blaze media

Georgia judge drops 3 charges in Trump election interference case

A judge in Georgia has dropped three charges in the 2020 election interference case against President Donald Trump and others.

Trump was charged with two of the counts that were dropped by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee on Friday. The charges related to filing false documents.

‘We remain confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case against President Trump.’

McAfee had previously dropped six counts in the same indictment in March 2024, including three charges against Trump.

“This politically charged prosecution has to come to an end. We remain confident that a fair and impartial review will lead to a dismissal of the case against President Trump,” said Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow on Friday.

The case also received a new top prosecutor Friday after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was disqualified from the case after it was discovered that she had an affair with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. He has also stepped down from the case.

Peter Skandalakis, the director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia, appointed himself in the position to replace Willis. Had he not done so, the case would have had to be dropped by the Friday deadline set by McAfee.

“I am keenly aware that this matter has been of significant public interest since January 2021, when District Attorney Fani Willis announced the initiation of the investigation,” said Skandalakis. “My only objective is to ensure that this case is handled properly, fairly, and with full transparency discharging my duties without fear, favor, or affection.”

RELATED: Former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis agrees to plea deal in Georgia election interference case

On Monday the administration announced full pardons for some of those indicted in the Georgia case, but Skandalakis said the presidential pardons apply only to federal charges and do not affect the state case.

Thirty-two counts remain in the election interference case. The president has pleaded not guilty.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Election interference case, Trump wins in court, Trump election interference case, Georgia case against trump, Politics 

blaze media

‘Serial puncher’ accused of knocking out mother of 11 in Chicago over summer arrested yet again — this time while behind bars

Blaze News in September reported about a violent and rampant repeat offender who was accused of randomly punching and knocking out a mother of 11 on a Chicago street in broad daylight.

The victim — 56-year-old Kathleen Miles — didn’t know what hit her as she walked to a train with a co-worker along West Washington Avenue on Aug. 19.

‘This guy is strong, and scary, and he knows what he’s doing.’

Miles recalled to WLS-TV at the time that the culprit “hit me with such force” that the punch knocked her out and left her with several broken facial bones and a concussion.

Police told WLS that Miles was attacked by 32-year-old William Livingston. Police told Blaze News that Livingston was charged with two felony counts of aggravated battery/public place, a felony count of aggravated battery/great bodily harm, and a misdemeanor count of reckless conduct/bodily harm.

The video report below not only shows how badly Miles was injured but also includes surveillance video of the devastating punch.

RELATED: Chicago thug accused of randomly punching mother of 11 in face, knocking her out on downtown street — and White House reacts

WGN-TV reported that Livingston was arrested the same day of the attack. Cook County Jail records indicate Livingston was booked Aug. 21, and he has remained in jail as of Friday with no bond.

Livingston has been described by WMAQ-TV as a “so-called serial puncher.” A WBBM-TV investigation found he had been arrested at least 20 times dating back to 2012 “but keeps being released from custody.”

Well, Livingston on Wednesday was arrested yet again — and believe it or not, while he was behind bars in Cook County Jail, Chicago police told Blaze News.

Police said officers along with the U.S. Marshals Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force arrested Livingston after he was identified as the offender who struck two victims — a 40-year-old female and a 29-year-old female — in the 2700 block of North Clark Street on June 12. Police said he was charged with two felony counts of aggravated battery/public place.

One of the victims, Anne Kurze, identified Livingston from a police lineup as her attacker, WBBM-TV reported: “He stood about this far from me, and punched me, and then kept walking north up the street.”

After Livingston was formally charged in connection with the June attacks, Kurze told WBBM that “any day he is off the street is a good day. It does stir up a lot of big feelings, a lot of free-floating anxiety, fear — that feeling of being so scared back in June.”

WBBM also said Kurze suffered a neck injury and concussion as a result of the punch: “It could have been so much worse; this guy is strong, and scary, and he knows what he’s doing.”

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office added to WBBM that Livingston is being directly indicted in the case, meaning that officials are taking the evidence straight to a grand jury.

RELATED: 54-year-old repeat offender accused of fatally stabbing woman, 25, after first spitting on her in Chicago

WLS at the time of the attack against Miles said a records search produced 13 mugshots of Livingston going back to 2012 — and that a large number of those arrests were for aggravated assault and battery of both women and police officers.

“Like, what is enough?” Miles asked WLS. “You know, what does someone have to do? Where someone, where he’s going to be, where they’re going to be held accountable.”

