Republican On Health Committee Sells UNH Weeks Before Stock Tanks On Lower Payout Rates
Shares of major health insurers – including UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health dropped like a rock on Monday following a Wall Street Journal report that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plan to increase payments to insurance companies by just 0.09% on average next year – falling far short of analyst expectations of a 4% increase. For reference, insurers received a 5.06% increase for this year.
And while retail investors and other plebes are getting their mustaches punched off, Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), who sits on the House Subcommittee on Health (which works hand-in-glove with CMS on Medicare payment policy), had the amazing fortune to have sold his entire position in UnitedHealth on Dec. 23, valued between $250,000 and $500,000.
The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health is the House’s primary lawmaking body for federal health-care financing policy. In practice, it decides how the federal government pays for health care, who is eligible, and under what rules. One of its primary roles is oversight and legislation related to Medicare – governing payment policies for Medicare Parts A, B, C (Medicare Advantage), and D, including reimbursement rates for hospitals, physicians, insurers, and prescription drug plans.
To be clear, CMS proposes the annual rate proposals, while the House Ways and Means Committee and its Subcommittee on Health sets policy surrounding this. What typically happens is;
Senior CMS and HHS officials brief key committee staff (especially Ways and Means and Senate Finance) shortly before release.
These are staff-level or leadership-level heads-ups, not public meetings.
The purpose is political and institutional management, not authorization.
CMS would have likely briefed political leadership just before holiday recess so members aren’t blindsided in January – particularly members of Ways & Means.
UNITEDHEALTH SINKS MORE THAN 9% ON MEDICARE RATES REPORT
WHITE HOUSE PLANS FLAT RATES FOR MEDICARE INSURERS IN 2027: WSJ
There is a notable torts verdict in Maryland where a jury handed down a multi-million dollar verdict against Walmart for selling a shotgun to an employee who used it to commit suicide.
The verdict raises difficult questions over Walmart’s responsibility for the suicide of Jacob Mace, who lied to store employees, under common law torts.
The family of Mace brought the lawsuit, alleging that Walmart employees knew that he was suicidal and struggling with mental health issues. They focused on his communications with a co-worker Christina O’Shea in which he wrote about feeling “broken” and “nothing helps. I just want it to end. Goodbye.” He also wrote that he intended to “Slit wrists. Buy a gun.”
O’Shea told assistant manager, Brennan Jones, about her concerns. Jones said that police should be called and, when Mace returned to work, spoke to Mace about the company’s counseling services and asked him how he was doing. He told him that “You know, we were worried about you,” but Mace assured him that he was fine.
Neither Jones nor O’Shea was involved in selling the gun to Mace. The sale was made by Eric McLaughlin, who testified that he had no idea of Mace’s mental health struggles. Mace told McLaughlin that the gun would be a present for his wife.
The family argued that Jones should have alerted other store managers about the conversation between O’Shea and himself. Moreover, the awareness of employees like Jones was then attributed to the company as a whole.
I find the verdict concerning on a number of levels.
First, employers have to straddle a difficult line between protecting employees’ privacy and addressing threats to employees or the public. In this case, Mace insisted that he was doing fine and Jones had taken steps to confirm his status.
Second, Mace lied to the Walmart employee. There was no reason why McLaughlin would refuse the sale.
The case reminds me of Tarasoff v. Regents of University of California, which I teach in my torts class. In the 1974 case, Prosinjit Podder, an Indian Graduate student at Berkeley, fell in love with Tatiana Tarasoff. When she stated that she wanted to date other men, Podder went to counseling at the University Health Service and was treated by psychologist, Dr. Lawrence Moore. When he told Moore that he wanted to get a gun and kill Tarasoff, Moore sent a letter to campus police, who interviewed Podder and decided that he was not a risk. Podder then went ahead and murdered Tarasoff.
Justice Mathew O. Tobriner held that “… the confidential character of patient-psychotherapist communications must yield to the extent that disclosure is essential to avert danger to others. The protective privilege ends where the public peril begins.”
As a result, the hospital was held liable for the criminal actions of a third party — something that usually (but not always) cuts off proximate causation. It also rejects strong arguments made by doctors that such liability would create a chilling effect on counseling. A large number of patients often express their anger by focusing it on individuals and stating an intent to “kill that guy.” In the vast majority of such cases, the open disclosure allows the matter to be addressed and defused. However, if the patient knows that the doctor will have to tell authorities, such feelings are less likely to be expressed and addressed.
In this case, you have a retailer with an employee who expressed suicidal ideations. Jones did the right thing in seeking police involvement and then personally speaking with Mace. According to this verdict, the store should have barred the purchase. But for how long? What steps are necessary to satisfy this duty?
As with Tarasoff, there is no clear line on what employers should do and when they should do it.
The Second Amendment protects the right to gun ownership, though that right is not absolute. Additionally, this employee has privacy rights. Indeed, a memo to all employees could have been the subject of a different tort action for the disclosure of embarrassing private information, negligent infliction of emotional distress, or other claims.
From the perspective of Jones, he had one employee who expressed concerns over another employee’s mental health. He spoke to the second employee, who assured him that he was doing fine. Under these circumstances, Mace could have purchased the gun from any other store.
This is a tragic case, and it may be difficult to overturn on appeal. I understand the family’s anger that more was not done to save Mace from himself. I am unsure of how far the store could have gone. Jones would have needed to tell all employees not to sell Mace, any sharp objects, guns, or products capable of inducing overdoses or harm. That could trigger a lawsuit. If he fired or suspended Mace, he might be sued under disability laws.
