^^^^ was she night court? she kicked him off and told him to fix that tail light LOL

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

quote:

Originally posted by SIG228:

Right. The judge who worked for Ms. Fanni and who donated to her campaign. That judge?

Oh stop it. By all accounts this Judge is a straight shooter. He was a member of the Federalist Society and appointed to a vacancy by a republican governor.

He worked for Fani? So what? And it's simply politics when it comes to donations. She was going to win so he threw in a few bucks to grease the wheels. Trump played this same tactic in NY all the time.

I don't see any way this Judge will beclown himself by not ruling appropriately in this case.

Your opinion is exactly that, your opinion.

How incredibly astute.

The preponderance of evidence suggests that Fani's grits are cooked, but here's an idea, guys- let's wait for the verdict before predicting conspiratorial gloom and doom.

I realize that it's fashionable to assume all officials are corrupt and justice is never served, but it's just not so. Sometimes, people get exactly what they deserve.

Perhaps Fani and her paramour will skate, and then you can crow about how you KNEW this was going to happen. Until then, let's try to think happy thoughts.

To add further spice to the stew:

Hackers threaten to release Trump documents from Georgia case if they don't get a ransom by Thursday

The hacking group responsible for taking down Fulton County's websites in Georgia is threatening to publish documents from the state's court system — including ones related to the criminal case against Donald Trump — unless it gets paid a ransom.

In a message posted online Saturday, in both English and Russian, the hacking group called LockBit said the stolen documents "contain a lot of interesting things and Donald Trump's court cases that could affect the upcoming US election."

Initially, LockBit set a Saturday, March 2, deadline for the payment, according to the cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs.

It has since moved up that deadline to 8:49 a.m. ET on Thursday, February 29, LockBit's restored website shows.

It's not clear how much money the group is demanding. The hacking group's demands are often negotiated in private, Dan Schiappa, the chief product officer at the cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf, said.

The group — led by a hacker using the pseudonym LockBitSupp — appeared to become operational again over the weekend after a February 20 law-enforcement raid. A group of agencies, including the FBI and the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency, took down 34 of its servers and changed its website to a series of messages bragging about the law-enforcement operation. The same day, the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment accusing two Russian nationals of being involved in the group's hacking operations.

By Saturday, LockBit was back.

On a new website, the group posted a message claiming it had backup copies of documents taken from the Fulton County government's website. It also renewed its ransom demands.

The post claimed that the FBI acted quickly because the leak of documents in Trump's criminal case could affect the 2024 presidential election — although court documents show that the FBI's investigation into LockBit and coordination with international law-enforcement agencies has been ongoing for years. It characterized LockBit's relationship with the FBI as a sort of romantic rivalry and promised that the group would hack more government websites in the future.

"Personally I will vote for Trump because the situation on the border with Mexico is some kind of nightmare, Biden should retire, he is a puppet," the message said.
LockBit works with affiliates to hack companies and government agencies

LockBit's targets go far beyond just the Fulton County government.

As of Wednesday, it had ongoing ransom demands for 11 different companies on its website in addition to the one for Fulton County. Over the years, the hacking group has targeted over 2,000 victims and obtained over $120 million in ransom funds, according to the Justice Department. Its targets in recent years include Boeing, the UK's National Health Service and Royal Mail, and the state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The group doesn't always conduct hacks itself, according to law-enforcement agencies. It operates on a service model, in which it develops sophisticated ransomware hacking tools and leases them out to other hackers to deploy against targets, taking a cut of the ransom.

It's not clear which other organizations may be working with LockBit on the Fulton County hack. LockBit has claimed to be "completely apolitical" in the past, Oz Alashe, the CEO and founder of the cybersecurity firm CybSafe, said. But it is also deeply involved in the Russian cybercrime scene, Krebs said. Because it works with so many different affiliates, its motives are hard to discern, Alashe told Business Insider.

"Even if one could discern the organization's motives outside of the obvious financial one, the same cannot be said for all its partners and affiliates," Alashe said.

Alashe said that LockBit's more overt political messages — taking a shot at Biden and expressing support for Trump — shouldn't necessarily be taken literally.

