A new video shows the first 1,500 active-duty U.S. troops arriving at the southern border between the United States and Mexico on Thursday following President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring a “national emergency” at the border.
A video shared on X, formerly Twitter, by media personality Benny Johnson shows the active-duty U.S. military members arriving at the southern border to strengthen the nation’s border security and reduce illegal immigration under the Trump administration following the unprecedented level of illegal immigration that occurred under the Biden-Harris administration.
BREAKING: President Trump’s 1500 troops have officially arrived at the Southern border to assist in combatting Biden and Kamala’s border crisis.
On Wednesday, the Department of Defense announced that 1,500 active-duty troops were being sent to the southern border along with intelligence and air assets to “augment troops already conducting enforcement operations in that region.”
“On Monday, to protect the security and safety of United States citizens, President Trump declared that a national emergency exists at the southern border of the United States,” Acting Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses stated. “The president directed me to take all appropriate action to support the activities of the secretary of homeland security in obtaining complete operational control of the southern border of the United States.”
According to The Associated Press, Salesses indicated that the active-duty troops will help construct additional barriers at the southern border and will fly helicopters to assist Border Patrol agents on various missions. The Department of Defense noted that the 1,500 active-duty troops include 1,000 soldiers and 500 Marines.
The Associated Press reported that Salesses described the deployment of 1,500 active-duty troops as “just the beginning.”
READ MORE: Video: Hundreds of illegal immigrants arrested so far, Trump border czar says
Addressing the deployment of active-duty troops to the southern border, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The American people have been waiting for such a time as this — for our Department of Defense to actually implement homeland security seriously. This is a No. 1 priority for the American people.”
In addition to the deployment of active-duty troops to the southern border, the Department of Defense announced that it would be providing airlift support for the Department of Homeland Security to deport over 5,000 individuals detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
In Wednesday’s statement, Salesses explained that the Department of Defense will “develop and execute additional missions in cooperation with DHS, federal agencies, and state partners to address the full range of threats” detailed by Trump regarding the borders of the United States.
“President Trump directed action from [DOD] on securing our nation’s borders and made clear he expects immediate results,” Salesses concluded. “That is exactly what our military is doing under his leadership.”
CNN announced on Thursday that roughly 6% of its workforce would be laid off amid the network’s shift toward digital platforms. The announcement came just days after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
In a memo distributed to staff members on Thursday, CNN CEO Mark Thompson announced the mass layoffs at the news network. While Thompson confirmed reports that roughly 200 employees would be cut due to the company’s restructuring, the CEO explained that he did not expect CNN’s total number of employees to decrease significantly in 2025 since the company intends to invest $70 million in digital initiatives.
“The changes we’re announcing today are part of an ongoing response by this great news organization to profound and irreversible shifts in the way audiences in America and around the world consume news,” Thompson told employees. “Our objective is a simple one: to shift CNN’s gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN’s future as one of the world’s greatest news organizations.”
“I know that whatever the total number of job losses, the impact on the individuals involved can be immense,” Thompson added. “The process of change is essential if we’re to thrive in the future, but I both acknowledge and regret its very real human consequences.”
READ MORE: CNN forced to pay Navy vet $5 million
Sources familiar with the job cuts told CNBC that the layoffs are expected to help the company decrease production costs and consolidate teams at the network as CNN restructures its television lineup and prioritizes digital platforms. The sources indicated that some shows at the network could be moved from New York City or Washington, D.C., to Atlanta due to production costs.
“This is a moment where the digital story feels like an existential question,” Thompson said in a statement to The New York Times. “If we do not follow the audiences to the new platforms with real conviction and scale, our future prospects will not be good.”
According to CNBC, NBC News is also expected to announce job cuts this week. However, sources familiar with the upcoming job cuts indicated that fewer than 50 jobs will be affected by the NBC News layoffs.
The New York Post noted that the CNN and NBC News job cuts come amid mass layoffs by other news platforms. The outlet reported that The Washington Post recently announced that it would be cutting roughly 4% of its workforce, while The Associated Press announced that it would be cutting roughly 8% of its employees.
Acclaimed blues-rock musician Barry Goldberg, who was part of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band when it backed Bob Dylan during his legendary electric outing at the otherwise-acoustic Newport Folk Festival in 1965, died on Jan. 22.
He was 83.
