Badlands News Brief
Cohen Clown Show Continues as the Iranian Blame Game Begins
The News Cycle is almost impossible to track these days. At least, to do so fully.
That’s where we come in.
In the Badlands News Brief, the Badlands Media team hand pick news items of interest from the previous days to give you an overview of the biggest goings-on relevant to the Truth Community.
Many items feature original (and subjective) commentary. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see our writers’ Substack accounts and check out their other work.
Now, onto the news from Monday, May 20 …
Trump Courtroom Plays Host to Nonstop Spectacle as Prosecution Rests
On a pivotal day in the first criminal trial of an American president, the courtroom threatened to spin out of control.
The prosecution’s star witness, Michael D. Cohen, admitted on the stand to stealing from former President Donald J. Trump’s company. Mr. Trump’s courtroom entourage included three supporters charged with felonies of their own. And the defense’s only real witness was so defiant that the judge, after excoriating him, cleared the courtroom.
The trial’s first five weeks featured dramatic descriptions of sex and scandal, and the final phase of testimony on Monday showed no signs of a letup, as the courtroom played host to a nonstop spectacle.
The tension came to a head after the prosecution rested its case and the defense called its witness, Robert J. Costello, a lawyer who had once advised Mr. Cohen. The defense saw Mr. Costello as a foil to Mr. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s onetime personal lawyer and longtime henchman.
But the strategy may not have paid off: The judge promptly lost his patience with Mr. Costello, a prosecutor turned defense lawyer and a fixture in New York’s legal world. When Mr. Costello scoffed at one of the judge’s rulings — “jeez,” he said, before mumbling a retraction — the judge grew irate. — The New York Times
Our Take: “This trial is hilarious. Michael Cohen was billed as the star witness, the walls were closing in, and President Trump was finally going to jail this time — they really meant it.
Unfortunately, as we discussed last week, Cohen hasn’t been a great witness for the prosecution.
For example, Michael Cohen was actually whining about 14-year-old prankster when he said he was speaking to Trump about Stormy Daniels payoff. He lied about that.
Then jurors heard a secret recording that was framed as President Trump allegedly discussing a hush money payment. He lied about that, too.
As a result of the recording flop, the media is now claiming ‘Donald Trump's 'Mafia' Code Confirmed by Secret Recording.’ They’re lying about Cohen’s lie.
Now, Cohen admits to stealing from the Trump organization because he felt entitled to money that wasn’t his. Again, he is the prosecution’s star witness in this case.
Monday afternoon, Judge Merchan cleared the court room to reprimand the defense’s Bob Costello. At one point the Judge said to Costello, ‘Are you staring me down?’
At the end of the day, Trump attorney Blanche asked the judge to dismiss the case. The Judge is ‘reserving decision,’ leaving the verdict to the jury.
It’s so hilarious and nonsensical, it almost doesn’t seem real.” —
ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for top Israeli, Hamas figures
In a stunning announcement that drew sharp indignation from both warring parties, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said Monday that he was seeking to charge senior figures in the Israel-Gaza conflict, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yehiya Sinwar, with war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Karim Khan’s statement listed extensive charges and sought additional arrest warrants for Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and two other top Hamas leaders — Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, the leader of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades better known as Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’s political leader.
The ICC is the only permanent international court that wields power to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Its announcement Monday was historic: Although Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, upon which the court is founded, the arrest warrants, if issued, would nonetheless stigmatize the country’s senior leaders.
The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber will now consider Khan’s application. If it approves the request, international arrest warrants would be issued for the five men and would be enforced by the court’s 124 member states. — The Washington Post
Our Take: “I would encourage everybody to go watch this video interview from yesterday between Judge Napolitano and Colonel Douglas Macgregor, where Macgregor affirms many of the takes that I have written on Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, most notably the notion that Netanyahu and the power structure in Tel Aviv control the US government— which is further emphasized by the bipartisan outrage toward the ICC.
As I have written in the past, the International Criminal Court is a George Soros creation from the early 2000's. It is quite poetic and ironic that this institution is now being used to go after members of the globalist hegemony. As the article points out, this is the ‘first time ever that the Hague-based court has targeted a national leader of a close US ally.’
As Macgregor told Napolitano yesterday, the court has demonstrated an ‘even-handedness’ by going after the political and military leaders of both Israel and Hamas. Both sides of this controlled opposition dynamic are being targeted, which is amazing.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has been named in the indictments, and despite the recent epiphany of political pragmatism that Gallant has espoused, Colonel Macgregor rightfully points out that both Gallant and Benny Gantz have their fingerprints all over the Gaza operation, and would likely continue it to some extent, if they could somehow oust Netanyahu and become the political leaders of Israel.