"It's always difficult to discern the meaning of messages like the one published by LockBit on Saturday," he said. "Whether the declaration of support for Trump is genuine, posturing aimed at taunting what they see as 'strong competitors and the FBI,' or even an attempt to grab headlines, we don't know."

Fulton County's computer systems were taken down in a hack on January 27, leaving some of its services down for weeks. Its court website still isn't fully operational. Officials have put up a separate web page with filings in the case for the public to access in lieu of the official court docket.

The hack has resonated nationally because of the charges against Trump. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has charged the former president and more than a dozen of his allies with racketeering in connection to the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 federal election in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him; several codefendants have pleaded guilty to their own charges.

It's not clear whether LockBit is in possession of any court documents in the Trump case that are not already part of the public record. George Chidi, an Atlanta-based independent journalist, reported earlier this month that a sampling of files published by LockBit includes sealed court records in other unrelated cases.

A Fulton County court administration spokesperson declined to comment.

The earlier countdown timer, which had been set for February 16, disappeared from LockBit's site that day without offering a link to download files from the hack. Such removals normally happen when extortion targets pay ransom or are in negotiations to pay it, Krebs said.

Schiappa, the Arctic Wolf executive, told Business Insider that there was nothing usual about the situation. LockBit might be attempting to maintain its credibility with its hacking affiliate organizations in the wake of the law-enforcement raid earlier this month, he said.

"LockBit built its image on being loud and garnering the attention of other groups that wanted assurance that they could conduct business with them unhindered," Schiappa told Business Insider. "The law-enforcement action presents a threat to that narrative. The more attention that the group can focus on anything other than the fact that their image was compromised by law enforcement, the more likely that they will be able to salvage their image with affiliates and continue operations."

At a press conference on February 20, Robb Pitts, the Fulton County commission chair, said no ransom was paid.

"We did not pay, nor did anyone pay on our behalf," Pitts said during the briefing.

In Saturday's message, LockBit said its "partner" was in "negotiations" over the ransom, but they had "stalled." Pitts didn't respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

On Tuesday, county officials told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it would not pay a ransom.

"Our focus remains on safely restoring services for our citizens and we continue to work in close coordination with law enforcement," a county spokesperson said in a statement.

An FBI representative declined to comment.

Although LockBit appeared to recover from the law-enforcement takedown earlier this month, its reputation has been severely damaged, Schiappa said. Its grandstanding messages about the FBI may be a way to shore that up.

"We expect that LockBit will suffer consequences from this law-enforcement action," Schiappa said. "Their attempts to establish new partnerships will be challenging with the cloud of this takedown looming over them and tarnishing their reputation."

The renewed ransom threat comes as Willis' investigation is beleaguered by a series of hearings playing out in a Fulton County courtroom.


______________


FBI’s LockBit Takedown Postponed a Ticking Time Bomb in Fulton County, Ga.

The FBI’s takedown of the LockBit ransomware group last week came as LockBit was preparing to release sensitive data stolen from government computer systems in Fulton County, Ga. But LockBit is now regrouping, and the gang says it will publish the stolen Fulton County data on March 2 unless paid a ransom. LockBit claims the cache includes documents tied to the county’s ongoing criminal prosecution of former President Trump, but court watchers say teaser documents published by the crime gang suggest a total leak of the Fulton County data could put lives at risk and jeopardize a number of other criminal trials.

...

“Even after the FBI hack, the stolen data will be published on the blog, there is no chance of destroying the stolen data without payment,” LockBitSupp wrote. “All FBI actions are aimed at destroying the reputation of my affiliate program, my demoralization, they want me to leave and quit my job, they want to scare me because they can not find and eliminate me, I can not be stopped, you can not even hope, as long as I am alive I will continue to do pentest with postpaid.”

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

The FBI’s takedown of the LockBit ransomware group last week ...

...

... was apparently thoroughly ineffective.

In the "Cyberattacks on Health Care Concerns" thread, member ZSMICHAEL opined "The FBI is pretty good at chasing windmills and apparently pretty poor at stopping cybercrime" I came to the FBI's defense, allowing as how an LE agency cannot reasonably be expected to stop cybercrime before it occurs.

