University of Maryland administrators told its Turning Point USA chapter that it may not be able to host a Daily Wire journalist on Wednesday, unless the chapter pays for extensive additional security.
The event, featuring Daily Wire Senior Editor Cabot Phillips, is virtually identical to the classes that occur every day on college campuses — except with an affable, center-right journalist at the head of the room instead of a cantankerous leftist professor.
That The Daily Wire has exposed not one, but two University of Maryland presidents for plagiarism — including the president of its flagship College Park campus, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Darryll Pines</a>, whose capitulation to Hamas supporters this publication has also chronicled — suggests that the college’s motives for the security requirement may be less than honorable.
Turning Point isn&#8217;t being charged for security because its members might be unruly. It&#8217;s because the university believes that its own students will commit ideologically motivated violence — and, instead of addressing that, it&#8217;s punishing their prospective victims. The group&#8217;s founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on a college campus six weeks ago, ending a career dedicated to facilitating ideological diversity and open debate at universities.
Maryland has taken the wrong lesson from that assassination.
Conservatives make up the majority of the voting public, as evidenced by the most recent national popular vote. If being exposed to center-right ideas is so unusual for college students that it would trigger violent rage, that&#8217;s the issue. Coming across someone like Phillips on campus shouldn&#8217;t be cause for violence. It should be just another Wednesday.
The move continues a pattern of selective commitment to free speech for Pines, who vociferously defended an anti-Israel group&#8217;s right to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, then threatened to<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> call the police</a> on a Jewish woman for complaining about it.
Jewish parents asked Pines, who is Black, to engage in a thought experiment: would he be as supportive if the KKK were burning crosses on campus? The analogy went right over his head, and in a twist of unfathomable irony, Pines banned all events that day because of what he suggested were anti-black threats and the prospect of violence by Jews. Then he paid the school&#8217;s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, which proudly says it supports &#8220;armed struggle,&#8221; a<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-will-pay-100000-to-anti-israel-group-that-held-campus-rally-on-october-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> $100,000 settlement</a> when they filed suit over the cancellation.
His latest move suggests that it was a payoff to his allies, not a recognition of the need to preserve free speech.
Campus police told TPUSA that because of an &#8220;increase in threats related to Turning Point events,&#8221; police would staff the event, while TPUSA would be required to hire a security firm at its own expense to &#8220;conduct metal/weapons detection and bags checks upon entry.&#8221;
Lawyers from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) told the university that if increased security is required, &#8220;the law does not allow public institutions to shift this increased burden to the targeted group.&#8221;
“Doing so gives those most willing to engage in political violence the ability to silence or burden their opponents through the agency of the state. Raising costs on TPUSA in the wake of its leader&#8217;s assassination is a stark reminder of how literally deadly such a perverse incentive can be.&#8221;
In other words, UMD would be carrying water for terrorists.
&#8220;With the precedent UMD has set here, any student or community member could announce plans to disrupt a group&#8217;s campus event, and encourage others to do so, in the hope that UMD would respond by financially burdening the group,&#8221; FIRE wrote.
University of Maryland Associate General Counsel Christopher Lord replied with a denial that the fee was based on viewpoint. He said one of the factors the university uses to determine required security is &#8220;the history of similar events and/or of performer/speakers at other locations,&#8221; and invoked &#8220;the tragic assassination of Mr. Kirk.&#8221;
Lord also acknowledged that earlier this month, on October 7, the university bore the cost for hundreds of thousands of dollars for a &#8220;Boycott Israel fest,&#8221; as well as pro-Israel counter-protesters.
He said the university is more likely to cover costs for outdoor events due to a Fourth Circuit Court ruling deeming outdoor spaces &#8220;limited public forums.&#8221; That suggests that if the university has a commitment to free speech, it&#8217;s to the extent that a court forced it to, and that, ironically, it doesn&#8217;t apply in classrooms themselves. If a group like Turning Point wants to avoid fees, it can hold an event outdoors — like the sort at which Kirk was assassinated.
Making the situation all the more outlandish is that the Daily Wire personality at the center of this controversy, Cabot Phillips, is unaccustomed to being the center of controversy. Phillips is not an opinion commentator like Ben Shapiro or Michael Knowles; he is the genial and cheery personality at the center of news broadcasts like Morning Wire.
As Conor Clayton of the Maryland Turning Point chapter told us, Phillips is “not controversial.”
“It&#8217;s very strange that they would make this determination that there would be massive protests or threats,&#8221; Clayton said. Representatives for the University of Maryland and its parent organization didn&#8217;t respond when we asked if they could identify a single inflammatory statement by Phillips.
Given that Clayton told us that his chapter hosted another indoor event at a campus chapel, a vigil for Kirk, without being charged for security, that suggests that the Daily Wire’s involvement may be the critical wrinkle in this already sorry state of affairs.
Pines is currently under investigation for blatant plagiarism, which was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exposed</a> by The Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak. It has been more than a year since Pines admitted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;recurrent language&#8221;</a> in an academic paper after it was unearthed by what he<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-acknowledges-recurrent-language-submits-to-plagiarism-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> called</a> &#8220;a blogger,&#8221; and he has faced no accountability.
This month, The Daily Wire<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/maryland-college-president-heidi-anderson-plagiarized-dissertation?author=Luke+Rosiak&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=8&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Another+College+President+Plagiarized+Her+Dissertation.+That%E2%80%99s+Just+The+Tip+Of+The+Iceberg." target="_blank" rel="noopener"> exposed a second president</a> of a Maryland campus, University of Maryland Eastern Shore&#8217;s Heidi Anderson, for massive plagiarism. All of this suggests a significant moral rot under the leadership of Jay Perman, the chancellor of the state&#8217;s public university system.
The security fee in question is minimal, just $150. But as Clayton lays out, that’s not the point.
&#8220;It&#8217;s really not about the monetary amount, it&#8217;s about ensuring that the university commits itself to the First Amendment,” Clayton told us. “This is a prior restraint on our free speech, because if we don&#8217;t pay this fee we can&#8217;t have the event.&#8221;
&#8220;It&#8217;s really a slap in the face. Charlie Kirk, literally all he did is talk with people and share a conservative message, and they killed him for it. The university sees that and instead of trying to encourage conservative speech, they&#8217;re doing everything they can to restrict our speech.”

Charlie Kirk and UMD President Darryll Pines

Revenge Of The Plagiarists? University Of Maryland Interferes With Turning Point USA Event