That's demonstrative that the zealotry infecting Tel Aviv is systemic, and not merely confined to Bibi Netanyahu.
So how does this all end? To quote Elon Musk, ‘the most entertaining outcome is the most likely.’” —
Israel denies involvement in Iran president's helicopter crash
Israel had nothing to do with the accident involving the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi, Israel’s Channel 13 reported yesterday, citing Israeli officials.
The Israeli channel quoted officials saying: “The message Israel is sending to the countries of the world is that Tel Aviv has nothing to do with the incident.”
Iranian television said that a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his accompanying delegation was forced to make a “hard landing” in the East Azerbaijan Province, Iranian reports revealed yesterday.
The president had been on his way back from Azerbaijan where he had inaugurated a joint border dam and met his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev yesterday.
Iranian media reported that the helicopter carrying Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, East Azerbaijan Governor Malek Rahmati, Imam of Tabriz Mosque, Imam Ayatollah Al Hashemi, and other officials, crashed and the passengers have been pronounced dead.
The president’s helicopter was forced to land due to bad weather conditions, state media said, noting that the bad weather conditions also hindered relief teams. — Middle East Monitor
Our Take: “‘You read correctly, the UN Security Council today held a moment’s silence to remember a mass murderer, Iranian President Raisi,’ Israeli Ambassador to UN Gilad Erdan said in a video published to social media.
Sheesh. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
I find it fascinating that Israel was so quick to deny any involvement in the crash, even before the site was located and the deaths confirmed. The US at least had the tact to wait to make those denials, but everybody and their mother are speculating that this was an assassination, and the timing of this incident with the failed coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo makes these allegations hard to ignore.
Even more damning is a video produced by @In2ThinAir, who pulls weather from the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA), demonstrating that all of the data from the area of Jolfa, Iran—where the helicopter crash is reported to have occurred—from May 19, 2024 has been deleted. In the video, the timestamp clearly goes from 11:59:59 PM on 5/18/2024 to 12:00:01 on 5/20/2024.
Weird.
I can't imagine that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp would have the means to hack this data without anybody in the western media/propaganda matrix (or intelligence community—same thing, really) noticing. So who did it?
I suspect that we will get more answers on this, and with everything else that is cascading into crisis. We don't need to rush to assign blame. We can sit back and enjoy the show, as we patiently track the systematic destruction of the Old Guard.” —
Graduates At All-Black Morehouse College Turn Back On Biden During Commencement Speech, Refuse To Applaud
Hoot of the day: The Democratic Republic of the Congo flag was behind Biden for the duration of his speech.
The Wall Street Journal reports Biden Renews Call for Gaza Cease-Fire at Morehouse Commencement
“I support peaceful, nonviolent protest. Your voices should be heard. I promise you I hear them,” Biden said.
A small number of graduates turned their seats away from the stage during Biden’s speech, and many listened with their heads down. Faculty members on the stage behind the president displayed a large flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the duration of his speech. Antiwar activists have in recent weeks called for international aid to support citizens of that country amid worsening violence.
Fewer than two dozen of the more than 400 graduating students stood to applaud his speech, as a bloc of alumni rose to whistle and cheer.
My first reaction was wow, what a dismal round of applause. And that’s still my reaction, now backed up by numbers. Fewer than 24 of 400 blacks applauded Biden.
I did not plan to do two political posts in a row, nor did I have any idea that Morehouse College graduates would have this reaction or that Biden was even speaking at Morehouse College.
Biden has serious issues with Black voters judging from recent polls. And judging from the reaction to Biden’s speech to the graduating class of Morehouse College on Sunday, his support may be less than the polls indicate. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “Biden has a real problem with Black voters in November, despite his ongoing gaslighting about their actual suffering under his policies.
The rejection of scrotus by Morehouse students is a strong visual, and one that is warranted due to his overtly racist speech. Black Twitter’s reaction to the whole affair reveals the depth of his problem. They’re having none of it.
Check it out:
Biden’s latest display of character is also driving reruns of his former hits, like Corn Pop, You Ain’t Black, Roaches, and more.
The internet is forever, and Biden’s long, specific record is coming clearly into focus. He also has dementia brain. Yikes.” —
How bungled coup unfolded in DR Congo as US national Christian Malanga amassed a 40-strong militia and his son Marcel to overthrow the government
The Democratic Republic of the Congo military thwarted an 'attempted coup' led by a US national and his 40-strong militia to overthrow the country's government.
The plot was led by Christian Malanga, a Congolese man who was a 'naturalized American' and was 'definitively neutralized' - shot dead - by security forces.
