Proud Boys Convicted in Jan. 6 Attack Sue Government on Claims of ‘Political Persecution'
The lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Orlando, Fla., came nearly six months after Mr. Trump offered an expansive grant of clemency to all of the more than 1,500 people who had taken part in the attack. It was another attempt by rioters to flip the script about Jan. 6 and blame the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for engaging in what the complaint called 'a corrupt and politically motivated' prosecution.
Mr. Trump himself, in the years since Jan. 6, has repeatedly sought to rewrite the history of the riot, claiming it was a 'day of love' despite the fact that more than 140 police officers were injured by the mob. Since his return to the White House, he has also claimed that the Biden administration unfairly prosecuted him and many of his allies — even while setting up a special task force inside the Justice Department designed to pursue retributive investigations against his own adversaries.
Much of the lawsuit submitted by the five Proud Boys — Enrique Tarrio, Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — sought to re-litigate legal questions that had not gone their way during a lengthy pretrial period and a multiweek trial in Federal District Court in Washington that ended in May 2023 with guilty verdicts against all of them.
The men complained, for instance, about the ways in which they were arrested and then denied bail, accused the F.B.I. of using paid informants to spy on their defense team and claimed that federal agents had altered what they claimed was exculpatory evidence. All of this, the suit said, amounted to the government having deprived them of their constitutional rights.
Over the past several months, there have been a handful of other lawsuits filed by Jan. 6 defendants — or discussed by lawyers representing them — to wrest financial damages from the government over claims of mistreatment or abuse of power.
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Groveland set to narrow council candidates in upcoming primary election
Three candidates are vying for the opportunity to represent District 4 on the Groveland City Council and will see their campaigns tested through the results of the upcoming municipal primary election on Aug. 19. Incumbent councilwoman Judith Fike will be running against Groveland residents Jim O'Neil and Michael Jaycox, each with distinct ideas about local issues like housing affordability, traffic, growth and more. Embroiled in controversy in recent weeks surrounding past social media posts, Fike seeks to retain the council seat she was appointed to back in October 2024. O'Neil and Jaycox have spent their time in Groveland serving leadership roles within the Trilogy of Orlando Veterans and other community organizations, looking to shake up the council with their local experience and backgrounds in the Navy and Air Force, respectively. Here's a look at each candidate as we near the primary election next week. Judith Fike The months leading up to the primary election have been tumultuous for Fike, who was suspended from Groveland City Council for alleged racist and anti-gay social media posts, resurfaced by reporting from the Clermont Sun on June 30. Fike was reinstated to the city council a week later after Circuit Judge Dan Mosely issued a temporary injunction against the city, siding with Fike. Running a campaign dedicated to curbing 'overdevelopment that has stripped other cities of their character', Fike said in a written response to the Orlando Sentinel that she's focused on making sure every tax dollar is spent wisely. 'Managing growth responsibly will determine our quality of life for decades, along with revitalizing downtown to create a walkable hub of shops and restaurants, ensuring that the recent pioneers who have invested in small businesses can continue to grow and flourish,' she said. With housing affordability and traffic both heavily influenced by rampant local growth in recent years, Fike said she wants to see the area grow with purpose. 'Traffic is the result of decades of residential growth without enough jobs, roads, or connections throughout the region,' she said. 'In Groveland, we need to improve economic development to ensure our residents can find quality jobs in Groveland and can avoid the congestion plaguing the rest of Central Florida.' Fike said that as a sitting council member, she'll bring leadership, experience and community connection to 'keep Groveland moving forward responsibly.' 'I have the experience, relationships and commitment to lead effectively from day one,' she said. 'When I show up, it's not for a photo op, it's to build real connections and get real work done for Groveland.' Jim O'Neil Jim O'Neil, who retired from the U.S. Navy in 1994, moved into Groveland's active adult community, Trilogy Orlando, in 2018 and currently works with the Lake County School District to provide risk management services as the district's FEMA manager. 'I handle all the FEMA claims and any mitigation that has to do with repair and trying to get reimbursement from FEMA,' he said during a recent candidate forum in Groveland. 'It's to try and get the school whole again — from a financial standpoint — and get money back for the damage that any storm causes.' Bringing an analytical, evaluation-centered presence to city council, O'Neil said his most important issue is making sure the health of the City of Groveland is accurately assessed before making major decisions. 'I think our entire strategic plan has to be revisited and reanalyzed based on the growth that we've experienced over the last three to five years,' he said. 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Ohio must redraw its congressional maps this year: Here's how and why that's happening
