The
Environmental Protection Agency is ending a decades-old practice of
assigning a value to human life when reviewing the effects of certain
air pollutants, a report alleges.
The agency,
led by President Donald Trump appointee Lee Zeldin, will continue to
document the costs businesses incur in complying with regulations, but
not the value of lives saved by those regulations, according to internal
emails leaked to The New York Times.
Such a
reversal has been described as a “seismic shift” that is antithetical to
the agency’s mission statement, which prioritizes human health and the
environment.
The pollutants in question are fine particulate matter and ozone.
Fine
particulate matter is particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter
that can penetrate a person’s lungs and bloodstream. Even moderate
exposure to these particles can damage the lungs about as much as
smoking.
Ozone, a smog-causing gas emitted by
power plants, cars, and factories, protects us from UV radiation when it
is high in the atmosphere. However, when it is at ground-level and
inhaled by humans, it is known to cause asthma as well as heart and lung
disease.
An official announcement about the policy
change has not been released. Once implemented, the Times reports it
will “make it easier to repeal limits on these pollutants from
coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, steel mills, and other
industrial facilities across the country.”
He'll
kill us all and do so gladly. I hope he realizes how hated his
children are going to be. Chump will be dead and gone before the 2020s
end. But shy boy Barron and the rest will still be here and they will
be hated.
Some comments on the article:
Mary Campbell
19 hours ago
Rolled back a slew of EPA regs, as well as OSHA regs, and much more.
Special Agent Krasnov
19 hours ago
Here comes another lost lawsuit for the Felon in Chief.
EPA is required by LAW to protect human and environmental health when setting pollutant limits.
Trump has no authority to change that.
cathy hakker
2 hours ago
All
Trump cares about is how much money he can make before he is thrown out
of the house, this was reported months ago that he was allowing
corporations to unload more pollution to the air and our waterways, and
that they no longer have to report on what or how much, he has already
been paid by these companies by the millions of dollars donated to his
campaign, once it comes into effect he will receive millions more, this
is the future for your grandchildren people this is their future that
Trump will destroy, what more do people need to that Trump is willing to
destroy America for money
Two long years ago, it appeared that
the much-anticipated American Climate Corps was finally happening.
President Joe Biden had promised to build a green jobs workforce
inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s most popular New Deal programs, ever since he was on the
campaign trail. By September 2024, 15,000 young people had joined the
American Climate Corps, according to the administration, working to
restore landscapes and install solar panels around the country.
It didn’t even last a year. The Biden administration wound down the program
last January ahead of President Donald Trump’s return to the White
House, correctly anticipating that Trump would take a hammer to anything
with “climate” in the name.
But even as climate change fell off
the national agenda and the promise of federal funding vanished, some
states have found ways to continue to support Climate Corps-style work
over the past year. Their efforts show what’s still politically viable —
and under what conditions these initiatives can still succeed —
assuming local governments and nonprofits find the funds.
One of the survivors is,
unsurprisingly, California, a state with many climate-friendly
initiatives that have enough resources to survive a federal drought.
“We’ve stayed the course and are moving forward full steam ahead, and
our climate work hasn’t been impacted by the chaos at the federal
level,” said Josh Fryday, who runs GO-Serve, Governor Gavin Newsom’s
newly created office for service and civic engagement.
Tuesday, January 13, 2026. Senator Mark Kelly is suing social media
maven Pete Hegseth, Chump continues to misuse the Justice Dept to
persecute Fed Chair Jerome Powell, only 1% (per Pam Bondi) of The
Epstein files has been released, Chump continues attempting to smear the
name of the late Renee Nicole Good and much more.
Today on MS NOW's MORNING JOE, Joe reviewed how Donald Chump's has elected to start the new year.
/div>
Convicted
Felon Donald Chump uses the Justice Dept to go after his rivals. He
thought attacking Fed Chair Jerome Powell was the thing to do. He was
wrong, so wrong.
Let’s
be absolutely clear about what’s happening here. Powell is being
punished for refusing to bend monetary policy to the whims of an
authoritarian president who believes the entire machinery of government
exists to serve his personal interests and ambitions.
Even
by Trump’s standards, the brazenness of this assault is staggering. The
Federal Reserve was deliberately designed to be independent to avoid
exactly this scenario. The Banking Act of 1935 created the modern
structure of the Fed and explicitly placed monetary policy decisions
beyond presidential reach. Central banks in nearly every major democracy
operate on the same principle of independence — precisely because the
alternative could lead to inflation and instability. Trump has never
accepted the basic premise that the Fed was designed to be independent
of presidents to avoid political business cycles and cronyism. The idea
that someone else can say no to him — as Powell has in the past by
refusing to take action on the economy according to Trump’s whims — is
intolerable, so, true to form, the president has escalated.
Trump
has been ramping up his attacks on Powell for months. He has called for
the Fed chair to be fired, accused him of incompetence, mocked him
publicly and repeatedly demanded lower interest rates as if the Federal
Reserve exists simply to do the boss’ bidding. When Powell refused to
comply, Trump and his enablers went searching for a pretext to exact
revenge. They found it in the building renovation project.
Andrew
Levin, a Dartmouth economist and former Federal Reserve official, first
published a policy brief on the central bank’s building renovations for
the libertarian think tank Mercatus Center. After Trump allies pounced,
the report became fodder for a New York Post story sneering about a
supposed “Palace of Versailles.” The Fed, for its part, kept Congress
informed about the project, with Powell testifying at a Senate hearing
that the renovation included no VIP dining room, no new marble, no
special elevators, no water features and no roof terrace gardens.
But facts don’t matter when the goal is intimidation.