Goldberg, who also performed/recorded with Steve Miller, Muddy Waters, Leonard Cohen, Stephen Stills and many other famed musicians, “died in hospice care after a 10-year struggle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma,” according publicist Bob Merlis. “Gail Goldberg, his wife of 53 years, and son Aram were at this bedside.”
The tremendous blues-rock keyboardist, who was also a bandleader, songwriter and producer, was born on Christmas Day of 1942 and grew up in Chicago, where he’d nurture his love of music and quickly rise through the ranks of Windy City keyboardists. As the story goes, Goldberg was still a teenager when he shared the stage with such Chicago blues legends as Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, and Howlin’ Wolf.
Goldberg was also still a high schooler when he’d meet and befriend ace guitarist Mike Bloomfield and the two aspiring artists soon made names for themselves on the Chicago blues scene. They’d eventually join the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, which would help shock the folk music world — and a goodly part of the rest of the world — when they backed Bob Dylan when he went electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
That electric moment, which is now widely considered to be one of the most famous/infamous performances in popular music history, is prominently featured in the Oscar-nominated Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown.”
Despite his many different roles in the music business over the decades, Goldberg remained, first and foremost, a Chicago bluesman. As such, he was the ideal choice to help lead the Chicago Blues Reunion, a group that also featured Sam Lay, Nick Gravenites, Harvey Mandel, Corky Siegel, Tracy Nelson, Charlie Musselwhite, Jimmy Vivino, Marcy Levy and other artists the years.
In lieu of flowers, Goldberg’s family is asking that donation be made in the acclaimed musician’s name to The Bear League via savebears.org.
Before Glenn Litton shot two kindergartners, destroying a carefree lunch recess at Feather River Adventist School in Northern California, he sent a letter.
The missive, sent to distant acquaintances, included Litton’s manifesto in which he declared himself tasked with carrying out “child executions” as part of an international group that Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea and the FBI have said is nonexistent. He even scheduled an email with the same manifesto to others that would be sent after his Dec. 4 shooting at the parochial school, during which Litton also shot and killed himself, Honea said.
“It was a terrorist attack,” Honea said in an interview. “It was a horrific crime.”
Crime scene investigators collect evidence at a shooting scene at Feather River Adventist School in Oroville, California, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. Two boys ages five and six were shot and are recovering at a Sacramento hospital, according to Sheriff Kory Honea. (Hector Amezcua/The Sacramento Bee/TNS)
On Tuesday, the Sheriff’s Office announced the arrest of a man accused of selling Litton the handgun used to severely injure the two boys, ages 5 and 6.
Between the gun arrest and a recent interview at the Sheriff’s Office headquarters, law enforcement have provided the fullest picture yet of the shooting — and of Litton’s history, in the decades before it and hours immediately leading up to it.
A school targeted — or more than one?
Terror seized the tight-knit religious Adventist community after 5-year-old Elias Wolford and 6-year-old Roman Mendez suffered critical wounds in the shooting. The Feather River Adventist School is just one of several campuses connected to Adventist churches across Butte County.
Litton, using the name Michael Sanders, had scheduled an appointment with Feather River Adventist School principal under the ruse of enrolling his nonexistent grandson.
It was a ruse Honea said the shooter had used before.
The sheriff confirmed Litton also went in June to an Adventist school in Chico under the pretense of enrolling a child. Litton also targeted another Adventist school in Red Bluff, about 70 miles northwest of Oroville, by planning a similar meeting for the day after the school shooting at Feather River Adventist.
Across three schools he visited, Litton asked questions that appeared to show he was surveilling the school, Honea said.
The sheriff speculated Litton had a narcissistic personality, shown by him self-appointing himself as a military leader in the nonexistent national group.
‘A good heart,’ but a troubled history
Litton’s mental health appeared to play a key role in his motivation to open fire at Feather River Adventist, Honea has said.
In the manifesto he sent to his friends, Litton proclaimed himself a lieutenant in the so-called International Alliance, tasked with carrying out “countermeasure in necessitated response to Americas involvement with Genocide and Oppression of Palestinians along with attacks towards Yemen.”
“It appears he pulled information from various sources and it all came together in his mind to form a reality that perhaps is false or different from ours,” Honea said at a Dec. 5 news conference.
Honea and deputies in the recent interview revealed that Litton had scheduled the emails and sent the mailed letters, the contents of which Honea first shared at the news conference without disclosing the exact medium used.