If he did fire or suspend Mace, it is not clear that a gun sale could be withheld without something more than the word of a friend when the individual is denying such ideations. The right move is to seek police intervention, which Jones suggested.
The complaint does allege that Walmart had a “blacklist” for individuals who were suspected of any mental problems. If so, that does raise a legitimate question about why Mace was not added to the list, at least as a precautionary matter. However, these are difficult and fluid circumstances for a manager to address, particularly in a relatively short time period.
The jury awarded approximately $2.5 million in economic damages and $8 million in non-economic damages. Those damages may be reduced due to state caps on non-economic damages.
“…we, actually, seemed to be on a similar wavelength,” Trump said.
“I told Governor Walz that I would have Tom Homan call him, and that what we are looking for are any and all Criminals that they have in their possession.
The Governor, very respectfully, understood that, and I will be speaking to him in the near future.
He was happy that Tom Homan was going to Minnesota, and so am I! “
…The Atlantic reports that Gregory Bovino has been removed from his role as Border Patrol “commander at large” and will return to his former job in El Centro, California, where he is expected to retire soon, according to a DHS official and two people with knowledge of the change.
He spent yesterday responding to people who were criticizing him and raising questions about his unverified claims about Pretti.
This reported decision follows pressure from Senate Democrats who refused to allow the current DHS funding bill to move forward, this threatening another federal government shutdown.
Additionally, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said after speaking with President Donald Trump that he expects that some federal agents will start leaving the city on Jan. 27.
“I expressed how much Minneapolis has benefited from our immigrant communities and was clear that my main ask is that Operation Metro Surge needs to end,” Frey wrote on X.
“The president agreed the present situation can’t continue.”
Trump said that the conversation with Frey was “very good” and that progress was made.
“Tom Homan will be meeting with [Frey] tomorrow in order to continue the discussion,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
The mayor said he would continue pushing for all federal agents to leave the city.
“Minneapolis will continue to cooperate with state and federal law enforcement on real criminal investigations—but we will not participate in unconstitutional arrests of our neighbors or enforce federal immigration law,” Frey stated on X.
Walz and Frey have repeatedly encouraged the public to protest and demonstrate against immigration operations taking place in the state, at some points using profanity to tell federal officers to leave.
Trump presented a three-point plan to Walz during the call, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The plan calls for Walz, Frey, and other Minnesota leaders to turn over all criminal illegal immigrants who are currently in custody in state prisons and jails to federal authorities.
Those with active warrants or known criminal histories would be immediately deported, Leavitt said during a press briefing on Jan. 26.
The plan also calls for state and local law enforcement to agree to turn over all illegal immigrants who are arrested by local police and for local police to help federal law enforcement in arresting and detaining illegal immigrants who are wanted for crimes, especially violent crimes, she said.
‘Enough Of Washington’s Orders’ – Venezuela’s Interim President Tells Populace
Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez has publicly pushed back against Washington in a rare first since the US military invasion and overthrow of Nicolás Maduro, assering she has had “enough” of US directives.
While President Trump initially declared that Washington would effectively “run” Venezuela, he later endorsed Rodríguez as a temporary caretaker during the transition, despite her being as hardcore a Leftist pro-Maduro figure as anyone.
“Enough already of Washington’s orders regarding politicians in Venezuela,” Rodríguez told oil workers gathered in Puerto La Cruz on Sunday, in remarks broadcast on state television.
She further urged that Venezuela’s political disputes be handled internally, saying: “Let Venezuelan politics resolve our differences and our internal conflicts” – and warned that the small oil-rich country has already paid a steep price confronting what she described as fascism and extremism.
Rodríguez soon after being sworn in had vowed that no “foreign agent” would rule Venezuela or reduce it to a “colony” – despite that Trump has made clear that his appointed team of American officials would effectively run the country and its oil.
Among the first US actions has been to cut off Venezuela’s oil supply to nearby ally Cuba, which threatens to sink the island-nation’s economy further, after it has endured many decades of Washington sanctions.
Despite this big talk of distancing herself from American interests, Rodríguez warmly greeted CIA Director John Ratcliffe this month, and there was even a photo op. Ratcliffe, as the first top US official to meet with her in the wake of the Jan.3rd military operation, reportedly delivering Trump’s conditions for resetting relations.
The fact that she has even remained in power this long suggests that she is playing ball behind the scenes, and that any anti-American public declarations are primarily for domestic consumption.
Domestic messaging: …has to pretend otherwise not to upset her support base:
Delcy continues to pretend like she is a tough anti-imperialist leader who defies Washinton while behind the scenes Trump can make her do whatever he want and she is only running Venezuela 🇻🇪 at his mercy
She knows this, but has to pretend otherwise not to upset her support base https://t.co/qvaPqqHLla
Three weeks after U.S. forces whisked President Nicolás Maduro away from Caracas, the capital, his vice president and replacement, Delcy Rodríguez, is rapidly liberalizing the economy without ceding any political control in an autocratic nation.
With President Trump’s blessing, Ms. Rodríguez has moved to redirect Venezuela’s oil exports from China to the much more lucrative market in the United States. Earlier this month she funneled the first tranche from these oil sales, $300 million, to Venezuela’s banking system, halting the collapse of the national currency and putting hyperinflation fears to rest.
She is rapidly rewriting laws to bring in foreign investment and boost wages, leading many economists to forecast double-digit economic growth in Venezuela this year. She is promising economic transparency and accountability, an implicit recognition of years of looting of state funds by the government that she has served for decades.