What they're supposed to be good at is at least catching criminals after the fact.

Guess they can't be expected to do that, competently, either.

Closing arguments this afternoon about whether Fani should be disqualified from the GA election interference case

I think he's going to boot her off the case and not admit the phone records. Everyone needs finality to the issue and letting more evidence in wouldn't change his mind or further solidify his decision.

In the end, Fani and Co. have plenty of legal problems that likely will have her removed as the DA or even disbarred, including potential perjury charges. She's going to be the Marilyn Mosby of Georgia.

Let’s say she gets booted, then what? Do they just get another prosecutor? What difference does it make which prosecutor runs the prosecution? Do you think they’re going to stop?

quote:

Originally posted by fwbulldog:
Let’s say she gets booted, then what? Do they just get another prosecutor? What difference does it make which prosecutor runs the prosecution? Do you think they’re going to stop?

If she and the entire DA's office are booted, under Georgia law, the case is then sent to a non-partisan council of prosecutors and in particular a Mr. Skandalakis who heads the council and makes the ultimate decision.

He can decide to drop the case, add charges, take away charges or dismiss defendants. He can ask a prosecutor to take the case but he has the power to appoint someone, against their will but that's unlikely.

This entire process takes time and he doesn't want to be seen as quick or lacking in temperament so it's unlikely that he would a reprosecution decision and trial would take place before the election.

quote:

Originally posted by fwbulldog:
Let’s say she gets booted, then what? Do they just get another prosecutor? What difference does it make which prosecutor runs the prosecution? Do you think they’re going to stop?

Well, her entire office, the Fulton County DA's office, would be out so the Georgia DA or someone else would need to hire a special prosecutor or find someone to take up the case. But who would want to take up this ridiculous RICO case against a former and likely future President? I don't think anyone will step forward. My guess is that this case will be shelved once this bitch is booted.

quote:

Originally posted by fwbulldog:
Let’s say she gets booted, then what? Do they just get another prosecutor? What difference does it make which prosecutor runs the prosecution? Do you think they’re going to stop?

I would imagine that the replacement DA will have to decide if they want to continue the case or close it.

https://www.indystar.com/story...updates/72804883007/

Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee said he plans to rule within two weeks on whether to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis from the election racketeering case against Donald Trump.

McAfee closed the hearing Friday saying he was grappling with several legal issues and factual disputes.

“There are several legal issues to sort through, several factual determinations that I have to make and those aren’t ones I can make at this moment,” McAfee said after three hours of forceful submissions by both sides. “I will be taking the time to make sure that I give this case the full consideration it’s due. I hope to have an answer for everyone within the next two weeks.”

Closing rebuttal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQB6MeUJcfc

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wcb6092,

Judge Scott Macfee’s voice sounds just like actor judge reihold in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”

https://lists.youmaker.com/lin...a3SBI8Sbkr/Hyj9G1HOU

Trump Wins Missouri Republican Caucus

Meanwhile, the Michigan Republican Party will bind the remaining 39 of its 55 delegates, with most going to President Trump.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—President Donald Trump won the Missouri Republican presidential primary on March 2, the latest triumph in his undefeated nominating contest streak.

The Associated Press called the race for President Trump at 12:40 p.m. ET with just 5 percent of the votes counted.

The first voting results out of Missouri’s GOP caucus indicated a likely significant win for former President Donald Trump.

Fifty-one delegates are up for grabs.

Ben Watson said he caucused for former President Donald Trump because “he gave us a lot better prosperity when he was in office.”

“Almost everything (President Trump) did helped America prosper,” Mr. Watson said. “Whereas the current president, everything he’s done helped America flounder.”

cont...

Flatulent Fani's fallacious phone deFENSE falls flat under ferocious forensic analysis.

I don't think we'll have to worry about Fani coming into court a year from now and trying to use cell phone ping data against a defendant because I expect she won't be a lawyer anymore. Maybe if she's lucky she'll be a manager at White Castle.