An Arizona State University (ASU) professor is among the 38 law professors petitioning the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
ASU law professor Gregg Leslie and 37 other professors submitted their petition days ahead of Tuesday’s hearing on Assange’s extradition from the U.K. Should the court deny his request to block his extradition, Assange will be taken to the U.S. to face 17 espionage charges over his 2010 publication of classified materials.
Among the leaked materials were footage of a 2007 airstrike in Baghdad revealing that soldiers shot 18 civilians from a helicopter, including a Reuters journalist and his assistant; nearly 391,900 Iraq War logs spanning 2004 to 2009; and the “Cablegate” files consisting of diplomatic cables revealing U.S. espionage against the United Nations and other world leaders, tensions with allies, and corruption in other countries.
The DOJ accused Assange of working with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain classified information. The DOJ charged Assange with espionage in 2019, alleging that he used Manning to secure certain sets of classified Secret documents: about 90,000 Afghanistan war-related significant activity reports, 400,000 Iraq war-related significant activities reports, 800 Guantanamo Bay detainee assessment briefs, and 250,000 State Department cables.
In 2020, the DOJ issued a second superseding indictment broadening the scope of the charges to include allegations that Assange recruited computer hackers to benefit Wikileaks. The indictment cited an alleged unauthorized access to a government computer system of a NATO country in 2010, and a contract with a hacking group to obtain materials from the CIA, NSA, or New York Times.
Last week’s letter from the 38 law professors made the case that Assange qualified as a journalist and, therefore, the First Amendment protected Assange’s actions. The law professors countered that Wikileaks’ openness to receiving information didn’t qualify as Assange recruiting sources or soliciting confidential documents
“Award-winning journalists everywhere also regularly ‘recruit’ and speak with sources, use encrypted or anonymous communications channels, receive and accept confidential information, ask questions to sources about it, and publish it,” said the professors. “That is not a crime — it’s investigative journalism. As long as they don’t participate in their source’s illegality, their conduct is entitled to the full protection of the First Amendment.”
The law professors further warned that Assange’s prosecution served as an “existential threat” to the First Amendment and would, in time, enable the prosecution of other reporters. They cited the police raid of a local Kansas newspaper that occurred last August based on verbal allegations of identity theft.
“It could enable prosecution of routine newsgathering under any number of ambiguous laws and untested legal theories,” said the professors.
In that case, a disgruntled local restaurant owner had told the city council and the county attorney — the brother-in-law of the hotel owner housing her restaurant — that the local newspaper had illegally obtained documentation of an unresolved DUI charge that proved she had been driving without a valid license for over a decade. At the time, the newspaper had also been investigating claims of sexual misconduct by the police chief. Within days, the police conducted their unlawful raid. The newspaper had obtained the documentation legally through public records.
Similarly, editors and publishers of a number of news outlets, including The New York Times and The Guardian, argued that Assange engaged in journalism by obtaining and disclosing sensitive information for the public interest.
In a 2019 press release announcing Assange’s charges, the DOJ dismissed the claim that Assange qualified as a journalist.
“Julian Assange is no journalist. This is made plain by the totality of his conduct as alleged in the indictment — i.e., his conspiring with and assisting a security clearance holder to acquire classified information, and his publishing the names of human sources,” stated the DOJ.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Former boxing champion Mike Tyson recently launched a middle and high school in Phoenix, Arizona.
Tyson Transformational Technologies Academy is a Cognia Accredited Micro-School in Arizona for grades six to 12.
The world Champion boxer, entertainer, and entrepreneur partnered with the Foundations Academies School System and undefeated MMA fighter Daniel Puder to start the school.
“It’s important to me that I am able to share my life experiences to inspire the next generation,” Tyson said. “This new educational institution will build core values that I am honored and grateful to be part of the Arizona community. I was thrilled to be part of the ribbon cutting ceremony and meeting some of the students.”
The price of tuition is covered through the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) and internal school scholarships.
Since late 2022, all Arizona students have been eligible for an ESA as a K-12 student or as a preschool student with a disability. Families with qualifying students enrolled in the ESA program can use their ESA funds for expenses including educational services, education providers, curriculum, and other educational expenses.
Tyson’s school aims to “redefine learning by combining innovation, financial literacy, mentorship, and community engagement.” The academy will provide quality education and opportunities for personal growth to every youth regardless of their academic challenges, ethnicity, or socio-economic status, the Feb. 15 news release says.
“As a society, we get to build our youths for the next generation,” Puder said. “We are so blessed to have Mike Tyson part of our school system. He inspires our students.”
To enroll their child, parents can contact (480) 448-5181.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
The Goldwater Institute is suing the Biden administration for fining Grand Canyon University for $37 million without explanation.
The U.S. Department of Education assessed a record fine of $37 million against the private, Christian university in October 2023. This marks the largest fine of its kind ever assessed by the department.
The Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based conservative think tank, is suing the administration to get answers about the fine and hold the government accountable.