Anticipation of an economic windfall has sparked a rally on Caracas’s thinly traded stock exchange and driven a sharp jump in real estate prices, NYT also describes. The country’s long-defaulted bonds have climbed, fueled by speculation that the former Maduro number two could move to restructure the country’s debt, also in anticipation of Washington potentially rolling back sanctions.
Late last week, a federal appeals court denied the Justice Department’s (DOJ’s) request to arrest more individuals involved in an anti-ICE protest that occurred inside a church in Minnesota earlier this month.
Protesters disrupted a Sunday service at Cities Church in St. Paul on Jan. 18, chanting phrases such as “Justice for Renee Good,” following claims that one of the church pastors serves as the acting field office director for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minnesota. Several people were arrested on Jan. 22 for allegedly organizing the protest.
The Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 23 rejected the DOJ’s emergency petition for a writ of mandamus after Minnesota Chief District Judge Patrick Schiltz refused to issue five more arrest warrants related to the protest.
In a Jan. 23 letter to the appeals court, Schiltz said the DOJ had requested arrest warrants for eight people on Jan. 20, but Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko issued warrants for only three, finding no probable cause to arrest the remaining five.
The five individuals allegedly entered the church and yelled “horrible things at the members of the church” but committed no violence, according to the judge’s letter.
“It is important to emphasize that what the U.S. Attorney requested is unheard of in our district or, as best as I can tell, any other district in the Eighth Circuit,” Schiltz said, referring to the DOJ’s request to review Micko’s denial of arrest warrants.
“The reason why this never happens is likely that, if the government does not like the magistrate judge’s decision, it can either improve the affidavit and present it again to the same magistrate judge or it can present its case to a grand jury and seek an indictment,” the judge added.
The DOJ said that arresting the five individuals was necessary to deter potential “copycats” from disrupting churches, synagogues, and religious services. Schiltz disagreed.
“The leaders of the group have been arrested, and their arrests have received widespread publicity. There is absolutely no emergency,” Schiltz said, suggesting that the DOJ could instead take its case to a grand jury.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the DOJ for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Among the five individuals for whom the DOJ sought arrest warrants is former CNN journalist turned YouTuber Don Lemon, who livestreamed the protest on social media.
Lemon’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement on Jan. 23 that the magistrate’s actions “confirm the nature of Don’s First Amendment protected work this weekend in Minnesota as a reporter.”
“Should the Department of Justice continue with a stunning and troubling effort to silence and punish a journalist for doing his job, Don will call out their latest attack on the rule of law and fight any charges vigorously and thoroughly in court,” Lowell said.
Harmeet Dhillon, the DOJ’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, posted on X on Jan. 18 that a house of worship is not a public forum for protest.
“It is a space protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws,” Dhillon said.
Tehran Cheers US Unrest, Calls Minneapolis Protests ‘Instant Karma’
Iran’s state media has blasted the Trump administration as hypocritical, drawing a direct comparison between the recent protests inside the Islamic Republic and the ongoing unrest ignited by the controversial ICE shootings in Minneapolis.
Iran has seized on the latest fatal shooting of Alex Prettio, arguing that President Trump has no moral standing to condemn how Iranian authorities have handled its own nationwide demonstrations, which were triggered by economic strain and a collapsing currency after years of US-imposed sanctions.
State-backed Press TV pointed to Trump’s earlier public call for Iranians to rise up and take to the streets while pointing to the current Minneapolis demonstrations as “instant karma”.
Newsweek observed several fresh broadcasts from Iranian outlets drawing on the comparison:
While these protests were largely peaceful, Iranian state news channel Press TV dedicated a segment in which it presented them as the latest iteration of the anger at the actions of ICE.
The presenter on Press TV, Roya Pour Bagher, referred to social media posts by Americans expressing outrage at the killing, and described “growing fears of an imminent civil conflict—yes a civil war in the United States.”
In a separate clip, Bagher said that footage of Pretti’s killing clearly showed he did not pose a threat to anyone, adding that more protests could help stop the killings.
This has been the theme across pro-Tehran social media as well:
Iran’s state TV channel Press TV: “Calls on social media demanding Trump’s removal before the US is pushed into the unknown are growing louder, as crimes by ICE against civilians continue to rise.”
Iranian outlet Press TV: “Instant karma? Trump: Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING—TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!”
There’s actually some truth here in the way US officials and media portray things whenever there’s a protest inside Iran, or any nation deemed a ‘rogue’ state for that matter: all demonstrations no matter how small or varied in terms of the protesters’ actual motives tend to get treated as somehow “pro-Western democracy” in nature, or else as if the “regime” is always on the brink of collapse.
And then there are always the familiar calls by American politicians and pundits of the ‘Ayatollah must go’ or this or that dictator must go. Western mainstream media is also notorious for grossly oversimplifying complex dynamics behind foreign events and protest movements.
Tehran officials and state media have also of late been saying the Iranian protests that kicked off on December 27, but which last week finally ended, were quickly “hijacked” by foreign powers and interests. For example the below fresh PressTV commentary says:
In an interview with the Press TV website, Nury Vittachi, a Hong Kong-based journalist, author, and political commentator, said the deadly unrest and acts of terrorism in Iran in recent weeks bore the unmistakable signs of a coordinated campaign orchestrated by the United States and Israel.
“There is no doubt that there was heavy involvement from foreign forces during the riots. I have seen this same procedure in many locations,” he stated.
A protest light display was projected onto an ICE detention center in Los Angeles, California, depicting an ICE officer shooting at humanity, democracy, rights, and freedoms.
Thousands were killed, among them at least dozens or possibly even hundreds of police, security personnel, and pro-government people. But the majority of casualties were clearly on the anti-government side, as even Iran state sources have lately appeared to admit.
