Month: September 2023

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has been indicted by special counsel David Weiss on felony gun charges. The four-page indictment returned by the grand jury convened in Delaware charges Hunter Biden with three felony counts stemming from his possession of a Colt Cobra 38 special revolver in October 2018.

The first count of the indictment alleges that Hunter Biden “knowingly made a false and fictitious written statement” on a form used for firearms purchases. According to the charging document, the president’s son certified on the form that he was not an unlawful user of any narcotic drugs, a statement that was “false and fictitious.” As detailed in the second count of the indictment, Hunter Biden allegedly knowingly made a false statement and representation to an unnamed, Wilmington-based firearms dealer. In the third count of the document, he is accused of knowingly possessing a firearm, despite knowing that he was a drug user, in violation of federal law.

Originally the president’s son had been charged with two separate criminal informations with misdemeanor tax offenses and a felony firearm offense. The two sides seemed to agree to a plea deal struck in June, which would have allowed Biden to plead guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax offenses and enter into a pretrial diversion program to avoid prosecution on a felony gun charge. However, that deal fell apart during a court hearing in July after U.S. Judge Maryellen Noreika expressed concern over the structure of the agreement and questioned the breadth of an immunity deal. Hunter Biden ultimately pleaded not guilty to the three charges.

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A northern Iowa police officer was shot Wednesday night, prompting a manhunt that ended with an arrest in Minnesota.

Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, said that police officer Kevin Cram was on patrol in Algona, a town of about 5,300 residents, when he learned of an active arrest warrant for 43-year-old Kyle Ricke on a charge of harassment. Just before 8 p.m,, Mortvedt said the officer saw Ricke and told him he would be arrested, who then shot him. Cram, a 33-year-old husband and father who had been an officer in Algona since 2015, was pronounced dead at a hospital.

The shooting prompted a Blue Alert to let the public know a suspect who posed a potential threat to law enforcement was on the loose. Ricke was captured without incident just before midnight and taken into custody in Brown County, Minnesota, about 100 miles north of Algona. Ricke was charged with first-degree murder, Mortvedt said, and was being held in Minnesota pending extradition.

Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Stephan Bayens said at a news conference: “Tragic, heartbreaking, gut-wrenching pain and agony, but we will bow our backs, we will be strong, and we will continue to do our jobs.” 

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On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones denied former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ request for an emergency stay in the Georgia election interference case.  Meadows had pushed for Jones to hold back on his previous decision to deny his motion to move the case to federal court; however, the judge wrote in his ruling that Meadows did not show he is entitled an emergency stay.

Meadows filed the motion to stay Jones’ decision on Monday, citing factors including “irreparable harm, balance of equities and public interest.” Jones determined that Meadows failed to demonstrate anything more than a “possibility of irreparable harm in absence of a stay.” and rejected Meadows’ argument of “prejudice to the state,” saying that the state has a strong interest in the criminal prosecution being free from federal interference. Jones also ruled that Meadows should not be offered protection under the Supremacy Clause because he was not acting “in the scope of his federal office” when he was involved in the acts alleged in the charges against him, including arranging the infamous call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Trump was recorded asking Raffensperger to “find” votes that would change the result of the state’s election in Trump’s favor.

Meadows is charged with soliciting an official to violate their oath of office and violating the federal Hatch Act, which prohibits officials from using their government status to influence an election. He is among 19 defendants in the case related to the 2020 presidential election, including former President Donald Trump.

Trump’s attorneys were granted an Oct. 23, start date for their trial in the case, and Jones acknowledged that there is no guarantee that Meadows will go on trial in October. Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee has been hesitant to rule that all 19 defendants will go on trial at that time.

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Danelo Cavalcante, the convicted murderer who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison late last month, has been captured after a two-week search. Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County Prison in on Aug. 31 in Chester County, Pa. The 34-year-old was convicted of first-degree murder for stabbing his girlfriend to death in July, and is also wanted on a homicide accusation in Brazil, authorities previously said.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Lt. Col. George Bivens of the Pennsylvania State Police confirmed at a news conference that Cavalcante was apprehended just after 8 a.m. on Wednesday by members of a tactical team leading the manhunt;  no shots were fired. Bivens said authorities started getting closer to Cavalcante shortly after midnight Wednesday morning, when a burglar alarm sounded in a residence that was within the parameters of their search. The investigation did not find anything, but it brought the team closer to the area. Subsequently, authorities were able to monitor Cavalcante’s movements using an overhead aircraft which identified a “heat source” on the ground, Bivens said. Cavalcante tried to escape by crawling “through thick underbrush,” Bivens continued, “taking his rifle with him when he went.” He said Cavalcante was subdued by a police dog and “forcibly taken into custody” after resisting officers as they attempted to arrest him. Cavalcante sustained “a minor bite wound,” according to Bivens, but there were no other injuries. The escapee was transported to a police station in Avondale for questioning, and will ultimately be moved to a state prison.

Chester County Prison’s acting warden Howard Holland said that Cavalcante escaped from the exercise yard by climbing up a wall to the roof area. Surveillance footage from the prison grounds, which authorities released about a week into their search, showed Cavalcante hoisting himself up from the ground by balancing between a fence and a brick wall, and climbing upward until he disappeared fro

Cavalcante, a Brazilian national, was convicted last month of first-degree murder and sentenced to serve life in prison without parole for killing his former girlfriend, Deborah Brandao, in April 2021. He allegedly stabbed her to death, and the woman’s young children witnessed the crime. Cavalcante is also wanted in connection with a homicide in Brazil, according to the U.S. Marshal Service, and he was repeatedly described as “extremely dangerous” by law enforcement throughout the manhunt involving hundreds of local, state and federal officers.m the camera’s view. His escape is under investigation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.

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