The prosecution and defense rested in the Donald Trump felony trial without citing a felony. Donald Trump doesn’t know what crime he committed, so he could not defend himself against it. Brad Smith, the FEC expert Donald Trump planned to call, said Alvin Bragg wants to imprison former President Trump for a maximum of 136 […] The post Trump Felony Trial Goes to Closing with No Felony Cited appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

The FBI issued a statement saying that when Joe Biden’s administration authorized the “use of deadly force” during the 2022 raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, it was largely in accordance with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) — but former Secret Service Agent Dan Bongino argued that there were other factors involved. According to a report published Tuesday by Fox News Digital, an “Operations Order” was handed over as part of the discovery process in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case against Trump — and that order included a “Policy Statement” that said, “Law Enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force when necessary.” The goal of the FBI’s raid on Trump’s property, according to that same order, was to execute a search warrant “to seize classified information, NDI, and US Government records.” Agents were also reportedly instructed to dress in such a way as to hide “law enforcement equipment” despite being authorized to “Standard Issue Weapons, Ammo, Handcuffs, and medium and large sized bolt cutters.” The documents also laid out a series of contingencies, according to a Newsweek report, including having a paramedic at the scene and providing details about the nearest trauma center in the event that anyone involved was to be “injured” during the raid. Contingencies also suggested that agents on the scene “will be prepared to engage with” both the former president and his Secret Service detail if he had returned to Mar-a-Lago while they were still on the property. The FBI responded to reports concerning the newly unsealed documents, saying that the agents who were part of the raid at the former president’s home were acting under SOPs. “The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter.” But according to Bongino, the fact that the raid took place on the home of a former president made it anything but standard — and potentially pitted two federal agencies with equal and competing authorities against each other: the FBI/DOJ who were charged with executing the search warrant and the Secret Service, charged with protecting the former president. “This is absolutely a big deal. Don’t buy the bulls**t otherwise,” Bongino posted via X. “It was not a standard op. The MAL raid was an unprecedented action with significant potential for confusion and blue on blue issues and conflict. It also involved competing equities between federal agencies (FBI & USSS) with equal statutory claims to interrupt the other’s activities. Anyone telling you otherwise is either dumb, or playing dumb. I’ve done more deconfliction with Russians in a foreign op I did for the USSS than the FBI did in their search warrant at MAL. Only a dumba** would pitch the ‘it’s the standard paperwork’ line. Go serve a search warrant at the White House in the cocaine case while filling out your ‘standard paperwork’ and see how that works out for you. Wake up.” Trump responded to the report, which broke while he was in court in Manhattan for his ongoing hush-money trial, sharing his reaction to the news in a post on Truth Social. “WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the ‘Icebox,’ and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE. NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY,” Trump posted, adding, “HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE — 25TH AMENDMENT!” Trump’s trial was previously scheduled to begin on Monday, but Judge Aileen Cannon announced on May 7th that it would be postponed indefinitely. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP “The Court also determines that finalization of a trial date at this juncture—before resolution of the myriad and interconnected pre-trial and [Classified Information Procedures Act] issues remaining and forthcoming—would be imprudent and inconsistent with the Court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the various pending pre-trial motions before the Court, critical CIPA issues, and additional pretrial and trial preparations necessary to present this case to a jury,” Cannon wrote in her decision.

Senate Democrats plan to gin up the abortion issue as the nation nears the second anniversary of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in an effort to win voters in potentially crucial swing states. “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is planning to zero in on reproductive rights next month,” Axios reported.  Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), the No. 3 Senate Democrat, said, “We are certainly going to be talking a lot about [abortion].” “I imagine that there’ll be some more policy legislation that will be discussed — whether it’s on the floor or through committee gatherings,” Sen. Ben Ray Lújan (D-NM) echoed. Democrats went on the attack after Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled in mid-February that embryos are children, thus imperiling the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF). Within a week, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) introduced the ‘‘Access to Family Building Act,’” which would protect the right to IVF treatment; she asked for a unanimous consent vote on her bill, which could have let the bill evade the normal process of review. The bill was blocked by Senate Republicans, who felt the legislation was too broad. “If passed, the AFBA would give any adult the statutory right to create a child using any reproductive technology, including the cloning and genetic editing made possible by CRISPR,” the Heritage Foundation noted. “Indeed, the bill ‘pre-empt[s] any state effort to limit such access,’ meaning that states would be helpless to pass common-sense regulations for IVF that guard against ethical abuses. Colorado’s prohibition on anonymous gamete donation and Louisiana’s embryo protection law, for example, would be in jeopardy if Duckworth’s bill becomes law.” But the Alabama GOP-dominated legislature then passed a bill in early March, signed by Governor Kay Ivey, that protected in vitro fertilization providers from any potential legal liability, making it a moot issue. On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) introduced the IVF Protection Act. An interviewer for Bloomberg asked them why they were introducing a national bill after the Alabama legislature had effectively blocked the state’s Supreme Court ruling. “Unfortunately, we’ve seen a number of people try to fearmonger on this very issue,” Britt responded, referring to the Democrats’ response to the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling. “And so Ted and I came together and we believe this effort should be bi-partisan.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP Cruz then said of Duckworth’s bill, “That bill is a different bill. That bill really seeks to backdoor in broader abortion legislation, which is where the Democratic are, but that’s not IVF … It was ostensibly about IVF, but it was written to give the federal government authority over abortion, potentially to strike down laws governing abortion in states all across the country. I get that’s the Democrats’ agenda.”

