Jerome R. Corsi's Blog, page 23

Providence and the victory at Yorktown

On Oct. 19, 1781, in a battlefield not too far from Jamestown, America won its independence. The framers of this country said this was by the grace of God. We too should acknowledge the help of God, upon whom our rights are predicated, as the founders spelled out in the Declaration of Independence.

In the victory at Yorktown, Virginia, British Gen. Cornwallis surrendered to America’s commander in chief, George Washington.

Two hundred years later, reflecting on this virtually impossible (humanly speaking) achievement. President Ronald Reagan declared: “That surrender signified the practical end of the struggle by our forefathers for liberty and independence. The impossible dream of those patriots was about to be transformed into the reality of a bright new Nation.”

Dr. D. James Kennedy and I wrote this about the Yorktown victory in our 2003 book, “What If America Were a Christian Nation Again?” “Many people do not realize that when Cornwallis discovered he was trapped at Yorktown with no place to go, he decided to emulate what Washington had done. Consequently, during that final night, he determined to make his escape, and he began to slip away in boats under cover of darkness.”

With the daylight, to Cornwallis’ horror, he beheld a fleet of French battle ships, there to help the Americans. The British general saw he had no option but to surrender to avoid further bloodshed.

People at the time marveled at what they perceived as God’s hand in the victory at Yorktown and the whole effort in general.

In his “American Minute” entry for Yorktown, historian Bill Federer notes: Yale President Ezra Stiles wrote, May 8, 1783: “Who but God could have ordained the critical arrival of the Gallic – French – fleet, so as to … assist … in the siege … of Yorktown? … It is God who had raised up for us a … powerful ally … a chosen army and a naval force: who sent us a Rochambeau … to fight side by side with a Washington … in the … battle of Yorktown.”

America would not have been successful in this battle were it not for the French, led by Gen. Rochambeau.

The next day, on Oct. 20, 1781, Gen. Washington called for a worship service to give thanks to the Lord for the British surrender. Referring to himself in the third person, George Washington wrote, “Divine Service is to be performed tomorrow in the several Brigades or Divisions. The Commander in Chief earnestly recommends that the troops not on duty should universally attend with that seriousness of Deportment and gratitude of Heart which the recognition of such reiterated and astonishing interpositions of Providence demand of us.”

In those days, Providence was a common word for the God who answers prayer – as in the God of the Bible. Virtually all the Christians in those days used this term.

George Washington was not the only one who thanked God and set aside worship time because of the victory at Yorktown, the Continental Congress did as well.

On Friday, Oct. 26, 1781, congressional members Rev. John Witherspoon, Mr. Montgomery, Mr. Varnum and Roger Sherman wrote up a Thanksgiving and Prayer proclamation for the victory at Yorktown:

“Whereas, it hath pleased Almighty God, the father of mercies, remarkably to assist and support the United States of America in their important struggle for liberty, against the long continued efforts of a powerful nation; it is the duty of all ranks to observe and thankfully acknowledge the interpositions of his Providence in their behalf. Through the whole of the contest, from its first rise to this time, the influence of divine Providence may be clearly perceived in many signal instances.”

Later in this document, they set aside Dec. 13, 1781, as a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer “that all the people may assemble on that day, with grateful hearts, to celebrate the praise of our gracious Benefactor; to confess our manifold sins; to offer up our most fervent supplications to the God of all grace.” The ultimate goal of this peace, they hope, is that it will “cause the knowledge of God to cover the earth, as the waters cover the seas.”

The victory at Yorktown was the unofficial and defacto end of the American War for Independence. Within two years, in 1783, came the official end of the hostilities. John Adams, Ben Franklin and John Jay negotiated for America the Treaty of Paris, formally recognizing the end of the war. How does the treaty begin? “In the Name of the most Holy & undivided Trinity.”

While we’re in our 250th year as a nation, counting down to July 4, 2026, we should remember God’s help for us to become independent in the first place – including the victory at Yorktown.

Transgender train wreck shows America has had enough

America’s culture war was on full display on Thursday night during a debate featuring Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates, Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, the current lieutenant governor.

