US Attorney Lights Into Reporter Who Asks If Federal Charges In Charlotte Light Rail Murder Are ‘Grandstanding’
'There’s no other side to this'
Trump DOJ takes action against violent thug accused of savagely murdering Ukrainian refugee
Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who aspired to become a veterinarian assistant, was savagely murdered on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, on August 22. Her suspected killer was charged with first-degree murder but now faces a federal charge that could land him the death penalty.
Footage of the slaying shows Zarutska enter a train on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte, sit down in front of a black male in a red-hooded sweatshirt, and then look at her phone.
'We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence.'
The man behind her, who has been identified as repeat offender Decarlos Brown, can be seen in the footage taking what appears to be a small knife out of his pocket, standing up, then bringing the apparent blade down in a striking motion. The killer can subsequently be heard saying, "I got that white girl," surveillance footage appeared to reveal.
A federal criminal complaint was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Charlotte, charging Brown with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said in statement, "Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream — her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people."
"I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute Decarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder," the attorney general continued. "We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence — he will never again see the light of day as a free man."
If convicted, the Department of Justice said that Brown could face life in prison or the death penalty.
FBI Director Kash Patel, who indicated in an X post on Monday that the "FBI has been investigating the Charlotte train murder from day one," noted that "the brutal attack on Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte Light Rail was a disgraceful act that should never happen in America."
'Federal charges are necessary to protect the public and ensure confidence in our transportation systems.'
When pressed earlier Tuesday for comment on whether the FBI was treating Zarutska's murder as a hate crime, the FBI referred Blaze News to Patel's Monday statement and declined to add anything further.
The federal criminal complaint reiterated that Zarutska died at the scene as the result of multiple stab wounds and noted that a pocketknife was collected from the scene.
The complaint also indicated that Zarutska was stabbed just four minutes after she sat down.
"This brutal attack on an innocent woman simply trying to get to her destination is an attack on the American way of life," said Russ Ferguson, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.
"Of course, crimes like this affect the victim the most — Iryna deserves justice, and we will bring justice to her and her family. But crimes like this also affect everyone who relies on mass transportation to get to and from work and go about their daily lives, and federal charges are necessary to protect the public and ensure confidence in our transportation systems," Ferguson added.
President Donald Trump noted in a Truth Social post on Monday that Zarutska's alleged killer "was a well known career criminal, who had been previously arrested and released on CASHLESS BAIL in January, a total of 14 TIMES. What the hell was he doing riding the train, and walking the streets? Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP."
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Exclusive: RNC Asks Justice Department To Investigate Maine’s Trump-Hating Secretary Of State
The complaint accuses Shenna Bellows of violating the National Voter Registration Act by failing to make public voter roll records.Michael Brown witness gunned down near 2014 shooting site
Dorian Johnson, a friend of Michael Brown — an 18-year-old who was killed by a Missouri police officer 11 years ago — was shot and killed over the weekend near the same location.
'There had been earlier rumors that this was an officer-involved shooting however that information is incorrect.'
Johnson claimed he was with Brown when Officer Darren Wilson stopped them in 2014. Wilson contended that he shot Brown in self-defense, but Johnson spread claims that Brown was surrendering, sparking the protest chant, "Hands up, don't shoot," and nationwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations.
"He put his hands in the air," Johnson previously stated about Brown. "He started to get down, but the officer still approached with his weapon drawn. And he fired several more shots. And my friend died."
However, a report from the Department of Justice concluded that Johnson's claims were not accurate.
"Witness accounts suggesting that Brown was standing still with his hands raised in an unambiguous signal of surrender when Wilson shot Brown are inconsistent with the physical evidence, are otherwise not credible because of internal inconsistencies, or are not credible because of inconsistencies with other credible evidence," the DOJ found.
Despite two separate law enforcement investigations concluding that Brown had not put his hands up in the air to surrender, Johnson continued to stand by his account of events.
"His hands were definitely up when he turned around," Johnson told the Washington Post five years after the shooting. "Whether his hands were up, or halfway up, or fully down or up, he was killed and he was unarmed. He wasn't posing a threat."
Johnson, 33, was killed during a "domestic incident" around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to Melissa Price Smith, St. Louis County prosecuting attorney. He sustained multiple gunshot wounds, officials said.
"There had been earlier rumors that this was an officer-involved shooting however that information is incorrect. No officers, Ferguson or otherwise, were involved in this incident other than to begin our investigation," Ferguson Police stated.
