Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking arrest

[Superbone]

Yeah, saw that last one on the news. Sickening.

[In2ition]

Dang, Derrick Rose is doing the news too? J/k, this doesn't look so good, and was a former CEO of Cream City Foundation, which runs the Milwaukee Drag Queen Story Hour for local children.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge charged with possession of child porn
Brett Blomme elected in April 2020
https://www.wisn.com/article/milwaukee- ... y/35855215

MADISON, Wis. —
A Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge has been charged with seven counts of possession of child pornography.

The Department of Justice arrested Brett Blomme, 38, following an investigation into multiple uploads of child pornography through a Kik messaging application account in October and November 2020.

Based upon records linking those uploads to the defendant, investigators obtained search warrants for the defendant, his chambers, his vehicle and his residences in Milwaukee and Dane counties.

Neighbors told WISN 12's Derrick Rose multiple investigators were on their street early Tuesday morning searching the judge's Milwaukee home.

A criminal complaint details six videos and one photo depicting child pornography.

Before serving on the court, Blomme, was the president and CEO of Cream City Foundation in Milwaukee.

He won election in April 2020 and took the bench Aug. 1, 2020.

Blomme's term is scheduled to end July 31, 2026.

"The allegations are alarming," Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said. "Before he was elected to the bench, the judge served as chair of the Board of Zoning Appeals, an appointed board in City Government. The reports of the arrest came as a complete surprise."

Blomme was held in the Dane County Jail and made an initial court appearance Wednesday afternoon.

A court commissioner set a $500 signature bail.

He was released from jail shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Blomme has not yet entered a plea in the case.

If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison on each count.

He will be back in court April 19.

No other details have been released.

Milwaukee County's chief judge said Blomme's court schedule would be covered by another judge starting Wednesday.

His duties were suspended Wednesday by the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

[In2ition]

I'm trying to figure out who the judge is trying to protect here, Maxwell, the public, or the implicated?

Judge Rules Some Ghislaine Maxwell Details Are Too ‘Sensational and Impure’ to Be Revealed to the Public
JERRY LAMBEMar 18th, 2021, 2:13 pm
https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/ju ... he-public/

A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday ruled on a series of redactions proposed by Ghislaine Maxwell and prosecutors regarding a compilation of transcripts submitted under seal by the government last month.

After reviewing arguments from both sides, U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan allowed most of the government’s redactions to remain in place over Maxwell’s objections while also adding several additional redactions at her request.

Spoiler: show/hide

Maxwell’s legal team in January filed 12 motions requesting that the court, among other things, dismiss all of the charges relating to her alleged role as a recruiter of young girls for infamous and since-deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The government responded in February with an “omnibus memorandum of law” opposing Maxwell’s motions, all of which were filed under seal pending rulings on the redactions.

The government argued that its redactions were required in order to “protect the integrity” of its ongoing criminal investigation into Maxwell and to protect the privacy interests of third parties. Judge Nathan granted most of the government’s requests, reasoning that the redactions were based on legitimate interests to overcome the presumption of public access to judicial documents.

“Exhibit 1 contains a single redaction—the name of a third party—and the Court concludes that that individual’s personal privacy interests outweigh the presumption of access that exists as to that limited portion of the exhibit,” Judge Nathan wrote. “The proposed redactions to Exhibit 7 are similar in that they seek to protect from public access only the names and contact information of third parties. Here, too, the interest in protecting the safety and privacy of those individuals outweighs the presumption of access that attaches to those documents.”

Nathan rejected Maxwell’s objection to redactions containing information “that has been made public by other means” where such information still relates to the privacy interests of third parties.

“At least some of the redactions to which the Defendant objects relate to private ‘family affairs’ of a third party, a factor that ‘weigh[s] more heavily against access than conduct affecting a substantial portion of the public.’ Nathan wrote, citing to controlling precedent from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. “And though the Defendant contends that some of the information contained in the redactions is public, she furnishes no evidence to that effect. As a result, the Court concludes that the significant privacy interests at stake justify the limited and narrowly tailored redactions contained in Exhibit 5.”

Judge Nathan did side with Maxwell on several additional redactions proposed to transcripts submitted as part of the government’s filing, finding that to make those details public would only tend to cater to an appetite for the “sensational and impure.”

“Those portions of the transcript, which were redacted in the civil matter, concern privacy interests and their disclosure would merely serve to cater to a ‘craving for that which is sensational and impure,’” she wrote. “The Court thus concludes that such redactions are justified.”

Several other redactions proposed by the government were rejected at Maxwell’s request after Judge Nathan found that prosecutors failed to provide a reasonable basis “as to why its investigation at this stage of the matter would be imperiled by the disclosure of the information regarding how it obtained the information in question, and the requested redactions are far from narrowly tailored.”

“As a result, the Court denies the Government’s redaction requests in pages 1–128 and denies its request to file Exhibits 8 and 9 under seal, since those documents relate to this very issue and the same reasoning applies to them,” Nathan wrote.

The court will allow the government to seek more tailored redactions before the redactions are removed on the public docket.

Read the full ruling below:

[Mori Chu]

https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/t ... k-they-are

[In2ition]

https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/t ... k-they-are

That's sickening. It doesn't feel like life in prison is justice enough for these predators, imo.

[In2ition]

Ghislaine Maxwell faces new charges as US prosecutors expand criminal case
New indictment adds charges of sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ey-epstein

US prosecutors have expanded their criminal case against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, unveiling a new indictment adding charges of sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor.

Maxwell, the longtime associate of late financier Jeffrey Epstein, now faces an eight-count indictment that also accuses her of enabling his sexual misconduct, as well as perjury.

Lawyers for Maxwell did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The original indictment, to which Maxwell had pleaded not guilty, accused her of helping Epstein recruit and groom three teenage girls for sex between 1994 and 1997.

Monday’s amended indictment adds a fourth victim, saying that between 2001 and 2004 Maxwell and Epstein recruited an underage girl to engage in sex acts with Epstein at his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

More details soon…

[Mori Chu]

Now Matt Gaetz may be in big trouble.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/p ... ation.html

[In2ition]

That would be big trouble if true. Did you read the article? I've read much better from the NYT. This one wasn't great, imo.

[Mori Chu]

Several other sources have confirmed the investigation, including WaPo and others. No reason for FUD on this.

[Superbone]

Gaetz has been nothing but a class act since I first became aware of him in Congress.