Politics
Trump Pardons Paul Walczak, Whose Family Sought to Publicize Ashley Biden’s Diary
President Trump has pardoned a Florida health care executive whose mother played a role in trying to expose the contents of Ashley Biden’s diary.
The pardon of the executive, Paul Walczak, was signed privately on Wednesday and posted on the Justice Department’s website on Friday. It came less than two weeks after he was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution, for tax crimes that prosecutors said were used to finance a lavish lifestyle, including the purchase of a yacht.
Mr. Walczak’s mother, Elizabeth Fago, who was also involved in the health care industry in Florida, is a longtime Republican donor and fund-raiser who played a role in a surreptitious effort to help Mr. Trump by undermining Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the 2020 presidential election.
During the campaign, Ms. Fago was contacted by a man who was in possession of a diary kept by Mr. Biden’s daughter, Ashley, as she recovered from addiction, The New York Times previously reported.
When first told of the diary, Ms. Fago said she thought it would help Mr. Trump’s chances of winning the election if it was made public, two people familiar with the matter later told The Times. The man, Robert Kurlander, circulated the diary at a fund-raiser at Ms. Fago’s house in Jupiter, Fla., in September 2020.
Ms. Fago’s daughter passed along a tip about the diary to Project Veritas, a conservative group that had become a favorite of Mr. Trump’s. Project Veritas later paid $40,000 to Mr. Kurlander and an associate, Aimee Harris, for the diary.
The Justice Department investigated the theft and handling of the diary, which included scrutiny of Ms. Fago and her daughter. Neither they nor anyone from Project Veritas was charged, but Mr. Kurlander and Ms. Harris were convicted in connection with the scheme.
There is no evidence that Mr. Walczak was involved in the effort to acquire the diary, and the charges against him were unrelated to the matter.
He had donated a total of about $450 to Mr. Trump’s 2020 campaign around the time of the fund-raiser at his mother’s home, but it is not clear whether he attended it.
Asked about the pardon, he declined to comment and did not respond to a follow-up message inquiring about the diary. Ms. Fago, who has donated more than $16,000 to Mr. Trump’s committees and was nominated by him in December 2020 to the National Cancer Advisory Board, did not respond to a request for comment.
The pardon of Mr. Walczak comes as Mr. Trump is increasingly using his nearly unfettered clemency powers to reward allies, highlight his grievances about what he sees as the political weaponization of the justice system and swipe at perceived enemies, including the Bidens.
Last month, Mr. Trump granted clemency to Devon Archer and Jason Galanis. The men are former business partners of Mr. Biden’s son Hunter, and earned fans on the political right by testifying to Republican-controlled congressional committees about the overlap between the younger Mr. Biden’s business dealings and the elder Mr. Biden’s public service.
Raymond R. Granger, a lawyer who represented Mr. Walczak in his criminal tax case, confirmed that he had drafted the pardon application with assistance from two lawyers with whom he worked on the case, Richard Levitt and Dennis Kainen.
In a statement, Mr. Granger said “Paul and his family are truly grateful to the president, and Paul looks forward to returning his focus to his lifelong passion for improving the country’s health care system.”
The clemency grant for Mr. Walczak came on the same day as Mr. Trump issued a pardon to Michele Fiore, a Nevada Republican politician who was convicted last year in connection with a scheme to use charitable donations for personal expenses, including plastic surgery, rent and her daughter’s wedding.
A White House official said, without providing evidence, that Mr. Walczak and Ms. Fiore had been the victims of biased prosecutions under the Biden Justice Department.
Politics
President says Chicagoans are ‘chanting bring in Trump’ after violent downtown riot leaves 8 shot, 1 dead
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President Donald Trump on Saturday said Chicagoans are asking to “bring in Trump” amid a recent crime wave in the Democrat-run city.
At least eight teens were shot, one fatally, and multiple police officers were attacked Friday after a riot broke out in the Chicago Loop, the city’s downtown central business district.
“Massive crime and rioting in the Chicago Loop area. Multiple Police Officers attacked and badly injured. 300 people rioting, 6 victims shot, one critical and one DEAD,” Trump wrote Saturday in a Truth Social post.
