A Democratic mayoral candidate in Rhode Island declared that his disturbing criminal history does not disqualify him from running for office.

Providence voters will decide on their next mayor in 2026. Incumbent Mayor Brett Smiley and state Rep. David Morales, both Democrats, are the current leading candidates in the race.

A third Democratic candidate, 54-year-old Michael English, has announced his candidacy. However, a Tuesday report from the Providence Journal raised some concerning details about English’s past.

‘If I haven’t showed how to go from nothing to something again, then no one will.’

English’s campaign website describes him as a “blue-collar Democrat” who believes “leadership, honesty, [and] integrity is the best policy.” The mayoral candidate states that he is “committed to protecting the most vulnerable members of our city.”

In an open letter to the citizens of Providence, English admits to having a criminal record.

“I will not deny that in 1996, while running for House District 4, I made immature decisions that led to my arrest and a period of incarceration coupled with I dropped out of Hope High School in 1990 and, simply put, I failed to live up to my potential,” English wrote.

RELATED: Eric Swalwell launches anti-Trump gubernatorial campaign amid criminal referral to DOJ

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley. Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

He stated that after completing his sentence, he has dedicated himself to self-improvement.

“I earned my GED, received my paralegal certificate, and continued this disciplined path, ultimately earning a [sic] two Bachelor’s, two Master’s, and a Doctor [sic] degree,” English continued.

English was convicted of child molestation against a 13-year-old girl in 1998, the Providence Journal stated. He reportedly served 15 months in prison, despite the attorney general’s office recommending a 40-year sentence, with seven years to serve. The court required English to register as a sex offender, but only for 10 years.

He served another 19 months a decade later, after the victim accused him of violating a no-contact order by driving to her home and suggesting they go out for coffee.

English told the Providence Journal that he was living across the street from the victim at the time.

RELATED: Senate Democrats insist the shutdown was ‘definitely’ worth it despite fully surrendering to Republicans

Rhode Island state Representative David Morales. Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

He argued that people who believe his criminal history should disqualify him from running for mayor are “wrong, legally.”

“They also should calculate what did I do from then,” he told the news outlet. “If I haven’t showed how to go from nothing to something again, then no one will.”

English stated that neither of the other candidates running for mayor is “good for our city.”

“What we’ve got right now is a socialist and then Mayor Smiley,” he told the Providence Journal. “I know I’m the non-favorite in theory, but right now if I play my cards right, I think I could win.”

“If I’m the bad guy here, God help you all,” English added.

While English’s conviction was not expunged or judicially sealed, the file has been marked “confidential” under a decades-old court policy that purports to protect child victims. The Providence Journal noted that the outdated policy has shielded potentially important details about this case and others from the public.

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Platinum-selling artist Pras has been sentenced to prison following charges related to illegal foreign lobbying and conspiracy.

Prakazrel Samuel Michel, member of the huge 1990s group the Fugees, has been trapped in legal turmoil for years surrounding apparent attempts to influence presidential elections and administrations.

‘There’s a possibility that I’m going in while I’m fighting.’

The Fugees’ 1996 album “The Score” went seven-times platinum in the United States, and even though the record hit No. 1 in seven countries, it was the group’s last original release.

Michel was charged in 2019 and began his trial four years later in 2023. The three-week trial that included testimony from actor Leonardo DiCaprio was focused on multiple money-laundering schemes related to Malaysian financier Jho Low, a Billboard report revealed.

First, Michel was accused of secretly funneling $2 million from Low to Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. The donations were allegedly made through straw donors. In 2023, Michel said he received $20 million from Low, but it was only to help him get a photo with Obama. These figures were part of a $120 million total Michel received from Low, WCBV reported.

Secondly, Michel was accused of funneling money from Low to a lobbying campaign that had the goal of convincing President Trump’s administration to drop an investigation into Low in 2019.

RELATED: Why the post-Pelosi Democratic Party seems directionless

Pras Michel arrives at U.S. District Court on March 31, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Michel was recently ordered to forfeit over $64 million after he was found guilty for his attempts to influence the Trump administration.