Charlie Kirk

Education

Free Speech

Maryland

Terrorism

Universities

A college president and former chair of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities plagiarized extensively in her doctoral dissertation, a Daily Wire review found.
Heidi M. Anderson is president of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. For nearly four decades, she has climbed the academic ladder while producing an unremarkable amount of low-quality research.
Now, a lawsuit from a former Eastern Shore professor threatens to cast Anderson&#8217;s career in a startling new light. Donna Satterlee alleges that, under Anderson, low-skilled black faculty were hired based on their race and paid more than white faculty. The suit said whites were forced to do the work that black officials took credit for.
A Daily Wire review suggested that it could be a pattern that began with her 1986 doctoral dissertation for Purdue University, which kicked off her academic career.
Portions of the dissertation, which deal with the use of computers in pharmaceutical education, appear to be a repurposed and uncredited copy of a 1984 paper by Donna E. Larson, a professor of nursing, about the use of computers in nursing education, with simply the name of the field changed. The photos below show just the beginning of a lengthy section where Anderson appears to crib Larson&#8217;s eight points.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-980103 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/advantages.jpg" alt="" width="1812" height="1410" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/advantages.jpg 1812w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/advantages-300x233.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/advantages-740x576.jpg 740w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/advantages-768x598.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/advantages-1536x1195.jpg 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1812px) 100vw, 1812px" /></div>
Note at the bottom that Larson cited a number of papers, including her own prior work. Anderson appeared to lift those citations, in order, but remove Larson&#8217;s citation to herself–perhaps to avoid leaving a clue that could unravel an academic crime. Larson&#8217;s name is not mentioned anywhere in Anderson&#8217;s dissertation.
Larson&#8217;s list had eight items on it, but Anderson had 12. The 10th item on the list also copied someone else&#8217;s words verbatim and without quotation marks to make a simple point.
When Anderson summarizes a book by Christopher Evans, she is actually copying someone else&#8217;s summary of Evans&#8217;s work, even though there is no parenthetical attribution in that section of the text indicating it. The summary on the right, by Richard E. Pogue, was from the introduction to the same journal issue where Larson&#8217;s paper appeared.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-980105" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/evans.jpg" alt="" width="1812" height="1510" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/evans.jpg 1812w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/evans-300x250.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/evans-691x576.jpg 691w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/evans-768x640.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/evans-1536x1280.jpg 1536w" sizes=" (max-width: 1812px) 100vw, 1812px" /></div>
Likewise, Anderson appears to have simply taken the language of University of Texas medical professor Robert M. Caldwell, writing about computers in medical schools, and changed the name of the field. Caldwell does not appear in the references section of that chapter.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-980107" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell.jpg" alt="" width="1218" height="542" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell.jpg 1218w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell-300x133.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell-1024x456.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell-768x342.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1218px) 100vw, 1218px" /></div>
A significant stretch of Anderson&#8217;s paper is identical to<a href="https://ia601401.us.archive.org/18/items/lb-1043-j-6601978/LB1043J6601978.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> &#8220;Introduction to Instructional Media&#8221;</a> (1978) by David H. Jonassen, even though Jonassen&#8217;s name never appears in her paper. That includes mirroring Jonassen&#8217;s language that something was &#8220;recent&#8221; in the world of computers, without the reader knowing that it was actually new almost a decade prior.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-980109" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/jonassen-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="1130" height="2560" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/jonassen-scaled.jpg 1130w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/jonassen-132x300.jpg 132w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/jonassen-254x576.jpg 254w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/jonassen-768x1740.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/jonassen-678x1536.jpg 678w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/jonassen-904x2048.jpg 904w" sizes=" (max-width: 1130px) 100vw, 1130px" /></div>
Anderson&#8217;s personal touches consisted of adding woke language and grammatical errors. For example, a 1,000-word stretch appears copied directly from a paper by Robert M. Caldwell (1984) and an introduction to another paper by Christopher R. Brigham and Martin Kamp in 1973. The primary difference is that Anderson changed &#8220;his&#8221; to &#8220;his/her,&#8221; and the correctly-spelled &#8220;judgment&#8221; to the incorrect &#8220;judgement.&#8221;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-980111" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell-kamp-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="638" height="2560" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell-kamp-scaled.jpg 638w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell-kamp-75x300.jpg 75w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell-kamp-768x3083.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/caldwell-kamp-383x1536.jpg 383w" sizes=" (max-width: 638px) 100vw, 638px" /></div>
Anderson&#8217;s paper proposed using computers to administer quizzes to pharmacy students, but she cribbed information about computers from papers that were woefully out of date even in 1986. One sentence said &#8220;Review of the literature demonstrates that there are relatively few methodologically sound evaluations of the effectiveness of computer assisted instruction (Atkinson, 1968).&#8221;
By the time of her writing, Apple II computers were widely available, and the sort of interactive tests her paper focused on were technically trivial. Yet with her experience with computers seemingly consisting only of reading old papers about them, her paper went on at length about topics like the comparative advantages of mainframes versus terminals. She copied older scholars&#8217; exact language even when explaining such obvious concepts as why it&#8217;s better for a computer to be small than big (&#8220;microcomputer units may be transported into the environment of the subject&#8221;).
The portion of Anderson&#8217;s dissertation designed to drive the field forward consisted of showing a computer program to students and then asking them questions about their opinions about computers. But the interactive activity was programmed by someone else, and the questions were also written by another researcher.
Startlingly, the conclusion of her original research also appeared to be copied from someone else. &#8220;These findings suggest that CAI can be as effective and efficient as a more traditional instructional modality in teaching both factual content and application of learned material when both methods use the same instructional content,&#8221; she wrote. That was virtually identical to a sentence that Elaine G. Boettcher wrote five years prior.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-980113" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/findings.jpg" alt="" width="1096" height="298" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/findings.jpg 1096w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/findings-300x82.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/findings-1024x278.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/findings-768x209.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1096px) 100vw, 1096px" /></div>
Anderson&#8217;s dissertation says that &#8220;financial assistance was provided to the author by the Purdue University Black Doctoral Fellowship.&#8221;
<h4>&#8216;Posture towards non-Black faculty and staff was barely concealed hostility.&#8217;</h4>
In July, Satterlee sued the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and Anderson, saying, &#8220;Black faculty and administrators are paid vastly higher than others of similar or better qualifications. Heidi Anderson has instituted a two-tier system of racial preferences discriminating against White and Asian faculty who are given more and less-desirable work but significantly lower pay.&#8221;
&#8220;The Heidi Anderson Administration’s posture towards non-Black faculty and staff was barely concealed hostility. It was an established practice to pay non-Blacks less than Blacks, not include them in valuable opportunities, and only exploit their work for personal gain of the select few who were close to the university administration,&#8221;<a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.586969/gov.uscourts.mdd.586969.1.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> the federal lawsuit said</a>.
&#8220;Moses Kairo, a former Kenyan national, became the dean of the School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences at UMES in 2012. He exhibited a distinct preference for African nationals in hiring for positions within the school,&#8221; the lawsuit said. Another Kenyan and apparent former schoolmate of Kairo&#8217;s, Grace Namwamba, was hired as department chair and Satterlee&#8217;s boss, even though &#8220;Namwamba had extremely poor work competencies and skills and appeared incapable of writing in English at the level required of a university professor,&#8221; it said.
Satterlee, the lowest-paid faculty member in her department, &#8220;was assigned double the work of African or African-American faculty. In one instance, Dr. Satterlee was instructed by Dr. Namwamba to create a master’s degree program in two days&#8230; after Dr. Satterlee worked without rest to complete the assignment, Dr. Namwamba took her work product and stole the credit,&#8221; the suit said.
Satterlee said she earned the ire of Anderson and Namwamba after she called for a salary study that would publish faculty pay broken down by race, and by correcting sloppy work by Namwamba in an attempt to save the department from embarrassment. She was the only faculty member to be denied a request for a promotion that year, she said — with the denial letter misspelling her name as &#8220;Dr. Scatterlee.&#8221;
She said she was disciplined by the school&#8217;s DEI office, called the Office of Institutional Equity. The office is led by Jason Casares, who was hired after resigning from his job at a different university amid allegations that he <a href="https://www.wthr.com/article/news/local/update-iu-administrator-casares-resigns-amid-sexual-assault-claim/531-610f5e2c-e658-4b3b-a008-e7d1df4b7e4c" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sexually assaulted a college administrator</a>. Casares&#8217; claim was that Satterlee had &#8220;bullied&#8221; her boss.
He also accused her of insubordination, to which Satterlee replied: “If a written communication from a department chair is &#8216;riddled with grammatical errors and misspellings&#8217;, I have an obligation to call that to her attention and may do so without fear of reprisal, because, ultimately, we seek to teach students how to communicate.&#8221;
She was placed on &#8220;Transitional Terminal Leave.&#8221; The lawsuit said the Office of Institutional Equity has no authority to terminate the employment of a tenured professor, and that &#8220;insubordination&#8221; is not grounds for any university office to terminate a tenured professor.
The lawsuit also said that the University of Maryland Eastern Shore has declined sharply under Anderson&#8217;s leadership,<a href="https://carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu/institution/university-of-maryland-eastern-shore/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> losing the prized R2 research designation</a>.
The university is required to submit a response to the lawsuit by October 10.
Anderson declined to comment for this story. After publication, she put out a public statement saying “Recent allegations of plagiarism have been raised regarding my 1986 doctoral dissertation. Integrity, accountability, and trust are the foundations of my leadership and I take these concerns with the utmost seriousness. Consistent with University System of Maryland policy, there will be an assessment of these allegations… I am deeply grateful for the support of the UMES family during this period.”
Anderson&#8217;s published research in the decades since defending her dissertation has been short and of low quality, often published in obscure journals. For one paper, she had students ask 89 people who was their &#8220;primary source of prescription medicine information.&#8221; Most said their doctors, so she concluded that &#8220;pharmacists should consider providing more information.&#8221;
In another, she claimed that an unnamed minority faculty member had students repeatedly subject her to racial slurs in class and over the phone, and that this research discovered that colleges should create a &#8220;grievance process&#8221; for &#8220;student-faculty conflicts.&#8221;
Anderson repeatedly attained high academic positions. &#8220;I was the first African American to serve as President  [of] the Accreditation Council on Pharmaceutical Education, the national accrediting body,&#8221; she<a href="https://agriculture.house.gov/uploadedfiles/anderson_testimony_package.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> testified to Congress</a> in 2021, and &#8220;The Chronicle of Higher Education also recognized UMES as having the second most diverse faculty.&#8221;
&#8220;Allow me to say, that because we launched this program during the COVID pandemic, our efforts were not as robust or as smooth as it [sic] otherwise might have been,&#8221; she acknowledged to lawmakers in written remarks about her school&#8217;s use of federal funds. &#8220;One of the important issues we face as a nation and world are [sic] the challenges brought about by climate change.&#8221;
She told Congress that the university, which is both a historically black college and an agricultural college, would focus on &#8220;creating safe spaces where farmers can meet monthly.&#8221;
In 2023, Anderson served as president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, making her the face of public universities.
Satterlee, the professor who was forced out, said that Anderson&#8217;s alleged pattern of forcing white professors to do the work, while black faculty take credit, mirrors the apparent deception that began her academic career.
&#8220;Heidi&#8217;s PhD has been obtained by fraud and by her passing off the work of other scholars as her own work. How can a university tell its students to be honest if its president is herself dishonest?&#8221; she told The Daily Wire. She called on Jay Perman, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, to fire Anderson.
Michael Sandler, a spokesman for the University System of Maryland, told The Daily Wire: &#8220;We are aware of the allegations raised against President Anderson and are reviewing them with our policies. We will determine the next steps once that process is complete.&#8221;
In September 2024, The Daily Wire revealed that a 5,000-word paper on rocket science by Darryll Pines, the president of the Maryland&#8217;s flagship campus at College Park,<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> copied a 1,500 word stretch from a tutorial website</a> by an Australian student. The paper, by Pines and a co-author, did not mention or cite the student anywhere, and attempted to change his British spellings to American ones–potentially a telltale sign that Pines knew he had not written the material, and was attempting to deceive readers.
In response, Pines wrote that &#8220;I<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-acknowledges-recurrent-language-submits-to-plagiarism-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> acknowledge recurrent language</a>,&#8221; and said an investigation would begin. Perman&#8217;s office said the review would be conducted jointly by the College Park campus and the statewide system, and &#8220;the two parties will use an expert consultant at an external law firm to lead the review&#8230; the consultant will determine who will serve on the review panel.&#8221;
A month later, the Australian student, who said it was &#8220;clearly plagiarism&#8230;not worthy of an academic,&#8221; said the panel<a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/executive-leadership/2024/10/24/author-argues-maryland-president-clearly" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> hadn&#8217;t contacted him</a>. More than a year later, that panel has said nothing publicly, and Perman&#8217;s office has declined to share updates.
&#8220;It just feels like something weird is going on,&#8221; Professor Nick Seybert told the<a href="https://www.thebanner.com/education/higher-education/university-of-maryland-darryll-pines-plagiarism-AHZESFHKN5HA5DLTEF32CER46E/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Baltimore Banner</a> in July. &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t feel like they&#8217;re taking it very seriously.&#8221;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-980185" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/boettcher.jpg" alt="" width="1218" height="720" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/boettcher.jpg 1218w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/boettcher-300x177.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/boettcher-974x576.jpg 974w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/boettcher-768x454.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1218px) 100vw, 1218px" /></div>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-980187" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ploeger.jpg" alt="" width="1218" height="1402" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ploeger.jpg 1218w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ploeger-261x300.jpg 261w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ploeger-500x576.jpg 500w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ploeger-768x884.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1218px) 100vw, 1218px" /></div>
This story has been updated with a statement from Anderson.