RELATED: 54-year-old repeat offender accused of fatally stabbing woman, 25, after first spitting on her in Chicago

Here’s a brief rundown of Livingston’s violence over the last eight years, according to WLS:

In 2017, he was accused of randomly attacking two women months apart. Both cases were dropped.

In 2022, Livingston was sentenced to five years in prison after prosecutors said he punched and attempted to rob four women within 20 minutes in the Loop.

In 2023, while on parole, Livingston was arrested for hitting a woman in the face on North Michigan Avenue.

And in 2024, Livingston was sentenced to 100 days in prison after he punched a 15-year-old girl, also on North Michigan Avenue.

Police said Livingston was arrested at 12:26 p.m. on Feb. 8, 2022, after being identified as the individual who struck and attempted to take personal property from multiple female victims within minutes of each other. Police said Livingston was charged with four felony counts of aggravated battery/public place, two felony counts of attempted robbery, and one misdemeanor count of battery/make physical contact.

Cami Blechschmidt, a DePaul University student, described to WGN the random attacks against her and three other women that day.

“I felt a hand in my pocket, turned my head like that, and there was a man directly in front of me, and he punched me directly in the face,” Blechschmidt recounted to WGN in 2022. “We made eye contact, and like, he just had pure hate in his eyes. Just anger, pure anger.”

Shortly after the attack against her, Miles told WLS that if Livingston “had been held accountable for his actions, then I wouldn’t be sitting here with injuries.”

RELATED: Thugs rob teen of his iPhone, Nike sneakers; but boy’s family finds 1 suspect — and delivers painful payback: Cops

Following Livingston’s arrest earlier this week, Miles told WMAQ that she hopes Livingston now will be prevented from carrying out future attacks — and indeed she added to the station that the trauma of the August attack against her still lingers: “I struggle with it every day; I struggle with just fear of being hurt.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Chicago, William livingston, Physical attack, Serial puncher, Repeat offender, Arrest, Charges, Crime 

blaze media

Did Trump take down Epstein? This email changes EVERYTHING

Democrats thought they had the smoking gun to incriminate Donald Trump, but the email release might have vindicated Trump and confirmed what Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) once let slip — that Trump was an FBI informant sent to lock up Jeffrey Epstein.

In one of the Epstein emails, he writes, “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump. Virginia spent hours at my house with him. He has never once been mentioned. Police chief, etc. I’m 75% there.”

“This continues to point toward the fact that President Trump may have been an FBI informant who actually turned Epstein in, because … a few months ago when we were talking about all of the Epstein files, Mike Johnson seemed to accidentally slip,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales explains.

“He said it so casually, and he very clearly said, ‘He was an FBI informant,’ and then had to walk it back,” she continues. “But you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. This was a very big revelation from Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.”

– YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

“He’s not saying what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself, when he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago. He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff,” Johnson said in an interview, stumbling through that last sentence as if he made a mistake.

“So when you start piecing that together with what we have today, which is Michael Wolff, who was in some of these emails … he’s the journalist who hates President Trump. He has written many books about how much he hates President Trump, and he was in constant communication with Jeffrey Epstein trying to figure out how to blackmail Donald Trump. Not a very good guy,” Gonzales comments.

And in an interview on the “PBD Podcast” with Patrick Bet-David, Wolff admitted that “Epstein believed that it was Trump who first informed the police about what was going on at Epstein’s house.”

“And from that point on, they were … nothing but bitter enemies,” Wolff added.

“So you have Michael Wolff, who hates President Trump, who loves the sex trafficker, good friends. He’s besties with the sex trafficker. And he says that the sex trafficker really, really thought that President Trump was the one who went to law enforcement about him. In fact, it turned them into enemies,” Gonzales says.

“And then you have Mike Johnson, oopsies, accidentally saying that President Trump was an FBI informant. And then you have Jeffrey Epstein’s emails that say that he’s 75% there. He thinks that Trump had done something. ‘The dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,’” she continues.

“I don’t think the Democrats thought this thing through when they decided to just release all of this, but I mean, I guess they’d have to have brains to be able to think it through,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Free, Video, Sharing, Camera phone, Upload, Video phone, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Jeffrey epstein, President trump, Donald trump, Michael wolff, Pbd podcast, Patrick bet david, Trump fbi informant 

blaze media

Cam Newton gets black fatigue after Grambling brawl — calls out black players and coaches

A massive brawl broke out at halftime between the players of Grambling State and Bethune-Cookman this past weekend — which resulted in over two dozen players being suspended.

