..
‘Deny and accuse somebody else’: FBI instructed informant in
Michigan governor ‘kidnap’ plot to slander another man
17 Aug, 2021 22:50
Michigan governor kidnapping plot case. © REUTERS/Jon Herskovitz
A text from an FBI agent instructed an informant in the alleged militia plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to delete messages and shift blame onto another man, casting further doubt on the already doubtful case.
Five people are currently awaiting trial on federal charges that the "Wolverine Watchmen" militia they supposedly belonged to wanted to kidnap the Democrat governor. The FBI announced the plot and arrested them in October 2020, shortly before the US election.
In a court filing last week the attorney for one of them sought text messages from FBI special agents Henrik Impola and Jayson Chambers, citing an exchange with one of the informants, identified only as “Dan.” A screenshot of it appeared online on Tuesday.
“Be sure to delete these,” the agent – allegedly Impola – tells ‘Dan,’ and later instructs him to deflect accusations of being an FBI informant. “Best thing to do is deny and accuse somebody else,” the agent texted, naming a man who wasn’t charged in the plot.
The text messages were cited in a filing by Michael Hills, an attorney representing one of the five defendants, Brandon Caserta. The FBI instructing their paid informant “to lie and paint an innocent citizen as an undercover federal agent” to an alleged domestic terrorist militia leader “casts a dark shadow over the credibility of this investigation,” Hills wrote in a court filing, as quoted by the local outlet MLive on Sunday.
‘Dan’ was “at the center of all activity” and recruited other individuals to join the alleged conspiracy, so the defense is demanding his text messages for purposes of arguing entrapment and as “evidence of government methods and tactics,” Hills wrote.
His colleague Christopher Gibbons, who represents Adam Fox, another defendant in the case, wrote that FBI informants “were originators of the criminal design in this case, to the extent that a ‘design’ ever existed.”
Last month, BuzzFeed published a lengthy investigative report – citing court filings, transcripts and interviews – showing that informants played a “far larger” role in the alleged plot than was previously known. The FBI relied on a dozen Confidential Human Sources (CHS) or Undercover Employees (UCE), almost as many as the actual members of the ‘Wolverines.’
Eight alleged militiamen have been charged under Michigan terrorism statutes, while six were slapped with federal charges. One, Ty Garbin, has since pleaded guilty to the kidnap conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing. Caserta, Fox, Barry Croft, Daniel Harris and Kaleb Franks are being held in jail ahead of the October 12 trial in Grand Rapids.
Assistant US Attorney Nils Kessler, who is prosecuting the case, has argued that the defendants were “predisposed to join the kidnapping and explosive conspiracies, and therefore will not be able to prove entrapment.”
The unraveling “plot” has prompted some critics – such as conservative lawyer and filmmaker Mike Cernovich – to accuse the FBI of engaging in a “disinformation campaign directly attacking democracy.”
Former UK MP charged with seven counts of fraud
over allegedly false parliamentary invoices
19 Aug, 2021 16:35
FILE PHOTO. House of Lords in London, Britain. © Reuters / UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor;
(inset) Jared O'Mara. © Wikipedia
A former British Labour MP has been charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) with seven counts of fraud by false representation over the filing of fake invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
The allegations against Jared O’Mara date back to 2019, when he was a sitting Member of Parliament. The former politician has been charged jointly with ex-aide Gareth Arnold, who faces six counts of fraud.
Alongside the fraud accusations, O’Mara was charged jointly with John Woodliff with a Proceeds of Crime Act offence.
The charges relate to an allegation that O’Mara submitted fraudulent invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. In a statement on Thursday, the head of Special Crime at the CPS, Rosemary Ainslie, announced the decision to charge the three individuals “after reviewing a file of evidence from South Yorkshire Police.”
O’Mara was elected as a Labour MP in 2017, defeating former Deputy PM Nick Clegg. However, in 2018, he resigned from Labour after being suspended from its parliamentary party amid an investigation into homophobic and misogynistic comments he was accused of making online.
Back in 2019, Arnold resigned from O’Mara’s office by using the former MP’s Twitter account to accuse O’Mara of having “inexcusable contempt” for his constituents, calling him “the most disgustingly morally bankrupt person I have ever had the displeasure of working with.”
Mastercard faces $14 billion class action lawsuit in Britain
19 Aug, 2021 10:10
FILE PHOTO: Mastercard Inc. credit cards are displayed in this picture illustration taken December 8, 2017.
© Reuters / Benoit Tessie
A UK court has approved an over £10 billion ($14 billion) class action suit against financial services corporation Mastercard for overcharging fees to millions of British consumers using their credit cards for payments.
Britain’s first mass consumer class action suit with 46 million claimants was brought by former financial ombudsman Walter Merricks to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), which formally approved it to proceed to trial on Wednesday.
The case will be probed under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which entitles claimants, both consumers and small businesses, to compensation for Mastercard’s alleged anti-competitive behavior.
“Mastercard has thrown everything at trying to prevent this claim going forward, but today its efforts have failed,” Merricks said in a statement on Wednesday.
Merricks alleges that the global payments system charged unreasonably high interchange fees between May 1992 and June 2008, which resulted in higher prices for consumers and violated EU competition laws. The fees in question are paid by retailers to card-issuing companies when consumers use their cards to shop. The class action suit has been brought on behalf of all individuals over 16 years of age who bought goods and services from UK businesses via Mastercard in the specified period.
The CAT has not, however, included Merrick’s claim for compound interest and claims from the estates of consumers who died between 1992 and 2008 in the case. According to Mastercard, this reduced the claim’s size to around £10 billion from the initial £15 billion. The company is hopeful that further proceedings will cut the overall claim even more.
“The decision reduces the value of this spurious claim by more than 35%. Mastercard is confident that over the coming months a review of key facts will further significantly reduce the size and viability of the claim,” the company said in a statement.
Merricks said the CAT ruling “heralds the start of an era of consumer-focused class actions which will help to hold big business to account in areas that really matter.”
No date has been set for the trial yet. Previously, the European Commission ruled that Mastercard interchange fees violated the EU’s competition law in 2007.
===========================================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment