Category: NEWS
Detransitioned Navy SEAL warns parents about gender surgery for minors: ‘Not sharing all the data’
A retired Navy SEAL is speaking out against allowing children to receive gender surgery and be put on puberty blockers, telling parents they need to thoroughly look at the data available before making a life-changing decision.
Chris Beck, a detransitioner formerly known as Kristen Beck, said one crucial piece of data about gender dysphoria isn’t talked about enough.
“So I was in mental health counseling for my graduate degree here at a university where I live and so I was learning all the procedures, I was learning all about human development from birth all the way through – up to 25 years old, you’re still developing your brain. So the thing is, is that when you’re going through these courses, they’re coaching you and they’re coaching you on what to say to parents, and they’re not showing all the data,” he argued on “Fox News Tonight.”
“So one of the biggest pieces of data that they’re missing right now is that 80% of the kids who are going through gender dysphoria or gender confusion either before puberty and during puberty, 80% of those kids are corrected – [They] will get rid of all that gender confusion by the time puberty is over. 80%!”
Beck added that puberty blockers are another irreversible step and can impact minors’ fertility in the future.
“If a kid goes on puberty blockers when they’re 13, 14, 15 years old, they’re chemically castrated. They’re not going to have children when they get older. They’re not given this data,” he told host Joey Jones. “So eight of those kids, out of those ten, are going to want to go back to be just a regular old person and they’re not going to be able to.”
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Beck came out as transgender in a 2013 interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper but expressed regret years later, telling conservative influencer Robby Starbuck in a December 2022 interview, “Everything you see on CNN with my face, do not even believe a word of it.” “Everything that happened to me for the last 10 years destroyed my life. I destroyed my life. I’m not a victim. I did this to myself, but I had help.”
He explained on “Fox News Tonight” that he is speaking out now so parents are aware of what their children might go through if they are put on puberty blockers or choose to get gender surgery.
“Ya’ll need to start leaving these kids alone. They’re castrating them. They’re doing these double mastectomies. They’re hurting kids. Eight out of ten, 80% of those kids, there’s studies, massive studies, 80% of those kids are not transgender. Eighty percent of those kids are just confused,” he argued. “Parents, you need to wake up. Don’t let your kids get into stuff. You better share all the data. All of the data.”
Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report
The Holy Trinity is a ‘supernatural concept’ that leads to salvation, Virginia pastor says
There are many aspects of faith that are difficult to grasp due to their supernatural nature, faith leaders say.
While the concept of the Holy Trinity can be one that is extremely hard for the average person to understand, doing so brings both comfort and salvation, Dr. Ben Gutierrez, senior pastor at Grove Church in Richmond, Virginia, told Fox News Digital.
“The God of the Bible is a triune God — one God existing in three persons — God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,” he said.
“It is difficult to grasp, no doubt,” Gutierrez also said. “It is difficult because it is a supernatural concept attempted to be understood by our finite minds.”
While this concept is complicated, “this supernatural reality is evidenced throughout the holy scriptures and is on clear display in scenes and scenarios, along with being referenced in the prayers of the scripture writers,” he noted.
While the word “trinity” does not appear in the Bible, “it is equally weighty to recognize what attributes are attributed to God alone — then look to see if those unique attributes are attributed to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” Gutierrez continued.
“If you see these attributes attributed to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you have what can appropriately be labeled as the ‘trinity,’” he said.
There are many examples throughout the Bible of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit receiving the same type of attributes, Gutierrez said.
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“For example, worship is reserved for God alone,” he noted, citing Exodus 34:14, Psalms 18:3, Revelation 22:9 and Isaiah 46:9.
Gutierrez then posed this question: “Does the ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ receive this type of worship reserved for God alone?”
“Yes,” he said.
In the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, Paul states, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (II Corinthians, 13:14)
“Paul’s final prayer of blessing conveys that anyone can receive grace from the Lord Jesus Christ because of the love of God the Father,” explained Gutierrez. “And as a result, anyone may join a special bond of fellowship with other Christians because of the Holy Spirit.”
While this is “not a formal treatment of the doctrine of the Trinity,” he said, Paul’s blessing is beautiful in its own way.
It is “a natural reference to the Trinity from a mature believer who understands that true salvation for sins is provided by a triune God,” said Gutierrez.
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“Paul knew the teachings of scripture well enough in his final sentence to the people of Corinth,” he also said.
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“Paul prayed a blessing upon all believers to remember who was the giver of all blessings, along with praying that all would receive the gift of grace, love, and fellowship offered to them by a loving triune God,” he added.