Heidi Anderson / University of Maryland Eastern Shore

Another College President Plagiarized Her Dissertation. That’s Just The Tip Of The Iceberg.

Civil Rights

College

Plagiarism

University of Maryland

GREENBELT, Md.—The man who planned to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022 in an attempt to change the court’s balance of power was sentenced by a Joe Biden-appointed judge on Friday to 97 months in prison, granting the defendant&#8217;s request for an eight-year sentence.
Judge Deborah Boardman, a Joe Biden appointee to Maryland federal court, acknowledged there was &#8220;a whopping 22-year difference&#8221; between that and the minimum of 30 years called for by federal sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors had asked for sentencing guidelines to be followed.
The Department of Justice plans to appeal the sentence, The Daily Wire has learned.
Nicholas Roske traveled from California to Kavanaugh’s Maryland home armed with cache of weapons after a leaked document showed that the court planned to rule against liberals on abortion. Although he had meticulously planned the assassination for months, he had a change of heart outside the conservative justice’s home and called the police to turn himself in.
He has been detained in the three years since, so with time served and good behavior, Roske&#8217;s sentence would mean he could be out four years after being sentenced on the charge of Attempt to Assassinate a U.S. Justice. The sentence also included lifetime court supervision.
Boardman said &#8220;Under the law I must consider the sentencing guidelines. The guidelines in this case are 360 months to life. It&#8217;s important to understand the Supreme Court stance on guidelines&#8230; They used to be mandatory, but in [a case called] Booker the Supreme Court held that they were advisory.&#8221;
The judge acknowledged that &#8220;this crime did involve domestic terrorism,&#8221; but undid most of the &#8220;terrorism enhancement&#8221; created by the U.S. Sentencing Commission to increase recommended punishments in terrorism cases.
&#8220;I have not seen evidence that the Sentencing Commission relied on evidence that it would reduce recidivism,&#8221; she said. She said recent research in the Georgetown Law Journal said terrorists are not uniquely incapable of being rehabilitated.
The sentencing took more than seven hours, with much of the time dedicated to discussing how Roske&#8217;s transgender identity meant he should get a lighter sentence.
In a more than hour-long speech justifying the light sentence, Boardman said &#8220;Ms. Roske came out to herself as transgender in 2020 but kept it secret. Ms. Roske&#8217;s sister came out as gay two years prior but Ms. Roske saw that their parents struggled to reconcile her sexuality with their religious beliefs.&#8221;
<blockquote>
<h1>“I am heartened that this terrible infraction has helped the Roske family… accept their daughter for who she is,” Judge Boardman said.</h1>
</blockquote>
“I am heartened that this terrible infraction has helped the Roske family… accept their daughter for who she is,” Judge Boardman said.
His mother Colleen told the judge on Friday that “I have attended PFLAG meetings and learned about the LGBTQ+ community. I am committed to going on this journey with Sophie&#8230; She was frustrated with what was going on in the world, and we weren&#8217;t a safe place to process it.&#8221; As his mother wept, Nicholas Roske also choked up, his Adam&#8217;s apple bobbing up and down.
Boardman said &#8220;Any prison time is punishment for her. The length doesn&#8217;t need to be particularly long&#8230; unduly harsh conditions make a difference, too.&#8221; The judge continued, &#8220;She will be imprisoned in a male facility even though she is a transgender prisoner, pursuant to an executive order from the president. Before the executive order, that wasn&#8217;t the case.&#8221;
Roske and his mother, father, and sister all spoke in court, emotionally describing how hard it has been on the family. Kavanaugh&#8217;s relatives did not address the court, but left the courtroom abruptly after the judge issued the light sentence.
Earlier in the hearing, Boardman lashed out at prosecutors and President Donald Trump, saying &#8220;Let&#8217;s not hide the fact that President Trump issued an executive order saying transgender inmates would be assigned to prisons with their biological sex.&#8221; The prosecutor replied that there was an injunction holding up much of the enforcement of that executive order, and the judge later state that Roske could, in fact, get hormone replacement in prison, at least while the injunction was in effect.
In court, Roske appeared as a tall man with a deep voice. His online posts show that even as a transgender, he is attracted to women, not &#8220;cis men.&#8221;
The judge opined about giving a shorter sentence because of Roske&#8217;s transgenderism even as she said that thanks to a court injunction, Roske may get female hormones in federal prison. &#8220;With the injunction in place, Ms. Roske could receive gender affirming care, but if that injunction goes away, she could be denied it. So when I sentence her, I take into account that she is a transgender woman.&#8221;
Prosecutor Coreen Mao said &#8220;A single-digit sentence will say the ends justify the means, it&#8217;s a gamble one will take to assassinate a Supreme Court justice.&#8221;
Boardman said &#8220;Why do you think that Ms. Roske, sitting here three years later, poses a danger to the public? &#8230; We can agree Ms. Roske neeeds intensive therapy. Will she be provided that in the Bureau of Prisons? We both know about the significant shortcomings by BOP in providing therapy.&#8221;
Roske&#8217;s lawyer said, and Boardman agreed, that Roske should get significant credit for calling the police and telling them about his plan. Prosecutors said he was spooked when he saw deputy U.S. Marshalls guarding Kavanaugh&#8217;s home.
His lawyer said &#8220;What makes this case unique is not that Ms. Roske tried to kill a political figure, it&#8217;s that she stopped and turned herself in.&#8221;
Boardman interjected: &#8220;Judges are not political!&#8221;
During the trial, the judge referred to the defendant by female pronouns, sometimes calling him by male pronouns and then correcting herself. Prosecutors avoided pronouns and called him &#8220;the defendant.&#8221; As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-attempted-kavanaugh-assassin-identifies-as-transgender-woman-legal-filings-show">reported</a> last month, Roske&#8217;s legal name remains Nicholas and the case is captioned United States vs. Nicholas Roske. His legal team telegraphed ahead of the trial that much of the argument at sentencing would be based around this transgender identity.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/would-be-kavanaugh-assassin-should-be-let-off-easy-because-he-identifies-as-transgender-family-says?author=Mary+Margaret+Olohan&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Would-Be+Kavanaugh+Assassin+Should+Be+Let+Off+Easy+Because+He+Identifies+As+Transgender%2C+Family+Says">Would-Be Kavanaugh Assassin Should Be Let Off Easy Because He Identifies As Transgender, Family Says</a>
A Daily Wire review of Roske’s postings on Reddit before the shooting shows that he is one in a string of violent trans-identifying individuals who are obsessed with video games and leftist politics. In one, he said he was a “Trans Gamer Girl Seeking Friend.” In another, he said he was “Seeking Daddy to Have Complete Sexual Control Over Me.”
Still another post said “Dating: I am into androgynous or feminine people who use she/her pronouns&#8230;. Play Partners: Pretty kinky, have a fet account and everything&#8230;. If you are not a cis man, chances are I am interested in playing with you :).”
Like the boyfriend of Tyler Robinson, who allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk, Roske was apparently a “furry.”
He put out a classified ad calling himself a “MtF Pet For Owner.” It said, “I want to wear nothing but a collar, ears, and tail plug and communicate only through my body what I want.”
In one Reddit post, he explained that “I am pro-abortion (in favor of aborting fetuses, not pro-choice).” He said that all babies should be aborted, because they cannot give consent to being born. “This would require no deaths of people already in existence, it would simply prevent new people from coming into existence. Over time, resources would become more plentiful, another benefit of this method,” he wrote.
On May 20, 2022, he asked Reddit users, “The Roe v Wade leak has brought a lot of attention to the supreme court and what it is capable of. If going into the future the supreme court retains the same members, what is a realistic expectation for the future? On the other hand, if a conservative judge were replaced by a liberal judge, thus changing which party has the majority, what would change?”
The next day, he posted in Reddit’s “forensics” forum, claiming to be a novelist: “Writing a killer who is obsessed with not leaving evidence. What methods could they use?”

