FBI Director Kash Patel said on Wednesday afternoon that the bureau is investigating the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis &#8220;as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.&#8221;
Two children — ages 8 and 10 — were killed and 17 other people, including 14 children, were wounded when trans-identifying shooter Robin Westman fired into the building where students and staff were attending Mass on Wednesday morning. The wounded <a href="https://x.com/BrianEntin/status/1960793755067539714">include</a> 14 children between the ages of 6 and 15 and three adults in their 80s.
&#8220;The shooter has been identified as Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman,&#8221; Patel posted on X. &#8220;The FBI will continue to provide updates on our ongoing investigation with the public as we are able.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Updates on the shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota:
The FBI is investigating this shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics.
There were 2 fatalities, an 8-year-old and a 10-year-old. In addition, 14 children and 3 adults were injured.
The… <a href="https://t.co/ErFZpSieKS">https://t.co/ErFZpSieKS</a>
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1960785108996112782?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
&nbsp;
The FBI <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/terrorism">defines</a> domestic terrorism as &#8220;violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.&#8221; The bureau <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/civil-rights/hate-crimes">defines</a> a hate crime as &#8220;a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.&#8221;
The Minneapolis shooter showed political and religious messages in videos posted Wednesday morning under an account connected to him. Some of the messages, which were written on firearms, said, &#8220;Where is your God?&#8221; &#8220;For the children,&#8221; &#8220;Kill Donald Trump,&#8221; and &#8220;Why so Queerious?&#8221; In one video, the shooter also showed a notebook that had writings filling multiple pages. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O&#8217;Hara <a href="https://x.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1960793806468415855">confirmed</a> that the YouTube video showed Westman&#8217;s manifesto.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem <a href="https://x.com/Sec_Noem/status/1960790030630224038">said</a> in a post on X, &#8220;This deeply sick murderer scrawled the words ‘For the Children’ and ‘Where is your God?’ and ‘Kill Donald Trump’ on a rifle magazine.&#8221;
&#8220;This level of violence is unthinkable,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Our deepest prayers are with the children, parents, families, educators, and Christians everywhere. We mourn with them, we pray for healing, and we will never forget them.&#8221;
Westman&#8217;s mother worked at Annunciation, according to Twin Cities local news station KARE 11. His mother also reportedly signed off on his name change in 2020, since Westman was still a minor when he began to identify as a female.
Two years ago, Minnesota Catholic leaders asked Democratic Governor Tim Walz for more help to protect their schools from shootings, but to no avail, as extra funding for security was never authorized, The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/minnesota-catholic-school-leader-warned-tim-walz-of-urgent-and-critical-need-to-secure-schools?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Minnesota+Catholic+School+Leader+Warned+Tim+Walz+Of+%E2%80%98Critical%E2%80%99+School+Safety+Threats.+He+Did+Nothing.">reported</a>.

Shooting At Annunciation School Church In Minneapolis Leaves Multiple Children Dead And Many Injured

FBI Investigating Minneapolis Shooting As Domestic Terrorism, Hate Crime Against Catholics

Hate Crime

Mass Shooting

Minneapolis

Minnesota

School Shooting

Terrorism

U.S. Attorney General for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced on Thursday that the government is weighing seeking the death penalty for Elias Rodriguez, the man accused of killing Israeli Embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim earlier this year.
“This begins the statutory process of whether to seek the death penalty,” Pirro said. “This is a weighty decision. It takes time.”
Pirro said Attorney General Pam Bondi will decide whether to seek the death penalty after getting advice from a special unit that reviews such cases.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 U.S. Attorney <a href="https://twitter.com/JudgeJeanine?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JudgeJeanine</a> Pirro unseals a 9-count indictment against Elias Rodriguez for the heinous murders of two Israeli Embassy staff outside D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum. <a href="https://t.co/YQSMoVzJdr">pic.twitter.com/YQSMoVzJdr</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1953481283612414175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
Lischinsky, 30, and Milgrim, 28, were allegedly shot and killed by Elias outside of an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in May. Lischinsky was a German-Israeli dual citizen and devout evangelical Christian. He immigrated to Israel at 16, served in the Israel Defense Forces, and began working as a political analyst at the embassy in 2022.
He was planning to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/friends-family-react-to-murder-of-israeli-embassy-staffers-by-keffiyeh-wearing-terrorist">propose</a> to Milgrim, who grew up in the Kansas City suburbs and was a full-time employee at the embassy’s Department of Public Diplomacy.
Rodriguez, 31, from Chicago, was detained by police and shouted “Free Palestine,” according to law enforcement and a viral video of him in custody. He allegedly told a police officer near the scene that he “did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.” He also pre-scheduled his “explication” to be published on his X account, where he advocated for violence against Israelis.
“This Justice Department will not tolerate violence motivated by hatred of faith or national origin, and we will enforce our federal civil rights laws accordingly,” said Harmeet K. Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice.
According to the DOJ, Rodriguez fired approximately 20 shots at Lischinsky and Milgrim.
Pirro unsealed a nine-count indictment against Rodriguez, including two new counts of committing a hate crime and two counts of assault with intent to kill. Rodriguez was previously charged on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/charges-revealed-in-d-c-terror-attack-shooter-did-it-for-palestine-fbi-says">May 22</a> with the murder of a foreign official, firearm offenses, and first-degree murder.
“This office will leave no stone unturned in its effort to bring justice to the innocent victims of Elias Rodriguez,” said U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro for the District of Columbia. “The hate charges shed further light on his evil intent in the killing of innocent victims.”
&nbsp;

Milgrim and Lichinsky

Death Penalty On The Table For Killer Of Israeli Embassy Staffers

antisemitism

Crime

Death Penalty

Israel

Jeanine Pirro

U.S.

