Latest news with #Dem-appointed
New York Post
5 days ago
- New York Post
Man's family allegedly abducted by career criminal who was freed from prison early on ‘shock probation' by Dem-appointed judge
A career criminal who allegedly kidnapped a mom and her two young children and forced them at knifepoint to help him rob a Kentucky bank was released from prison just a year earlier after a Dem-appointed judge granted him so-called 'shock probation.' Armond Langford, 32, allegedly broke into the family's east Louisville home on Friday and forced the woman to drive him to a bank, where he demanded $20,000 from a bank teller working the drive-thru, according to local reports. 3 Armond Langford is accused of stabbing Strong's wife and holding his kids at knifepoint during a bank robbery. Louisville Metro Corrections Langford, who held a knife to the woman's throat during the terrifying ordeal, then stabbed the mom in the abdomen and ran off, leading police on a hours-long manhunt before he was arrested, WHAS11 reported. Father Brandon Strong spoke of his disbelief and anger after learning that Langford had been sentenced to 14 years in prison just last year after he was convicted of nearly a dozen robbery charges. He was then sprung by Judge Jessica Green — who was appointed as a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge by Kentucky's Democrat governor, Andy Beshear — just five months later in July 2024. 'It's unbelievable that this was allowed to happen,' Strong told Fox & Friends. 'This was not a guy running red lights.' 3 A Dem judge sentenced Lanford to 'shock probation' in order to avoid a 14-year prison term. WLKY Judge Green cut the career criminal loose on 'shock probation,' which gives offenders a second chance after they spend a short time behind bars. The idea is that the time spent in prison will shock them and deter them from committing crimes in the future. 'The whole entire judicial system that made this decision needs to go away,' Strong said. 'How would that [shock probation] be an option for someone that's a violent criminal?' 3 The suspect faces robbery, kidnapping and assault charges. Louisville Metro Police Department Langford was arrested on Friday afternoon, hours after the alleged robbery and knife attack in Lyndon, east of Louisville. He faces multiple charges including robbery, kidnapping and assault, WLKY reports.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New US Justice Dept policy cracks down on social media posts
By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump's administration has ordered U.S. Justice Department employees not to post anything on social media related to their government work, after a wave of new political appointees took to cheerleading Trump and castigating his opponents online. The directive, which was emailed to U.S. Attorneys' offices late on Monday, appears to prohibit the types of social media posts that Trump's political appointees routinely make on their official government accounts. The change was made by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has become frustrated by some of the rhetoric being posted by political appointees, according to one person familiar with the matter. A Justice Department spokesman did not have an immediate comment on the new policy or the reasons behind it. While the department has always placed restrictions on social media use by employees, such as prohibiting them from discussing non-public investigations or making politically-charged statements that could damage the department's impartiality, the new policy is much broader. It restricts employees from including their department titles on any social media activity or even reposting official government information such as press releases. Employees must not use any social media "in a way that damages the efficiency of the department," the policy says. Stacey Young, a former department civil rights attorney who recently left to create a DOJ employee advocacy organization called Justice Connection, said the policy could chill employees' speech. "The new policy represents another unwarranted attack on DOJ employees - one that stifles their free speech in their private lives and creates new ways for the administration to oust career public servants who don't toe the party line," said Young. Many of the department's top Trump-appointed leaders in recent weeks have posted messages that would have run afoul of the policy, which tells them to avoid "injecting their political views into the work they perform" and refrain from making comments "in reckless disregard for the truth" about any person the department engages with, including judges. It also says they cannot post anything that might prejudice a proceeding or "heighten condemnation of an accused." Leo Terrell, a senior counsel in the Civil Rights Division who is leading its antisemitism task force, for instance, makes near-daily posts on X about his support for Trump. "Democrats are jealous of President Trump!" he wrote on X on April 12. Last month, Terrell shared a post on his X account from Patrick Casey, a white nationalist who ran the now-defunct Identity Evropa, that said that Trump could "revoke someone's Jew card." Aaron Reitz, the department's head of the Office of Legal Policy, in an April 8 post on social media accused "Dem-appointed judges" of siding with cartels to usurp Trump's "authority to conduct foreign policy." Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a March 27 post on X, claimed that law enforcement had arrested a "top MS-13 national leader," referring to the street gang MS-13. The criminal complaint against the suspect, 24-year-old Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, made no such claim, stating instead that investigators had found only "indicia of MS-13 association." The department has since moved to drop the charges and have him deported.
Reuters
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
New US Justice Dept policy cracks down on social media posts
WASHINGTON, April 15 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's administration has ordered, opens new tab U.S. Justice Department employees not to post anything on social media related to their government work, after a wave of new political appointees took to cheerleading Trump and castigating his opponents online. The directive, which was emailed to U.S. Attorneys' offices late on Monday, appears to prohibit the types of social media posts that Trump's political appointees routinely make on their official government accounts. The change was made by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who has become frustrated by some of the rhetoric being posted by political appointees, according to one person familiar with the matter. A Justice Department spokesman did not have an immediate comment on the new policy or the reasons behind it. While the department has always placed restrictions on social media use by employees, such as prohibiting them from discussing non-public investigations or making politically-charged statements that could damage the department's impartiality, the new policy is much broader. It restricts employees from including their department titles on any social media activity or even reposting official government information such as press releases. Employees must not use any social media "in a way that damages the efficiency of the department," the policy says. Stacey Young, a former department civil rights attorney who recently left to create a DOJ employee advocacy organization called Justice Connection, said the policy could chill employees' speech. "The new policy represents another unwarranted attack on DOJ employees - one that stifles their free speech in their private lives and creates new ways for the administration to oust career public servants who don't toe the party line," said Young. Many of the department's top Trump-appointed leaders in recent weeks have posted messages that would have run afoul of the policy, which tells them to avoid "injecting their political views into the work they perform" and refrain from making comments "in reckless disregard for the truth" about any person the department engages with, including judges. It also says they cannot post anything that might prejudice a proceeding or "heighten condemnation of an accused." Leo Terrell, a senior counsel in the Civil Rights Division who is leading its antisemitism task force, for instance, makes near-daily posts on X about his support for Trump. "Democrats are jealous of President Trump!" he wrote on X on April 12. Last month, Terrell shared a post on his X account from Patrick Casey, a white nationalist who ran the now-defunct Identity Evropa, that said that Trump could "revoke someone's Jew card." Aaron Reitz, the department's head of the Office of Legal Policy, in an April 8 post on social media accused "Dem-appointed judges" of siding with cartels to usurp Trump's "authority to conduct foreign policy." Attorney General Pam Bondi, in a March 27 post on X, claimed that law enforcement had arrested a "top MS-13 national leader," referring to the street gang MS-13. The criminal complaint against the suspect, 24-year-old Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, made no such claim, stating instead that investigators had found only "indicia of MS-13 association." The department has since moved to drop the charges and have him deported.