North Dakota woman who grilled school board for defying gender identity law leads group to empower parents
Cassie Schmidt confronted school board members in a North Dakota district that pledged not to “openly out” students despite a newly-passed state law requiring otherwise, but she holds a history of fighting back on behalf of parents.
Though she chose the private school route for her own family, she stood before the Fargo, North Dakota board and spoke on behalf of the “Let Parents Decide That” Facebook group of community members concerned over allegations that the board has concealed – and will continue to conceal – children’s gender identities from their families.
“Whose kids are these? Do they belong to you as a school board? Do they belong to Fargo Public Schools or is each parent’s child ultimately the decision-maker in their family over what is allowed and what is safe for that child…?
“There is no possible way for each teacher to know every kid as intimately as their parents do,” she said at a board meeting last Tuesday.
“Parenting 101: You teach your kids that nobody that asks you to keep a secret is safe,” she continued.
Schmidt told Fox News Digital about her role in advocating for parental rights in her community and how a Facebook group she helped found to push back against mask mandates during the COVID pandemic in 2021 continues to strive for the overall wellbeing of children while offering a voice to parents who feel they have none.
After two years, the group has over two thousand members.
“It [mask mandates] was something at the time that was really hard for parents to talk about. They were really being shamed into silence. Nobody wanted to look like the selfish parent that didn’t want to protect all the other kids in class, even though masks have been proven to do nothing. So we really tried to build a community of concerned parents to just kind of support each other,” she explained.
Schmidt said the group has taken on several key education issues in the two years since its founding, including violence in North Dakota schools and the most recent gender identity concealment issue that garnered media attention in recent days.
“Instead of addressing actual issues that we’re having, they kind of start to take up these social justice flags, and it just gets really frustrating,” she continued.
The most recent issue in the district came after Superintendent Dr. Rupak Gandhi said, “We will not openly out any student because of one law if we know that that’s going to cause harm to that child” at a May 9 meeting, one day after Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed the state’s HB1522 into law.
HB1522, establishes policy prohibiting districts from taking up pronoun policies and bars the district, boards or teachers from “withhold[ing] or conceal[ing] information about a student’s transgender status from the student’s parent or legal guardian.”
The law also touches on transgender restroom policies and other LGBTQ+ related key issues.
Still, she said reaching out to state officials to challenge the issue is getting parents nowhere since they continue to kick the issue back to the local level.
“I think what’s happening here is this issue is getting really pigeonholed into an LGBTQ plus issue, and I think people aren’t thinking about it kind of how they should be. It’s really a parents’ rights issue because what’s really happening is the schools are getting in between the student and the parents to gate keep information from the parents,” Schmidt said.
“That is really concerning, and it should be concerning for people on both sides of this LGBTQ issue, whether you’re for it or against it. We should be able to come together and understand that the parent makes the decisions for the child and that protecting kids does not mean hiding information from parents.”
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Schmidt also alleged the board has a history of ignoring parents by refusing to address anything they say. Noting Dr. Gandhi’s remarks about protecting transgender students, she mentioned his discussion about suicide rates among transgender youth.
“If you think about that, that these issues might lead to an increased risk of suicide for the student, that is something that must be shared with the parents, that are responsible for the child in every situation. They spend nights and weekends with the child, long holidays over the summer. Where are the where are the schools in the summer time?
“We’re setting a really bad precedent again over what who’s allowed to have the information, and the parents, in my opinion, should always be allowed all the information on their child.”
When reached for comment on the issue earlier this week, a representative for Fargo Public Schools stated that Gandhi never explicitly said “the district is keeping students’ gender identities hidden from parents.”
Schmidt argued that the language used to convey the district’s message is intentionally vague.
“Whose kids are these? They don’t belong to the schools, and people don’t like to think about children belonging to anybody, but they belong to the parent. They belong to the family,” she said,
“What the school is doing is they’re placing themselves right in the middle of your family, and they’re deciding what’s okay for you to believe. Because if your beliefs don’t align with their beliefs, then they’re going to protect the student from you. They’re teaching kids that keeping secrets from their parents is safe. That is not safe. It is not safe. That’s not how we protect them.”
Four Texas kittens nicknamed the ‘G Litter’ are ready for loving homes
An adorable group of nearly identical orange tabby kittens is available for adoption in Houston, Texas.
