Trump issues unexpected pardon for Long Island labor boss James Callahan less than 24 hours before sentencing
James Callahan, a 65-year-old Lindenhurst native and former top labor leader of the International Union of Operating Engineers, was set to be sentenced Wednesday by US District Judge Ana Reyes.
But on Tuesday, Callahan's attorney, David Schertler, notified Reyes that his client had received a 'full and unconditional' pardon from the President, with his sentence in a temporary state of suspension until prosecutors file a formal request to dismiss the case, court records show.
James Callahan, 65, the former boss of the International Union of Operating Engineers, was pardoned by President Donald Trump less than 24 hours before he was expected to be sentenced to prison.
AFP via Getty Images
Schertler said his client was 'extremely grateful for President Donald Trump's consideration and pardon and the opportunity to get back his life and his reputation after devoting over 40 years to the cause of organized labor and the members of the International Union of Operating Engineers and their families.'
Trump has so far provided no reason as to why he decided to issue a pardon for Callahan, who prosecutors had only recommended a six-month prison sentence for.
'No MAGA left behind,' Trump's pardon attorney Ed Martin Jr. posted on X Monday as the President commuted a slew of sentences this week — but it's unclear if Callahan fits that bill.
There's no record he ever supported or donated to Trump in the past, and his union actually backed both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris over Trump in the last election while he was still in charge, according to records.
Callahan's attorney, David Schertler, said he was 'extremely grateful for President Donald Trump's consideration and pardon.'
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The judge, however, expressed that she was 'quite disappointed' to learn of Callahan's pardon, noting he had accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct, according to a transcript of Wednesday's hearing.
In January, Callahan pleaded guilty to failing to report over $315,000 he scored in tickets to games, concerts, shows and other financial perks from a company that did business with his union.
As part of the plea deal, Callahan — who prosecutors say has a net worth of more than $5 million — agreed to repay the union and step down as president.
'The Operating Engineers were unknowingly funding Defendant Callahan's spree of pricey entertainments — a lifestyle his substantial salary could easily accommodate,' prosecutors wrote in their sentencing recommendation, calling him 'one of the most powerful union leaders in the country.'
The Justice Department is now expected to file a motion to dismiss the case.
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Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom is expertly trolling Fox News stars by mimicking Trump online — right down to the nicknames
Over the past week, Gavin Newsom's press office has been deliberately aping Donald Trump's over-the-top social media posting style in an obvious attempt to not only troll the president's most ardent defenders but also force them to come to grips with Trump's bullying and bombastic tone. The pitch-perfect parody, which comes as the California governor goes on the attack against Trump while clearly eying a run for president, has also resulted in a number of Fox News stars taking the bait – and seemingly making Newsom's point for him. 'DANA 'DING DONG' PERINO (NEVER HEARD OF HER UNTIL TODAY!) IS MELTING DOWN BECAUSE OF ME, GAVIN C. NEWSOM!' the governor's press office account tweeted on Tuesday. 'FOX HATES THAT I AM AMERICA'S MOST FAVORITE GOVERNOR ("RATINGS KING") SAVING AMERICA — WHILE TRUMP CAN'T EVEN CONQUER THE 'BIG' STAIRS ON AIR FORCE ONE ANYMORE!!! TRUMP HAS 'LOST HIS STEP' AND FOX IS LOSING IT BECAUSE WHEN I TYPE, AMERICA NOW WINS!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.' The all-caps screed, complete with a juvenile nickname and satirically signed 'GCN' to mimic Trump adding 'DJT' to his Truth Social posts, came after Fox News host Dana Perino groused Monday afternoon about Newsom's tweets while urging him to cut it out if he wanted to be taken seriously. 'You have to stop it with the Twitter thing,' Perino complained on The Five. 'I don't know where his wife is? If I were his wife I would say, 'You are making a fool of yourself, stop it!'' Noting that Newsom has presidential ambitions, she added: 'Do not let your staff tweet—and if you are doing it yourself, put the phone away and start over. He's got a big job as governor of California, but if he wants an even bigger job he has to be a little more serious.' Perino, however, wasn't the only one to fall into the trap set by Newsom and his social media team. Earlier this week, Tomi Lahren – a Fox News contributor who first shot to fame for her take-no-prisoners liberal-bashing monologues – objected to Newsom's press office mockingly referring to MAGA activist Scott Presler – who is openly gay – as GOP Rep. Nancy Mace. 