Both are vying to become the Old Dominion’s first female governor, and in Ms. Earle-Sears’ case, the first black female governor.

Ms. Spanberger, a former congresswoman, was cornered by Ms. Earle-Sears on the hot-button issue of biological males in females’ restrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams.

At issue was an executive order by Gov. Glenn Youngkin banning males in female spaces. Despite being pressed repeatedly about having “nude men in [women’s] locker rooms,” Ms. Spanberger refused to say she would uphold the commonsense policy.

The Democrat also refused to call for Democratic candidate Jay Jones to leave the attorney general’s race against Republican incumbent Jason Miyares.

In texts from 2022, Jones fantasized about giving Republican state House Speaker Todd Gilbert “two bullets to the head.” He told a colleague that he would like to urinate on Republicans’ graves. He also called the speaker’s children “little fascists” and said having the Republican leader’s wife witness their deaths might change Mr. Gilbert’s political views.

Jones also allegedly mused that if more police officers were killed, they’d shoot fewer people. Yes, he’s running for the top law enforcement job in Virginia.

Pressed repeatedly, Ms. Spanberger refused to call for Jones’ departure and declined to say whether she still endorsed him.

“Would it take him pulling the trigger? Is that what would do it?” Ms. Earle-Sears asked. “And then you would say he needs to get out of the race, Abigail? You have nothing to say?”

No prominent Democrat at the state or national level has called for Jones to withdraw from the race, which speaks volumes.

This is not going unnoticed. A breath of fresh air is blowing through America’s zeitgeist – its intellectual, moral and cultural climate. Wokeness is under siege, in no small measure to the left’s transgender overreach.

The trans issue was never just about sex. It’s about whether Americans will be forced to lie by their own government, including mandatory use of false pronouns.

Now, widespread rebellion indicates that we are in sort of a 1960s in reverse.

During that turbulent, drug-infused decade and into the ’70s, entire professions fell to Marxist-inspired rebels. They seized the universities and media, turned liberal Jewish and Christian denominations into pawns of darkness, and took over the guilds representing legal, medical and psychological professionals.

Feminism gave way to radical feminism and the LGBTQ movement, which redefined tolerance as “agree with us or else.”

In 1973, activists bullied the American Psychiatric Association into removing homosexuality as a mental disorder. The psychological guild endorsed that action in 1975.

Then came medical groups such as the American Medical Association and even the American Academy of Pediatrics, both of which endorse transgender treatments for minors.

More than 20 states enacted laws criminalizing counseling that does not affirm homosexual, bisexual, or transgender behavior. You can take your child to a licensed counselor only to reinforce sexual confusion, not to steer them away from it.

For years, this tyrannical system faced no serious challenge until some states began banning what is euphemistically called “gender affirming care.”

It’s part of an overall recovery of common sense and sanity. So far, 25 states – all governed by Republicans – have moved to protect minors from chemical and hormonal experimentation and the surgical mutilation of body parts.

On June 18, the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti upheld Tennessee’s law prohibiting transgender treatments on minors, including “surgically removing, modifying, altering, or entering into tissues, cavities, or organs.”

One might have thought that the Hippocratic Oath, which binds doctors to the concept of “first, do no harm,” would have been enough to stop these Mengele-like experiments, but not in our crazy times. So Republican lawmakers stepped in.

By contrast, 18 Democrat-run states and Washington, D.C. shield access to such treatments. A total of 22 states plus D.C. also ban “conversion therapy,” the left’s negative term for restorative talk therapy.

But, as mentioned, a new breeze is blowing. The transgender train, which had looked unstoppable, with its drag queen story hours mushrooming across the nation, has gone off the tracks. It’s now a millstone around the Democratic Party’s neck, as evidenced by Ms. Spanberger’s discomfort during the debate.

On. Oct. 7, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Chiles v. Salazar, in which a Colorado Christian counselor, Kaley Chiles, challenged her state’s “conversion therapy” ban. That law specifies a $5,000 fine and potential loss of their license for any counselor who dares to help someone recover his or her natural sexuality.