Washington DC

More than 100 House Democrats voted on Monday against a resolution condemning the recent fire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/terror-in-colorado-pro-israel-demonstrators-attacked-in-firebombing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attack</a> in Boulder, Colorado, on people demonstrating in support of hostages kidnapped by Hamas in the October 7, 2023, assault on Israel.
The <a href="https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20250609/H%20Res%206.8.25.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">measure</a>, which denounces the &#8220;antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado&#8221; and offers a critique of the U.S. immigration system because the suspect was an illegal immigrant, <a href="https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025158" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> with strong bipartisan support from 205 Republicans and 75 Democrats. However, 113 Democrats opposed the resolution, leaving them open to broadsides from Republicans.
&#8220;House Democrats just sided with terrorists over cops and couldn’t even bring themselves to condemn antisemitism. They&#8217;re officially the antisemite and anti-cop caucus,&#8221; Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Republican Jewish Coalition posted a list on X of all the Democrats who voted against the resolution, calling their opposition &#8220;shameful.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Here are the names of the 113 House Democrats who just voted AGAINST <a href="https://twitter.com/repgabeevans?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepGabeEvans</a>’ resolution denouncing the antisemitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado.
Shameful. <a href="https://t.co/jBOZXcRjBF">pic.twitter.com/jBOZXcRjBF</a>
— RJC (@RJC) <a href="https://twitter.com/RJC/status/1932214951583621208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The resolution notes Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who is now facing hate crime and many other <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/06/mohamed-soliman-boulder-attack-hate-crime-charges/84065930007/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charges</a> in connection to the June 1 firebombing in Boulder, allegedly shouted &#8220;Free Palestine&#8221; and spoke about wanting to kill all the Zionists.
In addition, it mentions Soliman is an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa and his case &#8220;demonstrates the dangers of not removing from the country aliens who fail to comply with the terms of their visas.&#8221; The resolution also expresses gratitude to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — a federal agency <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-biden-comes-out-against-abolishing-ice-ice-is-not-the-problem" target="_blank" rel="noopener">derided</a> by some Democrats.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=wisepops&amp;utm_campaign=dad&amp;utm_content=fathersdaygiftpopups" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gift Dad an All Access Membership. Use code DAD40 at checkout to save 40%!</a>
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) chided Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO), who introduced the resolution, during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/live/znhJ3NB434E?t=218s" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press conference</a> before the vote.
&#8220;Who is this guy? He&#8217;s not seriously concerned with combating antisemitism in America. This is not a serious effort. This guy&#8217;s going to be a one-term member of Congress. He&#8217;s a complete and total embarrassment,&#8221; Jeffries said. The top Democrat also <a href="https://x.com/NRCC/status/1932166132691083613" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> the resolution and Evans a &#8220;joke.&#8221;
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) fired back at Jeffries in a <a href="https://x.com/SteveScalise/status/1932172219494342769" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> on X.
&#8220;Only radical Democrats would call it a joke to denounce antisemitic terrorism and express gratitude to law enforcement for detaining the terrorist here illegally who perpetrated the Boulder attack,&#8221; Scalise said. &#8220;Appreciate [Evans] — a veteran and former law enforcement officer &#8211; for leading on this important resolution.&#8221;
Evans, a first-term congressman who is a former Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot and police officer, also delivered a retort.
&#8220;I served our nation in uniform in the Middle East, as a cop in Colorado, &amp; now as a Congressman,&#8221; Evans <a href="https://x.com/repgabeevans/status/1932192483510759662" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on X. &#8220;This wildly offensive sentiment from Democrat’s Leader is why antisemitism persists. The Left is unserious about finding real solutions. Condemning terrorism is not a joking matter.&#8221;
Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO), who represents Boulder, had pushed for the House to go with his own <a href="https://neguse.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/neguse.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/neguse_085_xml_0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> condemning the attack and criticized the measure from Evans. Among his complaints were that it contained small &#8220;inaccuracies&#8221; and failed to recognize the Boulder Police Department or FBI for their response to the firebombing — only ICE, &#8220;the one agency that was not in Boulder that day.&#8221;
Still, Neguse ended up voting to pass the measure from Evans, which did affirm &#8220;that free and open communication between State and local law enforcement and their Federal counterparts remains the bedrock of public safety and is necessary in preventing terrorist attacks.&#8221;
A Democrat who voted against the resolution, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do7FZ00kQIo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">griped</a> about how arguing the Boulder attack is a &#8220;reflection&#8221; of the U.S. immigration system &#8220;uses Jews as a partisan pawn.&#8221;
Nearly all House Republicans and Democrats joined together to pass another <a href="https://vandrew.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=1875" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resolution</a> from Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) condemning antisemitic violence across the United States — including the Boulder firebombing — in the midst of a &#8220;disturbing pattern of targeted aggression&#8221; that also encompasses the recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-republicans-condemn-evil-murder-of-israeli-embassy-staffers-antisemitic-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">killing</a> of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/arsonist-arrested-for-attack-on-josh-shapiro-hated-israel-911-call-reveals" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arson attack</a> on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/suspect-in-custody-to-be-charged-with-terrorism-after-arson-attack-on-josh-shapiros-home?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Suspect+In+Custody" target="_blank" rel="noopener">home</a> of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish.

Prayer Vigil in Boulder

More Than 100 Democrats Vote Against Resolution Denouncing Antisemitic Boulder Fire Attack

Anti-Semitism

Colorado

Congress

Politics

U.S. House of Representatives

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus walked back statements he previously made about his department finding “no evidence whatsoever” that actor Jonathan Joss’ death was a hate crime.
Social media and mainstream media lit up following the death of the “King of the Hill” voice actor on Sunday. At first, news reports were saying that the Texas native was shot following a dispute with his neighbor. Soon after, a man claiming to be Joss’ husband said Joss was really the victim of anti-LGBT bigotry.
While San Antonio police originally ruled out a hate crime, now McManus is walking back those statements. “That was way, way, way premature,” he <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioPD/videos/1356101808802458/">said</a> during a Thursday press conference. “Shouldn’t have done it. It was way too soon before we had any real information, and I will own that and simply say, again, that we shouldn&#8217;t have done that. It was way too early in the process for any statement of that nature to be issued.”
“We understand that many in the LGBTQ+ community are feeling anxious and concerned,” he continued. “A lot of it has to do with that premature statement that we released, and again, I own that, shouldn&#8217;t have done it. The loss of Jonathan Joss was tragic and most, most heavily felt by the LGBTQ+ community.”
Just two days earlier on June 3, the SAPD said that they “thoroughly reviewed all available information” and said there was no reason to believe Joss’ death “was related to his sexual orientation.”
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=wisepops&amp;utm_campaign=dad&amp;utm_content=fathersdaygiftpopups" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gift Dad an All Access Membership. Use code DAD40 at checkout to save 40%!</a>
As some people have pointed out, the post from Joss’ alleged husband following the incident is full of extreme, unsubstantiated accusations, including one about angry neighbors burning down their home several months ago. But <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lgbt-activists-have-found-their-next-hate-crime-hoax-and-its-the-most-insane-one-yet">news reports</a> from the time state that Joss admitted to using a propane heater, which may have caused the fire.
According to a report from local station WFAA, Joss also had a long history of getting into altercations with his neighbors and was reported to have been causing a disturbance on the night he was killed.
“Neighbors [said that Joss] was at the site Sunday night checking his mail, which he did regularly, when something went terribly wrong. A video shared by a neighbor who was present shows a man, who they identified as Joss, pacing up and down the street with a pitchfork and screaming,” the outlet reported.
It went on, “The neighbors say it was common behavior over the years for Joss to scream while carrying weapons, and even though they say they didn’t like it, several neighbors said they were surprised when a man who lives just 50 yards away responded to the situation with a gun around 6 p.m. Sunday.”
One person claiming to be a neighbor of Joss posted on Facebook saying the voice actor “started gun fights constantly” and “constantly threatened his surrounding neighbors.”
Footage of Joss behaving aggressively at an event for the &#8220;King of the Hill&#8221; revival two days before his death also started circulating online. The voice actor had to be escorted from the premises by security.
Sigfredo Ceja Alvarez, 56, who is described as a former neighbor of Joss, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. His is currently under house arrest on $200,000 bond.

Johnathan Joss

San Antonio Police Chief Walks Back Statement That Jonathon Joss’ Murder Wasn’t A Hate Crime

San Antonio Police Chief Walks Back Statement That Jonathon Joss' Murder Wasn't A Hate Crime

