Lesley Wolf is an assistant United States attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in Wilmington, Delaware, who features prominently in an IRS whistleblower’s testimony to Congress about the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.

The comments about Wolf came in testimony by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, an Internal Revenue Service Criminal Supervisory Special Agent. His testimony, and that of another IRS whistleblower, was released by the House Ways & Means Committee after Hunter Biden reached a plea agreement with DOJ.

Campaign finance records show that Wolf and her husband are Democratic campaign donors; Federal Election Commission records show her husband donated to Barack Obama’s campaign 14 times, and Lesley Wolf donated to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising operation (her donation was earmarked for Democrat Amy Klobuchar’s presidential primary campaign).

Lesley Wolf, according to Open Secrets.org, also donated to Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania.

Lesley Wolf worked as a coronavirus fraud coordinator for the U.S. Department of Justice, according to a news release. She previously clerked for a federal judge nominated by former President George H.W. Bush, according to The Federal Lawyer.

Wolf, 48, is also mentioned in separate testimony from a second IRS whistleblower who testified that he is a Democrat. He described her in the transcripts as Lesley Wolf, “the assistant United States attorney in Delaware.” According to her Pennsylvania law license, she is Lesley Frieder Wolf and is assigned to the U.S. Department of Justice office in Wilmington, Delaware. She was admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania in 2006. Her husband is Daniel Herman Wolf, a psychiatric professor, according to a wedding announcement for them in The New York Times.

“I am blowing the whistle because the Delaware U.S. Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice Tax, and Department of Justice provided preferential treatment and unchecked conflicts of interest in an important and high-profile investigation of the President’s son, Hunter Biden,” Shapley testified, according to the transcripts.

The House released the transcripts on its website. They can be read in full there.

“Today, the Ways and Means Committee voted to make public the testimony of IRS employees blowing the whistle on misconduct at the IRS and the Biden Department of Justice regarding unequal enforcement of tax law, interference and government abuse in the handling of investigations into criminal activity by President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and retaliation against IRS employees blowing the whistle on this abuse,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) said in a written statement that accompanied the transcripts’ release.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. A Wedding Announcement Says Lesley Frieder Wolf’s Husband Daniel Wolf Was Studying Neuroscience at Yale When They Married & She Obtained a Job at a Boston Law Firm

Perelman School of MedicineDaniel Wolf, Lesley Wolf’s husband.

Lesley Frieder married Daniel Wolf in 2000, according to their wedding announcement in the New York Times.

That announcement describes her as “Lesley Paula Frieder, the daughter of Deborah and Kenneth H. Frieder of Abington, Pa.,” and the bridegroom as “Daniel Herman Wolf, a son of Barbara Wolf and Dr. Sheldon M. Wolf of Brentwood, Calif. Rabbi Eliott N. Perlstein is to officiate at the Aldie Mansion in Doylestown, Pa.”

According to the wedding announcement, Lesley Wolf graduated from Yale University, was attending Columbia University School of Law and was poised to become a summer associate for Ropes & Gray, a Boston law firm.

The announcement says that Lesley Wolf’s father “is a vice president for business development, in Exton, Pa., for the Bionetics Corporation, a technical consulting company. Her mother is a psychiatric nurse at Abington Memorial Hospital.”

Wolf’s husband “graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and is to receive a Ph.D. in neuroscience tomorrow from Yale. He will go on to complete a medical degree at Yale, which he expects to receive next year,” the wedding announcement says, adding: “His father is a clinical professor of neurology at the School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles; in December, he retired from Kaiser Hospital in Hollywood, Calif., where he was a neurologist.”

Today Daniel Herman Wolf is listed as an assistant professor of psychiatry at Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In 1994, while a student at Yale, Lesley Frieder was quoted about meeting former President Jimmy Carter in the Courier News, accessed through Newspapers.com.

“Who’d have thought we’d be with him when one minute he’s telling us that eating catfish with a knife and fork is uncouth and then saying, ‘Excuse me, I’ve got to go back a phone call to Haiti or Cuba,” 5he article says. It is headlined, “Majic riders get chance to meet with Jimmy Carter.”

A 1991 article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, also accessed via Newspapers.com, described Lesley Frieder as “president of the Red Cross Club of Abington High School and a senior at the Montgomery County School.”

A 1995 article for Rutland Daily Herald, accessed via Newspapers.com, described Lesley Frieder as a goaltender for Yale’s hockey team.

The Perelman School of medicine biography page for Daniel H. Wolf reads, “Dr. Wolf earned an AB in Biology from Harvard University in 1992, and obtained his PhD (Neuroscience) degree in 2000 and MD in 2001 from Yale University. His PhD work, conducted with the guidance of Eric Nestler, MD, PhD and David Russell, MD, PhD, focused on the effect of chronic morphine administration on neurotrophic factor signaling proteins in the dopaminergic reward system in rats.” He is conducting research into schizophrenia, the site reports.

Perelman is located at the University of Pennsylvania.

2. Lesley Wolf & Her Husband Daniel Wolf Are Democratic Campaign Donors, Records Show

FECLesley Wolf campaign donation.

Online records show Wolf lives in Pennsylvania. In 2022, she made a $250 campaign donation to Democrat Josh Shapiro, according to Open Secrets.org. Shapiro is the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania who is the state’s former Attorney General, according to his state biography.

Her husband, Daniel H. Wolf, donated 14 times to Obama for America in 2018 and 2012, totaling $1,175,  according to FEC records.

FECDan Wolf donation

FECDan Wolf donation

FECDan Wolf campaign donations.

According to Federal Election Commission records, Lesley Wolf donated $50 in 2020 to ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising organization. FEC records say Wolf’s donation was “earmarked for Amy for America.” That was the presidential campaign of Democrat Amy Klobuchar.

FECDaniel Wolf campaign donation.

According to FEC records, Wolf’s husband Daniel Wolf donated $100 to ActBlue in 2019, $50 in 2018 and $100 in 2017, earmarked for “Giffords PAC.”

FEC recordsDaniel Wolf campaign finance donation.

In 2017 and 2016 each, Daniel Wolf donated $50 to ActBlue, according to FEC records, which say the donation was “earmarked for Americans for Responsible Solutions PAC,” the FEC records show. He gave $25 in 2014 to ActBlue, earmarked for the same group. The records also show that Daniel Wolf gave $50 through ActBlue in 2016 that was earmarked for”Zephyr Teachout for Congress.” Teachout is a Democratic law professor who challenged Andrew Cuomo for the New York governorship, according to WSHU.

According to Influence Watch, Americans for Responsible Solutions is the former name of Giffords PAC, the mission of which is “to elect supporters of gun control to public office.”

3. Lesley Wolf Is Accused of Telling Investigators That ‘Optics Were a Driving Factor’ in Whether to Search Joe Biden’s Guest House & Is Accused of Tipping Off Hunter Biden’s Lawyer About a Pending Storage Unit Search

GettyHunter Biden

Shapley testified that investigators obtained a July 30th, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, a Chinese businessman, where Hunter Biden wrote:

I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.

According to the transcripts, Shapley testified that “communications like these made it clear we needed to search the guest house at the Bidens’ Delaware residence where Hunter Biden stayed for a time. In a September 3rd, 2023 [2020], pros meeting, the Assistant United States Attorney, Lesley Wolf, told us there was more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.”

According to Shapley, she “continued that optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant. She said a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved.”

Shapley also accused Wolf of tipping off Hunter Biden’s attorney that investigators were planning to search his storage unit, testifying, “we heard AUSA Wolf had simply reached out to Hunter Biden’s defense counsel and told him about the storage unit, once again ruining our chance to get to evidence before being destroyed, manipulated, or concealed.”

The second whistleblower also testified that Wolf told investigators they could not do a “storage unit search warrant.” The second agent testified, “I told her that I completely disagreed with her and that we weren’t following the appropriate investigative steps to get the stuff in the storage locker and that I thought that she might be acting inappropriately.”

He continued: “At the time AUSA Wolf asked me if we had problems working together now and if I had issues with her moving forward. I responded at the time that I didn’t and that we could move forward.” The agent also testified that he and others developed a plan to see if Hunter Biden would inform the government of the storage unit but Wolf alerted his attorney.

GettyVice-President Joe Biden and sons Hunter Biden, left, and Beau Biden walk in the Inaugural Parade January 20, 2009 in Washington, DC.

In another meeting, according to Shapley, investigators “shared with prosecutors our outline to interview Hunter Biden’s associate, Rob Walker. Among other things, we wanted to question Walker about an email that said: ‘Ten held by H for the big guy.’ We had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden.”

Shapley testified that “AUSA Wolf interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy and stated she did not want to ask questions about ‘dad.’ When multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, there’s no specific criminality to that line of questioning.”

Shapley also testified that, on another occasion, “AUSA Wolf told us it will get us into hot water if we interview the President’s grandchildren.”

Wolf is also accused of blocking a search warrant attempt. “Also on an October 22nd, 2020, pros team call, AUSA Wolf stated that United States Attorney David Weiss had reviewed the affidavit for search warrant of Hunter Biden’s residence and agreed that probable cause had been achieved,” Shapley testified. “Even though the legal requirements were met and the investigative team knew evidence would be in these locations, AUSA Wolf stated that they would not allow a physical search warrant on Hunter Biden.”

In another instance, Shapley testified,

On September 3rd, 2020, the slow-walking of process continued when AUSA Wolf stated that a search warrant for the emails for Blue Star Strategies was being sat on by OEO. That’s the Department of Justice Office — actually, I’m sorry. I don’t know what it means, the acronym.

She indicated it would likely not get approved. This was a significant blow to the Foreign Agents Registration Act piece of the investigation.

4. Lesley Frieder Wolf Has Prosecuted Fraud Cases for the Delaware DOJ Office

Federal Bar AssociationLesley Wolf.

According to Lawyer.com, Lesley Wolf has been licensed to practice law in Delaware for 21 years and is in “good standing.”

According to Delaware Public Media, she prosecuted a case of two former Wilmington Trust executives who were accused of federal fraud. They were accused of hiding “hundreds of millions of dollars of past-due commercial real estate loans in reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve in 2009 and 2010,” the site reported.

Wolf is quoted in that story as saying one of the men was “not a cooperator.”

Wolf also prosecuted the son of the New Castle County Courthouse shooter, accusing him of violating terms of his probation, according to WHYY.

She also prosecuted a woman accused of fraud in relation to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, according to an IRS news release.

According to CBS News, she traveled to Arkansas to ask questions relating to a paternity lawsuit against Hunter Biden.

Delaware Business Now reported that Wolf also prosecuted two men in an identity theft scheme.

5. Lesley Wolf Clerked for a Judge Appointed by Former President George H.W. Bush

GettyGeorge H.W. Bush, known as “Poppy Bush.”

Wolf wrote an article for The Federal Lawyer on federal Judge Anita B. Brody. That article describes Wolf as an “assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware. Like Judge Brody, she is a graduate of Columbia Law School. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2007, Wolf worked for national law firms in Boston and Philadelphia. She clerked for Judge Brody from 2001-02.”

According to Ballotpedia, Brody was nominated to the federal bench by former President George H.W. Bush. In the Federal Lawyer article, Wolf referred to Brody, who handled the National Football League concussion lawsuit, as a “trailblazer.”

Wolf also wrote an article in 2000 for Columbia Law Review called, “Evading Friendly Fire: Achieving Class Certification after the Civil Rights Act of 1991.”

The abstract reads:

The Civil Rights Act of 1991 provided victims of intentional discrimination with the right to seek compensatory and punitive damages and the right for either party in such actions to demand a jury trial. Congress intended the Act to be a pro-plaintiff measure, but may have inadvertently created a conflict with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, leaving plaintiffs without the option of pursuing their claims as a class action. Because of concerns about predominance and a potential violation of the Reexamination Clause of the Seventh Amendment, some courts have refused to certify classes under any provision of Rule 23. This course of action, however, is not inevitable. By reconceptualizing the meaning of predominance or aggressively applying principals of collateral estoppel, the federal courts can comply with the certification rules and the Constitution and fulfill the intentions of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

She is a 2020 donor to Columbia Law School.

READ NEXT: Paul Henri Nargeolet, the Titanic Expert On Board the Missing Sub

Wendy Rush is the wife of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, a descendant of a couple who died on the Titanic, and the Director of Communications for the subermersible company.

Stockton Rush was one of the five divers who disappeared on the Titanic submersible that was supposed to explore the Titanic shipwreck.

The sub disappeared on Sunday, June 18, 2023, and the U.S. Coast Guard and others launched a search to find it, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

The Coast Guard and OceanGate now believe Stockton Rush and the other four men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

Asked about the prospects of recovering the bodies of the crew members, Mauger said, “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.” He said the debris is consistent with a “catastrophic implosion” of the vessel.

A former employee, David Lochridge, accused OceanGate and Stockton Rush in court documents of firing him when he raised concerns in 2018 about the submersible’s safety.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. The Great-Great Grandparents of Wendy Rush, Isador & Ida Straus, Died on The Titanic

Wendy Rush is the great-great granddaughter of Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, who died on The Titanic, according to her wedding announcement in The New York Times, which lists Richard Weil as her grandfather.

The wedding announcement says Wendy Weil Rush’s father “is professor of surgery and director of transplantation at the University of Colorado Medical School. Her mother, Polly Weil, is a partner in the Denver interior design firm of Reynolds & Weil. The bride is a granddaughter of Mrs. Arthur B. Griffin Jr. of Stuart, Fla., and the late Richard Weil Jr., who was president of Macy’s New York.”

In a bio of the first Richard Weil, the American Association of Immunologists wrote that Weil, in 1904 “married Minnie Straus, the daughter of Macy’s co-owner Isidor Straus.”

According to Harlem World Magazine, Isador Straus “was a German-born American Jewish businessman, politician and co-owner of Macy’s department store with his brother Nathan. He also served for just over a year as a member of the United States House of Representatives. He died with his wife, Ida, in the sinking of the passenger ship RMS Titanic.”

Minnie Straus was one of their seven children, the site reported.

“Once it was clear the Titanic was sinking, Ida refused to leave Isidor and would not get into a lifeboat without him,” Harlem World Magazine reported. “Although Isidor was offered a seat in a lifeboat to accompany Ida, he refused seating while there were still women and children aboard and refused to be made an exception.”

“I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together,” Ida Straus said, according to Harlem World Magazine, which noted: “Isidor and Ida were last seen on deck arm in arm. Eyewitnesses described the scene as a ‘most remarkable exhibition of love and devotion.'”

According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, a scene in which an elderly couple embraces on a bed in James Cameron’s “Titanic” movie is meant to be Isador and Ida Straus.

2. Wendy Rush Is Director of Communications for OceanGate

Wendy Rush serves as the director of communications for OceanGate and an expedition team leader, according to her LinkedIn page.

She also serves as a “Comms and Tracking Team Member” for the Titanic expedition, among others, the page says.

According to his OceanGate biography, Stockton Rush “is Chief Executive Officer and Founder (2009) of OceanGate Inc. Rush oversees OceanGate’s financial and engineering strategies and provides a clear vision for development of 4,000 meter (13,123 feet) and 6,000 meter (19,685 feet) capable crewed submersibles and their partner launch and recovery platforms which make OceanGate Inc the leading provider of crewed submersibles for charter and scientific research.”

3. Wendy Rush Married Stockton Rush in 1986 While Working as a Licensed Pilot & Substitute Teacher

A 1986 wedding announcement in The New York Times says that Wendy Hollings Weil, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Richard Weil 3d of Denver, “was married yesterday to Richard Stockton Rush 3d, a son of Ellen Davies Rush of San Francisco and Mr. Rush Jr. of Westminster, Vt.”

The announcement called Wendy Rush “a licensed pilot and a substitute teacher in the Lancaster (Calif.) school system,” who “was formerly an account manager with Ladd Associates in San Francisco, a consultant to magazine publishers. She graduated from the Hotchkiss School and Princeton University.”

Stockton Rush was described in that announcement as “an aerospace engineer for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation at the Edwards Air Force Base in California” who “graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and Princeton.”

4. For His Part, Stockton Rush Is Descended From 2 Signers of the Declaration of Independence

The New York Times wedding announcement says that Stockton Rush “is a grandson of Mrs. Ralph K. Davies of San Francisco, for whom the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is named, and the late Mr. Davies, chairman of the American President Lines, and of Deborah Brock Rush of Philadelphia. His father is chairman of the Peregrine Oil and Gas Company in Burlingame, Calif., and the Natomas Company in San Francisco.”

A 2000 obituary for Rush’s father, also named Stockton Rush, describes him as “a businessman, actor and entrepreneur. Died New Year’s Day at the age of 69 after a brief illness.” According to that obit, he was a Princeton graduate, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, and a board member of Stockdale Oil & Gas.

Princeton Alumni Weekly wrote a story that revealed Rush’s father was descended from two signers of the Declaration of Independence, writing,  “Tock Rush, whose forbears included two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, and whose father was Richard S. ’27, died Jan. 1, 2000, after a short illness in San Francisco,” it says.

That bio also says Rush’s dad “received theatrical acclaim for his portrayal of the frustrated executive officer in the prize-winning play, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.

5. Wendy Rush Filled Her Facebook Page With Posts About OceanGate & Its Submersibles

On her Facebook page, Wendy Rush frequently posts about OceanGate. “Fun to see OceanGate included as one of the uncommon businesses that make the Seattle area unique!” she wrote in April 2023.

Wendy Rush also wrote about the Titan and its trip to the Titanic.

In June, she wrote, “We are lucky to have such a great science team coming out to the Titanic with us this summer! I hope you can attend the event on Monday morning to learn more about their work and objectives.”

READ NEXT: Paul Henri Nargeolet, the Titanic Expert On Board the Missing Sub

Hamish Harding is one of the five people who embarked on the missing “Titan” submersible that was supposed to explore the wreck of the Titanic.

“A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted on June 22, 2023. BBC reported, according to a friend of passengers, that it was a landing frame and rear cover of the Titan submersible.

The Coast Guard and OceanGate say the five men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

What is known about Hamish Harding’s net worth? According to Fortune, Harding is a billionaire. The claim that Harding is a billionaire has also been reported by British publications, such as Daily Mail and Sky News.

However, Forbes Magazine reports that Harding does not appear on its list of billionaires. Fox Business described Harding as a “British millionaire.”

He is clearly very wealthy, however, as the trip on the submersible cost $250,000, according to BBC.

He has previously flown with Blue Origin, which charges about $200,000 for a seat, according to TS2.

According to One More Orbit, Harding made his fortune as chairman of the company Action Aviation. Harding and his family live in the United Arab Emirates, the site reported. Daily Mail reported that Harding’s company is based in Dubai, although he was born in London, England, and attended Cambridge University. His company sold “30 new and preowned business aircraft” in 2021, according to Ain Online.

“Action Aviation currently owns four jets: a Boeing BBJ, Bombardier Global XRS, Dassault Falcon 900EX EASy, and Embraer Legacy 600, which it manages itself, along with some other customer aircraft,” the site reports.

The submersible stopped communicating one hour and 45 minutes into its Titanic dive, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, which said on June 20, 2023, that the vessel had only about 40 hours of oxygen left.

“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue,” the Coast Guard tweeted on June 20. “Additionally, the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans.”

Here’s what you need to know:

Hamish Harding’s Wealth Has Funded Adventures to the South Pole & Challenger Deep

According to One More Orbit, Harding “is an experienced jet pilot and aircraft broker,.” He set aviation speed records and runs a “global aircraft business,” the site reported.

Action Aviation lists planes for sale, although prospective buyers are told to call for the price.

According to Action Aviation’s website, “Action Aviation was involved in a couple of preowned Global 7500 transactions recently, each valued at more than $70 million.”

Harding told Ain Online: “There are a lot of high-net-worth visitors who come into Dubai long term who aren’t long-term Emiratis but are living here and buying aircraft in Dubai,” he said. “We’re a worldwide business, so preowned aircraft sales are a worldwide phenomenon. It doesn’t make a lot of difference whether you sell the aircraft into a local market you happen to live in or into Columbia.”

Harding is wealthy enough to fund adventures most people never dream of doing. For example, according to One More Orbit, he journeyed twice to the South Pole, once with his teenage son Giles and once with former astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

“He has a seat reserved with Virgin Galactic for a sub-orbital space flight, and also a dive with Eyos Expeditions to the Challenger Deep, the deepest place on Earth at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean,” One More Orbit reported, calling him “Capt. Hamish Harding.”

Action Aviation’s website describes the company as holding “World Class Expertise in Aircraft Sales & Acquisitions.”

The company’s website explains:

Action Aviation, established in 2004, is a global sales company in business aviation. Action Aviation offers a wide range of services including aircraft brokerage, aircraft management and aircraft financing.

We manage various business jets out of Dubai including our own Boeing Business Jet.

Action Aviation specialises in finding aircraft around the world that are hard to source, with the capability to do inventory purchasing, as well as providing asset-based financing to some clients.

We provide our extensive aircraft knowledge to assist business jet buyers to find the right aircraft for their needs and budget.

The company wrote that it is “the professional representative of choice among Fortune 100 companies, international corporations, heads of state, families and VIPs from the sports, entertainment industries, etc.”

Hamish Harding Bought His First Jet in the Early 2000s

Harding told Business Aviation Magazine that he bought his first jet in the early 2000s. In the 1990s, he explained in that interview, he did “well in banking software.”

At the time of that interview, he said the company had 20 staff members worldwide. He discussed how he and his teenage son each invited 10 people to go to Oman for his birthday.

Action Aviation confirmed in a June 20, 2023, press release that its chairman “is currently on board the Titan Submersible at the Titanic site.”

Hardin’s family and team were grateful for messages of concern and rescue efforts, the company’s release wrote.

The release called Harding a “licensed Air Transport Pilot, a Living Legend of Aviation,” who holds three Guinness World Records.

He was described as “an explorer and an entrepreneur,” who went to space with Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket and helped reintroduce Cheetahs from Namibia to India.