Most of the justices except Ketanji (“I’m not a biologist”) Brown Jackson seemed to agree with Chiles’ attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom that Colorado’s law violates freedom of speech and constitutes viewpoint discrimination.

This bodes well for a 7 to 2 or 6 to 3 ruling next spring to restore freedom of counseling in the Rocky Mountain State and perhaps in the other Democrat-run states where client choice is illegal.

Virginia is the one Republican-run state that has one of these odious laws, enacted when Democrats controlled all three branches of the state government.

It would take retaining the governor’s office and winning both houses in November to overturn the “conversion therapy” ban.

A Sears win looked implausible a few weeks ago, especially with the lockdown affecting more than 300,000 federal employees in Virginia.

But Ms. Spanberger’s unwillingness to cut Jay Jones loose and her fealty to the radical transgender agenda could be a game changer.

This column was first published at the Washington Times.

From Gaza to transgenderism, elites ask us to accept their fantasies

They used to say that politics is the art of the possible. Today, politics is the art of believing the impossible.

Think about the Gaza peace plan, rioting against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, cashless bail and transgenderism. On each, some would rather embrace comforting illusions than face unpleasant realities.

Confidence in the Gaza peace plan shows an unwillingness to take savages at their word, even when their word is written in blood. We are expected to believe that Hamas is now willing to lay down its arms and leave the Gaza Strip when its entire existence has been dedicated to the annihilation of the Jewish people.

Its charter calls for genocide. It has never negotiated with Israel directly but always through intermediaries. It’s never acknowledged Israel’s right to exist within any borders. On Oct. 7, 2023, it perpetrated the greatest one-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Whatever happens, Hamas will never give up and the misnamed peace process will leave Israel much more vulnerable.

The same air of unreality dominates the discussion of the terrorist war on ICE. In Portland, Oregon, the chaos has been going on for more than 100 days. Every night, protesters who look like demons summoned from the depths of hell attack ICE facilities.

In Chicago earlier this month, an ICE vehicle was rammed by up to 10 cars. Agents barely escaped with their lives, and Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose grasp of reality is tenuous at best, ordered police to stand down.

Attacks on immigration officers have increased 1,000% since Jan. 21. Drug cartels have placed $10,000 bounties on the heads of immigration enforcement officials.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker calls the president’s efforts to enforce federal immigration law and get violent illegal aliens off the streets an “invasion.” In a recent statement, he urged “every American [to] speak up and help stop this madness.”

Enforcing the law and deporting the worst of the worst have become the Trump invasion.

The same politicians who were telling us the border was secure two years ago (as millions of people crossed illegally into the United States) today insist that violent upheaval is lawful protest and there is no cause for alarm.

Elsewhere, crime continues to surge.

Cashless bail has helped paint city streets blood red, but the liberal Brennan Center for Justice insists, “There is no evidence connecting bail reform with crime rates.” Really?

A first-of-its-kind study by the Yolo County, California, district attorney’s office found a 169% increase in recidivism under no-cash bail.

In early September, a ghastly murder, caught on camera, brought the issue into sharp focus. A 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee riding on public transportation in Charlotte, North Carolina, was stabbed to death.

Decarlos Brown Jr., who was charged with the crime, had 14 prior arrests over the course of two decades. The last time he was in court before Iryna Zarutska’s murder, a magistrate released him on his promise to show up for trial.

Nowhere is political schizophrenia more evident than in transgenderism.

Early this month, a Biden-appointed judge sentenced Nicholas Roske, who tried to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, to a surprisingly lenient eight years in prison. The Department of Justice had asked for 30 years. Among other mitigating circumstances that Judge Deborah Boardman considered was Roske’s so-called transgender identity. (He says he is someone called Sophie.)

The idea that someone can change their gender by changing their name or getting hormone treatment or surgery is self-evidently absurd. Nothing can alter DNA.

Yet men are allowed to play in women’s sports and boys are allowed into girls’ locker rooms on as little as a declaration that they “identify” as female.

