Category: Security

This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.

A Russian court has accepted a request by prosecutors to extend the detention of RFE/RL journalist Alsu Kurmasheva after she was picked up earlier this week by police on charges of failing to register as a foreign agent.

The press service of the Sovetsky district Court of Kazan said Kurmasheva’s detention was extended by 72 hours, which would bring it to 1 p.m. Moscow time on October 23.

Wearing a black hooded jacket and a white COVID-style breathing mask, Kurmasheva sat in a glass box and waved during the hearing.

Kurmasheva — a journalist with RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir Service based in the Czech Republic, who holds dual U.S. and Russian citizenship — traveled to Russia for a family emergency in May.

She was temporarily detained while waiting for her return flight on June 2 at Kazan airport, where both of her passports were confiscated. She has not been able to leave Russia since as she awaited the return of her travel documents.

Authorities on October 11 fined Kurmasheva 10,000 rubles ($103) for failing to register her U.S. passport with Russian authorities, according to local media reports based on court documents they’ve seen.

Kurmasheva was detained again on October 18 and charged this time with failing to register as a foreign agent, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The Investigative Committee said that Kurmasheva is suspected of failing “to fulfill the obligation established by the legislation of the Russian Federation to submit to the authorized body documents necessary for inclusion in the register of foreign agents, committed by a person carrying out the targeted collection of information in the field of military, military-technical activities of the Russian Federation, whose receipt by foreign sources can be used against the security of the Russian Federation.”

It did not give any further details.

“We are concerned by the decision to prolong Alsu’s detention,” RFE/RL acting President Jeffrey Gedmin said. “Journalism is not a crime. She must be released to her family immediately.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Moscow was engaged in a campaign to persecute U.S. citizens. He did not comment further on Kurmasheva’s detention.

Russia’s detention of Kurmasheva, the second U.S. media member to be held by Moscow this year, triggered a wave of criticism from rights groups and politicians saying the move signals new level of wartime censorship.

Russia has been accused of detaining Americans to use as bargaining chips to exchange for Russians jailed in the United States. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested for allegedly spying — a charge he and the newspaper vehemently deny — in March.

Since 2012, Russia has used its so-called foreign agent laws to label and punish critics of government policies. It has also been increasingly used to shut down civil society and media groups in Russia since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“The persecution of Alsu Kurmasheva is an example of the relentless crackdown on journalism and the right to freedom of expression in Russia,” said Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

“It also marks an alarming escalation in the harassment of media professionals, as it’s the first time this offence has been used to directly target a journalist for their professional activities, putting her at risk of a five-year imprisonment.”

The UN Human Rights Office, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the chairman of the U.S. House of Representative’s Foreign Affairs Committee also called for the immediate release of Kurmasheva.

The U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports that Kurmasheva had been arrested but it had not received official notification from Russia over the matter.

The foreign agent law allows authorities to label nonprofit organizations as “foreign agents” if they receive funding from abroad and are engaged in political activities.

RFE/RL says the law amounts to political censorship meant to prevent journalists from performing their professional duties and is challenging the authorities’ moves in Russian courts and at the European Court of Human Rights.

More than 30 RFE/RL employees have been listed as “foreign agents” by the Russian Justice Ministry in their personal capacity.

In March, a Moscow court declared the bankruptcy of RFE/RL’s operations in Russia following the company’s refusal to pay multiple fines totaling more than 1 billion rubles ($14 million) for noncompliance with the law.

Bird migration is on the rise, and so are window collisions.

As temperatures slowly drop in Chicago, 300 millions to 400 million birds are crossing the continent heading south to their nesting grounds for the winter, according to Annette Prince, director and president of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, a nonprofit dedicated to the respite and protection of migratory birds through daily rescue efforts.

It’s been a busy few weeks for the organization, Prince said. Volunteers at the nonprofit pick up more than 100 birds a day. Most early mornings, she said, a team of a dozen volunteers covers an area of about a mile and a half, responding to calls from people who live and work downtown and have found birds littering the sidewalks and gutters.

They found 36 injured birds and 31 dead birds Thursday morning, she said.