Chris Blackhurst (INDEPENDENT) observes,
"What this shows, not for the first time, is that the Trump
administration is no longer operating according to any principles of
objectivity, and that it is entirely subjugated to its master,
compliantly anticipating and carrying out his wishes. In some instances,
that may not matter greatly. But with the Fed, Trumpian officials are
playing with fire. If there is one arena that Trump cannot control, it
is the markets. They do not do emotion. They do not idolise him or
anyone else, nor are they swept along in his wake. And they are not
American. They’re global, unsentimental and unforgiving." Elizabeth Schulze, Benjamin Siegel, Fritz Farrow and Allison Pecorin (ABC NEWS) note pushback, "The
Justice Department investigation into Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome
Powell is drawing backlash from former Federal Reserve and Treasury
officials as well as current members of Congress, including those in
President Donald Trump's own party. A bipartisan group of top economic
officials released a blistering statement on Monday calling the probe an
"unprecedented attempt to use prosecutorial attacks to undermine" the
central bank's independence" and they quote a statement from Alan
Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen, Tim Geithner, Jacob Lew, Hank
Paulson and others stating, "This is how monetary policy is made in
emerging markets with weak institutions, with highly negative
consequences for inflation and the functioning of their economies more
broadly. It has no place in the United States whose greatest strength is
the rule of law, which is at the foundation of our economic success." Sean James (MEDIAITE) adds, "Sen.
Thom Tillis (R-NC) said the criminal investigation into Fed Chair
Jerome Powell has called the 'independence and credibility' of the
Justice Department under President Donald Trump into question following
the president’s consistent criticism of Powell’s leadership."
Investors
took one look at the Trump administration’s criminal investigation of
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and decided to resuscitate the “Sell
America” trade, selling off US stocks, bonds and the dollar.
Stocks
opened lower Monday morning. The Dow was down 409 points, or 0.83%. The
broader S&P 500 fell 0.37%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq slid 0.23%.
The
US dollar weakened against other major currencies. The dollar index,
which tracks the dollar’s strength against six major currencies, was
down almost 0.4% — a sharp move for the greenback.
Treasuries
fell somewhat, too. The benchmark 10-year yield, which trades in
opposite direction to prices, rose to just under 4.2%, near a one-month
high. Bond yields’ move higher suggests the Trump administration’s
action against the Fed could backfire, and rates may not start sinking
as the president has demanded.
Fed independence
is considered a cornerstone of what makes US financial markets
exceptional. Investors, economists and historians all regard an
independent central bank as key to stable financial markets, as
policymakers can set monetary policy without regard to political
interests.
Jim Edwards (FORTUNE) elaborates,
"Markets moved back into 'Sell America' mode overnight as traders
digested the prospect of an incoming Fed chair who lacks independent
credibility: The dollar sank 0.32% against a basket of international
currencies; the yield on 5-year Treasuries moved sharply up, a sign that
investors now regard U.S. government bonds as being suddenly more
risky; gold futures -- the traditional safe haven -- rose 2.21% today to
hit a new record high over $4,600 per troy ounce; and S&P 500
futures are down 0.66% this morning prior to the opening bell." Medha Singh and Pranav Kashyap (REUTERS) note, "Goldman
Sachs' Jan Hatzius said the indictment threat against Powell has
heightened concerns over the Fed's independence, though he expects the
policy decisions to remain data‑driven."
Chump and his stupidity keep destroying our economy. MARKETWATCH's Mike Murphy adds,
"West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was flat after
giving up sharp early gains amid uncertainty around Venezuela’s oil
industry following Trump’s assertion that the U.S. will control the
nation’s oil after U.S. military action that deposed President Nicolás
Maduro last weekend, and unrest in Iran that has seen hundreds of
demonstrators reportedly killed, leading the U.S. to consider a military
response. Oil prices rose more than 3% last week." Ed Carson (INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY) notes, "Credit-card and card-issuing stocks fell after President Trump called for a one-year cap on credit card rates to 10%."
President Donald Trump’s long-running war against Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has escalated.
The
U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia has opened a
criminal investigation into Powell over the renovation of the Central
Bank’s headquarters, according to The New York Times. The probe includes a review of Powell’s public statements and an examination of spending records.
The
U.S. Supreme Court has indicated that even if President Donald Trump
can fire the heads of independent agencies, it may ensure there are
protections to stop these powers applying to the Federal Reserve.
The
Trump vs. Slaughter case is being heard by the Supreme Court, which, if
approved, could give the president the power to dismiss the heads of
independent agencies at will, changing a 90-year-old policy.
It
stems from Trump firing Democratic FTC commissioner Rebecca Slaughter
in March, whose term was not set to expire until 2029, but the findings
could be applied to whether Trump can fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome
Powell, as tensions between Powell and the Trump administration
escalate.
Turning to the Jeffrey Epstein files which remain unreleased, December 23rd the US Justice Dept issued this statement:
A.
Tysen Duva serves as the Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal
Division. In this capacity, Mr. Duva supervises the Division’s more
than 1,100 federal prosecutors and staff members who conduct
investigations and prosecutions involving violent crime, sex
trafficking, cartels and transnational criminal organizations, human
smuggling and trafficking offenses, cybercrime, fraud, corruption, money
laundering, child exploitation and other crimes, as well as matters
involving international affairs and sensitive law enforcement
techniques.
Today, Ben Penn (BLOOMBERG NEWS) reports
the latest on the Jeffrey Epstein files which is that the DOJ put a new
"expanded team" over the files January 5th headed by . . . Tyson Duva:
A
supervisor in an office within the Criminal Division that’s been
deluged with Epstein review relayed to staff that DOJ leadership is
“well aware that the project got off to a very rocky start and numerous
issues continue to be flagged for more concrete guidance,” according to a
Jan. 8 email obtained by Bloomberg Law.
Tysen
Duva, who was sworn in last month as head of the Criminal Division,
acknowledged the challenging task at hand, telling employees Jan. 9 that
he knows this isn’t how they wanted to start their year, said the
individual, who like others spoke anonymously about internal
communications.
