Recent Appearances...

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Recent Appearances...

Government Corruption

Here are the 37 Epstein docs released last night in their entirety!

2024-01-04

[Gateway] On Wednesday, Judge Loretta Preska confirmed the release of the initial names from Jeffrey Epstein’s extensive client list, comprising over 150 individuals. Concurrently, a collection of previously sealed documents was made public.

Following the release, the Court Listener website experienced a crash due to the overwhelming public interest.

However, The Gateway Pundit managed to secure a backup of this crucial information.

Three individuals, known in the court documents as Doe 105, Doe 107, and Doe 110, have made appeals. Documents related to Does 105, 107, and 110-110 are being withheld.

Here is a compilation of some names featured in the document trove where Virginia Roberts (now Giuffre), who accused Prince Andrew, ordered a deposition back in 2016.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

I'll Believe It When I See It: Jeffrey Epstein Docs to Be Unsealed

2022-11-19

[GatewayPundit] Dozens of documents connected to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s associates will be released to the general public following a judge’s ruling on Friday that the public interest overrides the right to privacy, Daily Mail reported.

This morning Judge Loretta Preska (in the civil suit of Giufre v. Maxwell) ordered the unsealing of dozens of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents. Judge Preska is a senior judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

This latest ruling came in response to efforts by eight (8) "John/Jane Doe" third parties who petitioned the Court, demanding that scores of records be sealed and kept from the public to preserve the "Does'" reputations.

Courtesy of DarthVader, PJ Media’s take on the story.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Ghislaine Maxwell convicted in Epstein sex abuse case, judge orders her financial docs unsealed

2021-12-30

NEW YORK (AP) — The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein.

The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico.

Jurors deliberated for five full days before finding Maxwell guilty of five of six counts. With the maximum prison terms for each charge ranging from five to 40 years in prison, Maxwell faces the likelihood of years behind bars — an outcome long sought by women who spent years fighting in civil courts to hold her accountable for her role in recruiting and grooming Epstein’s teenage victims and sometimes joining in the sexual abuse.

As the verdict was read, Maxwell was largely stoic behind a black mask. Afterward, Maxwell could be seen pouring herself a cup of water as one of her attorneys patted her on the back. She stood with her hands folded as the jury filed out, and glanced at her siblings — faithfully in attendance each day of the trial — as she herself was led from the courtroom. She did not hug her lawyers on the way out, a marked change from previous days during which Maxwell and her team were often physically affectionate with one another.

The defense had insisted Maxwell was a victim of a vindictive prosecution devised to deliver justice to women deprived of their main villain when Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in 2019.

During the trial, prosecutors called 24 witnesses to give jurors a picture of life inside Epstein’s homes — a subject of public fascination and speculation ever since his 2006 arrest in Florida in a child sex case.

A housekeeper testified he was expected to be "blind, deaf and dumb" about the private lives of Epstein, a financier who cultivated friendships with influential politicians and business tycoons, and Maxwell, who had led a jet-setting lifestyle as the favorite child of a media mogul.

Courtesy of Besoeker:

Federal judge orders documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's financial affairs to be unsealed, including any ties to the Clintons

Whee! This’ll be fun — for some of us, anyway.

[BLAZE] A federal judge in New York ruled Thursday to unseal court documents in relation to accused sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered a trove of secret files to be made public this month, some of which could reveal financial ties to the Clintons.

Judge Preska ruled to unseal the court documents that are from a defamation lawsuit brought against Maxwell by alleged Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre that was initiated in 2015. Giuffre brought the lawsuit after Maxwell accused her of lying about being exploited and abused by Maxwell and Epstein.

Giuffre alleges that Maxwell recruited her to train as a masseuse when she was 16 years old, and was later turned into Epstein's "sex slave" from about 1999 to 2002, which included having sex with acquaintances of the convicted pedophile. Giuffre's defamation case against the former British socialite was settled in May 2017.

