Connect with us

The Dictatorship

Man arrested in the attack on Ilhan Omar has a criminal history and made pro-Trump posts

Published

on

Man arrested in the attack on Ilhan Omar has a criminal history and made pro-Trump posts

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar blamed President Donald Trump for threats to her safety on Wednesday, one day after she was accosted and squirted with liquid at an event in Minneapolis.

The man arrested for Tuesday’s attack has posted online in support of the Republican president.

“Every time the president of the United States has chosen to use hateful rhetoric to talk about me and the community that I represent, my death threats skyrocket,” Omar said during a press conference. Asked if she was nervous about appearing in public, she said, “Fear and intimidation doesn’t work on me.”

The attack came during a perilous political moment in Minneapolis, where two people have been fatally shot by federal agents during the White House’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

Omar, a refugee from Somalia, has long been a fixture of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. After she was elected seven years ago, Trump said she should “go back” to her country. He recently described her as “garbage” and said she should be investigated. During a speech in Iowa on Tuesday, shortly before Omar was attacked, he said immigrants need to be proud of the United States — “not like Ilhan Omar.”

“It’s hard not to see the link between what happened and the attacks Trump has made against Omar personally, not to mention his siege of her city,” said Jeremy Slevin, who worked for years as a spokesperson for Omar before becoming a senior advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The White House declined to comment. Trump baselessly accused Omar of staging the attack.

“She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her,” he told ABC News.

The attack on Omar was a reminder of the country’s threatening political climate, which has led some lawmakers to limit public events or not seek reelection.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, said that she knows how Omar was feeling because an armed man showed up at her Seattle home in 2022, threatening her and her husband.

“It has to stop. I mean, we are just trying to do our jobs, and, it could be quieted and could be called out by Trump and leaders in elected office who refuse to go along with it, but they continue to do it, and this is the consequence,” Jayapal told the Associated Press.

The suspect has supported Trump

The man accused of squirting the substance on Omar has a criminal history and has made online posts supportive of the Republican president.

Anthony Kazmierczak, 55, was convicted of felony auto theft in 1989, has been arrested multiple times for driving under the influence and has had numerous traffic citations, Minnesota court records show. There are also indications he has had significant financial problems, including two bankruptcy filings.

Police say Kazmierczak used a syringe to squirt liquid on Omar during Tuesday’s event after she called for the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the firing or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Officers immediately tackled and arrested Kazmierczak.

Photos of the syringe, which fell when the man was tackled, show what appears to be a light-brown liquid inside. Authorities haven’t publicly identified the substance.

Kazmierczak hadn’t been formally charged or scheduled for an initial court appearance as of Wednesday afternoon. Daniel Borgertpoepping, spokesman for Hennepin County Attorney’s Office, said they had still not received the results of the police investigation. A statement from the Minneapolis Police Department said the FBI was now leading the investigation.

It’s unclear if Kazmierczak had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. The county’s chief public defender, Michael Berger, said the case hasn’t been assigned to his office.

In social media posts, Kazmierczak criticized former President Joe Biden and referred to Democrats as “angry and liars.” Trump “wants the US is stronger and more prosperous,” he wrote. “Stop other countries from stealing from us.”

In another post, Kazmierczak asked, “When will descendants of slaves pay restitution to Union soldiers’ families for freeing them/dying for them, and not sending them back to Africa?”

A target of Trump from the start

Omar’s safety has been an issue for years. After Trump’s initial round of social media attacks during her first year in Congress, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked Capitol Police to conduct a security review. Omar said six officers provided around-the-clock protection for her and her family.

In 2021, Omar played an audio of a death threat she received by phone during a press conference. The caller used racist and anti-Muslim slurs during in the recording. The congresswoman at the time called on her Republican colleagues to stand up to “anti-Muslim hate” in their ranks.

The following year, a man was sentenced to three years’ probation by a federal judge on federal hate crime charges after sending an email to Omar threatening to kill her.

Trump stepped up his criticism of Omar in recent months as he turned his focus on the Minneapolis-St. Paul areawhich is home to about 84,000 people of Somali descent — nearly a third of the Somalis living in the U.S. And he has linked the Twin Cities immigration crackdown to a series of fraud cases involving government programs in which most of the defendants have roots in the East African country.

“I wouldn’t be where I am at today, having to pay for security, having the government have to think about providing me security, if Donald Trump wasn’t in office and if he wasn’t so obsessed with me,” Omar said Wednesday.

Lawmakers face rising threats

The attack on Omar came days after a man was arrested in Utah for allegedly punching U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat from Florida, in the face at a private party during the Sundance Film Festival.

