dug in his heels about remaining in office.
"We are not surprised. We expected this. I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments," Adams said after his indictment.
Adams needs to think of the people of New York instead of himself. Even if he is innocent, Adams will have to spend valuable time and resources defending himself, which will distract him from his duties.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped into CNN's Jake Tapper when he asked her about former President Donald Trump's comments that Vice President Kamala Harris has "cognitive problems," The Hill reported. Trump made the remark Tuesday at a Savannah, Georgia, rally.
"I’m sure that you hear from progressive voters, Democratic voters who say...why don’t they talk about Donald Trump’s cognitive problems?" Tapper said to Pelosi on the network Tuesday. “Well, Donald Trump talked about that just a second ago, and I want to get your reaction," Tapper said before rolling the clip.
In the clip, Trump said they "laugh at us all over the world" because Harris has a chance of becoming the president. "You talk about cognitive problems – she’s got bigger cognitive problems than he has, in my opinion," Trump said of President Joe Biden and Harris.
The clip of Trump set Pelosi off on a tangent. "Why would you even cover that?" Pelosi chided Tapper.
"This is a person who is not on the level. He is their nominee for president. He is incompetent," she added.
"Let’s not even talk about the silliness of it all, and the weirdness of it all and the assault on women that it is," Pelosi said, throwing out all the leftist buzzwords that she thought might stick. "We’re not going to talk issues. Incompetent," she raged.
"The only thing he did as president. The only thing he did as president when he had the majority was to pass a bill – tax cuts – that gave 83% of the benefits to the top one percent, adding $2 trillion to the national debt," Pelosi continued, visibly upset.
"The worst job creation record of any president since Herbert Hoover," she claimed. Shockingly, Tapper added that it was "because of Covid," with which Pelosi sharply disagreed.
Pelosi's reaction to Tapper reeked of desperation. Democrats know they are in trouble with Harris as their last-minute pick for president, and they have routinely tried to attack Trump in any way they can as a coping mechanism.
One of the most transparent of these attempts came from Pelosi herself even before the deal was done with Harris. While everyone with a shred of honesty was concerned about Biden's obvious cognitive decline last summer, Pelosi was trying to say it was Trump who had the problem.
"There are health care professionals who think that Trump has dementia. If we’re just talking about mental acuity, let’s be fair about it," Pelosi said in June on CNN, according to the UK Independent.
Meanwhile, leftist publication The New Republic attempted to cover for Pelosi with their account of the exchange with Tapper. The title "Nancy Pelosi Snaps After CNN Airs Nonsensical Trump Smear of Harris" and the subheading calling Trump's remarks "absurd" can't change the fact that Pelosi is still bothered by Trump.
The leftists are starting to behave like they know they're losing the fight. Pelosi's outsized response to Trump's throwaway remark says more about the Democratic Party's worries than it does about Trump.
Former first lady Melania Trump blamed the Democratic Party and establishment media for the "toxic atmosphere" that led to the assassination attempts against her husband, the UK Daily Mail reported. Trump sat down for a rare interview with Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt, which aired on Thursday.
Melania Trump spoke from her perspective as the wife of GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump. She shared her feelings about the assassination attempts against him and about the couple's son, Barron Trump, among other personal topics.
The usually tight-lipped first lady will release her memoir "Melania" on Oct. 8. She has been in the press on a publicity tour promoting the book that will drop less than a month before Election Day.
Donald Trump has survived two assassination attempts in as many months, which Melania Trump chalked up to divine providence. "And, I think both of the events, they were really miracles," she said.
"Like, that much and he could, you know, he could not be with us," she said, holding her index finger and thumb closely together to describe how close the July 13 attempt came to succeeding. "I think something was watching over him. It's almost like country really needed him," the former first lady added.
Melania Trump believes that both assassination attempts stem from this rhetoric against Donald Trump. "Is it really shocking that all this outrageous violence goes against my husband?" the 54-year-old former first lady said.
"Especially that we hear the leaders from the opposition party and mainstream media branding him as threat to democracy, calling him vile names. They only fueling a toxic atmosphere and all of these people that they wanted to harm - this needs to stop," Melania Trump urged.
"This needs to stop. The country needs to unite, and I encourage everybody to read my letter that I wrote on July 14th again. Because that cannot continue," she added.
Melania Trump fiercely protected her and her family's privacy during her husband's first candidacy and term as president. However, something has certainly changed, as the former first lady opened up to Earhardt.