READ NEXT: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush’s Wife Is on the ‘Comms & Tracking’ Team for the Titan Sub

David Lochridge is the former director of Marine Operations at OceanGate who says he was fired by the company after raising safety concerns about the “Titan” submersible that later went missing with five people on board.

“A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted on June 22, 2023. BBC reported, according to a friend of passengers, that it was a landing frame and rear cover of the Titan submersible.

The Coast Guard and OceanGate say the five men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

OceanGate Inc. sued David Lochridge and his wife Carole Reid Lochridge in United States District Court in the Western District of Washington in 2018. He filed a counterclaim for wrongful termination in violation of public policy, court documents show.

The counterclaim casts Lochridge as a whistleblower and says he was in good standing as an employee prior to a 2018 inspection report he authored raising concerns about the submersible. The New York Post reported that OceanGate sued Lochridge for “breach of contract, fraud, and revealing trade secrets,” which he denied. The suit ended in a settlement in 2019, The Post reported.

In the counterclaim to OceanGate’s lawsuit, Lochridge says he wrote an “OceanGate Cyclops 2 Quality Control Inspection Report” on January 18, 2018, at the request of OceanGate’s Chief Executive Officer, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five passengers on the missing Titan sub. Cyclops 2 was the name initially given to Titan, which disappeared on a dive to explore the Titanic Shipwreck on June 18, 2023. A massive search effort is underway.

The lawsuit counterclaim says that Lochridge was “hired to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during submersible and surface operations.” OceanGate “summarily terminated David Lochridge’s employment because he raised critical safety concerns regarding OceanGate’s experimental and untested design of the Titan,” Lochridge’s counter claim says.

According to The New York Post, Lochridge was not the only person to raise concerns. The Marine Technology Society sent a letter to OceanGate expressing that its members “have collectively expressed unanimous concern regarding the development of TITAN and the planned Titanic Expedition,” The Post reported.

The sub’s design “could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic) that would have serious consequences for everyone in the industry,” the letter said, according to The Post.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. David Lochridge’s Counter Claim Accused OceanGate of Not Conducting ‘Critical, Non-Destructive Testing’ on the Submersible’s Hull

OceanGate lawsuitA picture of David Lochridge included in OceanGate’s suit against him.

Lochridge’s lawsuit counterclaim says the company called a meeting on January 19, 2018 to “discuss the safety concerns that David Lochridge documented in his January 18, 2018 OceanGate Cyclops 2 Quality Control Inspection Report.”

Lochridge said he “again expressed concerns at the January 19, 2018 meeting regarding the quality control and safety of the Titan, particularly OceanGate’s refusal to conduct critical, non-destructive testing of the experimental design of the hull.” He was then fired, his counterclaim says.

He objected to OceanGate’s and Rush’s “deviation from the original plan to conduct non-destructive testing and unmanned pressure testing.”

Lochridge disagreed with OceanGate’s position to dive the submersible “without any non-destructive testing to prove its integrity, and to subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible,” the counterclaim says.

Lochridge’s counterclaim says Lochridge was directed by Rush to “test the exits to assess whether alternate escape plans were needed in the event the main hatch was unable to open.”

He also admitted that he had “partially mooned” some members of OceanGate staff in jest.

However, according to OceanGate’s lawsuit, Lochridge owned a company called DC Underwater Servies Ltd., and worked for Vulcan Maritime on the Motor Yacht Octopus.

OceanGate’s lawsuit accuses Lochridge of repeatedly violating the terms of his nondisclosure agreement with Vulcan Maritime.
“Lochridge is not an engineer and was not hired or asked to perform engineering services on the Titan,” the company claimed.

During a meeting about the Titan, Lochridge “repeatedly refused to accept the veracity of information provided by the Company’s lead engineer and repeatedly stated he did not approve of OceanGate’s research and development plans,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit says OceanGate fired Lochridge because he told Rush he could not accept OceanGate’s research and development plans going forward.

His company laptop’s hard drive “had been scrubbed of all company and other material,” the suit says.

Lochridge discussed OceanGate’s confidential information with at least two individuals and with representatives of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration “when he filed a false report claiming that he was discharged in retaliation for being a whistleblower,” the company’s lawsuit said.

He had a “cavalier attitude towards the property of OceanGate and its policies and procedures,” the lawsuit continues, including crawling on and around one of the titanium hemispheres for the Cyclops II.

He mooned members of th e engineering staff with whom he had been arguing, the company’s lawsuit says.

2. David Lochridge, Who Is From Scotland, Has an ‘Extensive Background as a Submarine Pilot,’ the Court Documents Say

Lochridge’s counterclaim says that “defendants admit that David Lochridge desired to work indefinitely for OceanGate, and negotiated and received payments as an independent contractor, and then payments and benefits as an employee.”

Lochridge “has extensive background as a submarine pilot and training of the same, including as a qualified CSWIP 3.4U Underwater Inspector, and trained to recognize flaw and points of failure in subsea equipment,” it says.

He started working for OceanGate as an independent contractor in or about May 2015 and “relied on OceanGate’s representations that it would sponsor and help Lochridge and his family obtain visa status to legally work and live in the United States,” the court documents say.

According to the counterclaim, Lochridge “uprooted his family and his entire life in Scotland to move to the United States and reside in Washington State.”

3. David Lochridge Says OceanGate’s Titan Submersible Was ‘Experimental’ Because It Used Carbon Fiber in Its Hull, But There Were ‘Issues of Quality Control’

At that time, OceanGate was developing an “experimental submersible named Cyclops 2 or the ‘Titan,” which “utilized carbon fiber, rather than a metallic composition, in its hull,” the documents say.

OceanGate “intended the experimental Titan to carry passengers and dive to extreme depths of 4,000 meters – a depth never before reached by an OceanGate manned submersible composed of carbon fiber,” Lochridge’s claim says.

At a meeting at the OceanGate facility in Everett, Washington, attended by Rush and other company officials “issues of quality control with the new submersible Titan were raised, as there were evident flaws throughout the build process that several individuals had expressed concerns over to the Engineering Director,” it says.

Rush asked Lochridge to carry out a quality inspection before the handover of the submersible Titan, saying he was the “best man for the job,” the documents add.

4. David Lochridge’s Counterclaim Says He Expressed ‘the Potential Danger to Passengers of the Titan ‘

Lochridge worked on his report and requested paperwork from the Engineering Director regarding the “viewport design and pressure test results of the viewport for the Titan,” the court documents say.

He was “met with hostility and denial of access to the necessary documentation that should have been freely available as part of his inspection process,” the documents allege.

On January 18, 2018, he issued an inspection report that states, “now is the time to properly address items that may pose a safety risk to personnel. Verbal communication of the key items I have addressed in my attached document have been dismissed on several occasions, so I feel now I must make this report so there is an official record in place,” his counterclaim says.

He expressed concern “regarding the lack of non-destructive testing performed on the hull of the Titan. Lochridge was repeatedly told that no scan of the hull or Bond Line could be done to check for delaminations, porosity and voids of sufficient adhesion of the glue being used due to the thickness of the hull,” the documents contend.

“Lochridge was told that no form of equipment existed to perform such a test, and OceanGate instead would rely solely on their acoustic monitoring system that they were going to install in the submersible to detect the start of hull break down when the submersible was about to fail,” it says.

Lochridge “again expressed concern that this was problematic because this type of acoustic analysis would only show when a component is about to fail – often milliseconds before an implosion – and would not detect any existing flaws prior to putting pressure onto the hull,” the documents say.

“Given the prevalent flaws in the previously tested 1/3 scaled model, and the visible flaws in the carbon end samples for the Titan, Lochridge again stressed the potential danger to passengers of the Titan as the submersible reached extreme depths. The constant pressure cycling weakens existing flaws resulting in large tears of the carbon,” the documents continue.

“Non-destructive testing was critical to detect such potentially existing flaws in order to ensure a solid and safe product for the safety of the passengers and crew.”

5. David Lochridge Says He Was Given 10 Minutes to Clean Out His Desk After He Raised Concern About Titan’s Viewport, Court Documents Say

After the inspection report was issued, OceanGate called a meeting. Lochridge “discovered why he had been denied access to the viewport information from the Engineering department – the viewport at the forward of the submersible was only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters,” his claim says.

Lochridge learned that the viewport manufacturer “would only certify to a depth of 1,300 meters due to the experimental design of the viewport supplied by OceanGate, which was out of the Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy standards,” the documents say.

“OceanGate refused to pay for the manufacturer to build a viewport that would meet the required depth of 4,000 meters,” they say.

According to the counterclaim, “the paying passengers would not be aware, and would not be informed, of this experimental design, the lack of non-destructive testing of the hull, or that hazardous flammable materials were being used within the submersible.”

Lochridge urged OceanGate to certify the Titan through a classification agency. Instead, OceanGate immediately fired Lochridge and gave him 10 minutes to “immediately clear out his desk and exit the premises,” the counter claim says.

READ NEXT: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush’s Wife Is on the ‘Comms & Tracking’ Team for the Titan Sub

“Likely signs of life have been detected” at the site where communication with the missing “Titan” submersible was lost, according to the president of a non-profit organization that is involved in scientific exploration.

However, that ray of hope vanished on June 22, 2023.

The Coast Guard and OceanGate say the five men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

“A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted on June 22, 2023. BBC reported, according to a friend of passengers, that it was a landing frame and rear cover of the Titan submersible.

There doesn’t appear to be any connection to the noises heard earlier and the debris field, according to Mauger.

Richard Garriott de Cayeux, president of the New York-based Explorers Club, wrote in a June 20, 2023, statement on the group’s Facebook page, “We have much greater confidence that 1) There is cause for hope, based on data from the field – we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site.”

His statement comes after a Rolling Stone report on June 20, 2023, that a Canadian aircraft involved in the rescue efforts heard “banging” sounds coming from the location where the OceanGate sub vanished. It’s not clear what they were, but the two accounts are the first signs of concrete hope to emerge since the tourist sub, which was exploring the Titanic shipwreck, ceased electronic communication with five people on board.

On the evening of June 20, 2023, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the report, although the agency called the sounds “underwater noises,” tweeting, “Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.”

Additionally, the Coast Guard continues, “the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans.”

CNN confirmed the report about the banging sounds, and added that they were heard on Tuesday. According to CNN, a second U.S. government update on Tuesday night “suggested more sounds were heard, though it was not described as ‘banging.'” CNN noted that the update noted the sounds indicated “continued hope of survivors.”

CNN quoted the second update as saying, “Additional acoustic feedback was heard and will assist in vectoring surface assets and also indicating continued hope of survivors.”

Here’s what you need to know:

The Explorers Club President Released a Statement Saying the Club Has ‘Much Greater Confidence’ in the Rescue Efforts

According to Garriott de Cayeux’s statement, which was posted to the club’s Facebook page on the evening of June 20, 2023, “members of The Explorers Club far and wide rallied today to make sure the Titanic expedition search and rescue team is fully aware of the capabilities and experience club members and affiliates are ready to provide, in particular the UK-based Magellan’s 6,000 meter certified ROVs, which have been at the Titanic site many times.”

He expressed gratitude to the U.S. Coast Guard “and other international teams and commercial operators doing everything they can to help find the Titanic expedition submersible.”

According to Garriott de Cayeux, the club’s confidence has grown because officials now “precisely understand the experienced personnel and tech we can help deploy,” and the club has established “direct lines” all the way up to the White House.

Missing Billionaire Hamish Harding Is a Founding Member of the Explorers Club Board of Trustees

In an earlier statement, posted on the club’s Facebook page on June 19, 2023, the president wrote, “I have difficult news to share.”

He revealed that Harding was “on the expedition to the RMS Titanic, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod. He was part of a five person crew on the submersible of the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince.”

According to the statement, “the five person crew submerged Sunday morning, and the crew of the Polar Prince lost contact with them approximately one hour and 45 minutes into the vessel’s dive.”

The Coast Guard was “continuing its intensive search above and below the surface,” according to the statement.

Garriott de Cayeux wrote that “when I saw Hamish last week at the Global Exploration Summit, his excitement about this expedition was palpable. I know he was looking forward to conducting research at the site.”

In addition to Harding, the missing submersible’s passengers are OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; Titanic expert P.H. Nargeolet; and father and son Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood.

According to its Facebook page, The Explorers Club, a non-profit organization “founded in New York City in 1904,” is a group that “promotes the scientific exploration of land, sea.”

The people on the sub are running out of time although multiple rescue efforts are underway. According to U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick, who spoke in a June 20, 2023, press conference the sub has about 40 hours left of oxygen.

The Banging Sounds Were Heard in ’30-Minute Intervals’ & Continued 4 Hours Later, the Report Says

The Rolling Stone article reported that banging sounds were heard in “30-minute intervals,” according to an email update sent to the Department of Homeland Security and seen by the magazine. “Four hours later, additional sonar was deployed and banging was still heard,” Rolling Stone quoted the email as saying, although a time was not given.

Frederick, whose division is overseeing search efforts, said in the press conference that the Coast Guard was bringing in specialized equipment to help with the search, which was described as “very complex.”

He said the sub stopped communicating 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive, and search efforts, both in the water with a robot-like device and on the water’s surface, have yielded nothing.

Frederick did not mention any signs of life or banging sounds in that news conference.

READ NEXT: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush’s Wife Is on the ‘Comms & Tracking’ Team for the Titan Sub

“Banging” sounds were heard from the location where the missing Titanic sub disappeared, according to a report from Rolling Stone.

CNN reported that a second internal U.S. government update on Tuesday night “suggested more sounds were heard,” and indicated “continued hope of survivors.”

However, that hope vanished on June 22, 2023.

The Coast Guard and OceanGate say the five men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

There doesn’t appear to be any connection to the noises heard earlier and the debris field, according to Mauger.

“A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted on June 22, 2023. BBC reported, according to a friend of passengers, that it was a landing frame and rear cover of the Titan submersible.

On the evening of June 20, 2023, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the report, although the agency called the sounds “underwater noises,” tweeting, “Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.”

Additionally, the Coast Guard continues, “the data from the P-3 aircraft has been shared with our U.S. Navy experts for further analysis which will be considered in future search plans.”

Richard Garriott de Cayeux, president of The Explorers Club, wrote in a June 20, 2023, statement, “We have much greater confidence that 1) There is cause for hope, based on data from the field – we understand that likely signs of life have been detected at the site.”

The Explorers Club is a non-profit organization “founded in New York City in 1904,” which “promotes the scientific exploration of land, sea,” its Facebook page says. Missing billionaire Hamish Harding is a founding member of the club’s Board of Trustees, the club wrote in another statement.

The reports come as time is running out for the five explorers who embarked on a Titanic shipwreck visit inside the “Titan” submersible, which disappeared on Sunday, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

In a June 20, 2023, article by journalists Andrea Marks and Jana Winter, Rolling Stone reported that the banging sounds were detected by a Canadian aircraft that is involved in the hunt for the missing OceanGate sub.

CNN also reported on the banging sounds, which the network said were heard on Tuesday.

U.S. Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick, whose division is overseeing search efforts, said in a June 20, 2023, press conference that the OceanGate submersible has about 40 hours of “breathable air” left inside the vessel. He made the comments late in the morning of Tuesday, June 20, 2023.

“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” Frederick said, when asked whether the sub could be retrieved if it is located.

Here’s what you need to know:

The Banging Sounds Were Heard in ’30-Minute Intervals,’ the Report Says

According to the Rolling Stone article, the sounds were heard in “30-minute intervals” emanating from the area where communication with the submersible suddenly stopped.

The revelation came in an internal e-mail update sent to the Department of Homeland Security, Rolling Stone reported.

Rolling Stone quoted the e-mail as saying,

RCC Halifax launched a P8, Poseidon, which has underwater detection capabilities from the air. The P8 deployed sonobuoys, which reported a contact in a position close to the distress position. The P8 heard banging sounds in the area every 30 minutes. Four hours later, additional sonar was deployed and banging was still heard.

According to Rolling Stone, it’s not clear when exactly the banging sounds were heard or what they were.

CNN reported that a Canadian P3 aircraft “also located a white rectangular object in the water,” a government update said, but the ship sent to investigate it was “diverted to help research the acoustic feedback instead.”

An email from the president of the research group The Explorers Society, seen by Rolling Stone, described the banging sounds as “tapping,” the magazine reported, adding that government agencies declined to comment. It’s not clear whether Rolling Stone’s reference to Explorers “Society” is the Explorers Club.

The missing submersible’s passengers are OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; Titanic expert P.H. Nargeolet; father and son Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood; and billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding.

The Explorers Club President Says the Group Believes Officials Are Doing ‘Everything Possible’ to Find the Submersible

According to Garriott de Cayeux’s statement, “members of The Explorers Club far and wide rallied today to make sure the Titanic expedition search and rescue team is fully aware of the capabilities and experience club members and affiliates are ready to provide, in particular the Uk-based Magellan’s 6,000 meter certified ROVs, which have been at the Titanic site many times. This extraordinary membership never cease to amaze.”

He added: “We are so grateful for the U.S. Coast Guard, and other international teams and commercial operators doing everything they can to help find the Titanic expedition submersible.”

He listed several other reasons the club has “much greater confidence,” including that officials “precisely understand the experienced personnel and tech we can help deploy,” and because “we believe they are doing everything possible with all resources they have” and “we now have direct lines to the highest levels of Congress, The Coast Guard, Air Force, Navy and The White House, thanks to your support.”

In a Press Conference, the U.S. Coast Guard Described Search Efforts But Did Not Mention Any Banging Sounds

Frederick, whose division is overseeing search efforts, said in a June 20, 2023, press conference that five people were on board the missing OceanGate submersible.

He said Coast Guard crews were working “around the clock” to locate the crew. He said the search effort required specialized equipment and expertise, but the Coast Guard did not possess those things on its own. He did not mention anything about banging sounds, and he was not asked about it because the Rolling Stone report came out after the news conference.

Frederick described the sub’s disappearance as a “very complex problem.”

On Sunday, the Coast Guard in Boston was contacted about the missing sub for the first time, Frederick said, indicating the search efforts were concentrated 400 miles south of Newfoundland. He said the sub disappeared 1 hour and 45 minutes into its scheduled dive off the Polar Prince vessel.

The vessel lost contact with the Titan sub, according to Frederick, who said the Polar Prince initially conducted a search on its own to no avail.

He said the Coast Guard coordinated search efforts and searched 7,600 square miles, an area larger than the State of Connecticut. They have found nothing. and search efforts are continuing, Frederick said.

A vessel with underwater ROV capability has arrived on scene, he said, and has commenced a dive at the last known position of the Titan, according to Frederick, who said it has a camera. A Canadian aircraft is conducting a search of the area, he did confirm.

A Coast Guard press release listed the vessels searching for the sub.

READ NEXT: OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush’s Wife Is on the ‘Comms & Tracking’ Team for the Titan Sub

Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, a father and son who hail from a prominent Pakistani business family, are two of the five passengers who died on the Titanic submersive, according to The British Asian Trust.

“The British Asian Trust is devastated by the terrible news that Shahzada Dawood, one of our supporters, is on board the missing submarine that set off to see the wreck of the Titanic. He is with his son Suleman,” British Asian Trust tweeted.

Shahzada Dawood is married to wife, Christine Dawood. They also have a daughter named Alina, according to BBC.

Azmeh Dawood, Shahzada Dawood’s sister, told NBC News that her nephew, Suleman, told a relative that he “wasn’t very up for it” and was “terrified” about the trip, which he went on anyway as a Father’s Day gift for his dad, who was interested in the Titanic.

“I am thinking of Suleman, who is 19, in there, just perhaps gasping for breath … It’s been crippling, to be honest,” Azmeh Dawood told NBC.

“A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted on June 22, 2023. BBC reported, according to a friend of passengers, that it was a landing frame and rear cover of the Titan submersible.

The Coast Guard and OceanGate say the five men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Shahzada Dawood Is From a Wealthy Pakistani Family That Runs Dawood Hercules Corporation

According to CNN, the Dawoods “are a prominent Pakistani business family. Dawood Hercules Corporation, their business, is among the largest corporations in the country.”

Shahzada Dawood leads a division in the family company, CNN reported. According to Al-Jazeera, the Dawoods are citizens of the United Kingdom.

According to BBC, Shahzada Dawood, 48, “is from one of Pakistan’s richest families.”

2. The Dawood Family Spent a Month in Canada Before the Sub Excursion, Reports Say

BBC reported that Shahzada Dawood, his wife, and their daughter Alina live in Surbiton, in Southwest London, but they spent a month in Canada before the submersible trip.

“We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety,” the Dawood family said in a statement, according to CBS News.

“The family is well looked-after and are praying to Allah for the safe return of their family members,” the family’s statement continued, according to Al-Jazeera.

3. Suleman Dawood Was Described as a Science Fiction Fan Who Enjoyed Rubik’s Cubes

A family statement to BBC described Suleman Dawood as a “big fan of science fiction literature and learning new things.”

The teen is interested in Rubik’s cubes and volleyball, BBC reported. Suleman Dawood, 19, is a student, according to BBC.

“Shahzada is a loving father to Suleman and Alina, husband to Christine, brother to three siblings, and son to Hussain & Kulsum Dawood. His 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, is currently a university student,” the family’s statement read, according to BBC.

4. Christine Dawood, Who Is of German Heritage, Started an Organic Agriculture Business

Dawood Family FoundationChristine Dawood

According to the Dawood Foundation, Christine Dawood “grew up in a family business environment and started her own successful organic agriculture business on a commercial scale in Punjab.”

The site describes her as “the Executive Coach and CEO of Next Step Now Ltd; she believes everybody can reach their full potential. She draws from a range of models and approaches but in particular cognitive behavioural, person-centred, solution-focused, and strengths-based methodologies.”

The site says she is of German heritage but lived in Asia for more than a decade, attributing this combination to Christine Dawood developing “a wide understanding of the many nuances in individual’s behaviours and found an appreciation and fascination for those differences. This skill is especially helpful when analysing organisational cultures, in particular when there is a need of change.”

According to the site, Christine Dawood “holds an BSc (Dipl. Ing.) in Textile Technology and Management, an Executive Masters degree in ‘Consulting & Coaching for Change’ from the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and HEC Paris, and a MSc. in Occupational & Business Psychology, from Kingston University, London.”