Honea added that, weeks after the shooting, he has not been able to determine what diagnosis Litton received for his mental health problems.
The 56-year-old has a criminal history dating back to age 16 and received inpatient mental health treatment as a juvenile into adulthood, according to court documents. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said Litton faced charges of thefts and traffic violations as a teen. As an adult, he served time in prison as an adult for forgery and theft; in one Butte County case, Litton stole IDs for food, rent and entertainment.
Before federal authorities arrested Litton in 2015 for aggravated identity theft, his older sister said she tried several times to get him help for his substance abuse issues.
But he was always denied the service because of a “mental health diagnosis,” according to a letter written by Litton’s sister.
“Glenn has a good heart but has always struggled with an addiction which has negatively impacted his decisions,” Litton’s sister wrote in a letter to a judge for a federal case her brother faced.
The sister did not respond to a request for comment.
Shooter bought a convicted murderer’s identity, he says
Federal authorities caught up to Litton after he sought passports under two aliases in 2014 and again in 2015.
In the first case, Litton filed a passport application in Sacramento under the name Michael Anthony Nolen, a man who Litton claimed lived in Tennessee and was born in 1972, according to the indictment. (Litton was born in Chico in 1968.)
In 2015, he filed an application in Carson City, Nevada, under the name Arthur Gene Lane, a man convicted of murder in Sacramento County. Lane filmed himself in 2001 wrapping a noose around his girlfriend’s neck and removing a chair under her, all while videotaping it.
Lane told authorities investigating Litton that he sold his personal information to Litton for $800, court papers say. Litton filed the passport application using a Nevada driver’s license, Social Security number, check and a Visa debit card in Lane’s name.
While awaiting his sentence, Litton enrolled in mental health services, court papers say. He pleaded guilty to an aggravated identity theft charge each in California and Nevada, said Siddhartha “Sid” Patel, the special agent in charge of the FBI Sacramento field office.
Litton was sentenced to two years and was released on supervised release in 2018. The plan, according to Litton’s sister, was to enroll in a truck driving school after his release.
“I can tell you Glenn realizes his wrong choices and frequently talks about how he plans to change his behavior in the future,” Litton’s sister wrote in the letter.
After his prison release, jail wasn’t far behind for Litton. He stole $1,000 from a CVS in Arizona, authorities said. He was arrested in South San Francisco in connection to an unrelated case and was transferred to San Bernardino County for a pending burglary charge.
Litton was released from custody in San Bernardino after a Humphrey hearing, according to court records, which is conducted to determine whether an inmate has enough money to post bail.
‘Everything else stopped’
It was at 1:08 p.m. Dec. 4 that a student called 911 to relay that a shooter had opened fire on Feather River Adventist, a small school on a 7-acre lot surrounded by lush orchards and lumbering cows.
The California Highway Patrol within two minutes arrived on the scene, with deputies not far behind.
In interviews, Butte County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Pat McNelis described how nearly everyone in the department – 83 deputies – jumped on investigating the case. Deputies handled the local investigation, tracing Litton’s movements, while the FBI intervened to reach global contacts as the specter of international terrorism hung over the incident, Honea said.
“Everything else stopped,” McNelis said. A fatal vehicle collision, in which a juvenile was arrested, diverted some deputies Dec. 9, though little else pulled resources away from the Feather River Adventist investigation.
Within 26 hours of the shooting, top Butte County Sheriff’s Office and FBI leaders compiled a full timeline of Litton’s movements leading up to the school shooting, as well as his extensive criminal history.
Deputies described the around-the-clock police work conducted by nearly the entire department after the Dec. 4 shooting to piece together Litton’s life and bring answers to the public.
Deputies first contacted Litton’s sister and learned she had driven him to take a Sacramento Greyhound bus to Chico and paid for him to stay two nights at the Haven Inn in Chico, Nov. 23 and Nov. 24, McNelis said.
Deputies fanned out across Chico and surrounding areas, pouring through countless hours of surveillance footage and cellphone records to piece together, step by step, Litton’s tracks.
Litton stayed at two different inns in Chico over eight days, reflecting his nomadic lifestyle, deputies said.
On Dec. 3 — one day before the shooting — Litton went to a Chico computer repair store and paid $20 in an attempt to have his device destroyed, McNelis said. That computer was recovered and the FBI helped to piece it back together, he said.