The attempted coup by 'foreigners and Congolese' nationals took place in the early hours of Sunday in the Gombe area in the north of the capital, near the Palais de la Nation that houses the president's offices.
The Congolese government said around dozens of attackers had been arrested, and four - including Malanga - killed.
Among those arrested was Marcel Malanga, 21, who accompanied his former refugee father Christian to the central African country from their home in Utah.
Two American co-conspirators, including Benjamin Zalman-Polun, a 36-year-old former cannabis dealer from Maryland, were also seized by authorities. — The Daily Mail
And …
Mossad Chief Cohen Kicked Out of DRC, on a Mission That Could Jeopardize Israel
The military censor has barred publication of information about former Mossad Director Yossi Cohen’s visits to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2019.
New information obtained from defense officials by TheMarker shows that the purpose of these trips, which Cohen made on Israel’s behalf, was controversial, problematic and some would even say dubious. This information intensifies the questions around his conduct in this affair, which led to his activities being exposed.
As first reported by Bloomberg News, Cohen visited Congo several times in 2019 while he was still head of the Mossad. He was accompanied by billionaire Dan Gertler, who is suspected by the British authorities of paying an enormous bribe, $360 million, in exchange for mining rights in Congo. The American and Swiss authorities suspect Gertler of similar crimes.
Later, Cohen worked to get the U.S. administration to remove the sanctions it imposed on Gertler in late 2017. — Haaretz
Our Take: “Let's focus on the signal, not the noise.
The noise is that American mercenaries led a team of operators into Africa to overthrow the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Anybody who has been following Badlands Media for the past few months knows that this whole thing reeks of the CIA and Operation Gladio.
But let's dig deeper.
Back in 2021 and 2022, articles were published by Bloomberg and Haaretz, respectively, that detail how former Mossad director Yossi Cohen had been deported and banned from the DRC after making three nefarious trips in 2019 (while still head of Mossad). He made these trips with Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler, who, according to the 2022 Haaretz article, ‘is suspected by the British authorities of paying an enormous bribe, $360 million, in exchange for mining rights in Congo. The American and Swiss authorities suspect Gertler of similar crimes.’
According to a 2012 article published by the Guardian entitled, ‘ENRC ends Congo mining deal with controversial billionaire Dan Gertler,’ Gertler has been accused of making most of his $2.5bn fortune from ‘looting the Congo at the expense of its people.’ To be clear, after multiple institutions opened investigations against Gertler and his mining operations in Africa, the London-listed Eurasian Natural Resource Company spent over $550 million to buy their way out of a Congo copper-mining contract with the controversial billionaire.
Have you ever seen the film, Blood Diamond? The events of that film essentially document Gertler's family business. Gertler is the grandson of Moshe Schnitzer, who from 1967 to 1993 served as the president of the Israel Diamond Exchange— the largest diamond exchange in the world. When Schnitzer died in 2007, it was Benjamin Netanyahu who gave the eulogy at his funeral.
So, how does Yossi Cohen and Mossad fit into all of this?
Gertler was sanctioned by the Trump administration in late 2017, under the infamous Executive Order 13818, entitled, ‘Blocking the Property of Persons Involved in Serious Human Rights Abuse or Corruption.’ It was Yossi Cohen who lobbied for the lifting of these sanctions just days before Trump left office. It was US-Israeli citizen Ron Dermer, who has served as Netanyahu's right-hand man for decades and now serves as the Israeli ambassador to the US, who got the sanctions lifted. (Once the media reported on this suspension of the sanctions, the US Treasury immediately re-applied them.)
From the Haaretz article:
’The date of Cohen’s second visit to Congo is known: October 10, 2019. That day, [DRC President] Tshisekedi flew in his presidential plane from the eastern city of Goma to the capital, Kinshasa. Shortly after he took off, another plane in his entourage also took off but crashed soon afterward.’ (Nobody survived the crash.)
DRC President Félix Tshisekedi was aware of Cohen's surprise visits, despite the fact that none of them were coordinated with the DRC government. It turns out that Cohen had been meeting with Tshisekedi predescessor, former DRC president Joseph Kabila, who was in office from 2001 to 2019—during the time of Gertler's seedy mining operations—and was unseated by Tshisekedi's election. When Cohen returned for a third secret trip in 2019, DRC authorities met his private plane on the tarmac and brought him in to meet with Tshisekedi. ‘Some of Tshisekedi’s aides even voiced fears that Cohen was helping Kabila acquire arms for a coup attempt.’