Aug. 14—Ohio's elected leaders are mandated this year to redraw boundaries of the state's 15 congressional districts amid a brewing fight for political control of the U.S. House of Representatives as the 2026 midterm election approaches. While states like Texas and California threaten to redraw their congressional maps to favor one political party, Ohio alone is required by its state constitution to produce new maps. INSIDE OHIO POLITICS: Go here for more from our special reporting project explaining the inner-workings of Ohio statehouse politics. Ohio's congressional redistricting process is almost entirely spelled out in its constitution after Ohio voters approved a bipartisan reform measure in 2018. Under those rules, the congressional map created in 2021 after the most recent U.S. Census is only good through 2026 because the maps were approved without requisite support from Democrats. 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The redistricting commission would have until Oct. 31 to create and approve a map. Like the legislature in the first stage, it is required to have a bipartisan vote to adopt its map. A redistricting commission map can be approved by a four affirmative votes, including support from at least two Democrats and two Republicans. Failure to meet that threshold before the Oct. 31 deadline sends the process to its third stage. Stage 3: Back to the legislature The Ohio General Assembly would get a second bite of the apple if the redistricting commission were to fail, this time with the goal of producing a map that could get three-fifths support from both chambers, including support from at least one-third of the members of each chamber's Democratic and Republican caucus, before Nov. 30. In this stage, however, the Ohio Constitution allows for a temporary map to be adopted with just a simple majority vote. A map passed in this stage, like the first stage, can be vetoed by the governor or become the subject of a voter referendum. Isn't gerrymandering prohibited? The Ohio Constitution doesn't really address gerrymandering in the first two steps outlined above, relying instead on the effort to get a 10-year map with bipartisan support. But if lawmakers create a temporary map passed on a partisan basis, the constitution does list certain restrictions: — The legislature's map cannot "unduly" favor or disfavor a political party; — The plan's districts cannot unduly split local governmental units; — The legislature must at least "attempt" to draw compact districts; — The plan goes into effect for two election cycles, which in this case would be for the 2026 and 2028 elections. How we got here In 2021, Ohio's political leaders took on the task of redrawing congressional districts for the first time since Ohio voters overwhelmingly (with nearly three-quarters of voters in support) voted in 2018 to amend the Ohio Constitution to create the current process. It didn't work. Republican officeholders and legislative leaders pushed through maps with little support from Ohio Democratic leaders, going through the three-stage process outlined above and ending up with a temporary map. The League of Women Voters of Ohio and others sued, and the Ohio Supreme Court deemed the map unconstitutionally gerrymandered in favor of Republicans, with Republican Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor siding with the court's three Democrats and casting the deciding vote. But a federal court ruled the maps had to be used in order to carry out the 2022 election. After O'Connor left office and the balance of power on the state's high court changed in 2022, the League dropped their lawsuit and instead backed an effort to amend the Ohio Constitution again to remove politicians from the redistricting process. But Ohio voters rejected the proposed reforms in the 2024 election. So that leaves us with the current map that is only good for the 2022 and 2024 election cycles. This year it falls to Ohio elected officeholders and legislative leaders to again draw a map using the steps outlined above. But now, it's happening amid a national fervor over congressional maps. Partisan politics The two election cycles that used Ohio's expiring maps resulted in the election of 10 Republicans and five Democrats to represent the state in the U.S. House — with only a handful of competitive districts. Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati, told this news outlet that he's hoping for — and believes the law calls for — a new map to give Republicans less of an advantage. "Right now we have maps that are out of whack with where Ohioans are," Isaacsohn said. "We live in a state that leans Republican, so we should have congressional districts that lean Republican. That's probably, for 15 seats, an eight-to-seven (split) with some tossups." But Ohio Republicans are again in the driver's seat. Ohio House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima, previously suggested it may be possible to have a bipartisan bill in September after informal negotiations this month. But GOP leaders could again just push through a map without Democratic support that would stand for the next two congressional elections in 2026 and 2028. And this time the Ohio Supreme Court, which could be asked to weigh whether a temporary map is gerrymandered, has a six-to-one Republican advantage. U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Republican, thinks the state's new maps should give Republicans a 12-to-3 advantage, according to The Ohio Capital Journal. But, despite external pressures, Isaacsohn maintained a guarded optimism that the Republicans won't use the opportunity to stretch their advantage even further. "The Speaker has said publicly that he is not amenable or susceptible to pressure from outside forces, including those in D.C., and I certainly hope that's the case," he said. Looking ahead Jen Miller, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, told this news outlet she doesn't want to predict what would happen in the forthcoming redistricting process. But, Miller said she doesn't expect the national conversation around redistricting to make advocating for fair maps more difficult. Which is to say: "I think redistricting is always hard when politicians are in charge." "The national conversation proves that politicians should not be part of the redistricting (and) that both parties, when given the power, will rig maps for their candidates," she said. "We stand firmly against gerrymandering, no matter who is doing it." While there are plenty of factors that go into making a fair district map, Miller said she places value on "proportional fairness" — whether a map's competitive advantages are in line with the electorate's political preferences. Miller explained the goal as a map where "the percent of votes cast for each party generally mirrors the percent of seats each party would get." "The foundation (of a fair map) should be districts that don't split communities of interest and bring together communities that are very alike. Right now we have these sprawling, weird-shaped districts that smoosh together populations of people that have very different needs from infrastructure and the economy, healthcare and more," Miller said. "So the foundation really is keeping communities together, but a good measure is proportional fairness." ------ For more stories like this, sign up for our Ohio Politics newsletter. It's free, curated, and delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday evening. Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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Ed Tech Co. That Provides Telehealth to L.A. Students Experiences Data Breach
An education technology company that built an app for Los Angeles students to receive telehealth services during the school day has fallen victim to a data breach that puts students' sensitive information in jeopardy, a disclosure to state regulators reveals. The company, Kokomo Solutions, also hosts an anonymous tip line where Los Angeles community members can report suspicious activity, safety threats and mental health crises to the school district's police department. In an Aug. 5 data breach notice filed with the California attorney general's office, the company disclosed that an unspecified number of individuals' personal information was compromised after an 'unauthorized third party' accessed its computer network and the exposed files pertained to the Los Angeles Unified School District. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The company, also known as Kokomo24/7, says it discovered the unauthorized access on Dec. 11, 2024, nearly eight months before it disclosed what happened to victims. The district has not issued any public statements alerting students and families that their sensitive information may have been compromised. Related While many details about the breach remain unknown, including the specific types of information that were compromised and whether the breach was the result of a cyberattack, the incident raises red flags because 'there's no question that [Kokomo is] managing exceptionally sensitive information' about campus safety issues and students' medical information, school cybersecurity expert Doug Levin said. 'This is another example of schools outsourcing the collection and management of exceptionally sensitive data on school communities which, if abused, could affect the health and safety of the school community,' said Levin, the co-founder and national director of the K12 Security Information eXchange. 'We definitely would benefit from knowing more about how they were compromised and how they're going to fix it.' The district didn't respond to requests for comment. Neither did Kokomo24/7, which has apparently scrubbed its website over the last few days of references to its work with the nation's second-largest district. Get the most critical news and information about students' rights, safety and well-being delivered straight to your inbox. Launched in 2023, the Los Angeles Schools Anonymous Reporting app allows students, parents and others in the community to report 'suspicious activity, mental health incidents, drug consumption, drug trafficking, vandalism and safety issues' to the district's 268-member police department. That same year, L.A. schools contracted with Kokomo — along with the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and