Duva commended
the division for increasing its daily output through the week, saying
they collectively surpassed 200,000 pages on Jan. 8. But Duva also said
reviewers needed to improve their individual metrics the following week.
The
Criminal Division, home to about 600 lawyers in Washington focused on
white collar and violent crime cases, was enlisted to support previously
assigned reviewers at the FBI, National Security Division and US
attorney’s offices in Manhattan and Miami after more than two million
documents were identified late last year related to the late financier
and convicted sex offender.
Attorney
General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche informed a
federal judge Jan. 5 of plans to divert 400 attorneys across the
department to dedicate all or most of their workdays to complying with
the Epstein Files Transparency Act. But even with additional reviewers,
the complexities remain in protecting victim identities, as required by
the law.
Congress voted The Epstein
Files Transparency Act into law and then (November 19, 2025) Chump
singed the law. The law gave 30 days for the Justice Dept to release
the files. That was December 19th and Pam da Bimbo Bondi missed that
deadline -- well, blew it off. Blew it off? Pam told the court last
week that the Justice Dept had thus far only released about 1% of the
files.
Where are the documents?
And if help was needed, shouldn't Pam Bondi have known that before the
December 19th deadline? But they didn't appoint someone to head the
release until December 23rd -- four days after everything was supposed
to have been released. US House Rep Ro Khanna's office released the
following near the end of last week:
Today, Representatives Ro Khanna (CA-17)
and Thomas Massie (KY-04), the leaders of the Epstein Files Transparency
Act, sent a letter to Judge Paul Engelmayer of the United States
District Court for the Southern District of New York, requesting the
appointment of a Special Master to compel the Department of Justice to
release the full Epstein files as required under Rep. Khanna and Rep.
Massie’s law.
“The Department of
Justice is openly defying the law by refusing to release the full
Epstein files. Millions of files are being kept from the public,” said Rep. Ro Khanna. "The
DOJ has failed to make the necessary redactions to protect survivors
while removing records after publication without any explanation. That
is why we are requesting the appointment of a Special Master to oversee
the release of the files and ensure that the DOJ is following the law.”
"Attorney General Pam Bondi is egregiously violating the requirements of the Epstein Files Transparency Act," said Rep. Thomas Massie.
"Under her leadership, the Department of Justice is missing statutory
disclosure deadlines, making excessive redactions, and illegally
withholding the Department's internal communications. Because the
Department of Justice has shown it cannot be trusted with making the
disclosures required by law, a Special Master should be appointed to
oversee the release of the Epstein files.”
We
write jointly as Members of the United States House of Representatives
who sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Public Law 119-38 and
as amici curiae in the above-caption manner. We respectfully request permission to file this brief as amici curiae given
our unique expertise as the leads of the Epstein Files Transparency
Act. We are writing to suggest the appointment of a Special Master and
Independent Monitor to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to make
mandatory production under the Act.
As
the leads of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, we have urgent and
grave concerns about DOJ’s failure to comply with the Act as well as the
Department’s violations of this Court’s order.
On
December 19, 2025, the Department of Justice released only a portion of
responsive materials. That release, however, did not comply with the
statute as written. The Department failed to meet the Act’s requirements
in multiple respects, including missing the statutory deadline,
asserting common-law privileges that the Act does not permit, and
applying extensive redactions that appear inconsistent with the Act’s
expressed prohibition on withholding or redacting records to protect
politically exposed persons.
Several
federal courts, including this District, have already recognized that
the Act’s disclosure mandate is clear and that its specific statutory
language supersedes pre-existing secrecy rules and generalized privilege
doctrines. Nonetheless, the Department has continued to rely on
arguments that courts have rejected, including the claim that Congress
did not “speak clearly” enough to require disclosure of unclassified
investigative and internal materials, despite Section 2(a)’s unequivocal
language.
Compliance concerns
have been further heightened by the Department’s handling of records
after their release. Independent investigators identified numerous files
that were publicly released on December 19, 2025, and later removed,
including file EFTA00000468. While removal may have been undertaken to
protect victims depicted in the material, an objective that is both
appropriate and required, the Department’s own statements underscore
that this issue is more significant than DOJ has suggested.
DOJ
has acknowledged that, despite tens of thousands of manual redactions
and quality control checks, information that victims believe should have
been redacted was nonetheless posted publicly. DOJ also represented to
the Court that it interprets the Act to require publication of grand
jury and discovery materials unless a statutory basis for withholding
applies, with victim privacy protected through appropriate redactions
rather than categorical withholding. Consistent with those
representations, and with the Court’s order directing DOJ to certify
that victim-identifying information is being protected, the Act allows
narrowly tailored and consistently applied redactions, not the wholesale
removal of records after release or assertions of privilege
inconsistent with the Act. Whether the Department’s actions complied
with those limits is a fact-specific question that would benefit from
neutral, independent review.
We
have reviewed the DOJ’s most recent submission to this Court on January
5, 2026, Dkt. 826, where the DOJ states that it has only produced
“approximately 12,285 documents (compromising approximately 125,575
pages).” The DOJ claims that there is still “more than 2 million
documents potentially responsive to the Act in various phases of
review.” Other reports suggest that the DOJ may be reviewing more than 5
million pages. Because these figures are self-reported and internally
inconsistent with prior representations, there is reasonable suspicion
that the DOJ has overstated the scope of responsive materials, thereby
portraying compliance as unmanageable and effectively delaying
disclosure.
The conduct by the
DOJ is not only a flagrant violation of the mandatory disclosure
obligations under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, but as this Court
has recognized in its previous rulings, the behavior by the DOJ has
caused serious trauma to survivors.
In
addition, the DOJ has not complied with Section 3 of the Act, which
requires the Attorney General, within fifteen days of the deadline for
release, to submit a report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees
identifying the categories of records released and withheld and
summarizing all redactions and their legal bases. To date, no such
report has been provided. Without it, there is no authoritative
accounting of what records exist, what has been withheld, or why, making
effective oversight and judicial review far more difficult.