The movement behind the fantasy is responsible for possibly irreversible operations performed on minors.

No wonder there’s so much rage here. Transgenderism provided the motivation for at least two school shootings and the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Illusions can be deadly.

As the left’s grip on our culture tightens, we march ever deeper into the happy land of make believe: Oz, Narnia and Neverland combined.

Don’t forget: In office, President Biden was at the top of his game, Hunter Biden’s laptop wasn’t real but the Steele dossier was, and the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack was the worst act of insurrection since the firing on Fort Sumter.

It used to be that seeing is believing. Now it’s: Who are you going to believe, your lying eyes, your deceitful brain or our good old reliable elites?

This column was first published at the Washington Times.

If you can’t take the heat …

I am going to be honest, most of you already know this is not my first run for governor of California. Whether running against Newsom’s reelection, or running in the 2026 campaign, every political candidate running for any political office will eventually have to deal with the media.

I have been interviewed for TV, print, radio, YouTube and podcast for numerous streaming services. What they never teach in Government-101 classes is how to prepare for the ludicrous Q&A interviews with the modern mainstream media.

Over the years I have been asked some of the most silly and asinine questions imaginable. As the candidate I must remain poised, stoic, then answer each and every question in a professional and respectful manner. After which I move on to the next interview and do it all over again.

It is part of the rat-race one is required to endure to earn the trust of the people and win their vote at election time. As a three-term member of Congress, a former U.S. Senate candidate and now a candidate for California governor, Katie Porter should already know this. Which makes Ms. Porter’s recent interview with CBS’ Julie Watts all the more interesting.

What was there to melt down about? What ruffled her feathers?

I sat through that same interview, and I was asked those same questions. I too received follow-up questions to my answers – that is basic interviewing SOP. Porter was not being grilled or targeted with any hard “gotcha” questions. So again, what was her issue? Porter was most likely coached and prepped on what the main questions were going to be in the interview, so she was ready for those answers. But when Watts steered off to the follow-ups, Porter was not prepared for that and it rattled her, which played out on the video.

Another thing that popped out to me was Porter’s immediate reaction to the question about reaching out to Trump supporters. The expression on her face answered the question: “Are you kidding? This is California, I don’t need them to win!” Is what she was likely thinking. Sadly, every statewide election results going back to 2010 would prove her bravado right. But to be questioned on that? How dare she!

Yet this is not a one-off incident. Bad temper, poor behavior, and blowing up at others has been the hallmark of Katie Porter’s political career. Porter bad reputation in D.C. of mistreating her congressional staff – including one story where she berates a staffer, shouting (on camera), “Get out of my f*cking shot!” Another story chronicled how she fired a staffer – a Wounded Warrior veteran – because he contracted COVID. An anonymous staffer wrote a message to the media on X saying, “Now imagine what she is like when there aren’t cameras around.”

In her personal life, in one incident she scalded her ex-husband’s scalp by dumping hot water filled with potatoes on his head, and in another incident filed a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend. By the way, Porter defended a different boyfriend against the Irvine Police Department, which had cited him days earlier for punching a protestor to the ground. In response, Porter called the police department “a disgrace!”

If this is Porter’s personal behavior behind the scenes, then what has her professional demeanor looked like?

Remember, this was the individual who once dressed up as “Batgirl” and went to work on Capitol Hill that way, even sitting in on a committee in costume! Ridiculous. Even the women on “The View” thought the incident was embarrassing.

When Porter ran for U.S. Senate to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, she was defeated in the primaries by Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey. But instead of bowing out like a professional, Porter lost her temper and declared that the election had been rigged! Wow, it’s OK for a Democrat to do it; but when a Republican does it, Democrats put him under a Special Counsel investigation.

Now the race for California’s next governor has officially started! For the first time in 20 years, Republicans are leading in gubernatorial statewide polls, and Porter’s Democratic brethren are turning on her instead of their usual circling of the wagons. To say “it’s early in the campaign” is moot. As outlined above, this is but one more example of bad conduct stemming from a history of poor decisions and abusive behavior. She has proven to possess poor leadership skills both amongst her personal staff and in the performance of her duties in elected office.