Christian Joel Young, 28, said “we are going to deport you and your kind” before striking the congressman, according to a probable cause affidavit. He was charged Tuesday in state court with two counts of misdemeanor assault and felony burglary for entering the bar illegally.

A judge ordered him held without bail. Young’s attorney declined to comment.

Threats against members of Congress have increased in recent years, peaking in 2021 following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol before dipping slightly only to climb again, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Capitol Police.

“Almost all of us receive very regular threats,” said Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Omar has led the caucus in recent weeks while Casar has been on paternity leave. The congressman described Omar as “tough as nails” and said Trump should curb his rhetoric about her.

“The point of what these violent actors want is for us to shut up and we just can’t give in to that,” Casar said.

___

Biesecker and Brown reported from Washington. Amiri reported from New York. Associated Press reporters Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and R.J. Rico in Atlanta contributed.

Read More

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The Dictatorship

Ukraine braces for brutal cold as Trump says Putin agreed to halt power grid attacks

Published

on

Ukraine braces for brutal cold as Trump says Putin agreed to halt power grid attacks

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The terms of a Russian commitment to U.S. President Donald Trump to temporarily halt its bombardment of Ukraine during one of the country’s bleakest winters in years remained unclear Friday, as Ukrainians braced for even worse conditions to come next week.

Trump said late Thursday that President Vladimir Putin had agreed to a temporary pause in targeting Kyiv and other places as the region experiences freezing temperatures that have brought widespread hardship to civilians.

“I personally asked President Putin not to fire on Kyiv and the cities and towns for a week during this … extraordinary cold,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. Putin has “agreed to that,” he said, without elaborating on when the request to the Russian leader was made.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a query seeking clarity about the scope and timing of any limited pause.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Friday that Trump “made a personal request” to Putin to stop targeting Kyiv until Feb. 1 “in order to create favorable conditions for negotiations.”

The mention of Feb. 1 was confusing since that is only two days away. Also, the cold weather is forecast to get much worse from Sunday, with temperatures dropping even further and making the time frame for a pause in attacks hard to understand.

Russia has sought to deny Ukrainian civilians heat, light and running water over the course of the war, in a strategy that Ukrainian officials describe as “weaponizing winter.”

Asked if Moscow agreed to Trump’s proposal, Peskov said, “Yes, of course.” But he refused to answer further questions about whether the agreement covered only energy infrastructure or all aerial strikes, and when the halt on strikes was supposed to start.

‘Evidence to the contrary’

Russia struck Ukrainian energy assets in several regions of Ukraine on Thursday but there were no strikes on those facilities overnight, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday.

In a post on social media, Zelenskyy also noted that Russia has turned its attention to targeting Ukrainian logistics networks and that Russian drones and missiles hit residential areas of Ukraine overnight, as they have most nights during the war.

Trump framed Putin’s acceptance as a concession. But Zelenskyy was skeptical as Russia’s invasion approaches its fourth anniversary on Feb. 24 with no sign that Moscow is willing to reach a peace settlement despite a U.S.-led push to end the fighting.

“I do not believe that Russia wants to end the war. There is a great deal of evidence to the contrary,” Zelenskyy said Thursday. Ukraine is ready to halt its attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, including oil refineries, if Moscow also stops its bombardment of the Ukrainian power grid and other energy assets, he said.

Russia fired 111 drones and one ballistic missile at Ukraine overnight, injuring at least three people, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that its air defenses overnight shot down 18 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, as well as the illegally annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.

Bitter cold forecast

Forecasters say Kyiv, which recently endured severe power shortages, will see a brutally cold stretch starting Friday that is expected to last into next week. Temperatures in some areas will drop to minus 30 degrees Celsius (minus 22 Fahrenheit), the State Emergency Service said.

The possibility of a respite in energy sector attacks was discussed at last weekend’s meeting in Abu Dhabithe capital of the United Arab Emirates, between envoys of Ukraine, Russia and the United States, Zelenskyy said, adding that he had agreed to adhere to a “reciprocal approach” on energy assaults.

“If Russia does not strike us, we will … take corresponding steps,” he told reporters.

Further talks were expected on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, but that could change because of a spike in tensions between the United States and Iran.

‘We are ready for compromises’

It was unclear whether and how any partial truce might work amid ongoing wider fighting and mistrust between the two countries.

“There is no ceasefire. There is no official agreement on a ceasefire, as is typically reached during negotiations,” Zelenskyy said. “There has been no direct dialogue and no direct agreements on this matter between us and Russia.”

Ukraine had originally proposed a limited energy ceasefire at talks in Saudi Arabia last year, Zelenskyy said, but it gained no traction.

Disagreement over what happens to occupied Ukrainian territory, and Moscow’s demand for possession of territory it hasn’t captured, are a key issue holding up a peace deal, according to Zelenskyy.