The group, which has been nicknamed the “G Litter,” consists of kittens Gregory, Gus, Georgie and Ginger. They are estimated to be 8 weeks old, the Best Friends Animal Society, headquartered in Utah, told Fox News Digital.
Three male kittens and one female kitten make up this cute quartet.
NEW YORK-BASED KITTY WITH A CUTE PINK NOSE NEEDS A LOVING HOME
Despite their young age, they have already traveled quite a long way. The foursome originated in Brownsville, Texas.
“They are a very spirited, curious bunch,” according to the Best Friends Animal Society.
“They are almost identical.”
Typical of most kittens, the group “loves to explore and practice their climbing and pouncing skills,” the shelter said.
They also like “basking and purring in the sun-filled windowsill.”
The G Litter is ready for adoption, and anyone interested in taking home one (or more) of these kittens can email HoustonAdoption@bestfriends.org.
Orange females like Ginger are relatively uncommon. About 80% of orange cats are male, cat educator and internet personality Hannah Shaw said in a YouTube video.
This is because the color of a cat’s fur is determined by its genes — specifically, its X chromosome.
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Shaw, who known on YouTube as “The Kitten Lady,” explained the gene for fur color is carried by the X chromosome.
This gene is either for black or orange fur.
As male cats receive only one X chromosome from their parents, they will be orange if their X chromosome has the gene for orange fur or black if their X chromosome has the gene for black fur. A female orange kitten would have received orange X chromosomes from both parents.
Conversely, nearly all calico cats, a mixture of orange, black and white, are female, as they received one X chromosome with orange fur genes and one with black fur genes.
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Male calico cats are rare, and they all have a genetic abnormality with two X chromosomes in addition to a Y chromosome, said Shaw.
Summer is often a particularly crowded and busy time for animal shelters, the Best Friends Animal Society told Fox News Digital. Cats in particular are at risk of being euthanized at shelters due to overpopulation.
“While dogs and cats entered shelters at about an equal rate, cats made up 55% of the killing, and dogs were 45%,” according to the Best Friends Animal Society.
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“Cats remain the most vulnerable in shelters, especially during ‘kitten season,’ the summer months when cats reproduce and kittens flood shelters.”
In its annual report released May 31, Best Friends found 57% of shelters in the United States are “no-kill,” an increase from 24% in 2016.
A shelter is considered “no-kill” if it has a save rate of over 90%. About 10% of pets who enter shelters may need human euthanasia due to behavorial or medical problems, according to Best Friends.
Best Friends has a goal of making the United States “no-kill” by 2025.
“We are at the tipping point of taking the country no-kill,” Julie Castle, CEO of Best Friends, said in a news release.
“This critical mass of no-kill shelters shows that it’s possible to save every healthy and treatable pet in a shelter, and it’s sustainable. Ninety-three percent of shelters that were no-kill in 2021 were able to maintain it the following year.”
Want to read about other pets up for adoption? Check out this recent article from Fox News Digital: New York cat Julie, rescued from hoarders, needs a new and healthier home
And click here for other Fox News Digital Adoptable Pets stories.
Pro-life pregnancy centers sue NJ over alert alleging the centers engage in ‘deceptive practices’
The New Jersey Consortium of Pregnancy Centers is suing the state over a consumer alert that argues the centers engage in deceptive practices.
Eileen Den Bleyker, an attorney representing the consortium, told Fox News Digital the alerts were a “surprise” to her because the centers, which she says are in compliance with state law, have been serving clients for over 30 years and were not aware of complaints against them.
“Many CPCs do not provide health care at all, despite suggesting to the public that they do,” the consumer alert reads. “CPCs are not licensed medical facilities and do not employ licensed medical professionals, which means that CPC staff likely are not required to keep your health information private or follow medical ethics rules and standards of care. CPCs may also provide false or misleading information about abortion, including the physical and mental health effects of abortion, to deter people from choosing abortion.”
“Not wanting to jump to any conclusions, the first thing we said was, ‘What is the problem?’ If there is a problem, we want to know about it, we want to see where it is, we want to correct it,” Den Bleyker said. “… We focused their attention on those and asked for documents to support those (claims)… where are the facts?”
The attorney, who is also a member of the board of directors of a pregnancy center, first submitted a government records request asking for information about complaints against the pregnancy centers, a list of the centers and any investigations into them. The state replied that they needed a time extension, which was granted. A month later, government records request officials said the request was not proper because the consortium did not adequately describe what they were looking for.