Celebrities

Entertainment

LGBTQ

Murder

San Antonio

A black media personality was convicted last week of faking a hate crime against Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade to gin up votes for him, with the ringleader Derrick Bernard testifying that Mobolade was in on the hoax, and the FBI testifying that the mayor misled agents about his contact with Bernard.
Mobolade, who is Nigerian, won the election as a left-leaning independent in the traditional Republican stronghold in 2023 after the n-word was scrawled on one of his campaign signs and a cross set ablaze in front of it. Video of the scene was sent to the media, resulting in a swell of sympathy.
At the five-day trial in federal court for Bernard and his wife, Ashley Blackcloud, that concluded May 23, FBI agent Ethan Doherty testified that the mayor falsely denied contact with Bernard, despite records showing the pair was in contact before, the day of the hate crime, and afterward. Doherty testified that when the FBI interviewed the mayor, Mobolade said he was “120% sure” he did not have a phone call with Bernard three days after the incident, and that Mobolade seemed “nervous,” according to <a href="https://www.koaa.com/news/news5-investigates/fbi-agent-defendant-testify-in-election-hate-crime-hoax-trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KOAA</a>. Doherty also revealed that Mobolade began using a <a href="https://gazette.com/news/courts/bernard-blames-colorado-springs-mayor-other-politicians-in-hate-crime-hoax-trial/article_2f4a6ffe-07be-4d4b-ae28-afbaf5267596.html">new cell phone</a> the day after the hoax.
The FBI’s courtroom testimony <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mayor-lied-in-hate-crime-hoax-probe-but-doj-refused-to-charge-him-fbi-official-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">corroborated</a> Daily Wire reporting from November 2024, which Mobolade denied at the time. Mobolade <a href="https://gazette.com/government/mobolade-statement-hate-crime-investigation/article_52f0bf8e-acdf-11ef-8efc-1b6a6e58dabc.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the local paper that “politically motivated websites will weigh in with no regard for accuracy or truth,” and his deputy chief of staff told the city council the article was “unfounded.” He produced a video in response, saying “I did not lie to the FBI,” and claiming he had paperwork from the Department of Justice showing he was a victim.
But a Justice Department document produced at trial said that Mobolade was at one point under investigation, that the investigation was closed but could be reopened, and that its closure should not be considered an exoneration.
The hoax began after an April 12, 2023 election in which neither Mobolade nor Wayne Williams, a white Republican, received a majority, triggering a runoff. According to court papers, the next day Bernard texted Mobolade: “Theirs [sic] a plot amidst. I’m mobilizing my squadron in defense and for the final push. Black ops style big brother. The klan cannot be allowed to run this city again.”
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mayor-lied-in-hate-crime-hoax-probe-but-doj-refused-to-charge-him-fbi-official-says">Mayor Lied In Hate Crime Hoax Probe But DOJ Refused To Charge Him, FBI Official Says</a>
On April 23, Bernard, Blackcloud, and a third conspirator named Deanna West, who previously pleaded guilty, worked together to scrawl the n-word on a campaign sign at 3:00 a.m., erect a cross with twine on it, and set the twine on fire. They photographed the display and sent it to the media, suggesting that white Republican supporters of Williams were to blame.
That night, Bernard texted Mobolade, “I guarantee the finish,” referring to a request from Mobolade to help him get across the finish line. Three days later, the pair spoke on the phone for five minutes. After Mobolade won the May runoff, Bernard texted him: “We got you through it all brother&#8230; Another time though, we’ll handle business.”
Bernard, who is now serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for an unrelated killing, testified that Mobolade, along with state Rep. Regina English (D-El Paso), helped plan the hoax, according to <a href="https://krdo.com/news/2025/05/23/couple-found-guilty-of-threatening-yemi-mobolade-with-hate-crime-hoax-during-2023-mayoral-race/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KRDO</a>. He said Mobolade was to have steered city money to Bernard’s radio station in return. Blackcloud did not testify, but told the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/cross-burning-hoax-colorado-springs-black-mayor-1900f7765e9fe5693d5df2a5ea50ffee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Associated Press</a> that the mayor was in on it from the beginning.
<blockquote>
<h1>“Theirs [sic] a plot amidst. I’m mobilizing my squadron in defense and for the final push. Black ops style big brother. The klan cannot be allowed to run this city again.”</h1>
</blockquote>
There was evidence that the mayor did not seem to want a thorough investigation into the incident. He waited until the Monday after the news broke to contact the local police chief, whom he told “I don’t want to make a big deal about this,” according to <a href="https://www.koaa.com/news/news5-investigates/mayor-mobolade-testimony-continues-in-hate-crime-hoax-trial" target="_blank" rel="noopener">testimony</a>. After the FBI identified Bernard as a suspect, Mobolade did not tell investigators that he had been in contact with him, testifying at trial that he was waiting for the FBI to <a href="https://krdo.com/news/2025/05/20/mayor-yemi-mobolade-and-wife-take-the-stand-in-colorado-springs-hate-crime-hoax-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">take the lead</a> by asking questions, according to KRDO.
That seemed to contradict the fact that when the FBI did ask him, he denied the contact. At trial, Mobolade said he didn’t recall denying his phone call with Bernard to the FBI, until he was presented with a transcript of his FBI interview.
&#8220;At the time I was confident,&#8221; Mobolade testified, according to the <a href="https://gazette.com/news/courts/colorado-springs-mayor-grilled-on-day-2-of-hate-crime-hoax-trial/article_ce378cbc-adde-4547-a91a-0625bce9b6db.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Colorado Springs Gazette</a>.
The Gazette reported that “Mobolade appeared flustered as he fielded questions from the defense about the timeline of events and specific details about his communication with Bernard. He often was not able to provide an answer.” He could still not explain what the five-minute phone call was about.
Bernard testified that the five-minute call was about the “hoax,” and that Mobolade “promised to ‘squash’ the story when Bernard expressed concern over backlash,” the <a href="https://gazette.com/news/courts/bernard-blames-colorado-springs-mayor-other-politicians-in-hate-crime-hoax-trial/article_2f4a6ffe-07be-4d4b-ae28-afbaf5267596.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gazette</a> reported.
The day after the call, KRDO ran a story quoting the Mobolade campaign asking people not to give the incident “<a href="https://krdo.com/news/2023/04/24/colorado-springs-mayoral-candidates-sign-painted-with-a-racial-slur-in-front-of-burning-cross-springs-mayoral-candidates-sign-painted-with-a-racial-slur-in-front-of-burning-cross/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">any oxygen</a>.” At trial, Mobolade acknowledged that “he tried to keep the story under wraps at the time, saying he ‘didn&#8217;t want that to be the story of Colorado Springs,’” the Gazette reported.
Emails obtained by The Daily Wire show that, after he became mayor, Mobolade used city employees to deter the local media from picking up The Daily Wire’s report that Mobolade had given false information to the FBI.
When The Daily Wire notified spokeswoman Vanessa Zink about the allegation that Mobolade lied to the FBI, the mayor’s chief of staff, Jamie Fabos, intervened to encourage her to take an ad hominem approach, calling the Wire a “bizarre far right” outlet whose reporters “don’t actually qualify as journalists.”
When the Gazette asked for comment about The Daily Wire’s story, Zink wrote: “Use caution in perpetuating gossip and rumors from politically biased outlets.”
“I guess I had hoped that our community could rise above what appears to be political bait from a source that doesn’t even have the decency to blur out racial slurs on its graphics, but, sadly, it seems that is not possible,” she wrote.
When media outlets used a blurred version of the photo to obscure the n-word, the blurring also concealed the fact that the fire was clearly coming not from the wooden cross, but from a small amount of twine wrapped around it. That was strong evidence from the beginning that it was a hoax, since twine would only burn for a few seconds, meaning the people who took the photo and sent it to the media were likely the same people who set the fire, rather than passersby. At trial, security camera footage confirmed that the fire only burned for 20 seconds.
City Councilman Dave Donelson said Zink resigned her job shortly after the trial, though he doesn’t know the reason.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2t4GKsTFjQk?si=jjoJJKxqRx2xq51h" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
&nbsp;
An FBI official told The Daily Wire in November 2024 that Mobolade repeatedly concealed his contacts with Bernard from the FBI, despite scrolling through his phone in the interview room. The official said the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden refused the bureau’s request to indict the mayor for false statements because “we can’t indict the first black mayor of Colorado Springs,” instead telling agents to interview him again so he could change his story.
When the Justice Department indicted the trio, it issued a press release that falsely said that one of Bernard’s incriminating messages — that he was “mobilizing my squad” for “black ops” — was sent to his co-defendants, when it was actually sent to Mobolade.
A Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for Colorado has still not been confirmed, and under Acting U.S. Attorney J. Bishop Grewell, a career Justice Department lawyer, the federal government has portrayed Mobolade, not the Republican candidate Williams, as the victim. That&#8217;s despite the fact that the culprits, in their anonymous message to the media, explicitly used the burning cross to frame supporters of the white Republican and harm Williams’ candidacy, and Williams ultimately lost the race.
Prosecutors charged the trio using a legal theory that seemed to require making it seem like Mobolade had no knowledge of the stunt in order to secure convictions against Bernard and his accomplices for making “threats” to him.
The defendants said it was “political theater” designed to win an election, not a threat, since the black left-wing operatives obviously did not intend to actually harm the black left-wing candidate because of his race.
But the trio was charged with “Willfully making a threat to kill, injure or intimidate by fire” and “Maliciously conveying false information concerning a threat to kill, injure or intimidate by fire, knowing the information to be false.”
As a result, the <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cod.238660/gov.uscourts.cod.238660.178.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">judge’s instructions</a> said in order to secure a conviction, prosecutors “must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants willfully meant the cross burning not as political hyperbole or political theater but rather, for Candidate 1 to fear a real possibility that violence would follow.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Candyce Cline said in the prosecution’s opening argument that the burning cross was not “political theater,” but rather a “threat of violence,” according to the Gazette. “Lead U.S. Attorney Bryan Fields argued the incident was not a hoax to the Mobolade family, but rather their worst nightmare,” it <a href="https://gazette.com/news/courts/hate-crime-hoax-trial-jury-returns-guilty-verdict-on-all-counts-after-4-hour-deliberation/article_94cc53e8-55c4-4109-b9d5-904240bee57d.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Mobolade cried on the witness stand and, despite evidence that the Mobolade campaign suspected that a black person was behind the hoax at the time, claimed that the defaced sign left him living in fear.
His wife “Abbey Mobolade testified she bought a fire ladder and trauma kit in the weeks after the incident, adding that she doesn&#8217;t let her kids outside alone anymore,” the Gazette reported.
The convicts have not yet been sentenced, but West, who pleaded guilty, is expected to receive only probation.
Mobolade issued a statement after the convictions that cast the hoax as a reminder of the importance of anti-racism.
“This moment brings a sense of closure and relief, not only for our family, but for the Colorado Springs community as a whole. We deeply appreciate the work of the judicial system, federal prosecutors, law enforcement, and everyone who worked diligently to bring this case to justice. Moments like this remind us that hate has no home in our city. As we move forward, we do so with gratitude, healing, and a commitment to the values that make Colorado Springs a safe, just, and united community,” he said.
Councilman Donelson told The Daily Wire that the statement painting Mobolade as the victim was unseemly. He said now that the trial is over, Mobolade is out of excuses to stay mum. “For this councilman, something doesn’t add up. If I were the mayor, I’d want to clear this up,” he said.
He said new Justice Department leadership should examine whether the false-statements case into Mobolade was closed for political reasons, and whether it should be reopened. He questioned whether the DOJ’s strategy showed a bias towards protecting Mobelade. “The DOJ charges were that this was truly a threat to Mobelade. If he knew about it, then their case falls apart,” he said.
He said at a city council meeting: &#8220;I call for an investigation into these accusations and actions.  The citizens of Colorado Springs deserve answers about the mayor’s involvement.”
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/prosecutors-indict-trio-for-staging-hate-crime-to-elect-left-wing-colorado-mayor">Prosecutors Indict Trio For Staging Hate Crime To Elect Left-Wing Colorado Mayor</a>