Katie Porter is unfit and lacks the professionalism to be the next governor of California. For the good of the state and the people of California, I join the chorus and call upon Porter to drop out of this race.

WATCH: Erika Kirk reveals ‘the best birthday gift he could ever get’

“The Presidential Medal of Freedom is awarded to Charles James Kirk” pic.twitter.com/Mg0J2b5tqk

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 14, 2025

NOW – ERIKA KIRK: “I have spent seven and a half years trying to find the perfect birthday gift for Charlie…

But now I can say with confidence, Mr. President, that you have given him the best birthday gift he could ever have.” pic.twitter.com/Y7HiPA7E8N

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 14, 2025

President Donald J. Trump posthumously awards Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

A true American patriot. pic.twitter.com/HYvinbxO4e

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 14, 2025

In honor of Charlie Kirk’s 31 years on Earth, here are 31 ways to live like him: pic.twitter.com/xOa9uN8WnN

— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) October 14, 2025

HEARTBREAKING: Erika Kirk reveals what their daughter “had to say to Daddy for his birthday.”

“Happy Birthday Daddy. I want to give you a stuffed animal. I want you to eat a cupcake with ice cream. And I want you to go have a birthday surprise. I love you.”

Pray for them pic.twitter.com/oZHiGFHFX8

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 14, 2025

WATCH: Trump posthumously awards Charlie Kirk the Medal of Freedom

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: IRS is ‘following the money’ behind Antifa violence since Charlie Kirk assassination

Treasury Scott Bessent looks on as President Donald Trump and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines participate in a bilateral meeting, Tuesday, July 22, 2025, in the Oval Office. (Official White House photo by Daniel Torok)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the federal government, through the Treasury and IRS, is actively ‘following the money’ behind the networks funding ANTIFA-linked groups and other radical organizations involved in coordinated domestic violence.

Appearing on The Charlie Kirk Show guest-hosted by Andrew Kolvet, Bessent drew a chilling comparison between the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder and the September 11 attacks, stating that the tragedy had become a “domestic 9/11” moment for America.

Bessent said that Treasury investigators are analyzing financial flows through U.S. nonprofits, many of which allegedly act as intermediaries funneling tax-exempt dollars into violent left-wing movements.

According to Bessent, the investigation is already uncovering suspiciously coordinated logistics behind ANTIFA-style riots and attacks on conservative gatherings.

Bessent added that federal analysts are mapping connections between 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations, some of which may be illegally funding extremist activities under the guise of social justice or community grants.

ANDREW KOLVET:
I want to play a clip here that’s really important, because you’re working on a very important piece of this, and I wish we had more time for it. Let’s just get right into it.

[..]

ANDREW KOLVET:
Stephen Miller said something similar when J.D. hosted the show on the Monday after he was assassinated. And Treasury—I had come to find out, coming to D.C.—has taken an active role in an aspect of this dismantling of the financial networks that are supporting some of these radical left violent groups. Share what you can. I know it’s an ongoing process.

SCOTT BESSENT:
It’s an ongoing process. I will tell you that after 9/11, Treasury became the driving force behind tracking down the networks of terrorist organizations—how they were financed, how this could have happened on U.S. soil with these international terrorist organizations. Where did the money come from? Who were the ultimate funders?

And that was on the international side. Andrew, I will tell you that Charlie’s death is like a domestic 9/11. It has alerted us to what Charlie knew—that these organizations are working within our borders.

We believe people have a right to free speech. They have a right to organize. They have a right to protest. But they have to do it peacefully. They cannot embrace violence.

We’ve seen it—we’ve seen it since that terrible day two years ago—the antisemitism and the bias that came out after October 7th, 2023. Many of these organizations have been financed by nonprofits, and it’s going to stop.

We are going to, as they always say, follow the money. When you see these groups where all the signs match, they have hundreds of the same umbrellas they’re using. After they close the mayhem, they have the same lasers they’re using to blind our police force.

