Raw Story

An appeals court tossed out a nine-year sentence for discredited Colorado election clerk Tina Peters.

The Donald Trump ally will be re-sentenced by a district court judge after the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld her conviction but found that Mesa County District Court Judge Matthew Barrett had wrongly based part of his sentence on Peters’ exercise of her right to free speech, reported the Denver Post.

“Notwithstanding the fact that some of the trial court’s considerations were tied to proper sentencing considerations, when the court’s comments are viewed in their totality, it is apparent that the court imposed the lengthy sentence it did because Peters continued to espouse the views that led her to commit these crimes,” the opinion states.

The "tenor" of Barrett's original sentencing order indicates that he "punished" Peters for her persistence in insisting the 2020 election had been fraudulent and that keeping her in prison was necessary to prevent her from espousing views the judge felt were "damaging," and the appeals court sent the case back to him for a resentencing.

The appellate court found there was sufficient evidence to convict Peters and that she was not immune to state prosecution, and the judges also found that a purported pardon from Trump carried no authority under Colorado law.

The court denied Peters' request that a new judge resentence her, saying that issue should be raised in a lower court, and ruled that a prosecutor’s description of her case during closing arguments had no impact on the verdict.

“The evidence of her knowledge of the illegality of her conduct is so overwhelming, we simply cannot say that the prosecutor’s statement (even if improper) had any impact on the verdict, let alone an impact so great as to cause serious doubt about the reliability of the judgment of conviction,” the panel found.

Peters, now 70, was convicted by a Mesa County jury of four felony and three misdemeanor crimes for plotting to sneak unauthorized individuals into a secure area to examine voting equipment to look for evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

MAGA financial pundit Eric Bolling revealed that President Donald Trump's Wednesday night address to the nation had likely "triggered" a 60-cent spike in gas prices.

During a Thursday interview on the War Room podcast, Bolling said he had been giving MAGA influencer Steve Bannon updates on the oil market as Trump was speaking about the war in Iran.

Bolling noted that oil was trading at "$98 a barrel" before Trump started speaking.

"It really didn't move very much during the speech. I kept updating you. When he talked about the part where he said, we're going to send them back to the Stone Ages, I think that triggered something because that's really where it started to tick up to $99 a barrel, $100 a barrel," he recalled. "When he finished, I think traders were hoping to hear some sort of legitimate off-ramp, and it just spiked 101, 101, 102, 103, 105, 107, 108 or so."

"This morning I got up, Steve, and I was just shocked. $11, $12 a barrel, that's $13, $14 a barrel higher," he said. "Unfortunately, that turns into about a 60, 70 cent move up on the pump price just on the overnight alone, what it did overnight."

The New York Times editorial board condemned President Donald Trump's decision to pardon approximately 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters, many of whom have since committed additional crimes.

Unlike past presidents who issued controversial pardons near the end of their terms, Trump deployed what MAGA ally Steve Bannon described as a "flood the zone" strategy: issuing so many pardons so quickly that public attention cannot keep up with the consequences.

The Times documented 12 serious recidivists, including four who were incarcerated at the time of their pardons and subsequently committed new offenses.

The board stated, "The American public deserves to understand the mayhem that the Jan. 6 pardons have unleashed."

The editorial warned that Trump and Republicans face accountability through midterm elections, arguing voters must deliver "a political price" for the pardons. The Times noted Trump continues valorizing the Capitol attack, which included threats against the Vice President, assaults on police officers, and resulted in one officer's death from strokes and four officers' suicides.

Watch the video below.

Not long after having attended the Supreme Court hearing to hear oral arguments on the legality of ending birthright citizenship – becoming the first sitting president in history to do so – President Donald Trump took to social media Wednesday to lash out at the longstanding and constitutionally enshrined right, and with a claim that was blatantly false.

“We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship!” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, just as oral arguments in the Supreme Court hearing had ended.

Despite Trump’s claim, birthright citizenship exists in dozens of countries, including the United States’ neighbors Canada and Mexico. In the United States, birthright citizenship was enshrined as a right in 1868 through the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Trump has long sought to eliminate birthright citizenship in the United States, signing an executive order on his first day back in office last year to challenge the longstanding precedent.

The U.S. Army said it had opened an investigation into an apparent visit to conservative singer Kid Rock's home by two AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.

In a social media post over the weekend, the singer shared a video of himself saluting an Army helicopter hovering over his so-called "Southern White House" near Nashville.

"Fort Campbell leadership is aware of a video circulating on social media depicting AH-64 Apache helicopters operating in the vicinity of a private residence associated with Mr. Robert Ritchie (also known as 'Kid Rock')," 101st Airborne Division spokesperson Maj. Jonathon Bless said in a statement. "The command has initiated an investigation to review the circumstances surrounding this activity."

"The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell maintain strict standards for aviation safety, professionalism, and adherence to established flight regulations," the statement continued. "We take all concerns regarding aircraft operations and their impact on the surrounding community seriously."

The helicopters were also seen over a "No Kings" protest in downtown Nashville. Bless told NewsChannel 5 that he could not explain why the Army flew over the demonstration.

"This is a level of respect that s--- for brains Governor of California will never know," Rock wrote in his social media post on Saturday. "God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her."

Occupy Democrats condemned what was called a "photoshoot."

"Why are taxpayers paying for military helicopters to fly past Kid Rock's house for a photoshoot?" the group wrote on Facebook.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has dramatically expanded its immigration enforcement activities, auditing thousands of housing applicants and proposing new rules that would force mixed-status families to choose between separating from undocumented relatives or losing rental assistance entirely.

HUD Secretary Scott Turner has instructed public housing authorities to verify immigration status for approximately 200,000 people receiving federal housing benefits, reported the Washington Post. The department is also sharing data with the Department of Homeland Security and has proposed a rule blocking mixed-status households — families containing both documented and undocumented members — from accessing housing programs altogether.

The policy would devastate eligible families. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that nearly 80,000 people would lose housing assistance under the proposed rule, including 52,600 eligible citizens and 35,400 citizen children. Housing officials report that for every ineligible person removed from programs, approximately three eligible people lose assistance.

Public housing authorities have raised significant concerns about the implementation. HUD provided 3,000 housing agencies with lists of flagged tenants and demanded corrections within 30 days — a timeframe housing officials characterize as impossible. After investigation, local officials discovered the vast majority of flagged individuals were flagged in error due to data synchronization problems, duplicate entries, or administrative mistakes like missing initials or transposed Social Security numbers.

Mark Thiele, chief executive of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, criticized the shift in mission.

“Putting that responsibility on them shifts immigration enforcement away from the agencies that are meant to handle it and actually puts eligible families at risk of losing their housing assistance,” Thiele said. “Housing agencies should focus on what they do best: providing homes for their communities. They should not be asked to act as immigration enforcers on top of that.”

Turner defended the policy as necessary to protect taxpayer funds and ensure benefits reach U.S. citizens. "Under President Trump's leadership, the days of illegal aliens, ineligibles, and fraudsters gaming the system and riding the coattails of American taxpayers are over," he stated.

Housing experts argue the policy won't address underlying housing shortages or lower costs. Of 4.4 million HUD-assisted households, only approximately 20,000 are mixed-status. The proposed changes represent part of a broader administration effort to use federal agencies for immigration enforcement, including similar initiatives at the Education Department, IRS, and banking sector.