Likes: 
Faceplams: He did community service and forfeited his bond TO THE CITY OF CHICAGO. So he cut a deal.
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He did community service and forfeited his bond TO THE CITY OF CHICAGO. So he cut a deal.
24.24.2.2866
Head is spinning over this, so somebody must be full of shit here but who?
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Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx said in a statement, "After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollet's volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case."
(The agreement requires him to pay the $10,000 bond to City but he’s saying he “donated” it.)
Watched Police Sup. Eddie Johnson and Mayor Rahm Emmanuel just now. They’re both pissed off.
Eddie still wants an apology, and asked what happened to “this individual” demanding his day in court to clear his name?
Rahm says this indefinitely fucked things up for real victims of hate crimes; Rahm also says $10,000 doesn’t nearly cover the costs the city incurred.
Smollett’s attorneys are proclaiming his innocence and how “unfairly” their client was treated, yet he paid $10k and did community service to make it go away. Yeah, that makes sense.
Meanwhile, Kim Foxx had her own share of trouble in this matter because Smollett’s relatives were texting her right after it happened, asking her to get the FBI to investigate instead of the CPD and she said she’d try. Huh??? Correct answer is: “I’m sorry, I can’t discuss this matter.”
Last edited by allegro; 03-26-2019 at 12:55 PM.
Bored
@Cat Mom Is it possible to say Smollett took a version of the Alford Plea before going to court? Sure looks like that to me.
And it doesn't resolve anything.
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Pretty much, yeah. He made it go away.Originally Posted by marodi
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Okay wait ... it gets BETTER!!!
Back in February, Jussie Smollett hired Hollywood Attorney Mark Garegos:
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2019/02...ense-attorney/
Last night, Attorney Michael Avenatti and Mark Garegos were arrested by the FBI for trying to extort millions from Nike:
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/...i-filings.html
Note from the above NY Magazine link that Avenatti received a wire for Stormy Daniels’ $1.6 million settlement, put it in a segregated (client fund) trust, told her it hadn’t yet arrived, he then spent ALL THE MONEY on himself and his debts for his failing coffee coffee company (TOTALLY ILLEGAL), and told Daniels the money never arrived, and then he didn’t pay taxes on it.
Wtf.
Last edited by allegro; 03-26-2019 at 02:00 PM.
Administrator
It's laughable to hear Rahm say this fucks things up for victims of hate crimes after Laquan McDonald and his police department going into Burger King to erase surveillance footage of his shooting but go off I guess.
I'm sure there's some procedural nonsense and corrupting happening behind the scenes around all of this but neither of the opposing parties have clean hands in this.
Bite me
The Smollett agreement looks REALLY WEIRD:
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...326-story.html
Smollett had posted 10 percent of the bond — $10,000. Ordinarily, that money would be returned to him or his attorneys but instead it will be handed over to the city of Chicago.
To add to the confusion, Judge Steven Watkins ordered the public court file sealed for unexplained reasons.
In a telephone interview, Eric Sussman, Magat’s predecessor as Foxx’s top aide, said the abrupt, secretive nature of the deal “raises questions as to whether there is embarrassing information the state’s attorney’s office doesn’t want the public to know.”
“I’ve never, ever seen anything like this, Sussman, now in private practice, said of the decision to drop charges so soon after an indictment.Meanwhile, THE F.B.I. is STILL investigating that letter that Smollett received in the mail because that is a Federal crime.The state’s attorney’s office later released a letter from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition that said Smollett had performed community service — but just for two days, on Saturday and Monday.
“If he had not done the the community service, the charges would not have been dropped,” Magats said.
Last edited by allegro; 03-26-2019 at 07:41 PM.
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Okay, in the “THIS IS A GOOD FUCKING REASON TO BE PISSED AT THE CPD” News:
Guns drawn, cuffed parents, smashed cake: Lawsuit claims Chicago police raided wrong home during boy's 4th birthday party
Last edited by allegro; 03-26-2019 at 07:42 PM.