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan is demanding answers from the FBI on reports the bureau contacted Americans on behalf of the Brazilian government. Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday seeking answers on reports out of Brazil that suggest the FBI may have played a part in the Brazilian government’s crackdown on critics and journalists. The chairman gave the FBI a deadline of 5 p.m. on June 4. “In Brazil, news outlets have recently reported that the FBI, on behalf of the Brazilian government, reached out to two U.S. residents, including a journalist targeted in some of the censorship orders by Brazilian courts,” says Jordan’s letter, obtained by The Daily Wire. The Ohio Republican then went on to point out the bureau’s recent history of working with the Ukrainian intelligence community to flag the social media accounts of U.S. citizens. “The FBI’s recent outreach raises concerns about whether the FBI is again helping to facilitate a foreign government’s censorship efforts. Free speech, including free speech on digital platforms, is a fundamental and necessary part of democratic and just societies,” Jordan continued. Brazil’s Supreme Court has launched an investigation into speech alleged to be hateful or subversive to law and order, targeting the social media critics of the government and others, including former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. “[T]o understand the nature and extent of the FBI’s interactions with the Brazilian government regarding its censorship efforts and to assist the Committee in its oversight,” Jordan wrote, the Judiciary Committee is requesting the FBI turn over a number of documents and communications related to the bureau’s reported dealings with the Brazilian government. Wealthy tech entrepreneur Elon Musk was wrapped up in the court’s investigation after he said that his platform, X, was being threatened with fines and his employees threatened with jail time unless they comply with court orders to take down some accounts. Musk, a self-proclaimed supporter of free speech, has called the court orders illegal and threatened to release all of X’s communications with the court for the Brazilian public to see. Last month, Musk promised to defy the court’s orders once X employees were in a “safe place.” The federal Supreme Court justice behind the censorship purge, Alexandre de Moraes, then swept Musk into the investigation. CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP “The flagrant conduct of obstruction of Brazilian Justice, incitement to crime, public threat of disobedience to court orders and future lack of cooperation by the platform are facts that disrespect Brazil’s sovereignty and reinforce the connection of the intentional criminal instrumentalization of the activities of the former Twitter,” de Moraes wrote in a court order. The FBI did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.

It’s been six months since “Friends” actor Matthew Perry was discovered dead from a ketamine overdose. Now, the Los Angeles Police Department is launching a joint criminal investigation with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) to determine how the actor had so much of the drug in his system. Perry was discovered dead at his home, in a hot tub, at the age of 54 on October 28, 2023. The sitcom star was determined to have died from an overdose. “At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,” the report said, per The Hollywood Reporter. Contributing factors to the cause of death included drowning and buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid addiction. Perry had been vocal about his struggle for sobriety. He published a tell-all memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” one year prior to his death. The book went into detail about Perry’s excessive drug use over the years. He also discussed using ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, in the book. These experimental treatments are often used to assist with depression, anxiety, PTSD, addiction, chronic pain, and other mental health struggles. “I often thought that I was dying during that hour. Oh, I thought, this is what happens when you die. Yet I would continually sign up for this sh** because it was something different, and anything different is good,” Perry wrote.  The “Friends” star said the treatments made him feel like he was “hit in the head with a giant happy shovel.” He also claimed to get a hangover from the ketamine infusions, saying the aftermath of treatment often “outweighed the shovel.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP The “Friends” star had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy before he died, the outlet noted. Despite Perry having a ketamine session just over a week before his death, the autopsy said this particular visit was not responsible for the overdose because “the ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy since ketamine’s half-life is three to four hours or less.”

As a parent, you get the opportunity to witness many of your kids‘ firsts — like their first time walking and talking. But there are also lots of small firsts sprinkled throughout, like the first time they try a certain food. Most of the time, these moments won’t be particularly memorable. But there’s no doubt that Emma Cotton will always remember her little girl’s first time trying cotton candy. In fact, this is a moment lots of folks will remember. That’s because this hilariously wholesome moment went viral online. In the video, we see the little girl handed a chunk of light pink cotton candy. As soon as the fluffy stuff is in her hands, though, she cradles it gently under her chin as if it were a pillow. Which, honestly, makes a lot of sense when you consider the look and feel of cotton candy. Once her mom demonstrates that she’s supposed to eat it, however, the little girl quickly follows suit. @meetthecottons Experiencing cotton candy for the first time #toddlersoftiktok ♬ original sound – Emma Cotton As you can see, this little girl quickly goes from delighted by her pillow to confused by the melting food in her mouth. Still, she quickly adapts to this unusual treat, seemingly a new fan. I can only imagine that the high sugar count is a huge contributing factor — you know, since that’s what makes up 99% of cotton candy. Adorable Little Girl’s First Time Trying Cotton Candy Melts Hearts Everywhere! “She was mad grateful already when she thought it was just something soft to hold,” someone points out. “She thought she was tasting a blanket, then that sweetness hit,” another writes. “I did the same with my niece,” someone shares. “There’s something so pure about them experiencing things for the first time. The grow up to darn quick though.” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Little Girl Has Her Mind Blown While Trying Cotton Candy For The First Time appeared first on InspireMore.

'Developed a little further'

'Get the relief they are entitled to under the law'

$49.29 gap