Jimmy Swaggart obituary: TV evangelist brought down by sex scandal
In October the following year, Gorman received a call from a private detective he had hired to follow Swaggart. His nemesis was with a prostitute in a seedy motel room on the outskirts of New Orleans and the gumshoe had let down Swaggart's car tyres to allow Gorman time to come over. On arriving, he found America's best-known preacher on his knees, not in prayer but trying to fit the spare wheel. Backwards.
When Gorman confronted him, Swaggart pleaded for mercy, not something he had shown to Gorman, nor to Jim Bakker, another preacher whom Swaggart had brought down over a tryst with a 21-year-old church secretary. He offered Gorman and his family jobs with his own church, which Gorman turned down. He then promised to admit his sins to the church authorities.
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Daily Mail
13 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Another embarrassment for Diddy prosecutors as 'missing victim' who they 'couldn't find' resurfaces to PRAISE him
Diddy 's ex-girlfriend who once accused the rapper of stomping on her stomach now claims she's not worried about him being back on the streets because he never injured her. Gina Huynh broke her silence on the bombshell trial on Tuesday - a day before Diddy was acquitted of the most serious charges against him - sex-trafficking and racketeering. 'He never did anything dangerous to me. I'm not scared,' she said as she left a Vegas grocery store after TMZ asked if she feared for her life if Diddy was acquitted. Investigators complained about not being able to find Huynh to question her about Diddy ahead of his trial - but the celebrity website made light work of tracking her down. Huynh's comments this week contradict her earlier statements about her relationship with Diddy. In 2019, she claimed the mogul once 'stomped' on her stomach and repeatedly punched her in the head during one disturbing encounter. 'He stomped on my stomach really hard — like, took the wind out of my breath,' Gina said in her interview with controversial blogger Tasha K. 'I couldn't breathe. He kept hitting me. I was pleading to him, "Can you just stop? I can't breathe."' Huynh claimed at the time that Diddy had punched her in the head at other times, and her hair would cover signs of her injuries. 'He was mentally, emotionally and physically abusing me,' she also claimed. 'He would always compare me to Cassie and tell me that I'm the bad one, she's a good one.' Diddy's own legal team admit that he is a woman beater after appalling footage showed him beating up then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel corridor in 2016. But the star was never charged with domestic abuse, with Huyhn previously offering further disturbing details of his alleged She also said that after she got pregnant with Diddy's child, he paid her $50,000 to get an abortion, though she says she refused the payment. Huynh also claimed that 'everyone' in Diddy's circle 'allowed' him to abuse her multiple times. The pair met in 2013 in Las Vegas. Their romance began a year later and, according to Huynh, they dated for five years. The Instagram model's most recent comments, however, might explain why Huynh apparently ghosted prosecutors just days before the trial after she was scheduled to be 'Victim 3' in their case against Diddy. Her testimony was supposed to bolster the prosecution's case against the Diddy and support the racketeering and sex-trafficking charges he was acquitted of. But just before the trial started, prosecutors told the judge they were unable to get in touch with 'Victim 3.' While she did not take the stand, Huynh was mentioned several times, including during Cassie's harrowing testimony. Cassie told the court she decided to leave Diddy for good after she saw pictures of him with Huynh. Cassie's former friend Kerry Morgan also appeared to mention Huynh's pregnancies on the stand, saying they were devastating to Cassie. In the end, the jury was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Diddy was guilty of sex-trafficking or racketeering. Diddy dropped to his knees and prayed in the courtroom after he was acquitted Wednesday of the charges that could have put one of hip-hop's celebrated figures behind bars for life. His lead attorney Marc Agnifilo called the verdict a 'great victory' and said the jury 'got the situation right — or certainly right enough' as he stood outside Manhattan federal court at a stand of microphones. 'Today is a victory of all victories.' The mixed verdict capped a sordid legal odyssey that shattered Diddy's affable 'Puff Daddy' image and derailed his career as a Grammy-winning artist and music executive, fashion entrepreneur, brand ambassador and reality TV star. 'I'll see you when I get out,' Combs told family members including his mother and children just before leaving the courtroom to return to jail. 'We're going to get through this.' Diddy stands convicted of two counts of a crime — transportation to engage in prostitution — that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. But jurors cleared him of three charges, two of which carried a mandatory 15 years and a maximum of life. He was convicted of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, to engage in sexual encounters, a felony violation of the federal Mann Act. His defense lawyers said that under federal sentencing guidelines, he would likely face about two years in prison. Prosecutors, citing Diddy's violence and other factors, said the guidelines would call for at least four to five years. Locked up since his September arrest, Diddy has already served nine months. 'We fight on and we're going to win,' Agnifilo said. 'And we're not going to stop until he walks out of prison a free man to his family.'
