Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 12/18

[SVPete]

After Damaging Testimony, the Government Rests Its Case Against Judge Dugan

https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2025/12/17/the-government-rests-its-case-against-judge-dugan-n3809996

This is flying by much faster than I expected. After calling several more witnesses today, the government rested its case. The defense plans to call four witnesses tomorrow and then we should have closing arguments tomorrow afternoon. That means the jury will get this case Friday and we could have a decision before the weekend.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. This morning we had some more testimony that hurt Judge Dugan's case, particularly the testimony of Chief Judge Carl Ashley. He testified that there was a draft proposal for rules about how to handle ICE arrests. However, that proposal had not been put in place and, even if it had, Judge Ashley testified he and the other judges had no right to interfere in arrests taking place in the public hallway of the courthouse, nor did the draft require anyone to visit his office.

Sexton has been following this case. Prosecution witnesses have been - or seem to have been - devastating. Of course, the defense gets their turn, which could turn the case around. Sexton opined yesterday that Dugan's strategy might be to go for jury nullification, a Not Guilty verdict in despite of evidence and the law.

[SVPete]

Federal lawsuit claims ‘victims’ created racist, online threats at MSU for political gain

https://dailymontanan.com/2025/09/03/federal-lawsuit-claims-victims-created-racist-online-threats-at-msu-for-political-gain/

A man who recently admitted to making hoax death threats on the campus of Montana’s largest university has been sued in federal court by two former Montana State University students for his part in orchestrating the hoax by framing them and allegedly destroying their reputations.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court that reads more like a mystery novel than court brief, an attorney laid out the details of a conspiracy, alleging former student Rex Wu orchestrated hoax death threats and violent racially charged messages against his friend, Alexandra Lin. Both used the incidents to push them toward victory in student elections, the lawsuit says, while destroying the reputations of two other students. Court documents lay out the scheme Wu used to allegedly frame the two other students so as to look as if Wu and Lin had been racially targeted as Chinese-Americans.

The lawsuit asks a federal court judge to find Wu guilty of defamation and putting plaintiffs Dylan Dean and Daria Danley in a false light that made it nearly impossible to attend Montana State University. The lawsuit also seeks punitive damages as well as attorney’s fees, and a judgment for the pain and suffering inflicted upon both of them by Wu’s actions.
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Meanwhile,  court documents allege Wu created a sophisticated series of accounts that expressed support for neo-Nazi views and invited the MSU community to push back against diversity. The lawsuit claims that Wu created email accounts that linked Danley and Dean to the racially charged messages, and that Wu specifically leveraged his friendship with Dean to make it appear as if Dean had created the accounts or supported the views. This also landed Dean in trouble, getting several different credentials revoked, including a security TSA pre-check denied, as well as causing him to graduate late.

Both Dean and Danley identified as “conservative, white” students, but “no indications of racial hostility.”

Has any known Hate-Hoax avoided exposure longer than 6 months?

[enslaved1]

North Korean infiltrator caught working in Amazon IT department thanks to lag — 110ms keystroke input raises red flags over true location

A North Korean imposter was uncovered, working as a sysadmin at Amazon U.S., after their keystroke input lag raised suspicions with security specialists at the online retail giant. Normally, a U.S.-based remote worker’s computer would send keystroke data within tens of milliseconds. This suspicious individual’s keyboard lag was “more than 110 milliseconds,” reports Bloomberg.

Amazon is commendably proactive in its pursuit of impostors, according to the source report. The news site talked with Amazon’s Chief Security Officer, Stephen Schmidt, about this fascinating new case of North Koreans trying to infiltrate U.S. organizations to raise hard currency for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and sometimes indulge in espionage and/or sabotage.

Schmidt says that Amazon has foiled more than 1,800 DPRK infiltration attempts since April 2024. Moreover, the rate of attempts continues apace, with Amazon reckoning it is seeing a 27% QoQ uplift in North Koreans trying to get into the Amazon corporation.

