A former Republican lawmaker says ex-President Donald Trump "is done" after Jenna Ellis admitted to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigators that she was told he wouldn't leave the White House, despite having lost the 2020 election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges and decried the Georgia election fraud case as a "witch hunt." On Tuesday, a representative for Rudy Giuliani, who worked closely with Ellis, issued a statement demanding his charges be dropped based on evidence given by Sidney Powell.
This is not the first time Kinzinger, one of two House Republicans to join the Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, has criticized Trump.
Longtime Donald Trump associate Sidney Powell, an attorney who pushed election conspiracy theories that were espoused by a woman who believes she can speak with the wind, has taken a plea agreement in the Georgia election racketeering case — and part of her agreement involved admitting that the former president called her several times to check in on how her legal efforts to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election were coming along.
That's a problem, notedWashington Post reporter Aaron Blake on X, because it contradicts a defense that the former president made on his Truth Social platform attempting to throw Powell under the bus.
"Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS," Trump said at the time. "In fact, she would have been conflicted."
This was already at odds with a great deal of public evidence.
For example, on December 14, 2020, Trump posted on social media welcoming Powell, along with Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani, as "a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives" who would work on "the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS."
This at the very least implies that he had retained Powell for legal services. Moreover, prior reports indicate Trump strongly considered appointing Powell as a special counsel to investigate fraud, and Giuliani stepped in to prevent this from happening.
All of this comes as Trump is facing an ultimatum from Judge Tanya Chutkan in the federal 2020 election case to declare whether or not he is going to rely on an "advice of counsel" defense for his actions — which would potentially blame his attorneys for his actions, but also invalidate attorney-client privilege and leave his communications with his attorneys open to examination.
ABC News revealed clips of the proffer session from Fulton County with Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell on Monday, revealing previously unknown details about the aftermath of the 2020 election.
In Ellis' case, a White House aide told the former Donald Trump lawyer that they weren't leaving. They would hole up in the White House and refuse to leave. That ultimately didn't happen, and it's unclear why.
Powell told prosecutors she planned to take voting machines from around the country, and she frequently communicated with Trump to overturn 2020. She specifically mentioned her effort to seize voting machines.
"Did I know anything about election law? No," she told Fulton County. "But I understand fraud from having been a prosecutor for 10 years, and knew generally what the fraud suit should be if the evidence showed what I thought it showed."
Powell agreed to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors in the county, accepting six years of probation.
In response to Raw Story's report, Ted Goodman, political advisor to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, sent the following statement:
"The government's main witness, Sidney Powell, just cleared Rudy Giuliani from any involvement in a conspiracy by making it unequivocally clear that Rudy Giuliani told her that he would never work with her on anything, under any circumstances. If Fani Willis had any integrity, she'd dismiss the case against Rudy Giuliani and end this farce of a trial designed solely to keep President Donald Trump out of the White House in 2024."
An attorney who tearfully accepted a plea deal in the Georgia election fraud case against Donald Trump says she was told the former president “was not going to leave” the White House after losing the 2020 election, according to a new report.
Jenna Ellis detailed to investigators from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ office a White House Christmas party conversation she'd had with former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, according to recordings obtained by ABC News.
"The boss is not going to leave under any circumstances," Scavino reportedly said in an excited tone. “We are just going to stay in power.”
Neither Scavino nor the Fulton County District Attorney responded to ABC News’ request for comment, which was declined by Ellis’ attorneys. Steve Sadow, Trump’s lead attorney in the Georgia criminal corruption case, called Ellis’s statement “bogus.”
"If this is the type of bogus, ridiculous 'evidence' DA Willis intends to rely upon, it is one more reason that this political travesty of a case must be dismissed,” Sadow told ABC News.
Ellis was initially one of 19 co-defendants in the racketeering indictment Willis filed in August, but has since joined a growing number of “flips” who’ve accepted plea deals in exchange for testimony.
According to ABC News, Ellis told Willis’ team that she was puzzled by Scavino’s statement.
“I said to him, 'Well, it doesn't quite work that way, you realize?'”
According to Ellis, Scavino replied, “We don't care."
In response to Raw Story's reports about Ellis and Sidney Powell, Ted Goodman, political advisor to Mayor Rudy Giuliani, sent the following statement:
"The government's main witness, Sidney Powell, just cleared Rudy Giuliani from any involvement in a conspiracy by making it unequivocally clear that Rudy Giuliani told her that he would never work with her on anything, under any circumstances. If Fani Willis had any integrity, she'd dismiss the case against Rudy Giuliani and end this farce of a trial designed solely to keep President Donald Trump out of the White House in 2024."
Following a request to Donald Trump from Judge Tanya Chutkan over whether he will use the "advice of counsel" defense in his Washington D.C. trial related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, one former prosecutor claimed it won't fly and the former president will have painted himself into a corner if he attempts it.
Speaking with MSNBC host Katie Phang, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner claimed the judge is putting the former president and his legal team in a difficult position.
"Here is the problem, Katie," he began. "One of Donald Trump's lead attorneys, Rudy Giuliani was investigated by [special counsel] Jack Smith to see if he was intoxicated during the time he was giving legal advice to Donald Trump on and around January 6th. Guess what? There is no advice of drunk counsel defense."
"But even worse, Donald Trump, in an interview with, I believe, [NBC's] Kristen Welker said, 'You know what? I did not really rely on my lawyers. I relied on my own instincts.' Guess what? There is no reliance on your own instincts' defense."
"I hope he goes with that one because his instincts are often corrupt if not criminal," he quipped before continuing, "But here's the most dramatic problem for Trump: his counsel, his lawyers like Rudy Giuliani, and Sidney Powell, and Kenneth Chesebro and John Eastman are his charged co-conspirators and co-defendants in the Georgia RICO case and, the one thing I can tell our viewers is there is no such thing as an advice of co-conspirator defense."
"Donald Trump has nowhere to turn on this one," he pronounced.
House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) displays a flag associated with Christian extremism outside his office at the U.S. Capitol.
The Louisiana Republican posted flags outside his office representing the United States and Louisiana, along with a Revolutionary War-era "Appeal to Heaven" flag, which has become associated with New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) network seeking to place the government under right-wing Christian control, reported Rolling Stone.
The white flag shows an evergreen tree in the center and black letters spelling out "An Appeal to Heaven" at the top, and it was originally commissioned by George Washington as a naval flag for Massachusetts.
But for the past decade it has become a symbol of the NAR movement and their goal of establishing a “Seven Mountain Mandate" over the government.
"The 'Mandate,' as they understand it, is given by God for Christians to 'take dominion' and 'conquer' the tops of all seven of these sectors and have Christian influence flow down into the rest of society," reported Bradley Onishi and Matthew D. Taylor for the magazine. "Drawn into American politics by this aggressive theological vision, many New Apostolic Reformation leaders became very active in right-wing political circles, including one of C. Peter Wagner’s key disciples, an apostle-prophet named Dutch Sheets. Sheets is not a household name in Christian politics like Jerry Falwell or Ralph Reed or James Dobson, but he has real influence."