Roske DOJ

Transgender Man Who Planned To Assassinate Brett Kavanaugh Will Serve Just 8 Years

Brett Kavanaugh

Supreme Court

Transgender

President Donald Trump meets with congressional leaders in hopes of avoiding a government shutdown, anti-ICE protests in Portland take a riotous turn, and an audit in Maryland turns up some disturbing findings.
It’s Tuesday, September 30, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Trump Seeks Deals For Washington And Jerusalem</h2>
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Topline: The White House buzzed Monday as President Trump sought deals at home and abroad. The president hosted Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and congressional leaders as he pushed to simultaneously end the war in Gaza and avert a government shutdown.
What Washington is watching: At midnight, fiscal year 2025 for the federal government will come to a close. As of now, the 2026 budget has not been passed by Congress. If leaders can’t reach an agreement in the next 24 hours, a shutdown will commence, with large swaths of the federal government closing their doors, and only essential services will remain open.
Republicans have proposed a continuing resolution, a temporary stopgap measure to keep the lights on while lawmakers finalize the budget. The House passed that measure 217-212 earlier this month, but it has stalled in the Senate. While Republicans have a slim majority there, the Senate filibuster requires them to win over at least seven Democrats, and Democrats are not budging.
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What Republicans want: Republicans want to pass a clean resolution to keep funding levels the same across the board and worry about policy debates later. Their measure would maintain federal spending levels set under President Joe Biden, while offering some additional funding for personal security for lawmakers, judges, and other federal officials.
What Democrats want: Democrats say they will only pass the stopgap if it includes billions of dollars in new funding for Obamacare subsidies and Medicaid, some of which were cut under Trump’s &#8220;Big Beautiful Bill.&#8221; They also want the deal to include measures that would prevent the White House from blocking congressionally appropriated funds. Democrats know that Republicans are unlikely to give in to those demands and are daring them to allow a shutdown.
Step back: Government shutdowns can feel like a &#8216;boy who cried wolf&#8217; scenario, as the two sides often reach a last-minute deal. But there’s a real chance a shutdown happens this time. Remember, when Democrats ultimately failed to stop Trump’s &#8220;Big Beautiful Bill&#8221; during the summer, the party’s far-Left base was furious and hasn’t let them live it down. So they’re facing pressure to push back this time.
What Jerusalem is watching: Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday —  the two met privately before a joint press conference in which Trump formally released a 20-point ceasefire plan to end the war in Gaza.
That plan offered some concessions — for example, it offered Palestinians the right to remain in Gaza after the war, amnesty for Hamas members who turn in their weapons, and a vague acknowledgment of the potential for the creation of a Palestinian state in the future, assuming certain conditions. 
It includes many things that Israelis will also appreciate. For example, it requires Hamas to “not have any role in the governance of Gaza … in any form.” It calls for all military and terror infrastructure to be destroyed and never rebuilt, and it demands all remaining hostages be released within 72 hours.
Netanyahu offered support for the proposal, saying it “achieves our war aims.” He added that if Hamas accepted, Israel would withdraw its troops from Gaza and place them “in the security perimeter for the foreseeable future.” However, “if Hamas rejects your plan, Mr. President,” Netanyahu said, “or if they supposedly accept it and then basically do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself.”
Worth consideration: Hamas has already rejected a number of the points included, but Trump said that because so many of the terror group&#8217;s leaders have been killed, they’re dealing with “new people.” He also said that if they rejected this final offer, the United States would support Israel in eliminating the group. 
<h2 style="text-align: center;">Portland Rioters Escalate</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-978541" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Portland-Rioters-Escalate-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Portland-Rioters-Escalate-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Portland-Rioters-Escalate-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Portland-Rioters-Escalate-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Portland-Rioters-Escalate-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Portland-Rioters-Escalate.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: The Trump administration has deployed troops to Portland as part of a nationwide crackdown on violent protests surrounding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities.
In response to riots in Portland around an ICE facility, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requested that Trump deploy troops to the area to stop the clashes. Across the country, these protests have turned violent at ICE facilities.
Trump wants to stop these violent protests, and the president is doing this in Portland and in Broadview, Illinois. Though the situation is lesser known, in Broadview, ICE has made arrests, including of armed rioters. One reportedly carried what looked like an explosive device that law enforcement is still investigating.
The president said the effort is part of a nationwide effort to crack down on crime and &#8220;Antifa,&#8221; which the president described as a &#8220;domestic terrorist organization.&#8221;
Paging Des Moines: The superintendent of Des Moines public schools was arrested by ICE last week on multiple charges, including immigration infractions. Dr. Ian Roberts has a standing deportation order from an immigration judge from last year, in addition to a 2020 arrest on a firearms charge.
When ICE attempted to pull Roberts over, he drove away. ICE said he tried to escape; agents later found his car abandoned in nearby woods, and they found Roberts a distance away. Roberts had $3000 in cash on him at the time. He had a switchblade for hunting and a loaded firearm.
Illegal immigrants are barred from having firearms. The ATF has launched an investigation into how he was able to obtain firearms, given his legal status. That, in addition to the pressing questions as to how he became the superintendent in Des Moines, given his illegal status in the United States.
According to the school district, he underwent background checks conducted by a third party. A third party also recruited him for the position. 
According to his LinkedIn profile, Roberts previously held school leadership positions in several other municipalities, including D.C. and Maryland. He has had a track record in the United States since arriving in 1999 under a student visa, which he has long since overstayed.
<h2>Maryland Placed Foster Children With Sex Offenders And A Convicted Murderer</h2>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-978539" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Maryland-Foster-Failure-300x169.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Maryland-Foster-Failure-300x169.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Maryland-Foster-Failure-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Maryland-Foster-Failure-768x432.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Maryland-Foster-Failure-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/Maryland-Foster-Failure.jpg 1920w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />
Topline: Maryland auditors have excoriated the state’s Social Services Administration for placing foster children with known sex offenders and failing to act on reports of abuse. One state lawmaker is calling the findings “abhorrent” and demanding someone be fired immediately.
According to a government report, in as many as half of the cases, Maryland&#8217;s Social Services faked the verifications that background checks had been done on foster parents, either through incompetence or malfeasance. The shoddy work last year resulted in 10 children living with seven different registered sex offender adults in foster homes.
In 2023, a branch of Maryland’s Department of Human Services reviewed a group foster home but failed to note that it was employing a man convicted of sexually assaulting a minor. Three months later, the man transported three children in his care to abuse them, prosecutors said.
In another case, the government was paying a convicted murderer to offer “one-on-one care” to foster children in hotel rooms. At a rate of $1,300 per night per child, the department funded this placement instead of utilizing foster homes that offered safer and more cost-effective care.
Repeat offender: This wasn’t the first time that many of these issues had been raised, and still, the agency made almost no effort to change. After the registered sex offender allegedly abused kids in his care, the Social Services Administration “could not document any corrective action as a result of this incident to ensure the criminal background checks were in fact obtained,” the audit found.
What were they thinking? It seems that, basically, they didn’t want to do the work and just wanted the data to look good, even if the kids were suffering. One of the Social Services Administration’s responsibilities was to ensure that foster children attended school. It publicly claimed that virtually all of them were. However, when auditors examined their database, they found no evidence that 38% of them were. 
Auditors stated that the agency made numerous excuses that appeared to be false. There were 17,000 allegations of abuse or neglect of foster kids, and county agencies are required to investigate them immediately. If they don’t, the state agency is required by law to report it to the legislature. Neither one happened. The state made excuses for some investigations being delayed by months, citing a “natural disaster,” even though no one could say what natural disaster occurred in that part of Maryland in 2024.
Social Services responds: The agency acknowledged that “our regulations for privately-certified foster parents lacked a ‘crimes of violence’ prohibition required by … the Social Security Act, and we are updating this regulation.”
It said after the cases of children living with sex offenders were identified, “we took action.”
“In one case, we contacted law enforcement who conducted a safety check and confirmed the children were safe. In another case, we contacted the Office of Parole and Probation and found that while an identified individual was on the registry, there were no restrictions prohibiting their presence around children,” the agency said. “For the remaining cases, law enforcement and probation officers determined there was insufficient information to warrant a welfare check.”

