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Jelly Roll recommended for pardon for pre-fame crimes - 'I want to be an inspiration'

Jelly Roll recommended for pardon for pre-fame crimes - 'I want to be an inspiration'

The Tennessee Board of Parole has recommended country singer Jelly Roll for a pardon for his pre-fame criminal convictions.
Nashville Sheriff Daron Hall announced Tuesday: 'A year ago, I wrote [Gov. Bill Lee] asking for a full Pardon for Jason 'Jelly Roll' Deford…..today the Board unanimously recommended his Pardon. It's now in the hands of our Governor.'
The Board of Parole is 'responsible for reviewing all clemency requests (pardons, commutations, and exonerations) and submits non-binding recommendations to the Governor for his consideration,' it said in an announcement of the hearing.
According to the Associated Press, the singer (born Jason DeFord) told the board, 'I want to be an inspiration for people who are now where I used to be — to let them know that change is truly possible. One of the reasons I'm asking for your recommendation … is because I'm looking to take my message of redemption … [across] the rest of the world.'
The singer has been open about his arrests for drug crimes and other offenses, including a conviction for aggravated robbery at 16 where he was charged as an adult. He earned a GED in prison and later became a country superstar, despite the issues his convictions presented for getting a passport and touring internationally.
Jelly Roll previously testified in front of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs to advocate for the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act.
'I was a part of the problem. I am here now, standing as a man that wants to be a part of the solution,' he told the Senate.
'Why do we not have more programs focused on rehabilitation instead of discipline?' the singer told The Times in 2023. 'It just shows how bad we've done on educating Americans on the disease of addiction and on what Big Pharma is doing to us in allowing these labs to create fentanyl.
'We've gotten so far away from compassion,' he adds. 'That's scary.'
Jelly Roll is set to headline the Stagecoach country music festival in Indio this weekend.

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The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles
The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles

Atlantic

time23 minutes ago

  • Atlantic

The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles

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When Representative Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat, asked the defense secretary what the cost of the California deployment would be, he declined to provide a figure and instead pivoted to criticism of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the state's response to the violence that followed Floyd's killing in 2020. (Military officials said later they expected the Los Angeles deployment, as envisioned, to cost roughly $134 million.) 'If you've got millions of illegals, you don't know where they're coming from, they're waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers, that's a problem,' Hegseth told lawmakers. Trump, for his part, told reporters that anyone who tries to protest at the Saturday parade celebrating the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army will 'be met with very big force.' He also said that he wouldn't hesitate to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would permit him to employ the military for law enforcement or to suppress a rebellion, if he believed that circumstances required. Speaking to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina later in the day, the president promised to stop the 'anarchy' in California. ' We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again,' he said. 'We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.' Some Republicans have privately expressed worry that Trump may overplay a winning hand. Even in the West Wing, two people we spoke with tried to downplay the incendiary rhetoric from Trump and Hegseth. They stressed that, to this point, National Guard forces have been in a defensive posture, protecting federal buildings. Although they believe that Trump has the political advantage at the moment, they acknowledged there would be real risks if U.S. troops got involved in violence. 'We don't know who would get blamed but no one wins if that happens,' one senior aide told us. 'No one wants to see that.' Hegseth's support for using active-duty troops in Los Angeles stands in contrast to what his predecessor did in 2020. At that time, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, scrambled to block Trump's desire to employ active-duty forces against the demonstrators protesting racial violence. The president had mused about shooting protesters in the legs, Esper wrote later. To satisfy his boss while also avoiding a dangerous confrontation, the defense chief called active-duty forces from Fort Bragg to Northern Virginia but sought to keep them out of the fray. Tom Nichols: Trump is using the National Guard as bait In his 2024 book The War on Warrior s, Hegseth described how his experience as a D.C. Guardsman in 2020 crystallized his views about the divide between military personnel and what he saw as the degenerate protesters who were lobbing bricks and bottles of urine at the citizen soldiers. When the D.C. Guard was again summoned seven months later, to help secure the 2021 inauguration following the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Hegseth was told to stand down because fellow Guardsmen suspected that one of his tattoos was a sign of extremism. (Hegseth has maintained it is part of his Christian faith.) Hegseth was angered by his exclusion and resigned from the Guard. That experience remains with him as he attempts to reshape the military, and its role in society, in line with Trump's worldview. As he has written: 'My trust for this Army is irrevocably broken.'