“In the meantime, Governor Pritzker and the Low IQ Mayor of Chicago are refusing Federal Government help for a situation that could be quickly remedied,” he added. “The people are chanting, BRING IN TRUMP!!!”
Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Fox News anchor Bret Baier clashed in October over Chicago’s homicide data. (Breaking Tonight/Fox News Channel)
CHICAGO RESTAURANT OWNER SLAMS CITY LEADERSHIP OVER CRIME: ‘WE WANT LAW AND ORDER’
The riot, which followed a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, broke out near State and Randolph streets at about 10 p.m. Friday, FOX 32 Chicago reported.
City Alderman Brian Hopkins of Chicago’s 2nd Ward said 300 juveniles were rioting and attacking officers with mace and stun guns.
At least one officer was hospitalized with injuries, he confirmed.
At least six children were shot, including a 13-year-old, two 14-year-olds, a 15-year-old, a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old.
Less than an hour later, a 14-year-old boy was shot and later died at a hospital. An 18-year-old man was also wounded.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and President Donald Trump have butted heads over law and order in the blue city. (Scott Olson/Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
TRUMP SAYS ‘INCOMPETENT’ ILLINOIS GOVERNOR, ‘NO BETTER’ CHICAGO MAYOR SHOULD CALL HIM FOR HELP WITH CRIME
The violent weekend came days after a man with a lengthy criminal history was accused of ruthlessly setting a woman on fire while riding on a Chicago train.
Lawrence Reed, 50, who officials said “had no business being on the streets,” is charged with committing a terrorist attack or other violence against a mass transportation system.
Train footage shows Reed allegedly coming up behind a woman and pouring the liquid on her head and body before lighting her on fire. (U.S. District Court documents)
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson later called the train attack an “isolated incident.”
Records show Reed has been arrested at least a dozen times since 2017, with charges including felony aggravated arson and multiple instances of battery.
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Despite prosecutors’ request to keep him detained, a blue city judge released him back into the community with an ankle monitor.
Politics
Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of JFK, reveals terminal cancer diagnosis
Tatiana Schlossberg, granddaughter of slain President John F. Kennedy, is battling a rare form of leukemia and may have less than a year to live.
In an essay published Saturday in the New Yorker, the 35-year-old environmental journalist wrote her illness was discovered in May 2024 after she gave birth to her daughter. She was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia with a rare mutation known as Inversion 3 and has undergone several treatments, including chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants.
Schlossberg is a daughter of former U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, the former president’s daughter, and Edwin Schlossberg. They live in New York.
In her essay, Schlossberg acknowledged that her terminal illness adds to a string of tragedies that has befallen the famous political family. Her grandfather was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Nearly five years later, his brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was fatally shot in Los Angeles after giving a victory speech at the Ambassador Hotel following his California presidential primary win. Her uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., died in 1999 when his small plane crashed.
“For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry,” Schlossberg wrote.
“Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
She wrote her diagnosis was stunning. She had just turned 34, didn’t feel sick and was physically active, including swimming a mile one day before she gave birth to her second child at Columbia-Presbyterian hospital in New York.
After the delivery, her doctor became alarmed by her high white blood cell count.
At first, medical professionals figured the test result might be tied to her pregnancy. However, doctors soon concluded she had myeloid leukemia, a condition mostly observed in older patients. She ended up spending weeks in the hospital.
“Every doctor I saw asked me if I had spent a lot of time at Ground Zero, given how common blood cancers are among first responders,” Schlossberg wrote. “I was in New York on 9/11, in the sixth grade, but I didn’t visit the site until years later.”
She has endured various treatments. Her older sister, Rose, was one of her bone marrow donors.
In the article, Schlossberg mentioned the Kennedy family’s dilemma over controversial positions taken by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., her mother’s cousin. Schlossberg wrote that while she was in the hospital in mid-2024, Kennedy suspended his long-shot campaign for president to throw his weight behind then-Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Trump went on to name Kennedy to his Cabinet as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In one of his early moves, Trump demanded a cut in government money to Columbia University, which employs her husband, George Moran.