Hazel Health — to launch new district telehealth services. The $800,000 program, funded by federal pandemic relief money, is designed to provide app-based mental and physical health care to students, including at school. Hazel Health provides virtual mental health services, according to the district's website, while Kokomo24/7's services focus on physical health issues, including minor injuries, allergies and headaches. In a letter to parents last updated in July, the district describes its Kokomo24/7-managed telehealth program as an option for students 'to access healthcare when not feeling well during school hours' with the supervision of a school nurse 'while remaining in school and focusing on learning.' Kokomo founder and CEO Daniel Lee wrote a blog post last year lauding the company's ability to 'transform' L.A. Unified's COVID-tracking and health data system in a year after the school system's previous tool became 'clunky, difficult to customize and expensive to maintain.' The post notes the company's role in creating the anonymous reporting application and the district's Incident System Tracking Accountability Report, an internal tool to document injuries, medical emergencies and campus threats. The Kokomo24/7 breach is the latest in a series of data privacy incidents affecting L.A. schools, including a high-profile ransomware attack in 2022 that led to the exposure of thousands of students' mental health records. Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho at first categorically denied that students' psychological evaluations had been exposed but then had to acknowledge that they were after The 74's investigation revealed the records' existence on the dark web. Meanwhile, the district's rollout last year of a highly touted AI chatbot named 'Ed' was derailed after AllHere, the ed tech company hired to develop the $6 million project, shuttered abruptly and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The company's founder and CEO, Joanna Smith-Griffin, was then indicted on charges she defrauded investors of some $10 million. A company whistleblower told The 74 AllHere's student data security practices violated both industry standards and the district's own policies. Related The L.A. district considered three companies for the chatbot bid — including Kokomo24/7 — before awarding the contract to AllHere. Both the bankruptcy and criminal cases are pending. In July, a school district spokesperson told The 74 that Ed 'remains on hold.' The Kokomo24/7 website lists a wide suite of products, primarily in physical security including building access control systems, emergency alarms and visitor management tools. It also names large companies among its customers, including The Oscars — the company was the 'health and safety software provider' for the 2022 Academy Awards — United Airlines' subsidiary United Express and Fifth Third Bank. But the Illinois-based company has a relatively small footprint in the education sector, according to records in the GovSpend government procurement database. Among the handful of its school district clients is the Hartford, Connecticut, school system where educators spent more than $60,000 between 2020 and 2023 for licenses to the company's Covid-19 Tracker to screen students' temperatures, track infections and conduct contact tracing. Glendale Unified, a neighboring district to Los Angeles, is also listed as a client on the company's website. Kokomo24/7's connections to the L.A. district were widely featured on the company's website until this week. In fact, a timeline about the company's 2018 founding listed four foundational events, including the 2023 launch of the 'anonymous reporting app for students and an emergency alert system for staff' for the L.A. district. The reference to the school district was removed from the company timeline this week, as was a banner attributing a quote to Carvalho, a picture of district police officers and the district police department's logo. Press releases announcing Kokomo's work with the L.A. district appear to have also been scrubbed from the internet. The since-removed Carvalho quote called the district rollout of its anonymous reporting app 'critically important.' Though slightly misstated, the remark comes from a March 2023 school board meeting where Carvalho boasted of people's ability to 'relay in an anonymous way — or not — potential threats' to a student or a school. The Los Angeles Schools Anonymous Reporting app hasn't been universally praised, and last year became the subject of litigation filed by anti-surveillance activists who alleged the tool created 'a culture of mass suspicion' and bolstered police interactions between students of color and those with disabilities. The Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, which filed the lawsuit seeking records about the app, claimed it enabled students, parents and community members 'to surveil each other' on behalf of school police and to file reports that don't require evidence. It also questioned why the community was being encouraged to file reports on people in mental health crises as part of a broader effort to investigate 'suspicious activity.' 'The app criminalizes mental health, perpetuating the idea that if someone has a mental illness they are inherently a threat to others,' the activist group wrote in a September 2023 report. Solve the daily Crossword