A woman wrote in a recommendation on Christine Dawood’s LinkedIn page, “Working with Christine is always a joy. She brings with her endless, positive energy and uses her drive for action to achieve excellent results. A selfless, humble and compassionate person, she puts the wellbeing of others at the heart of what she does.”

5. Shahzada Dawood Was Called a ‘Leading Voice’ Who ‘Aspires to a Sustainable Future’

A World Economic Forum biography for Shahzada Dawood says he “joined the Board of Engro Corporation in 2003 and currently serves as the Vice-Chairman. He has over two decades of experience in corporate governance and the transformation of industries, including growth and innovation opportunities through mergers and acquisitions of diversified public-listed companies across textiles, fertilizers, foods, and energy.”

That bio continues:

Shahzada is a leading voice in the institutionalization of key international networks and contacts. He aspires to a sustainable future and believes in inclusive business models involving low-income communities building value chains along business interests. In line with this, Shahzada serves as Trustee on the Boards of both Engro Foundation and The Dawood Foundation. In addition, he is a member of the Global Advisory Board for Prince Charles’ Charity, Prince’s Trust International. In December 2020, he also joined the Board of Trustees of the SETI Institute. Shahzada serves as Director across Boards of various industries, including investment holdings like Dawood Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd, and Patek (Pvt) Ltd. Shahzada holds an M.Sc. in Global Textile Marketing from Philadelphia University, USA, and a LLB from Buckingham University, UK.

READ NEXT: Paul Henri Nargeolet, the Titanic Expert On Board the Missing Sub

A wealthy aviation executive and adventurer, a respected Titanic shipwreck expert and the CEO of the company that put the tourist submersible in the sea are among those who died on the sub that was exploring the Titanic’s wreckage in the Atlantic Ocean in June 2023.

That’s according to the aviation executive’s stepson and company, and Sky News, which says that Hamish Harding, P.H. Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush, are among the five passengers.

The Coast Guard and OceanGate say the five men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

“A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted on June 22, 2023. BBC reported, according to a friend of passengers, that it was a landing frame and rear cover of the Titan submersible.

According to CNN, Shahzada Dawood, who comes from a prominent Pakistani business family, and his son, Sulaiman Dawood, are the final two passengers.

The submersible disappeared on Sunday June 18, 2023, while diving to explore the Titanic shipwreck, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

On June 19, 2023, OceanGate Expeditions, which ran the expedition, confirmed the sub was missing, writing on Instagram, “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.”

“Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families,” the statement continued. “We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”

Here’s what you need to know about the missing Titanic sub’s passengers:

Stockton Rush, OceanGate CEO

LinkedInStockton Rush

Stockton Rush, 61, is the CEO of OceanGate Inc., the company whose tourist sub disappeared.

His wife, Wendy Rush, is the director of communications for OceanGate, an expedition team leader, and is on the tracking and comms team for the missing submarine, according to her LinkedIn page.

According to his OceanGate biography, Stockton Rush “is Chief Executive Officer and Founder (2009) of OceanGate Inc. Rush oversees OceanGate’s financial and engineering strategies and provides a clear vision for development of 4,000 meter (13,123 feet) and 6,000 meter (19,685 feet) capable crewed submersibles.”

The website notes that Rush “is a co-founder and member of the Board of Trustees of OceanGate Foundation (2012), a non-profit organization which aims to catalyze emerging marine technology to further discoveries in marine science, history, and archaeology.”

Rush’s LinkedIn page says he is based in Seattle, Washington.

Stockton Rush spoke with Sky News about the Titanic shipwreck in February 2023.

“What really strikes you is how beautiful it is,” he told the British news site.

According to his company bio, Rush was “the youngest jet transport rated pilot in the world” at age 19, and “served as a DC-8 first officer during college summers, flying out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Overseas National Airways under a subcontract from Saudi Arabian Airlines.”

He also worked for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a Flight Test Engineer, his bio says.

Princeton Alumni Weekly reported that Rush’s father’s ancestors “included two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton.”

Over the past 20 years, the OceanGate bio says, Stockton Rush, the OceanGate CEO, “has overseen the development of multiple successful IP ventures. He served on the Board of Directors for Seattle’s BlueView Technologies, a manufacturer of small, high-frequency sonar systems.”

Hamish Harding, Billionaire Adventurer

Facebook (Hamish Harding)/GettyHamish Harding (r) with his son Giles Harding (m) and another man.

Hamish Harding is a billionaire who chairs Action Aviation, which confirmed to the Associated Press that he was on board the missing submarine.

According to Sky News, Brian Szaz, Harding’s stepson, posted on Facebook: “My stepdad Hamish Harding has gone missing on a submarine pray for a successful recovery.”

Szaz, a recording/mixing engineer, later wrote on Facebook, “For privacy my mom asked me to delete all related posts thanks for the support.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Giles Harding (@giles.explores)

Harding’s teenage son, Giles Harding, writes about their adventures on his Instagram page. According to One More Orbit, Harding’s wife is named Linda Harding, and they also have a son named Rory. Harding also has a stepdaughter named Lauren, that article reported, describing Hamish Harding as “an experienced jet pilot and aircraft broker, as chairman of his company Action Aviation.

Two days before the sub disappeared, Hamish Harding discussed the journey on Instagram.

“I am proud to finally announce that I joined @oceangateexped for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic,” he wrote.

“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow,” he wrote. “We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do.

One More Orbit reported that “Hamish’s many accomplishments include several aviation world records as well as travelling to the South Pole twice (first with Buzz Aldrin, and later with his son Giles, respectively the oldest and youngest persons ever to reach the South Pole).”

P.H. Nargeolet, Titanic Expert

EM GroupPaul-Henry Nargeolet.

Paul Henri Nargeolet is a Titanic expert and French explorer. He was married to former New York news anchor Michele Marsh, who died of breast cancer in 2017, according to her obituary in The New York Times.

According to his company bio on the website of EM group, Nargeolet is “widely considered the leading authority” on the Titanic wreck. The website says he is a “renowned Titanic expert, having led six expeditions to the Titanic wreck site and lectured at numerous Titanic exhibitions around the world. He’s known as ‘Titanic’s Greatest Explorer.'”

On LinkedIn, Nargeolet gives his location as Kent, Connecticut, and his title as “Director of Underwater Research Program at Premier Exhibitions, RMS Titanic, Inc.”

According to his LinkedIn page, Nargeolet is a former commander, sub pilot, ship captain, clearance diver and deep diver for the Marine Nationale, which is the French Navy.

According to EM Group, Nargeolet is “widely considered the leading authority on the wreck site, P.H. has led several expeditions to Titanic, completed 35 dives in the submersible himself, and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts, including the recovery of the ‘big piece’ a 20-ton section of Titanic’s hull (now on display in Las Vegas).”

According to the site, in 2010, the French-born Nargeolet “served as the expedition leader on the most technologically advanced dive to Titanic spearheading the first comprehensive survey map of the Ship, including imaging the bow and stern sections and her entire artifact debris field in high-resolution sonar and 3D optical imagery.”

Shahzada Dawood & His Son, Sulaiman Dawood

According to CNN, the Dawoods “are a prominent Pakistani business family. Dawood Hercules Corporation, their business, is among the largest corporations in the country.”

CNN noted that Shahzada Dawood leads a division in the family company.

A World Economic Forum biography for Shahzada Dawood says he “joined the Board of Engro Corporation in 2003 and currently serves as the Vice-Chairman. He has over two decades of experience in corporate governance and the transformation of industries, including growth and innovation opportunities through mergers and acquisitions of diversified public-listed companies across textiles, fertilizers, foods, and energy.”

That bio continues:

Shahzada is a leading voice in the institutionalization of key international networks and contacts. He aspires to a sustainable future and believes in inclusive business models involving low-income communities building value chains along business interests. In line with this, Shahzada serves as Trustee on the Boards of both Engro Foundation and The Dawood Foundation. In addition, he is a member of the Global Advisory Board for Prince Charles’ Charity, Prince’s Trust International. In December 2020, he also joined the Board of Trustees of the SETI Institute. Shahzada serves as Director across Boards of various industries, including investment holdings like Dawood Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd, and Patek (Pvt) Ltd. Shahzada holds an M.Sc. in Global Textile Marketing from Philadelphia University, USA, and a LLB from Buckingham University, UK.

READ NEXT: Paul Henri Nargeolet, the Titanic Expert On Board the Missing Sub

Stockton Rush is the 61-year-old CEO of OceanGate Inc., the company whose tourist submersible has disappeared during an expedition to explore the Titanic shipwreck. His family includes wife Wendy Rush, who is the director of communications for OceanGate and an expedition team leader, according to her LinkedIn page.

He is also descended from two signers of the Declaration of Independence, according to a Princeton Alumni article on his father.

Wendy Rush also serves as a “Comms and Tracking Team Member” for the Titanic expedition, among others, the page says. Wendy Rush is the great-great granddaughter of Isidor Straus and his wife, Ida, who died on The Titanic, according to archival records in The New York Times.

Sky News is reporting that Rush is among the five passengers on the Titan submersible, along with billionaire Hamish Harding and French explorer and Titanic expertPH Nargeolet. According to CNN, Shahzada Dawood, who comes from a prominent Pakistani business family, and his son, Suleman Dawood, are the final two passengers.

The sub disappeared on Sunday, June 18, 2023, while diving to reach the Titanic shipwreck, and the U.S. Coast Guard and others have launched a search to find it before the vessel runs out of oxygen in the ocean deep, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

The Coast Guard and OceanGate now believe Stockton Rush and the other four men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

“A debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic. Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted on June 22, 2023. BBC reported, according to a friend of passengers, that it was a landing frame and rear cover of the Titan submersible.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Stockton Rush’s Wife Wendy Rush Has Worked on Communications With the Titan Sub

LinkedInStockton Rush

Rush told Unsung Science’s David Pogue in a podcast, “I just wanted to do cool things with cool people. And the second objective was I wanted to expand humanity’s understanding of the ocean and ocean awareness.”

That podcast says it costs $250,000 to go on the Titanic sub expedition. It says that Rush’s wife, Wendy, “works communication with the sub.” Her role was to send directions to the sub in part, the podcast said. The submersible is called “Titan.”

Stockton Rush spoke with Sky News about the Titanic shipwreck in February 2023.

“What really strikes you is how beautiful it is,” he told the British news site. “You don’t normally see that on a shipwreck. It is an amazingly beautiful wreck.

“You can see inside, we dipped down and saw the grand staircase and saw some of the chandeliers still hanging,” he told Sky news. “Next year, we are hoping to send a small robot inside but for now we stay on the outside.”

The U.S. Coast Guard said in a press release, “The Coast Guard is searching for five persons after the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with their submersible during a dive, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Sunday morning.”

“A Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, are currently searching for the missing submersible,” the release said.

David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate, the company behind the expedition, told The Associated Press on June 19 that OceanGate lost contact with the sub on the morning of June 18, and it has a 96-hour oxygen supply. At the time of the interview, he said 32 hours had passed.

OceanGate wrote in a statement on its Facebook page, “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”

The U.S. Coast Guard Northeast tweeted, “The @USCG is searching for a 21-foot submersible from the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince. The 5 person crew submerged Sunday morning, and the crew of the Polar Prince lost contact with them approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes into the vessel’s dive.”

2. Stockton Rush, Who Was the ‘Youngest Jet Transport Rated Pilot in the World’ at Age 19, Married Wendy Weil, a Licensed Pilot & Substitute Teacher, in 1986

A 1986 wedding announcement in The New York Times says that Wendy Hollings Weil, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Richard Weil 3d of Denver, “was married yesterday to Richard Stockton Rush 3d, a son of Ellen Davies Rush of San Francisco and Mr. Rush Jr. of Westminster, Vt.”

The announcement referred to Wendy Rush as “a licensed pilot and a substitute teacher in the Lancaster (Calif.) school system,” who “was formerly an account manager with Ladd Associates in San Francisco, a consultant to magazine publishers. She graduated from the Hotchkiss School and Princeton University.”

The announcement says her father “is professor of surgery and director of transplantation at the University of Colorado Medical School. Her mother, Polly Weil, is a partner in the Denver interior design firm of Reynolds & Weil. The bride is a granddaughter of Mrs. Arthur B. Griffin Jr. of Stuart, Fla., and the late Richard Weil Jr., who was president of Macy’s New York.”

At the time of the wedding, Stockton Rush was described as “an aerospace engineer for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation at the Edwards Air Force Base in California” who “graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and Princeton.”

According to his company bio, Rush “became the youngest jet transport rated pilot in the world when he obtained his DC-8 Type/Captain’s rating at the United Airlines Jet Training Institute in 1981 at the age of 19.”

The website adds:

He served as a DC-8 first officer during college summers, flying out of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Overseas National Airways under a subcontract from Saudi Arabian Airlines. Over the course of three summers, Rush flew to locations such as Cairo, Damascus, Bombay, London, Zurich, and Khartoum.

In 1984, according to the bio, Rush “joined the McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a Flight Test Engineer on the F-15 program. During this time, he spent two years at Edwards Air Force Base on the APG-63 radar test program and then on the Anti-Satellite Missile Program as the sole full-time representative of McDonnell Douglas.”

3. Stockton Rush, Who Is Descended From 2 Signers of the Declaration of Independence, Is the Son of a Man Who Acted in ‘The Caine Mutiny’ Theatrical Production

The New York Times wedding announcement says that Stockton Rush “is a grandson of Mrs. Ralph K. Davies of San Francisco, for whom the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is named, and the late Mr. Davies, chairman of the American President Lines, and of Deborah Brock Rush of Philadelphia. His father is chairman of the Peregrine Oil and Gas Company in Burlingame, Calif., and the Natomas Company in San Francisco.”

A 2000 obituary for Rush’s father, also named Stockton Rush, describes him as “a businessman, actor and entrepreneur. Died New Year’s Day at the age of 69 after a brief illness.”

It says he was a Princeton graduate, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, and a board member of Stockdale Oil & Gas.

“In the 1970s, he and his family moved to New Zealand to create Takaro, a hunting and fishing retreat with an emphasis on conservation,” it says. “As founder, chairman and executive director of the Recovery Institute, he was a leader in the field of alcoholism education. He was vice president and a longstanding member of the Bohemian Club.”

Princeton Alumni Weekly wrote a story after that Stockton Rush’s death in 2000. “Tock Rush, whose forbears included two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, and whose father was Richard S. ’27, died Jan. 1, 2000, after a short illness in San Francisco,” it says.

That bio also says Rush’s dad “received theatrical acclaim for his portrayal of the frustrated executive officer in the prize-winning play, The Caine Mutiny Court Martial.”

Over the past 20 years, the OceanGate bio says, Stockton Rush, the OceanGate CEO, “has overseen the development of multiple successful IP ventures. He served on the Board of Directors for Seattle’s BlueView Technologies, a manufacturer of small, high-frequency sonar systems.”

The bio continues:

In 2012, Rush was involved in the company’s acquisition by Teledyne Inc, a leading provider of cutting-edge subsea technologies. He has served as board member for Entomo, an enterprise software developer focused on post-sale channel management and financial reporting, and as Chairman of Remote Control Technology, Inc. (RCT), a manufacturer of wireless remote-control devices for several Fortune 500 industrial clients, including Exxon, Conoco-Philips and Boeing. He served on the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Flight in Seattle from 2003-2007, chairing the Development Committee from 2006-2007.

4. Stockton Rush Built an Experimental Aircraft & Has Conducted Over 30 Dives in a Submarine

According to the bio, in 1989, Rush “personally built a Glasair III experimental aircraft, which he still owns and flies. He completed a heavily modified Kittredge K-350 two-man submersible, in which he has conducted over 30 dives to date.”

The biography continues: “He obtained his BSE in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 1984, and his MBA from the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business in 1989.”

It notes that Rush “has written numerous engineering articles on crewed submersible vehicles in subsea operations for a variety of trade publications and has spoken on private-public investment opportunities in the new ocean economy.”

According to his OceanGate biography, Stockton Rush “is Chief Executive Officer and Founder (2009) of OceanGate Inc. Rush oversees OceanGate’s financial and engineering strategies and provides a clear vision for development of 4,000 meter (13,123 feet) and 6,000 meter (19,685 feet) capable crewed submersibles and their partner launch and recovery platforms which make OceanGate Inc the leading provider of crewed submersibles for charter and scientific research.”

The website notes that Rush “is a co-founder and member of the Board of Trustees of OceanGate Foundation (2012), a nonprofit organization which aims to catalyze emerging marine technology to further discoveries in marine science, history and archaeology.”

Rush’s LinkedIn page says he is based in Seattle. There are “folks who want to do high-end adventure tourism,” Stockton Rush said in a speech before GW Summit Power Talk. “We dove all over the place.”

He called Titan, the missing sub, the “Queen of the fleet.” However, past safety concerns at OceanGate have now come to light, according to The New York Times and CNN. The Times reported about past safety concerns over OceanGate’s “experimental approach” and CNN described how two former employees had also raised concern about the sub.

A former employee, David Lochridge, accused OceanGate and Rush in court documents of firing him when he raised concerns in 2018 about the submersible’s safety.

5. Wendy Rush Posts About OceanGate on Facebook

On her Facebook page, Wendy Rush frequently posts about OceanGate. “Fun to see OceanGate included as one of the uncommon businesses that make the Seattle area unique!” she wrote in April 2023.

Wendy Rush has posted frequently about the Titanic expedition.

In June, she wrote, “We are lucky to have such a great science team coming out to the Titanic with us this summer! I hope you can attend the event on Monday morning to learn more about their work and objectives.”

READ NEXT: Paul Henri Nargeolet, the Titanic Expert On Board the Missing Sub

A video captured the moment a man pulled out a handgun after the Milwaukee Juneteenth Day celebrations and started shooting on June 19, 2023.

The the video, can be seen below, but viewer discretion is advised. The video shows a gun in the man’s hand as the gunfire rings out. People then start running for cover, the video shows.

At 4:21 p.m., on June 19, 2023, Milwaukee police officers responded to a shooting incident along North Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said in a news conference. The festival ended at 4 p.m., according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The newspaper interviewed a witness who said the man who pulled out the gun started shooting after a fight between two females.

Norman said that six people were shot between the ages of 14 and 19, but none suffered life-threatening wounds.

Norman said a 17-year-old male shooting victim was also a shooter. But police are seeking additional unknown suspects at this time. Norman did not name that suspect.

Here’s what you need to know:

A Second Video Captured the Milwaukee Juneteenth Day Shooting Aftermath

A second video shows the aftermath of the shooting. Be forewarned that it is also disturbing.

“Milwaukee, what is going on with our children? Parents, guardians, elders, we need to engage,” Norman said in the news conference.

“No handgun, no weapon of destruction, should be in the hands of our young ones,” he said. He said he had been involved in the Juneteenth Day celebrations for eight years as a commander and Juneteenth organizer.

“This has never happened before,” he said, adding that he had been in the city his entire life.

Norman said gun violence is not only a Milwaukee police problem. “It is an us thing,” Norman said.

The chief said the mass shooting stemmed from a “fight between multiple young females.”

The victims have not been named.

He said the victims included four females and two males. “There are no fatalities at this time,” Norman said.

“It is unacceptable on all type of levels,” said Norman.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson Called the Mass Shooting ‘Unacceptable’

Mayor Cavalier Johnson said “today was a glorious day” because the city celebrated Juneteenth Day. Johnson said the mass shooting happened after Juneteenth concluded, but he said the mass shooting was “unacceptable.” He said that “so many young people were hurt. Today there were families out here, there were kids out here, there were babies out here.”

Johnson said “Juneteenth was a safe event,” adding that the number of vendors was growing. “One person pulled out a gun and caused problems today after the festivities were over.”

He said thousands of people had come together to enjoy Juneteenth Day.

Johnson said the city is willing to help people get the help they need. But if they are going to fire a weapon, then he asked people not to come because he said no one has a “right” to steal joy from the community and put people in harm’s way.

“It is stupidity. Arguments should not lead to guns being fired off, period,” said Johnson in the news conference.

“These kids are having these weapons inside their home,” Norman said. “This is a story that plays out too often, and it’s getting really old.”

READ NEXT: Hamish Harding, the Billionaire on the Missing Titanic Sub

Paul Henri Nargeolet was a Titanic expert and French explorer who is among the five passengers on a tourist sub that imploded while it was exploring the famous shipwreck, according to Sky News.

Nargeolet was married to former New York news anchor Michele Marsh, but his wife died of breast cancer in 2017 at age 63, according to her obituary in The New York Times. Daily Mail reported that Nargeolet was remarried and leaves behind current wife Anne Sarraz-Bournet.

The Coast Guard and OceanGate now believe Nargeolet and the other four men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

According to his biography on the website of EM group, Nargeolet is “widely considered the leading authority” on the Titanic shipwreck. OceanGate’s website describes Nargeolet as “PH Nargeolet,” a “renowned Titanic expert, having led six expeditions to the Titanic wreck site and lectured at numerous Titanic exhibitions around the world. He’s known as ‘Titanic’s Greatest Explorer.'”

He is also called Paul Henry Nargeolet, but he uses Paul-Henri Nargeolet on his Facebook page.

British aviation executive Hamish Harding is also on the submarine, his family and company confirmed. In addition to Nargeolet and Harding, Sky News reported that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush is on board the submersible. According to CNN, Shahzada Dawood, who comes from a prominent Pakistani business family, and his son, Sulaiman Dawood, are the final two passengers. Authorities have yet to confirm the names of anyone on the sub.

On LinkedIn, Nargeolet gives his location as Kent, Connecticut, and his title as “Director of Underwater Research Program at Premier Exhibitions, RMS Titanic, Inc.”

Here’s what you need to know:

1. PH Nargeolet Was Remembered for His Love of Family & the Titanic

EM GroupPaul-Henry Nargeolet.

John Paschall, the stepson of Michele Marsh, told CBS News that Nargeolet was a family man who leaves behind three other children.