MRN 9.30.25 Thumbnail V1

Morning Brief: Trump’s Peace Push, Portland Riots, & Maryland’s Foster Care Fumble

Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump

Foster Care

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Israel

Media

Morning Wire

Politics

Portland

United States

Maryland&#8217;s foster care programs failed to perform background checks, leading to 10 children living in foster homes with sex offenders and a convicted murderer being paid to provide &#8220;one-on-one&#8221; care for children in hotels, a new audit found.
Auditors from the Maryland General Assembly&#8217;s Department of Legislative Services found pervasive problems, including the fact that up to 38% of foster children may not even be attending school, despite the state claiming in its database that virtually all children were in school.
In one case, Maryland claimed to have reviewed a group foster home in 2023, but did not flag that it was employing a man who had been convicted of sexual assault on a minor in 2014, the audit said. Three months after the bungled review, the sex offender &#8220;allegedly transported three foster care children for inappropriate activity,&#8221; and was &#8220;subsequently charged with crimes involving children under his care.&#8221;
Even then, the Maryland Department of Human Services&#8217;s Social Services Administration (SSA) &#8220;could not document any corrective action as a result of this incident to ensure the criminal background checks were in fact obtained,&#8221; the <a href="https://ola.maryland.gov/umbraco/Api/ReportFile/GetReport?fileId=68c486a79057a613fa7fa61e" target="_blank" rel="noopener">audit</a> found.
Delegate Kathy Szeliga (R-Baltimore County) said the &#8220;audit of Maryland’s Social Services is absolutely abhorrent and reads like criminal negligence. The 72-page report reveals shocking recklessness in the care of foster children.&#8221;
&#8220;Governor Wes Moore must immediately fire someone,&#8221; she said in a statement. &#8220;The buck stops with [Maryland Department of Human Services Secretary Rafael Lopez] or the Executive Director of the Social Services Administration, <a href="https://dhs.maryland.gov/dhshome/dr-alger-m-studstill-jr/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dr. Alger Studstill, Jr.</a>&#8221;
Auditors were able to detect what the social service agencies did not by simply comparing the sex offender registry with a list of foster homes.
&#8220;For example, one individual convicted of sexual misconduct with a minor had the same address as a guardianship home with 4 children between the ages of 4 and 8. SSA was not aware of any of these individuals until we provided them our match results,&#8221; the audit found.
County social services agencies are responsible for performing background checks at most foster homes, while the state Social Services Administration is responsible for ensuring that the background checks have been completed. Yet county agencies may have failed to do so as much as half the time, while SSA appeared to simply rubber-stamp their paperwork, whether it was correct or not. &#8220;We tested 10 foster care homes that SSA reviewed in December 2023 and noted that SSA concluded that background checks were performed for all individuals in these homes even though there was no evidence of a criminal background check for individuals in 5 of the homes,&#8221; the audit said.
The SSA also &#8220;did not have a procedure to ensure that criminal background checks were obtained for vendors that provided one-on-one services to foster care children in hotels.&#8221; One such contractor employed a convicted murderer, the audit found.
Hundreds of foster children were placed in such hotels &#8220;under the supervision of providers that were not licensed,&#8221; at a cost of $1,259 per day, even though the highest approved rate for treatment foster care was $281, it found.
During fiscal year 2024, Maryland counties&#8217; social services agencies received 17,000 allegations of abuse and neglect. Many counties were massively late in investigating the allegations, but &#8220;SSA did not report child abuse and neglect investigations that were not completed within 60 days to the General Assembly as required by State law,&#8221; the audit found.
<div id="attachment_975703" style="width: 471px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-975703" class="size-large wp-image-975703" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/studstill-461x576.jpg" alt="" width="461" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/studstill-461x576.jpg 461w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/studstill-240x300.jpg 240w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/studstill.jpg 480w" sizes=" (max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px" />Dr. Alger M. Studstill, Jr. leads Maryland&#8217;s Social Services Administration.</div>
The Social Services Agency offered &#8220;questionable&#8221; excuses for the delayed investigations, including &#8220;a natural disaster that occurred between February 2024 and September 2024,&#8221; even though no one could point to a natural disaster in the region during that time period.
The foster care system pays people to take care of children, but Maryland&#8217;s agency made little effort to make sure that this money didn&#8217;t go to people who were mistreating the children, or even had no foster children. The state Social Services Administration &#8220;did not investigate and recover up to $34.5 million in overpayments to public foster care providers,&#8221; the audit said.
There was evidence that some people getting paid to raise foster children were not meeting their basic obligations. Some children had not received a dental exam in up to seven years. A quarter of all foster children had not been taken to their required annual physical exams.
SSA&#8217;s job was to review paperwork to flag these problems. But even when it flagged that there was no evidence of a particular claim that a child had been given the necessary services, a year later, almost all of those cases were still falsely showing up in the database as being compliant, the audit found.
Most startlingly, the agency&#8217;s own data showed that as many as 38% of foster care children might not even be attending school, even as it publicly claimed stellar outcomes.
&#8220;While [the database] reflected that virtually all 1,400 school-aged children attended school during fiscal year 2024, our test of 40 of these children disclosed that there was no evidence of attendance (such as a report card) recorded&#8221; for 15, the audit said.
Maryland did not ensure that federal eligibility determinations were properly performed, &#8220;resulting in the potential loss of up to $23 million&#8221; in federal money. Of the federal money that did flow to Maryland, a portion of the money is supposed to be kept in a trust fund for the child&#8217;s use when he is older, but this often didn&#8217;t occur.
Many of the problems identified in the devastating audit had been raised to the agency in previous years, and the agency pledged reforms but did not follow through.
In 2019, the federal government said Maryland was out of compliance in seven metrics, including &#8220;children are safe from abuse and neglect&#8221; and &#8220;children receive services to meet their educational needs.&#8221; The state submitted a &#8220;corrective action plan&#8221; that allowed it to &#8220;continue to receive federal funding and temporarily avoid penalties for noncompliance.&#8221; But in September 2024, the federal government said it had not fixed the problems, leading to a $700,000 fine.
In response to the audit, Maryland&#8217;s Social Services Administration said, &#8220;Our regulations for privately-certified foster parents lacked a &#8216;crimes of violence&#8217; prohibition required by Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, and we are updating this regulation.&#8221;
It said after the cases of children living with sex offenders were identified, &#8220;we took action. In one case, we contacted law enforcement who conducted a safety check and confirmed the children were safe. In another case, we contacted the Office of Parole and Probation and found that while an identified individual was on the registry, there were no restrictions prohibiting their presence around children. For the remaining cases, law enforcement and probation officers determined there was insufficient information to warrant a welfare check.&#8221;