Put simply, the DOJ cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the Act.
While
we believe that criminal violations have taken place and must be
addressed, the most urgent need now is for the DOJ to produce all the
documents and electronically stored information required by the Act. In
its November 26, 2025, letter (Dkt.813), the DOJ represented to this
Court the categories of documents in its possession, much of which has
not been produced.
Thus, in our capacity as amici curiae, we
suggest pursuant to its inherent authority and Federal Rule of Civil
Procedure 53, this Court appoint Special Master and/or Independent
Monitor for the purpose of ensuring all the documents and electronically
stored information are immediately made public to be in accordance with
the Epstein Files Transparency Act. We also suggest the Independent
Monitor be given authority to notify and prepare reports to this Court
about the true nature and extent of the document production and if
improper redactions or other improper conduct is taking place. We also
suggest this Court compel testimony from the person or persons most
knowledgeable from the DOJ SDNY office about the production that has
been made, the pending productions, and the representations that have
previously been made to this Court.
Absent
an independent process, as outlined above, we do not believe the DOJ
will produce the records that are required by the Act and what it has
represented to this Court.
We
appreciate the Court’s attention to this letter. We can make ourselves
available to the Court at a future hearing or participate in a briefing
on the need for a Special Master or Independent Monitor or any topic
this court deems helpful for the full and fair administration of
justice.
###
Khanna
then went on MS NOW's THE LAST WORD WITH LAWRENCE O'DONNELL to discuss
the issues and the lack of progress on the part of DOJ.
Meanwhile,
US Senator Mark Kelly took to the Senate floor to announce that the
whims of Pete Looselips Hegseth were not going to be the final words.
Michael Kunzelman (AP) reports,
"Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly sued the Pentagon on Monday over attempts
to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders. Kelly, a former
Navy pilot, is seeking to block his censure from Defense Secretary Pete
Hegseth last week. Hegseth announced last Monday that he censured Kelly
over the former Navy pilot’s participation in a video that called on
troops to resist unlawful orders." Alex Woodward (INDEPENDENT) reports the filings note, "It
appears that never in our nation’s history has the Executive Branch
imposed military sanctions on a member of Congress for engaging in
disfavored political speech" and that this is put at risk “protected
speech, chill legislative oversight, and threaten reductions in rank and
pay. . . . Each of these actions also signals to retired service
members and members of Congress that criticism of the Executive’s use of
the armed forces may be met with retaliation through military
channels."
The senator spoke with Lawrence last night about the lawsuit.
The US government murdered Renee Nicole Good on January 7th in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. ICE agent Jonathan Ross, a man with years of
training in using a firearm and who provided training to others ("a firearms instructor, an active shooter instructor"),
shot and killed the mother of three who was unarmed. Ross, apparently
needing to make social content while on the clock, filmed her and when
the video was released, the world saw that her last words to him were, "I'm not mad at you." By contrast, he or one of his fellow agents immediately called Renee a "f**king bitch"
after plugged her with three bullets. The federal government
immediately began attacking Good -- even though they should be stating
"I can't comment on an ongoing federal investigation."
Instead, as NPR's Martin Kaste observed on January 9th, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED,
"And I think what's not
normal here is the way the federal officials have been publicly passing
judgment on a case that's still being investigated. For instance, just
today, the vice president posted a video that appears to have come from a
device being held by the agent who shot Renee Good on Wednesday. It
shows Good smiling and saying she's not mad at the officer. But Vance
called the video evidence that the officer was in danger. So there seems
to be a real disconnect right now on the basic level of what the
evidence means."
Billie
Eilish has joined a growing number of artists criticizing U.S.
immigration enforcement following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole
Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis,
prompting a sharp response from the Department of Homeland Security.
In
a series of posts shared with her millions of followers, Billie Eilish
described ICE as a "federally funded and supported terrorist group" and
urged Americans to contact their members of Congress to demand that the
agency be defunded. She also called for the arrest and prosecution of
the officer involved in the shooting and circulated a list of people who
reportedly died in ICE custody last year.
Serial
liar Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin is quoted and we don't quote
her. She's lying and that's her pattern. You lie to the courts, no
one needs to believe you anymore. She's lied to the press repeatedly.
She also has a husband who got a sweetheart -- and unethical deal --
from Kristi Noem. Was the pay off for that unethical deal that she has
to lie now? I have no idea. But known and repeat liars don't get
quoted here.
“At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
In the days since Good (37) was shot and killed by Jonathan Ross, an Ice agent, Trump administration officials have used a variety of arguments as they have tried to justify the episode.
They have called it an act of self-defence,
and Trump has falsely claimed Good “ran over” the agent. JD Vance, the
vice-president, has argued that Ross has “absolute immunity.”
WOULD BE MAGA JARED POLIS IS CONTEMPLATING PARDONING TINA PETERS. REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS, COLORADO GOVERNOR POLIS EXPLAINED, "WELL I'VE ALWAYS BEEN WORTHLESS. BECAUSE I WAS GAY AND RAN AS AN OUT GAY MAN FOR CONGRESS YEARS AGO, YOU MADE THE MISTAKE OF THINKING I HAD BRAVERY. BUT YOU KNEW I DIDN'T. IN FACT, YOU ESPECIALLY KNEW AND CALLED ME ON IT."