Grambling State and Bethune-Cookman are both historically black colleges and universities that ex-NFL star Cam Newton explained on “4th&1 Podcast with Cam Newton” are now “set back” by the students’ and the coaches’ actions.

“We are already at a deficit with visibility, and we literally just had a civil war over a football game. What?” Newton began.

“No matter if you in the MEAC, the SWAC, the SIAC, the OVC, if you’re a representation of blackness and black culture, you should look at this and say to yourself, ‘This set us back,’” he continued.

Immediately following the brawl, Grambling State head coach Mickey Joseph said the school wasn’t going to tolerate “disrespect,” and the school is “going to meet disrespect with disrespect.” While he later apologized, Newton still wasn’t having it.

“It set us back. Just imagine if you had College Game Day and a melee broke out in halftime versus LSU in Alabama. Certain things just will not happen,” he said.

“I don’t care what somebody else did. It’s what you did in retaliation to that,” he added.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock believes Newton’s response is real “progress.”

“One of the things I have to acknowledge about all of these athletes moving into the media space, they’re now acting or moving towards acting like media members. And that means they find themselves having to criticize people who allegedly look like them or share their skin color,” Whitlock says.

“And so when it was just us journalists out here doing it, if you were white and you called out Mickey Joseph and this foolishness, oh, you’re being racist. If you were black, you’re an Uncle Tom and a coon, and the athletes used to feel this way and say these types of things,” he continues.

“Now that they’re in the media … they’re looking out like, ‘Hold on, man, there are people that allegedly look like me or share my skin complexion who are doing foolish things that have to be called out,’” he says, adding, “Hats off to Cam Newton for calling it out.”

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Sharing, Camera phone, Video phone, Video, Upload, Free, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Cam newton, Hbcus, Grambling brawl, Mickey joseph, Black culture, 4th and 1 podcast, Black fatigue 

blaze media

People so ‘extremely obese’ they were almost bedridden starved 14-year-old girl until she weighed 35 pounds, police say

Wisconsin prosecutors have charged four people, two of whom they described as “extremely obese,” with allegedly starving and neglecting a 14-year-old girl until she weighed only 35 pounds.

Forty-seven-year-old Walter Goodman lived with his wife, his stepdaughter, and her female partner in a home in Oneida in Outagamie County that one court official described as a “house of horrors.”

‘These allegations before the court today are incredibly disturbing. And it’s alleged that the minor child was quite frankly living in a house of horrors.’

Goodman called emergency services in August to report that his daughter had been sick.

A dispatcher described the call as, “Fourteen-year-old child who does not eat much has been sick, vomiting, and lethargic. Now unresponsive.”

First responders said the teenager appeared to be the “size of a 6- to 8-year-old,” according to the criminal complaint.

“She was very, very close to death. Again, 35 pounds at 14 years old,” said Assistant District Attorney Julie DuQuaine of Outagamie County in court.

The girl was airlifted to Children’s Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, where doctors treated her for extreme malnutrition.

“This is the most egregious case of child neglect I think I have ever personally seen in my nearly 25-year career,” DuQuaine said.

Investigators said that the teenager had lived with her father since 2020 but had never gone to school or seen a doctor. Goodman said that she had lived with her biological mother until the mother was sent to jail and he got full custody. He also claimed that the teen had an eating disorder.

“She don’t eat. She’s autistic,” he is quoted as saying.

However, texts obtained by police showed that the people in the home referred to her as “dummy” and “stupid” when communicating about her eating schedule.

“We gave her a (expletive) shake last night bc I felt bad and of course she was laying nice and quiet to get what she wanted,” texted 29-year-old Savanna Lefever, Goodman’s stepdaughter.

“Yes, she’s a manipulative. That’s how she works,” responded Melissa Goodman.

The criminal complaint described Lefever and Melissa Goodman as being “extremely obese to the point of being nearly bed-bound and rarely left the residence.” Lefever’s 27-year-old partner Kayla Stemler is the only person who left the home to go to work.

RELATED: Woman accused of horrific child abuse said cylinder on her belt held ‘baby daddy’s ashes’ — cops say it was meth

“But for the grace of God, she did not die,” said Outagamie County Court Commissioner Brian Figgy.

“Quite frankly, these allegations before the court today are incredibly disturbing. And it’s alleged that the minor child was quite frankly living in a house of horrors,” he added.

All four of the adults face five counts of chronic child neglect.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Outagamie county wisconsin, Child neglect starvation, Walter goodman arrest, Extreme child abuse, Crime