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Den Bleyker sent another detailed request and says she was told a list of the pregnancy centers and documented complaints against them did not exist. Further requested information about the consumer alert claims was denied. The centers tried to avoid litigation by reaching out to the attorney general’s office for a meeting, but they did not respond to the request and the case is currently pending.
“If there is a problem, why wouldn’t (they) tell us about it so it can be corrected?,” she said. “Why not have a dialogue with the pregnancy centers? I just fail to understand. Other industries, they would reach out to correct problems.”
Den Bleyker argues the alert, which warns citizens the centers try to prevent women from getting abortions, is “outright false” because abortion has been legal in New Jersey since 1973 and the Dobbs decision did not change that.
“They are implying a motive that is just not true and how can you ever prove someone’s motive… which makes me skeptical about this alert,” she explained. “…We would like to see where they are coming up with the facts to say that.”
The state’s allegations that “some” pregnancy centers engage in deceptive practices is nefarious, according to the plaintiff, because there is no way to distinguish between the “bad actors” and those complying with the law. While the state alleges centers use unlicensed individuals, the attorney said ultrasound sonographers are not licensed by the state of New Jersey. She said claims the centers, which often provide material needs, support services and parenting classes, have people wearing lab coats and pretending they are medical clinics are “ludicrous.”
“When you have something that is put out in this fashion, allegations like this, there is no way to defend against it. It is totally unfair,” Den Bleyker argued. “If you were being charged with a crime, by the state or a law enforcement agency, the law requires that they come and set out the allegations so you can defend it and then they have to prove it. They can’t just say something without proof behind it.”
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Den Bleyker said it is important because Americans must make sure the state’s power protects all citizens, not just those who share the viewpoint of those in power.
“The case is so important to a healthy democracy,” she said. “The question is: are citizens who are impacted by a government action entitled to know the facts the government relied on when they took that action?’’ It could be anything. It could be abortion today. It could be school segregation tomorrow. It could be any hot topic of the day and our position is the citizens do have a right to know. The government is accountable to us and we need this information to protect ourselves in this context.”
Fox News reached out to the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs to ask why they believe the centers engage in deceptive practices. They had no comment at this time.
California judge robbed of Rolex, car keys by 3 men at gunpoint in broad daylight: police
The judge was left unscathed and called the police immediately after the thieves fled the scene.
Exclusive: The last living Jimmy Hoffa suspect’s shocking claim
He has not talked about Jimmy Hoffa since 1975.
Now, Gabriel Briguglio, the last Jimmy Hoffa suspect still alive, has decided to speak out to me and Fox News.
“I have nothing to hide,” he says. “I was home that night … and If they don’t want to believe me, that’s their business.”
Briguglio is 84 years old and has lived his life for nearly five decades under the shadow of suspicion he murdered Jimmy Hoffa.
FBI WON’T GIVE UP EFFORT TO SOLVE THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JIMMY HOFFA
He says the FBI, federal prosecutors and the media were all hoodwinked by a lying mob informer who misdirected the investigation in its early stages with self-serving, fabricated claims that only served to damage the investigation. The result, he says, has been a false narrative cemented in the American public’s mind of what happened and who was responsible.
“A lot of time was wasted,” he says. “I wish that they really get it through their mind to ‘X’ me out of that and say that it’s impossible because I have all the proof in the world that I wasn’t even involved in anything and what I was doing I was doing, what I said I was doing.”
Gabe is a retired New Jersey truck driver and Teamsters Union local vice president and business agent who, through the years, has also been called a suspected member of the New Jersey Genovese crime family. It is a label he pointedly denies and says he has long given up trying to do anything about.
“My kids, even now to this day, are wondering why I am even here, doing the interview with you,” he said in the emotional Fox Nation television taping with me as he teared up thinking about the damage that the years of Hoffa allegations have done to his family. He is married but separated and has four adult children who have lived under the Hoffa shadow since they were children.
“I think it hurt my kids more than it hurt me because I know I was not involved,” he says. “They knew that what they were saying about me wasn’t true.”
Gabe told me that he is finally speaking out to correct the record. His interview can be seen in the latest episode of our Hoffa investigation series, “Riddle, The Search for James R. Hoffa,” streaming on Fox Nation.
“I don’t know how much longer I have to live. I hope that it’s a long time. But for whatever time I have left, I want to get it off my head, I want to let it be known,” he said.
His name first became forever linked with Hoffa a few months after the International Brotherhood of Teamsters president disappeared. Gabe was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury investigating the case in Detroit and in a lineup as one of the key suspects.