One suspect was taken into custody but was later released without facing any criminal charges, Price said.
The investigation into Johnson's death remains ongoing.
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Bobby Powell gave his last breath working to expose Jan. 6 corruption
Michigan radio journalist Bobby Powell poured his heart into finding and telling the truth about suspicious actors at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Sadly, his heart gave out before he could finish his work.
Bobby suffered nine heart attacks after Jan. 6. It would not be hyperbole to suggest that Jan. 6 killed Bobby Powell. He predicted it would. He was 61.
‘I refuse to let the history I recorded on January 6th slide down the rabbit hole.’
It was that ninth heart attack that took his life at about 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 4, just weeks after he wrote me an email titled, “Final Thoughts.” We never got the chance to do the interview I requested after reading his final note.
“Well, I’m just about down to my last breath, and I refuse to let the history I recorded on January 6th slide down the rabbit hole,” Powell wrote on Aug. 11. “They’ve tried to bribe me, kill me, and maybe even had a hand in inducing a few of those heart attacks I’ve had.”
Since Bobby died destitute, his son Adam asked the Jan. 6 community to help pay for funeral expenses. In just two days, Adam’s crowdfunding campaign raised $23,000.
Bobby was passionate and outspoken about what he witnessed on the east patio of the Capitol on Jan. 6. His frustration grew when it seemed almost no one wanted to hear about the two suspicious actors he captured on video.
He could be gruff. In one of my stories, I called him “grizzled.” I think he wore that like a badge of honor. He spent more than $20,000 and sacrificed his health trying to get the word out about these provocateurs.
Bobby Powell tells his Jan. 6 tale to Joseph Hanneman in “The Real Story of Jan. 6 Part II: The Long Road Home.”
As soon as Bobby began seeking media coverage for his Jan. 6 work, he was demonetized on social media, where he published a blog called “The Truth Is Viral.” That drop in income forced him to sell his Michigan home and live in an RV in Florida.
He said a prominent Michigan Republican Party official offered him $200,000 to go away. When Bobby refused, he was threatened that if he didn't put a lid on his Jan. 6 fedsurrection talk, he could be killed. For this reason, he moved around a lot from campground to campground in Florida, always looking over his shoulder.
I hope the many politicians and media figures who rebuffed, scorned, or ignored him since Jan. 6 are now inspired to take a look at the evidence he left behind. The silence from them, the FBI, and the Justice Department speaks loudly — even more so now that Bobby's voice has been stilled.
‘I swore that I would tell the truth to my last breath, no matter what the cost.’
Maybe the new Jan. 6 Select Subcommittee chaired by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) will investigate the men Bobby suspected were fed provocateurs.
In the Aug. 11 email, Bobby's last message to me was a warning.
“You’re a good man, Joe. You’ve been there for me when many others didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing and speak truth to power,” Bobby wrote. “Unfortunately, I cannot say that about many other ‘MAGA Influencers,’ politicians, or so-called ‘journalists.’”
During my first interview with him in 2022, Bobby shed tears. This tough Marine Corps veteran broke down over the phone — simply because I said that I believed him. His story rang true because it is true. He was beyond relieved to have a new ally. I wrote about his efforts many times over the next three years.
January 6 was supposed to be Bobby's last assignment before he retired after more than three decades in radio journalism. He hosted his own podcast, “The Truth Is Viral,” and was host of “Your Defending Fathers” on WCHY-FM 97.7 in Cheboygan, Michigan.
Little did he know as he filmed the crowd around the famous Columbus Doors at the U.S. Capitol the gravity of what he was witnessing. He emailed me in 2022:
Two men I recorded attacking the building in separate incidents, smashing a window and pushing people inside the East Entrance doors, have not been arrested, nor are they on the list of suspects being sought by the FBI.
That remains the case today. Neither bad actor — dressed suspiciously like plainclothes federal agents — has been publicly identified, arrested, or prosecuted.
It was not for lack of trying on his part. In January 2021, Bobby contacted the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force. He offered a copy of the 29 minutes of high-definition video he shot on Jan. 6. They never called back.
Bobby was filming the crowds on the east patio of the Capitol at about 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 6 when Hunter Allen Ehmke jumped on a window sill and began smashing the glass. Ehmke was later arrested, convicted, and ordered to serve four months in jail.
‘Be careful who you trust, Joe. Wolves in sheep’s clothing are all around us.’
