Justin Rohrlich

A Michigan man with Down syndrome—whose futile quest to get the COVID-19 vaccine was chronicled by The Daily Beast—has died from complications related to the virus his family said. Vincent Welch, 35, passed away Friday morning at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he was recently airlifted for treatment by pulmonary specialists. Welch lived in Snover, Michigan, which is near the top of the […]

A Minnesota city was gripped by protests for a second night in a row as officials released the name of the white cop who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop—apparently after she mistook her handgun for a taser. Officer Kim Potter, a 26-year veteran of the Brooklyn Center Police Department, was identified as the person who fired a bullet into 20-year-old Daunte Wright’s […]

A Florida woman who police say was so high on mind-bending drugs that she was screaming she was Harry Potter has been charged with the hit-and-run accident that killed a federal judge. U.S.District Judge Sandra Feuerstein, 75, was mowed down as she strolled down a Boca Raton sidewalk on Friday morning and was pronounced dead at the hospital. A 6-year-old boy, Anthony Ovchinnikov, was injured in […]

Federal wiretaps targeting cell phones used by Southern California white power gangs allegedly trafficking methamphetamine also turned up a surprise identity theft racket being run by an alleged member of the notorious Lakeside Gangsters, a “multi-generational criminal street gang” with ties to the Aryan Brotherhood and Supreme Power Skins, according to an FBI search warrant application obtained by The Daily Beast. The investigation began as part […]

Two people were shot dead by an off-duty Pentagon Force Protection Agency police officer who thought he saw the pair stealing a car early Wednesday morning, police in Maryland said in a statement. Shortly after 5 a.m., officers from the Takoma Park Police Department responded to multiple reports of shots fired in the parking lot of the Takoma Overlook Condominiums on New Hampshire Avenue, the department […]

Even though New York has one of the strictest mask mandates in the country, and one-third of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, COVID-19 infection rates are rising faster than any other state in the U.S.—and public health experts aren’t completely sure what’s behind the spike in new cases. “The reality is that no one knows exactly why,” Dr. Irwin Redlener, […]

A Black man shot and killed by Virginia Beach police on Friday was “brandishing a handgun” at the time of his death, the Virginia Beach Police Department said Monday. The statement comes two days after cops said they were unsure whether 25-year-old Donovon Lynch was armed during the fatal confrontation. The officer involved in the shooting had been wearing a body camera but had not activated […]

An AR-15-owning QAnon acolyte caught with armor-piercing bullets drove from Wisconsin to Washington, D.C. on March 3 and threatened U.S. Capitol Police officers that he was “maybe going to do something crazy stupid tomorrow”—the day followers of the discredited conspiracy theory falsely believed former President Donald Trump would reassume the presidency, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Mar. 19 in federal court. Ian Alan Olson, who […]

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer is under federal investigation for allegedly smuggling methamphetamine and suboxone into a Washington State prison for her boyfriend, a member of the Rollin’ 60s Crips street gang who is serving 69 years for shooting and killing a homeless man at a Seattle bus shelter, according to an FBI search warrant application obtained by The Daily Beast. Officer Melissa Mesa, […]

A U.S. Census branch chief got a job for a friend at a company doing business with the federal government, then demanded he fork over half his earnings as tribute and got him fired when the acquaintance tried to negotiate a lower kickback, prosecutors allege. In November 2018, an unemployed acquaintance contacted Joy Saif Choudhury, a branch chief for the Census Bureau, to ask for help […]

Joe Biden on Thursday suggested it might be safe to gather in small groups come July 4, 2021, as vaccinations ramp up and the pandemic shows signs of easing. But from where Francisco Bruna is sitting, plenty of Americans have no intention of waiting even close to that long. “We’re receiving a lot of calls,” Bruna, owner of Bru Med Travel, a Miami travel agency, told […]

An undocumented Dutch “Boogaloo Boi” arrested by the FBI on weapons and immigration charges is a good dad who just wants to be home in Virginia with his 6-year-old daughter, according to his lawyer. Meanwhile, he is comfortably riding out his time in federal detention with financial support from fellow members of the Boogaloo movement, a largely decentralized extremist movement that aims to overthrow the U.S. […]

After a deluge of new reporting this weekend portrayed a culture of sexual harassment and bullying in his office, embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday embraced his defense of choice: tradition. “If customs change, I’ll change—the customs and behaviors,” Cuomo said during a Sunday afternoon conference call with reporters, in response to an article published Saturday by The Wall Street Journal. In it, former […]

Days before the trial of the officer charged with murdering George Floyd is set to begin in Minneapolis, the FBI has arrested a member of the Boogaloo Bois who tried to travel to the city during this summer’s unrest and who has been in contact with a fellow extremist accused of attacking a police station there. Jaap Willem Lijbers, 26, is an undocumented Dutch citizen living […]

An Ohio mother who police say tried to abandon her 6-year-old son at a local park, dragged him along the pavement when he tried to get back into the car, then dumped the boy’s lifeless body in a river the following day, confessed to killing the child but has shown little remorse, the Middletown police chief revealed Monday. Brittany Gosney, 29, is charged with murder, abuse […]

A Russian hacker stole the identities of 22 of 75 living U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, using their pilfered personal data to buy tens of thousands of dollars worth of Apple products and luxury watches from American military exchanges, according to a Secret Service search warrant application obtained by The Daily Beast. The hot merchandise was then shipped to at least 20 different addresses in […]

Chantal Reh never got to know her daughter Christie, who had been diagnosed in the womb with Turner’s Syndrome, a rare chromosomal disorder, and was stillborn. Nearly three years later, Reh still doesn’t know if Christie’s ashes, which she keeps at home in a small urn, are actually Christie’s. Shortly after she delivered her baby at a Colorado hospital in August 2018, Reh says she was […]

Leo Brent Bozell IV, a son of right-wing activist L. Brent Bozell III, has been charged in federal court for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Bozell IV faces three counts—disorderly conduct, entering a restricted building, and obstructing an official proceeding—according to a complaint unsealed Feb. 16. Bozell’s father is the founder of the conservative Media Research Center, a self-described watchdog group that […]

Millions of Texans are still without power, as a record cold snap continues to tax the statewide electric grid beyond its limit—but don’t blame it all on wind turbines. Contrary to some media reports, experts say wind turbines are only a “tiny” piece of what’s gone wrong, which includes foul-ups in everything from natural gas and nuclear energy in addition to structural issues affecting the uniquely […]

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employee offered to commit “treason and espionage” in exchange for $27.7 million and a promise of asylum in Germany, France, or China, according to a plea agreement filed Feb. 10 in Washington, D.C. federal court. In a statement of offense attached to the plea, Brian J. Booth, who was assigned to the FAA’s Enforcement Division, admitted to disclosing U.S. secrets last […]

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer allegedly used a colleague’s computer login to sneak her undocumented housekeeper into Texas from Mexico after circumventing COVID-19 non-essential travel restrictions by scheduling an appointment for the woman to donate plasma at a clinic just over the U.S. border. The officer, identified in a federal criminal complaint as Rhonda Lee Walker, is stationed in Laredo, TX. The woman Walker […]

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem used a state airplane to shuttle her around the country to right-wing political events, racking up huge bills on the taxpayer dime as the GOP darling traveled to events hosted by, among others, the National Rifle Association, Turning Point USA, and a Las Vegas confab put on by the Republican Jewish Coalition. That’s according to flight records reviewed by Raw Story, […]

A Pennsylvania mother of eight on the run from authorities for her role in the Capitol riot has been arrested by the FBI, according to federal prosecutors. Rachel Marie Powell of Sandy Lake, PA, “is in custody,” Margaret Philbin, a spokesperson for the Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney’s Office, told The Daily Beast. Powell, 40, was apprehended Thursday night in New Castle, PA, according to Philbin. She could […]

A private detective scammed hundreds of investors in a cryptocurrency fraud, then faked his own disappearance to make off with millions that he blew on jewelry, home improvements, and a Porsche, a newly unsealed criminal complaint alleges. John DeMarr was arrested Monday morning by the FBI in Santa Ana, California. Federal authorities say that he and two associates pocketed more than $11 million in ill-gotten gains. […]

The Wisconsin pharmacist who intentionally sabotaged hundreds of doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine because he thought COVID-19 was a hoax, also believes the earth is flat and the sky is actually a “shield put up by the Government to prevent individuals from seeing God.” That’s according to a newly-unsealed FBI search warrant application obtained by The Daily Beast, which the bureau filed earlier this month […]

A Virginia police officer charged in the Jan. 6 sacking of the U.S. Capitol bragged to a friend on Facebook that he “pissed in Nancy P’s toilet,” referring to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to an FBI search warrant application obtained by The Daily Beast. The document, which seeks permission to search Jacob Fracker’s Rocky Mount, Virginia, home for further evidence, follows a prior warrant […]

A fresh cohort of pro-Trump rioters involved in the Jan. 6 sacking of the U.S. Capitol have been arrested, many of whom were largely undone by their own ill-advised social-media posts, according to a series of newly filed criminal complaints. Some uploaded selfies to Facebook that placed them at the scene, along with vivid descriptions of breaking into and being inside of the Capitol building during […]

A U.S. Army reservist with a secret-level security clearance and “access to a variety of munitions”—described in court papers as a white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer—has been charged with taking part in the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli of Colts Neck, New Jersey, works as a contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle, which is also in Colts Neck, according to an FBI affidavit […]

As rioters roamed about the Senate floor on January 6, a clutch of fellow insurrectionists stood at a lawmaker’s desk, rifling through a binder filled with official documents. A man wearing a backpack and an olive-green military style helmet points to a section and tells the group he believes it shows proof that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz had been baldly lying to Trump supporters about his […]

A U.S. embassy staffer accused of drugging and sexually assaulting at least 23 women over the past 10 years lured at least one of his victims across international borders to Mexico from the United States for a night of abuse she barely remembers, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed in federal court. That’s among the new revelations in the case of Brian Jeffrey Raymond, a government […]

Isaiah Box was in the wrong place at the right time. The 25-year-old lives in Rockford, Illinois, sharing a home with his parents about a half mile from the Don Carter Lanes, where he was a regular at the upstairs tavern, Shooter’s Bar and Grill. He was there as usual this past Saturday, but left earlier than he normally does. This, he now realizes, may have […]

In a move that surprised precious few, President Donald Trump issued another flurry of pardons on Wednesday night, including a full pardon for his son-in-law’s father, Charles Kushner, and Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman who was found guilty of tax and bank fraud and later pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice after lying to investigators looking into Russian election interference. Kushner, 66, was released […]

A so-called incel who fantasized about blowing up a shopping mall and killing “hot cheerleaders” pleaded guilty Friday to one count of possessing an unregistered destructive device. Cole Carini of Richlands, Virginia, reportedly idolized mass shooter Elliott Rodger, an “involuntary celibate,” or “incel,” who in 2014 murdered six people in California and injured 14 others before taking his own life. Many legal scholars say incel-related violence, […]

After a near-fatal heroin overdose, two stints in rehab, and six months in jail, Chandler Cook finally got sober and stayed clean for more than a year. Then came the coronavirus—and the 28-year-old lost his job, and lost his way. His mom, Michelle Holbrook, called every day but couldn’t visit because of her own health issues. But Chandler was isolated, bored, and physically cut off from […]

The Department of Justice is investigating a possible “secret lobbying scheme” to secure a presidential pardon, according to a partially unsealed filing in D.C. federal court. The 20-page document is largely redacted, leaving it a mystery who investigators believe was hoping to receive the pardon or reprieve in exchange for “a substantial political contribution.” No names or identifying information is provided, and the investigation appears to […]

An Iowa paralegal working for the Department of Justice admitted to illegally revealing the identities of at least two cooperating witnesses in a federal drug trafficking investigation, providing the highly-sensitive information to someone who subsequently posted the informants’ names, addresses, and phone numbers to a “stop snitching” Facebook page with nearly 10,000 members. Danielle N. Taff, 37, pleaded guilty Friday to one count of computer fraud. […]

After Brandy Odom’s remains were discovered scattered throughout Brooklyn’s Canarsie Park in April 2018, her roommates, Cory Martin and Adelle Anderson, quickly came under suspicion. Now, nearly two-and-a-half years after the gruesome crime, Martin, 33, and Anderson, 32, are facing federal wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges in connection with Odom’s murder. The arrests follow Anderson’s confession during an interview with law enforcement last week […]

Former Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Garrison Courtney was sentenced Wednesday to seven years in prison for a breath-taking scam that netted him millions—and could have landed him billions in federal contracts, had he not been caught in time. The punishment was longer than the 37 months the defense sought but less than the 11 to 14 years prosecutors—who described Courtney as someone with an “extraordinary capacity […]

Ken Kurson, a close friend of presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner and a one-time speechwriter for Donald Trump, was arrested by FBI agents Friday on cyberstalking charges. Federal prosecutors allege Kurson, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur and former editor-in-chief of The New York Observer when Kushner was its publisher, “engaged in a pattern of stalking and harassment against three victims” who include a former friend he blamed for ruining […]

A California widow was scammed out of at least $287,000 by an unidentified overseas con man who romanced her online using “deepfake” video to pose as the superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy, according to federal prosecutors. Deepfakes, which are created using artificial intelligence to make it appear as if someone is doing or saying something they aren’t, have been called a threat to national security. […]