Hoffa, the legendary labor leader who had been president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, vanished July 30, 1975. It is believed he was on his way to a mob meeting with powerful Detroit family mob boss Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone and New Jersey Teamsters Union Local President Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano, who was also a volatile and feared Capo in the Genovese crime family.
Hoffa, who had been released from federal prison on fraud and bribery charges, was determined to regain his old job as the Teamsters president, and the sit-down was meant to advance his goal. But the Mafia was against it, and it was Hoffa’s bullheaded intransigence in not stepping aside that cost him his life.
He was last seen climbing into a car in the parking lot of the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan restaurant, The Machus Red Fox, just over the Detroit city line.
Besides Gabe, the other New Jersey-based suspects, along with “Tony Pro,” were three other New Jersey men who investigators said were part of Tony Pro’s crew. They were Gabe’s brother, Sal Briguglio, and another pair of brothers, Thomas and Steven Andretta.
The 1976 FBI Hoffex report, the bureau-wide compilation of the investigation, said Gabe was “a trusted associate of ‘Tony Pro’ reported by Newark source to be involved in the actual disappearance of JRH” … James Riddle Hoffa.
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For decades, the media and books portrayed Gabe as one of Hoffa’s Mafia killers.
“Provenzano plotted to kill Hoffa, with the help of an associate, Gabriel Briguglio;” or “Gabriel waited to ambush Hoffa;” or “the second suspected hitman was Gabriel Briguglio.” As recently as last year, articles alleged Gabe “was involved in Hoffa’s murder,” or that he was “potentially part of a ‘clean-up crew’ tasked with getting rid of Hoffa’s body” and that “he belonged to Tony Pro’s New Jersey mob crew.”
Gabe says he was in New Jersey playing cards in a union hall the day Hoffa disappeared, paid a contractor for re-siding his East Rutherford, New Jersey, house with aluminum siding and came home from work as usual to be greeted by his kids.
“I was playing Greek rummy at lunchtime. Then, I had a meeting at one of my companies to discuss a problem with the contract, and then, from there, I had to be at my house that was being sided.”
An FBI report confirms Gabe was re-siding his house in East Rutherford, New Jersey, that month. Gabe says he paid Jersey Home Sales for the job on the day Hoffa disappeared because it was the end of the month and the job had been completed. Fox News attempted to confirm the transaction with the company, but it went out of business.
Gabe says to this day the FBI never asked him what he was doing on the day Hoffa vanished.
“They ever asked me anything about where I was, not even once,” he says. “Never did.”
“When they first came to see me with the warrant to go to Detroit, because they said I was involved in (Hoffa’s) disappearance … that’s when, forget about it. You know, I got even more aggravated because they don’t even ask you, ‘Where were you?’ or ‘What were you doing that day?’ I know what I was doing. I can’t forget. I won $600 bucks that day,” he said, referring to his card playing winnings.
“I couldn’t believe that somebody would put my name in there, until I found out it was Picardo.”
Ralph Picardo was a young mobster in Tony Pro’s crew, his former driver who was serving more than 20 years in Trenton State Prison for murder. He told the FBI he believed Tony Pro’s men had killed Hoffa and that Gabe was one of them. The feds then took Picardo’s story and used it to empanel a grand jury in Detroit in December 1975, five months after Hoffa vanished.
“When I heard it was him, I knew right away what he had in mind. He wanted to get out of jail,” says Gabe. “That’s the only way that he was going to get out. He’s got to look for the best story that he could make up that would be believable, because he’s a believable liar. That’s exactly what he did.”
Picardo’s plan worked.
The young mobster was sprung from prison, placed in the Witness Protection Program and has since died. But as the feds started to roll out Picardo in succeeding cases after Hoffa in 1975, it became clear he encountered serious credibility problems. His veracity was eventually exposed as so non-existent even Picardo’s FBI handler in the Hoffa case did not buy what he was claiming.
Jim Dooley, one of Picardo’s FBI case agents, said last year that he “would not believe a word that came out of (Picardo’s) mouth, ‘including a and the,’ to quote Mary McCarthy, unless there was independent corroboration.”
Dooley told Harvard Law professor and author Jack Goldsmith of the Lawfareblog that Picardo would “take the little he knew firsthand and extend it as far as he could, using what he heard, up to and including gossip.”
“That was Ralph” Dooley said. “We put up with him because he was the only game in town.”