Untitled design (34)

Colorado Springs’ First Black Mayor Implicated In Hate-Crime Hoax At Federal Trial

Department of Justice

A Muslim man who hated America and Christianity was convicted of targeting multiple churches with fake bomb threats while collecting bomb-making materials, the Justice Department announced.
The DOJ <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/arizona-man-convicted-crimes-arising-out-plot-targeting-christian-churches" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Friday that 45-year-old Zimnako Salah was convicted of targeting four churches across Arizona, California, and Colorado with fake bomb threats. At the same time, the FBI said it found evidence that Salah was constructing an actual bomb in a storage crate he was renting, according to a criminal complaint.
Salah was convicted last week of making a bomb threat hoax, obstructing the free exercise of religion, threatening the use of a dangerous weapon or explosive, and targeting Christians because of their religion.
“This Department of Justice has no tolerance for anyone who targets religious Americans for their faith,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. “The perpetrator of this abhorrent hate crime against Christians will face severe punishment.”
At one church in Roseville, California, in November 2023, Salah tied a backpack to a toilet in the men’s restroom before leaving with the intent to scare congregants into thinking they may be the victims of a bombing, the DOJ said. One woman who handled the backpack believed that she &#8220;might meet Jesus today&#8221; because of the package.
“Planting a hoax bomb at the Roseville church was not an isolated incident or a prank for this defendant,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith for the Eastern District of California. “His actions were designed to threaten and intimidate the congregation because he disagreed with their religious beliefs.”
In another incident, Salah left a backpack in the sanctuary of a Christian church in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Salah attempted to conduct a similar hoax at two other churches — one in Greenwood Village, Colorado, and the other in La Mesa, California — but was questioned by church security.
According to the criminal complaint filed against him, Salah is a Northern Iraqi who has lived in Arizona for about 20 years. 
In his interactions with others, the FBI found that he expressed his hate for America, telling people, “F*** this country. I hate America. This country went to Iraq and killed a lot of people.&#8221;
And at the same time he was carrying out the bombing hoaxes, the FBI discovered that Salah was renting a storage unit near Greenwood Village where he had materials like duct tape with nails, red and white wires attached to a battery, nails and bolts, a box of ignition coils, and multiple propane tanks.
<div id="attachment_904293" style="width: 1179px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-904293" class="size-full wp-image-904293" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.39.00-PM.png" alt="" width="1169" height="700" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.39.00-PM.png 1169w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.39.00-PM-300x180.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.39.00-PM-962x576.png 962w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.39.00-PM-768x460.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1169px) 100vw, 1169px" />FBI criminal complaint.</div>
At the time, the FBI said in its criminal complaint that the evidence indicated that the materials were “possibly being used to attempt to make a viable explosive device.” The DOJ later determined that Salah had “been building a bomb capable of fitting in a backpack.”
On the wall of the storage unit were spray-painted words in Arabic derogatory toward Jewish people and about Muhammed. Video records showed that Salah had searched for videos of “Infidels dying” and watched videos of ISIS murdering Christians, according to the DOJ.
<div id="attachment_904295" style="width: 1214px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-904295" class="size-full wp-image-904295" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.38.37-PM.png" alt="" width="1204" height="728" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.38.37-PM.png 1204w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.38.37-PM-300x181.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.38.37-PM-953x576.png 953w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Screen-Shot-2025-04-07-at-2.38.37-PM-768x464.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1204px) 100vw, 1204px" />Salah&#8217;s Storage unit: FBI criminal complaint.</div>
Salah could face up to six years in prison and a $250,000 fine if sentenced to the maximum penalty.
President Donald Trump has made targeting anti-Christian bias a major priority for his administration. He signed an executive order in February to create a task force aimed at protecting Christians and religious liberty.