Sheets was given an "Appeal to Heaven" flag in 2013 by a friend who described it as the banner that flew over the nation at its birth because it predated the Stars and Stripes, and he seized upon it as a symbol of the spiritual warfare he believed would be necessary to complete a Christian nationalist revolution, and he published a book on the topic in 2015, the same year Sarah Palin endorsed his efforts an opinion piece in Breitbart after he gave her a flag.
The NAR movement and Sheets endorsed Trump's candidacy early on, and dozens of "Appeal to Heaven" flags were carried to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Sheets and his team were in Washington, D.C., eight days before the insurrection and stayed at the Willard Hotel, where Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon set up war rooms ahead of Jan. 6, and Sheets and 14 other NAR prophets held a multi-hour meeting at the White House with Trump administration officials, although it's not clear which officials were there.
A spokesman for Johnson told Rolling Stone that all members of Congress may post three flags outside their office, and said the speaker appreciates the “rich history of the flag."
“Rep. Johnson’s Appeal to Heaven flag was a gift to him and other members of Congress by Pastor Dan Cummins, who has served as a guest chaplain for the House of Representatives over a dozen times, under Speakers from both parties,” the spokesperson said.
This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
A 21-year-old police recruit stood in the early morning winter darkness, unsure of what had just happened inside the Comfort Suites in Grand Chute, Wisconsin.
After a night of heavy drinking she awoke partially clothed in a hotel bathtub. Two male academy recruits — from Appleton and Sheboygan — were dousing her feet with cold water and slapping her awake. She dressed and fled the hotel room, but still felt too drunk to drive, so she phoned a trusted co-worker at the Grand Chute Police Department.
After the officer brought her to the police station, she described her ordeal and raised the possibility that she had been sexually assaulted. A DNA swab and blood test were taken at the hospital. She later told Wisconsin Watch she felt confused and still intoxicated during the initial interview.
“Some of the things that I told them — when I was reading the report — I didn’t even remember telling them,” she said.
The two men involved initially gave conflicting accounts of what happened. DNA results that came back almost two months later confirmed one of the men in the hotel room had sex with her. Yet within 34 hours of the reported assault, the Grand Chute Police Department decided not to refer criminal charges to the district attorney and within a week forced her to resign over an unrelated disciplinary complaint.
Wisconsin Watch obtained internal reports, reviewed the evidence and spoke to criminal justice experts. It found in a case like this, in which a police department employee is an alleged crime victim, Wisconsin has no clear standard for when an outside agency must be involved to avoid a potential conflict of interest either in the law or through professional guidelines.
Wisconsin has adopted a constitutional amendment, known as Marsy’s Law, guaranteeing a crime victim’s right to fairness in the justice system. Grand Chute police cited the law in refusing to release the report or details of the incident to Wisconsin Watch, the latest example of a Wisconsin police department using Marsy’s Law to shield individual police officers from scrutiny.
Wisconsin Watch learned about the Grand Chute sexual assault allegations as part of its initial investigation into the Sheboygan police department and then identified, located and made initial contact with the woman involved. Wisconsin Watch is not naming the parties because it does not typically name alleged sexual assault victims and because the two men involved have not been charged with a crime.
The woman involved said she felt the department used the separate disciplinary review as a pretext to force her out after she reported the assault. Official records show only that she abruptly resigned from the police department before graduating from the law enforcement academy.
“I feel so betrayed by law enforcement as a whole,” she said.
She said because her allegations involved officers from two partner agencies and she was subject to an internal review, her employer should have called in an outside agency like it does for a police shooting.
“I don't think Grand Chute should have investigated it,” she said. “I think they should have called in other people.”
A parallel administrative investigation by Fox Valley Technical College, where the three were enrolled, found the woman’s account — that she was too intoxicated to consent to sex — was credible. The investigation led to both men being suspended from the law enforcement academy.
Shortly after the incident they were both out of a job within their respective departments.
The two men did not respond to calls, voicemails, text messages and emails for comment.
‘There’s no reason I can’t do this’
The female recruit grew up in a small suburban Appleton community. She didn’t have any family in law enforcement and never imagined she would work as a police officer.
“As a child, I always kind of admired the profession,” she said.
She wanted to help people in need and began training to be an EMT. But she found it unfulfilling and was drawn to working closer to her own community. She enrolled in criminal justice courses and said the subject fascinated her.
“There’s no reason I can’t do this,” she recalled thinking, “just because I don’t have a family legacy.”
A Portrait of a former police recruit taken near her home outside of Wisconsin on Sept. 17, 2023. The woman says she doesn’t think the Grand Chute Police Department should have investigated her sexual assault allegations against two law enforcement academy classmates. (Jenn Ackerman for Wisconsin Watch)
Shortly after her 20th birthday, Grand Chute’s police department hired her as a community service officer — a part-time civilian employee who investigates minor complaints such as off-leash dogs and parking violations.
The entry level program is often a precursor to the 18-week police academy.A year and a half into her employment, she learned someone filed a complaint alleging she disparaged the department in front of academy students and used a slur to refer to a co-worker with whom she had clashed, which she disputes.
The complaint also alleged she occasionally talked with a co-worker while leaving a phone call on hold and neglected to conduct neighborhood patrol checks, which she acknowledged.
The review was opened in early January 2022. She said at first she was assured it would take a week or two, but it dragged on without resolution. She said she threatened to quit in February but was told she would get no reference from the department if she did.
“The inquiry was going on for so long,” she said. “I was like, I just want this to be done with.”
A night out after success on the shooting range
Fox Valley Technical College’s law enforcement academy recruits were out on March 2, 2022 — a Wednesday evening — to celebrate passing their firearms qualification. The woman met a friend at a steakhouse for dinner and a cocktail after class, and she later spotted the two academy classmates.
The trio next went to the lobby bar of the Comfort Suites where one of the men was staying, before heading to The Peppermint Hippo strip club in Neenah for more drinks.
“On the car ride back to the hotel I couldn’t even hold my own head up,” she recalled.
By the time they returned to the Comfort Suites, she told investigators, she had between six and nine mixed drinks and as many as three shots over the course of the evening.
“One of the things that registered as a red flag to me — after the fact — was that the only drink I paid for myself that night was the margarita I had before I even met up with them,” she said. “Every other drink was being brought to me by them. And I just kept drinking, for free.”
She was too drunk to drive back to her mother’s house nearby so one of the men rented a second room. What happened next inside the room is in dispute.
The woman said she lay down on the couch. She vaguely remembers being carried to the bed and her jeans being pulled down but didn’t resist because her pants were tight and uncomfortable.
“I felt like I was way too drunk. I just wanted to go to bed,” she said. “Because I think at that point … I was like, ‘I've been drunk for too long. I just want to be sober again.’ ”
A Portrait of a former police recruit taken near her home outside of Wisconsin on Sept. 17, 2023. Her former agency recommended no charges after concluding a sexual assault investigation within 34 hours, which one criminal justice expert calls “troubling.” (Jenn Ackerman for Wisconsin Watch)
In the report one of the men said he picked her up and tossed her onto the bed as she was laughing. She told investigators she may have been carried to the bed, but her recollection was hazy.