“We focus so much on everything he did in the water, but I feel like some of his greatest accomplishments, too, were out of the water,” Paschall said to the network. “I understand that in life it is sometimes not easy to be a stepfather, when you are coming into a situation where my father was still in the picture and I had a great relationship with him, but he was always so respectful of my relationship with him and he was such an important part of my life.

“Yeah, I think in my own opinion his home away from home was the ocean. He just felt so comfortable there,” Paschall said to CBS. “I know so much of the focus of this discussion is about risk, and I felt he just accepted the risk and knew what it was, but he loved what he did.

He added:

The Titanic meant so much to him, every artifact he brought up, whether it was small or it was large, meant so much to him. And the ones he was able to share with family was incredible. He was just an amazing man in what he was able to do, and, yes, being in the Titanic, in that area, in his final moments, while it’s so raw and fresh that we’re dealing with it, I think it means a lot that he spent his final moments near a scene in the world that meant so much to him.

The U.S. Coast Guard said in a press release, “The Coast Guard is searching for five persons after the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with their submersible during a dive, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Sunday morning.”

“A Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, are currently searching for the missing submersible,” the release said. That search ended with the discovery of a debris field and the announcement that the men are dead.

Bill Willard, a physics instructor, wrote on Facebook, “Thank you for the links, tags, messages, calls, emails and more letting me know about the Titan, the submersible missing from a dive to Titanic. On board is a personal friend, PH Nargeolet, and 4 others.”

He added:

There is, per the specs of the Titan, 96 hours of life support available in case of emergency. As of now, about 30 of those are expended. For some reason, the Titan was not able to ‘blow ballast’ – drop the weights making it sink – so it could rise to the surface. I do not know the specs of the Titan, so all of this is speculation from me.

All of my Titanic friends share this concern: that we pray for those on board, and there is a successful recovery. PH Nargeolet, is one of the most professional, special friends I have met in my lifetime of Titanic work. There are few like him.

2. Paul Henri Nargeolet Is a Ship Captain & Sub Pilot for the French Navy

According to his LinkedIn page, Nargeolet has been Director of the Underwater Research Program for Premier Exhibitions, RMS Titanic, for more than 16 years.

Before that, he was director of companies called CMURM, Aqua+, and DESM, Deep Diving Equipment. According to its website, “The Center for Maritime & Underwater Resource Management (CMURM) (pronounced: sea-merm) was organized in 1994 as an applied research and outreach unit of the Department of Park, Recreation and Tourism Resources at Michigan State University.”

He has worked as a self-employed consultant based in Greenwich, Connecticut and in Toulon, France, according to his LinkedIn page.

Nargeolet is a former commander, sub pilot, ship captain, clearance diver and deep diver for the Marine Nationale, the French Navy, where he served for more than 21 years, from 1964 through 1986, his LinkedIn page says.

3. PH Nargeolet Supervised the Recovery of 5,000 Artifacts From the Titanic

According to EM Group, “P.H. serves as the Director of Underwater Research for E/M Group and RMS Titanic, Inc. and has an impressive and tenured history with Titanic.”

The company’s website says Nargeolet is “widely considered the leading authority on the wreck site, P.H. has led several expeditions to Titanic, completed 35 dives in the submersible himself, and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts, including the recovery of the ‘big piece’ a 20-ton section of Titanic’s hull (now on display in Las Vegas).”

According to the site, in 2010, “P.H. served as the expedition leader on the most technologically advanced dive to Titanic spearheading the first comprehensive survey map of the Ship, including imaging the bow and stern sections and her entire artifact debris field in high-resolution sonar and 3D optical imagery.”

EM Group’s about us page describes it as “Experiential Media Group,” a “recognized leader in creating and touring world-class exhibitions that utilize themed settings, theatrical innovations, and state-of-the-art media.”

4. Paul Henri Nargeolet Was Born in Chamonix, France & Lived in Africa for 13 Years

According to EM Group, Nargeolet was born in Chamonix, France.

He “lived in Africa for 13 years with his family and at 16 returned to France to complete his studies in Paris,” his biography on the site says.

“He later joined the French Navy for a career that spanned 22 years and saw him rise in the ranks to Commander. In 1986, P.H. retired from the Navy and joined the French Institute for Research and Exploitation of Sea (IFREMER) in charge of the deep submersibles Nautile and Cyana. While at IFREMER, P.H. led the first recovery expedition to the Titanic in 1987,” the site says.

5. PH Nargeolet & the Others Were on a Submersible Known as ‘Titan’

OceanGate Expeditions deleted its web page on the Titanic expedition, but it is still visible on the Wayback Machine.

“Intrepid travelers will sail from the Atlantic coast of Canada for an 8-day expedition to dive on the iconic wreck that lies 380 miles offshore and 3,800 meters below the surface. You dive will provide not only a thrilling and unique travel experience, but also help the scientific community learn more about the wreck and the deep ocean environment. Every dive also has a scientific objective,” it read.

The page says the vessel is Titan, OceanGate’s “five-person submersible.”

“Soon you will arrive at depth, and after some navigating across the seafloor and debris field, finally see what you’ve been waiting for: the RMS Titanic,” the page explains. “The content expert onboard will point out key features, be they of the wreck itself or the life that calls this corner of the ocean home. Enjoy hours of exploring the wreck and debris field before making the two-hour ascent to the surface.”

READ NEXT: Hamish Harding, the Billionaire on the Missing Titanic Sub

Hamish Harding is an aviation company executive who is on board a missing tourist sub that was exploring the Titanic shipwreck, according to a now-deleted Facebook post from his stepson. Harding has a wife named Linda Harding, two sons, and two stepchildren.

Action Aviation also confirmed to the Associated Press that its company chairman, Hamish Harding, is on board. Learn more about Harding’s wealth here.

On June 19, 2023, OceanGate Expeditions, which ran the expedition, confirmed the sub was missing, writing on Instagram, “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.” The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed on June 20, 2023, that underwater noises were detected during the search.”

“Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families,” the OceanGate statement continued. “We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to reestablish contact with the submersible. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”

The Coast Guard and OceanGate say the five men died when the submersible faced catastrophic failure. “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. The Stepson of Harmish Harding Confirmed Harding, Who Is Married to Wife Linda Harding, Was on the Sub Before Deleting the Post

According to Sky News, Brian Szaz, Harding’s stepson, posted on Facebook: “My stepdad Hamish Harding has gone missing on a submarine pray for a successful recovery.”

Sky News wrote that Szaz also posted, “Thoughts and prayers for my stepfather Hamish Harding as his Submarine has gone missing exploring Titanic. Search and rescue mission is underway.”

Szaz, a recording/mixing engineer, later wrote on Facebook, “For privacy my mom asked me to delete all related posts thanks for the support.”

The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed in a press release, “The Coast Guard is searching for five persons after the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince lost contact with their submersible during a dive, approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Sunday morning.”

The release notes, “A Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, are currently searching for the missing submersible.”

David Concannon, an adviser to the company, told The Associated Press on Monday afternoon that Oceangate lost contact with the sub Sunday morning, and it had a 96-hour oxygen supply.

“Now 32 hours since sub left surface,” said Concannon to the AP.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by OceanGate Expeditions (@oceangateexped)

OceanGate Expeditions had posted information on the Titanic expedition on social media. “The wreck of the Titanic lies about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland. Without any cell towers in the middle of the ocean, we are relying on Starlink to provide the communications we require throughout this year’s 2023 Titanic Expedition,” read one Instagram post. The company had a web page devoted to the expedition, but it is unavailable.

2. Hamish Harding’s Teenage Son, Giles Harding, Has Gone on Other Adventures With Him

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Giles Harding (@giles.explores)

Harding also has a teenage son, Giles Harding, who chronicles his own explorations on his Instagram page. According to One More Orbit, Harding’s wife is named Linda Harding, and they also have a son named Rory. Harding also has a stepdaughter named Lauren, that article reported, describing Hamish Harding as “an experienced jet pilot and aircraft broker, as chairman of his company Action Aviation.”

On Instagram, Giles Harding calls himself a “teen explorer.”

Esquire Magazine Middle East wrote of one of Hamish Harding’s adventures, “UAE resident Hamish Harding is headed to the depths of the Challenger Deep at the Mariana Trench on March 5 to explore places that no man has been before.”

Gulf News described that escapade this way in 2021:

Hamish Harding, chairman of Action Aviation, will go inside a purpose-built DSV Limiting Factor, a two-person deep-submergence vehicle, in support of UAE’s commitment to exploration and science by searching for evidence of human pollution at the deepest point on Earth and looking for new species living nearly 11km below sea level.

Giles Harding accompanied his dad on that journey, according to his Instagram page. In 2021, Giles Harding shared a photo with his dad and wrote, “So grateful I was there when they landed back and very proud of the crew and my dad @actionaviationchairman of their achievement.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Giles Harding (@giles.explores)

That same year, Giles shared a photo showing him with his dad in a cockpit and wrote, “On July 9, 2019 my dad was part of an incredible crew that embarked on a journey to attempt to break the world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the earth via both poles.”

3. Hamish Harding Wrote on Instagram That He Had Joined the ‘RMS TITANIC Mission’ as a Mission Specialist, Saying a ‘Weather Window Has Just Opened Up’

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Capt. Hamish Harding (@actionaviationchairman)

Two days before the sub disappeared, Harding discussed the venture on Instagram.

“I am proud to finally announce that I joined @oceangateexped for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic,” he wrote.

“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023. A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow,” he wrote.

“We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do.”

He continued: “The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet. More expedition updates to follow IF the weather holds!”

Sky News reported that the submersible “is capable of diving 13,120” feet and has 96 hours worth of “life support,” adding that the Titanic shipwreck is 12,500 feet beneath the surface; it cost $250,000 to join the expedition, Sky News reported. The submarine vanished on Sunday, June 18, 2023, according to a news release from the U.S. Coast Guard, and it carried five people, who were not named by the agency.

According to Sky News, the sub is supposed to ping every 15 minutes but pings have not been heard for seven hours. According to Sky News, the rescue mission is compounded by the fact that journeying to the depths where the Titanic lies takes specialized underwater vehicles.

USA Today reported that the sub disappeared “435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.” According to The Sun, it’s believed two of the others on board the missing submersible are Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 73, or Premier Exhibitions, RMS Titanic, and Stockton Rush, CEO and Founder of OceanGate Inc. According to CNN, Shahzada Dawood, who comes from a prominent Pakistani business family, and his son, Sulaiman Dawood, are the final two passengers.

4. Hamish Harding Has Touted His Many Adventures, Including Traveling to Space

On May 15, 2022, Harding wrote about his adventures on Facebook, writing, “From circumnavigating the Earth in 2019 to diving in deepest point of the seabed – the Challenger Deep – In 2021 to.. Spaceflight on May the 20th, 2022!”

Harding flew to space with Blue Origin, the space exploration company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. “Blue Origin today announced the crew flying on its NS-21 mission will include: investor and NS-19 Astronaut Evan Dick; electrical engineer and former NASA test lead Katya Echazarreta; business jet pilot and Action Aviation Chairman Hamish Harding; civil production engineer Victor Correa Hespanha; adventurer and Dream Variation Ventures co-founder Jaison Robinson; and explorer and co-founder of private equity firm Insight Equity Victor Vescovo, Commander, USN (Ret.),” a post on Blue Origin’s website read.

One More Orbit reported that “Hamish’s many accomplishments include several aviation world records as well as travelling to the South Pole twice (first with Buzz Aldrin, and later with his son Giles, respectively the oldest and youngest persons ever to reach the South Pole).”

5. Hamish Harding, Whose Net Worth Is at Least a Billion Dollars, Holds 3 Guinness World Records

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Giles Harding (@giles.explores)

Although Harding’s net worth is not clear, he is a billionaire, according to The Scotsman.

According to the website for the Guinness Book of World Records, Harding holds the world record with Victor Vescovo for the “longest time spent traversing the deepest part of the ocean on a single dive,” at 4 hours 15 minutes.

The pair also hold a second record, according to the website: “The farthest distance travelled along the deepest part of the ocean is 4.634 km (2.88 miles) by Hamish Harding (UK) and Victor Vescovo (USA), who traversed the sea floor of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench during a 4-hour 15-minute dive in the Deep-Submergence Vehicle (DSV) Limiting Factor on 5 March 2021.”

Harding holds a third record, the website says: “The fastest circumnavigation of Earth via both the geographic poles by aeroplane is 46 hrs 40 mins 22 secs, achieved by Captain Hamish Harding (UK), Captain Jacob Bech (Denmark), Captain Jeremy Ascough (South Africa), Captain Yevgen Vasylenko (Ukraine) and Qatar Executive (Qatar) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA on 11 July 2019.”

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Major Jon Kaylor is in custody in the City of Kellogg, Idaho, after the June 18, 2023, shooting deaths of his neighbors, including two teenagers and their mother.

Kaylor is accused of killing Kenneth Guardipee, 65; his daughter, Kenna Guardipee, 41; and her sons, Devin R. Smith, 18, and Aiken Smith, 16, according to The Spokesman-Review.

The shooting deaths occurred just days after Kaylor’s wife, in a now-deleted Facebook post, accused Devin Smith of exposing himself to the couple’s minor children. Kenna Guardipee was the mother of Devin Smith. Aiken was his brother.

The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Department wrote in a Facebook post, “On June 18th at approximately 7:30 p.m., the Kellogg Police Department and the SCSO responded to the City of Kellogg reference four people deceased from gunshot wounds.”

An official at the Shoshone County jail confirmed to Heavy on June 19, 2023, that Kaylor is in custody. Some sites have given Kaylor’s name as Majorjon Kaylor, the name he goes by on Facebook.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Major Jon Kaylor’s Wife Wrote a Lengthy Post Accusing Devin Smith of Exposing Himself to Their Kids & Shared a Graphic Showing a Man Shooting Another Person

The suspect’s wife, Kaylie Kaylor, posted a photo of her family on Facebook.

Many of her photos show the suspect with his kids. Five days before the homicides, she wrote a lengthy post sharing Devin Smith’s photo and accusing him of exposing himself to their juvenile girls.

“So we got new downstairs neighbors 2 weeks ago. They have two teenage boys, one just graduated and the other one does next year. We share a backyard, my kids stay on their side but they are out there a lot. They jump on the trampoline with the sprinkler. Almost every single time the older boy goes outside on his porch and seems to be watching them. I tried to brush it off since it’s their yard too but my momma gut couldn’t shake it,” she wrote.

The post says that the two girls were coloring with chalk in the in the backyard when one told her “the boy is in the window” exposing himself and masturbating.

“I make an effort to not look in their windows so the fact that he was standing right in front of it and my daughters saw everything is absolutely disgusting,” she wrote.

She said she ran to get the suspect. “I immediately ran to get Major who went down to go bang on the window, he was gone so Major went to the front door and had to knock several times before he got an answer,” she wrote. “I am freaking distraught. I’m already so uncomfortable living here and now this.”

The mother wrote that she “called the landlord to let him know in case they start trying to complain about us or if they want to try and start drama and get us kicked out so he knows why. I am livid. The police have been called! I don’t take stuff like this lightly, I just want to protect my children but people always act like you are being dramatic. This is the last thing I want to be dealing with in this market. Now my kids can’t play outside like they’ve been able to for years when there was just a sweet old lady living below us.”

Facebook (Kaylie Kaylor)Kaylie Kaylor Facebook post.

On June 13, the suspect’s wife shared a graphic on Facebook of a man shooting another person in the head with the phrase, “How to catch a predator.”

2. Major Jon Kaylor Is Accused of Telling Authorities He ‘Snapped’

According to the Spokesman-Review, Kaylor is accused of telling police he “snapped.” His wife’s claims have not yet been confirmed by police, the newspaper reported.

Katy James told Spokesman-Review that Devin Smith had a “learning disability and struggled socially,” but a classmate, Daisy Sawyer, told the newspaper Smith “harassed her at school and was known to be inappropriate.”

The Sheriff’s Department wrote that the suspect is in custody.

“The suspect has been detained and there is no threat to the community. This investigation is ongoing with KPD and ISP as the primary investigators. They will release more details as the investigation continues,” the release says.

On Father’s Day, Kaylor’s wife wrote on Facebook, “Happy Father’s Day to the best dad ever. I see you and all that you do for your kids and I. You work hard, stand your ground and don’t give up. You’re the exact person I want our kids looking up to. Our life together is the greatest and I’m so amazingly lucky to have someone like you as the father to my children. The kids and I love you! Can’t wait for you to get home from work♡”

3. Major Jon Kaylor Works as an Underground Miner

According to his Facebook page, Major Jon Kaylor works as an underground miner at Idaho Strategic Resources.

His page says he is a “former choker setter/riggin man at Parkin Forestry” and that he lives in Kellogg, Idaho, and is married to Kaylie Kaylor.

4. Devin Smith’s Mother Recently Posted a Graduation Photo on Facebook

On Facebook, Devin Smith shared a few graphics and wrote that he started attending Kellogg High School in 2019 and finished in 2023. “Ready for school to see everyone,” he wrote.

He only had three friends on the Facebook page.

His brother, Aiken Smith, only had pictures of the outdoors visible on his Facebook page. He only listed five Facebook friends. On a second Facebook page, Aiken Smith posted photos of young men in military uniforms.

On June 3, their mother, Kenna Guardipee posted a graduation photo with her sons on her Facebook page.

5. The Community Was Divided Over the Homicides

Some people defended the suspect on Facebook. “So sad he had no other choice to protect his family. Nothing was done when reported,” a woman wrote on the Sheriff’s Department’s comment thread.

However, another woman responded, “um he absolutely had other choices and one of those choices was to not k*ll innocent people, including a 16 year old. You can’t take out an entire family. Bro. Wtf is wrong with some of y’all?”

A woman wrote, “This is such a horrific event. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and the entire community of Kellogg.”

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Kayla Lovdahl is an 18-year-old woman who is accusing a California hospital and doctors of medical negligence for performing a mastectomy on her at age 13 when she thought she was transgender, according to a lawsuit she filed.

Lovdahl filed a lawsuit against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Lisa Kristine Taylor M.D., Winnie Mao Yiu Tong M.D., Susanne E. Watson PhD, and Mirna Escalante, M.D., accusing them of “medical negligence.” The lawsuit was filed in Califoria Superior Court on June 14, 2023, by the Center for American Liberty and attorneys with two law firms, including Harmeet Dhillon, a Republican Party official. Dhillon is the center’s founder.

Tong is a plastic surgeon based in San Francisco, according to WebMD. Watson is the clinic director of a Transgender Center in Oakland, according to LinkedIn. Escalante is a specialist in pediatric endocrinology, according to Kaiser’s website. The website says Taylor holds the same specialty.

Lovdahl was previously given the pseudonym “Layla Jane” but has since been named in multiple news reports and in the lawsuit.

“This case is about a team of doctors (i.e., the Defendants) who decided to perform a damaging, imitation sex change experiment on Kayla, then a twelve-year-old vulnerable girl struggling with complex mental health co-morbidities, who needed care, attention, and psychotherapy, not cross-sex hormones and mutilating surgery,” the lawsuit says.

Heavy has reached out to Kaiser for comment and also asked Kaiser whether any of the named doctors wish to offer comment. The hospital did not respond to a request from the New York Post for comment.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Kayla Lovdahl Is a Biological Female Who Suffered Complex Mental Health Symptoms, the Lawsuit Says

Lawsuit photoKayla Lovdahl,

According to the lawsuit, Lovdahl “is a biological female who suffered from a complex, multi-faceted array of mental health symptoms as a child and adolescent.”

The lawsuit says that her symptoms and concerns included:

. . . recurrent intense anxiety and panic, extreme mood fluctuations, self- harm, problems at school resulting in suspensions, oppositional behavior, defiant behavior, interpersonal peer relationship problems, anger, depression, crying spells, significant appetite changes, irritability, agitation, decreased energy, panic with hyperventilation, confusion, nausea, nightmares, explosive temper outbursts, poor concentration, and gender dysphoria.

The lawsuit continues:

Many of these symptoms are compatible with undiagnosed and untreated bipolar disorder, a diagnosis Kayla’s mother repeatedly brought to the Defendant’s attention because of her own diagnosis with this condition. Kayla and her parents struggled consistently with Kayla’s mental health issues, regularly seeking assistance, but never received adequate treatment for her mental health issues.

2. The Lawsuit Says Kayla Lovdahl Erroneously Believed She Was Transgender After Being Exposed to Online Influencers

According to the lawsuit, in early adolescence around age 11, Lovdahl “was exposed to online transgender influencers who prompted Kayla to entertain the erroneous belief that she was transgender. As a result, Kayla informed her parents that she was a boy. Prior to being exposed to online influences, Kayla never had expressed to anyone that she was transgender. Her parents didn’t know what to do.”

Lovdahl’s parents “promptly sought guidance from various doctors and eventually the Defendants,” the lawsuit says.

“Three Kaiser doctors, including Defendant Dr. Escalante, advised Kayla and her parents that Kayla was too young for cross-sex hormones. But Kayla and her parents eventually were referred to Defendants Dr. Watson, Dr. Taylor, and Dr. Tong, who immediately, and negligently, affirmed Kayla’s self- diagnosed transgenderism without adequate psychological evaluation,” the lawsuit alleges.

“They instead promptly placed her on puberty blockers and testosterone at age 12, and performed a double mastectomy within six months at age 13. This all occurred after Dr. Watson determined in a single, 75-minute transition evaluation that Kayla was transgender.”

The lawsuit alleges that “defendant Watson told them that there were no age limits on cross-sex hormones or a mastectomy in Kaiser’s policies and counseled them to proceed with physical transition.”

It continues, “On May 1, 2017, at 12 years old, Kayla consulted with Winnie Tong M.D., a plastic surgeon, who concluded after 30 minutes that Kayla is a good candidate for surgery. On the same date, Watson formally approved and recommended Kayla for bilateral mastectomies (so called ‘top surgery’).”

It says, “On September 22, 2017, after Kayla just turned age 13, Dr. Tong performed a double mastectomy on her. Kayla had no sexual relationships prior to this time, and had no concept of being a parent, and had no idea what it might mean to lose her ability to breastfeed a baby in the future.”