The Guardian
24 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Our sense of safety was violated': a Black suburb in Ohio confronts repeated threats from white supremacists
Despite its proximity to a busy highway, Lincoln Heights' rolling hills, parks and well-kept lawns are pictures of calm suburban life north of Cincinnati. Today it's home to about 3,000 mostly African American people a few miles from Kentucky and the Ohio River, which divided free northern states from the slave-owning south. In the 1920s, Lincoln Heights became one of the first self-governing Black communities north of the Mason-Dixon line. But residents say much of that peace and security was destroyed on 7 February, when a group of neo-Nazis paraded on a highway overpass adjacent to the community. About a dozen armed and masked extremists unfurled flags with Nazi and other racist iconography bearing language such as 'America for the white man'. When locals heard what was happening on the bridge, many didn't think twice to act. Soon, a large group gathered to warn the extremists off. Racial slurs were hurled at locals while a small police presence attempted to maintain calm. 'I cannot understand how you can say that that was a peaceful protest. They were there with their flags, saying those things, they had guns,' says Lincoln Heights resident Syretha Brown. 'Their whole intent was to intimidate and cause fear. That is a crime. They used hateful speech. That together is a hate crime.' In the months since, locals have been left to wonder why the authorities acted the way they did that day. Although the white supremacists had no permit for their gathering, it was deemed legal by Evendale police, under whose jurisdiction the bridge falls, due to US free speech laws. Nor were the extremists ticketed by police for transporting themselves in the back of a box truck without using seatbelts. Evendale law enforcement said no citations were issued and the extremists were allowed to make off to a nearby school – with a police escort – in order to help de-escalate the situation. 'It's just beyond belief how they intermingled with the neo-Nazis,' says Lincoln Heights' mayor, Ruby Kinsey-Mumphrey, of the law enforcement response. 'I just don't think that they are sensitive to how that impacted this Black community.' The outcry forced Evendale police to apologize for their handling of the incident, and two investigations soon followed. Released last month, one found – to no little controversy among Lincoln Heights residents – that 'Evendale officers did perform well in recognizing and understanding the constitutional rights of all parties involved', and recommended that officers receive further training in handling large groups and protests. Many Lincoln Heights residents are not impressed. 'For the police to participate in the way that they did sort of solidified what I thought,' says Brown of the 7 February march and the Evendale police's response. She says that the claims by police that the neo-Nazis were allowed to leave the scene by illegally transporting themselves in the back of a box truck in order to maintain the peace doesn't stand up to reason. 'If that's the case, once [the police] got them away from the situation, why was nobody pulled out of the truck or asked for ID? I feel like at this point, there's laws for [African Americans] and laws for [everyone else],' she says. 'Why? Because Trump has said that this is how it has to go for the police that the extremists can't be charged. Nothing that has happened from 7 February until today am I shocked about.' Many Americans feel the Trump administration's pardoning of the 6 January rioters, and, more recently, its deployments of the national guard on the streets of Los Angeles and granting refugee status to white South Africans highlight a racist undertone that creates a broader, permissive environment for groups and individuals with rightwing tendencies. This month it was announced that no charges would be filed against the neo-Nazi group that marched on the Cincinnati bridge; many Lincoln Heights residents are boycotting Evendale in response to its handling of the incident. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Within weeks, the Lincoln Heights community set up a safety and watch program that sees locals, some of them armed, patrol the streets. When she attended a news conference highlighting the Evendale police investigation's findings last month, Brown found herself escorted out of the room shortly after asking a question. Despite what has happened, Brown says she feels safer in Lincoln Heights than elsewhere. 'Am I more concerned now? No. Am I prepared? Yes,' she says, adding that she plans to run for a seat on Lincoln Heights' city council. Residents of Lincoln Heights have faced discrimination ever since its foundation a century ago. When leaders attempted to incorporate the city in the 1930s and early 1940s in order to provide residents with basic services, neighboring cities opposed the move. While Lincoln Heights' repeated attempts to incorporate were pushed back, neighboring communities, including Evendale, were allowed to become established. When they did, they took with them a host of industrial areas and factories, leaving Lincoln Heights without much in the way of access to commercial tax income by the time it finally incorporated in 1946. Just east of Interstate 75, the headquarters of the GE Aerospace conglomerate provides Evendale authorities with millions of dollars in tax revenue every year and employs about 5,000 people. And while Evendale's median household income is about $155,000, next door in Lincoln Heights, it's just $17,333. Having lost more than half its population since its 1960s heyday, today Lincoln Heights is now less than 1 sq mile in size. With a tiny tax base, its schools are underfunded, forcing many families to educate their children elsewhere. In 2023, its high school, long since derelict, was bulldozed. And yet, extremists have kept coming back. Weeks after the neo-Nazi incident, members of the safety and watch program spotted a man dumping Ku Klux Klan recruitment literature on the streets in the middle of the night, and alerted law enforcement. When police stopped and cited the white supremacist man – for littering – they found a peace banner that was previously placed on the highway overpass by locals in his trunk. The hateful literature was quickly picked up. 'We feel grateful that the men in our community stood up and protected us, that our children didn't wake up to those flyers. That our seniors didn't have to wake up fearful,' says Brown of the safety and watch program participants. For others, fears that past racism is resurging are hugely unsettling. 'We see this in our history books, that [racist attacks] happened to Dr Martin Luther King, to Malcolm X. But to see it in today's society leaves you speechless,' says Kinsey-Mumphrey. 'They were trying to tell us – the oldest African American community here in the United States – [that] we were targeted. Our sense of safety was violated.'