How are they constructed? Because this takes a lot of money; it takes a lot of organization—and we are going to do that. We’ve started to compile lists, put together networks, and there’s a long record here.

We don’t know how much of the support is coming in from overseas. We don’t know how much is being supported by U.S. nonprofits—C3s that give money to C4s. But this is mission-critical for us now.

Just as after 9/11—when Osama bin Laden, the ultimate culprit, was captured—we are operationalizing this here at Treasury. We’re going to track down who is responsible for this.

So Charlie’s death has set this off, and we are determined not only to honor him, but to keep our country safe and to ensure freedom of speech on both sides.

As conservatives, we can’t be afraid to go out and speak. I know people are canceling speeches—they’re having to bring down the size of their rallies. President Trump was millimeters away from death, and he was not deterred. We’re not going to be deterred.

WATCH:

Secretary Bessent revealed just what all the IRS is looking at in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

It’s not looking good for those who deny the existence of far-left groups like Antifa.

“We are going to, as they always say, follow the money.”

“When you see these… pic.twitter.com/aeCD5LNX2p

— Media Lies (@MediasLies) October 14, 2025

During a White House roundtable earlier this month, President Donald Trump met with independent journalists and researchers who’ve directly encountered Antifa’s violence.

Among the panelists was Seamus Bruner, research director at the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), who described the administration’s “whole-of-government” crackdown now underway.

Bruner laid out shocking findings from GAI’s research, revealing that over $100 million has flowed through radical networks connected to Antifa and similar groups, including at least $4 million in U.S. taxpayer cash.

He noted that these networks bankroll bail funds and activist legal groups that help violent offenders return to the streets within hours of arrest, perpetuating an endless protest cycle in Democrat-run cities like Portland, Seattle, and Chicago.

GAI investigations, Bruner said, have uncovered patterns of paid transportation, coordinated logistics, and exploitation of homeless individuals, all tied to left-wing funding pipelines that stretch across states.

Read more:

White House Reveals Over $100 MILLION in Taxpayer Cash and Laundered Democrat Donations Funneled to Antifa-Linked Orgs and “Protest Networks” (VIDEO)

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[Editor's note: This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com.]

‘I’m not gonna give up’: Teacher goes to war with own school after being forced to remove Charlie Kirk poster

Apparently, in one Florida school district, some slain civil-rights leaders are more acceptable than others.

William Loggans, an economics and social studies teacher in Orange County, Florida, found that out after putting up a poster in his classroom honoring the late Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated Sept. 10 during a campus event in Utah.

Along with Kirk’s image, the poster included one of his quotes: “Never underestimate the power of your voice and the impact you can have on the world when you speak up for what you believe in.”

Loggans was forced to take the poster down and now is filing a grievance with the school district.

In an interview with Not the Bee, Loggans shared his motivation behind the poster, saying that he has a variety of such banners around his room featuring notable public figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Ronald Reagan.

Loggans, who started teaching at Horizon High School a year after it opened in 2021, says his students were deeply disturbed by Kirk’s assassination.

One student, however, came to him and told him Charlie Kirk “is a Nazi and a fascist,” and demanded the poster come down, but Loggans stood his ground.

According the Not the Bee report, the student then sent Principal Andrew Jackson an email, which necessitated his reporting the complaint to the district. After members of the district legal team assessed the situation, they determined that the poster needed to be removed – not because of Kirk’s quote, but because Kirk himself is considered “divisive.”

Subsequently, as a free-speech lesson for his students, Loggans filed a grievance with the district.

As of Tuesday, the district had not replied to him, but Loggans says he isn’t backing down.

“I’m not gonna give up on this,” he said, pointing out that many school districts have a double standard about what is an appropriate message to display in the classroom.

Noted Loggans, “In our school, there are several teachers that have Pride flags in their rooms or stickers on their doors … they did not consider them to be divisive or political.”

The teacher says that throughout the process he has received considerable support from parents and some students.

State Department employee steals thousands of pages of ‘Top Secret’ documents, meets with Chinese officials

(U.S. State Department photo by Serkan Gurbuz)

A State Department contractor stole thousands of pages of “TOP SECRET” classified documents and met with Beijing officials.