The West accuses Iran of often firing on unarmed protesters, while the Islamic Republic has retorted that there was an armed insurrection in tandem with those who went to the streets peacefully – creating a more murky, complex series of bloody clashes with the police and military.
A year ago, President Donald Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 people for “offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
That decision to issue the blanket pardon, in one of his first official acts as the 47th president, ignited controversy. It covered not only people who strolled through open doors of the U.S. Capitol, unaware they were trespassing, but also rioters who damaged property and assaulted police.
After the initial public backlash subsided, the pardoned—many of them newly freed from prison—began rebuilding their lives.
The Epoch Times interviewed five of those former Jan. 6 prisoners. Their consensus: Jan. 6 is one of the most-mischaracterized events in U.S. history, largely because records—and personal stories like theirs—have been ignored by most media outlets. They say the pardon was not a panacea. Some are still ostracized from friends and family. Others are still recovering from the financial setbacks.
All five believe they’ve been unjustly prosecuted and none say they regret their actions. Rather, the pardoned said they were proud to have stood up for the integrity of U.S. elections, Trump, and American values on that fateful day—despite the great cost.
As Dan Leyden, 58, struggles to regroup after his wife died of cancer late last year, he remains in disbelief over the life-changing events that preceded that horrible loss.
Circumstances lined up and thrust him—a low-profile union electrician from Chicago—into the forefront of the Jan. 6 conflict in 2021.
At the last minute, he had decided to join his brother in Washington to watch “our favorite president” speak, possibly delivering his final big public speech as the 45th president.
But the brothers got separated from each other.
“Then I don’t see that speech, because the man next to me says, ‘Dan, would you walk with me to the Capitol?’ So I walked to the Capitol,” Leyden said, “And, from there, my life has turned upside-down.”
While he doesn’t want pity, Leyden—who injects many of his remarks with wry humor—used the word, “heartbroken,” to describe losses he has suffered.
First, his prosecution cost him the Chicago Park District job he had worked without a single complaint for 24 years.
Also, while beginning to serve a prison sentence that would have spanned three years, Leyden missed the birth of his first grandchild—“a gorgeous baby girl” who he now enjoys visiting.
Days after an overjoyed Leyden was pardoned and freed, he plunged into sorrow over the shooting death of Matt Huttle, 42, a Jan. 6 prisoner who became his friend while they served time in prison together. Stopped for speeding in rural Indiana, Huttle threatened to kill himself rather than face life behind bars again. As Huttle resisted arrest, an officer fatally shot him.
Worst of all, Leyden lost his wife of 27 years to cancer on Dec. 29 last year. That illness, which stress has been known to trigger, hit Linda Leyden shortly after her husband was freed. His incarceration had kept them apart for 15 months.
Leyden said his wife was known for her compassion. It was her idea to adopt two daughters from a Russian orphanage; they are now grown.
A lively woman, his wife ran marathons in major cities across the United States and as far away as South Africa before she died at 62.
Despite mourning her death, Leyden jokes about their contrasting lifestyles: “I don’t run unless somebody’s chasing me—and the FBI hasn’t been chasing me lately.”
With sarcasm, he disputes a label he and other defendants were given. “I was a very poorly trained ‘domestic terrorist,’” Leyden says, noting he showed up for the wintertime protest wearing a lightweight green flannel shirt over a T-shirt, and “cheap mittens from Walmart.”
Trump was scheduled to speak at The Ellipse, a park about two miles from Capitol Hill, following a series of other presenters.
But the speeches were hard to hear above the din of the crowd, broadcast over poor-quality loudspeakers.
And Leyden was shivering. It was windy; temperatures hovered in the 30s.
Unable to find his brother, Leyden headed toward the U.S. Capitol, hoping the walk would help him feel warmer.
After arriving at the U.S. Capitol, Leyden noted insufficient security; he ended up near a bike rack that functioned as a barricade. Photos show that Leyden was “pushing the barricade,” prosecutors said in a court record.
That’s a misrepresentation, Leyden said: “Did I lean on a bicycle rack? Yeah, I’m guilty.”
About 17 months later, the FBI descended upon his Illinois home. His wife was home alone with the family pets; she was terrified.
Leyden soon surrendered. He faced 29 years in prison, even though he never went inside the U.S. Capitol; neither did his brother, Joe, who was sentenced to six months.
Leyden’s wife urged him to take a plea, saying, “Can we get this nightmare over with?” His legal battle had cost $30,000, wiping out his savings, though he is not in debt.
Now after a year of freedom, he is awash in grief. He doesn’t know what direction his life will take. “I just wanna go walk my dog at the park; my best friend of 29 years is gone,” he said.
Spiritually, he has never given up. Leyden said he was “just knocked to the curb [and] got back up.” He is beginning to feel less ostracized and hopes to go back to union electrical work.
Many people’s lives have been devastated, too, he said, “all because of one day” that remains shrouded in questions.
“The American people deserve the truth,” he said. And that, he said, is worth fighting for.
Like many former Jan. 6 defendants, Alexander Sheppard hoped that being pardoned would go a long way toward clearing his name.
It didn’t.
Many people still treat the ex-defendants “like we are totally inhuman,” Sheppard, an Ohioan, said.
Another once-maligned group has consistently shown respect. “I’ve had Vietnam veterans tell me: ‘Thank you for your service.’ It’s mind-blowing,” Sheppard said.
Also, people of faith have demonstrated compassion. “A lot of Christians have been praying for the Jan. 6 people,” Sheppard said. “I appreciate that more than anything.”
