Secret Service altercation outside Obama’s DC home leads to suspension of officers
Two U.S. Secret Service officers have been suspended after reportedly fighting with each other in front of former President Barack Obama’s Washington D.C. mansion last week.
The two uniformed officers were outside Obama’s residence around 2:30 a.m. on May 21 when one called for a supervisor to come immediately before “I whoop this girl’s a**,” according to an audio recording posted online.
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In addition to the audio, a video published Tuesday by RealClearPolitics shows the female officers punching and shoving each other.
“I need a supervisor out here… immediately before I whoop this girl’s a**,” one of the women said into the radio, the report states.
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The Secret Service confirmed the fight with Fox News Digital.
“The individuals involved were suspended from duty and this matter is the subject of an internal investigation. The Secret Service has a very strict code of conduct for all employees and any behavior that violates that code is unacceptable.”
“Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further,” the spokesperson added.
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It wasn’t clear what prompted the fight between the two officers.
Melania Trump shuts down rumors about real reason for president’s feud with Harvard
A spokesperson for first lady Melania Trump shut down a “completely false” theory that her husband, the president, is warring with Harvard University because her son, Barron, was supposedly not accepted to the school.
The Palm Beach Post first reported that first lady spokesperson Nicholas Clemens said, “Barron did not apply to Harvard, and any assertion that he, or that anyone on his behalf, applied is completely false.”
This comes amid online rumors that President Donald Trump is targeting Harvard with federal funding cuts because Barron, who just finished his freshman year at New York University, was supposedly rejected by the school.
The Trump administration is asking all federal agencies to find ways to terminate all federal contracts with Harvard amid an ongoing standoff over foreign students’ records at the Ivy League school. Harvard has already sued in federal court seeking the restoration of about $3.2 billion in federal grant funding frozen by the administration since last month.
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In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump accused Harvard of being “very antisemitic” and said he was considering giving the school’s federal funding to trade schools “all across our land.”
“What a great investment that would be for the USA, and so badly needed!!!” he wrote.
In a letter Thursday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem informed Harvard’s leadership that the university had lost its “privilege” of enrolling foreign students as a result of the institution’s “refusal to comply with multiple requests to provide the Department of Homeland Security with pertinent information while perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is hostile to Jewish students, promotes pro-Hamas sympathies, and employs racist ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ policies.”
On Friday, Judge Allison Burroughs, a President Barack Obama appointee, granted Harvard a temporary restraining order, preventing the government from revoking the Ivy League school’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. The program permits the university to host international students with F-1 or J-1 visas to study in the U.S.
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Trump said this week that Harvard is being “very slow” to turn over information on foreign students.
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“We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,” Trump wrote.
“Harvard is very slow in the presentation of these documents, and probably for good reason!” he wrote. “The best thing Harvard has going for it is that they have shopped around and found the absolute best Judge (for them!) – But have no fear, the Government will, in the end, WIN!”
The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Bill Maher slams liberal support for Hamas: ‘Are you f—— kidding me?’
Comedian Bill Maher trashed liberals in the United States who agree with the terror group Hamas on the topic of Israel.
During the latest episode of his “Club Random” podcast – featuring podcast host Tim Pool as his guest – the comedian marveled at how liberals could support the Israel-hating, radical Islamic terrorists.
“Most Muslim societies live under some form of sharia law, which no westerner who thinks that Hamas is so great could ever live under,” Maher said.
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The fact that some anti-Israel agitators on American college campuses have expressed support for the group that killed around 1,500 people in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, or have echoed its slogans calling for the destruction of Israel, perplexed the HBO “Real Time” host.
He mentioned the irony of westerners endorsing the terror group and the “Islamists” he alleged are supportive of Hamas’ war against the Jewish nation.
“That’s what’s so ironic about liberals being so supportive of Hamas, is because you’re liberals and these are the people – I’m sorry, but this ideology, Islam, even in its more benign forms – yes, I agree, the vast majority of Muslims – not terrorists, of course. But Islamists, which is the word we use to describe people who are not terrorists, but kind of agree with the things terrorists are doing, that’s a much higher number.”
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“That’s many millions of people,” he added.
Maher’s statements come less than a week after two staffers at the Israeli Embassy in D.C. were murdered while exiting an event at the Capital Jewish Museum.
The suspect, 31-year-old Chicago resident Elias Rodriguez, yelled, “Free, free Palestine,” as he was arrested by law enforcement.
Maher continued, noting that the “fundamental rights” liberals have in America would not exist in Gaza or in other Islamic countries.
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“You know, I mean all the protesters who are protesting in Gaza against Hamas? They’ve all been killed. They killed protesters, women – I mean, do I have to say anything more than just — if it was just that issue, how women are treated? Are you f—— kidding me?” he asked.
Maher admitted that one of his main points of disagreement with the “far left” came from his views on Islam.
“One of the main reasons why the far left started to really hate me is because I call out Islam as what it is, extremely illiberal,” he told Pool.
Maher ripped the Democratic Party earlier this month for not doing enough to squash the anti-Israel movement within its ranks.
“If the thought leaders in the Democratic Party keep encouraging and not rebuking that America is cringe and the people who run Gaza are great, the Democrats are doomed,” he said.
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Sheriff’s crime scene failure could hinder prosecution against escaped inmates
The failure by law enforcement officials to immediately process the jail cell from which 10 inmates escaped on May 16 as a crime scene could jeopardize potential prosecutions of the inmates, an expert said.