She later recalled both men performing sexual acts on her while she slipped in and out of consciousness, unable to physically resist.
“I couldn’t get myself to come to,” she said, “to wake myself up and stop anything.”
Speaking to Grand Chute police investigators, one of the men at first denied any sexual contact, claiming that she had attempted to have sex with him and that he could be considered a victim of sexual assault. After police revealed the other man confirmed the three had sex, he changed his story.
All three told investigators that they fell asleep but woke up minutes later when the woman’s alarm went off around 2 a.m.
“They carried me into the shower and set me on the side of the tub and turned the cold water on me to try and wake me up,” she recalled. “Because I think at that point, they just kind of wanted to get rid of me.”
Investigators met a second time with her that afternoon. They suggested she answer a Snapchat social media message she received from one of the men earlier that morning. The detective coached her on how to answer, she said.
The detective’s coaching is not reflected in the report that includes a transcript of the written exchange. She responded at one point that she was “embarrassed” — a word choice she said was suggested by the detective and which she later thought hurt her credibility.
“Embarrassed isn’t the right word to describe how I feel about this,” she told Wisconsin Watch. “If I had regrets, this would not be the course of action I would take.”
Open and shut in less than 34 hours
Investigators concluded the woman wasn’t completely incapacitated by alcohol because she wasn’t visibly swaying when she checked into the hotel and she used her phone to call an officer she knew.
Grand Chute Police Chief Greg Peterson said investigators ultimately received conflicting stories about what happened inside the room.
“There was her statement and there are the statements from (the two male recruits) — their opinion that she wasn't completely blacked out,” he said.
Experts say sexual assaults can be difficult to prosecute for a number of reasons but particularly when the parties know each other, there is no sign of physical coercion and alcohol is involved.
But Spohn — who advises the military and metropolitan police agencies on handling sexual assault cases — also called the quick resolution of the case “troubling.”
“In my experience of reviewing these kinds of cases, the police would not close the case so quickly,” she said. “They would spend a little more time giving the victim at least the satisfaction of knowing that they did do a thorough investigation.”
Spohn based her opinion on the incident report prepared by Grand Chute police investigators, whom she credited with apparently thorough work — gathering evidence immediately at the hotel and interviewing all three involved.
Spohn said the fact that all three confirmed that the woman was out cold with her socks on in the bathtub and they were slapping her to try to wake her up supported her claim that she was too intoxicated to consent.
Spohn also said it was odd that a detective would suggest the victim say she felt “embarrassed” after being sexually assaulted if they wanted to get information out of a potential crime suspect.
“You think that they would have coached her to say ‘I feel really violated’ rather than ‘embarrassed’ and his response might have been different,” Spohn said.
A Portrait of a former police recruit taken near her home outside of Wisconsin on Sept. 17, 2023. The two men she accused of sexual assault are no longer in law enforcement, but could be eligible to reapply to a law enforcement academy as early as next year. (Jenn Ackerman for Wisconsin Watch)
In an interview Grand Chute Capt. Colette Jaeger said investigators believed the woman was telling the truth, but the evidence they found — which included video surveillance footage from the hotel lobby — wasn’t consistent with someone being incapacitated to the point of being sexually assaulted.
“She reported sexual assault, and then the elements of the crime just weren’t able to be confirmed, validated,” Jaeger said. “I mean, what we were left with was her saying she did not give consent and then two other stories as well as video evidence that didn’t support that.”
Much of the woman’s account to investigators took place in the early morning when she said she was still reeling from more than 10 alcoholic drinks the night before.
“By her own statement, (she) could not recall if she had said yes to the encounter occurring and she did not recall what had occurred,” detective Sgt. Joe Teigen wrote in his summary explaining why criminal charges were not filed.
Ian Henderson, an attorney and policy director for the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said when police officers are involved in a critical incident like a shooting it’s standard practice to give them time to cool down and collect their thoughts before taking a definitive statement.
That the female recruit was confused and expressed doubt over what had just happened immediately after a traumatic event should not be a surprise. “Doing a comprehensive, investigative interview, a day or two after the assault” is considered “best practice,” Henderson said.
But investigators notified all three within 34 hours that criminal charges weren’t being filed. Peterson said his department didn’t rush anything.
“The length of time is not a good indicator of the quality of the investigation,” Peterson said. “I think it was very thoroughly investigated. So, I do feel sorry for the experience that (she) went through. But I do think she was treated with respect.”
Grand Chute police officials confirmed they have no plans to reactivate the investigation. The toxicology report found no evidence of foul play such as a date rape drug in her system.
No professional standards for potential conflicts
Wisconsin state law requires police agencies to call in third-party investigators in critical incidents when officers kill or seriously wound someone in the line of duty.
But the law only applies to those narrow circumstances. And professional standards don’t provide concrete guidance over investigations when there are potential conflicts of interest, said Glendale Police Chief Mark Ferguson, president of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Accreditation Group.
“We do not have a specific standard that covers an agency requesting another agency to conduct an investigation,” he said.
Grand Chute’s police chief disputed that there were any conflicts in investigating an alleged crime against the recruit while she was separately under administrative scrutiny.
“There usually isn’t a conflict associated with investigating somebody who has been a victim of a crime,” Peterson said.
Daniel Shaw, regional program manager for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), of which Grand Chute is not a member, said agencies may conduct personnel investigations with regard to administrative violations of policy and procedure. But the group recommends that agencies not investigate their own employees alleged to have committed crimes.
If an officer under a personnel investigation is an alleged crime victim, Shaw said he would want an outside agency to review the case.
“I guess if that happened in my jurisdiction, I'd want to give it to some other agency,” said Shaw, who was a police chief in a mid-sized Michigan city for a decade. “That's my personal view — not a CALEA view.”
Marsy’s Law and victim rights invoked to withhold records
When Wisconsin Watch initially requested Grand Chute’s report on the alleged sexual assault during an investigation into sexual harassment within the Sheboygan Police Department, Grand Chute police declined to release even a redacted version of the report, claiming even associations could violate the privacy of victims.
“It is critical for us to consider the potential adverse effects that may occur if such sensitive records were to be released,” Jaeger, the Grand Chute police captain, wrote in denying Wisconsin Watch’s request.
The department refused to release any narrative — even without names.
“It is more complicated than simply redacting a name in an investigation of this nature,” Jaeger wrote.
Outagamie County District Attorney Melinda Tempelis — whose office has a role enforcing the public records law — agreed with the police department and declined to intervene.
Resignation not voluntary
Five days after the incident the woman was told her employment was over due to the findings of the administrative inquiry. She had a choice: be terminated or immediately resign.
Writing two days after she resigned, Peterson noted in an administrative review that her alleged disparagement of the department to fellow students could damage the agency’s reputation and make it harder to recruit.
Peterson denies any correlation between her departure and her allegation of a crime.