“A huge variety,” Prince said. “Everything from sparrows to bigger birds like woodpeckers. A northern flicker. Cedar waxwings and warblers — a small, insect-eating bird that comes in yellows, browns and reds.”

Bird migration happens in the spring and fall, according to Michael Patrick Ward, a professor in the University of Illinois’ Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. Fall migration starts in the middle of August and can go through early November, Ward said.

This year’s bird migration started a bit earlier, which he said could be explained partially by the wildfires in Canada that started earlier this summer. Local weather conditions like fog can disorient the birds making their migration routes, many spanning hundreds of miles from the boreal forests in Canada to South America.

“And sometimes at night, they hit windows because they see light and then they fly toward the light,” he said. “Window collisions are something we’re concerned about.”

Chicago is in the middle of the Mississippi Flyway, a round-trip migration bird route that sees over 300 bird species each year. Birds eat all day to save up nutrients and fat to make their long trek at night. But skyscrapers can get in the way.

“It has to be such a foreign world for them because they have really not experienced urban life,” said Prince. “Some of these birds are making their first trip south from forests in Canada. We get a lot of the young birds.”

Volunteers scoop up birds and bring them to Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn for rehabilitation and care. They also take thousands of dead birds each year to the Field Museum for documentation and research.

Prince said more birds migrate in the fall because offspring born in northern nests join their parents on the journey south. Real-time bird migration numbers can be found online at BirdCast.info, using weather surveillance radar techniques.

To help mitigate collisions, over two years ago Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Bird Safe Buildings Act, requiring the implementation of bird-safety features in construction and renovation of state-owned buildings in Illinois. But these efforts don’t make older buildings safer, Prince said.

“Still, we’re hopeful that at least going forward, we’ll have a safe standard of building … that gives birds a chance to avoid dangerous glass areas,” she said.

Ward has been interested in bird migration since observing his dad watch birds in his backyard near Jacksonville.

“They know where they’re going, and then usually they go back to the exact same spot the next year,” he said. “If you start thinking about how far they go, how fast they go and their ability to actually get to the exact spot they want, it’s a pretty amazing feat.”

A loss of bird species would fundamentally change the way ecological systems in Illinois work, said Ward. Birds feed on decomposing animals and plant matter. They control insect populations. They move around nutrients.

Ward said Chicago residents who have the ability should plant native trees in their backyard — serviceberries, pokeweed and dogwoods. Birds in the fall typically feed on fruit, he said.

“It doesn’t take everyone doing it,” he said. “But if 5% of the population does a little bit more, that will lead to conservation.”

He said he likes to go outside at night and listen to the birds calling to each other as they zip by.

___

© Copyright 2023 Tribune Content Agency

This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.

South Korea’s Constitutional Court has overturned the law barring the dissemination of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea, a decision that is likely to irk North Korea, which perceives such leaflets as a significant threat to the Kim Jong Un regime.

The South Korean court declared the law unconstitutional Tuesday, with seven out of its nine judges finding that the law restricted the nation’s constitutional value of free speech. This verdict led to the law’s immediate annulment. 

“The law’s goal of ensuring the safety of people’s lives and bodies constitutes an important public interest,” the court said. “But the restriction of freedom of expression inflicted on those involved is disproportionally severe.” 

The current law is making “individuals dispersing leaflets accountable for any provocations that arise from North Korea,” the court added, explaining its verdict to make the law unconstitutional. 

South Korea criminalized the sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border in March 2021, with it penalizing offenders with up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine of 30 million won (US$22,000).

The controversial law passed South Korean parliament during the former progressive Moon Jae-in administration, which argued that sending leaflets towards the North could incite hostility from the North, jeopardizing the safety of border town residents in the South.

The Inter-Korean Relations Development Act, orchestrated by Moon’s progressive bloc, mandated that “no person shall inflict harm or pose serious danger to the life or body of individuals by engaging in any of the following actions,” and explicitly listed “leafleting”.

During the Panmunjom summit between South Korean President Moon and his North Korean counterpart in April 2018, the two leaders agreed to “completely cease all hostile acts against each other in every domain”. South Korean progressives saw sending leaflets could be defined as hostile activities against the North.