With those notable exceptions, Sheppard still feels ostracized. He blames “the mainstream media” for falsely labeling nonviolent people like him “insurrectionists.”
On Jan. 6, 2021, Sheppard was 21 and had just started his own company. His prosecution forced him to return to restaurant work; he shares living expenses with his brother. He recently quit the restaurant job in search of a better opportunity.
Sheppard made a last-minute decision to attend the Jan. 6 rally, mostly because he opposed COVID-19 restrictions and believed that the 2020 election was stolen.
He was among many who entered the U.S. Capitol through open doors—unaware that they were trespassing.
Fatefully, Sheppard happened to be nearby when a police officer fatally shot Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt—unwittingly making him far more noticeable.
Sheppard would like to put Jan. 6 behind him. But “another part of me is saying, ‘We can’t move on because the people who did this to me are the criminals,’” who should be held to account.
Sheppard believes the FBI and Justice Department should apologize and pay restitution, calling for federal trials to be televised to prevent unjust tactics from being used without scrutiny.
People would be stunned to learn what really happened during trials like his, he said. Not a single Republican sat on his jury in Democrat-dominated Washington, D.C.
Prosecutors presented five witnesses against him, and “every single one of them said they didn’t know me,” except for the FBI agent who tracked him down after Jan. 6, he said.
“There’s no victim to my ‘crime’ and there’s no witnesses—and somehow, I get convicted.”
Investigators never asked him about the fatal shooting of Babbitt—which Sheppard witnessed from about 10 feet away. U.S. Capitol Police Lt. Michael Byrd fired the fatal shot and faced no criminal charges.
Babbitt, a stranger to Sheppard, was shot as she attempted to climb through the broken window in a doorframe.
Although the presidential pardon didn’t produce the reputational boost Sheppard had hoped for, “I’m so grateful for the pardon; I’m so grateful that President Trump included every January Sixer.”
Because of a court ruling involving Jan. 6 prosecutions, a judge reduced Sheppard’s 19-month prison term to six months. Thus, he was released in May 2024. Still, he benefited from the pardon in January 2025; it restored his unblemished criminal record and removed restrictions he had faced.
Although he was represented by a public defender, Sheppard took a financial hit after the arrest and the ensuing prosecution.
“I am not completely broke because I have been working a job and keeping expenses relatively low, but I would have a lot more money if I didn’t endure four years of persecution from the federal government,” Shepard said.
He feels there is much unfinished business about Jan. 6.
“We need accountability for FBI agents and prosecutors and judges who let this go down, because, in my opinion, what they did to us January Sixers is … one of the worst human rights abuses and biggest stains on our country’s history,” Sheppard said.
On an early February morning in 2021, in Tampa, Florida, Paul Hodgkins III awakened to the sound he had been dreading: an insistent, loud banging on his front door.
He knew the FBI had caught up with him for entering the Senate chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, six weeks prior.
Wearing only a towel around his waist, Hodgkins opened the door. An officer yelled for him to put his hands up. Hodgkins tried to comply while also attempting to keep the towel in place with his elbows.
“But he handcuffed me behind my back, and left me standing naked in my living room when they all came barreling in,” Hodgkins said, describing the humiliating circumstances of his arrest at his duplex.
At that moment, Hodgkins felt the weight of the federal government crushing him—later reinforced when he saw the words, “The United States of America vs. Paul Hodgkins” on legal paperwork.
Hodgkins, who had no prior criminal record, also gained unwanted notoriety that summer when he became “the very, very first person who was sentenced to prison” for the events of Jan. 6.
At a lawyer’s urging, he pleaded guilty to a single charge and was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Being the first-sentenced defendant “put all eyes on me,” Hodgkins said, describing “a lot of paparazzi” taking his photo at a Washington courthouse. Photographers from a publication based in the U.K. also staked out his neighborhood and snapped pictures of him.
Hodgkins made a last-minute decision to catch a chartered bus trip to Washington for Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021, spurred by fellow Trump supporters.
After hearing Trump’s speech, Hodgkins followed the crowd to the U.S. Capitol.
Curiosity drove him around to the rear of the Capitol building, and before he knew what had happened, he was inside the Senate Chamber, thinking he might be able to see some of the senators and “encourage them to audit this election.” He didn’t know they had been evacuated because the U.S. Capitol was breached.
At the time, he realized he might be “crossing somewhat of a line,” but thought that, at most, he could face a minor charge such as disorderly conduct.
“I didn’t think I would be getting slapped with felonies and prison time, right?” As he left the Capitol building, an uneasy feeling stalked him, especially after he learned about the shooting death of Babbitt.
Now 43, Hodgkins was among those who paid respects to Babbitt at a memorial service on the anniversary of Jan. 6 this year. He has gotten to know Babbitt’s mother, and still has a hard time watching any footage of the shooting.
Besides losing his freedom, Hodgkins’ prosecution cost him his job, but he has been able to find another good job at a machine-motor service shop. He has “plenty of haters” online and has lost friendships over his Jan. 6 involvement.
“And, financially, yes, I was set back a lot by case, but I got back to work, recovered, and marched on. I work, and live comfortably on my own,” Hodgkins said. “I didn’t like my life being so damaged from it all, but I also take pride in how I survived and built my life back.”
Still, he says, “I do not regret that I stood up for President Trump at that time. I don’t regret standing up for my country when I know we were being wronged. I still to this day, I know for myself that the 2020 election was compromised, and I don’t regret confronting that.”
When Hodgkins briefly met Trump at a 2023 dinner, he got the notion that a pardon might follow if Trump won a second term in office. “It was a prayer answered” when the pardon came, clearing Hodgkins’ conviction. It is now framed and on display in his home alongside other Trump memorabilia.
