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Anonymous ID: b20e2a Sept. 28, 2022, 2 p.m. No.17598279   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8402 >>8471 >>8570 >>8674

Soldiers Who Smuggled Immigrants from Mexico While in Uniform Sentenced

 

https://news.yahoo.com/soldiers-smuggled-immigrants-mexico-while-171729747.html

 

Two soldiers were sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to illegally smuggling Mexican nationals into the U.S. while in uniform as part of a larger circle of troops involved in the scheme.

 

Emmanuel Oppongagyare, 22, and Ralph Gregory Saint-Joie, 19, were sentenced Sept. 20 to 21 months and 13 months in prison, respectively. Oppongagyare was a soldier with the Pennsylvania National Guard, and Saint-Joie was an active-duty soldier. Both were stationed at Fort Hood, Texas.

 

The pair were stopped at a border control checkpoint in Hebbronville, Texas, where authorities discovered two undocumented immigrants in the trunk of the car. Both soldiers were wearing their Army uniforms.

 

The two were recruited to smuggle the immigrants from McAllen, Texas, a border town, to San Antonio, a 240-mile drive, according to the Justice Department. Both were paid $100 for gas money when they initially picked up the two Mexican nationals at the border in June 2021, but it isn't clear how much they were going to be paid when the job was complete.

 

Oppongagyare and Saint-Joie were instructed to wear their uniforms during the smuggling to avoid questioning by authorities. The recruiter told the pair "the same tactic worked in previous smuggling events," according to court records.

 

The two service members were hired by Isaiah Gore, 20, who pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges in December 2021, along with Denerio Williams, 22, and Ivory Palmer, 21. Gore was sentenced to 30 months in prison and Williams received 24 months. Palmer is awaiting sentencing. All three were Texas-based soldiers.

 

Troops who serve jail time are typically discharged from service.

 

The military has had a massive presence on the U.S.-Mexico border for more than a year. The bulk of those troops come from the roughly 5,000 Texas National Guard troops, part of Gov. Greg Abbott's troubled Operation Lone Star mission that has been quietly scaled back in recent months.

Anonymous ID: b20e2a Sept. 28, 2022, 2:12 p.m. No.17598333   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8402 >>8471 >>8570 >>8674

Donald Trump wins ruling in rape accuser Carroll's defamation lawsuit

 

https://news.yahoo.com/appeals-court-seeks-guidance-lawsuit-141514172.html

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) -A federal appeals court set aside a judge's ruling that Donald Trump could be sued for defamation by E. Jean Carroll after denying he raped her, though it stopped short of declaring the former U.S. president immune from the author's lawsuit.

 

In a 2-1 decision on Tuesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan asked an appeals court in Washington to weigh in on whether the laws of that district shielded Trump from liability.

 

But the Manhattan court also accepted Trump's argument that he qualified as a U.S. government "employee" when he allegedly defamed Carroll, a condition underlying his immunity claim.

 

A dissenting judge, Denny Chin, would have let Carroll pursue "at least some" claims, saying "Carroll's allegations plausibly paint a picture of a man pursuing a personal vendetta against an accuser."

 

Carroll sued Trump in November 2019, and had been hoping to go to trial as soon as next February.

 

She had accused Trump in a June 2019 book excerpt of having raped her in late 1995 or early 1996 in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in midtown Manhattan.

 

Trump, then in his third year in the White House, responded to her accusations by telling a reporter he did not know Carroll, that "she's not my type," and that she concocted the rape claim to sell her book.

 

Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said in a statement she was "extremely pleased" with Tuesday's decision, saying it would "protect the ability of all future presidents to effectively govern without hindrance."

 

Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll, said in a statement she was "confident" the District of Columbia court would let the case proceed.

 

On Sept. 20, Kaplan said Carroll planned to sue Trump for battery and inflicting emotional distress even if the defamation claims were thrown out.

 

She cited a new state law, the Adult Survivors Act, which gives adult accusers a one-year window starting on Nov. 24 to bring civil claims over alleged sexual misconduct occurring long ago.

 

'WE DO NOT PASS JUDGMENT'

 

Trump claimed he was shielded from Carroll's lawsuit by a federal law immunizing government employees from defamation claims.

 

He also said letting the case proceed could unleash a flood of frivolous lawsuits whenever presidents spoke.

 

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan had found that Trump was not a government employee, and that even if he were, he exceeded the scope of his employment when talking about Carroll.

 

Asking the D.C. Court of Appeals to address the second issue, Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi said the district's law was "genuinely uncertain" and the matter was "of extreme public importance."

 

"We do not pass judgment or express any view as to whether Trump's public statements were indeed defamatory or whether the sexual assault allegations had, in fact, occurred," he wrote.

 

Chin, in his dissent, said Trump was not serving "any purpose of the federal government" when he discussed Carroll.

 

"In the context of an accusation of rape, the comment 'she's not my type' surely is not something one would expect the President of the United States to say in the course of his duties," Chin wrote.

 

(Continued)