Too Privileged to Get It
New details in the Smollett saga, and by the way this reads, we definitely don't have the final word on all of this yet: https://abc7chicago.com/fbi-reviewin...urces/5219838/
This Cannot Continue
In other news, some people are just the fucking worst...
San Franciscans raise $46,000 to stop homeless shelter in wealthy area
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...er-embarcadero
Active Member
Please consider donating to the rival GoFundMe in favor of the shelter, which the company itself gave $5,000 to.
https://www.gofundme.com/safer-embarcadero-for-all
Active Member
Just keep this dude locked up! Sounds like nothing but trouble.
"Brian Michael Rini, who claimed to be Timmothy Pitzen, has criminal past"
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...iminal-n991256
Active Member
I was nobody. Nothing.
that was interesting when it was released, but it's still certainly not "case closed."
That Patricia Cornwell book that was mentioned, wherein she claimed painter Walter Sickert was the killer (and tried to prove it using modern forensics,) was pretty damned fascinating and compelling, and included probable DNA matches from some of the letters.
Also, dude had a painting called "Jack the Ripper's Bedroom," which was like, a painting of HIS room, and some paintings that looked like the post mortem photos of the victims. There was a whole bunch more circumstantial evidence in the book.
But it had its problems and critics, just like this new analysis, and the only thing i can say with certainty is that it was a damn fine read.
I'm not sure we'll EVER know for sure.
This Cannot Continue
WHAT.THE.FUCK
Doctors discover four live bees feeding on tears inside woman's eye
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ide-womans-eye
Active Member
Not gonna bother with a link since literally every news website has this:
Julian Assange has been arrested in London.
Throbbing Member
This is a dark, dark day.
Bored
WHAT.THE.FUCK
Doctors discover four live bees feeding on tears inside woman's eye
https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ide-womans-eye
Seriously though, I saw this news too yesterday and it gave me nightmares. For real.
Throbbing Member
im sad Julian Assange has been arrested and i think he was a force for good in the world. i hope he does not spend the rest of his life in a supermax prison in Arizona or Colorado or wherever the fuck those places are.
the UK and US intelligence agencies have been too profoundly interlinked since like 1940, for him not to be extradited,
those 2010 leaks were mind blowing, and felt almost revolutionary, was amazing to see the effect one man could have on a superpower.
i hope he is afforded the same leniency obama gave to Chelsea Manning one day, he has basically been a prisoner for 9 years already, the US has made its point.
Active Member
I hear you, but it seems pretty clear the gov't is going to attempt to throw the book at him. They've been eternally embarrassed by what he exposed, and they want to make him pay.
Too Privileged to Get It
Ol' Trump seemed to like him back in 2016, maybe he'll pardon the dude.
tempus est umbra in mente
well, however you feel about Assange, if we make this about Trump and Wikileaks' involvement in the timed releases of DNC-hacked info and emails, cooperating w/ the Trump campaign via Roger Stone...
...and then Trump is now saying he doesn't really know about Wikileaks or have an opinion on them... except during the campaign he praised and mentioned them over a hundred times or so?
24.24.2.2866
I'm conflicted over the Assange thing, on the one hand either he or his org knowingly or unknowingly aided a foreign government's (a noted political enemy) efforts in undermining/interfering with U.S. democracy, this much is a fact no?
Sounds like some damning shit right there to me, I'd certainly hope there would be some type of punitive measures. Just the thought that this mother fucker could be partially responsible for tipping the scales in Trump's favor makes me fucking rage.
On the other hand, the charge so far doesn't even have anything to do with the 2016 stuff and is regarding the 2010 dump of info that Chelsea Manning provided. This facilitation of information would be covered by the first amendment of the U.S. constitution and we don't want the wrong precedent set here where press freedoms are being violated.
Oh and would you look at that, Russia is CONDEMNING Assange's arrest. Could they perhaps be getting nervous about anything?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ublisher-juli/
Also this: https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17...tial-campaign/
tempus est umbra in mente
I think Assange stopped being a true whistle-blower, but I think he once was. Then he became a cornered but vindictive asshole who felt he was justified in playing god with the way that he could politically weaponize some cherry-picked whistle-blowing to tap Clinton back.