"YOU ESPECIALLY" FOUND HIM POINTING AT C.I. AND HE WAS REFERRING TO WHEN NOURI AL-MALIKI WAS OVER IRAQ (DUE TO THE U.S.) AND TARGETED GAY MALES AND MALES WHO MIGHT APPEAR GAY AND WENT AROUND TO SCHOOLS SAYING THAT THEY WERE SATAN AND VAMPIRES AND MUCH WORSE AND IRAQIS RESPONDED BY SEALING THE MALES' ANUSES WITH SUPER GLUE WHCIH WILL KILL A PERSON (AND KILLED MANY). C.I. WAS WRITING ABOUT IT -- AND A NEWSPAPER EVEN STOLE HER WRITING AND PASSED IT OFF AS THEIR OWN. THE OTHER U.S. PAPERS WERE IGNORING THE STORY. JARED WENT ON THE LATE LILA GARRETT'S KPFK RADIO PROGRAM AND TALKED ABOUT IT -- LILA FOUND THE NEWS SHOCKING -- AND C.I. SAID TO JARED, "YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO DO ANYTHING ELSE ON IT, ARE YOU?" AND, NO, HE NEVER DID ANYTHING ELSE ON IT. HE COULD TALK ABOUT IT ON A RADIO SHOW BUT DESPITE BEING A MEMBER OF CONGRESS COWARD POLIS DID NOTHING.
She is not a political prisoner, as alleged by the White House, but a felon charged by a genuine Republican District Attorney in Mesa County and her infractions were confirmed unanimously by a jury of her peers — drawn from a blood-red citizenry that had to include fellow partisans. In her defense, my own assessment tells me her bulb was not the brightest on the Christmas tree at the La Vista Correctional Facility for women in Pueblo during the recent holidays. Stupidity is not a defense, of course, but certainly seems a contributing factor. Judge Mattew Barrett’s sentencing statement is worth reading, as well. The judge identifies her as the most “defiant defendant” he has ever encountered.
Peters was indicted on March 9, 2022, on 13 counts: three counts of attempting to influence a public servant (class 4 felonies), two counts of conspiracy to commit attempting to influence a public servant (class 5 felonies), first-degree official misconduct (a class 2 misdemeanor), violation of duty (a misdemeanor), failing to comply with the secretary of state (a misdemeanor), obstruction, contempt of court, criminal impersonation, and identity theft of Gerald Wood.[64][65] She was reported to have "sought to prove that widespread fraud had occurred in the state's 2020 presidential election",[19][66][67] Knisley was indicted alongside Peters, on six counts: attempt to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, violation of duty, and failure to comply with the requirements of the Secretary of State.[64]
Despite having acknowledged in earlier court appearances that a non-employee had been present,[11] she claimed that Gerald Wood had perjured himself on the stand when he denied being at the unauthorized breach.[65] Conan Hayes admitted to using Wood's badge, and Patrick M. Byrne told The New York Times that Hayes was on his payroll and had used FaceTime with him from inside Mesa County election offices saying a government official invited him to make backup copies of machines. Byrne told the Times he could see Hayes was wearing "someone else's" identification badge.[68] Peters was barred from supervising local elections in 2022 as well.[19][69][18]
Three ethics complaints have also been filed against Peters. On August 16, 2021, she was alleged to have accepted plane rides and other gifts from Mike Lindell in excess of the state gift limit of $65.[70][71] In April 2022, at an appearance with Peters, Lindell disclosed having personally donated an amount in the $200,000 to $800,000 range to her legal defense fund and campaign.[72] As this was also in apparent violation of the $65 state limit, the Colorado ethics commission approved a second ethics complaint that had been made in January 2022 and investigated Peters' elections fund.[73][70][71] Peters denied prior knowledge,[74] despite previously directing supporters to Lindell's legal defense fund.[72] On May 17, 2022, the commission found a third ethics complaint filed on May 9 non-frivolous. This complaint was based on Lindell's comments at an "Election Truth Rally" and alleged that Peters knew of these payments, as evidenced by recorded comments she made at the rally.[75][76]
In July 2022, a warrant was issued for Peters' arrest after she traveled out of state without the required court permission to appear at another Lindell event in Las Vegas.[77] Peters claimed not to know of the restriction, her three attorneys claimed not to have told her, and the arrest order was canceled;[78] but later the same month, a second warrant for her arrest was issued because she emailed multiple county clerk's offices informing them that she was seeking a recount with hand counting, violating the bond conditions of her arrest for election machine tampering. Peters turned herself in, was arrested, was allowed to repost bond, and was again released.[79] County Elections Manager Sandra Brown also turned herself in for arrest on July 11, 2022, on an affidavit naming her in a conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempt to influence a public servant. She was released from custody after posting a personal recognizance bond.[80]
Peters claimed in a July 29 press release that El Paso County's logic and accuracy test (LAT) failed "in a spectacular fashion, with over a 50% error rate out of the 4,000+ ballots tested."[81][82] The release also claimed that "Griswold did not provide reasonable advance notice of the LAT to the Tina Peters Campaign, thereby denying them their right to have an [sic] appointed watchers present during the test," however, the Colorado Springs Gazette showed representatives for Peters' campaign present at the test.[83] Peters filed suit challenging methods used in the recount, and on August 6, 2022, that suit was dismissed.[84]
On August 7, 2022, Peters pled not guilty to all charges related to the alleged election machine tampering, and a trial was set for March 2023.[85] On August 20, 2022, Peters and Sherronna Bishop appeared in a documentary released by Mike Lindell titled "[S]election Code".[86][87][88]
On August 25, 2022, Knisley pled guilty to three misdemeanor counts of trespass, official misconduct, and violation of duty, having cut a plea deal with prosecutors to keep her out of prison in exchange for testifying against Peters and others in the case. Court documents say Knisley admitted she knew about and participated in a "scheme with Tina Peters and other identified people to deceive public servants from both the Colorado Secretary of State's Office and Mesa County."[89] The document continues to state, "This scheme, which was significantly directed by Tina Peters, ultimately permitted an unauthorized individual to gain access to secure areas inside the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's Office so that this person – fraudulently held out to be improperly titled as Gerald Wood, but who was later identified to actually be Conan Hayes – could participate in Mesa County's trusted build with Tina Peters and Sandra Brown."[90]
On November 30, 2022, Sandra Brown pled guilty to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, and official misconduct, a misdemeanor, as part of a plea agreement that required her to testify against Tina Peters and her performance on the witness stand would play a factor in her eventual sentencing. Brown's deal, which 21st Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett did not decide whether to accept until sentencing, would require her to serve up to 30 days in jail for the misdemeanor and would allow the felony conviction to be erased after two years if she complied with conditions he sets, such as requiring community service, for those two years. "There were things going on that I should have questioned and I didn't," Brown told Judge Barrett.[91]