“Doctors and scientists at Columbia, including George, didn’t know if they would be able to continue their research, or even have jobs,” she wrote. “Suddenly, the health-care system on which I relied felt strained, shaky.”
On Saturday, her brother Jack Schlossberg, who recently announced his bid for Congress in a New York district, shared on Instagram a link to her New Yorker essay, “A Battle with My Blood.”
He added: “Life is short — let it rip.”
Politics
GOP Senate hopeful reveals how Dems are making America ‘weaker’ in viral video ahead of Thanksgiving
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A Kentucky businessman attempting to replace former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is ripping the left’s woke trend of offering up “land acknowledgments,” arguing the narrative behind it is misleading and “anti-American.”
Nate Morris, a multimillionaire and former CEO of one of the largest software companies in Kentucky, argued in a video posted to X that America was “negotiated for” and “fought over,” not stolen as the left often claims. Meanwhile, Morris referred to the trend as “one more left-wing attempt to weaken America from within.”
“We bought Alaska from Russia and the Lousiana Purchase was purchased from France,” Morris pointed out. “We negotiated, traded and signed treaties covering millions of acres. Compare that to how Europe, Asia, or the Middle East shifted borders for thousands of years … the left wants to judge America by standards no other nation in history could meet.”
DNC OPENS SUMMER MEETING WITH LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT, CLAIMS THAT US SUPPRESSES INDIGENOUS HISTORY
Lindy Sowmick, Treasurer for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota, claimed during her “land acknowledgment” that the U.S. perpetuates a system of suppression against Indigenous peoples. (DNC/Pool)
Meanwhile, Morris blasted those on the left engaging in these land acknowledgments for not even knowing the history of the American-Indians they claim to want to defend.
“The Apache and the Sioux – they weren’t into Disney movies – they were warrior nations. Heck, even the Comanche were cave dwellers in Wyoming until they got horses and conquered half of the United States,” Morris pointed out, adding that it is peculiar how “all the people trying to acknowledge this land” aren’t leaving it.
Morris continued that anyone who tells you America was “stolen,” not “conquered,” is either trying to “rewrite history” or “make America weaker.”
“It was fought over, and it was settled by ancestors who believed in private industry and law and order – manifest destiny,” the Senate candidate argued.
‘AMERICA FIRST’ ATTORNEY GENERAL DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM MCCONNELL — HIS FORMER BOSS — AS KENTUCKY RACE DEFINES GOP FUTURE
As a Republican, Morris likely has many supporters that agree with his take on the left’s “land acknowledgments,” but even some Democrats have called out the trend.
Nate Morris is the former CEO of software giant Rubicon. (Photo by Jon Cherry/Getty Images for Concordia)
Several months after Republicans ushered in a red wave during the 2024 elections, veteran Democratic Party strategist James Carville blasted his own party when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) opened a high-profile meeting in Minneapolis with a “land acknowledgment,” calling it the kind of gesture that has cost Democrats elections.
“Please stop this, in the name of a just, merciful God,” Carville pleaded. “Don’t you see what’s happening? Don’t you see where this has brought us to? For God’s sake, lady. And what is [DNC chairman] Ken Martin doing, doing that? You don’t have but one job, kid! It’s to win!”
Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville says Vance’s recent political moves have been gifts to the Democratic Party. ( Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for SCAD)
Meanwhile, liberal talk show host Bill Maher also weighed in on the fad ahead of this year’s elections in November, which ultimately saw more Democrat victories than Republican, but not long after the Republicans achived their red wave during the 2024 elections. He agreed with Carville that the gesture could be hurting Democrats electorally.
“Democrats, if you ever want to win an election again, the absolute most important first step is to stop doing this,” Maher said during a monologue in March on his show “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
“Either give the land back or shut the f—k up,” Maher continued. “Look, I understand the desire to right the wrongs of the past, especially when you get to take the moral high ground and then build an 8,000 square foot mansion on it.”
Fox News’ Alexander Hall contributed to this report.
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