When Bobby spun around with his camera, he caught the man as he pulled out a large section of the tempered glass and dropped it on the ground.
Minutes later, when Bobby was approaching the entrance to the giant Columbus Doors, another man dressed in tactical clothing placed a hand on his back and shoved him intothe foyer. That man was holding open one of the doors with a heavy wooden rod.
Bobby personally handed thumb drives with video of these incidents to prominent Republicans in Congress and scores of media celebrities and influencers. Only a few gave his story the attention it deserved — if any attention at all.
Trying to engage with the self-appointed “Sedition Hunters” in late 2002, Bobby asked them why his two feds were not on the Sedition Hunters’ website. Bobby made up hashtags for the two provocateurs: #CapitolGlassMan and #CapitolDoorman.
Sedition Hunters eventually put up a page with photos of the GlassMan. They even claimed to know his name, but no one was ever arrested.
Joseph M. Hanneman
Missing CCTV video
One of the topics we were going to discuss in our final interview was a gap in the Capitol Police CCTV security video from inside the Columbus Doors.
The missing footage should have shown #CapitolDoorman holding the huge ornate doors open with a wooden pole and pushing protesters inside the Capitol. This footage was somehow missing from the video from Camera 7029 published online by the Republican House Subcommittee on Oversight.
This was a great find by the intrepid Marine. The gap in video has not yet been solved. That is a project I will take on in Bobby’s memory.
During his final two years, Bobby got bowled over by two hurricanes. Before one of them, he emailed me that his RV was hunkered down in an alley between two brick buildings in the Tampa area. Hurricane Debby flooded his RV in August 2024. After that storm, Bobby and a neighbor used his boat to rescue a 90-year-old man and his caregiver from the floodwaters.
“On the bright side, I have a roof over my head, air-conditioning, internet, and I’m not dead yet,” he wrote me in an Oct. 2 email. “Compared to others, I have a lot to be thankful for.”
Bobby's heart was badly scarred and less able to pump effectively every day. He knew his time was growing short.
Not much heart muscle
“My cardiologist said my heart is about 30% muscle and 70% scar tissue that doesn’t beat at all,” he wrote in late 2024. “I asked why I was out of breath all of the time, and she told me, ‘Because every step you take is like carrying a 250-pound man on your back. Your heart has to pump twice as hard whenever you do anything.’”
Even with that challenge, Bobby was determined to forge ahead with his work. He attended the Capitol premiere of my documentary “The Real Story of Jan. 6 Part II: The Long Road Home.” He recorded a testimonial for our producers after the screening.
Bobby testified in several Jan. 6 trials in Washington. He was kept out of others by DOJ prosecutors who didn't want federal juries to see his fedsurrection footage. The court cases gave him an outlet to keep sharing his story. It also took a heavier toll on his health.
“My cardiologist tells me that every day I wake up is a gift from God,” he wrote on Aug. 11, 2025. “I’m still limited in my abilities, but I think I can handle a call-in show I’m planning; until I can’t.”
In December 2022, he wrote me from his hospital bed after Jan. 6 heart attack No. 4.
“This is number four since J6, five total in the last three years,” he said. “And it’s the last one I will survive.”
Bobby said both atria of his heart were badly damaged by the attack. He had to wear a defibrillator jacket until a permanent defibrillator could be implanted.
After we filmed a documentary interview in his RV near Terra Ceia, Fla., in November 2022, we talked about his Christian faith. I gave him a blessed challenge coin designed by my friend Father Richard Heilman. The coin had been touched to a relic of the True Cross of Christ, which makes it a third-class relic.
One side of the coin has the image of St. Michael the Archangel with the Latin phrase Defende Nos in Proelio (Defend Us in Battle). The other side has a likeness of St. Joseph holding the Child Jesus, with the Latin phrase Sancte Joseph Castissimi • Terror Daemonum, noting Joseph's warrior title as the Terror of Demons.
Bobby understood as well as anyone that we are engaged in spiritual warfare. As St. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:
Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places.
Bobby said he tried to live his life every day for Christ. In his final email to me, he wrote of regret for not teaching his daughter more about Jesus.
“I could never speak to her about Christ’s love for us,” he wrote. “She’d just look at me with her big, beautiful eyes and say, ‘Oh Daddy, you know I don’t believe in that.’"
“I thought I would have plenty of time to teach her about Christ, but she died at just 24 from an idiopathic heart attack.”
Bobby said his hurt and regret fueled a commitment that drove his Jan. 6 work.