However, the criminalisation sparked backlash from both international and domestic human rights organizations and media outlets. South Korean conservatives and international media opined that sending leaflets was a matter of free speech and a law restricting such an activity was unconstitutional. Dozens of human rights organizations filed a constitutional complaint concerning the prohibition, and sought an injunction against the newly enacted law.

With North Korea returning to its brinkmanship diplomacy after the collapse of its high-stake summit with the United States in Hanoi in February 2019, South Korean conservatives have been arguing for the South to scrap its inter-Korean agreement that mandated the cessation of what Pyongyang defined as hostilities.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry under the conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, had expressed the ministry’s opinion to the Constitutional Court last year, stating that the law violates the nation’s constitutional value of free speech. 

An Illinois State Comptroller’s Office attorney was fired Thursday after the office was notified of antisemitic messages that had been sent to a Jewish individual.

In a private message exchange with an Instagram account called Big Law Boiz, the attorney, Sarah Chowdhury, labeled the Jewish individual as “vermin,” claiming that the Jewish people “should have all been killed decades ago.”

The fired attorney warned the Jewish individual, “All you zionists will pay,” prior to saying that she was praying, “Hopefully someone sends you anthrax or poison and you die a slow terrible death.”

Sarah Chowdhury, an Illinois attorney in the state’s comptroller’s office, has been fired after her antisemitic social media messages were shared with her employer.

Here is a sampling. pic.twitter.com/vdKWmyNceL

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 20, 2023

After the Jewish individual responded to Chowdhury’s antisemitic remarks, the attorney said, “I’d rather put you in a gas chamber… with all your Zionist ancestors.”

She added, “Hitler should have eradicated all of you.”

The state’s comptroller office issued a statement Thursday explaining that the office had been notified of Chowdhury’s private messages at roughly 12:30 p.m., after which Comptroller Susana Mendoza contacted the attorney just an hour and a half later. After admitting that she was responsible for making at least some of the comments in the private messages, Chowdhury was fired, according to The New York Post.

READ MORE: Stanford lecturer separates Jewish students, calls them ‘colonizers,’ students say

The comptroller’s office said in a statement Thursday it was made aware of Chowdhury’s private messages around 12:30 p.m., and Comptroller Susana Mendoza contacted her about an hour and a half later.

“Comptroller Mendoza has zero tolerance for antisemitism or hate speech,” the comptroller’s office said in the statement.

Chowdhury was also removed from her position as the president of the South Asian Bar Association. In a statement on Facebook, the group wrote, “The South Asian Bar Association of Chicago stands against hate, bigotry, and bias in any form.”

Addressing Chowdhury’s antisemitic statements, the South Asian Bar Association stated, “We are deeply saddened and horrified by her words and their impact on our friends, families, and colleagues, and we apologize for any harm they may have caused.”

The organization explained that Chowdhury’s comments were not “reflective” of the South Asian Bar Association. The group emphasized its rejection of “hateful rhetoric” and its commitment to supporting local communities and “those impacted by hate.” “We will not tolerate such behavior by any of our members,” the statement said.

Chowdhury told The Chicago Tribune she is “extremely” remorseful for her “inappropriate and reprehensible” remarks made in private messages to the Jewish individual. She claimed that she was distressed over the conflict in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas and was upset with the media’s coverage of the conflict.

“I don’t know what came over me,” Chowdhury stated. “I was in a state of panic. Antisemitism has no place anywhere.”

A federal judge ruled on Tuesday against a class action lawsuit targeting former President Donald Trump in a big win for the leading GOP presidential candidate in 2024.

The lawsuit involved an endorsement deal made between Trump and ACN Opportunity LLC in 2006 to promote its service to independent business owners.

Two plaintiffs who allegedly used ACN’s products because of Trump’s endorsement said they didn’t earn anything, and a third said she earned $38 in two years. The accusers claim they didn’t know Trump was paid for the endorsement.