He thinks the pardon will help his career aspirations. “And I’m hoping, you know, before I’m too old to do it, that I might find a wife and start a family. … Whether that does happen for me or not, you know, I have a very, I have a very blessed life.”
Being pardoned delivered sweet freedom. But for Sara Carpenter, it also left a bitter aftertaste. She believes the pardon signifies that she was absolved of crimes that she didn’t commit.
“My pardon looks great on paper,” Carpenter said. “And then I say, ‘Wait a minute. It should never have happened to begin with.’”
While she is grateful that the pardon led to her release about midway through a 22-month prison term, Carpenter had filed an appeal. She was hoping to have her convictions overturned, and “that’s why I didn’t want the pardon, in a sense,” she said.
She knows of other pardoned defendants who feel similarly conflicted. Like many of the pardoned, Carpenter alleges she was convicted in an unfair trial based largely on falsehoods.
“I didn’t get tried by a judge and jury,” she said. “I got tried by political activists.”
Carpenter was convicted of two felonies—civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding—and five misdemeanors.
As a retired New York City police officer, Carpenter was particularly offended when the Justice Department alleged she “slapped” officers’ arms.
She has publicly challenged anyone to produce a video proving that claim; none has surfaced, she said.
Carpenter, 56, admits she got riled up; she perceived police were stoking unrest, not quelling it. But she says her actions weren’t criminal.
“I don’t regret what I did,” she said. “I yelled. I raised my voice.”
As an officer who responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Carpenter suffered lingering trauma that led to her retirement. It also affected her reactions on Jan. 6, she said; a suspected provocateur inflamed her when he compared Jan. 6 to 9/11.
Investigators initially treated Carpenter with some deference, she said. Dozens of Jan. 6 defendants worked in law enforcement, government, or military roles.
However, professional courtesies soon evaporated, Carpenter said. In March 2021, authorities raided her New York home, with a helicopter circling above.
Post-pardon, Carpenter, a college-educated artist, is producing artwork “that brings out hope.” With encouragement from others who share “America First” beliefs, Carpenter also does public speaking about Jan. 6.
“The reason I keep talking is so they won’t get away with it,” Carpenter said, alleging unjust persecution of Jan. 6 defendants and coverups of evidence. “The truth is there. People are choosing not to see it.”
She would like to see history courses teach a balanced view of Jan. 6, so children become critical thinkers and evaluate “both sides of a story, not just one.”
Carpenter said her side of the story wasn’t adequately told in court. While prosecutors showed images of her yelling, they didn’t show her praying at the U.S. Capitol, said Carpenter, who comes from a devout Irish Catholic family.
An item of religious significance was used as evidence against her: A trio of wise men figurines. “The three wise men are still being held hostage,” said Carpenter, who has made multiple requests for her personal property to be returned.
The figurines are antiques from her childhood Christmas displays, but where they are now is a mystery. Prosecutors presented them on the witness stand during her 2023 trial—an odd sight that dumbfounded her.
Carpenter says she likely took the figurines to the U.S. Capitol because Jan. 6 is the traditional date that the Vatican celebrates the Epiphany, the three kings’ adoration of the newborn Jesus.
The government’s use and retention of the figurines serve as a metaphor for many things about Jan. 6 that “make no sense,” she said.
“God was with me all the way and still is, because of my relationship with the Good Lord Jesus I have hope in the future,” Carpenter said. “My prayers are with those who did this to us and for Americans to speak up more to not accept being lied to by the past administrations, almost all of whom still hold positions in our government.”
The FBI unwittingly created an internet sensation when agents seized an odd piece of evidence from the Pennsylvania home of Robert Morss: a Lego model of the U.S. Capitol.
Last June, on the four-year anniversary of his arrest, Morss received the Lego box back—empty.
“I think someone has a trophy on their desk somewhere in some federal building, perhaps … but, yeah, the legend continues, you know?” Morss said.
Even though the Lego set remains missing, Morss has embraced his internet-birthed nickname, “Lego Man.” For him, it has become symbolic of his rebuilt, post-Jan. 6 life.
Authorities accused Morss of interfering with police and assisting others in doing so, among other actions on Jan. 6.
Had he not been pardoned in 2025, Morss would have spent five-and-a-half years in prison.
He chronicles his three-and-a-half years behind bars in a new, 565-page book, “Still There: A Story of Survival and Penance in Prison Through the Eyes of a J6 Political Prisoner.”
Besides writing and publishing two books, Morss quit drinking alcohol. He strengthened his Christian faith. He became a public speaker. During one speaking engagement in Florida, he met the woman he intends to marry in April, Olivia Pollock, a fellow former Jan. 6 defendant.
“We realize just how profound it is to have a connection with somebody that has also suffered in a very similar way,” Morss, 32, said. “You know, who else could I be with that could relate to what I’ve gone through?”
It’s essential for people to continue speaking out about what happened on Jan. 6, he said, because “justice dies in the quiet.”
Using a variant of his “Lego Man” nickname, Morss has launched his own film production company in Texas.
LeggoMan Productions aims to create “movies that reinvigorate the next generation to want to keep this Republic,” Morss said. Although the films will be “gritty,” the stories will be told from a Christian perspective, he said.
Noting that the word, “Lego,” means “I assemble” in Latin, Morss says that sums up what he wants to do: “Assemble” people into a cohesive group. His company is growing, and he expects to hire additional staff—opportunities he wants to provide first to Jan. 6 defendants and veterans.
