U.S. Senator Bob Menendez was convicted on Tuesday on all 16 criminal counts he faced including bribery at his corruption trial in Manhattan federal court, completing the once-powerful New Jersey Democrat's dramatic downfall.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/jury-reaches-verdict-us-senator-bob-menendezs-corruption-trial-2024-07-16/

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donald Trump says Ohio Sen. JD Vance will be his vice presidential pick.

He says on his Truth Social Network that, “After lengthy deliberation and thought, and considering the tremendous talents of many others, I have decided that the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States is Senator J.D. Vance of the Great State of Ohio.”

https://apnews.com/article/trump-vice-president-vance-rubio-burgum-rnc-6cc438a8370a21b2631f5a53b06b71d0

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https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/verify/national-verify/jonathan-willis-trump-rally-sniper-fact-check/536-092a988c-9fa6-4d1f-948f-0f7ed60025e8
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/jonathan-willis-4chan-secret-service-sniper-fired/
After the attempt on former President Donald Trump’s life at a rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, July 13, multiple people shared a post online claiming to be from a sniper working at the rally.

The viral post, which originally appeared on the online message board 4chan but spread to other social media platforms, says, “My name is Jonathan Willis, I’m the officer in the famous photo of the two snipers on the roof at Trump’s rally. I came here to inform the public that I had the assassin in my sights for at least 3 minutes, but the head of the secret service refused to give the order to take out the perp. 100% the top brass prevented me from killing the assassin before he took the shots at president Trump.”

Several VERIFY readers, including Alicia and Rob, asked us to look into the post’s legitimacy.
THE QUESTION

Is a viral post claiming to be from a sniper at Trump’s rally legitimate?
THE SOURCES

Secret Service spokesperson
Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson
Butler Police Department

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The widow of Corey Comperatore, the heroic volunteer firefighter killed while shielding his family during the shooting at a Trump campaign rally, said that the former president has not reached out to the grieving family.

The silence from Trump contrasts with an attempted call from President Biden, which the Comperatore family declined. Helen Comperatore, speaking from her home in Sarver, PA, told the New York Post in an exclusive interview, "I didn't talk to Biden. I didn't want to talk to him," adding, "My husband was a devout Republican and he would not have wanted me to talk to him."

Newsweek contacted Trump's campaign via email on Monday for comment.

The shooting Saturday unfolded on the grounds of the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, where the 50-year-old Comperatore, former chief of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company, attended the Trump rally. Approximately six minutes into Trump's speech, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on the crowd in the attempted presidential assassination.

In the ensuing chaos, Comperatore's final act was one of selfless heroism. "He just said, 'get down!' That was the last thing he said," Helen told the Post, her voice thick with emotion. "He's my hero."

The shooting left Trump with a minor ear injury and two others critically wounded. Secret Service personnel "neutralized" and killed the gunman on a nearby rooftop.

PA Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, praised Comperatore's sacrifice in a Sunday news conference. "We lost a fellow Pennsylvanian last night," Shapiro said. "Corey died a hero. He dove on his family to protect them."

The tragedy has sparked nationwide discussions on campaign security, gun control and political rhetoric. Biden spoke out following the assassination attempt from the Oval Office on Sunday, urging Americans to "lower the temperature" in an increasingly heated political climate.

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U.S. intelligence recently detected an Iranian plot against former President Donald Trump, U.S. officials tell CBS News — although intelligence officials haven't found any ties between Saturday's failed attempt on Trump's life by 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks and any foreign or domestic accomplice.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iran-plot-against-trump-detected/

Almost all mainstream news outlets appear to be reporting these exact same details simultaneously.

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Trump rally shooter identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20-year-old Pennsylvania man. Here's what we know so far.
By Nicole Sganga, Allison Elyse Gualtieri, Pat Milton

Updated on: July 14, 2024 / 5:05 PM EDT / CBS News

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/trump-rally-gunman-identified/

Who was the shooter?
In a statement, the FBI said:

"The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the subject involved in the assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump on July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania. This remains an active and ongoing investigation, and anyone with information that may assist with the investigation is encouraged to submit photos or videos online at FBI.gov/butler or call 1-800-CALL-FBI."

Federal investigators said the gunman was not carrying identification, so they analyzed his DNA to provide a biometric confirmation of his identity.

Crooks was from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh suburb about an hour south of Butler. The town in Allegheny County is home to about 30,000 people and has one high school with about 1,300 students.

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Cool heads needed as political fringe dwellers spread disinformation after Trump shooting

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/14/cool-heads-needed-as-political-fringe-dwellers-spread-disinformation-after-trump-shooting

Cool heads needed as political fringe dwellers spread disinformation after Trump shooting

Partisans on the left and the right are weaponizing the attack and spreading lies faster than journalists can offer facts to counter them

Disinformation researcher Amanda Rogers has described the polarized, unhinged, conspiracy-driven noise in social media responses to the shooting of Donald Trump as “a self-sustaining spiral of shit”.

Rogers, a fellow at the progressive thinktank Century Foundation, has seen this before. But the scale is new and troubling, she said. Conversation on social media – and the mainstream media – is focused on the motivations of the shooter and the impact on the election, she said. Bad actors want to turn a moment like this into a broader call for violence. And they will spread lies to get there, she said.

“The fact that this is the perfect storm environment for dis-info from every single point on the political spectrum, is something that worries me immensely,” Rogers said. “Because it’s an accelerationist’s wet dream … But we need to have voices in the media that are speaking to the fact that this is a breaking situation. People need to calm down about speculation.”

Accelerationists are those on the political fringes – right and left – who want a civil war to burn the country to ash so they can start anew from the rubble. Notably, the term “Civil War” began trending in the wake of the Trump shooting.