‘Next chapter’

A representative named Erica Dumas told Variety, “Throughout his career Pras has broken barriers. This is not the end of his story. He appreciates the outpouring of support as he approaches the next chapter.”

Pras had previously told the outlet that he planned to appeal the outcome of the case, saying he was “going to fight” and “going to appeal.”

“But there’s a possibility that I’m going in while I’m fighting,” he said. “It’s just the reality.”

RELATED: Grammy-Winning Singer Headed to Prison for Failing to Pay $1 Million Owed in Taxes

Wyclef Jean (L), Pras Michel (C), and Lauryn Hill (R) attend the 24th Annual American Music Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, January 1997. Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images

Tumultuous trio

The other Fugees members went on to have careers worthy of feature film.

In 2010, Wyclef Jean attempted to run for president of Haiti after a hurricane ravaged the island. He was eventually dropped from the ballot, presumably because he did not meet the country’s residency requirements. It was also revealed in the process that Jean had been claiming he was three years younger than he actually was, admitting he was 40 years old, not 37.

In 2013, Lauryn Hill spent three months in prison for failing to pay around $1 million in taxes. At the time, she compared her experience in the music industry to slavery.

“I am a child of former slaves who had a system imposed on them,” she claimed. “I had an economic system imposed on me.”

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George Soros has long been an advocate of open borders (against sovereignty), and BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler has always wondered why. But it wasn’t until she stumbled on old interviews of Soros, where he admitted that he did not believe in God, where she understood.

“Open borders is just a tool. It’s the means,” Wheeler tells students while speaking at Hillsdale College, before asking, “But what is the end?”

“Well, once you do dilute the culture, once you do destroy the institutions and the norms, then suddenly the country begins to change,” she explains, using Dearborn, Michigan, as an example.

“The Muslim mayor of Dearborn, Michigan, Abdullah Hammoud, he has mosques with loudspeakers attached to the top, and they play Muslim prayer hours publicly in the city, changing the culture of that area,” Wheeler says, noting that the reason he’s able to do this is because “our culture has been diluted.”

“It’s been under assault. The underlying hatred of those on the left who claim to just hate capitalism, they claim to maybe hate our definition of liberty. That’s not the underlying cause of it. It’s the hatred of our creator, hatred of the true founder, or the founder of the truth on which our nation is based,” she continues.

“And when you recognize that, the plot to overthrow America that is happening as I speak to you tonight becomes chillingly clear,” she adds.

Wheeler explains that this “plot to overthrow America” is made up of four pillars.

“The first pillar is diluting a culture through an attack on borders, through an attack on sovereignty. Opening the borders, letting hordes of people with no intention of assimilation coming into our country and changing the fabric, changing our norms and our traditions and our institutions,” she explains.

“The second pillar is electing radical politicians who hate our nation and for what we stand. The third pillar is changing the voting electorate,” she continues, pointing out that the voting electorate is changed through indoctrination.

“If you walk through the doors of a traditional four-year university in this country, you are very likely, if you walked in politically apathetic, to walk out a hardened Marxist revolutionary because that is the purpose of most universities in this country,” she adds.

The other way to change the voting electorate is through importing voters who “do not love the country to which they have been allowed to live.”

“And then the fourth pillar,” she says, “is fomenting violence in the streets of America in order to condition people for a violent revolution.”

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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President Donald Trump and New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani cracked jokes during a surprisingly cordial meeting in the Oval Office on Friday.

Mamdani arrived at the White House Friday afternoon for his highly anticipated meeting with Trump, leaving many to speculate if their interactions would be friendly or fiery. After the meeting, both politicians maintained that the meeting went well with a common focus on affordability, with Trump even slipping in a few jokes to lighten the mood.

‘I met with a man who’s a very rational person.’

Mamdani was confronted by a reporter about his previous characterizations of Trump as a “despot.”

“I’ve been called much worse than a despot,” Trump quipped. “So it’s not that insulting. I think he’ll change his mind after we get to working together.”