Throbbing Member
Guess this happened a few days ago (April 10th). Didn’t see anything about it posted here. So...
Earth Sees First Image Of A Black Hole
What a monster. reminds me of the quote,
"...when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”
Bite me
In addition to this indictment, the U.S. Government has evidence that Assange had regular, direct communication with Gucifer 2.0. He isn’t a “journalist.” Not by any stretch of the imagination. A giant repository dump of information that he hasn’t bothered to redact or even so much as comment on does not equal journalism. He was in constant communication with the Trump campaign, providing advice and information based on hacked information he helped illegally obtain in order to assist in affecting the outcome of the election. The Government information - all laid out in the Roger Stone case (Organization 1 = Wikileaks) - includes texts and phone data showing his deliberate desire and attempts to prevent HRC from winning. See also.
That = conspiracy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/w...r-embassy.html
Some are claiming that this means that Assange only acted as a “journalist” who wished to help conceal Manning’s identity. What a load of ca-ca.they charged him with conspiring to commit unlawful computer intrusion based on his alleged agreement to try to help Ms. Manning break an encoded portion of passcode that would have permitted her to log on to a classified military network under another user’s identity.
People point out the Pentagon Papers as a comparison. It’s a shitty comparison. First, a former member of the government voluntarily leaked the Department of Defense study to the Washington Post. That person did so without conspiratorial intent but, instead, to shed light on the truth of the U.S. failures in the Vietnam conflict. The Washington Post was handed this information, and went to great costs to publish it and to conceal the identity of the person who provided it (an American citizen). The American taxpayers had paid for the report, as well as Vietnam; no valid argument could be made against the publication of the information.
The information obtained by Manning and Assange contained classified surveillance information, some of it endangering the lives of American citizens. Much of the hacked information published by Assange through Gucifer 2.0 - in essence, propaganda designed to change voter opinions - directly affected the U.S. election. This ain’t the Pentagon Papers. Manning is an American citizen and got cut some slack by Obama. Assange? Please. He’s an opportunistic turd.
Last edited by allegro; 04-12-2019 at 03:41 PM.
Too Privileged to Get It
I'm glad somebody else recognizes Assange fore what he is, because what he ISN'T is a hero. Not even a little.
Add Violins
I'm sorry, but I can't help laughing at the tragic irony of this development for Assange.
The guy had a major grudge against Hillary Clinton, which I could maybe sympathize with to a certain extent. But then he went WAY beyond what could ever be considered a reasonable response and decided to take a massive shit on our country's electoral process. And he got exactly what he wanted, he helped stop Hillary from becoming president, and the rest of us all got stuck with the waking nightmare of living under Donald Trump. It was a shitty strategic move designed to improve his personal situation. He decided that his odds looked better if Trump was president instead of Hillary, and he didn't care about the horrific impact it would have on others.
Which is why I find it pretty hilarious that he got exactly what he wanted and he STILL got fucked over. Did he honestly think the Trump administration would give a shit about him? Did he really think that Trump would be like "Nah, let's just leave that guy alone, after all, he worked so hard to get me elected." LOL. Even from a perspective of pure self-interest, it was a moronic strategy. What kind of rebel whistleblower thinks he should seek shelter in the arms of fucking Republicans? This is not exactly a party known for being champions of the press and free speech rights and transparency within our military and intelligence institutions. And betting on Trump was an especially dumb move. One of Trump's defining qualities is a complete lack of loyalty to anyone at all. He uses people and then he throws them away. I just don't understand how Assange, who comes across as fairly intelligent, didn't see this coming a mile away. And given that he didn't give a shit about how anyone else would be impacted by Trump becoming president, I'm not exactly feeling particularly sympathetic towards him right now.
Bite me
Trump, who publicly said “WikiLeaks” nearly 150 during his campaign, now says this. It’s like that scene in The Godfather Part II when Frank Pentangeli’s Brother, Vincenzo, arrives from Sicily for the Senate hearing:
Last edited by allegro; 04-12-2019 at 03:51 PM.
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