MixCollage-07-Apr-2025-03-05-PM-1154

‘Hate Crime Against Christians’: Iraqi Man Convicted Over Bomb Threats Targeting Churches

Bombings

California

Christianity

Churches

ISIS

Islam

Law enforcement officials in Pennsylvania arrested an employee of Allentown City after they say that she staged a hate crime hoax.
The Allentown Police Department alleges that LaTarsha Brown contacted the department on January 10, 2025, just after 7:30 a.m. to report that she had found what she claimed was &#8220;a noose on her desk upon arriving at work,&#8221; police say.
Numerous law enforcement entities quickly became engaged in the criminal investigation, including the FBI, the Pennsylvania State Police, and the Lehigh County District Attorney&#8217;s Office.
Police used building video surveillance and access control records to whittle down the list of potential suspects who were present on the third floor of the building where her desk was located between the time she left for work the previous day and the morning that she called police.
&#8220;Those employees were interviewed, and each was asked if they would provide a buccal swab for DNA testing if needed. Every city employee agreed, except for Ms. Brown,&#8221; police said in a statement. &#8220;Initially cooperative, Ms. Brown later requested that the investigation be discontinued.&#8221;
Officials said that the Forensic DNA Division of the Pennsylvania State Police issued a written report on March 10 indicating that Brown&#8217;s DNA &#8220;matched the DNA profile obtained from the swabs of both the outer surface and the inner knotted portion of the noose after taken apart.&#8221;
&#8220;No other person&#8217;s DNA profiles was found on the evidentiary items involved in this investigation,&#8221; police said.
Brown was subsequently charged by the Allentown Police Department on two criminal charges, including Tampering With Or Fabricating Physical Evidence (a misdemeanor of the second degree) and False Reports To Law Enforcement Authorities (a misdemeanor of the third degree).
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Allentown city hall employee charged with planting noose on her own desk in January. LaTarsha Brown charged with fabricating physical evidence &amp; false report to law enforcement. Allentown Police say Brown asked “the investigation be discontinued” after city employees on her… <a href="https://t.co/FLPToNmh7x">pic.twitter.com/FLPToNmh7x</a>
— Steve Keeley (@KeeleyFox29) <a href="https://twitter.com/KeeleyFox29/status/1904213825064468907?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 24, 2025</a></blockquote>

Allentown Police Department

Pennsylvania Police Arrest Woman For Alleged Hate Crime Hoax Involving ‘Noose’

Hoax

Pennsylvania

Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade is facing calls from local politicians to explain his communications with a supporter who was indicted for faking a hate crime to boost the now-mayor’s candidacy.
Mobolade last week claimed that he was the “victim of a hate crime” even after Derrick Bernard, a black man who has since been convicted of an unrelated murder, was indicted for scrawling the n-word on a Mobolade campaign sign and lighting a cross on fire in April 2023. The election-eve hoax was intended to gin up sympathy for Mobolade, who is black, in his race against a white Republican. Mobolade was soon after elected in the city, a traditional Republican stronghold.
The indictment says that Bernard was in communication with Mobolade, including him letting him know that there was a &#8220;plot amidst&#8221; beforehand, messaging him the day of the hoax to say that he guaranteed that he would win, and holding a five-minute phone call days after the incident. The Daily Wire reported on November 21 that an FBI official said that the bureau referred the mayor for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mayor-lied-in-hate-crime-hoax-probe-but-doj-refused-to-charge-him-fbi-official-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criminal prosecution for lying</a> after he denied communicating with Bernard in two separate interviews. The Department of Justice refused to prosecute him, citing racial and political considerations, and instead called him in for a third interview, where his story changed to “I don’t recall,” the official said.
In a statement to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Mobolade disparaged The Daily Wire without specifically denying the report&#8217;s accuracy.
“My family and I are victims of a hate crime, allegedly committed by three suspects against our city. I had no knowledge, warning, or involvement in this reprehensible act. It is unfortunately not a new trend that politically motivated websites will weigh in with no regard for accuracy or truth, and interest only in sensationalism and scandal. I fully cooperated in the investigation, and it is important that the judicial process is followed to allow for a successful prosecution that brings justice for our community,” he said.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1732727087136000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Ao27zcTCGutKhTz_xpaKC">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a>
Longinos Gonzalez Jr., who ran in the race for mayor and serves as a commissioner on the governing board of El Paso County, told the Gazette that it was an “unacceptable response,” because it is “still confusing as it relates to whether he did or did not lie to the FBI.&#8221;
City Councilman Dave Donelson pressed for answers last week at a city council meeting. “I would ask the mayor to come forward and answer questions about whether or not he lied to the FBI, which is what’s alleged in that report: that he met with them twice, said he had no contact with those individuals, however in the indictment, it’s clear that he did have contact.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Did the Mayor of Colorado Springs Yemi Mobolade collude with three activists to fake a hate crime to win an election? Why don&#8217;t we have his text messages if the 3 activists have been indicted by the Department of Justice? Did the Mayor lie to the FBI?
Video from Springs… <a href="https://t.co/xJ87NCK4Vq">pic.twitter.com/xJ87NCK4Vq</a>
— Jeff Hunt (@jeffhunt) <a href="https://twitter.com/jeffhunt/status/1861534329903685868?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 26, 2024</a></blockquote>
The mayor wasn’t present, but Ryan Trujillo, his deputy chief of staff, said “We’re certainly aware and disappointed by the unfounded and unsourced allegations by the Daily Wire article. We’re mindful and respectful that this is an ongoing investigation, and so we do not anticipate any further comments to be respectful of that investigation for the defendants, none of which Mayor Yemi are included.”
Donelson replied: “What I’m asking for is not to comment on the charges made against those three individuals, but to simply state whether he was interviewed by the FBI twice and denied contact with those individuals. That’s a separate thing.”
Donelson told the Gazette, “How could it compromise the investigation to say, ‘I did not lie to the FBI in those two interviews?’”
On social media, he <a href="https://x.com/davedonelson1/status/1862139157868359873" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that the Gazette did not print the most remarkable part of Mobolade’s statement, writing: “I still don’t know if [Mobolade] LIED to the FBI &#8211; but I do know that he LIED in the statement he made to the [Gazette] yesterday. First sentence of the statement: ‘My family and I are victims of a hate crime, allegedly committed by three suspects against our city.’”
George Brauchler, who was elected as prosecutor for another district in Colorado in November, <a href="https://gazette.com/opinion/springs-mayor-owes-public-some-answers-george-brauchler/article_dfb2ee00-ae66-11ef-8a89-e7f570b92f7b.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lambasted</a> Mobolade in an op-ed in the Gazette, saying “lying to the FBI (or any federal agency) is a serious crime. A go-to-prison crime.&#8221;
He said Mobolade’s attempt to sow doubt on the reporting, without actually going on the record to contradict it, only fuel suspicion “We prosecutors look to see if the conduct of the witnesses and the guilty match up to our expectations of what an innocent person would do. Here, they do not,” he said.
He faulted the Biden DOJ and the local media, and said the crime of lying to federal agents has a five-year statute of limitations, meaning the DOJ under the Donald Trump administration could still charge him. “Mobolade does not have to wait. He can and should tell us the truth. All of it,” he said.
On the day he won election, Bernard messaged Mobolade to take credit for the win, and messaged a co-conspirator that he anticipated “favors” in return, encouraging her to pick out a city job.
The FBI source also told The Daily Wire that Mobolade personally asked the DOJ to issue a press release proclaiming his innocence&#8211;which the FBI opposed as inappropriate, including because the newly-charged suspects could be pressed for information on the mayor. The DOJ’s press release announcing the indictment falsely stated that Bernard sent a suspicious message to his co-defendants, when it was actually sent to Mobolade.
Mobolade’s taxpayer-funded spokeswoman, Vanessa Zink, did not reply when The Daily Wire asked about the FBI official’s allegations before publication of the story that the mayor&#8217;s office later disparaged. On Monday, The Daily Wire asked her for yes-or-no answers to the following questions:
-Does he deny being interviewed by the FBI three times about the Derrick Bernard/hate crime investigation?
-Does he dispute that he denied the existence of certain communications between himself and Derrick Bernard in the first two interviews?
-Does he deny contacting the USAO about a press release on the topic?
She did not reply.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mayor-lied-in-hate-crime-hoax-probe-but-doj-refused-to-charge-him-fbi-official-says">Mayor Lied In Hate Crime Hoax Probe But DOJ Refused To Charge Him, FBI Official Says</a>

An alleged hoax hate crime in Colorado / US Attorney for Colorado

Mayor Says He Is ‘Victim Of A Hate Crime’ Even After His Supporter Is Indicted For Faking It