The former first lady called her husband "a family man. He loves his country. And all he wants is to build better. And prosperous." Melania Trump said she was happy just having one child, Barron, who has begun his first year at New York University this year.
"He wants to be New York and study in New York and live in his home. And I respect that. And he's incredible, young man. I'm very proud of what he grow up to. His strength, his intelligence. His knowledge. His kindness," she said the son she shares with Donald Trump.
The former first lady also recalled what it was like to come home to their Mar-o-lago residence after it was raided by the FBI in August 2022. "I saw unpleasant stuff that nobody wants to see. And you get angry because, you know, nobody should be putting up with that kind of stuff," Melania Trump said.
The Trump family has faced much adversity since Donald Trump first announced his run for president. Melania Trump has been by his side the whole time, and now she is ready to tell her side of the story.
Kentucky voters will choose a new justice for the state's 5th Supreme Court district this November, the Kentucky Lantern reported. Democrats and Republicans are sharply divided on the candidates despite their lack of official political affiliation.
The court will have a vacancy after Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter announced he would not seek another term. Early voting begins on October 31, with the candidates facing off for the position on the court.
Eight counties encompassing Central Kentucky will participate in the election, with the culmination of the race on Election Day. The candidates are attorney Erin Izzo and deputy chief Kentucky Court of Appeals Judge Pamela Goodwine.
In Kentucky, judges are nonpartisan. However, Izzo has received backing from local Republican groups and an endorsement from the Clark County Republican Party. Goodwine has received a nod from Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and other prominent Democrats.
Judges are prohibited from giving their opinions on cases in advance, but the support they're receiving from the respective parties makes it clear where they stand. "I have been a registered independent since I became a judge, and I am known for continually displaying a strong work ethic along with honesty and integrity to ensure justice for all," Goodwine claimed.
"My strong reputation for upholding these values along with my 25 years of dedicated service as a judge has earned me respect from all parties. I have staunch supporters from all parties and welcome and accept invitations from all parties to participate in their events," she added. Still, her strongest supporters are Democrats and their donors.
Meanwhile, Izzo has courted support from voters of all stripes, noting she thinks it "would be dangerous for Kentucky" to add partisanship to the judge's race. "I think as a candidate, there’s not much I can do with my supporters in terms of who’s going to give endorsements and who’s not," Izzo said.
"It doesn’t surprise me, honestly, that Beshear came out and endorsed her given her political leanings. And it doesn’t surprise me that the Clark County Republicans came out and endorsed me because of their political leanings," Izzo added.
Izzo has also promised to be an originalist in her jurisprudence. "I look at how things are, what the intention of the founding fathers were with our Constitution, and that kind of carries over to what legislative intent was when a law was adopted," Izzo said.
While it's important to hear from Izzo, what's more telling is what her enemies say about her. On Planned Parenthood's voter information website, they smear Izzo because for her "extremist" support.
"The end of Roe v. Wade was just the beginning for those determined to take away our control over our bodies and medical choices. But this election, we have the power to push back," the abortion provider claimed.
"We need leaders who are unapologetic and unafraid to join us in the fight to take back control of our families, our bodies, and our future. This election, we decide," Planned Parenthood went on.
"Erin Izzo has a history of supporting extremist organizations that oppose same-sex marriage, LGBTQ+ rights, and reproductive freedoms, including abortion and in vitro fertilization (IVF)," the organization charged. Of course, this sounds like a list of her greatest achievements to actual conservatives.
The people of Kentucky will get to choose what kind of court they will have. Either they will elect an originalist like Izzo or someone like Goodwine, who the state's leftist governor endorsed.
Former President Donald Trump's would-be assassin, Ryan Wesley Routh, allegedly penned a letter that included a promise of $150,000 to anyone who will "complete the job," Breitbart reported. The Justice Department released the letter's contents to the public, which outraged the Trump family.
Routh showed up at Trump's Palm Beach golf club on Sept. 14 with a rifle and other paraphernalia. He was near where Trump was about to play through when the Secret Service apprehended him.
Thankfully, Routh never got the chance to fire a shot at the former president. However, his damage wasn't quite done after the Justice Department released contents of a letter he purportedly penned to the public.
"This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you…I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster," the 58-year-old said in his handwritten letter. "I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job," Routh wrote.
It's not surprising that the ramblings of a crazed gunman included such a promise. However, it is unfathomable that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris' administration would allow it to see the light of day in the press.