3. Kayla Lovdahl ‘Detransitioned’ When She Was 17, the Lawsuit Says

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of not questioning, eliciting, or attempting “to understand the psychological events that led Kayla to the mistaken belief that she was transgender, nor did they evaluate, appreciate, or treat her multi-faceted presentation of co-morbid symptoms.”

Instead, it says, they “assumed that Kayla, a twelve-year-old emotionally troubled girl, knew best what she needed to improve her mental health and figuratively handed her the prescription pad. There is no other area of medicine where doctors will surgically remove a perfectly healthy body part and intentionally induce a diseased state of the pituitary gland misfunction based simply on the young adolescent patient’s wishes.”

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants “were horribly, and inexcusably wrong, as Kayla was not transgender and was not a person that any reasonable physician could ascertain would permanently maintain a transgender identity. Consequently, she detransitioned when she was 17 years old, and she eventually started regular psychotherapy sessions for her mental health symptoms, which is the care she should have been receiving all along.”

The lawsuit concludes, “at age 17 years old, Kayla began a period of detransition and no longer identifies as a male. Unfortunately, as a result of the so-called transgender “treatment” that Defendants performed on Kayla, she now has deep physical and emotional wounds and severe regrets. Kayla has suffered physically, socially, neurologically, and psychologically. Among other harms, she has suffered mutilation to her body, fertility risks, health risks, and lost opportunities for social and physical development along with her peers, and at key developmental milestones that can never be regained.”

The lawsuit says:

Eventually, Kayla started to realize that her mental health issues were not related to being transgender or being ‘born in the wrong body.’ She realized that she just had anxiety and mood disorder issues that needed to be addressed with proper mental health treatment. Kayla stopped injecting testosterone around the middle of 2021, while beginning a period of detransition.

A statement on the center’s website says:

Layla’s doctors falsely stated that she presented an increased suicide risk if she did not transition, contrary to important and reliable clinical research demonstrating the poor mental health outcomes with transition; and further failed to inform her of the drastically increased suicide risk that would follow with the completed transition. Furthermore, they coerced Layla and her parents to undergo this treatment regimen by indicating that ‘it is better to have a live son than a dead daughter.’

4. The Center for American Liberty Represents Another Girl, Chloe Cole, Who Regrets Her Transition to Male, Court Documents Say

The Center has also represented Chloe Cole, “who testified publicly against gender-affirming healthcare before the California Assembly in June,” according to Southern California Record.

That site says that Cole’s breasts “were removed when she was 15, she was prescribed puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones that facilitated her transition to male, however today she regrets the decision.”

A notice of intent to sue against Kaiser and several doctors on the Center’s website says, “Unfortunately, as a result of the so-called transgender ‘treatment’ that Defendants performed on Chloe, she now has deep emotional wounds, severe regrets, and distrust for the medical system.”

In a video interview with Lovdahl, Chloe Cole called her a personal hero and friend.

5. Kayla Lovdahl Says She Was Home Schooled After Undergoing Bullying

In the interview with Cole, Lovdahl said she was bullied and then ended up being home-schooled.

She said in the interview that she missed out on prom and graduation. “It does actually make you kind of sad,” Lovdahl told Cole.

Lovdahl said her isolation from friend groups contributed to her decision to go on puberty blockers. At that time, she said she didn’t really have any friends who were girls. She said that the friends she had at that time were “toxic” and “catty,” and contributed to her not wanting to be a girl.

Lovdahl has a Twitter page under the name Layla Jane.

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Peter Hotez is a professor, COVID-19 vaccine researcher, and author who works at Baylor University in Houston, Texas.

Hotez became the focal point of controversy in June 2023 when podcaster Joe Rogan offered him $100,000 to debate Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a prominent anti-vaccine activist, on Rogan’s podcast. When confronted at his house on video, Hotez said he hasn’t decided yet whether to debate Kennedy.

Twitter CEO Elon Musk chimed in, writing, “Maybe @PeterHotez just hates charity 🤷‍♂️” Musk also tweeted, “He’s afraid of a public debate, because he knows he’s wrong.” However, others have urged Hotez not to debate Kennedy as debate rages over the question on Twitter.

Tom Nichols, a staff writer at The Atlantic, tweeted, “No medical professional should ever agree to do this. Never. It elevates the conspiracy guy, demeans the medical professional, and will only convince the kooks out there that RFK is right because a real doctor took the time to debate him. Never debate a conspiracy theorist.”

Rogan responded to Nichols, writing, “That would be a great suggestion if you could assure that the industry you were representing wasn’t completely captured by heartless monsters who have a history of some of the biggest criminal fines in human history because their deception has cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives. It would be a great suggestion if the industry you were defending didn’t occasionally look at human beings as an opportunity to generate insane wealth regardless of the tragic consequences. But you can’t do that, so… maybe it would be a good idea to have a f****** debate.”

In December 2022, Hotez wrote on Twitter, “Almost 100 million doses of our patent-free ⁦@TexasChildrens ⁦@BCM_TropMed Covid vaccine technology has been administered in low- middle-income countries. Now we’re making a BA.5/bivalent Covid vaccine for the world.” He has also frequently appeared on television to discuss COVID-19 vaccines and is the author of an upcoming book critical of the anti-vax movement.

“A pediatrician and an expert in vaccinology and tropical disease, Hotez has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and editorials as well dozens of textbook chapters,” his Amazon.com biography says. He wrote on Twitter that “200,000 unvaccinated Americans needlessly perished because they fell victim to antivaccine activism.”

Hotez has more than 363,000 followers on Twitter.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Joe Rogan Tweeted That He Challenged Peter Hotez to a Debate Because He ‘Publicly Quote Tweeted’ a Vice Article Accusing Rogan & Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of Spreading ‘Misinformation’ on Vaccines

Rogan tweeted at Hotez, “Peter, if you claim what RFKjr is saying is ‘misinformation’ I am offering you $100,000.00 to the charity of your choice if you’re willing to debate him on my show with no time limit.”

He was responding to a tweet by Hotez, which read, “Spotify Has Stopped Even Sort of Trying to Stem Joe Rogan’s Vaccine Misinformation. It’s really true ⁦@annamerlan just awful. And from all the online attacks I’m receiving after this absurd podcast, it’s clear many actually believe this nonsense.”

Hotez had tweeted a Vice article reading, “Spotify Has Stopped Even Sort of Trying to Stem Joe Rogan’s Vaccine Misinformation.”

The Vice article in question accused Rogan and Kennedy of spreading misinformation when Kennedy appeared on Rogan’s podcast, writing, “A broad swath of the anti-vaccine universe celebrated Thursday, when Joe Rogan, the biggest podcaster in the country, hosted a three-hour conversation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vax luminary turned presidential candidate. The conversation was an orgy of unchecked vaccine misinformation, some conspiracy-mongering about 5G technology and wifi, and, of course, Rogan once again praising ivermectin, an ineffective faux COVID treatment.”

Rogan has tweeted at Hotez directly, writing, “Again, I’m going to ask you very clearly, are you willing to debate @RobertKennedyJr on my podcast?”

Hotez responded, “Joe if you are serious about addressing vaccines + the fact that 200,000 unvaccinated Americans needlessly perished during our awful delta/BA.1 Covid waves (including 40,000 in our state of Texas) because they fell victims to vaccine disinformation: I want to have that discussion.”

Rogan responded, “This is a non answer. I challenged you publicly because you publicly quote tweeted and agreed with that dogsh** vice article. If you’re really serious about what you stand for, you now have a massive opportunity for a debate that will reach the largest audience a discussion like this has ever had. If you think someone else is better qualified, suggest that person.”

Hotez responded, “Joe, you have my cell, my email, I’m always willing to speak with you.”

Hotez responded to Musk’s tweet about charity, writing, “Elon: Maybe you weren’t aware but in 2020 we asked you to support our lab that ultimately made low-cost, patent-free Covid vaccines, 100 million doses administered. Even though you couldn’t help us then, we still need help for our low-cost XBB booster + universal CoV versions.”

Rogan also accused Hotez of deleting a tweet about the controversy:

The pot of money has grown for Hotez to agree to the debate.

Steve Kirsch then tweeted, “I just upped the @joerogan debate offer to $600K for Hotez to debate RFK Jr.” According to MIT Technology Review, Kirsch helped fund COVID research but has since criticized COVID vaccines as “toxic.”

Rogan retweeted a video by independent video creator Matt Orfalea that calls Hotez “The Great Double-Talking Vaccine Scientist.”

It contains news clips of Hotez describing the “unique potential safety problem of coronavirus vaccines” but then later saying, “get vaccinated now.” Other clips show him saying, “vaccinate your children. I’m strongly recommending for adolescents to get their two doses of vaccine,” before saying, “We’re seeing that two doses is not holding up well for emergency room visits.”

2. Peter Hotez Is the Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor University in Houston, Texas

Peter Jay Hotez, M.D., Ph.D, is listed as the “Dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine” at Baylor University in Houston, Texas, on the university’s website.

According to the website, he is also a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, is an “endowed chair in Tropical Pediatrics” at Texas Children’s Hospital, and is co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

He is listed as “founding editor-in-chief” of “PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases” and is a fellow in Disease and Poverty for the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, the website says.

He is also a “health policy scholar” in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor and a faculty-senior fellow at Hagler Institute for Advanced Study & Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A&M University.

Hotez has a medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York from 1987 and gained a Ph.D from The Rockefeller University in New York in 1986. He received bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1980, the Baylor website says.

3. Peter Hotez Is Involved in Developing ‘Coronavirus’ & Other Vaccines That Have Been Administered to More Than 100 Million People

Baylor UniversityPeter Hotez.

Hotez’s university biography says that he has developed coronavirus vaccines that were “administered to over 100 million people in India and Indonesia.”

He is currently researching “a multivalent pan-coronavirus vaccine to protect against multiple coronavirus variants.”

In addition, the website says that Hotez is helping develop a vaccine “for the more than 400 million people suffering from hookworm infection in the world today. Vaccine currently in phase 1 clinical trials in Brazil and Gabon.”

He is also working on a “Schistosomiasis vaccine,” which is a disease the page says kills an estimated 280,000 people each year. “Our vaccine is entering phase 1 clinical trials,” the page says.

Hotez is also involved in a project to develop new vaccines to combat Chagas disease and leishmaniasis.

In addition, he is working on a “new vaccine to prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). A prototype RBD219 N1 vaccine is entering scale-up process development” and is working on a “panhelmintic vaccine to prevent ascariasis (roundworm) and trichuris (whipworm), soil-transmitted helminths afflicting hundreds of millions of people around the world,” the website says.

4. Peter Hotez Tweeted That He Was ‘Stalked’ in Front of His Home

On Twitter, Hotez wrote, “Ugh I just was stalked in front of my home by a couple of antivaxers taunting me to debate RFKJr. Of course I was looking my Sunday best in our brutal heat wave. What is it with people? Well at least Houstonian’s now know I support the team…#GoTexans.”

In the video posted by Alex Rosen on Twitter, Hotez said he hadn’t decided whether or not to debate Kennedy. “I haven’t said anything one way or the other,” he said, adding, “He just invited me, so we’ll see.”

He walked away when asked by Rosen whether he thought vaccine injuries “were real.”

Frank Han, MD., tweeted, “I stand against all stripes of harrassment of professional scientists. Just a PSA, if you are wondering why, we don’t debate antivaxxers (reason number #123948).”

Richard Hanania, who runs the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, tweeted, “If putting all speech on an equal footing leads to people taking RFK, Jr seriously as an intellectual or politician, it’s the strongest case for internet censorship I’ve ever seen.”

Errol Louis, a podcaster and columnist, tweeted, “Depressing to see serious issues reduced to entertainment for conspiracy cranks and the idle rich. @PeterHotez, a serious and respected scientist, should not participate in this bad-faith b******* under any circumstances.”

However, Michael Schermer, a magazine publisher, tweeted, “Dear @PeterHotez I encourage you to debate @RobertKennedyJr on @joerogan on vaccines, autism, Covid, cell phones & cancer & all the rest. I did a 3.5 hour debate on Joe’s show—he’s a stand-up guy & will absolutely be fair & give you the time you need. Podcasts are the new media center. Why would you pass up $100,000 & tens of millions of viewers? Do it.”

5. Peter Hotez Is an Author Who Claims an Anti-Vaccine Movement Caused Thousands of American Deaths

Hotez is the author of an upcoming book called, “The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: A Scientist’s Warning.” On Amazon, the book is described as discussing “how an antivaccine movement became a dangerous political campaign promoted by elected officials and amplified by news media, causing thousands of American deaths.”

The Amazon caption for his book reads, in part:

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, one renowned scientist, in his famous bowtie, appeared daily on major news networks such as MSNBC, NPR, the BBC, and others. Dr. Peter J. Hotez often went without sleep, working around the clock to develop a nonprofit COVID-19 vaccine and to keep the public informed. During that time, he was one of the most trusted voices on the pandemic and was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his selfless work. He also became one of the main targets of anti-science rhetoric that gained traction through conservative news media.

On Twitter, he explained, “As both vaccine scientist + parent of a daughter with autism, I wrote Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism, which gave me a front row seat to 20 years of antivaccine activism, watching it grow into a political enterprise. My new book out soon.”

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Themis Matsoukas is a Penn State Professor who is accused of committing sexual acts with his dog in Rothrock State Forest in Pennsylvania, according to Centre Daily.

A criminal complaint filed by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and obtained by Centre Daily, says that Matsoukas, 64, of State College, Pennsylvania is accused of being caught on camera near the restrooms engaging in sexual acts with a pet Collie.

Penn State has placed Matsoukas on leave, Centre Daily reported.

Court records show Matsoukas is charged with sexual intercourse with an animal, indecent exposure, disorderly conduct, cruelty to animals, and open lewdness.

Court records indicate he has a hearing in July.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Themis Matsoukas Is Accused of Being Caught on a Trail Camera ‘Nude From the Waist Down’

LinkedInThemis Matsoukas

Matsoukas “was identified by park rangers by his North Face backpack,” which authorities could see in the camera footage, Centre Daily reported, adding that the incident occurred on April 13, 2023.

The video footage showed Matsoukas “nude from the waist down, except for socks and shoes,” and other video footage also captured him in 2014, the complaint said, according to Centre Daily. According to Onward Daily, he was wearing “a ski mask, wrist watch, boots and backpack.”

Heavy has reached out to the state Department of Conservation and National Resources for additional details.

According to Fox43, the agency started investigating after a trail camera that was installed due to restroom thefts captured images of Matsoukas “engaging in lewd acts in and around the parking lot and restroom.”

The television station reported that he was accused of trying to record himself with an electronic tablet.

2. Themis Matsoukas Is Accused of Saying, ‘I Do It to Blow Off Steam’

According to Fox43, after authorities arrived at his home with search warrants, Matsoukas became “visibly nervous” and said, “I’m done, I’m dead.”

He told the rangers to shoot him, saying, “I need to die,” Fox43 reported, citing the charging documents.

He is accused of telling investigators, “I do it to blow off steam,” Fox43 reported, adding that they found a collie in his home that matched the animal in the video.

3. Themis Matsoukas Works as a Chemical Engineering Professor at Penn State

On LinkedIn, Matouskas wrote that he has been a professor of Chemical Engineering at Penn State for more than 32 years.

He studied at the National Technical University of Athens, where he received a diploma in chemical engineering in 1983, the page says.

He received his Ph.D in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the LinkedIn page says.

It says that he did post-doctorate work in chemical engineering at UCLA.

Matsoukas is a Democratic political donor, giving money to the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren, according to federal records.

4. Themis Matsoukas Authored a Textbook & Won Teaching Awards at Penn State

According to the Global Home of Chemical Engineers, Matsoukas “taught graduate and undergraduate courses in chemical thermodynamics for over 20 years and is the author of a recent undergraduate textbook on the Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics.”

His research “focuses on nano colloidal systems and in the application of stochastic population balance models to particulate processes,” the biography says.

“He has been recognized with several awards at Penn State, including the George W. Atherton Award for excellence in Teaching, the Out-standing Teaching Award from the Penn State Engineering Society, and the Out-standing Professor of the Year Award from the student chapter of the AIChE.”

5. Students Praised Themis Matsoukas for Caring About His Students on Rate My Professors

Rate My ProfessorsThemis Matsoukas’s Rate my Professors ratings.

There are some positive reviews on Matsoukas’s Rate My Professors page. “Matsoukas clearly cares about his students and the topic. His lectures are not mandatory but you need to go to understand the material. He does have a bunch of typos/algebra mistakes but does give EC if you are the first one to point them out. Pretty forgiving with HW/exam grading too (gives partial credit). Overall, a good intro prof for ChemEs,” reads one.

“He cares about his students. He introduces the concepts on Cheme very well. YOU HAVE TO GO TO CLASS. THIS IS NOT A TEXTBOOK READING TYPA THING. JUST GO,” read another.

“I had Prof. Matsoukas for both Che 220 and 320 and I really have nothing bad to say about him. He is extremely fair with his assignments and exams, and is very knowledgable. He is also very accommodating to his students and his class was by far the best in terms of adapting to zoom classes during the pandemic. Take classes with him if you can,” another student wrote.

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Chad Doerman is a 32-year-old Ohio man who is accused of shooting his three small sons to death on June 15, 2023, according to a press release from the Clermont County Sheriff’s Department.

The three deceased victims were ages 7, 4 and 3, a sheriff’s release says.

The triple shooting occurred in Monroe Township in Ohio, about 30 minutes southeast of Cincinnati. The sheriff’s news release also said that the boys’ mother was shot in the hand but is expected to survive. The father is under arrest, the sheriff’s release said.

The release did not specify a motive.

Here’s what you need to know:

A Female Juvenile Ran Down the Road Stating That Her ‘Father Was Killing Everyone,’ Sheriff’s Officials Say

At 4:15 p.m. on June 15, 2023, the Clermont County Communication Center received a 911 call from an unknown female who was screaming that “her babies had been shot,” the sheriff’s release said.

At 4:18 p.m., a second 911 call was made to the Communication Center from a passerby (driving on the road) who reported that a female juvenile was seen running down the road stating that “her father was killing everyone,” the release said.

Clermont County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a residence in the 1900 block of Laurel Lindale Road and made contact with Doerman, 32, who was sitting on a step outside the residence, the release said. Doerman was detained “without incident,” it said.

“It’s just a bad situation. Nothing like that ever happens in this area — just a quiet, country, really nice area. So, to hear this, it’s terrible,” neighbor Dan Thomas told WLWT-TV. “I’m shocked, to be honest with you. We moved here six years ago and the place is great, and New Richmond’s coming up. You just hate to see anything like this, anywhere.”

Thomas told the television station: “I was sitting in the garage and all of a sudden, I hear ‘boom, boom’ and like five more, and I was like, ‘That’s seven shots.'”

Deputies Discovered 3 ‘Unresponsive Gunshot Victims in the Yard,’ Sheriff’s Officials Say

Deputies discovered “three unresponsive gunshot victims in the yard of the residence and attempted lifesaving measures until Monroe Fire/EMS arrived,” the release said.

The three gunshot victims died at the scene, the release says.

A fourth gunshot victim, an adult female who was the boys’ mother, 34, was “also located outside of the residence,” it said. She had a single gunshot wound to her hand that was not life-threatening and was taken to a hospital in Cincinnati, the release said.

Authorities wrote that they were interviewing witnesses and processing the scene. There were no signs of forced entry and the sheriff’s office was not seeking other suspects, the release said.

Chad Doerman Is the Father of the ‘3 Deceased Juveniles,’ Sheriff’s Officials Say

According to the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office in a news release, Doerman, 32, is the father of the “three deceased juveniles.”

He has been charged with three counts of aggravated murder, “all unclassified felonies,” the release said.

Doerman was transported to the Clermont County Jail “after being interviewed by detectives and is currently being held without bond,” according to the release. He was scheduled to appear for arraignment on Friday, June 16, 2023, at 10 a.m. in Clermont County Municipal Court, the release said.

The Clermont County Prosecutor’s Office was reviewing the case for presentation to the grand jury “for consideration of additional charges,” the news release said.

The New Richmond School District posted a statement on its Facebook page, writing, “Our hearts are once again broken tonight as we yet again ask the community to lift up those affected by this horrific incident.”

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Cole Bridges is a soldier in the U.S. Army from Ohio who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges for “attempting to help ISIS conduct deadly ambush on U.S. troops,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

“An Ohio man today pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and attempting to murder U.S. military service members based on his efforts to help the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) to attack and kill U.S. soldiers in the Middle East,” the press release said.

Fox7Austin reported that Bridges has been incarcerated since 2021.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “As he admitted in court today, Cole Bridges attempted to orchestrate a murderous ambush on his fellow soldiers in service of ISIS and its violent ideology. Bridges’s traitorous conduct was a betrayal of his comrades and his country. Thanks to the incredible work of the prosecutors of this Office and our partners at the FBI and the U.S. Army, Bridges’s malign intent was revealed, and he now awaits sentencing for his crimes.”

Here’s what you need to know:

Cole Bridges Was a Cavalry Scout in the U.S. Army When He Began ‘Consuming Online Propaganda Promoting Jihadists,’ the DOJ Says

The government described the defendant as “Cole Bridges, aka Cole Gonzales, 22, of Stow,” writing that he “pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman.”

According to court documents, the release says, “Bridges joined the U.S. Army in approximately September 2019 and was assigned as a cavalry scout in the Third Infantry Division based in Fort Stewart, Georgia.”

The release adds: “Beginning in at least 2019, Bridges began researching and consuming online propaganda promoting jihadists and their violent ideology. Bridges also expressed his support for ISIS and jihad on social media.”

The Government Accused Cole Bridges of Diagramming ‘Specific Military Maneuvers’ to Help ISIS Fighters Kill More U.S. Soldiers

In or about October 2020, Bridges “began communicating with an FBI online covert employee (the OCE), who was posing as an ISIS supporter in contact with ISIS fighters in the Middle East,” the DOJ release says.

