Kamala Harris Still Raising Money for ‘Freedom Fund’ That Busts Murderers and Rapists Out of Jail

Minnesota Freedom Fund posted bail for rapists and other violent criminals

 

Andrew Kerr

July 22, 2024

 

Vice President Kamala Harris is actively raising money for a bail fund that busts violent criminals from jail as her nascent presidential campaign signals her candidacy will lean heavily on her roots as a tough-on-crime former prosecutor.

Harris urged her followers to donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund in June 2020 as Black Lives Matter rioters wreaked havoc in Minneapolis in the days following George Floyd’s death. Harris’s fundraising efforts helped the fund raise more than $41 million in 2020, but the group only used a small fraction of that bounty—$210,000—to bail rioters out of jail. The remaining funds helped post bail for violent criminals such as Christopher Boswell, a twice-convicted rapist who was freed from jail in 2020 pending kidnapping and sexual assault charges after the Minnesota Freedom Fund paid $350,000 for his release.

"The last time we were down there, the clerk said, ‘we hate it when you bail out these sex offenders, that is what they said,’" former Minnesota Freedom Fund interim executive director Greg Lewin told Fox9 in August 2020.

The Minnesota Freedom Fund continues to reap dividends from Harris’s fundraising efforts well into 2024. The vice president’s fundraising page for the group, which contains a photo of a triumphant Harris before a crowd of supporters alongside her 2020 campaign logo, is active and accepted a contribution from this reporter on Monday morning.

Harris criticized the cash bail system as a major contributor to systemic racism during her failed 2020 presidential campaign. But Harris sang a different tune about cash bail when she served as San Francisco district attorney in 2004. Back then, Harris touted cash bail as an invaluable tool to reduce violent crime in her city and pledged to increase rates to dissuade people from coming to San Francisco "to commit crimes because it’s cheaper to do it," the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Top Harris aides signaled Monday that Harris will adopt a "prosecutor for president" framework for her 2024 campaign, CNN reported. Former president Donald Trump’s campaign said Monday it will highlight Harris’s support of the Minnesota Freedom Fund to counter her tough-on-crime persona.

"Kamala Harris encouraged people to contribute to a bail fund to free violent rioters. One of those freed ended up being charged with murder," Trump super PAC MAGA Inc posted on X. "Kamala Harris bails out criminals, and Americans pay the price."

The Minnesota Freedom Fund was a small charity with a $230,000 budget before Harris and other prominent Democrats helped transform the fund into a $41 million powerhouse in 2020. Before Floyd’s death, the fund could only afford an average bail of $342. After receiving its financial windfall, its average bail ballooned to over $13,000, Fox9 reported, enabling it to free hardened criminals from jail.

Lewin, the fund's former interim executive director, said in August 2020 that a defendant's charges had no bearing on whether or not he would fork over donated funds to secure their release, a policy that had deadly consequences for Minnesotans.

"I often don’t even look at a charge when I bail someone out," Lewin said. "I will see it after I pay the bill because it is not the point. The point is the system we are fighting."

Career criminal George Howard shot and killed a man during a road rage incident in August 2021, just three weeks after the Minnesota Freedom Fund bailed him out of jail, the Free Beacon reported.

Later, in May 2022, repeat felon Shawn Michael Tillman shot and killed a passenger on a St. Paul light rail platform after the Minnesota Freedom Fund posted his bail the month prior on an unrelated indecent exposure charge.

The Harris campaign did not return a request for comment. [SOURCE]

 

 

7 New Details About Donald Trump's Would-Be Assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks

GOVERNMENT TODAY: Correctional Officer openly laments the failure of the Trump assassin

This is Rhonda Melvin Goode, a Correctional Officer in NC. She appears very sad the sh**ter missed and suggests it was all staged.

She's a Government employee. Our taxes pay her salary.

We reached out to @NCCorrection and they said they are reviewing it to "determine… pic.twitter.com/O2AMiIPHZB

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 23, 2024

DSSO_Peter Strzok and Lisa Page quietly reach ‘tentative agreement’ to stop suing DOJ for releasing anti-Trump texts, but some of fired FBI agent’s claims may live on

Left: Peter Strzok, center, the FBI agent facing criticism following a series of anti-Trump text messages, walks to gives a deposition before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 27, 2018 (AP Photo/Alex Brandon). Right: Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page leaves following an interview with lawmakers behind closed doors on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, July 13, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

 

Matt Naham 

May 29th, 2024, 12:05 pm

 

Fired FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page have tentatively agreed to settle Privacy Act violation claims against the U.S. Department of Justice stemming from the 2017 release of anti-Donald Trump texts messages they exchanged in 2015 and 2016.