Fines on universities who have improperly dealt with sexual assault pale in comparison to those levied against GCU. The Department of Education fined Penn State University only $2.4 million for failing to report the crimes of serial pedophile Jerry Sandusky. Michigan State University was fined a mere $4.5 million fine for refusing to address sexual assaults committed by athletic director Larry Nassar, who abused more than 500 students.
The Education Department claimed to fine GCU for insufficiently informing P.h.D students that they may have to take continuing courses while completing their doctoral dissertations. The federal government report did not cite any student’s complaints, and Education Department personnel did not visit GCU as part of its so-called investigation.
The Goldwater Institute submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the department to gain clarity on the fine against GCU.
“The records may help inform the public about this extraordinary fine, as well as coordination between various federal agencies in what appears to be the intentionally targeting of a successful university—one that’s no stranger to run-ins with the feds—based on extraordinarily thin allegations,” a Goldwater news release says.
The Department of Education refused to turn over these public records, the think tank said, so it is suing the agency in federal court to get them anyway.
“With its motto of ‘private, Christian, affordable’ and its track record of graduating students into high-demand and high-paying jobs, GCU is a success story by any metric,” Goldwater Institute staff attorney Stacy Skankey said. “And it stands apart from universities across the country that are facing declining enrollment, that are indoctrinating students with radical politics, and that are under attack for failing to defend the First Amendment.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Goldwater Institute was founded by Barry Goldwater. The story has been corrected.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
The gender support plan, filled out by school staff, caregivers, and students, allows schools to hide students’ identification as transgender from their parents.
The purpose of the document is to “create shared understandings about the ways in which the student’s authentic gender will be accounted for and supported at school.”
The district’s plan to support a minor’s transgender status despite parent support or knowledge appears to be in direct violation of the Arizona Parents’ Bill of Rights, which states that parents have the “right to make all health care decisions for the minor child.”
The form asks for the name the student uses, the name on their birth certificate, their gender identity, and so-called assigned sex at birth.
The “Parent/Guardian Involvement” section on the form measures parent knowledge of their child’s “gender status.” The form asks if parents are aware of the child’s gender status, then offers a scale of 1 to 10 to denote the student’s parents’ level of support.
“If support level is low, what considerations must be accounted for in implementing this plan?” the form asks.
The “Student Safety” section of the form establishes a “go to adult” at the child’s school, and asks “if this person is not available, what should the student do?”
In the “Privacy: Names, Pronouns and Students Records” section, the plan asks, “How will instances be handled in which the incorrect name or pronoun are used by staff members?”
The document asks for the “name/gender marker” on the student’s identity documents and entered into the Student Information System, as well as the name and pronouns to be used when referring to the student.
The form asks about what adjustments need to be made to protect the student’s privacy and who will be the point person for ensuring the adjustments are made.
Scottsdale also uses the document to denote what bathroom the student will use and where they will change clothes, demonstrating that the district would allow biological male students to share rooms, bathrooms, and changing rooms with females.
“What are the expectations regarding rooming for any overnight trip?” the form asks.
The district, which educates 22,000 students, also suggests that biological male student athletes would be allowed to play in girls’ sports.
“In what extracurricular activities or programs will the student be participating (sports, theater, clubs, etc.)?” asks Scottsdale Unified School District.
Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.
The woman who gained international notoriety nearly a decade ago for faking her race, Rachel Dolezal (now Nkechi Amare Diallo), was fired from her job teaching elementary school children in Tucson shortly after news broke of her publicly advertising her porn on OnlyFans.
Diallo worked as an after-school educator in the Community Schools program within the Catalina Foothills School District. The district hired her for $19 an hour. She ran a gardening club for those students.
On Tuesday, Libs of TikTok posted one of Diallo’s provactive images on X (formerly Twitter) along side some of her racy posts. (Warning: You can view the post here, but it is not safe for work or if you’re around children.
Diallo launched her OnlyFans in 2021, initially as a lifestyle page dedicated mainly to workouts based on initial media coverage and her own social media posts on the subject. About a year later in 2022, Diallo began to transition the page into its current state of straight-porn content with risque postings of her wearing lingerie — a move that was widely reported on and trending on social media.
Diallo charged about $10 a month for access to her porn. The OnlyFans account was included in her LinkTree on both her public Facebook and Instagram pages.
According to social media posts, Diallo moved to Arizona around July 2020 after her son was admitted to the University of Arizona. Last March, Diallo attended Gov. Katie Hobbs’ signing of a ban on hair discrimination, legislation modeled after a California law prohibiting discrimination against employees’ hair texture and establishing protective styles such as braids, locs, twists, knots, and headwraps. In a comparison of the photos posted by Diallo and the governor’s office of the event, it appears that Diallo was cropped out.
Diallo’s racial deceit was discovered in 2015, after a Spokane, Washington news outlet questioned her about her parents and her race during an interview about racial justice and racially motivated hate crimes. At the time, Diallo was the NAACP Spokane president and an Africana studies lecturer at Eastern Washington University.
The interaction between Diallo and the reporter went viral. Shortly after Diallo was outed for faking her race, she stepped down as the local NAACP chapter president and embarked on a media tour explaining that she was “transracial.”