“One of the first things any prosecutor looks for is basic crime scene documentation: photos, evidence logs, and signs that law enforcement treated the scene seriously,” Jason Pack, a former FBI supervisory special agent, told Fox News Digital. “Even if the facts seem clear-cut, skipping those steps opens the door for defense attorneys to argue the investigation was incomplete or sloppy.”
On Thursday, Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams made what he called a “very unusual” move.
Noting that Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson had not ordered a crime scene investigation inside the jail cell, he assembled a team of New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) crime scene technicians and personally accompanied them to the jail to collect evidence.
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“Time is also of the essence when trying to get good DNA samples or collect fingerprints to make sure those areas are not molested or destroyed in any way,” he told the media at the time. “So I am deeply concerned that there was not an immediate request by the sheriff to our local crime lab to get in there and examine, document, preserve and collect all of the forensic evidence that was available there so that we could already have it tested.”
Pack said that the delayed collection of evidence could help defense attorneys muddy the waters, and that Williams is likely tying up loose ends to make his potential cases as bulletproof as possible.
“Now that someone from inside the jail has been charged with helping the escape, the district attorney was likely thinking like a prosecutor from the start,” he said. “He would have been focused on how the case will look in court and what a judge or jury will expect to see.”
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Sterling Williams, 33, an employee of the sheriff’s office and a maintenance worker at the jail, has been arrested and charged with 10 counts of principal to simple escape and malfeasance in office for allegedly aiding the inmates in their jailbreak.
He is accused of turning off the water in the cell from which the inmates escaped, allowing them to remove a toilet that blocked a hole they had cut into the cell’s wall.
Once the toilet was removed, they climbed through the hole, ran through an unguarded corridor, and then made a beeline for the jail’s fence, hopping over it and onto the streets of New Orleans.
Williams told investigators the inmates threatened to “shank” him if he did not help them.
“For legal purposes, especially when a criminal charge has already been filed, the pod where the escape happened still needs to be treated like a crime scene,” Pack said.
However, he noted that the crime scene is a hectic area. The jail has 1,400 inmates, and countless inmates and staff could have contaminated the crime scene by now.
“It’s also important to remember that a jail pod isn’t a clean crime scene. It’s a busy place: guards, inmates, maintenance workers,” Pack said. “A lot of people have access.”
According to Pack, the fingerprint and DNA evidence might not yield a clear-cut answer as to who might have committed a crime. Instead, he said, the value in collecting that evidence is to show in court that “every reasonable step was taken” in the investigation.
WATCH: Stunning video shows New Orleans inmates escaping
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Williams said after collecting evidence from the scene that he had asked all OPSO employees and other relevant parties to voluntarily submit to fingerprinting in order to rule them out as suspects. He also demanded that surveillance footage from 90 cameras in the jail from April 1 through May 21 be handed over to his office.
“Even when video shows how the escape happened, crime scene photos and records help prove that the case was handled professionally and by the book,” Pack said.
The May 16 early morning escape included a convicted four-time killer, along with nine others facing violent criminal charges stemming from second-degree murder to domestic abuse and felon in possession of a firearm.
They taunted the authorities on the way out, writing “To easy LOL,” along with other messages on the wall of the cell. Authorities were unaware that the men were missing for about eight hours after the escape.
The Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
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Two hundred local, state and federal law enforcement officers have been involved in a manhunt for the suspects.
As of Tuesday, eight of the suspects have been recaptured, and 14 people have been arrested for aiding them.
Along with Williams, an inmate who did not escape with the group of 10 became the second person from inside the jail to be charged with helping them escape.
Trevon Williams, 23, has been rebooked on 10 counts of principal to simple escape for allegedly giving the escapees a blanket and shirt to help them hop the razor-wire fence during their escape.
Arrests over the weekend included 28-year-old Lenika Vanburen, 18-year-old Patricia Vanburen, 27-year-old Tyshanea “Minnie” Randolph, 47-year-old Lenton Vanburen Sr. and 40-year-old Angel McKey – all accused of aiding the escapees. Lenton Vanburen Sr. is the father of escapee Lenton Vanburen, who has since been caught, a source confirmed to Fox News.
State police said that Diamond White, 21, was also arrested on charges that include principal to aggravated escape and obstruction of justice, USA Today reported.
Emmitt Weber, 28, was also arrested for allegedly helping two of the inmates after the escape. So was Casey Smith, 30, who reportedly admitted to driving some of the inmates around New Orleans after they escaped.
On Thursday night, the Louisiana State Police announced that it had arrested Connie Weeden, 59, who allegedly sent cash to then-fugitive Jermaine Donald via a cellphone app.
Before that, Cortnie Harris, 32, and Corvanntay Baptiste, 38, were arrested for allegedly assisting the fugitives.
Harris is accused of transporting some of the escapees to locations throughout New Orleans after the escape, and Baptiste is accused of being in contact with escapee Corey Boyd and bringing him food after the escape.
Sources close to the investigation told Fox News that Baptiste is the girlfriend of now-recaptured Boyd, who is accused of second-degree murder, and Harris is the girlfriend of Leo Tate, who is still on the run.
On Monday, three more inmates were recaptured.
Vanburen was caught in Baton Rouge, and Tate and Donald were captured by the Texas Department of Public Safety in Walker, Texas, according to the Louisiana State Police.
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Groves remains on the run with Antoine Massey, a four-time jail escapee who faces charges of domestic abuse involving strangulation, theft of a motor vehicle and a parole violation.