“The majority of the content on the Opportunity Discs [promoting the company] portrayed testimonials from various successful IBOs, highlighting how ACN has enabled them to have, for example, a relaxed work life, expensive cars, and large homes,” U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield said in her rejection of the class action lawsuit. “The nature of Trump’s alleged misstatements also raises individual questions of whether any given putative class member believed the statements and therefore relied on them.”

READ MORE: Trump leads Biden with swing state voters, survey shows

Schofield added that “the record evidence shows that some IBOs knew or assumed Trump was a paid spokesperson.”

Trump’s alleged misleading statements about ACN, including it being a “great opportunity” with a “winning business model” and “proven track record,” could be seen as standard advertising strategies rather than intentional misrepresentations.   

Trump praised the judge’s decision, writing on Truth Social, “Today we had a Total and Complete Victory against Far Left Lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, on her ridiculous ACN Class Action Suit, yet another Election Interference Case. It was ruled that there can be no Class Action, and Certification was denied!”

A tragic incident unfolded in Hagerstown, Maryland, as Washington County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson was shot and killed outside his home Thursday night.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office reported that Judge Wilkinson was shot multiple times in his driveway around 8 p.m. on Thursday, was transported to Meritus Medical Center, and died of his injuries. His wife and son were inside the home at the time of the incident, according to NBC 4 Washington.

Authorities are currently on the hunt for the suspect, 49-year-old Pedro Argote, who is believed to be linked to the murder. Wilkinson, age 52, had presided over Argote’s divorce case earlier on Thursday, granting custody of their children to Argote’s wife, which is suspected to be the motive behind the shooting, according to law enforcement.

Sheriff Brian Albert held a news conference on Friday morning, revealing that Argote specifically targeted Judge Wilkinson due to the custody ruling. According to Albert, Argote was not present during the divorce proceeding, which took place on the same day as the shooting.

Argote, described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, is considered “armed and dangerous” and is a legal handgun owner. Authorities are searching for a silver 2009 Mercedes GL450 with Maryland registration plate 4EH0408, believed to be the vehicle Argote is using.

Albert noted that police deputies had previously responded to verbal domestic assault incidents at the Argote residence in recent years.

READ MORE: Hunter Biden judge dismisses gun charge as indictment looms

One attorney, Ashley Wilburn, who represented the children in the divorce case, had high praise for Judge Wilkinson, referring to him as “an amazing man, father, husband, and judge.” She added, “He is a hero.”

To ensure the safety of judges residing in Washington County, state troopers were deployed overnight as a precaution, according to NBC 4 Washington. The Maryland Judiciary is cooperating with law enforcement agencies to resolve the matter and ensure the safety of judges, staff, and visitors.

Wilkinson, who was sworn in as a circuit court judge in 2020, had a strong commitment to serving his community. During his swearing-in ceremony, he stated, “It’s an honor and it’s humbling, and I’m happy to serve.”

According to NBC 4 Washington, Hagerstown, a city of nearly 44,000 residents, lies in the panhandle of Maryland, approximately 75 miles northwest of Baltimore. Circuit courts in each Maryland county handle significant criminal and civil cases, making Wilkinson’s role pivotal in the local judicial system.

Maryland Courts issued a statement on Wilkinson’s death Thursday, saying, “The Maryland Judiciary mourns the tragic death of Judge Andrew Wilkinson. As we grieve his loss, we ask that you keep the Wilkinson family in your prayers and please respect their privacy.”

This news article was partially created with the assistance of artificial intelligence and edited and fact-checked by a human editor.

Despite five of the largest banks in the United States cutting roughly 20,000 combined jobs in 2023, additional layoffs are expected, according to a new report.

According to a CNBC News report based on bank company filings, CitiGroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs have all implemented layoffs this year, with multiple banks still expecting to cut more positions. The major increase in bank layoffs has come amidst higher interest rates on bank mortgages, which has resulted in a reversal of the two-year bank hiring surge that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Banks are cutting costs where they can because things are really uncertain next year,” Chris Marinac, Janney Montgomery Scott’s research director, told CNBC News.

Job losses in the financial industry could pressure the broader U.S. labor market in 2024. Faced with rising defaults on corporate and consumer loans, lenders are poised to make deeper cuts next year, said Marinac.