In March 2023, Peters received a Mesa County jury trial for charges related to her recording the court proceedings of Knisley with an iPad and for obstructing investigators who tried to execute a search warrant to seize her iPad with the video footage the next day. During the trial, testimony and statements from Peters' attorney revealed that Tammy Bailey was an alias that Peters had created for herself; during the time of the search warrant, Peters had repeatedly told investigators that the iPad did not belong to her and that she could not provide the password because it belonged to someone else named Tammy Bailey. The jury ultimately convicted her on a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of government operations but acquitted her on the charge that she obstructed a peace officer.[92][63] The court sentenced Peters to four months of house arrest for this misdemeanor, during which she was ordered to wear an ankle monitor, fined $786.35, and ordered to perform 120 hours of community service, which she planned to appeal.[93][94]
Sandra Brown began her 30-day sentence for the misdemeanor of official misconduct. Brown's deal would allow her felony conviction of attempting to influence a public servant to be expunged after two years if she complied with the conditions set by Judge Barrett.[95]
On May 5, 2023, Peters was held in contempt of court for lying to Judge Barrett about recording court proceedings involving Knisley using her iPad on February 7, 2022. Eagle County District Judge Paul Dunkelman gave Peters a fine of $1,500.[61] On September 6, 2023, Peters pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to influence a public servant (felony), conspiracy to commit trying to influence a public servant (felony), criminal impersonation (felony), two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation (felony), identity theft (felony), first-degree official misconduct (misdemeanor), violation of duty (misdemeanor), and failing to comply with the secretary of state (misdemeanor).[96] Her trial was pushed back to February 9, 2024,[97] with the jury selection process to take place on the two preceding days.[98]
On July 19, 2023, Tina Peters fired her attorney, Harvey Steinberg, and hired new attorneys, Douglas Richards and Madalia Maalik. They requested to push the trial to October 18–30, 2023.[99]
On November 13, 2023, Peters filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Denver, Colorado against the United States, U.S. Attorney GeneralMerrick Garland, 21st Judicial District Court Attorney Daniel Rubinstein, and Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. The suit alleged that these government officials violated her constitutional rights by retaliating with investigations and charges against her for her alleged misconduct as an election official when she raised election integrity concerns in the 2020 General Election.[100]
In February 2024, Peters was scheduled to go to court for her criminal case but had fired her attorneys again, claiming to have COVID-19. Attorney Michael Edminister took over the case from Douglas Richards and other attorneys in the Richards Carrington law firm, making him the fifth attorney of record and the fourth time her case has been postponed.[101] The trial was again delayed until the July and August 2024.[102]
Peters attempted to have the charges against her dismissed several times. U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang dismissed Peters' motion to dismiss the criminal investigation citing a failure to state a claim, a lack of standing, and a lack of jurisdiction to dismiss the case.[103][104] The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals denied her appeal of that decision, with a unanimous 3–0 ruling affirming the lower court's decision.[105][106] Then, the Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United StatesNeil Gorsuch denied Peters' application for an injunction to dismiss or halt a criminal trial against her.[107][108] The trial then proceeded.
Conviction and sentencing
Peters was convicted in August 2024 on seven of ten charges of engaging in a security breach to advance a false conspiracy theory of election fraud. Four of the convictions were for felonies.[27][109] On the day after her conviction, she appeared on the Steve BannonWar Room podcast to insist she would continue to pursue her allegations, referring to a debunked theory originating from former Michigan politician Patrick Colbeck and amplified on Twitter by Rasmussen Reports alleging Dominion engineers based in Serbia could change votes over the internet.[110][111]
Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison and immediately taken into custody in October 2024.[112] At her sentencing, District Court Judge Matthew Barrett told Peters, "Your lies are well documented... I'm convinced you'd do it all over again if you could."[113] Peters told the judge, "I've never done anything with malice to break the law. I've only wanted to serve the people of Mesa County."[112] Barrett told her, "You are no hero. You're a charlatan who used, and is still using, your prior position in office to peddle a snake oil that's been proven to be junk time and time again."[29] Subsequent to the sentencing the courthouse increased security after receiving threats to the judge and staff.[114]
On February 7, 2025 Peters filed a federal habeas corpus petition in U.S. District Court of Colorado, arguing that she should be released on bond pending the appeal decision. Peters asked the court to appear at the hearing remotely from jail in Pueblo, but the judge denied the request.[115] Her petition for release pending appeal was denied by Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak on December 8, 2025.[116]
In May 2025, President Donald Trump directed the U.S. Department of Justice to take actions to secure Peters' release. In August 2025, Trump issued a social media statement warning that "harsh measures" would be imposed on Colorado if Peters was not released.[117] On November 12, the Colorado Department of Corrections received a letter from the Federal Bureau of Prisons asking to move Peters to federal custody,[118] a request denied by state prison officials and Colorado Governor Jared Polis.[119] On December 11, Trump said he had pardoned Peters, despite having no jurisdiction over convictions under state law. Colorado officials rejected the pardon for lack of jurisdiction.[120] On December 23, Peters asked the state appeals court to recognize the federal pardon.[121] On December 31, Trump posted to social media that the governor was a "Scumbag" and the district attorney was "disgusting". He said: "I wish them only the worst. May they rot in Hell."[122]
I understand she'll do anything for Mardi Gras beads -- anything. But for the next four weeks, she's mainly going to keep attacking an American citizen shot dead by Chump's gestapo forces that she overseas.