That night, Litton stayed overnight at a Denny’s near Motel 6 carrying a distinctive duffel bag, until about 4:08 a.m., according to surveillance video.
Deputies tracked him catching a Butte Regional Transit bus at the West Second and Salem streets stop, and knew from investigating a prior case that the company had surveillance cameras they could comb through, McNelis said.
While on the bus, they picked up his phone records, and saw he headed to Raley’s in Oroville. He walked off, carrying the duffel bag, and strolled along Montgomery and Myers streets, McNelis said.
He bought an energy drink at Raley’s and called for an Uber under yet another name — Mark Hansen — that took him to the Feather River Adventist School.
It was ultimately through good old-fashioned police work, combined with investigative tools from the digital age, that deputies assembled a detailed breakdown of Litton’s movements leading up to the shooting and his criminal background, Honea said.
Honea couldn’t recall anything similar happening throughout his three decades of service in local law enforcement.
“I had to make them go home,” Honea said of deputies working without sleep.
The breadth of information provided to residents came from a desire to help a grieving community learn answers and find who should be held accountable for the fear gripping the region, deputies said in the interview.
Elias’ grandmother said online Wednesday he regained some movement in his legs, which was welcome news after the 5-year-old couldn’t move his legs immediately after the shooting. Roman’s family, in an update to a crowdfunding website, said the 6-year-old was released from UC Davis Medical Center on Dec. 20 and is “doing amazing.”
Even so, the school will never be the same.
Teachers must grapple with the effects of trauma that manifest in diverse ways, requiring constant attention and adaptability, said Laurie Trujillo, a spokesperson for the Feather River Adventist School and the Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
After Litton concluded the meeting with Feather River Adventist’s principal, he headed down a breezeway. Against a backdrop of a mural of flowers painted on a playground wall, he opened fire on Roman and Elias. Then, he turned the gun on himself.
“If that is not an attack of domestic terrorism, I am not sure what is,” Honea said.
Law enforcement officials announced on Wednesday that a Texas man was sentenced to over four years in federal prison after being convicted of smuggling more than 2,500 illegal immigrants into the United States in just six months during the Biden-Harris administration.
In a Wednesday press release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas wrote, “A Horizon City man was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison for charges related to his involvement in a human smuggling conspiracy.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas cited court documents that identified 35-year-old Isai Orona, known by the name “Panda,” as the “organizer of a human smuggling scheme.” Officials noted that the 35-year-old human smuggler had been identified through WhatsApp, a communications platform used by the human smuggling organization to coordinate “criminal activity.”
Court documents also show that a vehicle used by a co-conspirator who was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents while transporting nine illegal immigrants in El Paso, Texas, was registered to Orona.
READ MORE: Pics: Secret smuggling tunnel found near US-Mexico border
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas, Orona was arrested on November 20, 2023, and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of transporting aliens on July 12, 2024.
“Orona admitted to smuggling over 2,500 undocumented noncitizens within approximately six months in 2023. Many car loads of undocumented noncitizens were transported to Albuquerque, New Mexico and on to other locations,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas stated in Wednesday’s press release. “He also admitted to having a network of drivers to transport the undocumented noncitizens in at least 12 vehicles, which he obtained or helped others to obtain.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Texas noted that in addition to sentencing Orona to four and a half years in federal prison, the court also entered a money judgement of $250,00 against the Texas resident.
President Donald Trump has reportedly revoked the security details for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Brian Hook. The two former Trump officials had received security details under the Biden-Harris administration due to threats from Iran.
The New York Times first reported Trump’s move to revoke Pompeo and Hook’s security details, citing four sources familiar with the president’s action. On Thursday, a congressional staffer and another source familiar with the situation confirmed the president’s decision to The Associated Press. The sources indicated that both Pompeo and Hook were informed on Wednesday that they would be losing their security details by 11 p.m.
The New York Post reported that while former administration officials are not typically provided with security details after leaving office, former President Joe Biden authorized security details for Pompeo, Hook, and John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Trump, due to continued threats from Iran over their heavy criticism of the world’s leading state sponsor of terror and involvement in the strike that killed Qassim Suleimani, a top Iranian military leader, in 2020.