'New lows unlocked by @GavinNewsom and his team of losers,' Lahren fumed on X, only for the governor's social team to throw back MAGA's favorite attack line back in her face. 'You sound woke,' the press office fired back. The governor's office used a similar tactic last week when Fox News host Raymond Arroyo expressed indignation that Newsom said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — who is confined to a wheelchair — had 'rolled over' after Trump called for Texas to redraw its congressional maps. 'We asked for a statement, and Newsom's office gave us something flippant like, 'You're so woke, he'll get over it,'' Arroyo grumbled before airing the press office's comment, which read: 'No. But how woke of you to ask! I'm sorry Greg's feelings were hurt. Poor guy — we hope he recovers.' Meanwhile, Fox News anchor Trace Gallagher was also apoplectic about Newsom's new approach, which has ramped up as he's taken the fight to Trump and Republicans over their mid-decade redistricting efforts ahead of next year's midterm elections. 'I don't know what he's trying to do, but it comes across as childish and – you are the governor of the biggest state in the union – what are you doing?!' Gallagher complained on Friday night. 'BIRD-BRAIN TREY GALLAGHER (A SO-CALLED FOX 'NEWS' HOST THAT NOBODY HAS EVER HEARD OF) SAYS MY POSTS ARE 'CHILDISH' AND 'UNBECOMING' OF A LEADER — CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? MANY ARE SAYING FOX ("EDIT THE TAPES") NEWS SHOULD CANCEL HIS PATHETIC LITTLE 'BEDTIME SHOW' IMMEDIATELY,' Newsom's team tweeted in response the following day. 'THEY ARE CALLING IT THE MOST BORING PROGRAM IN CABLE HISTORY. TOTAL SNOOZE FEST! SAD!!! — GCN.' Gallgher followed suit on Monday night by criticizing Newsom's 'new Trumpian style' of posting, claiming his tweet mocking the Fox News host was an attempt to be 'clever' before calling for the governor to stop obsessing about Trump. He then went on to name-check The Mamas and the Papas and The Beverly Hillbillies while urging Newsom to pay more attention to his state than his social media activity. Perino also couldn't help herself, jumping online to double and triple down on her on-air commentary about the governor's Trump mimicry – all while seeming blissfully unaware of the point of Newsom's parody of the president. Responding to Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau sarcastically stating that Newsom 'should take a lesson from Donald Trump on this' before asking her what she thought about the president's social media habits, Perino tweeted that 'copying isn't a good look and it isn't working' while suggesting the governor come up with original content. 'I mean, it's pretty clearly a parody of Trump's absolutely insane all caps, often non-sensical posts. Probably why all the people in my life who aren't political junkies keep reaching out to say they don't know much about Newsom but think the tweets are hilarious,' Favreau replied. 'Humor and mockery can be quite effective!' 'Cool if it works and he's your 2028 nom, I will buy you dinner,' Perino reacted. As if to hammer home the point to Perino, Newsom's office responded to Perino's comments by gleefully posting: 'ALMOST A WEEK IN AND THEY STILL DON'T GET IT.' Indeed, the governor himself hasn't exactly been coy about what his intentions are in adopting the online persona of a full-time Trumpian troll. While the social media operation – which is operated by a multi-aide staff – has generated over a billion impressions across a variety of platforms, Newsom has said outright that anyone upset with his account's online insults and trollish behavior should turn their attention towards the White House. 'I'm just following his example,' Newsom said last week. 'If you have issues with what I'm putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns with what he's putting out as president.' He continued: 'To the extent it's gotten some attention, I'm pleased, but I think the deeper question is how have we allowed the normalization of his tweets, Truth Social posts over the course of the last many years, to go without similar scrutiny and notice?' As CNN's Andrew Kirell noted in Tuesday's edition of the Reliable Sources newsletter, Newsom is essentially punking the right-wing media ecosystem right now with this tactic. 