RELATED: Trump warns Mamdani ahead of high-stakes Oval Office meeting: ‘He has to be careful’

Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP via Getty Images

Trump also interrupted Mamdani with a lighthearted comment on another occasion when Mamdani was pressed about calling the president a “fascist.”

“That’s OK, you can just say yes,” Trump said, patting Mamdani on the shoulder. “That’s easier than explaining. I don’t mind.”

Mamdani promptly agreed with Trump and refrained from elaborating on his past comments.

RELATED: Zohran Mamdani becomes first openly socialist mayor of New York City

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Alongside the many moments where the two joked about contentious remarks they’ve made about each other, both Trump and Mamdani agreed on key issues like affordability and cost of living. Trump acknowledged that their solutions to these issues would likely be different, but he cordially praised Mamdani as a “rational person” who sincerely wants New York City to succeed.

“I met with a man who’s a very rational person,” Trump said. “I met with a man who really wants to see New York be great again.”

“I’ll be cheering for him.”

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Leftists have infamously fought for men infiltrating women’s spaces — including locker rooms and bathrooms — despite it making women feel unsafe.

And until now, most left-wing talking heads have maintained the talking point that transgender women, or biological men, deserve to share women’s spaces. And which woman broke the trans-positive trend on the topic is shocking, to say the least.

“There would be women walking around with their boobies dangling, swinging in the breeze. And it’s not even, like, perky boobies, just boobies drooping to their knees. They kicking their boobies down the street and then want to walk up and have a conversation with you,” ex-MSNBC host Joy Reid began on her show, “Reid This Reid That.”

“And I’m like, don’t walk up to me with no clothes on and talk to me. I don’t want to talk to you. I would be disturbed. I’m telling you, I would be alarmed. I’m alarmed enough when I see a woman with her dangling boobies,” she continued.

“If I saw a penis in the ladies’ locker room, I would freak out too,” she said.

“This is nothing against trans anybody. What it’s saying is, if I turn around and I see a pee-pee, a penis, in front of me, inside of the room, I would probably go to management and say, ‘Wait a minute,’” she added.

Reid pointed out that it would be concerning from a “safety standpoint” and a “privacy standpoint.”

“This is what we’ve said a million times,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray says, astonished. “Why are the women’s sensibilities completely discounted here? It doesn’t make any sense for people who purport to care about women. It’s unreal.”

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A pair of Virginia brothers are facing charges related to an alleged plot to attack U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as retaliation for their enforcement of the law.

Mark Bennett, 59, and his younger brother John Bennett, a 54-year-old assistant principal at Virginia Beach’s Kempsville High School, were arrested on Wednesday at Norfolk International Airport and each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit malicious wounding.

‘Our ICE law enforcement is now facing an 8,000% increase in death threats against them.’

While having lunch at a pho restaurant in Virginia Beach on Nov. 15, an off-duty Norfolk police officer allegedly overheard the brothers discussing “how ICE agents are kidnapping individuals and that they needed to do something about it,” said the criminal complaint obtained by WTKR-TV.

Mark Bennett allegedly indicated during the conversation that he was planning to link up with like-minded people in Las Vegas and return with “enforcement ideas and plans.” He also allegedly indicated that he recently purchased a so-called assault rifle because “it utilizes the explosive rounds that are needed to penetrate the vests.”

The complaint claims that John Bennett said that he wanted to “go hunting” and signaled interest in flying to Vegas with his older brother.

While detectives confirmed that Mark Bennett was scheduled to make the flight on the day of his arrest, it’s unclear whether his brother similarly had a ticket to fly.

RELATED: Ramming attacks on ICE spike, endangering agents as Democrats continue to spew hateful rhetoric

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

“These allegations of violence against law enforcement, the very ones who protect and serve our communities, are incredibly alarming,” Virginia Beach Police Chief Paul Neudigate said in a statement. “We are grateful this information was brought to our attention. VBPD was able to work with various law enforcement agencies to assess the credibility of the information, leading to today’s arrests, ensuring the safety of both our law enforcement community and the public at large.”