Ashley Tellis, an expert on India and South Asian affairs, removed the top secret documents from secure locations and met with Chinese officials.

The classified documents were located in Tellis’s Virginia home during a raid.

“On Sept. 25, he allegedly printed U.S. Air Force documents concerning military aircraft capabilities. Federal prosecutors allege that he met with Chinese government officials multiple times over the past several years,” Fox News reported.

Prosecutors said in September 2022 that Tellis brought a manila envelope with him when he met with Chinese officials in a Virginia restaurant.

Fox News reported:

A State Department employee is accused of removing classified documents from secure locations and meeting with Chinese officials dating back to 2023.

The Justice Department said Ashley Tellis was an unpaid senior adviser to the State Department and also a contractor with the Office of Net Assessment at the Department of Defense, recently renamed the Department of War. He is considered a subject-matter expert on India and South Asian affairs in his role at the Office of Net Assessment.

Tellis began working for the State Department in 2001, court documents state. He is accused of unlawful retention of national defense information, according to an affidavit.

He held a top-secret clearance and had access to sensitive information, federal prosecutors said in court documents. He was also employed as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

RAID EXPOSES SECRETS: A State Department employee is accused of removing classified documents from secure locations and meeting with Chinese officials dating back to 2023. pic.twitter.com/M06TeGbNDA

— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 14, 2025

Newly sworn in US Attorney Lindsey Halligan charged Tellis.

Trump U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan is already firing on all cylinders.

Over the last several weeks, she charged two leading Lawfare Democrats.

This week, she charged a Chinese spy.

And she’s just getting started. https://t.co/Afsd3yf33N

— Mike Davis (@mrddmia) October 14, 2025

This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com.

‘Particularly contentious’: Supreme Court justice challenges courts to quit avoiding the fight over parental rights

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito

One member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Samuel Alito, has expressed concern that the federal court system is avoiding one issue because it is so charged.

That’s parental rights.

“I remain concerned that some federal courts are ‘tempt[ed]’ to avoid confronting a ‘particularly contentious constitutional questio[n]’: whether a school district violates parents’ fundamental rights ‘when, without parental knowledge or consent, it encourages a student to transition to a new gender or assists in that process,'” he wrote this week.

He agreed with the majority in denying the petition in the case Lee v. Poudre School District R-1 in Colorado, where leftist state officials long have advocated for, even demanded, pro-LGBT ideologies, on technical grounds.

The state, in fact, has lost multiple court cases when it has tried to demand that Christians violate their faith by promoting those choices. In one of those cases, the Supreme Court itself criticized the state’s “hostility” to Christians.

He said he was worried over the “nearly 6,000 public schools” cited in the case for their policies that hide school managers’ agendas to make boys believe they can change into girls and vice versa.

“The troubling—and tragic—allegations in this case underscore the ‘great and growing national importance’ of the question that these parent petitioners present,'” Alito wrote.

According to a report at the Washington Examiner, the Colorado fight was over an agenda from a middle school that “allegedly hid the promotion of gender ideology to students … with officials at the school giving prizes to students who ‘came out’ as transgender” at student meetings.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch joined Alito’s statements.

America First Policy Institute, which worked on the case, said its work to litigate against other such school extremism was continuing.

“Our mission doesn’t end here,” Gina D’Andrea, of the AFPI, said, “Schools should never be allowed to introduce complex, identity-shaping ideas in secret. And we will continue holding them accountable.

“Every parent deserves the right to know what their child is being taught,” D’Andrea explained.

Maryland Supreme Court to decide landmark climate case against oil companies

The nationwide campaign of climate-driven lawsuits made its way to the Maryland Supreme Court on Oct. 6, as a lawyer for Baltimore, Annapolis and Anne Arundel County told justices that Marylanders had suffered costly damages from rising seas and bad weather, due to a failure by oil and gas companies to warn them that using their products would cause global warming.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Victor Sher, partner in the California-based Sher Edling law firm, stated that oil companies should be held liable due to a “failure to warn, abetted by a sophisticated campaign of disinformation.”