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Maryland Placed Foster Children With Sex Offenders And A Convicted Murderer

A Maryland man who lied about his criminal past as a child sex offender in order to fraudulently obtain American citizenship was officially stripped of his immigration status, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Salvadoran immigrant Jorge Antonio Graciano Lara raped his stepdaughter, who was younger than 14 years old at the time, on “several occasions” between 2012 and 2016 at their home in Montgomery County, Maryland, while the child’s mother went to work, according to court <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.571205/gov.uscourts.mdd.571205.9.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a>. Graciano Lara was granted citizenship in 2015 after lying about his crimes on his naturalization application and in an interview with a federal official.
Graciano Lara threatened the young victim against speaking out, saying that if she disclosed the abuse, the family would be separated and have to return to El Salvador.
<div id="attachment_945359" style="width: 2131px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-945359" class="wp-image-945359 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-982268386.jpg" alt="" width="2121" height="1414" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-982268386.jpg 2121w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-982268386-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-982268386-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-982268386-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-982268386-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-982268386-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-982268386-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/07/GettyImages-982268386-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 2121px) 100vw, 2121px" />(Getty Images)</div>
“American citizenship is a sacred privilege that this monster should never have obtained,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Tuesday.
“This Department of Justice will continue working to denaturalize criminals like these who lie about their past actions to take advantage of our immigration system,” Bondi added.
Graciano Lara was convicted of second-degree rape in September 2017 after admitting to his crime as part of a plea deal.
In November 2024, the feds sued to take away Graciano Lara’s citizenship. A federal judge in Maryland officially granted the DOJ’s request to revoke Graciano Lara’s citizenship in a Monday order.
<div id="attachment_882981" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-882981" class="wp-image-882981 size-medium" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2199211301-1-300x200.jpg" alt="Pam Bondi speaks at the Department of Justice." width="300" height="200" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2199211301-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2199211301-1-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2199211301-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2199211301-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2199211301-1-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2199211301-1-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/GettyImages-2199211301-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)</div>
Graciano Lara came to the United States in 1991 and received his green card in 1997, according to court documents.
The Salvadoran immigrant’s case is part of a larger effort by the Trump administration to audit the immigration system.
The Trump administration’s Department of Justice in July directed U.S. attorneys to “prioritize” and “pursue” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-orders-justice-dept-to-denaturalize-new-citizens-convicted-of-crimes">denaturalization</a> proceedings for new citizens who may “pose a potential danger to national security.”
“Sex offenders who try to naturalize by hiding their unlawful acts from immigration officials must learn that if the United States finds out, the government will come after their citizenship,” Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division said of the judge’s latest decision.

DOJ Podium

Feds Denaturalize Immigrant Who Fraudulently Obtained Citizenship After Raping Stepdaughter For Years

Department of Justice

Immigration

Kilmar Abrego Garcia Checks In At Baltimore ICE Office After Release From Jail

The Left Still Won’t Let Go Of Their Worst Poster Boy

Cuba

Deportations

illegal immigrants

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Leftists

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Uganda

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador charged with human smuggling, in Maryland on Monday morning. He is being processed for deportation.
The arrest came after Abrego Garcia checked in at the ICE office in Baltimore on Monday, just days after he was released from federal prison in Tennessee. Before turning himself in, Abrego Garcia and about 150 supporters rallied in solidarity outside the ICE facility and protested the Trump administration&#8217;s handling of the case.
Abrego Garcia, 30, faces federal charges of conspiracy to transport aliens and unlawful transportation of illegal aliens. Those charges came after he was deported to El Salvador against judicial protection orders. The Trump administration has accused him of being a member of the MS-13 gang. 
&#8220;Today, ICE law enforcement arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia and are processing him for deportation,&#8221; Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem <a href="https://x.com/Sec_Noem/status/1959957649673396259">announced</a> on X. &#8220;President Trump is not going to allow this illegal alien, who is an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator to terrorize American citizens any longer.&#8221;
He had been held in federal prison for months as he awaited trial for human smuggling charges before a judge allowed his release on Friday.
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“I want you to remember this. Remember that I am free and I was able to be reunited with my family,” Abrego Garcia told supporters in Spanish, according to a translator.
He also lashed out at the Trump administration. 
“To all the families who have been separated or to all the families who have been threatened with family separation, this administration has hit us hard. But I want to tell you guys something: God is with us and God will never leave us. God will bring justice to all of the injustice that we are suffering,” he said, according to the translator. 
As he entered the ICE facility, the crowd chanted, “We are all Kilmar.” 
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-seeking-to-deport-maryland-man-abrego-garcia-to-uganda-report">said</a> that they were informed on Friday by the Justice Department that he would be deported to Uganda if he does not plead guilty to human smuggling. If he took the plea deal, he would be deported to Costa Rica after serving time for the crime. 
For weeks, the Justice Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-why-the-trump-admin-says-it-would-be-dangerous-to-release-kilmar-abrego-garcia?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Here’s+Why+The+Trump+Admin+Says+It+Would+Be+Dangerous+To+Release+Kilmar+Abrego+Garcia">fought against</a> releasing Abrego Garcia before his trial, pointing to his alleged history of violence toward his wife, sexual misconduct toward young girls, and participation in a human smuggling ring. They pointed to previous domestic violence complaints filed against him by his wife and testimony that he lied to law enforcement during a traffic stop in Tennessee during an alleged smuggling run. 
“A federal grand jury has charged Abrego Garcia with serious federal crimes … underscoring the clear danger this defendant presents to the community,” a Justice Department spokesman said over the weekend. “This defendant can plead guilty and accept responsibility or stand trial before a jury. Either way, we will hold Abrego Garcia accountable and protect the American people.”