“We have repeatedly said that we are ready for compromises that lead to a real end to the war, but that are in no way related to changes to Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” Zelenskyy said. “The American side understands this and says that there is a compromise solution regarding a free economic zone.”

Ukraine demands control over such a zone, he said.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Read More

Continue Reading

The Dictatorship

Senate leaders scramble to avert a partial government shutdown

Published

on

Senate leaders scramble to avert a partial government shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Friday to fund most of the government through the end of September while carving out a temporary extension for Homeland Security funding, giving Congress two weeks to debate new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country.

With a weekend shutdown looming, President Donald Trump struck the spending deal with Senate Democrats on Thursday in the wake of the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis. Democrats said they would not vote for the larger spending bill unless Congress considers legislation to unmask agents, require more warrants and allow local authorities to help investigate any incidents.

“The nation is reaching a breaking point,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote. “The American people are demanding that Congress step up and force change.”

As lawmakers in both parties called for investigations into the fatal shootings, Trump said he didn’t want a shutdown and negotiated the rare deal with Schumer, his frequent adversary. Trump then encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”

The bill passed 71-29 and will now head to the House, which is not due back until Monday. That means the government could be in a partial shutdown temporarily over the weekend until they pass it.

Speaker Mike Johnson, who held a conference call Friday with GOP lawmakers, said he expects the House to vote Monday evening. But what is uncertain is how much support there will be for the package.

Johnson’s right flank has signaled opposition to limits on Homeland Security funds, leaving him reliant on Democrats who have their own objections to funding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without immediate restraints.

Two-week debate over ICE

It was unclear how involved Trump will be in the negotiations over new restrictions on immigration arrests — or if Republicans and Democrats could find any points of compromise.

Senate Democrats will not support an extension of Homeland Security funding in two weeks “unless it reins in ICE and ends violence,” Schumer said. “If our colleagues are not willing to enact real change, they should not expect Democratic votes.”

Similarly, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that any change in the homeland bill needs to be “meaningful and it needs to be transformative.”

Absent “dramatic change,” Jeffries said, “Republicans will get another shutdown.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the two sides will “sit down in good faith,” but it will be “really, really hard to get anything done,” especially in such a short amount of time.

“We’ll stay hopeful, but there are some pretty significant differences of opinion,” Thune said.

Democrats demand change

Irate Democrats have asked the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.

They also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.

Alex Prettia 37 year-old ICU nurse, was killed by a border patrol agent on Jan. 24, two weeks after protester Renee Good was killed by an ICE officer. Administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, originally said Pretti had aggressively approached officersbut multiple videos contradicted that claim.

Republican pushback

The president’s concessions to Democrats prompted pushback from some Senate Republicans, delaying the final votes and providing a preview of the coming debate over the next two weeks. In a fiery floor speech, Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned that Republicans should not give away too much.

“To the Republican party, where have you been?” Graham said, adding that ICE agents and Border Patrol agents have been “slandered and smeared.”

Several Republicans have said that if Democrats are going to push for restrictions on ICE, they will push for restrictions on so-called “sanctuary cities” that they say do not do enough to enforce illegal immigration.

“There no way in hell we’re going to let Democrats knee cap law enforcement and stop deportations in exchange for funding DHS,” said Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., ahead of the vote.

Still, some Republicans said they believe that changes to ICE’s operations were necessary, even as they were unlikely to agree to all of the Democrats’ requests.

“I think the last couple of days have been an improvement,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. “I think the rhetoric has been dialed down a little bit, in Minnesota.”

Last-minute promises

After Trump announced the deal with Democrats, Graham held the spending bills up for almost a day until Thune agreed to give him a vote on his sanctuary cities bill at a later date.

Separately, Graham was also protesting a repeal of a new law giving senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge — as happened to him and other senators as part of the so-called Arctic Frost investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by Trump supporters at the Capitol.

The spending bill, which was passed by the House last week, would repeal that law. But Graham said Thune had agreed to consider a separate bill that would allow “groups and private citizens” who were caught up in Jack Smith’s probe to sue.

___

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Joey Cappelletti, Seung Min Kim, Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

Read More

Continue Reading

The Dictatorship

Don Lemon defiant after Minnesota church protest arrest

Published

on

Don Lemon defiant after Minnesota church protest arrest

Fresh out of federal custody, former BLN anchor Don Lemon vowed Friday not to back off his work as a journalist despite an indictment against him and others over an anti-ICE protest he covered this month at a Minnesota church.

Lemon cited his profession’s protections under the First Amendment — the same one federal prosecutors contend he and his co-defendants violated by infringing on the churchgoers’ freedom of religion.