The FBI referred Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade for prosecution for making false statements related to a hate crime hoax intended to boost his candidacy, but the Department of Justice refused to pursue it for racial and political reasons, an FBI official told The Daily Wire.
On Nov. 12 the Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado announced that three of Mobolade&#8217;s supporters had been <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/prosecutors-indict-trio-for-staging-hate-crime-to-elect-left-wing-colorado-mayor">charged</a> with writing the n-word on one of his campaign signs, erecting a burning cross in front of it, and sending video of the spectacle to the news media to turn out the black vote for Mobolade, an African immigrant. Mobolade, a left-wing candidate, went on to defeat a white Republican in a closely fought election in the conservative-leaning city.
Communications obtained by investigators showed that the now-mayor was in close contact with the lead suspect, Derrick Bernard, before the incident, on the day of, and afterward.
The FBI interviewed Mobolade twice to determine his knowledge of the hoax, and Mobolade explicitly and strenuously denied contact with Bernard, the official said. The official said there were dozens of messages between Bernard and the now-mayor. The official also said Mobolade was scrolling through his phone as a memory aide during the interview, but that “he was literally skipping over text messages,&#8221; not realizing that the bureau had already obtained them elsewhere.
Bernard is a career criminal who was sentenced to 32 months in prison in 2018, allegedly attempted to kill two police officers, and has since been convicted of an unrelated <a href="https://gazette.com/news/courts/in-quick-fashion-man-convicted-of-ordering-death-of-colorado-springs-rap-artist/article_598bde2e-9d5c-11ef-af44-4b6bcbcd61a6.html">murder</a> of a rapper who disrespected him.
As a result of Mobolade’s conduct in the interviews, the FBI referred the now-mayor to the Department of Justice to face charges for making false statements to federal investigators, the official said. But the Justice Department refused.
“The initial response from the Department of Justice was ‘we can’t indict the first black mayor of Colorado Springs,’” the official said, adding &#8220;In my experience if anyone had been in that position they would have been charged with lying to a federal agent.”
Instead, the Justice Department arranged for Mobolade to do a third interview.
&#8220;During that interview, most of his answers consisted of ‘I do not recall.’ This was contrary to his interview answers from the previous two interviews where he denied involvement very strongly,” the official said. The DOJ then told the FBI it would not charge him with false statements.
The would-be hate crime occurred in 2023 between an April 4 general election and a May runoff election that was scheduled because the general election was so close. Earlier this month, arrest warrants were issued against the three suspects, and on November 12, the case was <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69367366/united-states-v-bernard-jr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unsealed</a> and made public.
Acting U.S. Attorney for Colorado Matt Kirsch put out a <a href="https://archive.is/7eYia">press release</a> that day that misrepresented the candidate’s role. It said Bernard sent a message “to the other defendants” that said he was “mobilizing my squad” for “black ops.” But that message, according to the actual indictment, was sent to the now-mayor, not to Blackcloud and West. The message also notified Mobolade that “I spoke with some of my friends in other places and theirs [sic] a plot amidst.”
When The Daily Wire asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Colorado for comment on the allegation that it rejected an FBI criminal referral for false statements and included a false statement in its press release, a spokesman said &#8220;we have no comment&#8221; and <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/three-people-indicted-charges-related-hate-crime-hoax" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stealth-edited the press release</a> to strike the phrase &#8220;to the other defendants.&#8221;
Yet Mobolade seemed to expect even more from the Justice Department. On November 13, The Daily Wire emailed the mayor&#8217;s spokespeople asking about his communications with Bernard. That day, he personally called the Justice Department to request that it put out a second press release saying he was not a subject in the hoax hate crime investigation, the official said.
The Justice Department seemed open to doing so, and consulted the FBI about it. But the FBI was taken aback by the request, because the mayor was, in fact, on investigators&#8217; radar, the official said. Additionally, such a statement would come just as the other defendants had a reason to provide information about any involvement by Mobolade as part of plea deals, and an unusual and premature exoneration from the DOJ could derail that, the official said.
The <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indictment</a> relates several other interactions raising questions about whether Mobolade knew about Bernard’s hoax either before or after.
Early in the morning on April 23, 2023, the trio allegedly staged the hate crime and emailed photographs to media outlets from an anonymous email address. The email used the supposed hate crime to turn out black voters.
That night, Bernard texted Mobolade, “I guarantee the finish,” referring to winning the election, the indictment says. Three days later, on April 26, Mobolade and Bernard spoke on the phone for five minutes, the indictment says.
Law enforcement mounted an intensive investigation to get to the bottom of an apparent white supremacist hate crime. But as the NAACP pressed for a full-scale investigation into the incident, Mobolade’s campaign seemed to hope for the opposite, saying it was <a href="https://kdvr.com/news/local/racist-vandalism-left-at-black-mayoral-candidates-sign/">probably a hoax </a> and asking not to give it “<a href="https://krdo.com/news/2023/04/24/colorado-springs-mayoral-candidates-sign-painted-with-a-racial-slur-in-front-of-burning-cross-springs-mayoral-candidates-sign-painted-with-a-racial-slur-in-front-of-burning-cross/">any oxygen</a>.” Mobolade has not explained what led him to believe it was a hoax.
Local media covered the incident as Bernard intended, and Mobolade won the May 16 election with 58% in what <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2023/05/16/colorado-springs-mayoral-runoff-yemi-mobolade-leads-wayne-williams-concedes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">local news</a> called a “stunning turn of events.” That day, Bernard allegedly texted the candidate saying, “we got you through it all brother.” He added, “I have the info you requested before. Another time though, we’ll handle business.” Bernard texted Blackcloud a link to city job openings and implied that he anticipated a favor from Mobolade, saying, “I want favors quicker than later.”
Bernard, Blackcloud, and West are charged with using interstate commerce to make a threat and convey false information, but not with a hate crime or election interference.
Mobolade did not return a request for comment from The Daily Wire with specific questions. He previously sent a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/prosecutors-indict-trio-for-staging-hate-crime-to-elect-left-wing-colorado-mayor">statement</a> saying, “My knowledge and interaction with Bernard was as a local media personality, and I was not aware at the time that he was suspected of this crime. I appreciate local and federal law enforcement’s work in pursuing justice and sending a message that we will not tolerate such reprehensible behavior.”

Mayor Lied In Hate Crime Hoax Probe But DOJ Refused To Charge Him, FBI Official Says