"Having taken a particularized view of the documents, the court concludes that each document reasonably had a tendency to effect the court's ruling and is thus a judicial document," Preska said during a telephone conference Thursday.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Judge Rules To Unseal Docs From Epstein Pal Ghislaine Maxwell; Docs Demanded Related To Any Clinton Funding

2021-07-02

[Daily Wire] A New York federal judge ruled on Thursday to unseal court documents from Ghislaine Maxwell, an accused child sex trafficker who was the associate of sex predator Jeffrey Want Some Candy, Little Girl? Epstein
Jeffrey <q>Want Some Candy, Little Girl?</q> Epstein

Jeffrey <q>Want Some Candy, Little Girl?</q> Epstein

...A ~~high class pimp~~ financier who was alleged to maintain a stable of underage ~~whores~~ sex slaves who were paid big bucks to entertain the rich and/or famous. He is a registered sex offender and made att least 17 out-of-court settlements with former members of his stable, with some cases still ongoing. 2011 court docs reveal that 21 email addresses and phone numbers for Bill Clinton and an aide were found in Epstein's electronic black book, and that Clinton frequently flew with Epstein on his private plane between 2002 to 2005. But really, they were probably just discussing finance or politix or something. While getting massaged. Then things got serious, Jeff was tossed in the slammer in New York and then he killed himself. Really. That's what happened...
Judge Loretta Preska said that the release of the documents would not have an impact on Maxwell’s ability to have a fair trial.

"It is not the job of the Court to police press coverage," Preska said. "Tabloid fodder doesn’t diminish the importance of materials that could reasonably affect the court’s decision on a motion."

"The judge also ruled that documents relating to a request from [Virginia Roberts] Giuffre for email accounts that Maxwell allegedly kept secret from the court should also be made public," the Daily Mail reported. "The documents are part of a tranche of material gradually being released by Judge Preska from the defamation case [Virginia Roberts Giuffre] filed against Maxwell in 2016 for calling her a liar."

Giuffre’s legal team demanded the documents be turned over on a wide range of issues, including documents related to any funding that Maxwell may have received from Clinton organizations.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

You MUST release on THURSDAY!

2020-10-21

[Reuters] A U.S. judge on Tuesday ordered the release of a deposition that British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell gave in 2016 related to her dealings with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, and which she had fought to keep under wraps.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan directed that a transcript of Maxwell’s testimony and other documents be released by 9 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) on Thursday.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Ghislaine Maxwell's privacy does not justify keeping deposition sealed, Epstein accuser says

2020-09-10

A woman who said she was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking told a U.S. appeals court that Ghislaine Maxwell’s desire for privacy failed to justify the continued sealing of a deposition that the British socialite has fought to keep out of the public eye.Lawyers for Virginia Giuffre made the argument in a Wednesday filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ahead of Sept. 22 oral arguments over the release of materials from her now-settled defamation lawsuit against Maxwell.

Many documents from that case were unsealed in July, and Maxwell is appealing U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska’s order to release other materials, including her April 2016 deposition and a deposition by a second Epstein accuser.

"Maxwell’s vague argument about privacy interests cannot justify total closure of the deposition materials," and overcome "the public’s presumption of access," Giuffre’s lawyers Sigrid McCawley and David Boies told the Manhattan-based appeals court.

Lawyers for Maxwell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Maxwell, 58, has pleaded not guilty to helping Epstein recruit and eventually abuse three girls from 1994 to 1997 and to committing perjury by denying her involvement with the late financier under oath.

Her trial is scheduled for next July. Epstein killed himself at age 66 in August 2019 at a federal jail in Manhattan while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell has said her deposition contained "intimate, sensitive, and personal information," and whose release would cause irreversible, negative publicity.

She said this would undermine her constitutional rights to remain silent and obtain a fair trial by an impartial jury, outweighing any presumption of public access.

But lawyers for Giuffre, who has said Epstein kept her as a "sex slave" with Maxwell’s assistance, said Maxwell did not meet the high legal hurdle of showing Preska abused her discretion.

The lawyers said an unsealing would not compel Maxwell to make self-incriminating statements, saying that she "was deposed twice in 2016, and twice at that time failed to invoke her right to remain silent."

They also said there was no basis to credit Maxwell’s "speculative" fear of unfair pretrial publicity and a tainted jury pool, especially in large metropolitan areas such as New York.

"The size and heterogeneity of such communities make it unlikely that even the most sensational case will become ’a cause celebre’ where the whole community becomes interested in all the morbid details," Giuffre’s lawyers said, quoting a decision from another federal appeals court.

The Miami Herald also wants Maxwell’s deposition unsealed.

Link

Home Front: WoT

U.S.-Iranian man gets 25 years prison for trying to buy missiles for Iran

2018-03-15

[Rooters] A dual citizen of Iran and the United States was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison after he was found guilty of trying to buy surface-to-air missiles and aircraft components for the government of Iran in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Reza Olangian, 57, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan. The sentence is the minimum allowed under federal law.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose a sentence that was longer than the minimum, although short of the life sentence suggested by federal guidelines. Preska said she did not believe a longer sentence was necessary.