'The effort, clearly designed to hold a mirror up to MAGA and 'bully the bullies,' so to speak, has evidently gone over the heads of many conservative media personalities, baiting them into making Newsom's point about Trump's behavior on their own,' he wrote. Meanwhile, after Perino once again revisited the subject during Tuesday's broadcast of The Five by insisting that 'we get the joke' but that 'it's just not funny,' Kirell asserted that this was precisely what the governor's social media operation was meant to expose. 'I'm fascinated by how they don't seem to understand that saying 'it's just not funny' is exactly the reaction his team is aiming for,' he posted on X. 'It's the whole point.' Pointing out that Gallagher and Perino seemed 'oblivious they were criticizing a parody of Trump himself,' Mediaite's Colby Hall explained that Newsom was 'shooting fish in a barrel' at this point. 'Newsom's feed isn't Trumpian—it's an X-ray of Trumpian excess, but as if it were delivered by the king of ironically detached comedy himself, Steve Martin,' Hall stated. 'Newsom didn't just enter the arena of schoolyard retorts; he grabbed the microphone, turned it upside down, and made the absurd impossible to ignore.' While others, such as The Bulwark's Sarah Longwell, have spelled out that Newsom is making MAGA 'uncomfortable because he's holding up a mirror to what you tolerate on behalf of partisanship,' Democrats are increasingly embracing the governor's approach because it shows his willingness to fight. 'That allows Newsom to step out in front and say he is the first one to stand against Texas's actions,' The Independent's Eric Garcia wrote last week, referencing the Texas redistricting battle. 'Specifically, the Texas Democrats who decamped to blue states said they would return to Texas because California would respond in kind if Texas passed their new maps.' He concluded: '2028 is a long way off and plenty could change. Other candidates might be able to prove Newsom is a paper tiger. But then again, plenty of Republicans waited for Trump to implode and he laid waste to them.'
Buzz Feed
12 minutes ago
- Buzz Feed
20 Shocking Secrets People Kept From Family Friends
Reddit user _Walking_Detriment_ asked the community, "What's the most shocking thing you found out about someone you know?" Welp, people revealed some pretty unhinged secrets that their family, friends, and close acquaintances thought they could hide. But ultimately, the cat got out of the bag. So, here are some pretty wild, shocking, and dark things people discovered about someone they knew: "I worked with an ex-Marine closely for years. On my last day, I asked him to help me with something, and he said, 'Oh, sure, ask the guy with one leg.' I told him he was full of shit, and he took a hammer and hit his shin, to which I heard metal. Thinking it was a joke, I asked him to lift his pants. SURE ENOUGH, THIS MAN HAD ONE LEG, AND I NEVER KNEW." "My wife died two years ago at the young age of 49. A week after her passing, I decided to go through her personal devices to see if there were any other friends or family that needed to be contacted. What I found instead was that my wife had been chasing after other men during our entire 12 years together. When she met me, she had a side boyfriend that she was crushing on, but his life was too much of a mess for her to seriously consider him as a suitor (she was a single mom with two kids, and needed stability). But she loved the attention he showered her with, constantly begging her for sex. And there were other men that she met online. In total, I was up to six boyfriends she had during the time of our relationship. I stopped digging because each new boyfriend discovery absolutely destroyed me." "We found out AT THE FUNERAL that my wife's grandpa had a second family. There was a group of people huddling around his widow (she was 90 at the time) that no one recognized. They were chatting it up with grandma for quite some time, and eventually, my wife's dad and aunt asked them to leave. There were kids, adults, and seniors in this group — multiple generations of people. My mother-in-law finally fessed up and said they were his 'other family.' Jaws hit the floor, and it was really weird for the rest of the ceremony. They also tried to 'claim' some of his stuff afterwards. I had to watch my grandma's house like a hawk because they would snoop around and try to say things like 'he would want us to have this.'" "In the mid-'90s, I came home from my honeymoon to find a card in my front door from the FBI. My neighbor across the hall popped out and asked if everything was okay because there were a bunch of cops looking for me. It turned out my best friend of five years, who I thought moved away to be with his girlfriend, was seducing women around the country and robbing them, draining their bank accounts, and vanishing. He even stole their cars, drove to his next target city, and either sold