Donald Trump Jr. railed against this decision, especially since Harris is his father's political opponent in the 2024 presidential election. The younger Trump also compared it to the way the government handled the manifesto of Audrey Hale, who shot and killed three children and three adults at a Tennessee school last year.
His motives are unknown folks!!!! DOJ releasing this in a week but not the trans killer manifesto for months isn’t signaling anything.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) September 23, 2024
"WTF!? Why is Kamala's DOJ publicizing Ryan Wesley Routh putting a bounty on my dad's head???," Donald Trump Jr. wrote.
"His motives are unknown folks!!!! DOJ releasing this in a week but not the trans killer manifesto for months isn’t signaling anything," the younger Trump wrote in a follow-up tweet. Portions of Hale's manifesto leaked to the press confirmed that she was gender-confused and raised suspicions about authorities' reluctance to release it.
This was the second attempt made on Donald Trump's life, and the DOJ isn't being too careful about preventing a third. Former Attorney General William Barr said there was no reason to release Routh's letter "other than to risk inciting further violence," he told Fox News in an exclusive.
The letter, which was addressed "Dear World," was in a box that Routh had entrustd to a friend. "I was dumbfounded that the DOJ made public this morning the contents of the letter that, Ryan Routh, left with an acquaintance prior to the attempted assassination of former President Trump," Barr said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"The letter calls on people to ‘finish the job’ of killing President Trump, attempts to rouse people in incendiary terms to do so, and offers $150,000 to anyone who succeeds. There was no apparent justification for releasing this information at this stage," Barr, who served under Trump and George W. Bush, went on.
"Even if DOJ thought it important to provide the letter to the court, it could have redacted inflammatory material or arranged to have the letter submitted under seal. It was rash to put out this letter in the midst of an election during which two attempts on the life of President Trump had been made," Barr later continued.
These attempts on Trump's life have so far been unsuccessful. Releasing a call to arms that comes with a reward is all but asking for a third attempt to be successful.
During a meeting with the leaders of Japan, Australia and India at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, President Joe Biden appeared confused and irritated, at one point shouting, "Who's next?" when it was actually his turn to introduce the Indian prime minister.
“I want to thank you all for being here,” Biden told the audience. “And now, uh, who am I introducing next?”
After the rest of the group went silent, Biden shouted, "Who's next?"
Finally, an announcer's voice came over the loudspeaker and introduced Indian PM Narendra Modi to the meeting.
The group is known as the Quad Alliance, and although these countries are staunch allies of the U.S., their leaders have to be wondering what has happened to Biden even just since the 2020 election.
The meeting on Saturday dealt with recent pressures from China and led Biden to say that China is "testing" the alliance.
A joint statement from the alliance also announced the Quad Cancer Moonshot aimed at reducing cervical cancer, disaster relief in the Indo-Pacific region, and maritime security there.
But Biden is barely able to hold it together long enough to run a meeting like this.
On Friday Biden held his first full cabinet meeting in nearly a year. The last one was on October 2, 2023.
He opened the meeting and then turned it over to his wife, First Lady Jill Biden. “I’d like to turn it over to Jill for any comments she has. It’s all yours, kid,” he said.
Never mind that Jill is unelected and no one voted for her to lead her husband's cabinet meetings.
The fact is, our president is too mentally diminished to do his job anymore. Someone unelected has been running the show pretty much his whole term, whether it's been Jill Biden, Barack Obama, or someone else.
The RNC Research account on X pointed out, “Jill, Ed.D., is now assisting whatever is left of Crooked Joe Biden in leading cabinet meetings."
Jill, Ed.D., is now assisting whatever is left of Crooked Joe Biden in leading cabinet meetings pic.twitter.com/qvL1fzZ4gX
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 20, 2024
Americans were stunned and horrified earlier this month when former President Donald Trump was targeted in yet another assassination attempt, this time at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In a rather interesting legal twist, according to Politico, recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions related to the Second Amendment could present complications when it comes to prosecuting Ryan Routh, the man suspected of targeting Trump.
The highest court in the land has recently weighed in on a series of cases related to the proper scope and interpretation of the Second Amendment, including challenges to a law currently being used to prosecute Routh.
As Politico notes, as a result of his conduct at the Trump International Golf Club, Routh has been charged with violating a federal prohibition on felony possession of firearms.
Routh's criminal history includes a conviction from North Carolina stemming from his possession of a “weapon of mass destruction” as well as another for possession of stolen goods, and, as such, his possession of a firearm at Trump's golf course has triggered the use of the aforementioned federal law against him.