Kilmar Abrego Garcia Arrested By ICE As Supporters Rally Against Deportation

Baltimore

Illegal Immigation

Kristi Noem

Trump Administration

Maryland’s Democratic governor is considering gerrymandering the lone Republican in his state’s congressional delegation out of a U.S. House seat.
Governor Wes Moore appeared on CBS News’ “Face The Nation” on Sunday and said that, in the interests of &#8220;fairness,&#8221; he is looking at targeting GOP Rep. Andy Harris in Maryland’s first district. 
“I want to make sure that we have fair lines and fair seats,” said Moore. 
Harris is the only Republican of Maryland’s ten members of Congress. In 2024, President Donald Trump received over a third of Maryland’s vote. He lost the state to former Vice President Kamala Harris, who <a href="https://www.politico.com/2024-election/results/maryland/">won</a> 63% of the state’s vote.
Moore said his plan to potentially gerrymander Harris out of the first district is about fighting against “situations where politicians are choosing voters.”
“We need to be able to have fair maps, and we also need to make sure that if the president of the United States is putting his finger on the scale to try to manipulate elections because he knows that his policies cannot win in a ballot box, then it behooves each and every one of us to be able to keep all options on the table to ensure that the voters’ voices can actually be heard,” Moore said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“I want to make sure we have fair lines and fair seats&#8221;: Maryland governor Wes Moore (<a href="https://twitter.com/GovWesMoore?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GovWesMoore</a>) told “Face the Nation’s” <a href="https://twitter.com/margbrennan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@margbrennan</a> that “all options are on the table” regarding redistricting in Maryland, which currently has one Republican in its congressional delegation. <a href="https://t.co/YCjljamtNl">pic.twitter.com/YCjljamtNl</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1959648802698056132?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 24, 2025</a></blockquote>
Last week, the Texas state legislature passed a new congressional map that favors Republicans winning an extra five seats in the U.S. House in the upcoming midterm elections. Texas Republicans redrew the maps after President Donald Trump said that new lines should be drawn to get the GOP a handful more seats in the House.
Other GOP-led states may make similar moves. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has floated the idea of redistricting Florida. Ohio must draw new lines for its congressional map before the midterms by law.
The GOP push to redistrict in favor of Republicans has sparked a backlash from Democratic state officials who want to lean further into gerrymandering. California Governor Gavin Newsom has put forward a plan to draw a new map that could claw Democrats another five seats in California’s already overbalanced congressional delegation.
For Newsom’s plan to work, California voters must approve the new map since redistricting congressional seats in the state is controlled by an independent commission under a 2010 law. Newsom wants to temporarily return authority to redistrict back to the state legislature.

Wes Moore

Dem Governor May Redistrict Lone GOP Rep Out Of His Seat To Make Maryland ‘More Fair’

Dem Governor Might Redistrict To Make His State 'More Fair.' Maryland Only Has One GOP Seat

The FBI raided the Maryland home of former National Security Adviser John Bolton on Friday morning as part of a national security investigation involving classified information. 
The New York Post, which first <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/08/22/us-news/patels-fbi-raids-john-boltons-home-in-high-profile-national-security-probe/">reported</a> the raid, said that it was conducted as part of a “high-profile national security probe.” FBI agents began the search around 7:00 am at Bolton’s Bethesda home, the Post reported. 
“NO ONE is above the law…<a href="https://x.com/FBI"> @FBI</a> agents on mission,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X as the raid began. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NO ONE is above the law… <a href="https://twitter.com/FBI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FBI</a> agents on mission
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/1958847495028584529?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Commenting on FBI Director Kash Patel&#8217;s social media post shortly after the news broke that said &#8220;NO ONE is above the law,&#8221; FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said &#8220;Public corruption will not be tolerated,&#8221; and Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote, &#8220;America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always.&#8221;
Fox News reported that FBI agents were also seen removing boxes out of Bolton&#8217;s office in Washington, D.C.
When asked about the raid, the FBI told NBC News that it was &#8220;conducting court authorized activity in the area. There is no threat to public safety.&#8221;
The Post also reported that an official said that a previous investigation into Bolton had been quashed “for political reasons.” 
President Donald Trump said Friday morning that he did not know about the raid until he saw the news.
&#8220;I saw it on television this morning. I&#8217;m not a fan of John Bolton. He&#8217;s a real&#8230;lowlife,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;He&#8217;s not a smart guy. But he could be a very unpatriotic guy&#8230;we&#8217;re going find out. I know nothing about it.&#8221;
Bolton served in the first Trump administration from April 2018 until September 2019. After Bolton left the White House, he became a frequent critic of Trump. Bolton was previously the ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. 
In 2020, he published a book called “The Room Where it Happened” that the Trump administration argued endangered national security. Trump’s Justice Department sued to block its publication and distribution, but that lawsuit was ultimately dismissed after Joe Biden became president in 2021. 
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The book was cited as one of the reasons for the Trump administration to yank Bolton’s security clearance earlier this year. 
“The book was rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government,” the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/holding-former-government-officials-accountablefor-election-interference-and-improper-disclosure-of-sensitive-governmental-information/">said</a>. “The memoir’s reckless treatment of sensitive information undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff.  Publication also created a grave risk that classified material was publicly exposed.”
Trump also moved to pull the Secret Service security detail that was assigned to protect Bolton shortly after he took office in January 2025. Last week, Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/he-really-really-hates-the-president-ex-trump-chief-of-staff-unloads-on-john-bolton">slammed</a> Bolton as &#8220;dumb&#8221; in a Truth Social post written in response to criticism over his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 
CNN reported that Bolton was not home at the time of the raid.

