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At an emotional City Council meeting Thursday, families of the Robb Elementary School shooting victims demanded the mayor release details from the investigation. Mayor Don McLaughlin told them he didn’t have any new information and the city can’t share anything with the public because of the ongoing investigation.
“Nobody’s giving us any answers, it’s been over a month, you have no idea how frustrating that is. We’re sitting here, just listening to empty words,” said the sister of Irma Garcia, one of two teachers who was killed in the May 24 massacre along with 19 students. She didn’t identify herself by name when she addressed the City Council.
Tina Quintanilla-Taylor, whose daughter survived the shooting, also made a plea to state leaders who have details of the investigation and haven’t shared them with the community: “Show your face. Answer our questions, now,” she said, facing TV news cameras.
Some family members also demanded to know why Pete Arredondo, a City Council member and school district police chief whose actions during the shooting have brought withering criticism, failed to show up to his second consecutive City Council meeting. According to the city charter, the City Council could vacate the seat if Arredondo misses a third consecutive meeting.
McLaughlin told family members that if city officials released details about the shooting investigation, they could be prosecuted, citing letters from the Texas Department of Public Safety and Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell Busbee requesting that no information be released until the investigation is complete.
The shooting is being investigated by the Texas Rangers, who are part of DPS, and the FBI.
In the letter dated June 8, Busbee does not mention prosecuting anyone, but says that “Any release of records to that incident at this time would interfere with said ongoing investigation and would impede a thorough and complete investigation.”
Busbee didn’t return a phone message from The Texas Tribune seeking comment Thursday.
The shooting by an 18-year-old Uvalde man — who was killed by law enforcement after they waited more than an hour to confront the shooter — is the worst K-12 school shooting in the country since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
The aftermath has brought anguished questions from parents and residents who are demanding answers, as well as finger-pointing between state and local officials over what most law enforcement experts agree was a botched response by police as children were being slain inside the school.
During the council meeting, family members discussed the idea of starting an effort to recall Busbee. McLaughlin also offered to resign if Uvalde residents felt he wasn’t doing his job
“I’m not a quitter. But if this community feels like I haven’t done a good job as mayor and they want me to resign, I’d be happy to,” he said.
The meeting came as a state House committee held its second straight day of private interviews as part of an investigation of the shooting. The committee, which is chaired by state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, heard testimony from the mayor, teachers and Uvalde police and state police officers.
Burrows has said he believes witnesses would give more candid testimony away from the public eye.
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Trump World prepping for 'worst-case scenarios' as investigations expand on multiple fronts: legal expert
June 30, 2022
MSNBC chief legal correspondent Ari Melber reported on Thursday that Donald Trump's political and legal operations are preparing for "worst-case scenarios" as investigations expand.
"We are tracking news in the insurrection probe with further fallout and cracks after that blockbuster testimony against Trump has really ricocheted around the nation. the testimony linked trump to the violence of that coup attempt, turbocharging Trumpworld anxieties as they prep for even worst-case scenarios," Melber reported.
"And there are more and more dominos falling on the right pause because of the power of this factual evidence.Take the Republican prosecutor we have cited before, Andrew McCarthy. He's a Fox News favorite who wrote a whole book defending Trump in the Mueller probe and accusing others of pushing the real collusion, which is one reason he is on Fox quite a bit and has a huge conservative legal following," he explained.
"He says, when you look at the evidence, as a criminal-legal matter, it is devastating against Trump and that the new evidence in that hearing makes a big difference. He is saying this in public and this week he is now emphasizing that really as far as he is concerned, for the first time, there is now direct evidence showing Trump committed crimes, and backed violence," Melber said.
Melber said it did not look like any of the investigations were winding down.
"So take it all together and what do you see coming in view? This is not the sign of some random kind of Washington process that is just winding down. The committee is not acting like that, the witness aren't acting like that, the Justice Department is not acting like that as it seizes phones and raids homes," Melber said.
Watch below or at this link.
Ari Melber youtu.be
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Trump admin official: Return of mysterious conspiracy theorist could threaten the life of J6 witness Cassidy Hutchinson
June 30, 2022
The targeting of Jan. 6 star witness Cassidy Hutchinson by the mysterious internet account behind the QAnon conspiracy theory could pose a threat to her safety, a former deputy director of the FBI told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday
"Well, another person lining up against Cassidy Hutchinson is the online poster, q, whose completely absurd posts, which would be laughably cryptic and are actually never accurate are at the heart of the movement," CNN's Anderson Cooper reported. "After 18 months of silence, the Q account is back and on Wednesday, it aimed its conspiracies towards Hutchinson."
"It's really too stupid to even show the posts of this Q person, but they contain numerous cryptic questions and ended with asking who is Cassidy Hutchinson? And 'trust the plan,' which is a common Q catchphrase. the q stuff would be funny if it didn't have real-world consequences, the FBI says it's arrested more than 20 people involved in Capitol riots who said they followed Qanon."
Cooper replayed an interview with a former member of the cult who thought he himself was "worshipping Satan, drinking the blood of children" after the CNN anchor was mentioned by Q.
RELATED: Trump ally under renewed scrutiny from J6 Committee after attacking Hutchinson's credibility: report
For analysis, Cooper interviewed former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.
"Andrew, what is the significance of Q mentioning Hutchinson and what could be, do you think, the real-world consequences?" Cooper asked.
McCabe said, "There is no significance to the post beyond the fact that he included her name specifically. It's not because he said anything logical or factual, it's just the existence of her name in that post turns her into a target for people who ascribe to these beliefs."
He said the fact her name was listed is "very, very damaging to her in terms of the attention it will bring who believe in, who knows which of the Qanon conspiracies."
"And so if you toss this young woman's name into that conversation, into that froth, you run the risk that someone who is following these things and who's projecting their own rage and their dissatisfaction about whatever it is in life they're mad about is going to attach her to that and one of those people, maybe more than one, might decide to take the matter into their own hands and resort to an act of violence in the exact same way that the young man from North Carolina did about the nonsense around Comet Ping-Pong Pizza, the pizza restaurant here in Washington, D.C. when he had been digesting this material, got in his car, drove to D.C. on a Sunday with an AR-15 intending to shoot up the place."
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