Despite all the controversy that arose over her “transracial” identity, Diallo managed in the subsequent years to maintain a sizable following that yielded speaking engagements, artwork sales, a memoir, and a Netflix documentary.
In 2018, the year her Netflix documentary came out, Diallo was charged with welfare fraud for taking over $8,000 in relief by hiding her memoir income. The following year, Diallo agreed to a plea deal to repay the thousands and complete community service.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Mesa Public Schools (MPS) faces a lawsuit for policies resulting in the secret transitioning of children’s genders and tracking their gender transition journeys while restricting parental knowledge or consent.
The amended lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by America First Legal (AFL) on behalf of MPS Governing Board member Rachel Walden and the mother of one alleged victim, accused MPS of unlawfully hiding policy and evidence of their transitioning of children from parents. Arizona’s Constitution and Parents’ Bill of Rights acknowledge that it is the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children.
The amended complaint contained new information revealing that at least one MPS school maintained a “parent concealment cheat sheet”: a spreadsheet tracking the gender journeys of over a dozen students as well as information on which of their parents were supportive or needed to be kept in the dark.
/1 🚨BREAKING – America First Legal Sues Mesa Public Schools in Amended Lawsuit, Adding Mother Whose Daughter’s Gender Was Transitioned Without Parental Knowledge or Consent, and After Obtaining New Evidence Proving Scale of Deception
MPS policy of transitioning children without parental knowledge or consent, the Transgender Support Plan (TSP), dates back to 2015, according to the lawsuit. The policy asks the children for permission to notify their parents of their gender transition: should the child decline, MPS requires its employees to keep the transition hidden from parents.
MPS has long denied the allegations that TSP occurs without parental notification. Last June, MPS Superintendent Andi Fourlis dismissed the allegations in a public letter.
According to a once-public document students were made to fill out to initiate a TSP, the Support Plan for Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students, students were given the option to deny permission of disclosure of their gender transitions to their parents. MPS removed that support plan from public view following community outcry in 2022. The district then issued an updated version of the support plan with a loophole to parental disclosure: name and gender changes were to be requested through Synergy — the district’s online database — in order for parents to be notified. Should Synergy not be updated, parents would not be notified.
AFL noted that this loophole contradicted Fourlis’ claim, which ultimately resulted in the gender transition of the eighth-grade girl at the heart of AFL’s lawsuit, Megan Doe, to a male by school staff without the knowledge or consent of Doe’s mother, Jane.
“[S]chool employees encouraged Megan to lie to her parents and helped her to do so, which harmed the parent-child relationship and delayed Megan from receiving needed mental health counseling,” stated AFL.
Per the lawsuit, Jane’s attempts to learn of what had happened to her daughter were rebuffed by school staff and leadership in 2022. The principal at her daughter’s school refused to disclose further records or information about the conversations school staff had with her daughter, and refused to comply with Jane’s demand to cease referring to her daughter as a boy and by a boy’s name.
“The principal admitted that school personnel intentionally had not changed Megan’s name in the [Synergy] system to avoid any notification being sent to Jane and that there were no plans to change Megan’s name in the system,” stated the lawsuit. “The principal told Jane that even if Jane had asked to be notified about any name changes, pronoun changes, or other choices related to a transgender identity by her child, it was official MPS policy not to tell parents and that school personnel would not notify Jane about any further developments related to these issues.”
It was only after this ordeal that Jane discovered Megan’s struggles and, reportedly, was able to resolve them through conversations with her mother and a psychotherapist. The lawsuit stated that this maternal intervention resulted in Megan’s issues being “completely resolved” within a month.
“[Megan] is now very comfortable presenting herself as a female and using her given name and is thriving in high school,” stated AFL.
AFL claimed to also have discovered, upon information and belief, that MPS employees regularly ignored the requirement to notify parents after students began transitioning genders in school.
AFL further issued evidence of a school counselor, Emily Wulff at Kino Junior High, instructing school staff in an email last March to not disclose gender transitions to anyone outside those allowed within the support plan. Wulff’s email made no mention of parental notification.
In a follow-up email, Wulff clarified that the purpose of the nondisclosure policy was to “protect outing students who are not ready to come out to peers or family members.” Wulff specified that the support plan was designed to keep gender transitions a secret from certain families.
“The main takeaways would be to make sure when contacting home to use their preferred name home,” wrote Wulff. “For example, if I have a student that goes by Emily and she/her pronouns that I need to call home for, and in their plan it says to use their birth name and biological pronouns home, [be] sure you do not out the student by using their preferred name and pronouns they use at school.”
Last March, Wulff also directed school employees to keep up a spreadsheet tracking the gender transition journeys of 17 students, titled “Pronoun Preference,” with notes declaring whether a student’s parents and family were aware of their transition.
For three students whose parents were documented as “unaware,” Wulff’s spreadsheet directed school employees to hide their preferred names and pronouns. For another seven students whose parents were documented as somewhat aware or partially supportive, the spreadsheet instructed staff to use the students’ birth names and gender to mask the extent of their transition.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