’In fact, Bloomberg’s March 2021 scoop about Cohen’s trips to Congo had been reported by Raviv Drucker of Channel 13 television a few months earlier, but under severe censorship restrictions that gutted the report of most of its content.’ (The article alleges that Netanyahu had officially approved Cohen's trips, but that approval was not permitted to be publicly disclosed.)
I've also linked a video posted to X that shows Christian Malanga hanging out with IDF soldiers on patrol in the West Bank.
I don't think it's a stretch to conclude that Yossi Cohen and Mossad may likely be involved in this failed coup against Tshisekedi.” —
BONUS ITEMS
Julian Assange can appeal extradition to the US, UK court rules
London’s High Court has ruled that Julian Assange has the right to appeal in his final challenge against extradition to the United States.
The legal victory for the WikiLeaks founder was cheered by dozens of his supporters as they rallied outside the court in the British capital.
Some beat drums, some shouted “drop the case,” while other supporters held placards reading “Let him go Joe,” in reference to US President Joe Biden.
Assange’s legal team argued in Monday’s hearing that the judges, Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, should not accept the assurances given by US prosecutors that he could seek to rely on the rights and protections under the US First Amendment.
His team made the case that, if extradited, Assange could be discriminated against on the basis of his nationality, as an Australian-born foreign national.
In a short ruling, the judges said the US submissions were not sufficient, granting Assange permission to a full appeal in relation to the legal points on freedom of speech and nationality.
A date has not yet been set for the next hearing.
The 52-year-old is wanted by US authorities on espionage charges connected to his organization’s publication of thousands of classified documents and diplomatic cables in 2010 and 2011. Assange faces spending the rest of his life behind bars if convicted. — CNN
Saudi king to be treated for lung inflammation, state news agency says
Saudi King Salman will undergo treatment at Al Salam Palace in Jeddah for a lung inflammation, the state news agency said on Sunday, hours after he underwent medical tests.
Citing the royal court, the state news agency said the 88-year-old king would be treated with antibiotics until the inflammation subsides.
Due to King Salman's health issue, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto Saudi leader, postponed a visit to Japan that had been scheduled to begin on Monday, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
"Saudi Arabia informed the Japanese government that due to the health condition of King Salman of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed's visit to Japan, which had been scheduled to begin on the 20th, had to be postponed," Hayashi said at a news conference in Tokyo.
Earlier on Sunday, King Salman underwent medical tests at the royal clinics at Al Salam Palace due to "high temperature and joint pain", the Saudi state news agency said.
The king was last admitted to hospital in April for a routine checkup, state TV reported then. — Reuters
Round 2 of fight to remove Fani Willis from Trump Fulton case gears up
Fulton County Superior Court began sending thousands of pages of documents to the Georgia Court of Appeals over the weekend, teeing up the second round of fighting over Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis’ leadership of the election interference case involving former President Donald Trump and others.
The office of Ché Alexander, clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts, sent the appeals court transcripts and other records from three of the nine defendants who are seeking Willis’ removal from the case, Michael Roman, David Shafer and Cathy Latham. The documents for another, Bob Cheeley, appear to be in the process of being transmitted, according to court filings.
The appeals court requires the records in order to docket the case and assign judges to it. — Atlanta Journal Constitution
We hope you enjoyed this brief look back at the major news items you might have missed in this ever-escalating and ever-accelerating news cycle as the Information War continues to rage on around us.
As always, if you have any thoughts on these news items or the MANY others swirling in the digital ether, drop into the comments below to share them with your fellow Badlanders.
Badlands Media will always put out our content for free, but you can support us by becoming a paid subscriber to this newsletter. Help our collective of citizen journalists take back the narrative from the MSM. We are the news now.
This kind of non sequitur given the subjects of this news brief but I’ve been thinking about it all day and was waiting for the brief to mention it. This is regarding the upcoming debates. In my opinion we shouldn’t be so cocky about the prospects of “Trump will mop the floor with him.” I rewatched a bit of the 2020 debates and to my mind Trump was not able to get a strong result. Biden is an unrelenting liar, a master liar. He lied bald-facedly in the 2020 debates. That’s his game. Trump tried to use shock treatment a la the Hunter laptop, but Joe was ready with the bullshit letter penned by the ex-3 letter agency boys saying it was Russian propaganda, in so many words. There was no effective rejoinder to that. Trump tells the Story of the Snake” at his rallies. I think he needs to be on his toes when he debates the snake pretending to be president.
Thank you for the details and insights. I learn more in the 20 minutes I spend here each morning, on topics for which I choose to not rely on my own expertise, than I do throughout the rest of the day!
GBPH - I listened to the interview you recommended - thanks for providing the link!