During these communications, Bridges “expressed his frustration with the U.S. military and his desire to aid ISIS. Bridges then provided training and guidance to purported ISIS fighters who were planning attacks, including advice about potential targets in New York City. Bridges also provided the OCE with portions of a U.S. Army training manual and guidance about military combat tactics, for use by ISIS,” the release says.

In or about December 2020, Bridges “began to supply the OCE with instructions for the purported ISIS fighters on how to attack U.S. forces in the Middle East,” the release says.

It says that Bridges “diagrammed specific military maneuvers intended to help ISIS fighters maximize the lethality of attacks on U.S. troops. Bridges further provided advice about the best way to fortify an ISIS encampment to repel an attack by U.S. Special Forces, including by wiring certain buildings with explosives to kill the U.S. troops.”

Cole Bridges Is Accused of Appearing in a Video Wearing U.S. Body Armor & Standing in Front of an ISIS Flag

In 2021, the government says, Bridges presented the OCE “with a video of himself in his U.S. Army body armor standing in front of a flag often used by ISIS fighters and making a gesture symbolic of support for ISIS. Approximately a week later, Bridges sent a second video in which Bridges, using a voice manipulator, narrated a propaganda speech in support of the anticipated ambush by ISIS on U.S. troops.”

The government says Bridges will be sentenced on November 2, and he faces 40 years in prison.

“The FBI’s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, which primarily consists of investigators and analysts from the FBI, the New York City Police Department, and over 50 other federal, state and local agencies, is investigating the case,” the release says.

“The U.S. Army Counterintelligence, the FBI Washington Field Office, the FBI Atlanta Field Office and its Savannah Resident Agency, the FBI Cleveland Field Office, the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command and the U.S. Army Third Infantry Division provided valuable assistance.”

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Cameron County District Attorney Paul Malizia was shot at his Pennsylvania office on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, but he is expected to survive, according to a news release from Pennsylvania State Police.

Malizia wrote on Facebook, “My family and I thank you for your concern regarding today’s most unfortunate events. I am well and will continue to serve as Cameron County’s District Attorney.” He added in a second post, “Thank you all for your prayers and well-wishes. Very, very fortunate. Back home and will be back in the saddle tomorrow!”

Acording to the Olean Times Herald, Malizia’s law office doubles as the DA’s office.

In the news release, Pennsylvania State Police wrote that “one female was taken into custody in connection with the shooting.”

Police wrote that Porice Diamond Mincy, 31, Emporium, is charged with aggravated assault “and related charges.” Malizia “was released from the hospital and is in stable condition,” the release says, adding that, “On Wednesday, June 14, 2023, at approximately 3:00pm PSP Emporium was notified of a shooting at the District Attorney’s office located at 25 E
4th St Emporium, PA 15834.”

The newspaper reported that Malizia was seen walking to an ambulance and is expected to recover. The Bradford Era reported that the shooting occurred in Emporium.

Here’s what you need to know:

Paul Malizia Has Worked as an Attorney in Pennsylvania for More Than 41 Years

Malizia has been an attorney for the private law firm Malizia & Malizia, PC for more than 41 years, according to his LinkedIn page.

On his Facebook page, Malizia thanked Cameron County residents for supporting him in May 2023. “Dear Cameron County Residents, I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude for your support during the recent primary election. Your votes and trust in me as a candidate for Cameron County District Attorney has been truly humbling, even If I am running unopposed,” he wrote.

“I respectfully request your support again in the upcoming general election on Tuesday, November 5th. Rest assured that I will continue my commitment to justice and passion for serving the community. Once again, thank you for your support during the primary season. I look forward to earning your trust and confidence in the general election as we work together to create a safer and brighter future for Cameron County.”

According to State Police: “The circumstances of the shooting are still actively being investigated, but it appears to be an
isolated incident. The victim is believed to have sustained non-life-threatening injuries. After the shooting, the female actor left the location of the incident in a vehicle. Upon further investigation, a suspect has been taken into custody.”

Paul Malizia Filled His Campaign Facebook Page With Family Photos

Paul Malizia filled his campaign Facebook page with family photos. He shared a graphic recently that read, “True happiness is realizing that your children have turned out to be really good people.”

People offered prayers for Malizia on the Facebook comment thread of 1250 WLEM, which reported that he was shot. “Prayers for Paul,” read one.

Shootings of lawyers are somewhat rare but they do happen. In 2022, a North Carolina lawyer, Patrick White, was killed in his office by a client, according to ABC13.

Also in 2022, a Georgia divorce lawyer, Doug Lewis, was shot and killed by his client’s estranged husband, according to The Guardian. In 2017, Wisconsin lawyer Sara Quirt Sann was shot and killed by the estranged husband of her client in a divorce case, ABAJournal reported.

According to Fox News, “over the last century, 14 prosecutors have been killed.” In 2015, two Texas prosecutors were killed, Fox reported.

District Attorney Mike McLelland of Kaufman County, Texas, and his wife were shot to death inside their home, and two months before, an assistant district attorney for the same office was shot to death as he walked to the courthouse, Fox News reported.

Others in the criminal justice system, such as federal judges, have also been killed or had their families killed over the years. The husband and son of Federal Judge Esther Salas were shot by a man who came to their door in 2020, although her husband survived the attack, according to NBC News.

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Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar were 19-year-old University of Nottingham students who died after a stabbing in England in June 2023 that left three people dead, according to a news release from Nottingham police.

Both Webber and O’Malley-Kumar were “found in Ilkeston Road just after 4 a.m. on Tuesday having been stabbed,” police wrote. The third victim slain in the attacks has been identified as Ian Robert Coates, 65, police said.

“Barnaby Philip John Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, both aged 19, have now been formally identified,” Nottingham Police wrote in the release. “Ian Robert Coates, aged 65, was later found dead from knife injuries in Magdala Road after he was attacked and had his van stolen.” The suspect was seen trying to get into a house on surveillance video.

“A 31-year-old man remains in custody after being arrested on suspicion of murder,” police wrote, adding in an earlier news release that the suspect killed “three people with a knife and then [used] a vehicle to attack three others.”

The suspect has not been identified. According to police, “detectives are still keeping an open mind on the motives of the attacks and a 31-year-old man is still in police custody. He has been arrested on suspicion of murder.”

Police noted: “There have been reports suggesting that police are no longer working with Counter Terrorism Policing. This is not the case, and Counter Terrorism Policing continues to work alongside Nottinghamshire Police. There have also been reports that other calls were made to Nottinghamshire Police about the suspect before he carried out the attacks in Ilkeston Road. This is not the case. ”

BBC reported that the suspect, who has not been named, “is originally from West Africa but had been in the UK for many years. He is not a British citizen but he had settled status, meaning he had permission to stay in the country for several years. He did not have a criminal record and was not known to the security services. It is also understood that the man has a history of mental health issues.”

Here’s what you need to know:

Barnaby Webber Was Remembered as a ‘Talented Young Cricketer Who Was Studying History’

Nottingham PoliceBarnaby Webber.

“Barnaby, of Taunton, Somerset, was a talented young cricketer who was studying history,” police wrote.

In a statement detailed in the police news release, his family said: “Complete devastation is not enough to describe our pain and loss at the senseless murder of our son.”

The news release added, “Barnaby Philip John Webber was a beautiful, brilliant, bright young man, with everything in life to look forward to. He was a talented and passionate cricketer, who was over the moon to have made selection to his university cricket team. At 19 he was just at the start of his journey into adulthood and was developing into a wonderful young man.”

The Webber family statement continued:

As parents we are enormously proud of everything he achieved and all the plans he had made. His brother is bereft beyond belief, and at this time we ask for privacy as a family to be allowed time to process and grieve. We will not be making any further statements, particularly in relation to the police investigation. We are so proud to release this photograph, chosen by us as a family, of an amazing son, brother, grandson, nephew, and friend. Thank you for your understanding, and to everyone who has supported us in this awful journey so far.

Grace O’Malley-Kumar Was Described as a ‘Talented Hockey Player’ & Medical Student

Nottingham policeGrace O’Malley-Kumar.

According to Nottingham police, O’Malley-Kumar, “a first-year medical student, was a talented hockey player who was described as ‘a popular member of the England U16 and U18 squads.’ She also played for the university.”

Police quoted her family as saying, “Grace was an adored daughter and sister; she was a truly wonderful and beautiful young lady. Grace was not just a sister to James but his best friend. He is completely heartbroken. As parents, words cannot explain our complete and utter devastation. She will be so dearly missed.”

“We were so incredibly proud of Grace’s achievements and what a truly lovely person she was. She was resilient and wise beyond her years. Grace was so happy in life fulfilling her ambition of studying to become a doctor whilst playing topflight hockey at university,” the family said, according to Nottingham police.

“She leaves behind devastated extended family and friends. We request that all media outlets stop invading our privacy while we face this sorrow,” the family added, according to the police.

Police wrote that Coates’ family “has also asked media outlets to please respect their privacy at this difficult time.”

Police Released a Timeline of the Nottingham Attack

Nottingham policeThe scene of the Nottingham attack.

“Detectives have spent countless hours piecing together the movements that led to three people losing their lives, which includes extensive CCTV coverage and eye-witness accounts,” Nottingham police wrote in an earlier news release.

“It is known that a man attacked two University of Nottingham students with a knife on Ilkeston Road on Tuesday 13 June. A call was made to police at 4.04am. Police quickly attended and found a male and female student, aged 19, in the street unresponsive.”

According to police, “detectives have spent countless hours piecing together the movements that led to three people losing their lives, which includes extensive CCTV coverage and eye-witness accounts.”

They gave this timeline:

It is known that a man attacked two University of Nottingham students with a knife on Ilkeston Road on Tuesday 13 June.

A call was made to police at 4.04am.

Police quickly attended and found a male and female student, aged 19, in the street unresponsive.

Police scene on Ilkeston Road

Investigations have then revealed that a man matching the description of the suspect had attempted to gain entry to a supported living complex in Mapperley Road but had been denied entry.

This incident was not reported to the police at the time.

Police believe the suspect has then attacked a man and stolen his van.

A call was received by a member of the public and upon police attendance he was found deceased on Magdala Road with knife injuries.

The stolen van was then used by the suspect to run over three members of the public in the Milton Street area.

One man is in hospital in a critical condition while others are believed to have suffered minor injuries.

A short while later, police managed to detain the suspect by using a taser when he abandoned the vehicle and approached officers with a knife.

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Former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters are raising the Bill Clinton “sock drawer” decision and Presidential Records Act in defense of the former president. However, other legal experts don’t believe the Clinton case will exonerate Trump.

Judicial Watch, the conservative organization that brought the case in 2012, ran an article by One America News Network titled, “Judicial Watch: Clinton Sock Drawer Audio Tape Case Exonerates Pres. Trump.” Other legal experts don’t agree with that blanket statement, however, even some conservative ones.

“[Special counsel] Jack Smith is terrified of the only standing legal case decision from a court concerning the Presidential Records Act,” said Chris Farrell, Director of Investigations at Judicial Watch, in that article.

The Clinton sock drawer case was also mentioned in previous court filings by Trump. The U.S. government has unsealed the full Trump indictment.

But what happened in the Clinton “sock drawer” decision, which is legally called, Judicial Watch v. National Archives and Records Administration?

Here’s what you need to know:

1. The ‘Clinton Sock Drawer’ Decision Involved Audiotapes Created by Former President Bill Clinton & a Historian

GettyUkrainian President Victor Yushchenko (L), speaks with Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (C) and Canadian businessman Frank Giustra at the Clinton Global Initiative forum September 16, 2005 in New York City.

The court decision dates to 2012, and it was authored by District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama.

According to the decision, the plaintiffs asked the court “to declare audiotapes created by former President William Jefferson Clinton and historian Taylor Branch during the Clinton administration to be ‘Presidential records’ under the Presidential Records Act (‘PRA’) and to order defendant ‘to assume custody and control’ of them and deposit them in the Clinton Presidential Library.”

Berman Jackson ruled:

The Court will grant the motion to dismiss pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1) because plaintiff’s claim is not redressable. NARA does not have the authority to designate materials as ‘Presidential records,’ NARA does not have the tapes in question, and NARA lacks any right, duty, or means to seize control of them. In other words, there has been no showing that a remedy would be available to redress plaintiff’s alleged injury even if the Court agreed with plaintiff’s characterization of the materials. Since plaintiff is completely unable to identify anything the Court could order the agency to do that the agency has any power, much less, a mandatory duty, to do, the case must be dismissed.

According to the plaintiffs, President Bill Clinton “enlisted historian Taylor Branch to assist him in creating ‘an oral history of his eight years in office,'” the court decision said. “In 2009, Branch published a book entitled, ‘The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President,’ based upon extensive conversations with President Clinton during his tenure in the White House and the events Branch observed when he was in the President’s office.”

The decision noted, “Plaintiff avers that from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001, Branch recorded seventy-nine audiotapes that ‘preserved not only President Clinton’s thoughts and commentary on contemporaneous events and issues he was facing as president, but, in some instances, recorded actual events such as presidential telephone conversations.'”

“Based on Branch’s book, plaintiff contends that the recordings captured a verbatim record of President Clinton being President—performing his duties by engaging in conversations while Branch happened to be there with the tape recorder running—as opposed to simply reflecting about the ongoing Presidency with the writer,” the decision says.

Among the discussions captured on the tapes, according to the decision, citing the plaintiffs, were “foreign-policy decisions such as the United States’ military involvement in Haiti and the contemplated relaxation of the United States’ embargo in Cuba.”

The judge found, “I am of the opinion that the audio tapes created by Taylor Branch are personal records of President Clinton as defined by the PRA.”

The Presidential Records Act of 1978, 44 U.S.C. ß2201-2209, “governs the official records of Presidents and Vice Presidents that were created or received after January 20, 1981 (i.e., beginning with the Reagan Administration). The PRA changed the legal ownership of the official records of the President from private to public, and established a new statutory structure under which Presidents, and subsequently NARA, must manage the records of their Administrations. The PRA was amended in 2014, which established several new provisions,” according to the National Archives.

The National Archives writes that PRA “establishes that Presidential records automatically transfer into the legal custody of the Archivist as soon as the President leaves office.”

2. Berman Jackson Ruled in the Clinton Sock Drawer Decision That the Responsibility to Classify Records ‘Is Left Solely to the President’

GettyBALTIMORE, : US President Bill Clinton (R) attends church with Maryland Governor Parris Glendening (L) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (C), (D-MD), 01 November at the New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore, MD.

According to Berman Jackson’s ruling, “even if the Court were inclined to agree with plaintiff’s reassessment of President Clinton’s decision, it would not alter the conclusion that the injury cannot be redressed: the PRA does not confer any mandatory or even discretionary authority on the Archivist to classify records. Under the statute, this responsibility is left solely to the President.”

The court decisions says that the PRA, enacted during controversy over President Richard M. Nixon’s presidential records, “distinguishes Presidential records from ‘personal records,’ defining personal records as ‘all documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, of a purely private or nonpublic character which do not relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President.'”

The statute provides that the ‘United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records,’ id. § 2202, and it directs the President to “take all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented and that such records are maintained as Presidential records,” the decision says.

The court decision notes. “The statute assigns the Archivist no role with respect to personal records once the Presidency concludes.” The decision quotes another court decision as saying that the PRA “incorporates an assumption made by Congress (in 1978) that subsequent Presidents and Vice Presidents would comply with the Act in good faith, and therefore Congress limited the scope of judicial review and provided little oversight authority for the President and Vice President’s document preservation decisions.”

According to the decision, another case, Armstrong v. Bush, used broad language in stating “that the PRA accords the President ‘virtually complete control’ over his records during his time in office. 924 F.2d at 290. In particular, the court stated that the President enjoys unconstrained authority to make decisions regarding the disposal of documents: ‘[a]lthough the President must notify the Archivist before disposing of records … neither the Archivist nor Congress has the authority to veto the President’s disposal decision.'”

Berman Jackson wrote, “Since the President is completely entrusted with the management and even the disposal of Presidential records during his time in office, it would be difficult for this Court to conclude that Congress intended that he would have less authority to do what he pleases with what he considers to be his personal record.”

3. Bill Clinton ‘Squirreled Away the Cassettes in His Sock Drawer,’ Reports Say, But Some Argue That There Are Important Distinctions Between the Clinton Tapes & Trump Records

GettyBill Clinton

In 2009, GQ Magazine published an interview with Branch, the historian.

“Meeting late at night and sometimes through the night, Clinton and Branch embarked on a series of seventy-nine conversations about politics, the presidents, the Whitewater investigation, and yes, even Monica—recording every word for posterity,” the article says.

“Acutely aware that their tapes could be subpoenaed at any moment and desperate to avoid making them public, Clinton squirreled away the cassettes in his sock drawer and has never spoken of them nor made them public,” it says.

According to Reuters, the theory that the Clinton case exonerates Trump “is vigorously disputed by national security experts, including former National Archives litigation director Jason Baron, who is now a professor at the University of Maryland, and Bradley Moss of the Mark S. Zaid law firm.”

Both told Reuters there were “clear distinctions between the audiotapes in the Clinton case and records in the Trump indictment.

The Clinton tapes, Baron told Reuters, “were in the nature of a diary or journal in recorded form,” which meets “the definition of a personal record in the Presidential Records Act,” per Reuters. “But the documents with classified markings that were seized from Mar-a-Lago, ‘were official government records that should never have been transferred out of the government’s hands,'” Baron told Reuters.

In addition, Moss told Reuters that the Espionage Act charges against Trump don’t revolve around the question of personal vs. presidential records.

“Whether as a presidential record or a personal record, the records at issue in this indictment still have classification markings and contain information relating to the national defense,” he told Reuters.

The indictment says Trump, as president, “had lawful access to the most sensitive classified documents and national defense information gathered and owned by the United States government.”

According to the indictment, Trump “gathered newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, official documents, and other materials in cardboard boxes that he kept in the White House. Among the materials Trump stored in his boxes were hundreds of classified documents.”

“The classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack,” the indictment against Trump reads/

The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents “could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources, and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods,” the indictment says.

When Trump left the White House he “caused scores of boxes, many of which contained classified documents, to be transported to The Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he maintained his residence. Trump was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents,” the indictment reads.

The indictment accuses Trump of storing the boxes with classified documents in various locations at Mar-a-Lago, including “in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room.”

4. There Is Vigorous Debate Even Among Conservatives About the Strength of the Clinton Sock Drawer Defense

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, tweeted, “I’ve carefully reviewed the indictment of Trump by his political opponents at the Biden Justice Department. (.@JudicialWatch has nearly 30 years of experience litigating federal and presidential records issues, including the famous “Clinton sock drawer” case.)”

Fitton alleged: “The document dishonestly ignores the U.S. Constitution, the Presidential Records Act, legal precedent, and the DOJ’s/Archives’ previous position that WH records a president takes with him when he leaves the White House are presumptively personal and not subject to review by partisan Biden appointees at DOJ or Archives.”

Continued Fitton, “Under the Constitution, federal law and precedent, none of the documents are currently ‘classified’ or ‘national defense information’ that restricts Trump’s handing of them. They are ALL his personal records and, frankly, should be returned to him. If justice prevails, this indictment won’t survive scrutiny by honest, constitutionalist judges and will be thrown out.”

Rick Esenberg, president of the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, wrote his own legal analysis on Twitter. “Lots of Republicans are arguing that the Presidential Records Act and the decision in Judicial Watch v. NRA make clear that Trump is being persecuted. I can imagine a band of arguments that Trump’s lawyers might make based on these authorities but they aren’t good ones,” Esenberg tweeted.

“To buy them, you have to conclude that the PRA overrides the Espionage Act (the presumption is a reading that preserves both) and overrides classification law such that a President can designate what are clearly ‘presidential records’ under the law as ‘personal’ records,” Esenberg continued. “Given the statutory definition of ‘presidential’ and ‘personal’ under the law, classified docs can’t be ‘personal.’ So you’d have to argue that the President can legally make ridiculous designations. And implied designation as ‘personal’ also declassifies.”

Esenberg continued:

That’s shaky stuff. But even if he can make designations equivalent to declaring that black is white and up is down, when did he do it? Apparently he never expressly did so. He must say that taking documents that were in boxes is an implied designation and declassification.

But if you say that, then the Presidential Records Act (which was intended to make clear that official documents belong to the United States and would be retained by it) is completely illusory. Maybe. Not every wrong has a judicial remedy. But given the history of the PRA, that seems like an odd conclusion. Nor is it compelled by separation of powers because it wouldn’t interfere with the President’s carrying out of his duties. But there’s even more.

If the recital of Trump’s statements is accurate, then he did not think he declassified anything. Maybe DOJ shouldn’t have brought an even meritorious case. Maybe Hillary should have been charged (or Biden should be). But that won’t help him here. This is a serious case.

5. Donald Trump Has Raised the Clinton Sock Drawer Decision in Court Filings

GettyDonald Trump was indicted, he confirmed.

In one court filing relating to the investigation that resulted in the documents indictment, Trump raised the Clinton sock drawer decision.

“As Plaintiff has explained in prior briefing, all government records are subject to either the Federal Records Act (‘FRA’) or the Presidential Records Act (‘PRA’),” Trump’s lawyers wrote, adding: “The PRA specifies a further distinction between Presidential records and personal records, requiring that ‘all material produced or received by the President, ‘to the extent practicable,’ be categorized as Presidential records or personal records upon their creation or receipt and be filed separately.’ Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Nat’l Archives & Recs. Admin. . . .”

The court filing says the core question is “whether a President has the authority to decide whether a document is a ‘Presidential record’ or a ‘personal record.’ Both the plain language of the PRA and past court decisions answer this question in the affirmative.”

The filing adds:

Therefore, according to the Judicial Watch court, in allocating this responsibility to the President, the PRA neither obligates nor permits the Archivist to make initial designation decisions or to take control of records that the President has designated as personal records. The PRA, then, is clear: a President determines whether a document constitutes a Presidential record or a personal record.”

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Charles Robert Smith is the suspect accused of shooting three men to death in a mass shooting in Annapolis, Maryland, on June 11, 2023, the police chief said in a news conference.