“The episode at the hotel had already taken place — it didn't change or alter my assessment of the administrative violations,” Peterson told Wisconsin Watch. The administrative violations warranted “substantial discipline up to and including termination. It became moot, you know, she had chosen to resign.”
Town of Grand Chute Human Resources Director Sue Brinkman was among those present when the woman was called in on the last day of her job. She confirmed her resignation was not voluntary.
Male recruits lose their jobs
The two men also lost their jobs with their respective police departments.
Appleton police declined to answer questions, but it did release a summary of its disciplinary review to Wisconsin Watch following a public records request. Grand Chute’s police chief contacted his Appleton counterpart the evening of March 3, 2022, to notify him that Appleton’s recruit was the subject of a sexual assault complaint.
Appleton Police Chief Todd Thomas wrote that the recruit was terminated for “immoral” and “unbecoming” conduct three days later. That was after receiving a copy of Grand Chute’s incident report that concluded there was no probable cause for his arrest.
The recruit, who had previously resigned after about a year and a half as a prison guard at Oshkosh Correctional, returned to his job as a corrections officer at the medium-security prison.
The Sheboygan recruit resigned from his job on March 15, 2022.
“I am grateful for the support and belief you all had in me,” he wrote. “It brings me sadness and disappointment to have to submit this letter, but I am honored to have had the time spent with this department.”
College mum on sexual misconduct complaints
Fox Valley Technical College officials wouldn’t say how many sexual misconduct investigations they have conducted at the law enforcement academy in the past five years.
College investigators reviewed Grand Chute’s reports and conducted interviews with three additional witnesses who were at the bars with all three that evening, according to a May 27, 2022, letter outlining the college’s investigation.
College administrators found the woman’s account credible and moved to sanction the two male students.
“After reviewing the evidence and credibility of the witness statements, the preponderance of the evidence outlined above leads me to the finding that the complainant was unable to give valid consent to sexual intercourse due to her incapacitation,” wrote college Associate Vice President Elizabeth Burns.
College administration and law enforcement academy officials declined to answer questions.
“We respect the rights of our students and alumni to share their own experiences,” the college said in an unsigned statement.
The female recruit returned to the academy the following week and went on to graduate in May. She said she was warned not to discuss the incident and deliberately skipped the graduation ceremony.
“Going back to the academy as a whole was probably like, one of the hardest things I’ve done,” she said. “I was very isolated from my classmates.”
The Outagamie district attorney concurred with the decision not to bring charges against the men.
“Although I don’t remember the specific facts, there was a consensus between the investigator and me that this was not a case that could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” Outagamie County Assistant District Attorney Randall Schneider — a former high-ranking state Department of Justice official — wrote in an email to Wisconsin Watch.
“If additional information has come to light, this decision can be reevaluated,” he added.
Neither of the men is employed by a police department. The Department of Justice lists the Appleton recruit as “terminated for cause” and the Sheboygan recruit as resigned “prior to completion of internal investigation.”
They could apply to have their suspension from the college lifted next year.
Wisconsin Watch reporter Phoebe Petrovic contributed to this report.
The nonprofit Wisconsin Watch (www.WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with WPR, PBS Wisconsin, other news media and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. All works created, published, posted or disseminated by Wisconsin Watch do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or any of its affiliates.
Former President Donald Trump sat down with Univision for an interview in which he promised his second term would be all about going after his enemies list.
In a leaked transcript provided to Semafor, Trump justified his next campaign against his perceived enemies, saying he would pursue the same course he did in his first time but further.
“Yeah. If they do this, and they’ve already done it, but if they follow through on this, yeah, it could certainly happen in reverse,” he rambled, justifying his future retribution. “It could certainly happen in reverse. What they’ve done is they’ve released the genie out of the box.”
“They have done something that allows the next party — I mean, if somebody, if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business, they’d be out of the election.”
During the 2016 election, brief Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) bragged to Fox’s Sean Hannity that Republicans were able to weaponize Congress to bring down Hillary Clinton's poll numbers.
"Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping," said McCarthy.
After being elected, Trump wanted to prosecute Clinton, The New York Times reported in Nov. 2018. He then sought to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, who refused to give him the "loyalty" he sought.
It was then reported that former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe as well as Comey, were subjected to rare invasive IRS audits that found nothing. In fact, McCabe overpaid his taxes.
When it became clear Joe Biden was going to run for president in 2020, Rudy Giuliani went to Ukraine in an attempt to dig up "dirt" on the Biden family. A flood of conspiracies followed that continues today.
Trump went on to say that he would have prevented the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas by having a "deal" with Iran. Trump left the deal that was in place with Iran.
He continued attacking Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was at one time an ally of Trump. Biden, however, has known Netanyahu for over 40 years, and positive words about the help from the U.S. under Biden seem to have infuriated Trump.
It appears Trump is dialing back his previous attacks. He blasted Netanyahu in October, saying he "let us down" when Trump sought to assassinate top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in 2020. He went on to say Israel must "step up their game" and called Hezbollah "very smart."
"I think Israel has to do a better job of public relations, frankly, because the other side is beating them at the public relations front,” he said in the interview.
When asked about his family separation policy at the border, Trump defended it.
“When you hear that you’re going to be separated from your family, you don’t come,” Trump said. “When you think you’re going to come into the United States with your family, you come.”
He went on: “We did family separation. A lot of people didn’t come. It stopped people from coming by their hundreds of thousands because when they hear family separation, they say ‘Well, we better not go.’”
SANFORD, N.C. — A former U.S. soldier-turned-neo-Nazi, who recently served a federal prison sentence for distributing bomb-making instructions for killing former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, protested outside a children’s story hour led by drag performers last month, Raw Story has confirmed.
Jarrett William Smith, 28, wore a skull mask and a shirt inscribed with the chilling words, “Support your local Einsatz-Kommando” to protest a drag show at a yoga studio in Sanford, N.C.
“Einsatz” refers to a Third Reich-era Nazi mobile death squad that assassinated political enemies, Jews and communists. The shirt also includes the Totenkopf “death’s head” skull that was utilized by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel paramilitary squad.
Smith, a resident of South Carolina, traveled to Sanford, N.C., where he met five other men and a child wearing masks and sunglasses. Together, they marched single-file down Main Street and joined a small group that included a local pastor on a public sidewalk behind the Sanford Yoga & Community Center, which was hosting a Halloween-themed drag story hour for about 15 children.
Raw Story identified Smith by matching the vehicle that he used to travel to the rally to a 2012 Honda registered in his name in Horry County, S.C., where he currently lives. Ryan Patrick, one of the men wearing skull masks, confirmed in an interview with Raw Story that Smith was also one of the skull-mask wearers and present beside him.
Smith’s presence at the protest does not appear to violate a law. But it indicates he’s back in the business of intimidation following his release from prison.
In 2019, prosecutors accused Smith of encouraging a federal informant to assassinate O’Rourke — a former congressman who’s run for president, U.S. Senate and Texas governor — with a car bomb.