However, recent battles that have made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court have brought into question the validity of the felony firearms ban, one which has the potential to bring upwards of 15 years in prison to those convicted.
Particular debate has centered on the high court's decision in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, one which has had far-reaching implications since its issuance.
The Bruen majority offered a more expansive definition of rights under the Second Amendment by finding that restrictions on gun ownership withstand constitutional scrutiny only if they are in keeping with historical practices with respect to firearms in America.
As such, conflicts have emerged among lower courts attempting to apply the Bruen precedent in gun possession cases, with two federal appeals panels having determined that using the felon-in-possession ban in the case of those convicted of non-violent felonies is a violation of their constitutional rights.
By contrast, other appeals courts have come to the opposite conclusion, including the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, the panel that would ultimately have jurisdiction in a potential appeal lodged by Routh in the future.
The divergence in opinion across the federal circuits, however, suggests that eventual Supreme Court review of the question is, in the words of UCLA law professor and Second Amendment expert Adam Winkler, “only a matter of time.”
While it is clear that there may be some contentious legal wrangling ahead with regard to the federal felon-in-possession statute, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis believes that accountability for Routh could more directly be pursued at the state level, and he has therefore initiated his own probe of the events at Trump's golf course, as he explained in a press release last week.
DeSantis issued an executive order “directing Florida's law enforcement agencies....to investigate the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, refer violations of state law to the statewide prosecutor's office for prosecution, and to surge resources to President Trump's security detail needs in coordination with the former president and the Secret Service.”
Though the Florida probe will run concurrently with the federal probe of the alarming event, DeSantis declared, as The Hill noted, that he does not believe it is in “the best interest of our state or our nation to have the same federal agencies that are seeking to prosecute Donald Trump leading this investigation, especially when the most serious, straightforward offense constitutes a violation of state law but not federal law,” and in light of the ongoing uncertainty stemming from Bruen, he may well be correct.
Former President Donald Trump notched a legal win after a deadline in the appeal of his Florida case dismissal was moved until October, The Hill reported. This means that the court's decision will likely come after the next president's inauguration.
Trump had been charged with 40 counts for mishandling classified information recovered from his Florida residence. The charges involved accusations of obstruction of justice and violating the Espionage Act.
However, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the charges after finding that special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the charges, was improperly appointed. However, Smith petitioned the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for a review.
In his appeal, Smith claimed that Attorney General Merrick Garland lawfully appointed him contrary to Cannon's decision. The court approved delaying the deadline from Sept. 25 to Oct. 25, which will push the resolution of the case into next year.
Trump's lawyers argued for the delay because he's busy with other cases. "President Trump and his counsel are presently engaged in motion practice in a separate case…which will require counsel to spend time in a sensitive compartmented information facility (“SCIF”) in Washington, D.C. in the coming weeks to meet that court’s briefing schedule," the legal filing noted.
After announcing he was running for president for a second term, Trump suddenly became the subject of several criminal probes. In all, he has been subject to four criminal indictments, CBS News reported.
The first that went to trial was the New York hush-money case. Despite the dubious nature of the charges and supposed evidence, a New York jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records.
However, prosecutors in the other cases haven't been able to finagle such an outcome. Trump's federal election interference case has been postponed indefinitely after the Supreme Court granted Trump's claim of presidential immunity.
Another election interference in Georgia is also on hold after the judge concluded that some charges belonged to the federal court. It seems the very thing leftists thought would trip Trump up has become his best defense for moving the deadline in the appeal.
After his enemies spent the last two years throwing obstacles in Trump's way, the former president seems to be taking it all in his stride. He's survived four criminal probes and two assassination attempts, but he just keeps moving ahead.
The next several weeks will be the true test of his resolve and the left's ability to knock Trump off kilter with their antics. So far, Trump continues to poll strongly against Vice President Kamala Harris as both are locked in a statistical tie, Fox News reported.
This is after the judicial machine spent years going after Trump. It's after the establishment media, Hollywood, the music industry, and just about every other institution has thrown full support behind Harris.
Shockingly, there are signs that a seismic shift may be hiding under the surface of these pollsters' reports. Virginia has long been a Democratic stronghold, but now the New York Post shared that it is locked in a statistical dead heat and will become a battleground state for the two despite going for President Joe Biden by 10 points in 2020.
Trump is a unique figure in American history. He has survived many attacks, literally and figuratively, and now has gained yet another legal win that will keep him moving toward the White House.