Police Chief Ed Jackson said in a news conference that police responded to a report of a “mass shooting.”

On Sunday at 7:50 p.m., police received a call to the 1000 block of Paddington Place in the City of Annapolis for a shooting of a mass shooting incident “with casualties,” Jackson said.

Smith was on his own property nearby when he fired at the victims, according to the chief, who added that there was a “busted window.”

Here’s what you need to know:

The Police Chief Says Charles Robert Smith Shot & Killed 3 Hispanic Men

Six people in total were shot, and three of the victims were deceased at the scene, according to Jackson. The three surviving victims were taken to the hospital, where they are in stable condition, he said.

The deceased victims were named by the chief as Nicholas Mireles, 55, of Odenton; Mario Antonio Mireles Ruiz, 27, of Annapolis; and Christian Marlon Segovia, 25, of Severn. He said they are all Hispanic males. Two of the victims were a father and son, Jackson said.

Police took a person of interest into custody, Smith, who has now been charged with three counts of second-degree murder, three counts of first-degree assault, and three counts of attempted murder, Jackson said.

The chief described Smith as a 45-year-old white male who lives in the same Annapolis neighborhood where the mass shooting occurred.

Asked whether the crime was racially motivated or a hate crime, the chief said police were still trying to determine the motive, but he said authorities were not “ruling anything out.” He said: “Our suspect is a white male, and the three victims are Latino, but we can’t draw any inferences from that.”

The chief said he did not know of any prior encounters between police and Smith at least since he was chief. He said Smith surrendered “peacefully.”

Charging documents obtained by the Baltimore Banner provided additional details. They say that Mireles Ruiz went over to the residence on Paddington Place to speak with a woman named Shirley Smith about parking.

Mireles Ruiz’s house was hosting a large party with cars on the street.

An argument sparked and Charles Smith is accused of pulling out a gun and then shooting Mireles Ruiz and Segovia after a “tussle” erupted for the weapon, Baltimore Banner reported.

Charles Smith is accused of standing over Mireles Ruiz and shooting him “several more times,” the site reported, citing charging documents. According to police, Smith then fired a rifle out a front window to people coming to help and shot and killed Nicholas Mireles, Baltimore Banner reported, adding that Charles Smith claimed he fired at the victims because shots were fired at his house, but no one else saw them with guns.

The Mayor Said the Mass Shooting Occurred at a Block Party

The shootings occurred on the front lawn of a home, according to the county executive, Steuart Pittman, who also spoke in the news conference. The Annapolis mayor, Gavin Buckley, said in the news conference: “This is personal. This is not who we are.” He said that the shooting occurred on a graduation day “at a block party.” He called it a “diverse community.”

The chief said there were at least 100 to 150 people outside after the shooting, describing it as a “very volatile scene.”

A long handgun and semi-automatic hangun were used in the crime, according to Jackson. The chief said it was an “isolated incident that was contained immediately,” and he said there was no threat to the public.

He said he believes Smith was the “only person involved in this,” and he said Annapolis “remains one of the safest cities in the region.”

The governor, Wes Moore, praised first responders, saying they “continue to exemplify heroism.”

“Another mass shooting in our country, and this time, it happened here, in our state,” Moore said. “We know that three of the victims have passed away, and we know that others are fighting for their lives as we speak, and I pray for God’s healing mercy on them.”

The chief said police are still “trying to find what was the motivation behind this.” He said the suspect “lived in close proximity” to the shooting scene, but he did not release any relationship between the suspect and the victims. The suspect was not wounded, he said. Smith is being held without bond, the chief said.

READ NEXT: The Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith’s Wife Katy Chevigny.

Ariana Josephine is a social media influencer from Houston, Texas, known as “Home Depot Girl” who has ignited debate on the Internet about OnlyFans versus other jobs.

She went viral after tweeting a picture showing her in a Home Depot uniform and writing that some people believe she is too pretty to work at Home Depot, but she would never create an OnlyFans page. She also frequently shares messages about Christian faith on social media.

This has caused some to criticize her. One woman wrote, “Someone just brought up an amazing point regarding the Home Depot girl. She and the majority of the men egging on her find sex work dehumanizing and exploitative. Although she’s fine with Home Depot exploiting her for $10/hr because it’s the ‘right way’ to earn money. Which I find hilarious.” It’s also started a trend of people sharing pictures of themselves in work uniforms.

Others have praised “Home Depot Girl.”

A man tweeted, “I know shawty a good woman… she coulda made an onlyfans but she got a real job and it’s an honest living.”

Ariana Josephine, whose last name is not clear, has 119,000 followers on Instagram. “Faith | Fashion | Lifestyle | Beauty University of Houston,” her Instagram profile reads.

Here’s what you need to know:

Ariana Josephine Tweeted a Picture of Herself in a Home Depot Uniform & Wrote, ‘I’ll Never Make an OnlyFans’

Ariana Josephine posted a “Home Depot Girl” photo on June 10, 2023, on her Twitter page. “Home Depot Girl Taking Over 2.0,” she wrote.

Under the photo, she tweeted, “My new name: Home Depot Girl😎” She then posted a video, writing, “What I want to be known for. 💗” In the video, she discussed letting go of friends who were negatively affecting her relationship with Jesus Christ.

She suggested people should hang out with people doing positive things to see “positivity for yourself.” Hanging out with people who are “bad for you,” skipping class, doing drugs, not attending church, and things like that, doesn’t help you, she said.

She then tweeted, “ILL NEVER MAKE AN ONLYFANS!!!!” That tweet has had more than 6.6 million views.

Ariana Josephine wrote, “My daddy always told me ALL money ain’t GOOD money,” and added, “Last thing I’m going to say is, I don’t think I am too pretty to work anywhere. I work at Home Depot because it’s a decent job that pays good while i’m in school. Please stop taking social media to heart. God bless.”

The Root wrote that the Home Depot Girl debate had sparked conversation about misogyny. “‘Home Depot Girl’ shouldn’t be used to tear down sex workers, but in a patriarchal society women cannot exist unless it’s in relation to how they please men and how they compare to other women,” the site wrote.

Ariana Josephine’s Most Recent Video Focuses on God & Faith

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Ariana Josephine’s most recent Instagram post is a video in which she talks about God and faith.

“The only way to overcome all of the obstacles he throws at you is leaning on him and having faith,” she said, referring to God.

In the video, she said that people work for things that “might seem unattainable” but that God will give people the job they actually need, not just the job they want.

In one video, she read a Bible verse, writing in the caption, “Let’s get dressed while we talk about Timothy 2:9-10.”

Other posts focus on her style.

On Twitter, Ariana Josephine has more than 55,000 followers. “Follower of Christ,” her page reads.

Shaquille O’Neal Wrote ‘Home Depot Girl’ & Told Her Not to Let People’s Comments Bother Her

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According to a screenshot posted by Legion Hoops, Shaquille O’Neil sent “Home Depot Girl” a private message that read, “don’t let them people bother u” and “don’t read the comments stuff like that will drive u crazy. Have a great day tell all your boyfriends I said hello lol.”

She responded, “HAHA I will thank you!!” O’Neal later tweeted that he wrote “Home Depot Girl” because he was trying to uplift people.

READ NEXT: The Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith’s Wife Katy Chevigny.

Walt Nauta is the U.S. Navy veteran who is accused of being a co-conspirator with former President Donald Trump in the classified documents indictment.

Nauta did have a wife, Savannah L. Rogers, also known in public records as Savannah Nauta, according to Guamian governmental records. It’s not clear whether they are still married, however.

His family includes his mother and aunt, who have spoken to The Washington Post.

The U.S. government has unsealed the full Trump indictment charging both the former president and Nauta, who also uses the name Waltine Nauta.

The government is accusing Nauta of helping to conceal boxes from Trump’s attorney to avoid a grand jury subpoena and making misleading statements.

Here’s what you need to know about Walt Nauta’s wife and family:

Walt Nauta & Savannah Rogers Were Married in 2012

A civil wedding monthly report by the Mayors Council of Guam lists Waltine Torre Nauta Jr. as the groom and Savannah Lyn Rogers as the bride.

The report gives the district as Agat, Guam, and the date as January 2012. The Pacific Daily News, in a 2012 article accessed through Newspapers.com, also recorded Nauta and Rogers as taking out a marriage license.

A wedding announcement in the Pacific Daily News includes a picture of Rogers and Nauta at their wedding. It says that they were married on January 9, 2023, at Ga’an Point in Agat, Guam, in a ceremony officiated by Agat Mayor Carol Tayama.

The bride’s parents were listed as Bobbi and Lloyd Johnson of Millington, Tennessee, and Kevin Rogers of Green Cove Springs, Florida. The groom’s parents are Walter and Pauline Torre Nauta of Agat, according to that announcement, which was accessed via Newspapers.com.

Public records also tie Savannah Rogers, also known as Savannah Nauta, with Walt Nauta. However, they give her current address as Maryland.

A year ago, Nauta wrote on Facebook, along with a photo of palm trees against a sunset, “I’m good!! Enjoying…the warm weather.”

Walt Nauta’s Facebook Page Says He Is From Agat, Guam

Nauta’s Facebook page contains several photos of him in uniform and says he is from Agat, Guam.

The page does not contain any publicly visible photos of Nauta’s wife or former wife, and it does not contain any family photos. It also contains a picture of Nauta wearing a suit.

The indictment calls Nauta Trump’s “co-conspirator” and says he was assigned, as a member of the U.S. Navy, to work as Trump’s White House valet during his presidency. After Trump left office, Nauta became his executive assistant and personal aide or “body man,” the indictment says.

“Nauta reported to Trump, worked closely with Trump, and traveled with Trump,” the indictment says.

The New York Post reported that Nauta was a Navy cook who has retired from the service. The Navy lists him as a chief culinary specialist.

Walt Nauta’s Brother Graduated From Army Ranger School

Another 2012 article in Pacific Daily News reported that Nauta’s brother, Frank Ross Nauta, had graduated from Army Ranger School in Fort Benning, Georgia, with Walt Nauta in attendance.

A 2003 article in the Pacific Daily News described Waltine Nauta, then 20, as a petty officer 3rd class who had not been back to Guam for a year when he returned with other crew members of the USS Kitty Hawk, a ship based in Japan, for a port visit.
He was visiting and planning to spend time with family and friends, the article said.

“It always feels good to come back home. We just want to relax, especially coming from the ship, always working hard every day,” Nauta told the newspaper. “I miss the food, definitely. I miss the home cooking. Can’t wait to get the red rice and the chicken kelaguen.”

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump praised Nauta and criticized the Department of Justice.

Trump wrote that the “thugs from the Department of Injustice will be indicting a wonderful man, Walt Nauta, a member of the U.S. Navy, who served proudly with me in the White House, retired as Senior Chief, and then transitioned into private life as a personal aide.”

Trump’s statement continued: “He has done a fantastic job! They are trying to destroy his life, like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about ‘Trump.’ He is strong, brave and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT!”

Walt Nauta’s Aunt Says He Acted ‘at the Direction’ of Trump

GettyDonald Trump.

Pauline Torre, his mother, told the Washington Post that it “says it all” that Walt Nauta was chosen to be Trump’s valet.

Elly Nauta, his aunt, told The Post that Nauta acted “at the direction of the former president.”

“All he was instructed was to put the boxes where they were supposed to go,” she told The Post. Family members praised Nauta to the Post as a “good boy” who moved to the United States “to enjoy his life, not to cause problems.”

The indictment says Trump, as president, “had lawful access to the most sensitive classified documents and national defense information gathered and owned by the United States government.”

According to the indictment, Trump “gathered newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, official documents, and other materials in cardboard boxes that he kept in the White House. Among the materials Trump stored in his boxes were hundreds of classified documents.”

“The classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack,” the indictment against Trump and Nauta reads.

The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents “could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources, and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods,” the indictment says.

When Trump left the White House he “caused scores of boxes, many of which contained classified documents, to be transported to The Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he maintained his residence. Trump was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents,” the indictment reads.

The indictment accuses Trump of storing the boxes with classified documents in various locations at Mar-a-Lago, including “in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room.”

Trump is accused of “directing defendant Waltine Nauta to move boxes of documents to conceal them from Trump’s attorney, the FBI and the grand jury.

The indictment gives many examples of Nauta being involved with Trump’s boxes. In one key passage, the indictment accuses him of moving boxes before Trump’s attorney searched them to comply with a subpoena.

READ NEXT: The Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith’s Wife Katy Chevigny.

Josh Lorence is a Florida restaurant executive who is the husband of federal Judge Aileen Cannon.

Cannon has been randomly assigned to preside over the classified documents criminal case against former President Donald Trump, The New York Times reported. She is a Trump appointee, whose previous ruling involving a special master in the case, which was favorable to Trump, was overturned by a conservative appellate panel.

Cannon is a former prosecutor, according to her questionnaire to the U.S. Senate.

According to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Judge Aileen M. Cannon works out of the Alto Lee Adams, Sr. United States Courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. When Josh Lorence Proposed to Aileen Cannon on a Trip to Athens, His Proposal Was Interrupted By a Turtle

Bobby\’s BurgersJosh Lorence

A story on the couple’s wedding in The Knot chronicles Lorence’s proposal to Cannon.

The article reported that Cannon, then a 28-year-old attorney, received a proposal from Josh Lorence, her boyfriend of five years, while they were vacationing in Athens. The story described Lorence as a 27-year-old restaurant manager at the time.

Lorence became distracted during the proposal by a “huge turtle” that walked past them, the story says. They were married in a “traditional wedding” in Coconut Grove, Florida, the article says.

His father’s obituary indicates that Lorence has roots in Michigan.

2. Josh Lorence Is a Restaurant Executive Who Works for Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay

GettyPhoto by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Lorence is an executive for Bobby’s Burgers, which is celebrity chef Bobby Flay’s restaurant chain, the chain’s website says.

Bobby’s Burgers’ website described Lorence as an “experienced restaurant operations executive with a demonstrated record of success leading and growing start-up and established quick-service and fast casual brands.”

Bobby’s Burgers’ website described Lorence as the chief operating officer of the brand. He started working in that role for Bobby’s Burgers Palace in 2015 and now serves as that position for Bobby’s Burgers by Bobby Flay.

He oversees “all operations, training, supply chain, and brand innovation,” the website says.

Previously, Lorence served as director of operations and development and chief operating officer for Burgerfi International LLR, growing the company from “two units to more than 60,” the website says.

He was previously founder and managing partner for AIM Restaurant Consulting, in Washington D.C., focusing on “QSR and fast casual concepts.”

He worked for brands including Bon Chon Chicken, Elevation Burger, and Jimmy John’s, providing operations and “growth strategies,” according to Bobby’s Burgers.

An old Twitter account in his name has no tweets, and he followed only one page, an establishment called Brisk Bodega. His LinkedIn page is deleted.

3. Aileen Cannon & Her Husband Have 2 Children Together

Lorence and Cannon have two children, The Times reported. Heavy is not naming the children to protect their privacy.

Cannon received a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 2003, and her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 2007, FJC.gov wrote.

The couple lives in Florida, according to her Senate questionnaire. Public records say the couple lives in a home worth over $1 million, but Heavy is withholding more details on it for the judge’s privacy.

4. Aileen Cannon’s Mother Escaped Cuba, But She Was Born in Colombia

US District CourtAileen Cannon.

According to FJC.gov, Cannon was born in 1981 in Cali, Colombia.

At her Judiciary Committee hearing, she said that her maternal grandparents “were forced to leave everything they had. They taught me always to be thankful for this country and to cherish our constitutional democracy,” according to The Times.

According to The Times, she grew up in Miami. Her mother Mercedes Cubas had fled Cuba “as a young girl after the 1959 Communist revolution,” and the family of her father, Michael Cannon, had roots in Indiana.

She graduated from a private school in Coconut Grove, Florida, where she played water polo and was considered “popular and studious,” the Times reported.

Alejandro Miyar, a lawyer who knew Cannon in school and worked for the Obama administration, wrote a letter supporting her nomination that called her “personable and trustworthy, a genuinely caring person,” the Times reported.

5. Aileen Cannon Was Nominated to the Federal Bench by Donald Trump in 2020

GettyDonald Trump.

According to Ballotpedia, Aileen Mercedes Cannon was nominated by President Donald Trump to the federal bench on May 21, 2020, and she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 56-21 vote on November 12, 2020.

The Office of Senator Marco Rubio first contacted her about the federal judgeship, her questionnaire says.

Before her nomination, Cannon “was an assistant United States attorney, serving in the appellate section’s criminal division, in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida from 2013 to 2020,” Ballotpedia reported.

READ NEXT: The Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith’s Wife Katy Chevigny.

Aileen Cannon is a federal judge and former prosecutor in Florida who was nominated to the bench by former President Donald Trump and who is presiding over his federal classified documents case.

According to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Judge Aileen M. Cannon works out of the Alto Lee Adams, Sr. United States Courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Read her answers to questions from the U.S. Senate when she was nominated here and here.

The New York Times reported that the Trump criminal case was randomly assigned to Cannon. According to CNN, Cannon “would have wide latitude to control timing and evidence in the case and be able to vet the Justice Department’s legal theory.” A previous ruling she made in the case, which sided with Trump in his request for a special master to review documents, was overturned by an appellate court, CNN reported.

Since Cannon was assigned to the case, memes have flown on Twitter by critics who say she won’t be fair since Trump appointed her. However, a photo showing a woman at a Trump rally in a Trump hat is not Cannon.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Aileen Cannon, a Member of the Federalist Society, Was Nominated to the Federal Bench by Then-President Donald Trump in May 2020 After She Was Contacted by the Office of United States Senator Marco Rubio

US District CourtAileen Cannon.

According to Ballotpedia, Aileen Mercedes Cannon was nominated by President Donald Trump to the federal bench on May 21, 2020, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 56-21 vote on November 12, 2020.

Cannon’s questionnaire says that she received an email from the Office of Senator Marco Rubio in 2019 about the judicial position.

You can see a roll call vote from her nomination here.

According to the Ballotpedia, Cannon’s nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on a vote of 16-6.

She has been a member of the conservative Federalist Society since 2005, according to her Senate questionnaire. “I joined the Federalist Society in 2005 as a law student at the University of Michigan Law School. I did so because I enjoyed the diversity of legal viewpoints discussed at Federalist Society meetings and events,” Cannon wrote in the questionnaire. “I also found interesting the organization’s discussions about the constitutional separation of powers, the rule of law, and the limited role of the judiciary to say what the law is—not to make the law.”

2. Aileen M. Cannon Served as an Assistant United States Attorney, Prosecuting Narcotics, Fraud, Immigration & Other Criminal Cases

Before her nomination, Cannon “was an assistant United States attorney, serving in the appellate section’s criminal division, in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida from 2013 to 2020,” Ballotpedia reported.

Cannon served as a law clerk for Federal Judge Steven M. Colloton and was in private practice in Washington D.C. from 2009 through 2012, the site reports. She worked for the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and Squire Sanders LLP (now Squire Patton Boggs), according to her Senate questionnaire. Cannon also worked as a paralegal specialist for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section from 2003 through 2005, it says.

Her Senate questionnaire says she cited a criminal case, United States vs. Gibbs, as one of her most significant cases. She “authored the government’s brief on appeal and presented oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit,” the document says.

Cannon told the Senate: “The United States took the position that, based on the evidentiary record developed at the suppression hearing, the district court clearly erred by crediting the testimony of the defendant’s two relatives over the consistent testimony of the two detectives on the sole issue whether the detectives drew their weapons and issued forcible commands as they approached the stopped car.”

Cannon said she did not believe that police officers’ testimony should be given more weight simply because they are officers.

Asked about Roe v. Wade, she said that district courts must adhere to U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the questionnaire says. She said in the questionnaire that she was an “originalist,” writing, “Yes. I understand originalism to be a judicial philosophy that interprets the text of a given legal provision based on the ordinary public meaning of the words as understood at the time of ratification or enactment.”

She declined to discuss many hot-button issue, including voter fraud, writing, “It is my understanding that the issue of in-person voter fraud has been and continues to be a matter of public debate and has been and will continue to be the subject of pending or impending litigation in federal courts. For that reason, it would be improper for me to discuss any personal views that I may have on that issue.”

Asked which groups she has belonged to, she listed Delta Delta Delta Fraternity and the Moorings Yacht & Country Club, among others. She also listed a number of awards she has received.

Under writings, she listed legal articles, including one about the dismissal of fraud charges in a securities case, and a Spanish-language story about tomatoes reducing tumors from 2002.

She listed a number of articles for the El Nuevo Herald that year about a variety of topics, from prenatal yoga, to the musical heritage of Puerto Rico. She listed no political activities. She wrote for El Nuevo while spending a semester in Spain, The Times reported.

As a prosecutor, she wrote that she was an appellate attorney who represented the government in criminal appeals. She handled 41 cases prosecuting defendants for firearms, narcotics, fraud and immigration cases while assigned to major crimes.

She authored 51 appellate briefs. In private practice, the “majority of my work consisted of representing individuals and entities in government investigations and securities enforcement and regulatory proceedings,” she wrote in the questionnaire. One prosecution she handled on appeal involved a man convicted in a large-scale Ponzi scheme, the questionnaire says.

The New York Times reported that Cannon “had limited trial experience because she focused on appellate work” and was not a well-known attorney before the Trump case.

3. Aileen Mercedes Cannon, Who Was Born in Cali, Colombia, Is Married to a Restaurant Executive Who Works for Celebrity Chef Bobby Flay’s Burger Chain

Bobby\’s BurgersJosh Lorence

According to FJC.gov, Cannon was born in 1981 in Cali, Colombia.

She received a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 2003, and her law degree from the University of Michigan Law School in 2007, FJC.gov wrote.

She went to Thurgood Marshall Academy in Washington DC to read and tutor young children.

A story on her wedding in The Knot says that Cannon, then a 28-year-old attorney, received a proposal from Josh Lorence, her boyfriend of five years, while they were on vacation in Athens. The story described Lorence as a 27-year-old restaurant manager at the time.

The story says he became distracted during the proposal by a “huge turtle” that walked past. They were married in a “traditional wedding” in Coconut Grove, Florida, the article says.