Neither ICE nor Kempsville High School responded to Blaze News’ requests for comment by deadline.

Virginia Beach City Public Schools told WTKR that Bennett has been with the district since 2009 and is currently on leave.

During the brothers’ bond hearing on Thursday, the Bennetts’ attorneys claimed that the conversation overheard at the restaurant amounted to hearsay, that they were just joking around, and that neither brother posed a threat to the community, reported WVEC-TV.

The attorneys suggested further that the purpose of Mark Bennett’s trip to Las Vegas was to attend a Formula 1 race with his two sons.

The Bennetts were granted $25,000 bond but are confined to their homes and barred from contacting each other or possessing firearms.

ICE agents have faced an alarming number of threats and attacks in recent months. In some case, such as the sniper shooting in September at a Dallas facility, the attacks have proven deadly.

The Department of Homeland Security revealed this week that since Jan. 20, there have been 71 vehicular attacks against Customs and Border Protection agents and 28 vehicular attacks against ICE, amounting to 58% and 1,300% increases, respectively, of such attacks over the same period last year.

“Our ICE law enforcement is now facing an 8,000% increase in death threats against them while they risk their lives every single day to remove the worst of the worst,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late last month.

“From bounties placed on their heads for their murders, threats to their families, stalking, and doxxing online, our officers are experiencing an unprecedented level of violence and threats against them and their families,” continued McLaughlin. “Make no mistake, sanctuary politicians are contributing to the surge in violent threats and assaults of our officers through their repeated vilification and demonization tactics, including gross comparisons to the Nazi Gestapo.”

The agency noted that concerned citizens can report doxxing and harassment against ICE officers by calling 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or by completing ICE’s online tip form.

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An attack on a Texas federal facility has led to five people admitting to offering support for terrorism as members of an Antifa cell.

It is the first time that criminal suspects admitted to being involved in an Antifa cell, contradicting claims from many on the left that Antifa does not exist as an organization.

‘Antifa is a militant enterprise that advocates insurrection and violence to affect the policy and conduct of the US government by intimidation and coercion.’

Seth Sikes, Joy Abigail Gibson, Lynette Read Sharp, Nathan Baumann, and John Phillip Thomas each agreed that they had planned “to provide resources and personnel” before the July 4th attack intentionally knowing that “they would be used to carry out acts of terrorism.”

The agreement allows them to limit their possible prison time to 15 years rather than face decades of imprisonment.

An officer was shot in the neck in the attack at the Prairieland Detention Facility after confronting a suspicious individual who appeared to be carrying a firearm. “Multiple suspects” fired upon the officer, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.

The officer was treated at a hospital and released.

The expansive investigation into the incident led to charges being filed against a total of 18 people. Gibson, Baumann, and Sikes were present the night of the attack, while Sharp and Thomas helped the accused shooter evade authorities.

Baumann agreed to stipulated facts about the plot in his plea deal.

“Baumann found that others who participated in the acts against Prairieland adhered to an Antifa, revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology that is anti-law enforcement, anti-immigration enforcement, and calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law,” the deal read. “Antifa is a militant enterprise that advocates insurrection and violence to affect the policy and conduct of the U.S. government by intimidation and coercion.”

The five who agreed to a plea deal are also facing state charges from Johnson County prosecutors. The rest of the 18 suspects are facing numerous local and federal charges.

“The charges the Grand Jury has leveled against these defendants, including material support for terrorists, address the vicious attack perpetrated by an anti-ICE, anti-law enforcement, anti-government, anarchist group,” said acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson in the press release.

RELATED: Anti-ICE messaging on bullets at shooting scene of ICE facility in Dallas

An attorney for another suspect named Elizabeth Soto said she pleaded not guilty and would contest the accusations in court.

Some of the defendants and their attorneys said that they intended to protest the immigration policies of the Trump administration but did not intend for shots to be fired.

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