Picardo “hated prison,” and his claims were “a gambit to get out of jail and get him and his family into the Witness Protection Program. (In this goal Picardo eventually succeeded),” Goldsmith wrote.
“How can you take a guy that’s such a liar?” Gabe asked.
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Picardo claimed suspect Steven Andretta spilled the story to him during a prison visit, but even the FBI’s own documents show Picardo was merely guessing.
Picardo “speculated” that “if” Tony Pro was involved, it would “figure” that the Andrettas and Briguglios were also involved in Hoffa’s disappearance, the FBI report says. Observers point out that the mob stoolie did not provide any hard evidence to authorities, but they pounced on his guesses because they had no other leads. Gabe acknowledges that no witness, physical evidence or any other statements have backed up what Picardo said.
Picardo’s unraveling then started after the feds used him in the Hoffa case.
Court documents branded Picardo “a liar,” “a pathological liar,” “off-the-wall” and a “little crazy.” He “used relatives without their knowledge to further his criminal schemes, and that he believed self-preservation was ‘the name of the game.’” It was also revealed that he had been held in the psychiatric wing of the Trenton State Prison.
The New York Times reported that Picardo was “fond of telling federal agents stories that had no basis in fact.”
Then, in 1981, Picardo set his sights a little higher than Gabe, “Tony Pro” and the others.
He aimed at the White House.
President Ronald Reagan had nominated New Jersey construction company executive Raymond Donovan as his administration’s labor secretary. Picardo told his FBI handlers that Donovan had given him payoffs for labor peace. His allegations against the secretary-designate hit Washington, D.C., like a bombshell.
The U.S. Senate Labor Subcommittee held hearings on Donovan’s nomination, and he was blunt and direct in his testimony about Picardo’s claims.
Donovan told the senators: “Picardo is lying. I know he is lying. In fact, I believe he’s a pathological liar. … There are witnesses … who call him ‘a wacko,’ ‘off the wall,’ ‘full of s—.’ OK? And a pathological liar.”
Special Prosecutor Leon Silverman was appointed to investigate Picardo’s claims, and after the grand jury rejected Picardo’s accusations against Donovan, the prosecutor was forced to reveal what certainly must have been an embarrassing revelation: Picardo had lied.
“The source (Picardo) admitted having deliberately lied about all of the allegations and stated that none of them were true … the source stated that the source had deliberately fabricated the allegations … that the allegations had all been lies,” Silverman wrote to the panel of federal judges overseeing the case.
Donovan said he told Silverman Picardo should be charged with perjury, but the government again gave Picardo a break, and he never faced any charges.
Picardo also broke the law while he was in the Witness Protection Program.
Two days before Christmas in 1975, he escaped from the Special Protection unit where he was being held in the federal prison in Portland, Maine. A warrant was issued for his arrest. And when he was nabbed in New York two months later, the U.S. Attorney spared him and declined to press charges.
Gabe did end up serving two years in federal prison in an unrelated labor racketeering case, which he says was a setup. The prosecution’s main witness against him: Ralph Picardo.
He also denies having ever been in the Mafia.
“No way. They can all think what they want to think,” he says. “I didn’t participate in anything to do with the mob.”
His brother Sal, however, was a suspected mob hitman for “Tony Pro.”
“That was his life,” Gabe says. “I don’t speak for him.”
Sal was gunned down gangland style in 1978, three years after Hoffa disappeared, as he left a Mafia social club in Manhattan’s Little Italy. It was believed “Tony Pro” feared Sal was going to testify against him in a murder of a New Jersey Teamsters official more than a decade earlier. Sal’s killing is still unsolved.
Some reports have also long claimed that Sal was the actual shooter of Jimmy Hoffa. But Gabe says that was impossible because, on the day Hoffa vanished, his brother was sitting in a dentist chair in New Jersey.
“The day that they claimed he was involved in the Hoffa’s thing, he had periodontal work done on his mouth,” he explained. “During the morning, I saw him in the office when I started to play cards, and then he said, ‘I’m leaving to go to the dentist.’ He says, ‘I got this thing and it’s killing me.”
Gabe and his family say his is a story of faulty assumptions, false accusations, inaccurate reporting and a criminal justice system that offers no remedy to correct misguided judgments that tar a person for life.
Others believe Picardo was credible.
Dan Moldea, a noted Hoffa case expert and author of a 1978 book, “The Hoffa Wars,” has said, “As far as the disposal of the body, Picardo is the state of the art.” He has said that Picardo’s story that Tony Pro’s crew was involved and transported Hoffa’s remains to New Jersey fits the FBI timeline of the Hoffa case.