"I think Judge Preska saw that 25 years is an extraordinarily long time and that Mr. Olangian did not rise to the level of something as egregious as that," Gregory Morvillo, Olangian’s lawyer, said after the sentencing.

Olangian was convicted by a jury in November 2016 of crimes that included conspiring to acquire and transfer anti-aircraft missiles.

His lawyers have said in court filings that Olangian will appeal his conviction. At his trial, they said Olangian was an opponent of the government of Iran, and that his efforts to broker weapons sales were actually meant as a sting operation to expose Iran’s efforts to evade U.S. sanctions.

Olangian was born in Iran, came to the United States as a student in 1979, became a U.S. citizen in 1999 and moved back to Iran in 2004, according to court filings.

He was placed in durance vile
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
in Estonia in October 2012 and extradited to the United States following a sting operation orchestrated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Prosecutors said that in 2012, Olangian met in Ukraine with a DEA informant posing as a Russian weapons broker to arrange for the purchase of surface-to-air missiles and various military aircraft components.

Prosecutors said Olangian negotiated a deal involving 10 missiles and dozens of aircraft parts, and stated during a video conference with the informant that he ultimately wanted to acquire at least 200 missiles. They said he aimed to make a substantial profit selling the weapons.

Link

Science & Technology

Anonymous hacker behind Stratfor attack faces life in prison

2012-11-24

Won't actually happen of course, but at least I can go to bed and dream about it.
A pretrial hearing in the case against accused LulzSec hacker Jeremy Hammond this week ended with the 27-year-old Chicago man being told he could be sentenced to life in prison for compromising the computers of Stratfor.

Judge Loretta Preska told Hammond in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday that he could be sentenced to serve anywhere from 360 months-to-life if convicted on all charges relating to last year's hack of Strategic Forecasting, or Stratfor, a global intelligence company whose servers were infiltrated by an offshoot of the hacktivist collective Anonymous.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Somali pirate gets 33 years in jail

2011-02-17

[Al Jazeera] A teenage Somali pirate who attacked a US-flagged ship in 2009 has been sentenced to more than 33 years in prison.

Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse was charged with kidnapping, hijacking and hostage-taking for his role in the seizure of the Maersk Alabama container ship and two other vessels in the Indian Ocean.

Federal Judge Loretta Preska on Wednesday cited the need for deterrence in issuing the sentence of 33 years and nine months. Muse's lawyers had asked for the minimum term, 27 years.

Muse - the sole surviving pirate after others were killed by US Navy marksmen -

One could argue that 33 and 3/4 years was actually rather lenient, considering how his pals fared...

was extradited to the US following the April 2009 attack in which kidnapped Captain Richard Phillips was rescued while three captors around him were rubbed out by sailors on another vessel.

Prosecutors described Muse as a hardened pirate leader who displayed a cruel streak when he pretended to shoot captives. Muse's lawyers have argued he was only in his mid-teens at the time of the crime.

That's plenty of time to become 'hardened'...

However,
The infamous However...
a judge ruled that there was sufficient evidence of Muse being at least 18 and that he could be tried as an adult.

"Muse's attorneys had tried to argue that he should get a more lenient sentence, saying he was very young when the crime occurred, and also that he grew up in terrible conditions, in extreme poverty," Al Jizz's Kristen Saloomey, reporting from the court, said.

"Muse himself addressed the court, apologised for his actions and said that he had been led astray by certain people who were smarter than him and more powerful than him."

He felt pretty powerful when he had a gun in his hands, I'll bet...

In court, Maersk Alabama crew member Collin Wright described Muse as the leader and said it had been "a very scary experience." Wright called for "the heaviest sentence possible."

US prosecutor Preet Bharara said: "For five days that must have seemed like an eternity to his victims, Abduwali Abukhadir Muse terrorised the captain and crew of the Maersk Alabama. Now he will pay for those five days and the events leading up to them."

Link

Home Front: WoT

US-Pakistani gets 15 years for aiding al Qaeda

2010-06-11

A Pakistani-born American man accused of providing support for al Qaeda's efforts to combat US forces in Afghanistan was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday, officials said.

A Justice Department statement said Syed Hashmi, who pleaded guilty on April 27 to a charge of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to the terror network, received the maximum sentence under law from US District Chief Judge Loretta Preska.

US Attorney Preet Bharara said, "Hashmi was held accountable for his conduct, and his sentence makes clear that individuals who provide support to such terror networks will be brought to justice."

"Terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda depend upon a wide array of individuals across the world to accomplish their violent objectives. This support network includes individuals like Syed Hashmi who embrace al Qaeda's violent ideology and stand ready to translate ideology into action," the prosecutor added.