Aznar Inaugurates The ‘faes Campus 2024’ On The Renewal Of The European Union

FBI Raids Home Of Former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton

classified documents

John Bolton

kash patel

WASHINGTON — Top Democrats in the United States who are opposing President Donald Trump&#8217;s crackdown on crime in Washington, D.C., lead the most dangerous cities in the country.
Federal authorities shared Wednesday that they have arrested over 100 people in the nation&#8217;s capitol in the last week since Trump called in the National Guard  and federalized D.C. police to crack down on violent crime. The move has been condemned by a number top Democrats, including Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and others.
These officials, somewhat surprisingly, come from states with extremely high crime rates. Oakland, California <a href="https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-live/most-dangerous-places?sort=overall&amp;high_to_low=true">is ranked second</a> on the list of most dangerous cities in the United States, and Baltimore <a href="https://foxbaltimore.com/news/city-in-crisis/baltimore-ranked-fourth-most-dangerous-us-city-in-new-poll">is ranked the fourth</a> most dangerous city in the United States, according to U.S. News and World Report.
Both California and Maryland are in the top 20 most dangerous states in the country.
“If Democrats had any common sense, they would follow President Trump’s lead to crack down on violent crime that has plagued our nation’s capital – and Democrat-run cities across the country,&#8221; White House deputy press secretary Taylor Rogers told The Daily Wire.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
He was just getting warmed up in Los Angeles.
He will gaslight his way into militarizing any city he wants in America.
This is what dictators do. <a href="https://t.co/IPvx9Hrp0q">https://t.co/IPvx9Hrp0q</a>
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) <a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1954965149225562627?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 11, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Instead of criticizing President Trump’s popular, tough-on crime policies, they should focus on cleaning up their own cities which are some of the most dangerous places in America,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Public safety isn’t political, it’s a top priority for every American and the Democrats continue to brush under the rug.”
Rogers&#8217;s remarks echoed those of the president himself, who told The Daily Wire in the Oval Office on Thursday that Democrats would be much better off saying, &#8220;We want to help President Trump with the crime because it is an epidemic.&#8221;
&#8220;People are so happy to see our military going into D.C. and getting these thugs out,&#8221; the president told The Daily Wire as he took questions from reporters at the White House. &#8220;As you know, we arrested a lot of people yesterday&#8230;.We are getting people that have arrest records that you wouldn’t believe.
&#8220;It’s another reason why the Democrats lost the election in a landslide,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They lie.&#8221;
During a press conference at the White House on Monday, the president specifically took aim at Oakland and Baltimore as he discussed cities that might need his help in over coming crime.
&#8220;And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don’t even mention that anymore there. They’re so far gone. We’re not going to let it happen.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_961071" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-opposing-trumps-dc-crack-down-lead-americas-most-dangerous-cities/president-trump-delivers-remarks-from-the-oval-office-2" rel="attachment wp-att-961071"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-961071" class="wp-image-961071 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2230149076-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2230149076-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2230149076-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2230149076-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/GettyImages-2230149076.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>U.S. President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters with Frank Bisignano (L), Administrator of the Social Security Administration, in the Oval Office on August 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)</div>
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee <a href="https://localnewsmatters.org/2025/08/12/president-trump-is-wrong-oakland-mayor-fires-back-after-potus-calls-out-city-on-crime/">said that the president is wrong</a> about her city, saying in a statement that “President Trump’s characterization of Oakland is wrong and not grounded in facts, but in fear-mongering. This is not leadership — it’s an attempt to score cheap political points by tearing down communities he doesn’t understand.”
“Our comprehensive public safety strategy is working — crime rates are coming down even though we still face many challenges. And let me repeat, President Trump is wrong.&#8221;
Maryland Governor Wes Moore <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-national-guard-washington-maryland-governor-heartbroken-2112634">has also taken issue</a> with the president&#8217;s remarks, describing himself &#8220;heartbroken&#8221; for those service members sent to D.C. and claiming that Trump is using the issue as a &#8220;tool&#8221; to distract his opponents.
&#8220;I&#8217;m embarrassed, I&#8217;m angered and, frankly, I&#8217;m heartbroken for members of the National Guard asked to take on this mission.&#8221;
&#8220;What we&#8217;re seeing right now, this distraction, distracting away from the fact that Donald Trump&#8217;s policies have caused unemployment to go up, have caused people to lose their health care, have caused children to be able to lose their food benefits and he&#8217;s now using this as a tool,&#8221; the governor said on CNN.
He added: &#8220;He&#8217;s using military personnel, these citizen soldiers, as a cudgel, and as a tool to be able to advance his political purposes.&#8221;
In response to Moore&#8217;s remarks, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/trump-national-guard-washington-maryland-governor-heartbroken-2112634">told Newsweek</a>: &#8220;What&#8217;s truly embarrassing and heartbreaking is how long Democrat leaders have allowed violent crime to surge out of control in cities without taking action. It&#8217;s heartbreaking that in Washington D.C. innocent people are robbed, assaulted, and killed far too often.&#8221;
Memphis, Tennessee leads the nation as the number one most dangerous city in the United States. The city&#8217;s Democrat mayor, Paul Young, does not appear to have addressed Trump&#8217;s move to call in the National Guard to D.C. Young did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
St. Louis, Missouri, lands at number three on the list of most dangerous cities in the United States, and is also led by a Democrat mayor, Cara Spencer, who also does not appear to have weighed in on the president&#8217;s move. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
Detroit, Michigan, comes in at number five on the list of most dangerous cities in the United States. The city is led by Mayor Mike Duggan, an independent. The mayor&#8217;s spokesman John Roach referred The Daily Wire to crime statistics indicating that <a href="https://detroitmi.gov/news/detroit-partnerships-result-another-historic-drop-violent-crime-2024-fewest-homicides-1965-shootings">crime in the city dropped during 2024</a>. Roach said that federal law enforcement in Detroit, including the U.S. Attorney, DEA, ATF, and FBI, are already full partners with the Detroit police in gun violence reduction.
<div>&#8220;With the enhanced efforts of the new US Attorney, Jerome Gorgon, Detroit this year is experiencing the lowest level of gun violence since 1965,&#8221; Roach told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Expanded funding for federal prosecutors and their supporting federal agencies (ATF, DEA, FBI) would speed up the violence reduction trends and would be strongly welcomed by the city.&#8221;</div>
<div></div>
<div>He added: &#8220;We have no indication from the federal government that they have any plans to disrupt the highly successful federal/city partnership currently in place.&#8221;</div>

Trump Signals Tough Stance With Putin Ahead Of Alaska Summit

Democrats Opposing Trump’s DC Crack Down Lead America’s Most Dangerous Cities

National Guard

Oakland

BALTIMORE — A man who brutally beat two elderly pro-life advocates escaped jail time on Thursday after a judge sentenced him to just one year of home detention and three years of probation.
The sentence for 28-year-old Patrick Brice was handed down by Baltimore City Circuit Judge Yvette M. Bryant. Brice was convicted earlier this year after he left 73-year-old Mark Crosby and 84-year-old Richard Schaefer bloodied outside of a Planned Parenthood on May 26, 2023. 
After the trial, Crosby told The Daily Wire that he was not surprised by the outcome. 
“Baltimore City is criminal-friendly. It&#8217;s not victim-friendly at all, especially if you&#8217;re a senior,” he said outside of the Elijah Cummings courthouse. “Judges do not like pro-lifers. They don&#8217;t like us saving babies, I don&#8217;t know why.&#8221; 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
Pro-life advocate Mark Crosby reacts after his attacker gets one year of home detention for kicking him and punching him in the face. Prosecutors wanted 10 years in prison, but a Baltimore judge imposed no prison time. <a href="https://t.co/xBQHIUkh8s">pic.twitter.com/xBQHIUkh8s</a>
— Leif Le Mahieu (@leif_lemahieu) <a href="https://twitter.com/leif_lemahieu/status/1953562675801170304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
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He said the day he was beaten was “the most glorious” of his life and that he was happy to shed his own blood and suffer for Jesus. 
After the attack, Crosby was treated for a fractured bone in his face, blindness in one eye, head and neck pain, two fractured fingers, and bruising on his arms and legs. Crosby says that the attack left him with photophobia, meaning he has to cover his right eye on sunny days and from very bright lights. 
Crosby, a devout Catholic who was wearing a crucifix during the sentencing, brought photos of his bloodied face and the stained shirt he was wearing the day of the attack. The shirt was ripped from being cut off during shock trauma. 
Brice was convicted in February on two counts of second-degree assault and two counts of reckless endangerment. He dodged a first-degree assault charge in both a jury trial and a later bench trial in May. 
Bryant sentenced him to one year of home detention, which means he will be allowed to travel for work or medical purposes. He will get three years of probation after that and cannot go near an abortion facility or pro-life clinic as well. 
State prosecutors requested a total of 10 years in prison, asking that the judge send a “strong message of deterrence” against attacking people in broad daylight over their political and religious views.
Schaefer and Crosby both gave victim statements during the sentencing.
Schaefer said that “no matter how this goes,” he would be back at Planned Parenthood. He also flatly denied that he had done anything to provoke Brice, as suggested by his lawyer. 
Terrell Roberts, a lawyer, read Crosby&#8217;s victim impact statement. 
In the statement, Crosby asked for a lengthy prison sentence due to the “brutality of the attack” and that he “kicked me in the face like a football player kicking a field goal.” 
During the trial, Brice said that he was sorry for what he did and said that he “snapped” based on a comment he claimed Schaefer made to him that was racial in nature. He said, “I was having a bad day,” and that he was not an abortion activist. 
“I really am sorry,” he said. 
Brice’s lawyer claimed that the attack was not “politically motivated” and said that his client had lost jobs and a relationship because of the case. 
“Justice was not served in this case,” Roberts told The Daily Wire. “Sentencing, I thought, would end up right where it was because they were going to give them all the slack in the world.” 
Roberts said a failed application of the law by Bryant ended with Brice’s acquittal on first-degree assault.
Brice declined to make an official comment to reporters after the sentencing, but indicated he would be reaching out. 
The attack was captured on surveillance video that shows Schaeffer and Brice engaging in a heated argument outside of the downtown Baltimore Planned Parenthood facility. The video then shows Brice tackling Schaeffer into a potted plant. Crosby, who was standing across the street, then runs over, and Brice pushes him to the ground. Brice then straddles Crosby and punches him in the face before standing up and kicking him in the head. 
Schaefer and Crosby regularly go outside the downtown Baltimore Planned Parenthood facility to urge women not to get abortions. The attack did not deter their efforts, and they have both returned to the same Planned Parenthood in the months following the incident. 
Crosby believes that Brice should have been charged with a hate crime because he says he yanked a crucifix he was wearing off his neck and threw it into the bushes. Brice denied having any animosity toward Christians.

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Man Who Brutally Beat Elderly Pro-Lifers Dodges Prison Time

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