Court documents also indicate that Smith, who law enforcement arrested at Fort Riley in Kansas in September 2019, encouraged users on an encrypted social media app to commit arson against an anti-fascist podcaster.
In February 2020, Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. A judge ultimately sentenced Smith to 30 months in prison.
Smith was released from prison in November 2021 after serving slightly more than 14 months, and earlier this year, he successfully petitioned for early termination of supervised release.
“Early termination of Mr. Smith’s supervised release poses no danger to public safety and is in the best interest of justice,” Smith’s federal public defender argued in a court filing. A federal judge in Kansas signed off on the order in July, noting that the government did not oppose the move, effectively cutting Smith’s probation in half — from three years to 18 months.
As part of the special conditions of Smith’s supervised release that U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Crabtree imposed, Smith was ordered to “not participate in any anti-government or tax protesting activities which endorse or encourage violence or associate with individuals who are known members of these groups, or possess any literature advocating or supporting these groups” during his probation.
Crabtree freed Smith from these conditions on July 14, when the same judge granted him early release from probation.
Smith, who lives in the Myrtle Beach area — a two-and-a-half hour drive from Sanford — could not be reached for comment, despite multiple efforts to contact him by phone and email, and through family members and his employer.
Rebecca Bongiorno, Smith’s mother, told Raw Story by email that his family would “speak to no one unless they can reverse this lie about him, both in the court and the media.” Asked to elaborate, Bongiorno cited unspecified accusations by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Mattivi that she said “were thrown out of court.”
Mattivi declined to comment on Smith’s release from probation.
But Mattivi, who now directs the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, told Raw Story he left the U.S. Justice Department while Smith was serving his prison sentence. Mattivi has an extensive prosecutorial history on matters related to terrorism and explosives, having served as the lead prosecutor against the al Qaeda operative who masterminded the bombing of the USS Cole and led the team of prosecutors that convicted three militia members for plotting to bomb an apartment building where Somali Muslim immigrants lived and worshiped.
According to Smith’s motion, the government was represented by First U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard, who did not oppose Smith’s request for early termination of supervised release. In his order, Crabtree took note that the government did not oppose the request.
“Anyone who is sentenced to probation following conviction has a right to request early release,” Danielle Thomas, a spokesperson for the government, told Raw Story. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas respects the decision of the court in these matters, and we have nothing further to add.”
‘We want you gone’
Smith’s presence Oct. 15 in Sanford, a city of about 30,000 residents, was neither coincidental nor accidental.
And he had help in ensuring the atmosphere around the children’s story hour would be filled with tension.
Jarrett William Smith protests a drag story hour with a bullhorn outside a yoga center in Sanford, N.C. on Oct. 15, 2023.
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As observed by a Raw Story reporter, Smith led the group of masked men to a corner of the public sidewalk at the edge of a gravel parking lot behind the yoga studio in Sanford where two drag performers were reading to children.
They fell in behind Thomas Booher, a local pastor. Holding a Bible to his chest, Booher chastised a small group of pro-LGBTQ supporters stationed throughout the parking lot to protect the venue. Among them: yoga studio co-owner Mike Knapp.
In addition to Ryan Patrick, the crew with Smith included Nicholas Garner Fisher, a 32-year-old self-identified “Nazi” skateboarder from Raleigh.
Fisher, like Smith, has a criminal record, with his record including convictions for illegally carrying a concealed gun.
In Telegram chats reviewed by Raw Story, Fisher has expressed hostility toward Black people. Of Black people using a skate park that he frequents, Fisher wrote, “If someone’s in my way, they get snaked by Fuhrer daddy and the skateparks are a no n----er zone.” Less than 10 days before the Sanford protest, he had posted on Telegram that he had been prevented from boarding a flight in Florida for using a racial slur.
In a written statement provided to Raw Story, Fisher did not confirm or deny that he was present at the protest in Sanford.
“Everyone was wearing a mask, and I reckon they were just concerned citizens as I was,” he said. “I can’t tell you who was there because of the masks.”
While Booher was speaking, some members of Smith’s group introduced themselves to Jere Brower, a local man who served about 30 days in the D.C. Jail for violating the curfew instituted by Mayor Muriel Bowser after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Brower attracted notoriety when coverage of his arrest noted his past association with Aryan Nations, a white power group that brought together racist skinheads and Klansmen in the 1980s and ’90s.
The 48-year-old Brower acknowledged to Raw Story in an interview last week that he has previous ties to the white power group Aryan Nations, but said that today he accepts that whiteness is not a precondition of American citizenship.
Brower told Raw Story that he did not know Smith at the time of the Oct. 15 protest in Sanford, but that members of the crew introduced themselves to him using their nicknames.
Brower had warned — in a comment on the yoga center’s Facebook page prior to the drag event — that he would be tracking who went into the building. He would be ready, he said, to call Child Protective Services, even though performing in drag in the presence of children is not illegal in North Carolina.
Brower tagged friends on a thread under a post on the yoga studio’s page announcing the event.
Some of the responders openly suggested violence. One of them replied by posting a drawing of a person dressed in the colors of the transgender flag colors hanging from a noose. Brower himself replied to a comment by one of the drag performers with a meme promoting the idea that trans people are prone to self-harm.
Smith’s crew coordinated their travel to the protest on Telegram, Patrick told Raw Story. Information about the protest came up in an online chat, he said. One member asked if anyone was going, and another responded affirmatively. Knowing Smith’s affinity for skull masks, Patrick said it was his idea that everyone should wear one so that they could “all look the same, more or less.”
During the protest, Brower ominously predicted, “This will be the last time.”
Smith raised a bullhorn. He slowly launched into a staccato harangue that gradually increased in intensity and volume.
“If you sit around wearing sexual-fetish gear to give yourself sexual pleasure, and you require the presence of children in order to attain that sexual pleasure, you are a pedophile!” he shouted, parroting a false accusation that drag show organizers and attendees are pedophiles.
Smith shook his head in disgust, and his foot slowly edged into the gravel parking lot.
One of the LGBTQ supporters approached and warned, “Hey, back up, man. Back up on the sidewalk.”
One of the members of Smith’s crew then stepped between the two men, and called the LGBTQ supporter a “f---ot.”
Smith resumed his tirade, seething with rage and frustration
“You do not represent us!” he yelled. “We do not want you here! We want you gone! Out of our town! Out of our state! And out of our country!”
LGBTQ supporters stand guard during a drag story hour at a yoga center while facing protesters led by Jarrett William Smith (holding bullhorn). Jordan Green/Raw Story
‘Kindness and support’
Inside the yoga center, drag performer Stormie Dae wielded a light saber and wore a headdress, heavy gray shawl, pants and knee-high boots while portraying the Star Wars character Ahsoka Tano.
Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle, the other performer, embodied the Muppet character Cookie Monster, wearing a floor-length, blue velvet dress with googly eyes. The two performers read books such as Gustavo the Shy Ghost, Calvin, and Creepy Carrots. They made candy bracelets with the children in attendance.
As a trans person, Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle told Raw Story that this performance name puts a “gender queer” spin on “the idea of princess.” Peritwinkle, whose real name Raw Story agreed to withhold for safety reasons, generally uses the ze/zim/zir pronouns.
