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A federal judge has tossed out the cases against two former Federal Bureau of Investigation officials, accusing the Trump administration of weaponizing the power of government in order to prosecute them.The Dept. of Justice had sought criminal charges against 46-year-old Nikki Floris and 56-year-old Bradley Benavides on the basis that they had allegedly lied to Congress about the Hunter Biden laptop case.'What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization.'Both Floris and Benavides had testified in 2023 that they had no part in the investigation into Biden's laptop, but prosecutors cited evidence that both may have discussed the case with other FBI officials.On Monday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui dismissed the charges against both defendants."What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization," said Faruqui.He said the government could have brought the charges at any time but chose to do so two weeks before the election. He also cited a prime time speech where President Donald Trump aired his grievances about the 2020 election."I will not bury my head in the sand and pretend that I cannot read a calendar," Faruqui added.He accused the government of rushing the prosecution and including "critical mistakes" in their charges.Floris' attorney had argued in court that his client had been prosecuted in order to influence public opinion for the sake of the election.Critics of Floris pointed to an unearthed alleged text where she claimed to be "basically running a shadow government" in the FBI.Both Floris and Benavides had been a part of the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force, which no longer exists but had spearheaded the agency's efforts to oppose foreign influence in the 2020 election.The Justice Dept. has the option to pursue indictments of both Floris and Benavides through a grand jury. RELATED: Judge APOLOGIZES to suspected would-be Trump assassin — and compares him to Jan. 6 Faruqui was heavily criticized when he apologized in court to Cole Tomas Allen, the man accused of trying to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April. Cole had been placed on suicide watch and been denied access to a Bible, according to his attorneys.As a magistrate federal judge, Faruqui was not nominated by a president or approved by the U.S. Senate but selected by the court in Washington, D.C.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

He was just trying to finish his workday and get home to his kids. Instead, a Michigan father of four found himself the target of a viral Instagram prank in which a young content creator pretended to steal $10 from him — all while recording his increasingly frustrated reaction for clicks.In the viral video, the Michigan father, frustrated, goes to report the young man to management. The content creator continues filming and keeps insisting that “it’s not that deep” and that “it’s just a joke.”“No, it’s not a joke to me, OK?” the man said. “I don’t have time for this crap in my life. My life is hard enough as it is, OK? I don’t need this crap. I’ve got kids at home that went to bed without me right now, and I was supposed to be at home an hour ago, and I’m still out here working, and I got to get up at 5 in the morning and do 10 more stores. So this is not a joke to me.”“No, I get you,” the kid responded. “No, you don’t. You’re probably making money off this. I can’t even pay my goddamn mortgage, and I’ve got four kids at home. So not funny,” the man yelled.BlazeTV host John Doyle calls it a “little bit of a patriot go-off moment.”“What he’s upset about is he can tell that he’s being recorded,” Doyle explains. “He knows that he’s going to be uploaded onto the internet and made fun of. And so it’s like this is just weighing on him alongside everything else he’s dealing with in the meantime.”“And he can tell, obviously, they’re not sincere about the apology. They don’t care. And then all he can do is just scold them,” he continues, noting that the man is the one who would be facing real repercussions.“He’s in trouble because he’s in uniform,” Doyle says.“He knows that not only is he going to be humiliated on the internet, but it’s probably going to come back to maybe compromise his employment, which again, the guy’s behind on his mortgage,” he continues.“He has four kids at home. It’s just a really bad situation overall. And so, that’s what I think it was, is he knows that he’s the butt end of the joke. He’s being exploited. And the person who’s exploiting him is treating him as though he’s not a human being. It literally is dehumanizing them,” he adds.And Doyle points out that in the beginning of the video, the man responds to the kid's initial question about the time with a smile.“He’s obviously walking up to this guy who’s just there trying to get, you know, his job done, go home. And the thing that really gets me, too, is you see in the beginning of the video, the second he’s asked, ‘Hey, what time is it?’ He immediately is helpful,” he explains.“He is happy to help, happy to engage in high-trust activities like this,” he adds.However, people like the kid are "actively preying on people’s trust and support so they can make a few dollars rather than work an actual job.”“This is exploiting a high-trust society. This is exploiting the behavior of good Americans,” Doyle says, which he calls a “third-world mindset.”“The third-world mindset cannot innovate,” he explains. “It cannot create companies. It cannot be productive.”“People who come from countries who literally are responsible for zero innovations, curiously, the only way they can innovate is not actually with contributing something, which people want to purchase and partake in,” he continues.“It always with finding the cracks, finding some way to scan the system, cut corners, take advantage of people. That’s all they do,” he adds.Want more from John Doyle?To enjoy more of the truth about America and join the fight to restore a country that has been betrayed by its own leaders, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