the car to a chop shop or ditched it. He left a jacket behind at one of his victims' houses, and it had my name and phone number in his pocket. I went to the federal building in downtown Chicago, answered all of their questions, and convinced them I had no knowledge of any of this. After a few hours, I agreed to let them know if I ever heard from him." "I had recently graduated as a therapist working in a forensic clinic. We were interviewing interns for their placement (part of a graduate program). This was an important interview because a lot of our clinical staff, including me, were hired out of an internship. A lot of the applicants were from the same graduate school that I went to, so I knew a lot of these people personally. One of the applicants was a guy with whom I had a bunch of classes. He was taking the program part-time, so he had been in the program when I started and was still there when I graduated. We had maybe five classes together. I knew him as a very smart, but also very sarcastic, middle-aged guy. I knew he worked as a hairdresser outside of class at his boyfriend's salon, which caused him to be very popular amongst our class for his propensity to give free haircuts." "I found out as an adult that my stepdad (who had been around since I was seven years old) did time in prison for murder. Two decades before he met my mom, he walked in on a man having sex with his then-wife. Clearly, it didn't end well for the other guy. He did three years in prison because of the nature of the crime, and the laws in Texas being lenient on that type of stuff." "My mother has a somewhat strange belief that after death, a person must be buried 'whole.' Decades ago, when my grandma had to have her leg amputated because of diabetes, my mother dug a hole behind our house and stored the amputated leg there. I believe it didn't rot due to formalin or something similar. When my grandmother died, my mother took that leg and placed it in her coffin. Due to the coffin's design, no one noticed her real leg was there. Everyone likely assumed it was a prosthetic leg. My mother told me this after several years, and I am still grossed out by it to this day." "I found out a guy I knew faked a limp so he could get sympathy discounts at the movie theater..." "I have childhood friends who discovered after their dad's death (the kids were adults by then) that their dad had fraudulently taken out full powers of attorney on them. He refinanced his house in their names, and never paid any taxes." "The guy who put the roof on my parents' house and came out and did some repairs and whatnot around their home turned out to be a legit hitman. Years before he was a roofer, he was hired to murder a couple. Then he ended up murdering the people who hired him to do the hit. I believe he eventually confessed to killing four people total, but authorities suspected it could've been more. I kind of vaguely remember the guy. Of course, my dad was like, 'Nice fellow and a good handyman — hate to lose him!'" "I worked with two different people at two different places. They both ended up going to prison for making counterfeit US money. Both workplaces were printing companies. I had replaced the first guy, who had been demoted for not being a good leader/supervisor. When the Secret Service approached his mobile home, he stuffed hoards of bills in PLASTIC trash bags and tried to make his escape by running through the woods. These tore multiple holes in the bags, leaving a scattering of counterfeit bills trailing behind him through the forest before his inevitable capture." "I found out that my aunt's first husband wasn't killed in a car accident while visiting family overseas like I was told when I was younger. He was in witness protection because he had pissed off some affiliates of an Irish cartel. My aunt even thought he was dead. After four years, the authorities got in touch with her saying that he had been alive, but he was eventually killed by the men he was hiding from. They sent his body back to be buried in the US." "I know of the girl who was married to my uncle (my dad's brother). They were divorced before I was born. She became a foster parent and was big into exotic animals. She tried to 'trade' one of her adopted kids for a monkey. It was all over the news. I saw it and was like, 'That's messed up.' Then, my aunt called me and asked me about the story, and then told me who it was." "I worked with a guy in the mid-'80s who killed his best friend. They were drinking at a bar and somehow got into an argument (I was told they were as tight as they could be). The guy punched his best friend. The guy fell, hit his head, and died. He was lucky and somehow got work release. His father picked him up from prison every morning and came to take him back when our shift