“When I would go to drag shows, I would see Black and brown and queer and trans people being free and being their authentic selves,” Peritwinkle told Raw Story. “I was like, ‘How do I sign up?’ I learned a new way to sew a zipper and hem a skirt. It’s a space where I’m able to be free and be me and explore how I move my body and how I interact with the audience. There’s so much kindness and support. It feels good being onstage and seeing the audience live for the performance.”
Lindsey Knapp, a lawyer who has represented military veterans facing retaliation for reporting sexual assault, opened the Sanford Yoga & Community Center with her husband in 2020.
Located 30 miles from Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) — one of the largest military installations in the world — the yoga studio initially focused on providing trauma-informed services to veterans.
During the pandemic, the Knapps’ son came out as trans. Initially, they started an “LGBTQ kids hangout,” Lindsey said, adding that LGBTQ adults started asking for programming as well. Thus, the yoga center expanded into an LGBTQ resource center, incorporating drag shows as one among many queer-friendly activities, including a monthly game night and “sip and paint” sessions.
“My kiddo, when he came out as trans, I wanted to expose him to a lot of different trans humans so he could know he has options,” Lindsey said. “Not everybody who performs in drag events is trans and not every trans person performs in drag events. There are plenty of cisgender people who do drag. Drag in itself is just an art form. I enjoy it because it’s a lot of fun. It’s letting people be creative and use their attire in an effort to express themselves.”
Drag performers Stormie Dae (foreground) and Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle make bracelets with children during a drag story hour. Courtesy Sanford Yoga & Community Center
During the brief altercation between Smith’s crew and the LGBTQ supporters outside, one of the LGBTQ supporters called the Sanford police. Two officers showed up and informed the protesters that, because they didn’t have a permit, they could not use amplified devices and would need to stay on the sidewalk.
The police left. The energy at the protest began to flag. LGBTQ supporters maintained a line and stared down Smith’s crew. About 30 minutes before the conclusion of the drag story session, Smith and his cohort filed out. Most of the drag show protesters joined them in a nearby Dollar Store parking lot where they continued to talk before returning to their cars and driving away without further incident.
A track record of encouraging violence
The federal criminal complaint against Smith alleged that after enlisting in the Army in 2018, he led a group chat on Facebook with other extremists in which he bragged about his expertise in bomb-making.
“Oh yeah, I got knowledge of IEDs for days,” Smith wrote, referring to improvised explosive devices. “We can make cell phone IEDs in the style of the Afghans. I can teach you that.”
Additionally, an FBI confidential source who was communicating with Smith asked him to recommend a political figure in Texas who would be a good candidate for assassination.
“Outside of Beto?” Smith responded. “I don’t know enough people that would be relevant enough to cause a change if they died.”
Meanwhile, according to an affidavit filed by the government, “Smith talked with the [confidential source] about killing members of the far-left group, Antifa, as well as destroying nearby cell tower or [a] local news station.”
In August 2019, the affidavit alleges that Smith told the confidential source “that the headquarters of a major American news network would be a suggested target, utilizing a vehicle bomb.”
During Smith’s sentencing in 2020, he sought to undercut the government’s case by hiring a retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives enforcement officer as an expert witness. The retired officer submitted a report that concluded that Smith’s advice was largely “incorrect or without sufficient detail to have anyone assemble a functioning explosive or incendiary device or weapon of mass destruction.”
According to the government, Smith’s advocacy for violence was motivated by an obscure Satanic belief system known as Quayinism.
Based on an interview following his arrest, an FBI agent wrote about Smith: “He gives information out freely to people who may use it for harm, for the glory of Quayinism, and his religion of anti-kosmik Satanism. He wants to cause chaos, as it brings back the realm of his religious beliefs, through the destruction of the universe.
“Smith said the idea of chaos in the world is a disruption and he can be an agent of chaos by enabling people with his knowledge,” the report continues. “Smith said that if the death of people isn’t affecting him, then he doesn’t see an issue.”
Although Smith was ultimately convicted only of distributing bomb-making instructions, the government also charged him with threatening interstate communication. While stationed at Fort Riley, Smith allegedly communicated a plan to burn down the home of a Michigan man identified in court documents only as “D.H.”
Matching the username “Anti-Kosmik 2182,” which was cited in Smith’s charging documents, anti-fascist researchers noted the user’s contributions to an energetic discussion on the encrypted social media app Telegram about how to respond to a podcast by Daniel Harper that discussed Atomwaffen and how the group drew inspiration from a text by an obscure neo-Nazi author.
“Ditch the car somewhere a few blocks away, take back alley trails in the woods, etc., and then come up to the house wearing a mask,” Anti-Kosmik 2182 wrote, according to a report by the Daily Beast. “I’m not saying do anything illegal, but I am saying it would be a real shame if all he has went up in literal flames.”
In another chat, according to screenshots from a neo-Nazi channel infiltrated by anti-fascist researchers, Smith provided instructions for assembling and setting off an improvised chlorine bomb.
“Good for clearing out a room or breaking up a meeting,” he wrote, while posting as Anti-Kosmik 2182.
Arson appears to be a consistent theme in Smith’s online communications, as well as in his music interests.
The 2019 chats show Smith advocating that someone burn down the trailer of a white supremacist Satanist whom Smith faulted for betraying the cause by supporting North Korea.
Arson is also a theme in the story of “Burzum,” the Norwegian black metal music project whose shirt Smith was wearing in Sanford on Oct. 15.
Burzum was a solo project of Norwegian musician Kristian Vikernes, who served a prison sentence from 1994 to 2009 for murder and arson related to a church-burning spree.
Vikernes was convicted for the murder of former bandmate Øysten Aarseth. Vikernes and his erstwhile musical collaborator “burned churches and desecrated cemeteries,” according to a report by Southern Poverty Law Center. In the early 1990s, Vikernes and Aarseth helped establish National Socialist black metal, a musical subgenre that is explicitly racist.
Smith’s arrest in late 2019 came at a time when the FBI carried out a significant crackdown against white supremacists and their alleged terror plots. Smith found himself at the epicenter and served prison time for his crime.
But since Smith’s release from prison in November 2021, the white power movement has rebounded with a proliferation of so-called “active clubs,” and other, more obscure neo-Nazi and fascist groups.
Smith’s documented history of calling for car-bombings and arson is striking in the current climate of intimidation against the LGBTQ community in which neo-Nazis and other far-right actors have threatened to shut down drag shows.
‘Greater risk’
For some observers, Smith’s presence at the drag show story hour indicates he hasn’t reformed himself.
“If Smith has remained involved in white supremacist activity, that would be concerning,” Jake Hyman, a spokesperson for ADL Center on Extremism, told Raw Story. “His sentence was relatively short, which makes him at greater risk to hold on to extreme views and perhaps even reoffend.”
As an example, Hyman cited Brandon Russell, an Atomwaffen leader who served prison time for possession of explosives, and then was arrested again roughly a year after his release for allegedly plotting an attack on the power grid.
Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle, one of the drag performers at the Sanford Yoga & Community Center on Oct. 15, is no stranger to threats from far-right protesters.
Last December, Peritwinkle participated in an ensemble drag performance at a downtown theater in Southern Pines, N.C. Peritwinkle stood alongside lead performer Naomi Dix as Dix addressed a throng of protesters outside the show. Peritwinkle was onstage that night right before a power outage disrupted the show.
The outage was caused by someone shooting out a substation in surrounding Moore County, resulting in a blackout that was celebrated by accelerationist neo-Nazis who embrace chaos and societal collapse as a precondition for establishing white ethno-states.
Peritwinkle’s mind would go back to that show in Southern Pines for several months when applying drag makeup. But over time the preoccupation with fear diminished and the joy of being in the moment while performing onstage returned.
“After the violence at the Moore County show, knowing that drag can be protested and can be met by so much animosity, I like to remind people that this gets me free,” Peritwinkle said. “It has a way of reaching queer, trans folks, young and old folks. For me, it’s so personal.”
The campaign committee of Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is refusing to explain in detail why his former deputy chief of staff, Margaret A. (Maggie) Harrell, paid the campaign almost $40,000 for “reimbursement for unauthorized expenses.”
Harrell paid $39,368.63 to Chip Roy for Congress on Feb. 10, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by Raw Story.
A Nov. 5 letter from the FEC to the campaign committee said, “This receipt appears to be related to an apparent unauthorized use of Committee funds. Although the Commission may take further legal action regarding this apparent improper use of Committee funds, any further clarifying information that you can provide will be taken into consideration.”
Harrell currently works for the Foundation for Government Accountability, a conservative think tank in Naples, Fla.
When Raw Story reached Harrell by phone, she said she was at work and unavailable to discuss the issue. Harrell did not return a voicemail message left after work hours or a text Tuesday morning.
Roy’s office did not respond to Raw Story’s questions about whether it considers the “unauthorized expenses” to be thefts and whether Roy or his staff contacted law enforcement about the matter.
Roy’s office did send Raw Story two statements from Roy that failed to explain the exact nature of the reimbursement.
"Our campaign discovered unauthorized charges made during previous cycles and upon discovery, worked to obtain reimbursements for those charges and notified the FEC of the issue,” Roy’s first statement said. “Those reimbursements were made and reflected in the first quarter of this cycle.”
After follow-up questions from Raw Story, Roy issued another statement: "Upon a review of all transactions made in previous cycles, our campaign discovered some debit card transactions not officially authorized by the campaign, self-reported those charges to the FEC, and those reimbursements were made.”
The website LegiStorm said Harrell served as deputy chief of staff for Roy from November 2018 — when he was first elected to Congress — to March 2021. Before that, she was executive director of his campaign committee, Chip Roy for Congress.
“During the campaign, she got to know every inch of our district and its people,” Roy said in a November 2018 news release announcing Harrell’s position. “She is a woman of strong faith, has broad experience, and is a Capitol Hill veteran.”
Harrell was named Woman of the Year in 2019 by Young Conservatives of Texas.
While it’s unclear why Harrell had to reimburse Roy’s campaign, she received numerous payments from the campaign from 2018 to 2021 for “political strategy consulting.”
Chip Roy for Congress paid Harrell $75,083 in 2018 and $52,801 in 2020, according to FEC records.
That was in addition to her compensation as a member of Roy’s staff, federal records indicate.
Roy is a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.
Rudy Giuliani's financial troubles persist and new reporting claims that the former "America's Mayor" might have his Palm Beach condo foreclosed on due to unpaid taxes.
The Palm Beach Post reports that the failure to pay property taxes could result in Giuliani losing his beach-side home. Giuliani owes more than $84,000, the report explained, and a firm has already purchased the tax sale certificates to proceed with foreclosure in the spring of 2024.
The address is 315 S. Lake Drive, #5D, in Palm Beach, and Zillow records show that the condo was purchased last in 2010 for $1.4 million, and the site shows its estimated value at more than $4 million. The building boasts "mid-century modern art deco" features and brags "5-star services."
Giuliani is fighting with financial issues as his lawyers' fees mount over various lawsuits and indictments related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In fact, some of his lawyers have already resigned due to lack of payment.
The condo was put up for sale in 2019, the Palm Beach Daily News reported then. Giuliani was embroiled in a divorce, but it apparently didn't sell.
"The two-bedroom apartment has 2,280 square feet of total living space, of which 1,944 is under air conditioning, according to the listing prepared by agents J. Ronnie and Jennifer Hasozbek-Garcia of Waterfront Properties and Club Communities in Palm Beach," said the report at the time. The Redfin listing of the property says that it has three bedrooms and two bathrooms and shows photos prior to a renovation.
Details in the structure include an "oversized balcony," along with a large living area, spa-like marble bath, and "kitchen equipped with top-of-the-line appliances."
It's just another problem for Giuliani as he struggles with $500,000 in unpaid federal taxes, Forbes reported Monday. The IRS also put a lien on the Palm Beach condo.
Thousands of Houston ISD students have lost a teacher already this school year as the district experiences a spike in educator resignations.
About twice as many teachers left HISD in the first six weeks of school this year than has been typical in recent years, according to data obtained by the Houston Landing through a public records request.
The records show 170 teachers resigned during the first six weeks this school year, while an average of 84 left during the same time span from 2019 to 2022. As Texas’ largest district, HISD employs roughly 13,000 teachers, meaning the early-year resignations account for about 1 percent of HISD’s classroom instructors.
The new data confirm the number of teachers who have resigned so far this year is a stark outlier from recent precedent. A late October analysis from the Houston Chronicle suggested a similar jump, but only compared this year’s figures to one previous year of resignation data.
Including all staff, 559 employees resigned from HISD in the first six weeks of school this year, compared to an average of 346 during the same period from 2019 to 2022.
The numbers come as HISD begins its third month of classes under Superintendent Mike Miles, who was installed in early June by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath amid sanctions against the district. For months, teachers unions and some outspoken educators have characterized the new environment in HISD as toxic, but until the resignation numbers came into focus, few concrete data points existed to back up those claims.
Of the 170 voluntary teacher departures, 93 came from schools Miles is overhauling this year under his “New Education System.”
In a written statement, HISD did not address a question over whether the resignations might signal higher levels of teacher frustration this year.
“HISD has adopted a culture of high expectations and accountability,” spokesperson Jose Irizarry said. “All across the district, there are teachers, principals, and other staff who know this is true and understand the urgency.”
Though the departures represent just a small share of educators in the district, they still could be an indicator of increased discontent among the ranks of HISD’s teachers and staff. Mid-year resignation is one of the most extreme actions a staff member can take, and teachers who do so can be barred from teaching in a Texas public school district for a year. HISD declined to specify whether it will pursue penalties against teachers who do so.