Taking time away from both her husband and also her long alleged boyfriend, Homeland Security Tramp and Monster Kristi Noem appeared on CNN's STATE OF THE UNION. John Bowden (INDEPENDENT) reports:
The shooting of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, prompted hundreds of thousands of Americans to protest across the country this weekend.
Ross can be heard on his own cell phone video calling Good a “f***ing b****” before firing into the vehicle as it appears to turn away from his direction. Whether the officer was struck by the side of the car is unclear.
The secretary attempted to blame Democrats and the media for prejudging the officer’s guilt, but had no response when the State of the Union host questioned whether the administration’s stalwart defense of the officer’s actions would harm future investigations.
The whore wants to set the standard for what's allowed. I don't take standard recommendations from 'family values' politicians who are married and have public allegations -- even published in THE NEW YORK POST -- that they are having an ongoing, years-plus affair with another man -- a man that they have brought in as their co-worker at Homeland Security. If I wanted to know a really good mattress, I'd take Kristi's opinion on that or even some really good lubricants. Maybe she's got something to share if you end up with a venereal disease? But I'm not interested in a tramp giving me lectures on standards and what's wrong.
As Mika noted in the MORNING JOE video protests took place around the country over the weekend as a result of the US government murdering Renee Nicole Good.
The US government murdered Renee Nicole Good on January 7th in Minneapolis, Minnesota. ICE agent Jonathan Ross, a man with years of training in using a firearm and who provided training to others ("a firearms instructor, an active shooter instructor"), shot and killed the mother of three who was unarmed. Ross, apparently needing to make social content while on the clock, filmed her and when the video was released, the world saw that her last words to him were, "I'm not mad at you." By contrast, he or one of his fellow agents immediately called Renee a "f**king bitch" after plugged her with three bullets. The federal government immediately began attacking Good -- even though they should be stating "I can't comment on an ongoing federal investigation."
Instead, as NPR's Martin Kaste observed on January 9th, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, "And I think what's not normal here is the way the federal officials have been publicly passing judgment on a case that's still being investigated. For instance, just today, the vice president posted a video that appears to have come from a device being held by the agent who shot Renee Good on Wednesday. It shows Good smiling and saying she's not mad at the officer. But Vance called the video evidence that the officer was in danger. So there seems to be a real disconnect right now on the basic level of what the evidence means." Fat and little Vice president JD Vance is a professional troll but his efforts this time are especially outrageous. John Grosso (NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER) observed:
Yesterday (Jan. 7), 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed in a residential Minneapolis neighborhood by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Good was a mother of three and an U.S. citizen.
Today, JD Vance has taken to social media to justify the shooting and blame Good for her own death.
Though the full circumstances of the situation are still coming to light, widely available video evidence shows the horrific moments before, during and after shots were fired into Good's car. Videos of the shooting and the ensuing aftermath are graphic and disturbing. After Good was shot, her car accelerates, slamming into another car and a pole. In one video, a person can be heard identifying themselves as a physician and offering to help only to be angrily denied by an unidentified ICE agent saying: "I don't care."
The Trump administration was quick to demonize Good. Within hours of the event and before a formal investigation could even be launched, Homeland Security Director Kristi Noem labeled Good's actions as an "act of domestic terrorism." President Donald Trump on Jan. 7 labeled her as "disorderly, obstructing and resisting, who then violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE Officer." Trump went on to say that the ICE officer was lucky to be alive and "is now recovering in the hospital."
[. . .]
As a Catholic, Vance knows better than to peddle this brand of gaslighting and agitation. Vance knows that, by virtue of her humanity, Good was endowed with inherent dignity, made in the image and likeness of God. Vance knows that only God can take life. Vance knows that protesting, fleeing or even interfering in an ICE investigation (which there is no evidence that Good did) does not carry a death sentence. Vance knows that lying and killing are sins.
Vance knows. He doesn't care. Vance’s twisted and wrongheaded view of Christianity has been repudiated by two popes. His Catholicism seems to be little more than a political prop, a tool only for his career ambitions and desire for power.
The vice president's comments justifying the death of Renee Good are a moral stain on the collective witness of our Catholic faith. His repeated attempts to blame Good for her own death are fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel. Our only recourse is to pray for his conversion of heart.
Mike's response to Vance's outrageous lies, "As a Catholic, I'm sick of this little bitch distorting my religion. He needs to be excommunicated. I'm not joking. He is presenting as a Catholic -- he's been a Catholic for about five minutes -- and he is distorting our beliefs and our teaching. Two popes have repudiated him -- Pope Francis and now Pope Leo. Excommunicate Vance, don't let him speak for the Church or pose as a Catholic. Whatever crap he was raised before distorted his damn mind. We cannot allow him to pervert the Catholic faith."
After Renee Nicole Good was shot and killed in her minivan by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, Vice President JD Vance called her murder “a tragedy of her own making” and claimed that Ms. Good, a community activist and a mother of three, was “part of a broader left-wing network to attack, to dox, to assault and to make it impossible for our ICE officers to do their job.”
Mr. Vance claimed further that Ms. Good “viciously ran over the ICE officer” who shot and killed her, an assertion contradicted by video evidence taken from multiple angles.
Why the obvious lie? Because, similar to Ms. Kirkpatrick and Mr. Haig, Mr. Vance recognizes the potential for this atrocity to turn American public opinion against President Trump’s brutal campaign against undocumented immigrants, particularly because Ms. Good is an American citizen, was apparently denied medical assistance by ICE agents after the shooting and, according to the video evidence, posed no real threat to the shooter. Not even the most fervent supporter of the arrest and deportation of undocumented migrants, one assumes, would defend such Gestapo-like tactics.
The answer? Blame Ms. Good for her own murder.