“They need to find levers to keep earnings from falling further and to free up money for provisions as more loans go bad,” Marinac added. “By the time we roll into January, you’ll hear a lot of companies talking about this.”

READ MORE: 800+ workers facing layoffs at major tech company

According to CNBC News, the highest number of layoffs have been at Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, with both bank companies cutting approximately 5% of their total workforce this year. Additionally, Wells Fargo is expecting to continue reducing its labor force. Wells Fargo CFO Mike Santomassimo recently announced that “very few parts of the company” will be shielded from additional cuts.

“We still have additional opportunities to reduce headcount,” he added. “Attrition has remained low, which will likely result in additional severance expense for actions in 2024.”

CNBC News reported that while Citigroup’s staff numbers have been relatively stable this year, the company’s CFO, Mark Mason, told analysts last week that Citigroup will be making significant changes. Citigroup has reportedly identified 7,000 job cuts.

While other major banks have significantly reduced staffing, JPMorgan has increased the amount of positions at its company. According to CNBC News, the number of employees increased by 5.1% this year by expanding its network, investing in technology, and acquiring First Republic. JPMorgan noted that the company currently has over 10,000 positions still available.

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez ruled Thursday that a 33-year-old California law banning “assault weapons” is unconstitutional.

Benitez, who previously ruled against the state of California’s “assault weapons” ban, noted that the state’s actions to prohibit the sale of semiautomatic guns represent a violation of the Second Amendment, according to The New York Post.

The federal judge also pointed to the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which explained gun control policies must be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

“Like the Bowie Knife which was commonly carried by citizens and soldiers in the 1800s, ‘assault weapons’ are dangerous, but useful,” Benitez wrote. “But unlike the Bowie Knife, the United States Supreme Court has said, ‘[t]here is a long tradition of widespread lawful gun ownership by private individuals in this country.’ Americans have an individual right to keep and bear firearms.”

In his ruling, Benitez claimed that California’s 1989 law prohibiting its citizens from owning semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15 results in “the extreme policy that a handful of criminals can dictate the conduct and infringe on the freedom of law-abiding citizens.”

READ MORE: Supreme Court sides with Biden on gun control on ‘ghost guns,’ overruling lower court

“California’s answer to the criminal misuse of a few is to disarm its many good residents,” Benitez added. “That knee-jerk reaction is constitutionally untenable, just as it was 250 years ago.”

Despite ruling that California’s “Assault Weapons Control Act” was unconstitutional, Benitez granted California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s request for a stay of Thursday’s decision until the attorney general can present an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. As a result, “assault weapons” restrictions in the state currently remain in effect.

Following Thursday’s ruling, Bonta filed a notice of appeal, claiming that Benitez’s ruling was “dangerous and misguided.”

“Weapons of war have no place on California’s streets,” Bonta said in a press release. “This has been state law in California for decades, and we will continue to fight for our authority to keep our citizens safe from firearms that cause mass casualties.”

This was a breaking news story. The details were periodically updated as more information became available.

Joran van der Sloot confessed to the brutal murder of Natalee Holloway in 2005 as part of a guilty plea he submitted Wednesday in an extortion case that targeted the Holloway family.

According to a U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of Alabama press release, van der Sloot was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Anna M. Manasco for “a scheme to obtain $250,000” in an extortion case involving Natalee Holloway’s mother, Elizabeth Ann Holloway.

A transcript of van der Sloot’s confession obtained by Fox News revealed the horrific account of Natalee Holloway’s death. Van der Sloot confessed that he crushed Holloway’s head with a cinderblock and dragged her body into the ocean after she refused the man’s sexual advances on a beach during a senior trip to Aruba in May of 2005.

During an interview on Oct. 3, van der Sloot explained that he was angry with Holloway’s resistance to his sexual advances and attacked her with a cinderblock, saying, “I smash her head in with it completely.”

“Her face basically, you know, collapses in,” van der Sloot added. “Even though it’s dark, I can see her face is collapsed in.”

Van der Sloot confessed that he dragged Holloway’s body into knee-deep water before pushing her body away into the sea and leaving the scene of the crime.