Daily Mail
27 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Will Trump pardon Diddy? White House insider reveals why they're putting the odds at '50-50'
The Sean ' Diddy ' Combs' trial already had one dramatic development when a jury acquitted him on three of the most serious charges. The 55-year-old hip hop artist was found not guilty of sex-trafficking and racketeering on Wednesday, but was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Now, insiders are predicting it could end with a shock presidential pardon. As the judge prepares to sentence the rapper and producer on prostitution charges, experts are asking whether President Donald Trump will step into the case to grant clemency to man he once called a 'good friend.' Despite some of the disturbing testimony that came out at trial, a Trump pardon is not out of the question. The president indicated in May while the trial was underway that he was open to the idea. One source close to the pardon process put the odds at 'fifty-fifty,' telling NOTUS: 'But this [is] a lot trickier than even Larry Hoover. This isn't slipping under the radar.' That was a reference to the former Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover. Trump commuted his federal sentence, 74, still faces a 200 year on state charges for murder. Trump entertained the idea of a pardon when asked about it in the Oval Office. 'Nobody's asked but I know people are thinking about it. I know they're thinking about it. I think some people have been very close to asking,' he said. Trump appeared to be saying that no one had requested a pardon. But there are indications of a quiet lobbying campaign – as well as a counter effort. 'First of all, I'd look at what's happening. And I haven't been watching it too closely, although it's certainly getting a lot of coverage,' Trump continued. 'I haven't seen him, I haven't spoken to him in years. He used to really like me a lot, but I think when I ran for politics he sort of, that relationship busted up from what I read. I don't know. He didn't tell me that, but I'd read some nasty statements in the paper all of a sudden.' 'So, I don't know. I would certainly look at the facts. if I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or don't like me it wouldn't have any impact,' he concluded. Attorney John Koufos, who recently met with Trump's pardon 'tsar' Alice Marie Johnson and pardon attorney Ed Martin, told the Daily Mail elements of the case fit with Trump's push against 'overcriminalization' and 'weaponization' in charging. Much depends on whether the judge decides to hand down a sentence at the high end of guidelines, after a jury convicted Diddy on two charges of transporting people across state lines for purposes of prostitution. 'If you see a 91 months sentence on a couple of prostitution charges … then you might see a more valid clemency application' to right it, he said. Koufos said no one has brought the idea of a Diddy pardon to his attention. Trump's statement about not having heard a direct appeal makes sense, since Diddy hadn't even been convicted at the time the president was asked about it. Trump was himself charged with a racketeering conspiracy in the Georgia election interference case, and he has long railed against what he calls weaponization of the criminal justice system. Analysts watching the Diddy case have questioned whether the government overcharged him, and Koufos wondered how the defendant could be engaging in a RICO conspiracy by themselves. 'Had he been convicted of a RICO [charge], you'd be looking at something different. The fact that he was convicted of things that it seems that he pretty obviously did probably mitigates against a grant of clemency,' he said, nothing there was 'nothing particularly sympathetic' about the defendant. The avenue for a potential pardon appears to run through Johnson and Martin, who previously served as Trump's interim top US Attorney in the District of Columbia. 'Alice Johnson remains a critical component of the president's clemency agenda as does Ed Martin,' said Koufos. Trump, who has cultivated the power of celebrity since before his time on 'The Apprentice,' began his term by pardoning about 1,500 January 6 defendants on his first day in office, then extended pardons to a number of prominent people. Among them are reality stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were sentenced to 19 years on fraud charges. He also pardoned Louisiana rapper NBA YoungBoy on gun charges in May. Back in 2021 he pardoned rapper Lil Wayne (Dwayne Michael Carter Jr.) who was facing up to a decade in prison after pleading guilty to federal gun possession charges. That raises the possibility that Trump could be drawn to the bright lights of the Diddy case, despite testimony of by former girlfriend Cassie Ventura about 'freak-offs' and what she called emotional and physical abuse. Trump has long championed his signing of the First Step Act, which reauthorized Second Chance legislation meant to boost successful reentry by former prisoners into the population. He has also been open to pardoning political allies, as he did when pardoning former Republican Rep. Michael Grimm and former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojavech. Blagojevich promptly called him a 'great effing guy.' But rapper 50 Cent, Curtis James, is a longtime Diddy rival who has been occasionally posting about the case online – even while saying he would urge Trump not to pardon Diddy. 50 Cent posted on Instagram: 'He said some really bad things about Trump, it's not ok. Im gonna reach out so he knows how I feel about this guy,' Vulture reported. 'Donald doesn't take well to disrespect, and doesn't forget who chooses to go against him,' he wrote in another. 'while working tirelessly to make America great again there is no room for distraction. He would consider pardoning anyone who was being mistreated not Puffy Daddy.'