“Picardo was one of the boys,” Moldea has told Fox Nation. “He was one of the Provenzano crew, He was close friends with all of these guys. We are not dealing with a bunch of Boy Scouts here. This guy was a killer, and this is the world we’re living in.”
Picardo’s son has also told me he thinks his father was telling the truth.
But others say the rush by law enforcement to embrace Picardo’s claims diverted attention from the real culprits.
“I don’t believe Gabe Briguglio killed Jimmy Hoffa or was anywhere near Jimmy Hoffa when he was killed,” says noted organized crime journalist Scott Burnstein, who publishes the website Gangster Report and co-hosts the podcast Original Gangsters.
He says the perception that the East Coast mob carried out Hoffa’s murder is just wrong.
“I don’t believe that the New Jersey Provenzano crew really had that much to do with the Hoffa conspiracy. It was all based on speculation, and second-, third – and fourth-hand information.”
Even the former head of the Detroit Organized Crime Strike Force, Keith Corbett, who oversaw the Hoffa case as a top federal prosecutor, believes Gabe was not Hoffa’s killer.
“I know people who’ve been involved in the strike forces have felt very strongly, some of them, about the New Jersey connection, and people whose opinions I respect. But, personally, the answer to that question is no,” Corbett says.
He and Burnstein do not fault prosecutors for pursuing Picardo’s tip at the time because he appeared plausible and the FBI had little, if anything credible, to go on.
“It was the best information they had available at the time,” Corbett said
“What you have to do, if you’re the bureau, you do some assessment and say, ‘Look, is this guy a person who might have been in a position to know this?’ And I think the answer to that question is yes. And if you determine that he might have known this, then I think you have to follow it out,” he said.
“In August 1975, that was a great tip,” says Burnstein. “It hasn’t aged well, but at the time, I wouldn’t fault any investigator from running that lead down.”
Both believe that Hoffa was kidnapped and killed by the Detroit Mafia.
After Gabe appeared in the lineup without being identified, he went home to New Jersey, but the Hoffa case has never left him. He says he hopes to meet Hoffa’s son, former Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, and his daughter, retired Missouri Judge Barbara Crancer, to share his story.
Gabe also believes the time and effort that law enforcement expended on Picardo ultimately damaged the investigation.
“If they had not listened to that kid (Picardo), maybe they might have resolved it,” he says.
“I’m the only suspect that’s around. There’s nothing that they can get from me that I know, because I don’t know anything.”
To this day, Gabe has never been charged, let alone found guilty in the Hoffa case.
Requests for comment about Gabe were not returned by the FBI.
Watch the interview with Gabe Briguglio on Fox Nation’s new episode of “Riddle, The Search For James R. Hoffa.” And catch the five previous programs that investigate one of the greatest continuing mysteries in American history.
Delta flight diverted after unruly passenger breaks free from restraints
“There was someone being violent and they wouldn’t calm down. We wanted to get here as soon as possible. It was scary.”
The Army gave this officer a false criminal record, stunting his career. Now he’s getting backpay
Years after a sloppy Army investigation slapped soldiers with false criminal records and derailed his career, the officer who led the fight to clear service members’ names has finally received his previously denied promotion.
But holding the golden oak leaf pin felt “bittersweet” for now-Maj. Gilberto De Leon.
“Now we’re truly at the start line,” De Leon told Fox News. “We’ve got to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
De Leon was among close to 2,000 soldiers slapped with a false arrest record due to participating in a National Guard recruiting program known as G-RAP, which ended in 2012 amid accusations of fraud and mismanagement. Under pressure from Congress, the Army launched Task Force Raptor to investigate all 106,364 people paid by G-RAP and its Army Reserve counterpart.
Only 137 soldiers faced criminal prosecution, but the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) “titled” 2,580 soldiers, creating a permanent military record showing they were the subject of an investigation, according to the Army. CID forwarded an estimated 1,900 soldiers’ records to an FBI database where the information showed up as an arrest on a background check — even though the soldiers were never arrested — and listed serious charges such as wire fraud.
The false records blocked service members like De Leon from promotions and haunted veterans in their civilian lives as they applied for jobs, licenses and more only to fail a background check.
ARMY SAYS RECRUITING NUMBERS ARE IMPROVING BUT REFUSES TO SHARE DATA: REPORT
De Leon was originally selected for major in 2019, but his promotion stalled after a review found the mark on his record. He’s been fighting since then to clear his name and was the first G-RAP participant to have his record corrected last fall when CID promised to review all cases forwarded to the FBI.