He is a former Army Ranger who served three deployments to Afghanistan. In addition to the Lego model, authorities seized military-related items and notes, along with clothing Morss wore to the Jan. 6 protest.
In court records, prosecutors described the Lego model as “fully constructed” when the FBI seized it. The government later corrected the record, blaming a “miscommunication” for the inaccurate description.
By listing the model of the U.S. Capitol as evidence, that suggests it could have played a role in Morss’s alleged Jan. 6 planning. Morss and internet commenters savaged that notion as preposterous.
Morss explains why a former girlfriend bought him the U.S. Capitol model: “She knew I was a history buff, and she knew I wanted to be a teacher, and she also knew that I loved Legos.” He propped up the box as a “decoration” at his home, until it was seized.
At a recent fundraising gala, Morss auctioned off other Lego U.S. Capitol models to benefit his production company. “Everybody wants one,” he said; and purchasers asked him to autograph the boxes.
Yet some of the pieces of his life can’t be put back together. His father and brother turned their backs on him. His uncle worked with private investigators to help turn him in to the FBI.
And despite the book sales and speaking engagements, he is still struggling financially.
None of the positive changes in his life would have happened without his faith, he said.
“The only way that I’ve been successful at any of this stuff is because I continue to give glory to God,” Morss said. “It’s like a secret recipe: The more you want to honor God with what you’re doing, the more you incorporate God into your life … things just seem to work out.”
He advises his Jan. 6 brethren: “Find a new mission that honors God and saves your country, and you’ll be okay.”
In Secret Recordings, Ted Cruz Bashes Trump Tariffs, JD Vance, And Tucker Carlson
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took aim at President Trump’s tariff policy and Vice President JD Vance during closed-door donor meetings last year, according to recordings obtained by Axios. The recordings reveal deep rifts inside the GOP over trade and foreign policy.
The recordings, totaling nearly 10 minutes, were provided by a Republican source and were made during two donor sessions in early and mid-2025.
In the recordings, Cruz repeatedly singled out JD Vance and Tucker Carlson, accusing them of driving an anti-interventionist foreign policy inside the Trump administration. Cruz claimed the two were responsible for pushing out former national security adviser Mike Waltz because he supported military action against Iran, even though Trump later embraced that approach.
“Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same,” Cruz told donors. He has been feuding publicly with Carlson on social media for months.
Cruz also said Vance and Carlson played a role in briefly installing Army veteran Daniel Davis in a senior intelligence position. Cruz described Davis as fiercely hostile to Israel and said their involvement triggered backlash that ultimately led to Davis being forced out.
In the second recording, Cruz recounted a tense late-night phone call with Trump after the president rolled out his tariff plan in early April 2025. Cruz and several other senators tried to persuade Trump to back off the policy. The call stretched past midnight and “did not go well,” Cruz said. Trump was “yelling” and “cursing” during the conversation.
“Trump was in a bad mood,” Cruz told donors. “I’ve been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them.”
Cruz warned Trump that the tariffs could wreck the economy and imperil the GOP’s political standing.
“Mr. President, if we get to November and people’s 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10–20% at the supermarket, we’re going to go into Election Day, face a bloodbath,” Cruz said he told Trump.
“You’re going to lose the House, you’re going to lose the Senate, you’re going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week.”
Trump’s response, according to Cruz, was blunt: “F**k you, Ted.”
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the trade deficit shrank to $29.4 billionin October. That marks the smallest gap since June 2009 and a sharp 39% decline from September’s $48.1 billion. The economy also grewat an annualized rate of 4.4% in the third quarter— the fastest pace in two years.
When a donor brought up “Liberation Day,” Trump’s branding for the tariff rollout, Cruz mocked the phrase. He said he told his staff that anyone using it “will be terminated on the spot.” He added, “That is not language we use.”
Cruz also told donors he had been “battling” the White House to secure a trade agreement with India. When asked who inside the administration opposed such deals, Cruz pointed to economic adviser Peter Navarro, Vice President Vance, and “sometimes” Trump.
A Cruz spokesperson downplayed the recordings in a statement, insisting that Cruz is “the president’s greatest ally in the Senate and battles every day in the trenches to advance his agenda.”
“Those battles include fights over staffers who try to enter the administration despite disagreeing with the president and seeking to undermine his foreign policy,” the statement continued. “Sen. Cruz is proud of those fights, his accomplishments, and his close relationship with the president. These attempts at sowing division are pathetic and getting boring.”
“Minnesota Democrats hate ICE because they’re deporting their voters.”
– Gunther Eagleman on “X”
Isn’t it obvious by now that the seditious mischief roiling Minneapolis is some kind of a demonstration project for a China-backed overthrow of the whole country? This is not hard. And, apparently, the Democratic Party is either a willing accomplice or a hostage in thrall to its captor — like Patty Hearst, the heiress kidnapped and bamboozled by psychotic Maoist maniacs who styled themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army, until she was happily making bombs and robbing banks with them (and ended up in prison).
Neville Roy Singham
It is well understood that these ICE-Out riots are organized and funded by a network created by one Neville Roy Singham (American, b. 1954), now based in Shanghai. Singham funds the Party for Socialism and Liberation, The Peoples’ Forum, Code Pink, the United Community Fund and a web of other money laundries that supply all the logistics for Lefty-left mobs going back to the George Floyd / BLM operations of 2020 and including the pro-Palestinian uproars of 2024.