Lorence is an executive for Bobby’s Burgers, which is Bobby Flay’s restaurant chain, the chain’s website says. They have two children, The Times reported. Bobby’s Burgers website described Lorence as an “experienced restaurant operations executive with a demonstrated record of success leading and growing start-up and established quick-service and fast casual brands.”

At her Judiciary Committee hearing, she said that her maternal grandparents “were forced to leave everything they had. They taught me always to be thankful for this country and to cherish our constitutional democracy,” she said, according to The Times.

According to The Times, she grew up in Miami. Her mother Mercedes Cubas had fled Cuba “as a young girl after the 1959 Communist revolution,” and the family of her father, Michael Cannon, had roots in Indiana.

She graduated from a private school in Coconut Grove, Florida, where she played water polo and was considered “popular and studious,” the Times reported.

Alejandro Miyar, a lawyer who knew Cannon in school and worked for the Obama administration, wrote a letter supporting her nomination that called her “personable and trustworthy, a genuinely caring person,” the Times reported.

4. Judge Aileen Cannon’s Previous Ruling Granting Trump’s Request for a Special Master Was Overturned by a Highly Critical Conservative Panel of Appellate Judges

According to The New York Times, Cannon has already made a controversial ruling in the Trump case when she granted his request for a special master to review materials seized from Mar-a-Lago in the investigation.

The Times described the decision as the “extraordinary and unusually broad decision, which could delay the criminal investigation,” writing that it “drew scrutiny from experts who questioned her legal reasoning and criticized some of the language in her opinion about what rights a former president is entitled to.”

Trump’s former Attorney General Bill Barr told the Times he believed Cannon’s decision was wrong. The conservative panel of 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges overturned her decision in that case, criticizing it in strong terms. The Times reported that numerous legal experts criticized Cannon’s ruling.

“The law is clear,” the appeals court wrote. “We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

The court also wrote that Cannon’s decision would mark a “radical reordering of our caselaw limiting the federal courts’ involvement in criminal investigations” and that “both would violate bedrock separation-of-powers limitations.”

5. Aileen Cannon Was Described by a Defense Attorney as a ‘Freethinker’ Who Sometimes Sides Against the Government

GettyDonald Trump.

Cannon was listed as qualified by a substantial majority and well-qualified by a minority by the American Bar Association in 2020.

Valentin Rodriguez Jr., a defense lawyer in Florida who has squared off against Cannon when she was a prosecutor, told The New York Times she was “thorough, meticulous and often willing to rule against the government.”

“The general feeling that I’ve gotten from her is, ‘I don’t buy everything the government has to tell me,’” Rodriguez told The Times. “You can’t expect that if you and the government have some sort of agreement, over sentencing or a plea, that that’s necessarily going to convince. In that sense, you could call her something of a freethinker.”

READ NEXT: The Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith’s Wife Katy Chevigny.

Ted Kaczynski, the man known as the “Unabomber,” has died in prison, the Associated Press reported, citing the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

ABC News, The New York Times, CNN, and other major news outlets reported that Kaczynski died of a possible suicide. ABC News reported that Kaczynski’s death was being investigated as a possible suicide, but there is no formal cause of death determination yet. The news sites cited unnamed sources.

According to ABC News, Kaczynski was found dead in his prison cell on the morning of June 10, 2023. He had been moved to a “medical facility in North Carolina in December 2021 due to poor health,” ABC reported.

According to the AP, the Bureau of Prisons declined to elaborate on Kaczynski’s medical condition when he was moved. He was 81-years-old when he died, AP reported. Heavy has reached out to the Bureau of Prisons for additional details.

Here’s what you need to know:

According to the FBI, the ‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski Built Homemade Bombs That Killed 3 People & Injured ‘Nearly 2 Dozen More’

fbi.govTed Kaczynski, a/k/a the Unabomber.

According to the FBI, Theodore Kaczynski “came to our attention in 1978 with the explosion of his first, primitive homemade bomb at a Chicago university. Over the next 17 years, he mailed or hand delivered a series of increasingly sophisticated bombs that killed three Americans and injured nearly two dozen more. Along the way, he sowed fear and panic, even threatening to blow up airliners in flight.”

The FBI’s page on the Unabomber says the “big break in the case came in 1995.”

“The Unabomber sent us a 35,000 word essay claiming to explain his motives and views of the ills of modern society. After much debate about the wisdom of ‘giving in to terrorists,’ FBI Director Louis Freeh and Attorney General Janet Reno approved the task force’s recommendation to publish the essay in hopes that a reader could identify the author,” the FBI reported. “After the manifesto appeared in The Washington Post, thousands of people suggested possible suspects.”

The Unabomber’s Brother Identified Him to Authorities, the FBI Says

GettyScreen shot, from WBBM-TV Chicago, shows a high school yearbook photo (from Evergreen, Illinois in 1958) of Theodore Kaczynski, April 3, 1996.

According to the FBI, after the publication of the manifesto, Kaczynski’s brother David Kaczynski came forward to authorities and “described his troubled brother Ted, who had grown up in Chicago, taught at the University of California at Berkeley (where two of the bombs had been placed), then lived for a time in Salt Lake City before settling permanently into the primitive 10’ x 14’ cabin that the brothers had constructed near Lincoln, Montana.”

The brother “provided letters and documents written by his brother. Our linguistic analysis determined that the author of those papers and the manifesto were almost certainly the same. When combined with facts gleaned from the bombings and Kaczynski’s life, that analysis provided the basis for a search warrant,” the FBI wrote.

“On April 3, 1996, investigators arrested Kaczynski and combed his cabin. There, they found a wealth of bomb components; 40,000 handwritten journal pages that included bomb-making experiments and descriptions of Unabomber crimes; and one live bomb, ready for mailing,” the FBI continued.

According to the FBI, the deceased victims included the president of the California Forestry Association, an advertising executive, and the owner of a Sacramento computer store. The United Airlines president, a geneticist, and an engineering student were among the victims who survived attacks by the Unabomber, according to the FBI.

READ NEXT: The Trump Prosecutor Jack Smith’s Wife Katy Chevigny.

Waltine Nauta is a veteran of the United States Navy and the assistant and former valet to former President Donald Trump who is accused of being Trump’s “co-conspirator” in the federal indictment against Trump relating to his storing of classified materials at Mar-a-Lago.

The U.S. government has unsealed the full Trump indictment charging both the former president and Nauta, who also uses the name Walt Nauta.

The indictment accuses Nauta of helping conceal boxes from Trump’s attorney after a grand jury subpoena and of making misleading statements.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Walt Nauta, Who Is From Guam, Is Described in the Indictment as a ‘Member of the United States Navy’ Who Served as Donald Trump’s ‘Body Man’

The indictment calls Nauta Trump’s “co-conspirator.”

“Defendant Nauta was a member of the United States Navy stationed as a valet in the White House during Trump’s presidency,” the indictment says.

Starting in August 2021, “Nauta became an executive assistant in The Office of Donald J. Trump and served as Trump’s personal aide or ‘body man.'” the indictment says.

“Nauta reported to Trump, worked closely with Trump, and traveled with Trump,” it says.

The New York Post reported that Nauta is now retired from the Navy, where he served as a cook.

Nauta’s Facebook page contains several photos of him in uniform and says he is from Agat, Guam. Guamanian records and old newspaper articles say that Nauta married Savannah Lyn Rogers in 2012 in Guam, but it’s not clear whether they are still married.

His aunt told The Washington Post that Nauta acted at Trump’s direction.

The indictment says Trump, as president, “had lawful access to the most sensitive classified documents and national defense information gathered and owned by the United States government.”

According to the indictment, Trump “gathered newspapers, press clippings, letters, notes, cards, photographs, official documents, and other materials in cardboard boxes that he kept in the White House. Among the materials Trump stored in his boxes were hundreds of classified documents.”

“The classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack,” the indictment against Trump and Nauta reads.

The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents “could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources, and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods,” the indictment says.

When Trump left the White House he “caused scores of boxes, many of which contained classified documents, to be transported to The Mar-a-lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he maintained his residence. Trump was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents,” the indictment reads.

The indictment accuses Trump of storing the boxes with classified documents in various locations at Mar-a-Lago, including “in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room.”

2. Donald Trump Called Waltine Nauta ‘Strong, Brave & a Great Patriot’

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump praised Nauta and criticized the Department of Justice.

Trump wrote that the “thugs from the Department of Injustice will be indicting a wonderful man, Walt Nauta, a member of the U.S. Navy, who served proudly with me in the White House, retired as Senior Chief, and then transitioned into private life as a personal aide.”

Trump’s statement continued: “He has done a fantastic job! They are trying to destroy his life, like the lives of so many others, hoping that he will say bad things about ‘Trump.’ He is strong, brave and a Great Patriot. The FBI and DOJ are CORRUPT!”

3. The Indictment Accuses Trump of ‘Directing Defendant Waltine Nauta’ to Move Boxes to Conceal Them From Trump’s Attorney, the FBI, and the Grand Jury

Trump is accused of “directing defendant Waltine Nauta to move boxes of documents to conceal them from Trump’s attorney, the FBI and the grand jury.

According to the indictment, in January 2021, as he was preparing to leave the White House, Trump and his White House staff, including Nauta, packed items “including some of Trump’s boxes. Trump was personally involved in the process.”

From January through

4. A Lawyer for Walt Nauta Is Accusing a Prosecutor of Bringing Up His Application for a Judgeship to Get Nauta to Cooperate With the Investigation

According to NBC, a lawyer for Nauta, described by the network as Trump’s “butler and body man,” is accusing a prosecutor, Jay Bratt, of inappropriately pressuring him “by bringing up his application for a judgeship in Washington, D.C.”

The lawyer, Stanley Woodward, accused Bratt in a letter filed with the chief federal judge in Washington of having “raised the issue of the judgeship at a meeting in October at the Justice Department,” when prosecutors were trying to urge Nauta to cooperate with the investigation, saying he had lied, NBC reported.

According to the indictment, executive order 13526 “provided that a former president could obtain a waiver of the ‘need to know; requirement, if the agency head or senior agency official of the agency that originated the classified information” determined access was consistent with the interest of national security and took appropriate steps to protect the classified information. Trump did not obtain any such waiver, the indictment says.

It says that Trump retained classified documents involving the CIA, the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency and more.

The indictment quotes numerous comments Trump made about classified information including, “In my administration I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”

5. The Indictment Accuses Walt Nauta of Moving Boxes Before Trump’s Attorney Came to Look at Them

The indictment gives many examples of Nauta being involved with Trump’s boxes. In one key passage, the indictment accuses him of moving boxes before Trump’s attorney searched them to comply with a subpoena.

In December 2021, Nauta found several of Trump’s boxes fallen and their contents spilled onto the floor of the Storage Room, including a document marked ‘SECRET/REL to USA,FVEY” which denoted the information was releasable only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom, the indictment says.

Nauta texted a Trump employee, “I opened the door and found this” and attached two photos, it says.

In May 2021, Trump caused some of his boxes to be brought to his summer residence at the Bedminster Club., which was not an authorized location to store classified documents, the indictment says.

In May 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration demanded that Trump turn over presidential records or it would refer it to the Department of Justice.

Between November 2021 and January 2022, Nauta and another Trump employee at Trump’s direction brought boxes from the Storage Room to Trump’s residence for Trump to review, the indictment said.

Trump’s employee texted Nauta about Trump’s review of the contents of his boxes asking “Has he mentioned boxes to you? I delivered some, but I think he may need more. Could you ask if he’d like more in pine hall?” the indictment says.

Nauta replied, it says, “Nothing about boxes yet. He has one he’s working on in pine hall. Knocked out two boxes yesterday.”

On January 15, 2022, Nauta texted a Trump employee, “One thing he asked was for new covers for the boxes for Monday m. Morning. Can we get new box covers before giving these to them on Monday They have too much writing on the . . . I marked too much.”

The Trump employee and Nauta gathered 15 boxes from Trump’s residence and loaded the boxes in Nauta’s car and took them to a commercial truck for delivery to NARA, the indictment says.

When interviewed by the FBI in May 2022, Nauta “made false and misleading statements including: falsely stating that he was not aware of Trump’s boxes being brought to Trump’s residence for his review before Trump provided 15 boxes to NARA in January 2022,” the indictment says.

It also accuses Nauta of “falsely stating that he did not know how the boxes that he and the Trump employee 2 brought from trumps residence to the commercial truck for delivery to NARA on January 17, 2022, had gotten to the residence.”

“When asked whether he knew where Trump’s boxes had been stored before they were in Trump’s residence and whether they had been in a secure or locked location, Nauta falsely responded ‘I wish, I wish I could tell you. I don’t know. I don’t – I honestly just don’t know,” the indictment says.

On May 22, 2022, after the grand jury subpoena, Nauta entered the store room and left carrying one of Trump’s boxes, the indictment says.

Trump told his attorney “ . . . what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t pay ball with them” and “Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents? Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here,” the indictment says.

Nauta removed at Trump’s direction a total of approximately 64 boxes from the storage room and brought them to Trump’s residence, the indictment says.

A Trump family member texted Nauta, writing, “Good afternoon Walt . . . I saw you put boxes to Potus room . . . Not sure how many he wants to take on Friday on the plane. We will NOT have a room for them. Plane will be full with luggage,” the indictment says, adding that at one point, Nauta spoke with Trump for 30 seconds.

Before Trump’s attorney’s review of the boxes in the storage room, Nauta at Trump;s direction moved approximately 64 boxes from the storage room to Trump’s residence and brought to the storage room only approximately 30 boxes,” the indictment says.

Nauta took the attorney to a room to meet with Trump, who asked “did you find anything? Is it bad good?” the indictment says.

“Trump had directed Nauta to move boxes before Trump attorney 1’s June 2 review so that many boxes were not searched and many documents responsive to the May 11 subpoena could not be found,” the indictment says, adding that, “Nauta and others loaded several of Trump’s boxes on an aircraft that flew Trump and his family north for the summer.”

Trump is accused of retaining 31 documents relating to national defense.

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A Las Vegas UFO video and 911 call released by police in Nevada have gone viral after a family reported an alien crash in their backyard.

According to 8NewsNow, which obtained the body camera video from police, a Las Vegas family told authorities that something had crashed in their backyard on April 30, 2023, and they believed they saw aliens. “Several people saw it,” the television station reported.

“A circular imprint in the dirt” is visible in their backgyard, 8NewsNow reported.

The report comes shortly after David Charles Grusch, a U.S. Air Force veteran, intelligence official and UFO whistleblower, accused the government of possessing “intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin,” according to The Debrief.

Here’s what you need to know:

A Police Body Cam Video Captured the Light Falling & Police Then Spoke With the Family

A police body cam video captured a green or blue ball falling to the ground, and the family made the 911 call a short time later, according to The New York Post.

Officers were sent to speak with the family. “I have butterflies bro — saw a shooting star and now these people say there’s aliens in their backyard,” an officer says in the body cam video.

Officers then spoke with the family members who made the 911 call.

“What did you see?” an officer asks in the body cam video.

“It was like a big creature,” one witness said.

“A big creature?” the officer asked.

“Yea, more than 10 feet tall,” the witness said.

“I’m not going to BS, you guys. One of my partners said they saw something fall out of the sky, too,” the officer said. “So that’s why I’m kind of curious. Did you see anything land in your backyard?”

“They see like something with light,” a family member says. Police then investigated in the backyard, but that part of the video wasn’t released.

An officer asked another person in a car, “This might sound like a really dumb question, but did you guys see anything fall out of the sky? I would normally discount it as nothing; however, seeing as one of my partners said they saw it too, the only reason I’m investigating it further.”

8NewsNow said it remained undetermined what fell into the backyard and the creatures were gone.

A 911 Caller Told a Dispatcher, ‘They Look Like Aliens to Us. Big Eyes’

Here is the conversation between the 911 caller and a police dispatcher, per a video posted by ABC7 Chicago.

“Me, my dad and my brother were working on a truck in our backyard. and we have a big lot outside . . . We just see in the corner of our eye something falls down from the sky, and it was with lights. And when it hit down, it was like a big impact, and we felt it,” the 911 caller said.

“We felt like an energy. And then we hear like a lot of footsteps near us. And then we have a big equipment. We see there’s like an 8 foot person beside it and another one inside it, and it has big eyes and it’s looking at us,” the caller said.

Dispatcher: “OK, where is this on your property?”

Caller: “In my backyard. I swear to God this is not a joke, this is actually — we’re terrified.”

Dispatcher: “So, there’s two people or there’s two subjects in your backyard?”

Caller: “Correct and they’re very large. They’re like 8 foot, 9 feet, 10 foot. They look like aliens to us. Big eyes. They have big eyes. Like, I can’t explain it, and big mouth. They’re shiny eyes and they’re not human. They’re 100% not human.”

Dispatcher: “OK.”

A Las Vegas police communication center report obtained by 8NewsNow says, “PR SAW SOMETHING FALL FROM THE SKY AND HEARING SUBJS IN THE BACKYARD – SUBJS ARE 8-9’ TALL AND LARGE SHINT EYES – PR ADV’D ARE NOT HUMAN.”

The American Meteor Society Tracked 21 Witnesses Who Reported Seeing a ‘Fireball’ Over Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah

The American Meteor Society tracked multiple witness accounts over several states. “We received 21 reports about a fireball seen over AZ, CA, NV and UT on Monday, May 1st 2023 around 06:48 UT,” the Society reports.

The Society included a video by a witness named Brittnee with the reports. A witness in Salt Lake City, Utah, said, according to the Society, “This was extremely bright and seen in the direction of SLC Airport landing flight path, from the 10th floor of my condo. My first thought was that it was a crashing plane because it was low on the horizon angling down. However, it disappeared before it ‘hit.'”

Another witness said, according to the Society, “lOoked like a large shooting star. predominantly green. did kind of “explode” before fading out. had a trail at first but not after.”

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With former President Donald Trump now facing two separate indictments, some are wondering whether a convicted felon can run for or be president.

If Trump were to be convicted – he maintains his innocence against the charges – could he still be president?

That requires some complicated legal analysis, but a felony conviction alone does not bar a person from running for, or serving as, the United States president, according to Politifact.

You can read the Trump indictment here.

Former President Donald Trump has confirmed in a post on Truth Social that he has been indicted in the investigation into classified documents. He called the Biden administration “corrupt.” Trump is already facing pending criminal charges in Manhattan after being accused of falsifying business documents relating to payments to Stormy Daniels.

“We’re learning from our sources that there appears to be at least seven counts here. This ranges from everything from the willful retention of national defense information to conspiracy to a scheme to conceal to false statements and representations,” ABC News’ Katherine Faulders reported.

Here’s what you need to know:

The U.S. Constitution Made No Prohibition on a Felon Running for President

GettyDonald Trump was indicted, he confirmed.

“A criminal conviction does not prevent a person from running for president,” Barbara L. McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor and former U.S. Attorney, told Politifact, when the site explored this question. “The Constitution controls this question, and it makes no prohibition. States can decide their own rules for who is eligible to hold office within their own states, but they cannot disqualify someone from running for president.”

Politifact concluded, “The short answer is legally, it appears that Trump could still run for president, even if convicted of a crime.”

According to Politifact, some might argue whether Section 3 of the 14th Amendment could prevent Trump from running and serving if he is convicted.

Justia.com noted that “at least some of the charges Trump faces could be deemed ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ within the meaning of Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, thus warranting impeachment by the House and removal by the Senate.” This provision would be unlikely to get enough Republican support, Justia noted.

If Trump was incarcerated on election day and was elected that might leave him “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” within the meaning of the Twenty-fifth Amendment,” Justia reported, but the site added that Trump’s cabinet majority and vice president would have to agree.

The Constitution Does Ban People From Serving as President Who ‘Engaged in Insurrection or Rebellion’ But Donald Trump Might Pardon Himself

YouTubeTrump

One Constitutional provision says no person “shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military” who previously taken an oath to support the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof,” Politifact reported.

In that regard, the election probe in Georgia might bear the most danger to a Trump re-election. However, according to Politifact, efforts to keep U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn off the ballot for speaking at a Trump rally just before the January 6 attack failed in federal court.

According to The Atlantic, this provision was passed in the wake of the Civil War and was meant to apply to former Confederates. The Constitution does not define having “engaged in insurrection or rebellion,” and there is “no clear enforcement mechanism.”

However, according to The Atlantic:

In theory, if enough states were to require presidential candidates to affirm that they had not engaged in insurrection or rebellion within the meaning of Section 3 as a precondition to getting on a ballot, other contenders could challenge Trump’s qualifications through whatever mechanisms are provided under each state’s law. But that process would be piecemeal and complicated, with uncertain outcomes, because the scope and meaning of Section 3 have never been definitively litigated.

According to the Atlantic, state prosecutions are not the biggest problem for Trump. However, if prosecutor Jack Smith were to indict and convict Trump under 28 U.S.C. § 2383, that could bar Trump from serving as president. It reads, “Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto … shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States,” The Atlantic reported.

Justia.com reported, however, that Trump could try to pardon himself. 1871, the Supreme Court “ruled that someone who had received a presidential pardon could not be deemed disloyal in virtue of his having participated on the Confederate side of the Civil War,” the site reported.

According to the Atlantic, the Constitution’s prohibitions on being president require a candidate to be a “natural-born U.S. citizen,” at least age 35, and a U.S. resident for at least 14 years.

Other Indicted Candidates Have Run for Office

Other indicted candidates have run for office. The New York Times cited former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who ran for president while under felony indictment and socialist candidate Eugene Debs, who was in federal prison when he ran unsuccessfully for president in 1920.

According to ABC, central to Smith’s case “is determining whether lawyers who represented the former president falsely certified in response to a grand jury subpoena that Trump had returned all classified records to the government, or whether Trump himself sought to conceal records that he might have unlawfully retained.”

The probe began in 2022 when National Archives officials “asked the Justice Department to investigate Trump’s handling of White House records.” According to ABC News, the National Archives “retrieved 15 boxes of records from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that had been improperly taken in violation of the Presidential Records Act.”

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