READ MORE: Videos: Trump reveals letter from Biden
According to The Associated Press, both Pompeo and Hook had received constant protection by the Diplomatic Security Service under the Biden-Harris administration’s State Department since January 21, 2021. The outlet noted that a 2022 document provided by the State Department indicated the agency was paying more than $2 million per month to protect the two former administration officials.
In addition to revoking the security details for Pompeo and Hook, Trump also revoked the security detail for Bolton earlier this week, according to The New York Post. Addressing his decision to remove Bolton’s security detail, Trump told reporters, “I think there was enough time. We take a job, you take a job, you want to do a job, we’re not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives. Why should we?”
In a statement to Newsweek following the president’s decision, Bolton said, “I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has made this decision.” He added, “Despite my criticisms of President Biden’s national security policies, he made the decision to extend Secret Service protection to me in 2021.”
A viral video shows an illegal immigrant insulting President Donald Trump while thanking former President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama while being arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials.
In the video, an illegal immigrant can be seen being detained in a police vehicle during an ICE operation in Boston. During his arrest, the illegal immigrant can be heard shouting, “I’m not going back to Haiti! F-ck Trump, you feel me? Yo, Biden forever, bro! Thank Obama, for everything he did for me, bro!”
Fox News reported that ICE officials confirmed the illegal immigrant in the video is a gang member with “17 criminal convictions in recent years.”
Vice President J.D. Vance shared the viral video in a post on social media, tweeting, “An illegal alien with 17 criminal convictions really hates President Trump for sending him back to Haiti. He’s grateful to Biden for letting him come here.”
“I’m glad we’re deporting him,” Vance added. “Do you agree or would you like him as your neighbor?”
An illegal alien with 17 criminal convictions really hates President Trump for sending him back to Haiti. He’s grateful to Biden for letting him come here.
I’m glad we’re deporting him.
Do you agree or would you like him as your neighbor? https://t.co/UAPmLNktJ8
According to The National News Desk, the illegal immigrant who insulted Trump and praised Biden and Obama was one of eight illegal immigrants arrested in the same day by ICE’s field office in Boston following Trump’s inauguration this week. The outlet reported that the illegal immigrants arrested by ICE officials in Boston included multiple MS-13 gang members, illegal immigrants suspected of rape and murder, and illegal immigrants wanted by the International Criminal Police Organization.
Following the ICE operation, Patricia Hyde, who serves as the acting field director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations office in Boston, told Fox News, “Today was a good day. Today we took several significant public safety threats out of our communities. Unfortunately, a lot were released by sanctuary policies. But we’re here to tell the Commonwealth and the rest of the country that we’re going to find them, whether they’re released or not.”
READ MORE: Democrats block bill protecting babies born during failed abortions
The ICE arrests conducted by the agency’s field office in Boston come as Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan, confirmed that ICE officials had already arrested hundreds of illegal immigrants in just the first couple days of the Trump administration.
In an interview with Fox News, Homan explained that ICE officials were starting to carry out Trump’s orders by targeting the “worst” illegal immigrants first, including individuals considered to be public safety or national security threats.
“ICE is doing their job, and they’re prioritizing just as the president said they would,” Homan said. “So ICE is performing excellent right now out in the field, and they’re going to continue every day.”
Less than a week after a highly contagious strain of bird flu was found in a Georgia commercial poultry facility for the first time, a second and even larger flock nearby has tested positive for the virus, state agriculture officials said Wednesday.
The virus, the H5N1 strain of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, has ravaged wild birds, commercial poultry and some mammal species for more than two years across the U.S. during an unprecedented outbreak.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the risk to humans from H5N1 is low, but public health officials fear that the virus has the potential to morph into a pandemic. In the meantime, it has also caused widespread disruption to poultry, egg and dairy farms in other states.
Georgia has had sporadic confirmed infections in wild birds and some backyard flocks, but until now, the state’s powerhouse poultry industry had managed to dodge the virus.
Like the first, the second case also occurred in Elbert County, about 35 miles northeast of Athens. Georgia Department of Agriculture spokesman Matthew Agvent described the area as a “poultry dense” part of the state, with 120 other poultry farms within a 10-mile radius of the affected facilities.
The second detection was found on Jan. 17 during “routine, pre-movement” testing by the Georgia Poultry Lab Network, but was not confirmed by a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab until late Tuesday, the GDA said.
