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Right-wing activist who led crusade against local teacher for 'grooming' kids hires notorious Nazi-representing lawyer
July 01, 2022
A right-wing activist in Maine who is being sued by local school department for allegedly harassing a teacher has retained the legal services of an attorney notorious for representing neo-Nazis.
The Bangor Daily News reports that conservative activist Shawn McBreairty is being sued by the Hermon School Department for allegedly directing a harassment campaign against a teacher whom he has accused of being a "sexual predator" who is "head of the hypersexualization movement" in the school.
To combat the lawsuit, McBreairty has hired attorney Marc Randazza, who in the past has represented far-right figures including InfoWars founder Alex Jones, and Andrew Anglin, the publisher of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer.
Randazza isn't only notorious for defending controversial clients, however, as the Bangor Daily News notes that he has either investigated or disciplined for misconduct in four different states.
"In September 2020, the Florida Supreme Court placed Randazza on probation for a year for violating conflict of interest rules and ordered him to pay a $2,000 fine after he negotiated a settlement with a company, Oron, while engaging in litigation against the company as in-house counsel for Liberty Media, a Las Vegas-based pornography studio," the newspaper writes. "In Nevada, the bar association filed a complaint in 2016, after which Randazza pleaded guilty to two violations in 2018, for bribing Oron and for lending a client money “without informing the client in writing of the desirability of obtaining independent counsel,” according to legal records."
Given his past ethics sanctions, a judge in Connecticut barred him from representing Alex Jones in the defamation case filed against him by parents whose children Jones falsely accused of being "crisis actors" after they were murdered at the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.
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'Shadowy' GOP-linked group in Houston knocking on doors in mostly Black neighborhood seeking sensitive voter info
July 01, 2022
A Houston resident said two men wearing Texas Election Network badges came to her door asking her to sign an affidavit verifying her voter address "under penalty of perjury."
The Harris County attorney's office is investigating complaints that members of the Republican-connected grass-roots organization were snooping around the Sunnyside neighborhood, where about 75 percent of residents are Black and 20 percent are Hispanic, and asking residents to sign official-looking documents, reported the Houston Chronicle.
“The people canvassing residents are grass-roots volunteers for the nonprofit organization called Texas Election Network and they are wearing badges that clearly state the name of the organization with the nonprofit registration number on the back," said Alan Vera, chair of the county GOP's ballot security committee and a Texas Election Network board member. "These volunteers are not employees of any political party. The nonprofit’s mission is to empower citizens to ensure and protect fair and transparent elections."
READ MORE: Two Trump-loving attorneys general just suffered a humiliating defeat
The county elections office issued a warning Wednesday against "scammers" pretending to be government officials and collecting sensitive personal information, but the county attorney's office said they had not found evidence that anyone had misrepresented themselves as a public employee, which is illegal.
"I'm sure they'll say they're just a bland nonprofit, but to a voter who does not have a law degree, who does not have a background in law enforcement, you are a lot more likely to believe that this is some kind of quasi-official visit," said James Slattery, senior staff attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project. "This is one of the precise situations I have been most worried about this election — people in shadowy volunteer groups who suggest in one way or another that they are acting under official authority questioning the eligibility of voters directly by knocking on their doors."
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday filed an appeal against his extradition to the United States, as supporters denounced the British government.
Assange, who turns 51 on Sunday, has been held in a high-security prison since 2019.
On Friday his wife Stella was among dozens of people who demonstrated outside Britain's interior ministry to demand his release.
Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the extradition last month, but court officials confirmed to AFP an application to appeal had been received on Friday.
"We're not at the end of the road here," Stella Assange, who married the Australian publisher earlier this year, told reporters when Patel announced her decision.
"We're going to fight this. We're going to use every appeal avenue."
Assange is wanted to face trial for allegedly violating the US Espionage Act by publishing military and diplomatic files in 2010, related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
He could face decades in jail if found guilty, but supporters portray him as a martyr to press freedom after he was taken into UK custody following a years-long stay in Ecuador's embassy.
"He's been in prison for telling the truth," supporter Gloria Wildman, 79, told AFP at Friday's protest.
"If Julian Assange is not free, neither are we, none of us is free," she said.
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