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House LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus calls for action after murder of transgender teen

https://philasun.com/local/house-lgbtq-equality-caucus-calls-for-action-after-murder-of-transgender-teen/

HARRISBURG, Pa.–– After the murder of a 14-year-old transgender individual in Mercer County, members of the PA House LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus released the following statement:

“We mourn the death of Pauly Likens and refuse to stand idly by while LGBTQ+ Pennsylvanians are targeted because of who they are. It’s unacceptable that current hate crime laws in our commonwealth are not applied to crimes motivated by a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

“As incidents of violent hate crimes continue to rise across the nation, we urge our colleagues in the state Senate to pass H.B. 1027 and send it to the governor’s desk. It’s far past time to update Pennsylvania’s hate crime statute so that charges may reflect the especially heinous nature of hate-based violence.”

Sponsored by state Reps. Dan Frankel and Napoleon Nelson, H.B. 1027 would amend PA’s Ethnic Intimidation Statute to ensure protections for victims targeted because of their race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, and disability, including autism. The bill would also provide victims with a civil cause of action against offenders.

The state House passed the legislation on a bipartisan vote in October of 2023, but it has yet to be considered by the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee.

“Not only has a light gone out with the loss of Pauly Likens, but the LGBTQ+ communities across our commonwealth are shaken and fearful,” Frankel (D-Allegheny) said. “The federal government and dozens of other states have acknowledged that these groups are targets for hate crimes, and they’ve provided tools to law enforcement accordingly. Who are we as a commonwealth if we refuse to protect vulnerable people?”

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Every diagram has the shooter ion the roof in the Western side with the grass around the building.
But when shot he's on the Eastern side of the building where the car park is. Why the reporting of the West side shooter? Every MSM diagram shows this.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cljy6yz1j6gt

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https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-rally-shooter-identified-rcna161757

Law enforcement authorities have identified the man who made an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.

The FBI said the shooter, who is dead, was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. A motive was not clear.

The gunman was immediately “neutralized” by the Secret Service, chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi said.

Bethel Park is a predominantly white, relatively well-to-do city in the southern reaches of greater Pittsburgh. The site of the rally, Butler, is about an hour’s drive north of Pittsburgh.

Pennsylvania voter records listed a Thomas Matthew Crooks with the same address and birth date as a registered Republican, though it was not clear from the records when that was put in place.

At a news conference Saturday night, law enforcement said the investigation was close to making a positive identification of the shooter, who did not have identification on him, state police Lt. Col. George Bivens said.

"The shooter has been tentatively identified," he said. "It’s a matter of doing biometric confirmations."

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After former President Donald Trump was bloodied and escorted offstage by Secret Service following an incident at his Pennsylvania rally Saturday, the Florida political world took to social media to offer the former president their well wishes and condemn what looked to be political violence.

Details around the incident were not immediately forthcoming. A spokesperson for the Secret Service said in a statement that Trump was safe, and it would release more information when it became available.

“This was clearly an assassination attempt on President Trump,” said U.S. Sen. Rick Scott. “There is ZERO tolerance for violence. I hope this monster is already caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” Pictures of a defiant Trump, holding a fist high, quickly began to circulate on social media.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2024/07/13/assassination-attempt-florida-reacts-incident-donald-trump-rally/

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https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/live-updates/donald-trump-rally-shooting-assassination-attempt/?id=111916828

Anyone see the resemblance now? They tried to mock him, then they tried to silence him. They tried to jail him, and now they tried to kill him.

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https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/trump-rally-incident

Suspected shooter is killed by Secret Service, and Donald Trump says he felt bullet rip through his ear; the Pennsylvania rally shooting is being investigated as assassination attempt.

LIVE UPDATES
Suspected Gunman Killed at Trump Rally Shooting, Ex-President Wounded in Ear
Suspected shooter is killed by Secret Service, and Donald Trump says he felt bullet rip through his ear; the Pennsylvania rally shooting is being investigated as assassination attempt

Last Updated:

July 13, 2024 at 10:27 PM EDT

Former President Donald Trump said on social media he was "shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear' when gunfire erupted at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., Saturday. The Secret Service shot and killed a suspected gunman.

Federal authorities are investigating the shooting as an assassination attempt.

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Local Man almost ruins the plan.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/he-had-a-rifle-trump-rally-attendee-says-he-warned-police-gunman-was-crawling-on-roof/ar-BB1pVW2L

“Probably five to seven minutes of Trump speaking… we noticed a guy crawling – bear crawling – up the roof of the building beside us, fifty feet away from us,” the man said.

The man continued:

We’re standing there, we’re pointing at the guy crawling up the roof. He had a rifle. We could clearly see him with a rifle. Absolutely. umm, we’re pointing at him. The police are down there, running around on the ground and we’re like, “Hey, man. There’s a guy on the roof with a rifle.” And the police were like, “Huh, what?” They didn’t know what was going on.

The man said he repeatedly warned officers that he believed Trump was in danger but his warnings went unheard.

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https://apnews.com/article/alec-baldwin-manslaughter-charge-dismissed-whats-next-fa647a4a3a503800400d9e06a88f3882

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A New Mexico judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin over the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in a sudden move Friday.

Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case based on the misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of evidence from the defense. She said the case cannot be filed again.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of the film “Rust,” was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on the set outside Santa Fe in October 2021 when the gun went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the gun fired.

He and other producers still face civil lawsuits from Hutchins’ parents and sister, which white collar defense attorney Mark Sedlander told The Associated Press are more common for workplace accidents like the fatal shooting.

“By civil law standards, it is common for someone like Mr. Baldwin to be held responsible for what happened, but it is relatively unusual in the criminal context,” Sedlander said in an interview before the case was dismissed.