Singham’s father, Archibald, was a Sri Lankan poly-sci prof at Brooklyn College, specializing in Third World revolution; his mother was a Cuban-born Marxist. Singham founded a software development company called Thoughtworks in 1993, and sold it to a London-based private equity firm, Apax, for $785-million in 2017, after which he devoted himself to the cause of “dismantling capitalism,” and destroying the USA. If ever there was a James Bond villain come to life, it’s Neville Roy Singham.
And then you have his perfect foil, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who visited China at least thirty times in his previous career as a teacher, his travel often funded by the CCP. What was he up to there? I think we’re going to find out. We’re also going to find out what he has been up to in the state he supposedly runs, especially vis-à-vis the developing mega-scandal of billions creamed off taxpayers through the Somali fake social services fraud network. It’s already known that some of that money found its way into Democratic Party coffers. How much of it landed in the bank accounts of Minnesota politicians and administrative officials? We’ll find out about that, too.
ICE-Watch Signal Chat boss Amanda Noelle Koehler with her boss, Gov. Tim Walz
The communication system for the Minneapolis riots is an encrypted Signal Chat network (“MN ICE-Watch”) run by Tim Walz aide and campaign strategist Amanda Noelle Koehler. That’s how they organize rapid-response actions against ICE and broader mobilization for key propaganda opportunities like the recent shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan acts as an admin for the MN ICE-Watch Signal group. Kind of makes you wonder if Tim Walz himself is involved in orchestrating the chaos. Another thing we’ll probably find out. Are these officials criminally liable in the deaths of Good and Pretti? In any case, it’s all a grand distraction from the massive Somali fraud scandal that broke out over Walz this month like a case of scabies.
The overall Singham / CCP plan is to get rid of Donald Trump, elect a Democratic Party Congress, and turn the USA into CCP-inflected clone state. The Dems have already made their strategy clear: bring in X-million illegal aliens (done) and set them up as voters; admit DC and Puerto Rico as new states to secure the Senate; stuff the Supreme Court with extra Lefty-left justices, and set about “redistributing” the nation’s wealth from the productive class to their rainbow coalition of the oppressed, marginalized, non-white, and mentally-ill. I’m sorry if this sounds like the ridiculous plot of a James Bond movie. Oscar Wilde was onto something when he observed that life imitates art.
Now, the question is: what are we going to do about all this — we who care about preserving an American republic based on economic liberty? And perhaps more to the point: how to put down the current engineered chaos in Minnesota ASAP, in a way that serves notice we will not allow our country to be overthrown by any Marxist-Jacobin rabble. Many are calling for President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act.
The Singham / CCP / Democratic Party axis would like nothing better, of course, because they could then slap the “tyrant” label on Mr. Trump and set him up for impeachment in 2027, if they can take the midterm election.
And they’ll do exactly that if Senate Majority Leader John Thune keeps obstructing passage of the SAVE (election reform) Act.
Is there a path short of the Insurrection Act to quell the Minneapolis mobs?
How about this: since the Minneapolis Police have been ordered to stand down by Mayor Jacob Frey. . . why not deputize the officers as federal marshals and put them under the direct authority of the US DOJ? Then arrest as many unruly mob actors as possible, just get them off the streets and make the point that there are consequences. Meanwhile, seize the assets of all the organizations that are funding the chaos. No more coffee and donuts. No more Signal Chat dispatch system. No more subsidized motel stays. No more riot paychecks. All support gone.
Perhaps that’s a start. Expect to see some resolute action this week against the parties involved in the Minneapolis attacks on Immigration Enforcement agents.
And understand that the forensic litigation over Alex Pretti’s foolish death is just an obsessive-compulsive public ritual that is fooling nobody with half a brain.
Get in law enforcements’ faces with a gun and you’ve signed your own death warrant. What part of that is a mystery?
Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin declared 2026 to be the “year we take back lost ground in computing self-sovereignty,” starting with his own devices.
In a Friday post on X, he laid out the software changes he has made to reduce reliance on data-hungry, centralized platforms.
The “two major changes” to the software he used in 2025 were switching “almost fully” to Fileverse, an open-source, decentralized document platform — a kind of privacy-preserving Google Docs — and switching “decisively” to Signal as his primary messaging app.
Signal uses end-to-end encryption by default for all one-to-one and group chats, and stores minimal metadata, meaning only limited information, such as when an account was created or the last date it connected to the service.
Telegram, in contrast, only offers end-to-end encryption in optional “secret chats” and otherwise keeps messages and metadata on its own servers, a model that has drawn scrutiny as law enforcement data requests have increased in countries like France.
Buterin also discussed his experiments with locally hosting large language models, arguing that sending all data to third-party services is “unnecessary” when users can increasingly run artificial intelligence tools on their own hardware.
He said better user interfaces, integrations and efficiency are still needed to make local models a seamless default, but added that there has already been “huge progress” compared with a year ago.
Privacy advocates see broader shift
His post echoes points made by privacy advocate and NBTV founder Naomi Brockwell, who described running models locally as the most private way to use AI without sending prompts or documents to external servers.
Brockwell has spent years teaching privacy-enhancing behavior to mainstream audiences, arguing that privacy is about autonomy rather than secrecy and encouraging the use of tools like Bitcoin, encrypted messengers and self-hosted services to reduce government and corporate surveillance power.
Buterin’s post also comes amid renewed debate over how much access governments and platforms should have to users’ private communications and metadata.
The European Union’s controversial Chat Control proposal, for example, originally included pre‑encryption scanning of messages to detect abusive material, and prompted warnings from civil liberties groups and technologists that client‑side scanning could undermine trust in encrypted apps.
Progressively swapping out everyday apps for encrypted, open-source and local alternatives is, according to Buterin and other privacy advocates, one way for users to start reclaiming control over their data flows.