Nathaly Reyna is among the 559 staff who have fled HISD this school year. Despite not being certified as a teacher and being hired to serve as a teacher apprentice at Gallegos Elementary, one of 85 campuses being overhauled this year, Reyna was told on the first day of classes that they would temporarily fill in as lead teacher due to a vacancy.
In the four weeks the assignment lasted, the teacher watched as students with learning disabilities and students who were not proficient in English — the very students Reyna had gone into education with the intention of helping — fell behind due to the fast-paced nature of the lessons. School administrators forbade Reyna from slowing down to make sure all students understood the lesson. So, the educator made the difficult choice to leave the school.
“It was heartbreaking seeing them struggle though and just not be able to help them,” Reyna said. “(School administrators) kept describing this sense of urgency, right? And it just doesn't feel like it's for the students.”
Sakis Brown is another educator who submitted his resignation papers after the year began. After a more than two decade-long career at Westside High School, which included more than a dozen coach of the year awards for his role leading the soccer team, a series of policies from the Miles administration frustrated him. The veteran physical education teacher and coach now serves as a part-time organizer for the Houston Federation of Teachers, the district’s largest employee union.
Former HISD teacher and soccer coach Sakis Brown poses in front of some his teaching and coaching awards, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, in Richmond. (Douglas Sweet Jr. for Houston Landing)
“Teaching is supposed to be very rewarding. It's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be creative,” Brown said. “(Miles) has taken every joy of being a teacher. … For my sanity, and to be the type of parent and husband and father that I need to be my family, I decided to walk away.”
Jackie Anderson, president of the HFT, said teachers in her union now fear retribution if they express concerns with Miles’ vision for the district and are considering seeking employment elsewhere.
“His leadership style is turning people off and turning people away,” Anderson said.
Long considered a polarizing leader, Miles has a history of angering educators. Before becoming HISD superintendent, he served as superintendent of Dallas Independent School District from 2012 to 2015, and his reforms prompted many teachers to leave.
Over his time at the helm of Dallas ISD, the rate of teacher turnover nearly doubled, jumping from 12 percent in 2011-12, the school year before he assumed his role, to 21 percent in 2014-15, the year he left, according to state data. The statewide average rate of educator churn in that span hovered around 16 percent.
Meanwhile, the results of a survey posted on a prominent HISD Facebook page suggest many teachers still in the district may already have one foot out the door. About half of the roughly 860 respondents who self-identified as HISD teachers said they are planning to leave at the end of the school year or earlier. Another third said they are unsure, while only 14 percent said they plan to stay in the district next year.
Though there is no way to vet the validity of the survey, which was administered anonymously, Tracy Lisewsky, an HISD parent who created the form and runs the Facebook page, said the demographic information input by respondents closely matched the actual makeup of the district. She believes the results may be an indication of further workforce issues to come for HISD, even if just a fraction of those who say they’re planning to leave actually follow through.
“Do I think that the number (of teachers who quit at the end of the year) is gonna be 50 percent? I have no idea. But do I think it'll be somewhere between 25 and 50 percent? Yes,” Lisewsky said.
Anderson argued the superintendent should spend more time listening to the concerns of educators. In July, Miles scaled back the number of required meetings with union leaders and has been criticized for moving forward with his agenda despite negative feedback from those who work in the classroom.
“If you want a successful district, you’re going to have to work with the people that work in the district,” Anderson said.
Asher Lehrer-Small covers education for the Landing and would love to hear your tips, questions and story ideas about Houston ISD. Reach him at asher@houstonlanding.org.
This article first appeared on Houston Landing and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Editor & Publisher magazine has awarded Raw Story a 2023 EPPY Award as the "best news / political blog" among all news sites with 1 million or more unique monthly visitors.
Raw Story was judged on its "overall content regarding news and politics — with focus on analysis and insight as well as wit and wisdom" as well as a submitted portfolio of published articles.
"Being acknowledged alongside some of the nation's most respected news outlets is a privilege," Raw Story Publisher Roxanne Cooper said. "I'm especially proud in the investigative projects we've undertaken in the past year — all made possible by the steadfast support of our loyal subscribers."
Among the articles included in Raw Story's entry portfolio:
An investigation by Editor-in-Chief Dave Levinthal and congressional correspondent Matt Laslo into failures by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics to issue a single formal punishment in 16 years, despite fielding 1,523 complaints and launching 204 preliminary inquiries into alleged misdeeds among senators and Senate staffers.
A damning, deeply reported column by Donnell Alexander on the "deafening silence" by U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville's former football players amid his public embrace of white nationalists.
An exposé by investigative reporter Jordan Green about how the federal government had quietly banned a violent January 6 attack participant from Tennessee nuclear power facilities where he worked but hadn't charged or arrested him despite "bevy of evidence that he illegally entered the U.S. Capitol in a manner that’s resulted in charges against hundreds of other rioters." Less than three months after Green's story published, the FBI arrested the man, William Beals, and charged him with several counts related to his participation in the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
A first-person narrative from Levinthal — based on numerous internal records obtained through the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act and extensive interviews — about how storied military college The Citadel "camouflaged its connection to Rudy Giuliani" and deflected attention from its refusal to rescind an honorary degree it awarded the legally and ethically troubled former New York City mayor and Donald Trump lawyer.
Other 2023 EPPY Award winners include NBC News, USA Today, ProPublica, the Boston Globe and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
This is the third major award Raw Story has won in 2023 for its journalism.
In October, investigative reporter Alexandria Jacobson won first prize in the 2023 ION Awards contest for her series of exclusive reports about members of Congress violating a federal law designed to stop insider trading, curb financial conflicts of interest and enhance public transparency.
This is also Raw Story's second EPPY Award during its 19-year history, having earned honors in 2022 for a gripping, tell-all column, "How I left the far right," by Dakota Adams, the son of former Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes.
Founded in 2004, Raw Story is America’s largest independently-owned political news site.
A Portrait of a former police recruit taken near her home outside of Wisconsin on Sept. 17, 2023. The woman says she doesn’t think the Grand Chute Police Department should have investigated her sexual assault allegations against two law enforcement academy classmates. (Jenn Ackerman for Wisconsin Watch)
A Portrait of a former police recruit taken near her home outside of Wisconsin on Sept. 17, 2023. Her former agency recommended no charges after concluding a sexual assault investigation within 34 hours, which one criminal justice expert calls “troubling.” (Jenn Ackerman for Wisconsin Watch)
A Portrait of a former police recruit taken near her home outside of Wisconsin on Sept. 17, 2023. The two men she accused of sexual assault are no longer in law enforcement, but could be eligible to reapply to a law enforcement academy as early as next year. (Jenn Ackerman for Wisconsin Watch)
LGBTQ supporters stand guard during a drag story hour at a yoga center while facing protesters led by Jarrett William Smith (holding bullhorn). Jordan Green/Raw Story
Drag performers Stormie Dae (foreground) and Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle make bracelets with children during a drag story hour. Courtesy Sanford Yoga & Community Center
Former HISD teacher and soccer coach Sakis Brown poses in front of some his teaching and coaching awards, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, in Richmond. (Douglas Sweet Jr. for Houston Landing)