During Wednesday’s court proceedings, van der Sloot apologized to Holloway’s family for his actions and agreed to take a polygraph test and provide law enforcement and the Holloway family with details about her disappearance, according to Fox News. Additionally, Van der Sloot told the court, “I am no longer the person that I was.”

READ MORE: Soldier charged for murdering Nat’l Guard wife

Following Wednesday’s hearing, Holloway’s mother told reporters, “After 18 years, Natalee’s case has been solved. Joran van der Sloot is the killer.”

Van der Sloot, who is a 36-year-old Dutch national, was charged in the United States with extortion and wire fraud after he tried to sell Holloway’s mother information about her daughter’s lost body in 2010. Federal prosecutors claimed that van der Sloot attempted to obtain $250,000 from the family for false information, including an up-front payment of $25,000. Van der Sloot pleaded guilty to the charges in June 2010.

Van der Sloot’s 20-year prison sentence will run concurrently with a prison sentence he faces in Peru for the unrelated murder of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in Peru. Van der Sloot’s expected release date is currently set for June 9, 2043, according to Fox News.

“You have brutally murdered, in separate incidents, years apart, two young women who refused your sexual advances,” Manasco told van der Sloot during Wednesday’s court appearance.

In addition to his prison sentence, Manasco ordered Van der Sloot to pay $25,100 in restitution, as well as a $200 special assessment fee. Van der Sloot’s right to appeal his conviction and sentence was also waived.

U.S. Marshals have been directed to remove the convicted murderer from the United States as quickly as possible.

“Today’s sentence holds Joran van der Sloot accountable for the pain he has caused the family and friends of Natalee Holloway,” FBI Birmingham Special Agent in Charge Carlton Peeples stated after Wednesday’s hearing. “After more than a decade of uncertainty, hopefully, this will bring them and this community some closure.”

Douglass Mackey, a supporter of former President Donald Trump who created a popular pro-Trump then-Twitter account, was sentenced to seven months in prison for election interference related to social media posts.

After posting memes ahead of the 2016 election between Trump and two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, Mackey was accused of a “scheme to deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote.”

One of the memes in question urged Democrats to “Avoid the line. Vote from Home” by texting “’Hillary’ to 59925.”

Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly, who sentenced Mackey, insisted his meme-sharing was “nothing short of an assault on our democracy,” Courthouse News Service reported.

“One of the foundational rights we hold as Americans, a right that many fought so hard to obtain, is the right to vote.  The defendant weaponized disinformation in a dangerous scheme to stop targeted groups, including black and brown people and women, from participating in our democracy,” stated United States Attorney Breon Peace. “This groundbreaking prosecution demonstrates our commitment to prosecuting those who commit crimes that threaten our democracy and seek to deprive people of their constitutional right to vote.”

READ MORE: IRS contractor who leaked Trump tax returns pleads guilty

Mackey was charged shortly after President Joe Biden took office, years after the 2016 election. Prosecutors asserted Mackey “intended variously to provoke, mislead, and, in some cases, deceive voters in the 2016 presidential election.”

Many users on X – formerly Twitter – have pointed out that left-wing self-described artist Kristina Wong shared a similar post in 2016, which urged Trump supporters to “Skip poll lines at #Election2016 and TEXT in your vote!” Wong has not faced any election interference charges for the post.

“Text votes are legit. Or vote tomorrow on Super Wednesday!” she wrote in the post that remains up as of Thursday.

“In 2016 @mskristinawong posted a tweet and video jokingly trying to trick Trump voters into not voting. Douglas Mackey did the exact same thing to Hillary voters. The DOJ just threw Mackey in prison. Wong was never charged with anything, and this tweet is still up,” podcaster Matt Walsh wrote on X, along with a screenshot of Wong’s post.

In 2016 @mskristinawong posted a tweet and video jokingly trying to trick Trump voters into not voting. Douglas Mackey did the exact same thing to Hillary voters. The DOJ just threw Mackey in prison. Wong was never charged with anything, and this tweet is still up. pic.twitter.com/8stqn0n1oS

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 19, 2023