Defendants are British Petroleum, Chevron, CITGO, ExxonMobil, Shell and other energy companies. The lawsuits had previously been dismissed by lower courts in Maryland, on the basis that they were fundamentally an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore fell under the purview of the federal government.

In 2024, Baltimore Judge Videtta Brown dismissed the city’s lawsuit, stating that federal law governs cases involving air pollution and that “the explanation by Baltimore that it only seeks to … hold Defendants accountable for a deceptive misinformation campaign is simply a way to get in the back door what they cannot get in the front door.”

Sher argued, however, that the lawsuit was not intended to regulate emissions and therefore was not preempted by federal law.

“It does not involve capping, regulating or limiting emissions by the defendants or anybody,” he said. “It doesn’t involve changing pollution control measures or installing equipment or anything like that by these defendants or anyone else.”

Rather, Sher said, the case was about residents getting compensation for “nuisance, trespass and failure to warn.”

Some of the justices appeared skeptical regarding this argument. Justice Steven Gould asked Sher what the oil companies could do to avoid liability.

Sher responded that “they would have to warn consumers, their customers, that the products they are using are substantial causes of climate change resulting in the adverse kind of effects that these communities are suffering.”

“Those warning haven’t already been issued?” Gould asked.

“Not by these defendants,” Sher replied.

“The information itself,” Gould responded, “that’s a secret?”

Legal analysts say that, despite the fact that most of the cases against oil companies have been dismissed, the goal of climate litigants is to file a multitude of suits in hopes that a few jurisdictions may be sympathetic to their cause. For this reason, oil companies have attempted to have the cases moved to federal courts, but a petition to block a municipal suit in Hawaii was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court in January, allowing the case to go to trial.

A lawsuit similar to those in Maryland was also green-lighted to go to trial in Colorado. The Trump administration sees climate litigation as a serious threat to America’s energy industry and the Justice Department filed its own lawsuits against Michigan and Hawaii in April, in an effort to halt lawsuits in those states.

Critics of climate lawsuits say that they will drive up energy prices for all Americans and deprive people of a voice in energy policy via elected officials in Congress.

“It is highly inappropriate to set national policy by litigation, and it’s even more inappropriate to set national policy via state-by-state litigation,” legal analyst John Shu told The Daily Signal.

Nationwide regulation of emissions was established by Congress with the 1970 Clean Air Act. In pursuing cases at the municipal level, however, Sher Edling is seeking billions of dollars in damages in multiple jurisdictions, drawing parallels to the tobacco lawsuits, in which cigarette makers, after losing a “failure to warn” case at trial, ultimately agreed in a 1998 settlement to pay more than $200 billion to 46 states.

“It’s a similar situation here, where the plaintiffs’ attorneys are hoping to win enough cases that [oil companies] have this looming specter of a massive loss in court, such that you end up with a global settlement,” Shu said.

Upon settlement, attorneys in the tobacco cases received billions of dollars in fees. However, Sher Edling, which reportedly represents more than 20 municipalities in climate lawsuits across the United States, is receiving financial support from wealthy donors along the way.

A 2024 report on climate lawsuits by the Senate Commerce Committee stated that “not only will Sher Edling receive approximately one-third of any amount it extracts from energy companies if it is somehow successful, far-left funds are offsetting any risk the firm would otherwise have in pursuing these absurd claims by bankrolling Sher Edling to the tune of millions of dollars each year.”

The report stated that the Resources Legacy Fund, an environmental non-profit, and the New Venture Fund, a left-wing non-profit managed by Arabella Advisors, gave Sher Edling more than $13 million since 2017.

According to a 2020 report in Forbes, the Resources Legacy Fund is funded in large part by the Rockefeller Foundation, which originally got its endowment from the Standard Oil Company, the predecessor of Exxon Mobil, founded by oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller in the 19th century.

The Daily Signal reached out to Sher Edling, the New Venture Fund, Arabella Advisors, and the Resources Legacy Fund to comment for this article but did not receive a response.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]