A joint status report filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia said that the plaintiffs and their former employer had agreed to “resolve all” of their Privacy Act claims, “subject to final approval” by the DOJ. As a result, both sides agreed to halt the lawsuits for one month as the tentative settlement is finalized.

 Despite the apparent agreement to end litigation over a number of claims, however, Strzok’s allegations of First Amendment and Fifth Amendment violations still “have not” been resolved.

“Parties hereby request that both cases be stayed until June 28, 2024 in order for the parties to work to reach final written settlements,” the brief court filing noted. “Defendants and Mr. Strzok will file a joint status report on or before June 28, 2024 setting forth their positions on how to proceed with regard to the remaining claims.”

Strzok and Page, remembered for their involvement in both the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server and in former special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Trump and his associates, each sued over the release of texts that led to a public shaming and the end of their FBI careers.

Page, who resigned from the FBI, alleged in her lawsuit that the release of the texts violated her privacy rights. Strzok also alleged privacy violations, but further claimed that he was wrongfully terminated for protected speech in violation of the First Amendment and that his Fifth Amendment right to due process was infringed.

More Law&Crime coverage: Rod Rosenstein must sit for deposition in fired FBI agent Peter Strzok’s suit over disclosure of anti-Trump texts

Strzok was grilled before Congress about his texts with Page, including one referring to an “insurance policy” months before Trump’s 2016 election win.

“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok’s text said. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before 40.”

“[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!” Page asked.

“No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it,” Strzok answered.

Page later explained that the “we” in the texts wasn’t a reference to the FBI as an institution and didn’t support Trump supporters’ claims of a concocted deep state “insurance policy” against his presidency.

“By ‘we,’ [Strzok’s] talking about the collective we: like-minded, thoughtful, sensible people who were not going to vote this person into office. You know, obviously, in retrospect, do I wish he hadn’t sent it? Yes. It’s been mutilated to death, and it’s been used to bludgeon an institution I love, and it’s meant that I’ve disappointed countless people,” she said. “But this is a snapshot in time carrying on a conversation that had happened earlier in the day that reflected a broad sense of, ‘He’s not going to be president.’ We, the democratic people of this country, are not going to let it happen.”

Page said the release of her texts only led to “two years of lies” about her, and that Trump led the charge in trying to “ruin [her] life.”

The cases garnered significant attention from the start, but an appellate court ruling added a layer of intrigue. Despite the objections of the DOJ under U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s watch, the appellate panel said that Strzok’s team could question former President Trump, not a party to the lawsuits, during a two-hour deposition on a “narrow set of topics.”

An attorney for Strzok declined to comment to Law&Crime on whether Strzok’s First and Fifth Amendment claims will also be resolved. [SOURCE]

 

 

 

DSSO_Ex-FBI Lawyer Lisa Page Settles with DOJ over Anti-Trump Text Messages

Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page arrives for a House Judiciary Committee deposition on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 13, 2018. (Leah Millis/Reuters)

 

By David Zimmermann
May 30, 2024 12:43 PM

Former FBI attorney Lisa Page has reached a tentative settlement with the Department of Justice to resolve alleged privacy-rights violations related to text messages she exchanged with former FBI agent Peter Strzok disparaging then-president Donald Trump.

 

Strzok and Page, who were engaging in an extramarital affair at the time, described Trump as an “idiot” and a “loathsome human” in a series of texts sent during the 2016 election. The two also called the possibility of a Trump victory “terrifying.” In one text exchange, Strzok even vowed to “stop” Trump from getting elected.

The messages, which were sent on bureau-issued phones, were leaked to the news media by DOJ officials, prompting Strzok’s termination and Page’s resignation in 2018. Both filed federal lawsuits a year later.

The settlement, which must still be approved by a judge, resolves Page’s five-year-old lawsuit against the DOJ and FBI, alleging the agencies violated her right to privacy by leaking the anti-Trump texts. Page sought $1,000 in compensation for damages.

Strzok’s lawsuit, in which he sued the DOJ to receive back pay and get his job back, remains unsettled. He claimed the FBI caved to political pressure from Trump when the law-enforcement agency fired him, while arguing his First Amendment and due-process rights were violated in the process.

A brief court filing disclosed the tentative deal, withholding any specific terms of agreement. Page and the DOJ have until June 28 to reach a final settlement.

