TV News LIES

An expert on anti-fascist groups who teaches at Rutgers University says he is fleeing with his family to Spain after getting death threats amid a campaign by the campus chapter of Turning Point USA and other conservative groups to get him fired.

Mark Bray, an assistant professor of history, said Thursday that he decided to make the move out of concern for his family’s safety after being falsely labeled as a member of antifa, a term used to describe far-left activist groups that oppose fascism.

“I do not have any affiliation with any antifa group and don’t plan to,” said Bray, who wrote the book “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” which documents the philosophy and tactics of militant anti-fascist movements in the U.S. and around the world. He has taught courses on anti-fascism and terrorism at the university since 2019.

Bray spoke to The Associated Press from a hotel near Newark Airport, where he was awaiting a flight out of the U.S. He said he will teach his classes remotely.

Right-wing influencers and others began criticizing Bray on social media after President Donald Trump signed an executive order late last month designating antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. He said he moved his three classes online after he received a death threat late last month.

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A federal appeals court on Wednesday lifted a judge’s order blocking President Trump from calling Oregon National Guard troops into federal service, but he still may not deploy them, for now.

The temporary, administrative stay puts U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut’s order halting Trump’s federalization of the National Guard members on hold while the appeals court weighs whether to extend the pause as it considers the administration’s appeal. But it keeps in place her second order barring the president from sending the troops anywhere in the state.

The temporary, administrative stay puts U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut’s order halting Trump’s federalization of the National Guard members on hold while the appeals court weighs whether to extend the pause as it considers the administration’s appeal. But it keeps in place her second order barring the president from sending the troops anywhere in the state.

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit wrote in a brief order Wednesday that the decision best preserves the “status quo.”

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Former FBI Director James Comey, a longtime nemesis of President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty Oct. 8 to charges that he lied to Congress and obstructed a congressional proceeding during testimony he gave more than five years ago.

Comey entered the plea through his lawyer and longtime friend, former senior Department of Justice prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, at an initial hearing in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. Comey sat stone-faced, staring straight ahead, through most of the hearing. When asked to stand, he stood ramrod straight with his hands at his sides, looking directly at the judge. He didn't say a word.

"It is the honor of my life to represent Mr. Comey in this matter," Fitzgerald said.

The proceeding – which would for most other defendants be routine – took only minutes, but it jump-started a criminal process that could last months or years. The case has special significance because it has engendered widespread concern that Trump is politicizing the DOJ and using it to go after his enemies.

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Before a federal judge blocked Donald Trump from putting members of California’s national guard on the streets of Portland, Oregon, late on Sunday, the state’s Republican party welcomed the planned deployment in celebratory posts on social media.

“President Trump on Sunday deployed 300 California National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon after a judge ruled that the Oregon National Guard could not be deployed to keep federal facilities and personnel in Portland safe,” Oregon Republicans wrote on their official Facebook, Instagram and X accounts.

On all three platforms, the statement was illustrated with an image that seemed designed to support Trump’s false claim that protests against immigration sweeps in Portland are so out of control that the city is “burning to the ground”. On one side of the image, a line of police officers held riot shields; on the other, a crowd of young men held up flares that lit up a night sky filled with red smoke.

On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the image was not a photograph of a real event in Portland, but instead a fabrication created by combining two photographs of scenes that unfolded in South America nearly a decade apart.

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The New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani drew ire from Israel over his statement on the two-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, in which he commemorated both the Israeli victims from that day and Palestinian victims from Israel’s ensuing war on Gaza.

“Two years ago today, Hamas carried out a horrific war crime, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and kidnapping 250 more. I mourn these lives and pray for the safe return of every hostage still held and for every family whose lives were torn apart by these atrocities,” Mamdani said in the statement on Tuesday.

He denounced Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his government for launching a “genocidal war” in Gaza as well. He also accused the US government of being “complicit”.

“A death toll that now far exceeds 67,000; with the Israeli military bombing homes, hospitals, and schools into rubble,” Mamdani wrote. “Every day in Gaza has become a place where grief itself has run out of language. I mourn these lives and pray for the families that have been shattered.”

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A career federal prosecutor in Virginia has told colleagues she does not believe there is probable cause to file criminal mortgage fraud charges against New York attorney general Letitia James, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The prosecutor, Elizabeth Yusi, oversees major criminal cases in the Norfolk office for the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia and plans to soon present her conclusion to Lindsey Halligan, a Trump ally, who was installed as the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia last month. Yusi’s thinking was first reported by MSNBC on Monday.

The justice department declined to comment. The US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia did not return a request for comment.

The case sets up another high-profile confrontation between the justice department and Trump, who has fired attorneys who have refused to punish his enemies. Halligan, who has no prosecutorial experience, was put in the role at the urging of Trump after her predecessor concluded there wasn’t probable cause to file criminal charges against James Comey, the former FBI director. Halligan personally presented the case against Comey to a grand jury after she was appointed and secured a two-count indictment.

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