A Learjet 60 traveling from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas to the Bahamas crashed near Cresthaven, Florida, around 12:50 p.m. on Sunday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Everyone on board was killed. The co-pilot of the airplane has now been identified.'Some people think that it’s weird that I can fly planes, but I can't drive a car.'Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed that all nine people aboard the aircraft perished in the crash.Dashcam footage of the crash shows the plane flying nose-first at an incredible speed into a Palm Beach County road and exploding into a fireball filled with debris.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told reporters at the site of the crash, "Obviously this was a cataclysmic plane crash. It looked like a missile going down. It left a big crater on the side of the road."The governor noted that so far there were no reports of any fatalities or injuries among people who were on the ground at the time of impact. Palm Beach County Commissioner Joel Flores noted, however, that roughly 600 people were affected by the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash and is set to hold a press conference on Monday.The co-pilot has been identified as 20-year-old Nathalia Gadelha Filgueiras.Filgueiras' mother, Camila, and her stepfather confirmed to the New York Post that the young aviator was the co-pilot of the doomed Learjet.According to a recording of air traffic control radio calls reviewed by CNN, the pilot reported ice buildup on the aircraft, an outside temperature of -52.6 Fahrenheit, and moderate turbulence.Shortly thereafter, the pilot told the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center, "We're descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday! We're descending 10,000 feet per minute!"RELATED: Springfield residents say the crashes keep coming — and so do the bills Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu/Getty Images"We are in an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute," the pilot said. "We're going to crash into the ground!"The global flight tracking website ADS-B Exchange shows the jet with the tail number N722BD dropping from 35,025 feet to 8,750 feet in just over two minutes before the data stream cut out. The aircraft's final recorded ground speed was over 268 miles per hour.The Post reported that the female crew member's final remarks captured in the audio recording were, "Holy f**k we're out of time."Filgueiras was featured in a WPEC-TV report in October 2023, where she boasted about securing her pilot's license."I definitely do brag because people say, 'Ooh you can’t drive,' and I’m like, 'Yeah, but I can fly,'" she said at the time."Some people think that it’s weird that I can fly planes, but I can't drive a car. I mean, I can but a lot of people think it's funny," she added. "I think it's funny, and I now want my [driver's] license really bad."Filgueiras also appears to have been the user behind the TikTok account "learjet_girl," which features videos taken in Learjet cockpits with hip-hop music accompaniment.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Democrat Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut is in the hospital after suffering a stroke.According to Murphy's office, the 53-year-old Democrat was taken to a hospital on Saturday after experiencing numbness in his arm at his son's hockey game.'I understand all too well how much this impacts your life.'Following confirmation that he had indeed suffered a stroke, Murphy was transferred to Johns Hopkins Medicine for "further monitoring."A stroke, also known as a "brain attack," can leave a victim with permanent brain damage. Nearly 800,000 people suffer a stroke every year in the U.S. where it is a leading cause of serious long-term disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The senator's office claimed on Sunday that "the doctors are encouraged by his progress, he is awake and alert, and we are optimistic he will make a full recovery."Murphy, who has been floated as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, suffered the stroke ahead of a planned campaign event with New Hampshire Rep. Chris Pappas (D), who is running for the U.S. Senate.RELATED: Tantrums galore! Democrats crash out over Rep. Haley Stevens' last-minute 'betrayal' Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesIn the days leading up to the adverse medical event, Murphy — a gun control advocate who once identified illegal aliens as the people "we care about most" — was criticizing President Donald Trump, championing Ukraine, and trying to help get Democrats elected. He also claimed days earlier to have seen the president's alleged plan to "restart war with Iran after the election."Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who suffered a stroke in May 2022 that initially prompted concerns about his competence, was among the many politicos who wished Murphy a speedy recovery."As someone who survived a near-fatal stroke, I understand all too well how much this impacts your life," said Fetterman. "My family is rooting for Chris and his family for a full and speedy recovery."Murphy's stroke comes just months after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) died of an aortic dissection and amid sustained concerns over retiring Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell's health in light of his latest absence.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!