Strzok and Page were involved in the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian collusion with Trump’s presidential campaign ahead of the 2016 election. They also played roles on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team until the texts were discovered. Strzok previously served as a top FBI counterintelligence agent, and Page was an FBI lawyer at the time.

Strzok previously claimed that the opinions expressed in the texts were sent “out of deep patriotism” for the U.S. Meanwhile, Page said the messages were only made public to politically benefit then-attorney general Jeff Sessions, whom Trump criticized at the time for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation after failing to report interactions with a Russian official during the 2016 campaign.

The DOJ has argued that it was allowed to release the text exchanges to the media and larger public, considering they were already disclosed to members of Congress.

Trump called the romantic pair “FBI lovebirds” during his rallies. The term sparked production for a live play, titled “FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers,” at CPAC 2020. Based on the text messages that criticized Trump, the performance starred actors Dean Cain and Kristy Swanson as Strzok and Page, respectively. [SOURCE]

 

Joe Biden: first public appearance since being told he isn't running for re-election

Biden makes his first public appearance since announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race.

pic.twitter.com/rF6Hk14ol4

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) July 23, 2024

DSSO_FBI lovebirds Lisa Page, Peter Strzok conspired in Michael Flynn case: docs

By Social Links for Ebony Bowden Published May 7, 2020 Updated May 7, 2020, 6:55 p.m. ET 

 

WASHINGTON — Disgraced anti-Trump FBI lovebirds Lisa Page and Peter Strzok conspired to keep the case against Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn ongoing when they found out it hadn’t been formally closed, new documents show.

In a tranche of court documents released after the Justice Department dropped its case against Flynn on Thursday, emails between then-lovers Strzok and Page in 2017 revealed they contemplated charging Flynn using the Logan Act as the FBI was preparing to end the investigation.

Two weeks before Trump’s inauguration, Strzok — one of the lead agents on the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election — sent senior FBI lawyer Page a definition of the Logan Act, saying any existing rules on the act “does not involve incoming administrations.”

Page replied: “You are awesome. Thank you.”

The Logan Act makes it a crime for unauthorized Americans to negotiate with a foreign government in a dispute with the United States, but has never resulted in a prosecution.

The emails were sent on the same day that Strzok, then FBI Deputy Assistant Director, learned that the investigation had not been closed in a timely manner, leaving it “unexpectedly, still formally open,” the court papers charge.

Strzok relayed the “serendipitously good” news to Page, telling her, “our utter incompetence actually helps us.”

His former lover, then the Special Counsel to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, reacted with “surprise and relief,” according to the papers. 

Lisa Page and Peter StrzokRonald M. Sachs - CNP; AUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Documents suggest the FBI was prepared to close an investigation into whether Flynn was a Russian agent before Trump took office in January 2017 — but Strzok instructed agents to “keep it open for now.”

Their affair became public in December 2017 and sent shockwaves through Washington when the Justice Department released hundreds of text messages between the pair mocking Donald Trump and his supporters.

The scandal became central to President Trump’s belief that there was bias in the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election that Strzok led and Page worked on.

In late 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about two contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn was attempting to withdraw his guilty plea ahead of sentencing. He says he did not intentionally lie. [SOURCE]

 

Pennsylvania state police commissioner reveals stunning details about Trump shooting

Law enforcement agents stand near the stage of a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

By Holmes Lybrand and Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
Updated 3:58 PM EDT, Tue July 23, 2024

A local law enforcement commissioner revealed during a House Homeland Security hearing on Tuesday stunning new details about the security failures that led to the near assassination of Donald Trump, raising more questions for the embattled US Secret Service.

Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Christopher Paris’ striking testimony comes just one day after now-resigned Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle testified before the House Oversight Committee and largely declined to answer questions about the shooting at the former president’s Pennsylvania rally.

Paris told lawmakers about the communications between the Secret Service and local law enforcement who initially spotted Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin. He also described a more detailed timeline from when officers first spotted Crooks in the crowd to when the 20-year-old opened fire on Trump.

Here’s what to know from Tuesday’s hearing:

Officers left post to look for Crooks

Two local law enforcement officers left a building with vantage points overlooking the roof where Crooks took aim at the former president before he fired shots, Paris testified.

Paris said that two officers with the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, a tactical force with sniper capabilities, left their posts in the building to look for a suspicious individual they spotted first and alerted to other law enforcement. That person was Crooks.

The lawmakers watched video taken during a congressional tour of the rally site Monday, from the building where the ESU officers left their post, showing the roof where Crooks eventually climbed and took shots at Trump.