The flock where the virus was found was located about 210 yards from premises where the first infection was confirmed last week in a flock of 45,000 birds, the GDA said. The new case occurred in a flock of 130,000 birds, all of which were culled to contain the spread, GDA officials confirmed Wednesday.
The close proximity of the flocks allowed Georgia agriculture officials to respond to both cases at the same time, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper said in a statement. The agency said “depopulation” of the birds in both facilities was completed within 48 hours of the Jan. 17 detection, but added that disposal and disinfection is still in progress. In the meantime, the GDA said its law enforcement officers are maintaining a secure perimeter around the affected premises.
In a statement, Harper stressed that bird flu “remains a serious threat to our state’s economy, Georgia’s No. 1 industry, and the health and safety of poultry in our state,” and thanked staff who he said have been working in the bitter cold.
Georgia is the country’s top producer of broiler chickens and the state’s industry that is worth an estimated $6.7 billion, according to a University of Georgia analysis based on 2022 data, the most recent year available.
Other measures state officials announced in response to the first detection last week will remain in place, GDA said.
All commercial poultry operations within a 6.2.-mile or 10-kilometer radius will remain under quarantine for at least two weeks, with additional surveillance testing. Since the two poultry facilities were located in close proximity, GDA said they were not expanding the quarantine perimeter.
After the first detection last week, the GDA announced a statewide suspension of all poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets, and sales. A ban on those activities will remain in effect indefinitely.
But retail sales of chicken and eggs are not impacted. In a news release Saturday, Harper stressed that the state’s food supply is safe.
“Every Georgian can and should have 100% confidence in the safety and security of poultry products offered for sale in the state of Georgia,” Harper said.
Georgia has not had any confirmed cases of H5N1 in cattle or humans, but a stream of concerning news about the virus has been pouring out of other states.
Earlier this month, a patient in Louisiana died from H5N1, becoming the first death in the U.S. from the virus. California also recently declared a state of emergency in response to an explosive outbreak in dairy cattle. Meanwhile, scientists say there are signs the virus may be changing in ways that could allow it to spread more easily to humans
GDA officials have urged Georgia poultry producers to closely monitor their flocks and report any unusual symptoms they observe. Clinical signs of bird flu infection in avian species include lethargy, loss of appetite, discolored combs and feet, and sudden death without signs of disease.
Seven people from New York City and Long Island have been busted in a massive COVID relief fraud scheme that netted $44 million — and one of the defendants was so brazen he rapped about his crime in a song named after the IRS, the feds alleged Wednesday.
The suspects scammed the money through thousands of bogus tax returns, spending it on jewelry, designer clothes, fancy cars and electronics, according to federal prosecutors who called it the largest scheme of its kind in the U.S.
One suspect, Keith Williams, described the fraud on a recorded call as like “taking candy from a baby,” while another, Jamari Lewis, bragged about the scheme in a rap track titled “Im Really Sophisticated (IRS),” the feds allege.
Lewis, 26, of Queens, who raps under the name “Mr. Chaketah,” flashes high-end clothes and sneakers in the song’s music video, singing, ““That government bread I ran that s–t up, like how am I gon’ lose?” the feds allege.
All seven suspects have been indicted in Long Island Federal Court.
The fraudsters took advantage of several government relief programs enacted by Congress in 2020 at the height of the COVID pandemic, which shut down the U.S. economy and caused the death of more than 1.2 million Americans.
They applied for funds through the Employee Retention Credit, which was established to give businesses incentive to keep paying employees while they were shut down by giving back a percentage of their wages to the businesses through tax credits, the feds allege.
Federal prosecutors refer to the scheme as the largest Employee Retention Credit fraud case in the country.
The fraudsters also applied for Sick and Family Leave Credit, and several scammed relief bucks out of the Paycheck Protection Program, the feds allege.
Williams, 46, of West Hempstead, ran much of the scam’s operations out of his credit repair business, “Credit Reset,” the feds allege, and the suspects churned out thousands of tax returns between November 2021 and June 2023.
A raid of Williams’ home found millions of dollars in luxury items investigators believe was bought with the ill-gotten relief bucks — including items from Rolex, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Balenciaga and Versace, and vehicles like a Land Rover, a Polaris Slingshot and a Tesla Model Y, the feds said.