Federal prosecutors last week <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-co/pr/three-people-indicted-charges-related-hate-crime-hoax" target="_blank" rel="noopener">indicted</a> three people on charges of staging a hate crime involving the n-word and a burning cross to help a left-wing candidate get elected mayor of Colorado Springs.
Prosecutors say Derrick Bernard, Ashley Blackcloud, and Deanna West, who were affiliated with a self-styled “minority-owned independent broadcasting and multimedia organization,” wrote the racial slur on a campaign sign for black candidate Yemi Mobolade, erected and ignited a cross in front of it, photographed it, and sent it to the media in order to boost Mobolade’s candidacy.
The hoax came after Mobolade and Wayne Williams, a white Republican, nearly tied in an April 2023 election, triggering a runoff election the following month. Public opinion changed significantly before the runoff, with <a href="https://www.cpr.org/2023/05/16/colorado-springs-mayoral-runoff-yemi-mobolade-leads-wayne-williams-concedes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">local news</a> calling it a “stunning turn of events” that Mobolade won with 58%. He is now mayor of Colorado&#8217;s second-largest city.
After Mobolade won the runoff election, Bernard allegedly texted him saying “we got you through it all brother.” He texted Blackcloud suggesting he expected favors from Mobolade, sending a link to city job openings and saying “I want favors quicker than later.”
A day after the first election, Bernard wrote to Blackcloud “Ima just talk to you bout a few plans,” then texted candidate Mobolade on April 13 to say “I spoke with some of my friends in other places and theirs [sic] a plot amidst,” according to the indictment.
Bernard allegedly texted Blackcloud that “they ain’t tryna let an African win” but “I got a plan.”
Early in the morning on April 23, the trio allegedly staged the hate crime and emailed photographs to Mobolade and media outlets from an anonymous email address. The email attempted to use the fake hate crime to turn out black voters, writing that the “target of any one hate crime is not just the direct victim, but also anyone who shares the victim’s targeted identity.”
At 7:30 p.m. that same night, Bernard texted Mobolade, “I guarantee the finish,” referring to a message saying he needed support to get to the finish line of his campaign, the indictment says.
On April 25, Bernard texted Mobolade, “Brother some foul stuff came up I’m [sic] our email.” The next day, he spoke with him on the phone for five minutes, the indictment notes.
The media bit on the story. <a href="https://kdvr.com/news/local/racist-vandalism-left-at-black-mayoral-candidates-sign/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KDVR</a> wrote, “in the midst of the tight race, racially charged messaging has surfaced seemingly targeting the West African immigrant.” It quoted an NAACP official, Rashad Younger, saying that the NAACP spoke to Mobolade’s campaign, which said it was “assuming this is a hoax,” but that the NAACP was treating it as real, anyway. Angela Stevens, the president of the Colorado Springs NAACP, said “we are looking at this as voter intimidation…Do we believe that it’s a hoax? Personally, we do not.”
The Daily Wire asked a spokeswoman for Mayor Mobolade whether he was aware of the scheme, what he thought Bernard was referring to when he said he had a “plot amidst,” why he thought Bernard “guaranteed” his victory, what they spoke about on the phone, why his campaign indicated to the NAACP that it was a hoax, why Bernard would think he was owed “favors” by Mobolade, and whether he sought or was given any.
Colorado Springs spokeswoman Vanessa Zink replied with a statement from Mobolade.
&#8220;That incident during my campaign led to a very traumatic time for my family, my campaign team, and our community. My knowledge and interaction with Bernard was as a local media personality, and I was not aware at the time that he was suspected of this crime. I appreciate local and federal law enforcement’s work in pursuing justice and sending a message that we will not tolerate such reprehensible behavior.”
The trio is charged with making false statements and threats using interstate commerce, having used the internet to make searches like &#8220;contact news about a story,&#8221; “kkk email,&#8221; and &#8220;candidates racist acts during campaign.&#8221;
Since allegedly staging the fake hate crime, Bernard was sentenced to life in prison for an unrelated murder in Texas. West is a fugitive, while Blackcloud is in custody.

Prosecutors Indict Trio For Staging Hate Crime To Elect Left-Wing Colorado Mayor

There was a claim that the toothpaste company Colgate used to make all the time on television. They said that &#8220;80 percent of dentists recommend Colgate.&#8221; Technically, the figure was accurate. Colgate did send around a survey. And when they got the survey back, 80% of dentists had indeed indicated that they recommended Colgate. But ultimately, the advertising regulators came down hard on Colgate and forced them to pull the ad off the air. And they did that because Colgate left out an important piece of information: the survey allowed dentists to recommend multiple brands. So, yes, 80% of dentists did recommend Colgate. But 80% of dentists also recommended Colgate&#8217;s competitors.
We&#8217;re bombarded with misrepresentations like this so often — from politicians, advertisers and so on — that pretty much everyone understands that statistics are very often misleading, at best. That&#8217;s why we have the famous line: &#8220;There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.&#8221;
But even given that baseline of skepticism that we all have, it&#8217;s still very easy to fall into the trap of assuming that some statistics are reliable. Take the murder rate, for example. That&#8217;s the number of murders that occur, divided by the population. You&#8217;d think that it would be pretty hard for the government to fudge that data. After all, if somebody gets murdered, the odds are very high that someone&#8217;s going to notice it and file a report. Unlike crimes such as shoplifting or assault, which often go unreported now because everyone knows the D.A. won&#8217;t do anything about it, murder is still prosecuted — even in places like San Francisco or New York. For now.
So when the FBI <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/09/23/violent-crime-declined-2023-fbi-report/75349314007/">declared</a> last month that violent crimes, including murders, had declined for two years in a row, it was natural for a lot of people to take that claim seriously. Democrats immediately used it as a talking point. They said it was proof that Donald Trump was wrong when he said during the debate that this country has become more dangerous under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Here&#8217;s that moment, one more time:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The “revised” FBI data now says crime is up. Here is Trump being “factchecked” by ABC News on the FBI data that has now been to be wrong. Trump was right. Again. <a href="https://t.co/XeY2p7bRum">pic.twitter.com/XeY2p7bRum</a>
&mdash; Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) <a href="https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1846541616518996349?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
When I covered this at the time, I didn&#8217;t take any issue with the FBI&#8217;s actual data. They claimed they had finally incorporated the vast majority of police departments into their calculations, and I took them at their word. Instead, I <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM5cprOkxqg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pointed out</a> that the FBI&#8217;s data, by its own terms, is incomplete and therefore misleading. It&#8217;s a bit like the Colgate ad. It tells you something that&#8217;s technically true, but it doesn&#8217;t tell you anywhere near the full story. Specifically, the FBI&#8217;s data only counts crimes that are reported to law enforcement. And there&#8217;s a lot of evidence that people don&#8217;t report most crimes to law enforcement. 
In fact, that evidence comes directly from the DOJ. According to the DOJ&#8217;s survey of crime victims, last year, less than 50% of &#8220;violent victimizations&#8221; were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-the-fbi-is-willing-to-risk-your-safety-to-get-kamala-elected" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> to the police. Less than 33% of property crime victimizations were reported. Only 43% of robberies were reported. A relatively large number of auto thefts were reported — more than 70% — presumably because people needed to file those claims in order to get an insurance payout. Otherwise, we can assume no one would&#8217;ve reported those crimes either, because no one expects prosecutors or law enforcement to do anything at this point.
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1466-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h3>
But the DOJ&#8217;s survey of crime victims doesn&#8217;t include murder victims, for the obvious reason that murder victims can&#8217;t answer the survey. So last month, on this point, I <a href="https://youtu.be/gM5cprOkxqg?si=epaijny8ejuDvPbU">conceded</a> that the FBI&#8217;s murder data — and only their murder data — was probably accurate. After all, how could the FBI and local law enforcement agencies possibly be undercounting the amount of murders that are being reported? These are not easy crimes to cover up.
Well it turns out that I shouldn&#8217;t have conceded even that point. Even on this basic, straightforward statistic — which measures how many people are getting killed in this country — our federal government has been cooking the numbers. And they&#8217;ve been doing it in a way that makes it very clear they&#8217;re trying to hide information from the public. This is not an innocent error. It&#8217;s deliberate, purposeful and malicious. Real Clear Investigations has just <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/10/16/stealth_edit_fbi_quietly_revises_violent_crime_stats_1065396.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that, without alerting anyone, the FBI has just revised its violent crime statistics for 2022. And the new data shows that thousands more rapes, robberies and murders occurred in that year, as compared to what they previously told us.
The FBI&#8217;s original claim — which was that violent crime had fallen by more than 2% in 2022 — has now been revised. Now they say that violent crime actually increased by 4.5% that year. Specifically, somehow the FBI now says that it missed nearly 8,000 rapes, 33,000 robberies, 37,000 aggravated assaults, and 1,700 murders in 2022.
How did that happen, exactly? These are massive revisions, but the most incredible one is that last figure. How do you miss 1,700 murders? This isn&#8217;t one or two cold cases that slipped through the cracks. These aren&#8217;t people who just disappeared and the FBI found their bodies six months later. People were killed and the police were alerted. And they just weren&#8217;t included in the initial count we received from the FBI — the same count that was used to discredit Donald Trump as a liar during the debate
Here&#8217;s how Real Clear Investigations <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/10/16/stealth_edit_fbi_quietly_revises_violent_crime_stats_1065396.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">explained</a> what happened: 
<blockquote>The FBI’s crime stats revisions reveal how much guesswork is involved in even the &#8216;final&#8217; numbers often seized on by politicians. The FBI doesn’t simply count reported crimes. Instead, it offers estimates by extrapolating data from police departments that report only partial-year data. The Bureau also makes estimates for cities that report no data. The FBI’s method of generating these estimates changes over time, and it affects the figures they report.</blockquote>
Yes, you heard that correctly. The FBI &#8220;extrapolates&#8221; from partial data. And they also just make up estimates from cities that report no data at all. <a href="https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2024/10/16/stealth_edit_fbi_quietly_revises_violent_crime_stats_1065396.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to</a> Jeffrey Anderson, who ran the DOJ&#8217;s Bureau of Justice Statistics from 2017 to 2021:
<blockquote>The [FBI’s] processes, such as how it tries to ‘estimate’ unreported figures, has long been a black box, even to the Bureau of Justice Statistics – the Department of Justice’s actual statistical agency.</blockquote>
We&#8217;re meant to assume that this is one of those innocent mistakes — that only ever goes in the same direction. It&#8217;s like that jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics just a few weeks ago — the one that over-estimated job growth by about 800,000 jobs. We&#8217;re supposed to conclude that these statistical errors aren&#8217;t deliberate, and that the federal government isn&#8217;t trying to cook the books in order to help Kamala Harris&#8217; failing campaign.
But there&#8217;s a very clear reason to doubt that explanation, especially in the case of this FBI revision. That&#8217;s because the FBI&#8217;s revised data — which shows all the violent crimes they missed — wasn&#8217;t announced anywhere. The FBI did a stealth edit on their own report three weeks ago.
And it&#8217;s only coming to light now because investigative journalists at Real Clear Investigations noticed this line at the bottom of the FBI&#8217;s data:
<blockquote>The 2022 violent crime rate has been updated for inclusion in C.I.U.S., 2023.</blockquote>
Nowhere did the FBI explain what the update showed, exactly. They didn&#8217;t hold a press conference and explain why they undercounted tens of thousands of serious crimes that impacted very real victims. Instead, on a hunch, Real Clear Investigations had to pull up the charts and graphics and do a comparison. Even when the FBI released a press release last month, claiming that violent crime had fallen again in 2023, they didn&#8217;t mention that their statistics from 2022 were completely wrong.
So obviously, this looks a lot like malice. And of course, we have no reason whatsoever to trust that their data from 2023 is remotely accurate, either.
We are at the point now where the government can&#8217;t be trusted to tell us anything — even information as basic as the number of Americans who are being murdered every year. If they can&#8217;t even get that right — or if they&#8217;re willing to lie about it — then there&#8217;s absolutely no reason to trust these people when they say things like the Earth is getting too hot, or that illegal immigrants don&#8217;t really commit that many crimes, or anything at all. We are ruled by people who are constantly finding new ways to discredit themselves.
<h3><a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH&#8217;S &#8216;AM I RACIST?&#8217; COMING TO DAILYWIRE+ OCT. 28</a></h3>
If there&#8217;s anything amusing about this whole situation, it&#8217;s that there is *one* crime statistic that, according to the FBI, keeps going up, like clockwork. That&#8217;s the number of hate crimes in this country. When I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-case-that-proves-why-hate-crime-statistics-are-bogus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">looked</a> into the hate crimes reporting system earlier this year, I found that it&#8217;s completely meaningless. There are no standards at all. The reported incidents don&#8217;t even have to be crimes, in some cases. And yet, the figure always manages to go up. It&#8217;s never undercounted. And we all know why that is. The federal government can use &#8220;hate crimes&#8221; as a political tool. They want to report more hate crimes, so they can punish all those dreaded MAGA Republicans who are beating up Asians at 2:00am in San Francisco. But in an election year, they want to say that violent crimes are going down. So they just make up those numbers, too.
That means, among other things, that the so-called &#8220;fact-checking&#8221; industry needs to end immediately. It&#8217;s no use citing government reports when they&#8217;re worse than useless. We should never have another &#8220;fact-check&#8221; during a live presidential debate ever again. And it also means that, if Democrats really care about &#8220;misinformation&#8221; — as they so often claim to — then they should demand the immediate dismantling of these government agencies that are apparently incapable of telling the truth. The misinformation, as always, is coming from inside the house.
To be very clear about this: They just tried to memory-hole the murders of nearly 2,000 Americans. That&#8217;s what they were just caught doing. And even if you think it was unintentional, it&#8217;s still very clear that they tried to cover up their alleged &#8220;mistake.&#8221; That is how little they care about American citizens.They&#8217;ll deny you police protection and then lie to the public about your death if you&#8217;re murdered. Some people might call that depraved. They might call it treasonous and immoral. But for the Biden-Harris administration, it&#8217;s just the cost of doing business in an election year.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Headquarters in Washington, DC