Trump says nationwide immigration raids on the way, rioters to face 'greater force' than LA
Trump says nationwide immigration raids on the way, rioters to face 'greater force' than LA

Yahoo

time2 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Trump says nationwide immigration raids on the way, rioters to face 'greater force' than LA

President Donald Trump said Americans can expect additional immigration raids across the country similar to the ones in California, while warning that any potential riots that break out in response to the raids will be met with "equal or greater force" compared to the government's handling of recent Los Angeles violence. "Mr. President, these protests obviously started in reaction to these large-scale ICE operations in Los Angeles. Should people expect to see similar operations in the rest of the country and with similar protests, similar responses?" a reporter asked the president from the Oval Office early Tuesday afternoon. "Yeah, as you know, we're moving murderers out of our country that were put here by Biden or the autopen," Trump responded, referring to the Biden administration's use of an autopen to sign official documents that Trump has argued indicated Biden staffers were in charge of high-profile decisions and not former President Joe Biden. "The people are criminals that allowed these criminals into our country," Trump continued. "And I don't think that Biden knew what the hell he was doing. I don't think he even knew about it. But when they opened up our borders for the whole world to come in, yeah, we're going to get them out. We're getting them out." 'Delusional' Hillary Clinton Savagely Mocked For La Riots Response: 'Only Leftists Disable Comments' The president was addressing efforts by federal agencies to address wildfire management and prevention as the nation heads into the summer months, and he took a bevvy of questions from reporters regarding the riots that have spiraled in Los Angeles since Friday. Read On The Fox News App Watch: Dem, Media Outlets Insist La Anti-ice Riots Are 'Peaceful' Despite Violence, Injured Cops Riots broke out in the left-wing city Friday evening after federal law enforcement officials converged on Los Angeles to carry out immigration raids as part of Trump's vow to deport illegal aliens who flooded the nation under the Biden administration. Local leaders such as Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom, however, quickly denounced the raids in public statements while offering words of support for illegal aliens in the state. Protests over the raids soon devolved into violence as rioters targeted federal law enforcement officials, including throwing rocks, with videos showing people looting stores, setting cars on fire and taking over a freeway. Musk Does Immediate 180 On Trump As Soon As La Riots Rage Trump announced Saturday that he was deploying 2,000 National Guard members to help quell the violence, bypassing the governor, who typically activates the National Guard. The move sparked Newsom to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration for efforts to allegedly "federalize the California National Guard," while Democrats across the nation have attempted to pin blame for the violence on Trump's activation of the National Guard while characterizing the anti-ICE riots as "peaceful" demonstrations. Trump continued Tuesday that if riots break out in other areas of the country in response to immigration raids, violent protesters will be met with "equal or greater force" than those participating in the L.A. riots. "If we didn't attack this one very strongly, you'd have them all over the country," he said. "But I can inform the rest of the country that when they do it, if they do it, they're going to be met with equal or greater force than we met right here." Illegal immigrants in the U.S. "come from jails, and they come from mental institutions, and they come from all over the world, not just South America," Trump added. "And we're not going to let them stay." As the riots continued on Monday, the Trump administration deployed hundreds of Marines to respond to the chaos. Newsom's Political Future 'Practically Nonexistent' As La Devolves Into Riots, Social Media Critics Predict "Approximately 700 Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division will seamlessly integrate with the Title 10 forces under Task Force 51 who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area," U.S. Northern Command said in a Monday statement. Trump defended in a Truth Social post early Tuesday morning that if he "didn't 'SEND IN THE TROOPS' to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now." "Much like 25,000 houses burned to the ground in L.A. do to an incompetent Governor and Mayor — Incidentally, the much more difficult, time consuming, and stringent FEDERAL PERMITTING PROCESS is virtually complete on these houses, while the easy and simple City and State Permits are disastrously bungled up and WAY BEHIND SCHEDULE! They are a total mess, and will be for a long time. People want to rebuild their houses. Call your incompetent Governor and Mayor, the Federal permitting is DONE!!!" Trump continued, referring to the thousands of homes that burned in southern California wildfires that gripped the Los Angeles area in January. The Trump administration's immigration raids and deportation efforts are part of the president's campaign pledge to remove the millions of illegal immigrants that flooded the nation under the Biden article source: Trump says nationwide immigration raids on the way, rioters to face 'greater force' than LA

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