“As alleged, the defendants shamefully took advantage of a global health emergency to line their pockets with millions of dollars that were intended for struggling families and small businesses just trying to stay afloat and lavished themselves with luxury goods while shamefully boasting about their criminal activity,” acting U.S. Attorney John Durham said Wednesday.
Williams’ lawyer, Chris Cassar, called the indictment “overreaching.”
“The government will be unable to prove that Keith Williams intentionally and knowingly committed any conspiracy or tax crime,” he said.
The other suspects include Janine Davis, 41, of Wheatley Heights, Morais Dicks, 55, of Dix Hills, James Hames, 65, of Campbell Hall, Ewendra Mathurin, 32, of Queens Village, and Tiffany Williams, 41, of Brooklyn.
Williams’ lawyer, Gilbert Bayonne, said Wednesday she entered a not guilty plea, and it’s too soon in the process to comment on the case. Dicks’ lawyer, Darnell Crosland, said his client “firmly denies the allegations.”
“He has always conducted his business with honesty and integrity. The charges are unfounded,” Crosland said.
The other suspects’ lawyers didn’t immediately return messages seeking comment Wednesday.
Among dozens of day one executive orders President Donald Trump enacted on Jan. 20, was an executive order to begin designating transnational cartels as terrorist organizations.
The order states cartels go beyond traditional organized crime rings, to pose a threat to national security. The order states cartels have shown a willingness to work with “extra hemispheric actors” including other designated foreign terrorist organizations, and antagonistic foreign governments. The order further states cartels have already shown an ability to engage in insurgency and asymmetric warfare, and to infiltrate governments and power structures within the western hemisphere.
Trump’s order specifically lists the Colombian cartel organization Tren de Aragua (TdA) and the El Salvadoran organization La Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) as entities warranting potential terrorism designations.
MS-13 has had a persistent presence throughout the United States for decades, and has been linked to drug, gun, and human trafficking, as well as murders, and rapes, prostitution and extortion rings, and thefts.
TdA gained notoriety this summer, amid reports members the organization had taken over an apartment complex in Aurora, Colorado. Local officials disputed the veracity of this particular claim, but the Aurora Police Department did confirm arrests of TdA suspects.
In November, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also confirmed arrest of a TdA wanted for murder in Texas.
Addressing MS-13 and Tren de Aragua, Trump’s order states, “Their campaigns of violence and terror in the United States and internationally are extraordinarily violent, vicious, and similarly threaten the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.”
Trump’s order states the Secretary of State, working with the Secretary of the Treasury, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, shall make a determination within 14 days on whether to list MS-13 and Tren de Aragua on the U.S. Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) lists.
The order also establishes a process by which the executive branch may designate other transnational criminal organizations as terrorist groups.
Organizations placed on the FTO and SDGT lists may be subject to enhanced sanctions authorities. Such designations block individuals from knowingly providing financial or other material support to said organizations, and foreign nationals who are members or representatives of said organizations are barred admission into the United States.
The order also states Trump could invoke the Alien Enemies Act against those designated cartel organizations. Enacted in 1798, the Alien Enemies Act is a wartime authority by which the president may order the detention and deportation of natives of a designated foreign nation.
U.S. presidents have used the act on three previous occasions, during the War of 1812 as a means to track the presence and naturalization status of British nationals residing in the newly established United States, during World War I to document and arrest thousands of German nationals living in the United States, and again during World War II to document and at times detain Japanese, German and Italian nationals.
The Alien Enemies Act specifically states the president may use this act to detain and deport people if Congress declares a war, invasion, or predatory incursion by a foreign nation or government. The nature of war has changed in recent years, with the United States frequently fighting non-state actors. It remains to be seen whether the Alien Enemies Act will provide a sufficient basis for Trump’s plans to detain and deport cartel members.
Beyond expanding financial sanctions and deportation authorities against cartels, the effort to list these groups as terrorist organizations may serve as a justification for the use of military force to combat the cartels.
Among the other orders Trump signed on Jan. 20, was a declaration of a national emergency on the U.S. southern border. That order stipulates U.S. armed forces may be deployed to assist in border security efforts.
Another order asserts the U.S. military’s role in protecting the territorial integrity and national boundaries of the United States.
On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump said he would also order his Department of Defense to use “special forces, cyber warfare, and other covert and overt actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations” and the U.S. Navy to enforce an embargo against cartels seeking to traffic illicit drugs by sea.
This article was originally published by FreeBase News and is reprinted with permission.