“I lifted her ashes to the heavens and swore to Almighty God that I would never be afraid to tell the truth again for fear of being called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ or a ‘kook,’ even though all of my conspiracy theories turned out to be true," he wrote.
“I swore that I would tell the truth to my last breath, no matter what the cost.”
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Trump’s DOJ cracks down on defiant sanctuary city mayor shielding illegal aliens
The Trump administration's Department of Justice is taking legal action against another sanctuary jurisdiction.
The DOJ filed a lawsuit on Thursday against Boston, contending that the city's sanctuary status interferes with the federal government's immigration enforcement.
'If Boston won't protect its citizens from illegal alien crime, this Department of Justice will.'
The agency accused Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu, who recently reaffirmed her support of sanctuary policies, of "repeatedly" shielding criminal illegal aliens from federal immigration agents and endangering public safety.
"In a recent letter to Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi, Mayor Wu went so far as to say that 'Boston will never back down' from its sanctuary city policies," the DOJ's lawsuit read. "Cities cannot obstruct the Federal Government from enforcing immigration laws. When that occurs, a city breaks the law. The City of Boston is doing just that."
The department argued that the city's sanctuary policies, specifically the Boston Trust Act, are illegal under federal law. The act prevents local law enforcement and other city departments from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detainer requests.
RELATED: ‘Flood the zone’: ICE fires back at Boston Mayor Wu’s sanctuary defiance
The lawsuit against Boston is part of the DOJ's greater effort to take legal action against sanctuary policies nationwide. The department previously filed complaints in New York, New Jersey, and California.
"The City of Boston and its Mayor have been among the worst sanctuary offenders in America — they explicitly enforce policies designed to undermine law enforcement and protect illegal aliens from justice," Bondi said. "If Boston won't protect its citizens from illegal alien crime, this Department of Justice will."
RELATED: Boston mayor vows to continue resisting Trump's deportation efforts
Wu responded to the lawsuit by declaring that the city "will not yield."
"This is our city, and we will vigorously defend our laws and the constitutional rights of cities, which have been repeatedly upheld in courts across the country. We will not yield," Wu stated.
"This unconstitutional attack on our city is not a surprise," Wu continued. "Boston is a thriving community, the economic and cultural hub of New England, and the safest major city in the country — but this administration is intent on attacking our community to advance their own authoritarian agenda."
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Federal And State Law Enforcers Must Tackle Deadly Abortion Drug Cartel
Federal and state agencies, law enforcement, and attorneys general need to join in the fight that legislators are attempting.California utility faces federal lawsuits over deadly fires
The Department of Justice has charged a California utility with igniting the Eaton Fire in January near Los Angeles, which resulted in the deaths of 19 people and the destruction of thousands of buildings.
The DOJ filed two lawsuits against Southern California Edison, seeking $40 million in damages for the Eaton Fire and an additional $37 million in damages for the Fairview Fire, which occurred near Hemet in 2022.
'These lawsuits do not include Edison's liability for private homes and other private property damage.'
While the results of the official investigation into the Eaton Fire have not yet been announced, it was allegedly sparked by "faulty power infrastructure or by sparks from faulty power infrastructure owned, maintained, and operated" by the California utility, according to the DOJ's complaint.
"The lawsuits filed today allege a troubling pattern of negligence resulting in death, destruction, and tens of millions of federal taxpayer dollars spent to clean up one utility company's mistakes," U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli stated during a news conference on Thursday.
"We believe that the evidence is clear that Edison is at fault, and by their own admissions, no one else is at fault," Essayli said, referring to a July report in which Edison admitted that it was "not aware of evidence pointing to another possible source of ignition."
Essayli stated that his office is "demanding" that the utility and "not its ratepayers" cover the damages.
"Edison must not be allowed to pass along its liability onto hardworking ratepayers," he wrote in a post on social media. "The United States seeks to recover financial losses from fire suppression and damage to National Forest lands. These lawsuits do not include Edison's liability for private homes and other private property damage."
RELATED: EXCLUSIVE Blaze Media footage of Los Angeles reduced to rubble
Jeff Monford, a spokesperson for Edison, told the Associated Press that it is reviewing the lawsuits.
"We continue our work to reduce the likelihood of our equipment starting a wildfire," Monford said. "Southern California Edison is committed to wildfire mitigation through grid hardening, situational awareness, and enhanced operational practices."
Los Angeles County also filed a lawsuit against Edison in March.
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