“There is no more important time than right now, this very moment, for a free and independent media that shines a light on the truth and holds those in power accountable,” Lemon said in his first public remarks since his arrest late Thursday.

“The First Amendment of the Constitution protects that work for me and for countless of other journalists who do what I do. I stand with all of them, and I will not be silenced,” he added, speaking outside a federal courthouse in Los Angeles, where he had just been ordered released pending trial.

Lemon, fellow independent journalist Georgia Fort and two people active in Democratic circles in Minnesota were arrested as part of a broader indictment over the Jan. 18 demonstration against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which Lemon livestreamed while reporting on the event at Cities Church in St. Paul.

Demonstrators say they were there to protest ICE tactics and a pastor of the church, David Easterwoodwho also leads the local field office for ICE. Easterwood was recently listed as a defendant in a casebrought by protesters who alleged immigration agents had violated their First and Fourth Amendment rights.

“I’m just here photographing, I’m not part of the group. … I’m a journalist,” Lemon is heard saying in his video.

The indictment names nine defendants. The prosecution alleges in it that a group of “agitators” gathered to discuss their plans prior to traveling to Cities Church to engage in a “planned takeover-style operation.”

Demonstrators joined in on various chants inside the church including “ICE Out!” and “Stand Up, Fight Back,” according to the indictment, which was signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi, among others.

Prosecutors also allege that one defendant called some congregants “Nazi,” and asked some children, “Do you know your parents are Nazis? They’re going to burn in hell.”

The portions of the indictment involving Lemon largely hang on details from his livestream, particularly that he made a point of telling viewers he wouldn’t say where the protest was going to take place.

Lemon and Fort — in one of the few mentions of her in the indictment — are also accused of obstructing the pastor’s movements when they approached to question him; the document does not specify if this was Easterwood. Prosecutors contend Lemon “stood so close to the pastor that Lemon caused the pastor’s right hand to graze Lemon, who then admonished the pastor, ‘Please don’t push me.’”

Until now, efforts to secure charges against Lemon had stalled in court. A federal magistrate judge previously refusedto approve a criminal complaint against him, saying prosecutors hadn’t shown probable cause — a decision upheld by an appeals panel last week.

Earlier in the week, the Department of Justice had reportedly withdrawn its bid for an arrest warrant, though officials indicated they might pursue charges through other procedures.

Bondi confirmed the arrests in a social media post Friday.

“Early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi said on X. Fort, Crews and Lundy pleaded not guilty at a hearing Friday in Minnesota and were released.

Fort is vice president of the Minneapolis chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists. She posted a video on Facebook early Friday announcing “agents are at my door,” and said her attorney advised her to go with them.

Crews is the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota and a former Democratic candidate for the Minnesota House. Lundy is a small-business owner and a current Democratic candidate for the Minnesota Senate.

Lemon is charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and interfering by force with someone’s First Amendment rights. The most serious charge carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors argued Friday that Lemon poses a “danger to the community” and asked the judge to restrict his travel, a request the judge mostly rejected.

Lemon, wearing a tan suit and appearing visibly displeased during the hearing, did not enter a plea, but his attorneys say he will plead not guilty to all charges. His next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 9 in Minnesota.

“I look forward to my day in court,” Lemon told reporters.

Lemon was in Los Angeles to cover the Grammy Awards when he was taken into custody late Thursday.

His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, called Lemon’s arrest an “unprecedented attack” and accused the DOJ of using it as a distraction from the backlash the Trump administration is facing after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

Lemon’s arrest marks a major development in a case that has stirred national debate over press freedom and federal power. The case has drawn sharp criticism from advocates and supporters of Lemon.

“Don Lemon has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said in a statement. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”

Lemon is still strongly associated with his long-running show at BLN, even though he left the network nearly three years ago. The network said in a statement that his arrest raises concerns about the freedom of press.

“The First Amendment in the United States protects journalists who bear witness to news and events as they unfold, ensuring they can report freely in the public interest, and the DOJ’s attempts to violate those rights is unacceptable,” BLN said.

Several press freedom and advocacy groups condemned the arrests on Friday. The Committee to Protect Journalists saidLemon’s arrest “should alarm all Americans.”

“Instead of prioritizing accountability in the killings of two American citizens, the @realDonaldTrump administration is devoting its resources to arresting journalists,” said Katherine Jacobsen, a spokesperson for the group.

The National Action Network criticized the Trump administration for violating Lemon’s rights under the First Amendment.

“Don has spent the last decade calling out the lies or the destructive policies of President Trump, who no doubt was waiting for the right moment to use his weaponized Justice Department against him,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, the group’s founder.

Jack Pedigo and David Noriega contributed to this report.

Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW.

Fallon Gallagher is a legal affairs reporter for MS NOW.

Read More

Continue Reading

Trending