Hashmi, also known as Fahad," was arrested on June 6, 2006, form the Heathrow Airport in London, shortly before boarding a flight to Pakistan. He was later transferred to theUS, becoming the first person extradited from Britain to the United States on terrorism charges."

Hashmi, born in Pakistan and educated in New York, was accused of letting a terrorism suspect stay in his student apartment in London and allowing the man to use his cell phone to call other suspects.

The guest also had a supply of rain gear, such as ponchos and waterproof socks that was allegedly being delivered to al Qaeda in Pakistan.

Human rights groups including Amnesty International and the Centre for Constitutional Rights, alleged Hashmi had been subjected to harsh pre-trial detention.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Terror suspect pleads guilty to material support charge

2010-04-28

A man who allowed a friend turned government cooperator to store camping equipment in his London apartment and then loaned him $300 to take it to an al-Qaida commander in Pakistan pleaded guilty late Tuesday on the eve of trial.

Syed Hashmi, 30, a Pakistani-born naturalized U.S. citizen, spared himself a possible life sentence by admitting to one count of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to the terrorist group. Lawyers for Hashmi and prosecutors reached a plea deal Tuesday, with the government agreeing to drop substantive material support and other charges and Hashmi accepting a likely sentence of 15 years in prison, which would have him free by the time he turns 40.

A smiling Hashmi shook hands with defense lawyers David Ruhnke, Anthony Ricco and Sean Maher after the guilty plea and before he was returned to 10 South, the so-called terrorism wing at New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center. His lawyers then hugged each other in obvious relief. "I just think this was the right thing to happen," Ruhnke said outside the courtroom. "The government was seeking 70 years and the guidelines were 30 years to life and we were terribly concerned this man was throwing his life away."

Judge Loretta Preska was set for jury selection today following her Monday decision to grant the motion of prosecutors Brendan McGuire and John Hillebrecht for an anonymous jury, with the judge noting that Hashmi had "enthusiastically declared his support of jihad and the killing of non-Muslims." The defense opposed, saying it would stigmatize their client and subvert the presumption of innocence.

The judge will sentence Mr. Hashmi on June 7, when Ruhnke said his client will leave the isolation cell in which he has lived for more than two years and be sent to a federal prison. "I've been in 10 South and I've been in Guantanamo Bay," the lawyer said, "and I would rather serve my time in Guantanamo Bay."

Link

Home Front: WoT

Accused Somali pirate arraigned in U.S. court

2009-05-22

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Somali suspect in the hijacking of the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama last month pleaded not guilty to 10 counts including piracy, hostage-taking, and firearms charges in U.S. District Court in New York on Thursday. Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse faces life in prison if convicted in any of eight of the 10 counts, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The U.S. Navy took Muse into custody April 12 after the hijacking in the Indian Ocean. He arrived in the United States April 21.

At his arraignment Thursday, Muse stood before Judge Loretta Preska wearing navy-blue prison garb and a bright orange undershirt. The defendant appeared dejected as he listened to the proceedings through the voice of an interpreter, looking downwards at his lap and feet most of the time.

The indictment charges Muse with eight counts that each could carry a maximum sentence of life in prison: piracy, possession of a machine gun while seizing a ship by force, hostage-taking, conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, possession of a machine gun during hostage-taking, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and possession of a machine gun during kidnapping. The remaining two charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars: seizing a ship by force and conspiracy to seize a ship by force.

Defense attorney Phil Weinstein asked the court for time for the defense to conduct its own investigation into the case, and the judge agreed, setting the next hearing date for September 17. Weinstein then expressed concern over Muse's treatment under incarceration, alleging that prison officials were administering medication to him without proper consent and were denying him phone calls to his family in Somalia.

Weinstein also expressed concern about Muse's detention conditions. "He's been held in administrative segregation since his arrest, which means he's detained alone for 23 out of 24 hours a day," Weinstein told reporters gathered outside the courthouse. "He's unable to communicate with anyone except for us."

I don't think he'd do well in the general population in stir, and then we'd get blamed for that ...

Muse's defense team was joined outside the courthouse by Idd Beddel Mohamed, deputy permanent representative to Somalia's mission to the United Nations in New York. He told reporters his government is monitoring the proceedings and working with the federal public defenders to ensure proper legal protection for Muse. "We have full confidence in the U.S. legal system and we believe justice will be served," Mohamed told reporters.

I am amazed - CNN managed an entire story without once calling him a 'teenager'.

Link

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