FBI’s Shocking Crime Cover-Up Exposed. It’s Worse Than You Think.

FBI’s Shocking Crime Cover-Up Exposed. It's Worse Than You Think.

2024 Election

Federal Government

Opinion

Violent Crime

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/jussie-smollett">Jussie Smollett</a> said he’s spent $3 million appealing his conviction following a purported <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/hate-crime">hate crime</a> attack he was ruled to have staged himself.
“I want to have all of these things in my life, and I don’t want to have a felony on my record for something that I didn’t do,” Smollett said during an interview with <a href="https://youtu.be/OIl0ndQTy3M">Entertainment Tonight</a>. “That’s what we’re fighting for. I know that on the surface it probably seems like why doesn’t he just serve the time, why doesn’t he just let this go. It would be easier if I had in fact done this to say that I did it. I wouldn’t have spent almost $3 million of my own money. I would not have had a trial.”
The actor told police on January 29, 2019, that he was attacked by two men in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chicago">Chicago</a> at 2 a.m. who he claimed made racist and homophobic slurs, wrapped a rope around his neck, poured an “unknown substance” on him, and yelled that this is “MAGA country.” It was later found that Smollett had hired two Nigerian brothers to help him stage the attack. 
The “Empire” star was convicted on five counts of disorderly conduct in 2021 and spent just six days in jail after appealing his 150 day sentence. Smollett was charged with 16 counts of lying to police, but those charges were dropped. 
Smollett has insisted upon his innocence all along. 
“As an entertainer, as a businessman, I probably should [stop fighting the charges],” Smollett told ET.
“But as a human being and as a man, as a black man and as an openly gay black man, I have a problem with letting them win on something they shouldn’t be able to,” the actor continued. “I’m a grown man and something happened. I can’t tell exactly what did happen, but I can tell you what did not happen. That’s what I have to sit on. No matter how much people are yelling in my face, saying ‘You’re a liar, you’re a liar.’ No, I’m not. No, I’m not. I don’t want them to believe that, but if that is what they believe, that’s on you.”
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
He argued that while “fighting the very things that are untrue,” he got tripped up by some truths which he claims were used “to prove things that were not true.”
“So there were those moments where I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, my life is kind of — oh, well, I didn’t do that.’ And they’re like, ‘But you did this.’ And I’m like ‘Ah, I did do that. I did buy that.’ And there are things like that that I’ve had to talk to my family about, that I’ve had to talk to friends about,” he said. “I’m OK with accepting responsibility for things that I’ve actually done. I’m just not OK with accepting responsibility for things that I did not do.”
Smollett also insists he’s being honest because he claims his story never changed, but he says other stories relating to the incident did. 
“I’ve stood by, not my truth but the truth for the entire time, almost six years,” he said. “I haven’t switched my story up. I haven’t changed anything that I ever said. I stand by every single thing that I’ve ever said. Everyone else in the situation, every single person, has changed their story numerous times,” Smollett told the outlet.

Jussie Smollett

Jussie Smollett Says He Spent $3M Appealing Hoax Case, Maintains His Original Story

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