Systems Admin would have access to EVERYTHING.  That is frightening given how much data Amazon has.  And don't forget the AWS crash that took out huge portions of the internet.  NK trying hard to make problems apparently. 

[SVPete]

Day Four of Judge Dugan's Trial: The Defense Rests After 45 Minutes of Witnesses (Update)

https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2025/12/18/day-four-of-judge-dugans-trial-n3810026

Today's is day four of the trial of Judge Hannah Dugan. Yesterday, the prosecution rested its case after calling 19 witnesses. My conclusion yesterday was that Judge Dugan seems to be in deep trouble. Yesterday ended with court reporter Joan Butz who clarified what she and Judge Dugan were saying in a whispered conversations about going out the non-public hallway. Specifically, Butz was concerned the attorney and her client might accidentally go out the "wrong" door. ...
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Today the defense will present its witnesses. The word yesterday was that there would be just four witnesses for the defense so this should be over fairly quickly. First to take the stand today was Milwaukee County Judge Katie Kegel. She was asked about an email she had sent about federal officers making arrests inside the courtroom.

“People have been snatched out of my gallery," she wrote.

On cross-examination, Kegel said those arrests were in a drug case. Her testimony was brief.

Next up was Judge Laura Gramling Perez. She testified about an online training class held by Chief Judge Carl Ashley which related to ICE arrests in the courthouse.
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So this defense witness confirmed that ICE could make arrests in the hallway but wanted some policy to be issued. However, no policy was issued (about arrests inside a courtroom). I'm not sure how this is helping Judge Dugan. Next to take the stand was Public Defender Maura Gingerich. She is the person who was taking photos of the arrest team in the hallway.

Asked why she did so, Gingerich testified she wanted to show the photos to her manager and head of the public defender's office, who could ask the chief judge for further guidance.

"It was stressful to see what I thought were a number of law enforcement agents on the sixth floor, not wearing uniforms," Gingerich testified.

The public defender is a progressive. Not a shock. But she testified she never spoke to Judge Dugan so, again, I'm not sure how this is helping Dugan's case. The defense is just calling people who didn't like ICE being in the hallway. ...

Next up was former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. He testified as a character witness. He was not in the courthouse on April 18 when the incident took place.
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... Judge Dugan will not testify in her own defense.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Brown Watzka began her closing argument saying that judges aren't above the law.

“No judge may deem that her personal beliefs matter more than the law itself,” she said.
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Brown Watzka argued that evidence showed Dugan knew why federal agents were at the courthouse when they said they had a warrant. She also argued that Dugan took "affirmative, physical action" to harbor or conceal Flores-Ruiz from authorities in two ways – when she ordered the federal arrest team out of a public hallway, and when she directed Flores-Ruiz and his attorney through a restricted hallway.

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She wrapped up her argument by saying "no one is above the law." The entire closing argument lasted about 45 minutes. It was followed by a closing argument from Dugan's attorney, Jason Luczak.

Luczak called this an "unprecedented trial" and said the government has "the power to crush someone."

“They are trying to make an example of Hannah Dugan,” Luczak said. “They are trying to besmirch her honest reputation."
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“Make no mistake,” he said. “This went all the way to the top.”

Dugan’s defense team has said the Trump administration is trying to make an example of the judge amid increased enforcement on illegal immigration.
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Luczak claimed audio recordings from inside Dugan's courtroom on April 18 were manipulated and "melded together." He argued those recordings and accompanying transcripts were incomplete, hard to hear, confusing and not very good evidence.

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Update: OMG! Even the judge is mocking her. After an hour of deliberating, the jury sent the judge a question. He had to return to his courtroom to read it. On the way in he made a joke.

He walked in where the public comes and goes.

"Came in the public entrance," the judge quipped, an apparent reference to the issue of how Eduardo Flores-Ruiz left Dugan's court.

The comment drew laughter from the attorneys. Dugan did not appear to laugh.

There was another update in which it was suggested that the prosecution lacked a key element from their burden of proof for the felony Obstruction charge.