“So are you then saying, to your knowledge, those ESU officers left the location where they could look out the window to go in search of this person?” Republican Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina asked.

“That is my understanding,” Paris said, adding that the officers went searching with other local officers in the area. “I don’t want to establish a timeline minute by minute because we don’t have that yet.”

Bishop also questioned whether the two officers who left their post could have seen Crooks climb on top of the roof if they had stayed put. Paris said he didn’t know.

Crooks fired eight times

Investigators believe that Crooks fired eight rounds before he was killed by counter-snipers, Paris said.

“I believe that the number is eight,” Paris told the committee. “Eight casings have been recovered.”

Officials had previously only confirmed that the shooter fired multiple times at the rally earlier this month.

Paris also told members of Congress that “several Secret Service agents” told the state police area commander during a walkthrough of the area before the rally that the Butler County Emergency Services Unit was responsible for securing the building where Crooks fired the shots.

Minutes, not seconds

A municipal officer came face-to-face with Crooks several minutes before the would-be assassin fired on Trump, Paris testified.

Paris said that the brief confrontation came as a pair of local officers who had learned of Crooks’ position on the roof attempted to climb up and confront the shooter. But while the officer was “dangling” from the roof, Crooks aimed his rifle at the officer and the officer fell.

“If the first shots rang out at 18:11 (6:11 pm), the hoisting up of the officer occurred probably no more – again I’m going to give you a time but I want to just put it in the context of a sequence of events – I would say at most two and a half to three minutes before that first shot rang out,” Paris said.

“It was minutes. It was a very short period of time,” Paris said. 

“But not seconds?” Rep. Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, asked.

“I would say minutes,” Paris said, adding he was answering to the best of his knowledge.

Paris said that whether, or when, the confrontation was relayed to the Secret Service or other law enforcement agencies at the rally “remains under investigation.”

Communications between Secret Service and local law enforcement

Paris also detailed communications among law enforcement about Crooks before Trump took the stage at the rally earlier this month.

According to Paris, “there was a text thread going” with members of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, some of whom initially spotted Crooks and reported him as a suspicious individual.

“At some point when he utilized the range finder, the suspicion was heightened,” Paris said of Crooks.

State Police then received a call and a text from the ESU about Crooks’ activity that they immediately relayed to Secret Service. Local, state and federal law enforcement were in a unified command post at the rally.

State Police “verbally turned right around and gave it to the Secret Service,” Paris said.[SOURCE]

 

 

DSSO_DOJ Slams Former FBI Agent Strzok, Accuses Him of Committing ‘Security Violations’

FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok testifies in Washington, D.C., July 12, 2018.(Leah Millis/Reuters) 

By Zachary Evans
November 19, 2019 11:22 AM 

The Department of Justice (DOJ) slammed former FBI agent Peter Strzok on Monday, in response to a lawsuit brought by Strzok against both the DOJ and FBI. 

Strzok filed the lawsuit in August after he was fired from the FBI, accusing officials of terminating his employment after pressure from President Trump. 

The former agent worked on the investigations into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server for classified emails, foreign interference in the 2016 presidential elections, and the Mueller investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. 

Anti-Trump texts Strzok sent to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was carrying on an extramarital affair, were discovered on his FBI-issued phone. 

“Your excessive, repeated, and politically charged text messages while you were assigned as the lead case agent on the FBI’s two biggest and most politically sensitive investigations in decades, demonstrated a gross lack of professionalism and exceptionally poor judgement,” read the documents from the Justice Department. 

“Your misconduct has cast a pall over the FBI’s Clinton Email and Russia investigations and the work of the Special Counsel.” 

Strzok had written in his texts to Page that “Trump is a f***ing idiot,” and reassured her that Trump would not win the election by saying, “No, he wont. We’ll stop it.” 

The Justice Department also wrote that Strzok had committed a “security violation” after it “uncovered numerous occasions on which you used your personal email account to conduct FBI business.” 

The DOJ further accused Strzok of a “dereliction of supervisory duty” by failing to properly investigate emails and texts between Clinton and adviser Huma Abedin that were discovered on the laptop of Abedin’s former spouse Anthony Weiner. [SOURCE]

ACADEMIA TODAY: More Educators Call For More Successful Attempts At Murdering Trump After Failed Assassination Attempt

Amy Hutter is an administrative assistant at Des Moines Area Community College. She allegedly posted this message hoping for Trump to have a heart attack and seemed sad the sh**ter missed.

We reached out to @DMACC_Bears for comment and they said she doesn’t speak for the college… pic.twitter.com/40pvtQE5MZ

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 23, 2024