was over. l always wondered what happened to him and when he was fully released." "I'm sure I'm not the only '70s kid who found this out, but my mom revealed that she and my dad had an 'open marriage.' The kind where he said: 'I'm going to fuck other women, and you can fuck these friends of mine — let me have my fun, or I'm out of here.' Apparently, what followed was three bad years together, as my dad tried to convince my mom to participate in swinging, orgies, a poly relationship — the works. And my mom, who was barely 22 with two babies, went along with all of it to keep him happy and 'save their marriage.'" "My father told me that my mom (a teacher) used to steal the money for school trips where she worked. For some twisted reason, she moved my sister and me to the same school. I never understood why the other teachers were so bitter towards us. Apparently, there was a big scandal between the teachers, but we had no idea — the worst years of my life, finally explained." "After my grandmother died, we found out she'd been married before my grandfather, and had four kids. When she and the first guy decided to split, they just dumped the kids off at an orphanage and went their separate ways. She then married my grandpa, had another family, and just never mentioned the fact that she had four other kids. Apparently, my grandpa knew the whole time and never said anything about it either." "My mom suffered from cancer, and one night, while she was on strong medication for pain, she grabbed my arm and told me, 'I know the truth about your college letters. You didn't get rejected — you got accepted, and that's why you didn't go.'" "My mom attempted to miscarry me so she wouldn't have to get an abortion. She is now very jealous that I am leading the life she always wanted (educated, childless, and climbing the corporate ladder), and frequently takes it out on me in passive-aggressive ways. I'm just glad the drinking and drugs she did while she was pregnant didn't seem to have a lasting impact on me (other than maybe the fact that I black out quickly when drinking)." And finally, "About 25 years ago, one of my friends was killed in a house fire. He had been rooming with another friend at their mother's house. Our friend group thought that the fire was just an unfortunate accident for a couple of weeks. The surviving friend even stayed at my house, where all of our friend group kept hugging and comforting him as he weaved heroic stories. He tried getting his mom out of the house first and then tried his best to go back in for our friend, but by then, the flames and smoke were just too bad. Then one day, the police showed up and arrested him."
Miami Herald
12 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Retired Miami officer pleads guilty to selling stolen Heat jerseys, memorabilia
Retired veteran Miami police officer Marcos Thomas Perez pleaded guilty to selling hundreds of stolen, game-worn Miami Heat jerseys and memorabilia, raking in tens of thousands of dollars. On Tuesday, Perez, 62, appeared in Miami federal court to accept a plea agreement, reneging his former plea of not guilty to his charge of transportation of stolen goods. NBC 6 reported his defense attorney, Robert Buschel, said, 'He's depressed, naturally, but he accepts responsibility for his behavior and we're gonna work through this issue in his life.' Perez, a former Miami Heat security guard, faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, three years probation and a fine of up to $250,000. His sentencing is penciled in for Oct. 31, where prosecutors will recommend a lower sentence as part of the plea. 'This was an unfortunate set of decisions that he made and he's going to accept responsibility for that,' Buschel said. READ MORE: Ex-Miami Police vet charged in heist of LeBron, Shaq, Wade jerseys owned by Heat After Perez's 25-year tenure with the City of Miami Police Department, he joined the Miami Heat organization as a security officer in 2016. From 2016 to 2021, as a Heat security employee, and from 2022 to 2025, as an NBA security employee, Perez conducted the theft of over 400 game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia. He was among a number of trusted few who were allowed to access a secure equipment room, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami said. Over a three-year period, he sold over 100 stolen items that were valued for about $2 million and shipped outside Florida. Authorities seized about 300 game-worn jerseys and memorabilia when he was arrested in April by the FBI. According to a source, some of the stolen items included game-worn gear from high-profile players such as LeBron James, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, among others, and are believed to be worth millions of dollars.