In late May, De Leon was officially promoted. He said he will receive two years of backpay and can medically retire at his higher rank.
It’s unclear exactly how many service members affected by the investigation remain in the military a decade after G-RAP ended. But some are still awaiting promotions, including Army Capt. David Hernandez who was slated to advance to major in 2020 before the flag on his record stalled his promotion packet.
His criminal background has been cleared, and Hernandez hopes a retroactive promotion will follow. But he fears it could still take months.
“Every day that passes puts me further behind my peers,” Hernandez said. “If none of this would have happened, I would be getting looked at with my original peers with the promotion — possibly around 2026 — to lieutenant colonel.”
WATCH MORE FOX NEWS DIGITAL ORIGINALS HERE
But Hernandez said he’s lucky compared to the Guard members and reservists who left the military only to have the false arrest record harm their civilian careers.
“The people who have been washed out of the service without their retirement or their pensions, what happens to them?” service member advocate Liz Ullman previously told Fox News. “The people who haven’t been able to get jobs because their background records have been so sullied, what happens to them?”
In the 2023 defense spending bill, Congress ordered the secretary of the Army to review the case file of every service member or veteran affected by the G-RAP investigation, expunge improper criminal records and report back to lawmakers.
CID expects to provide its review to Congress within the next month.
De Leon feels the Army still hasn’t taken accountability for the investigation, which cost around $28 million and recouped about $500,000 of allegedly fraudulent payments, or apologized to the innocent soldiers caught up in it.
“This is the largest scandal in military history when it comes to military investigations,” De Leon said. “We need to figure out who’s going to be held accountable, and if our policy is going to change.”
An apology and commitment to change would go a long way, De Leon said, especially as the Army struggles with recruitment.
“Thousands of service members are still affected by this,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure this doesn’t happen again and there is some type of full restoration, some type of compensation and a public apology by our own appointed leaders.”
California officials investigating migrant arrivals in Sacramento: ‘Without any advance warning’
California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Saturday an investigation into the arrival of migrants at a church in Sacramento to determine if kidnapping or other crimes were committed.
In a statement, Newsom said more than a dozen migrants were transported from Texas to New Mexico before being flown to Sacramento and left on the doorstep of a local church “without any advance warning.”
“We are working closely with the Mayor’s office, along with local and nonprofit partners to ensure the people who have arrived are treated with respect and dignity, and get to their intended destination as they pursue their immigration cases,” Newsom said.
The governor said the migrant arrivals would be investigated to find out who is responsible for their transportation and to determine any criminal wrongdoing.
ARMED SUSPECTED MEXICAN CARTEL MEMBERS ARRESTED ON TEXAS SIDE OF BORDER
“My Administration is also working with the California Department of Justice to investigate the circumstances around who paid for the group’s travel and whether the individuals orchestrating this trip misled anyone with false promises or have violated any criminal laws, including kidnapping,” he said.
Bonta issued a separate statement in which he said the migrants possessed documentation allegedly showing they are from Florida.
“We are investigating the circumstances by which these individuals were brought to California,” he said. “We are also evaluating potential criminal or civil action against those who transported or arranged for the transport of these vulnerable immigrants. While this is still under investigation, we can confirm these individuals were in possession of documentation purporting to be from the government of the State of Florida.”
FLORIDA AG MOODY MOVES TO BLOCK DHS FROM RELEASING MIGRANTS INTO INTERIOR WITH COURT DATES
“While we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting,” Bonta said. “We are a nation built by immigrants and we must condemn the cruelty and hateful rhetoric of those, whether they are state leaders or private parties, who refuse to recognize humanity and who turn their backs on extending dignity and care to fellow human beings.”
It is unclear at this time who is responsible for the migrants’ move to California, but multiple states have relocated migrants to sanctuary cities like New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C., amid an influx of migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has said he will not stop sending buses of migrants to these cities until the federal government fixes the problem at the border. The migrant relocations from Texas began last summer.
The immigration crisis at the southern border has also spilled into states that do not border Mexico. Florida Republican Gov. and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis flew migrants from the Sunshine State to Martha’s Vineyard last fall and Colorado Democrat Gov. Jared Polis sent migrants to sanctuary cities earlier this year.
“California and the Sacramento community will welcome these individuals with open arms and provide them with the respect, compassion, and care they will need after such a harrowing experience,” Bonta said in his statement.