Mr. Vance’s boss, President Trump, has engaged in further deceit and hyperbole in support of that same goal, claiming that Ms. Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer, who seems to have shot her in self-defense.” She made for an easy culprit for a man desperate to justify ICE’s actions. After all, she was already dead.
The murder of the churchwomen in El Salvador in 1980 was not an isolated incident; they shared the fate of tens of thousands of other Salvadorans, including Rutilio Grande, S.J., St. Oscar Romero, and the six Jesuits and two laywomen who were murdered by the Salvadoran military in 1989 in San Salvador. Eventually, the overwhelming evidence of these murders became too much for American politicians to justify, and U.S. funding for the Salvadoran military government dried up. It just became impossible to believe the lie anymore.
On the 40th anniversary of the martyrdom of the churchwomen of El Salvador, Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., preached at a memorial Mass in Rome on the impact of their witness. “Theirs, mysteriously but without doubt, is the triumph because vigorous, courageous acts of solidarity and compassion persist in dreadful, risky conditions,” he said. “Brutal claims failed and fail to stop the evangelizing.”
Let us hope the same will happen in Minneapolis. Nothing can bring Renee Good back; her 6-year-old son is without his mother now, her partner a widow. The masked man who killed her simply drove away. Nor is her death an isolated incident: All over the country, we hear and see more and more examples of violent attacks by masked ICE agents who seem to face no accountability for their crimes. And we hear the brutal claims used after the fact to justify them.
How long before it simply becomes impossible to believe the lie anymore?
Whitney Curry Wimbish (TAP) notes of Kristi Noem, "Noem repeated the lie that the officer who shot Good to death had done nothing wrong and that officers had been “surrounded, assaulted, and blocked in by protesters,” something contradicted by video and eyewitness evidence. She also said that Good had been following officers all day prior to her murder, but would not say for how long or whether there had been earlier interactions, or how many, between Good and the officers."
I’m Kelly Hayes. I’ve been organizing for justice for years in this city, and I’ve had the honor of working and thinking alongside many of you in recent months as we’ve held our ground in defense of our neighbors. We are gathered here tonight in the cold, among people of conscience, among neighbors who see themselves in the person who was gunned down in Minneapolis today. She was 37 years old and her name was Renee Nicole Good. She was the mother of a six-year-old child. Her mother described her as “loving, forgiving and affectionate,” and called her “an amazing human being.”
We grieve for Renee, her family, and her community, but even before we knew anything about Renee — including her name — many of us were shaken by her violent death, because a moment that feels inevitable can still be shocking.
Even though we know ICE has killed before — and will again — even though they shot a woman in Chicago and told lies like the lies they are telling now, even though they are fascist purveyors of violence — their brutality has not hardened or corrupted us. We are still shaken and heartbroken by their violence. That is the cost of staying human in inhuman times — and it’s a cost we pay in defense of our neighbors and in defense of our own humanity. We feel what they would have us ignore, and we grieve the violence that their cultish followers applaud.
There is power in grief, because grief draws us together in moments when our enemies would tear us apart. Trump, Miller, Bovino, and DHS want us to believe their violence is inevitable. They want it to become the background noise of our lives — not something we respond to with love, tears, and action. They want us to give up on what the world could be, abandon our decency, and abandon each other. They want us to submit to their violence, and to accept that the cost of disrupting their attacks on our communities is death. And if we refuse to forget our neighbors — if we refuse to become dead inside — they want us to live in fear. They want us terrorized, afraid to show up for each other the way the people of Minneapolis have shown up — and the way Chicago has shown up.
And while this violence didn’t occur in our city, we know what it’s like to have their guns drawn on us. We understand the terror Minneapolis is facing, and we feel their loss deeply. A federal agent shot and killed Renee Nicole Good. And with that shot, ICE took aim at every city where people have dared to organize against their violence, every place where neighbors have chosen each other over fear. But people of conscience will not be cowed. Today, I saw our siblings in struggle in Minneapolis chanting, “You can’t kill us all.”
I am grateful to the people of Minneapolis tonight. Their courage in the wake of this violence is a bright light for us to rally around. They have mobilized — just as we have mobilized — to protect one another, to love one another, and to tell ICE to get the fuck out of their communities. And what they have found together — what we have found together, what so many communities have found together through collective efforts to create as much safety and justice as possible — will not be destroyed by acts of violence and repression.
They want us to scatter in fear, to give up hope, and to give up on each other. But we will hold more tightly to one another, plan more strategically, and care even more deeply. We will resist the normalization of their violence, the immobilization of fear, and the sense of inevitability they would impose upon us. We will do what our courageous friends in Minneapolis have done today. We will be a light to all those who resist — to those forced to hide or live in fear, to those who want to love and practice care bravely. We will be a reminder of what people can do when they refuse to give up, and when they refuse to give up on each other.
Renee was not a terrorist. She is an American citizen who was murdered. And the liars in this administration took to the Sunday chat & chews to lie about a dead American who the government killed. Tom Holman and Kristi were among the liars who showed up on the Sunday chat & chews. Some truth tellers also showed up. On NBC's MEET THE PRESS this morning, Senator Chris Murphy called for ICE to stop breaking the law and return to pre-Kristi Noem policies:
We're simply talking about, you know, essentially going back to the way that ICE was operating when they cared about legality, right? Identification of officers, that's something that has been standard practice in every law enforcement agency all across the country. CBP, who are supposed to be at the border, protecting us at the border, operating in the interior with no training on how to deal with complex urban environments, that's brand new. So we just need to get back to a Department of Homeland Security that is prioritizing the law and prioritizing keeping people safe. And yes, I think it is reasonable for Democrats speaking on behalf of the majority of the American public who don't approve of what ICE is doing to say, "If you want to fund the Department of Homeland Security, I want to fund a Department of Homeland Security that is operating in a safe and legal manner."
