The director of a Bronx anti-violence program listed as part of Mayor Eric Adams’plan to curb shootingswas hit with drug and gun charges in a massive upstate bust, The Post has learned.
Michael Rodriguez, 48, head of Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence (BRAG), was among 15 suspects charged in the drug conspiracy case, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.
He is accused of supplying drugs to dealers in Middletown and Port Jervis to be sold on the streets.
Cops raided his Yonkers home last week and allegedly found the drugs, more than $165,000 in cash and two illegal guns — a Ruger .380 caliber handgun and a Bond Arms .357-caliber handgun.
Rodriguez’ organization BRAG is among the grassroots organizations listed as community partners in the city’s “Blueprint to End Gun Violence” released last year.
“The allegations of drug trafficking and gun possession against Michael Rodriguez are shocking and disturbing, especially since he has attended anti-violence events and peace marches portraying himself as someone who cares about stopping the violence in our community,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement Tuesday.
“These charges are the exact opposite of the good work cure violence groups are doing.”
Michael Rodriguez, 48, director of Bronx Rises Against Gun Violence, was part of Mayor Eric Adams’ anti-gun organization. Now he’s facing gun and drug charges after getting caught up in a massive update law enforcement sweep.Michael Rodriguez / Linkedin
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said the gun and drug busts were the result of a two-year investigation that netted 15 suspects, three illegal guns and more than 1.5 kilograms of crack cocaine.
“There are still those who think that they can sell narcotics with impunity if they insulate themselves through the use of intermediaries,” Hoovler said in a statement.
“This case exemplifies the benefits of coordinated and dedicated enforcement actions by police and prosecutors, and why no one who traffics narcotics in Orange County can hope to evade law enforcement,” he said.
Rodriguez is charged with first-degree possession of a controlled substance, second-degree conspiracy and first-degree criminal possession of a weapon, the DA’s office said.
Cops raided Rodriguez’s home last week and allegedly found drugs, more than $165,000 in cash and two illegal guns — a Ruger .380 caliber handgun and a Bond Arms .357-caliber handgun.News12 A spokesperson for BRAG said in an email Tuesday that the group was aware of Rodriguez’s arrest and would seek more information.
“We are aware of the investigation and the charges that have been made,” the spokesperson said. “While we work to learn more, our primary focus remains on the communities we serve and our programs that are helping to keep them safe.”
The judge who will oversee former PresidentDonald Trump’s latest criminal caseis known for harshly sentencing Jan. 6 rioters and formerly represented the fraudulent blood-testing company Theranos while working at a law firm associated with first son Hunter Biden.
DC federal Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was randomly selected to oversee Trump’s criminal case in the nation’s capital, was labeled last year by the Associated Press the “toughest punisher” of rioters charged with offenses related to the 2021 riot.
“Chutkan has handed out tougher sentences than the [Justice Department] was seeking in seven cases, matched its requests in four others and sent all 11 riot defendants who have come before her behind bars,” the AP wrote in a profile article last year.
“In the four cases in which prosecutors did not seek jail time, Chutkan gave terms ranging from 14 days to 45 days.”
Her record could spell trouble for Trump, 77, as she oversees special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution.
Chutkan jailed — despite prosecutors not asking for it — “an Ohio couple [who] climbed through a broken window of the U.S. Capitol and livestreamed a video of themselves inside[, a] Texas mortgage broker [who] posed for a selfie in front of rioters breaching the building [and an] Indiana hair salon owner celebrated on Facebook a day after she joined the pro-Donald Trump mob,” the AP wrote.
DC federal Judge Tanya Chutkan was randomly selected to oversee Trump’s DC trial.AP
The 61-year-old judge was nominated by President Barack Obama and was technically confirmed by the Senate without opposition after a more contentious 54-40 cloture vote.
Chutkan was born in Jamaica and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s law school. She is married to former DC Superior Court Judge Peter Krauthamer.
Her resume includes a previous job likely to attract significant attention from Trump allies. She worked at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner from 2002 until she was confirmed as a federal judge in 2014, according to a biography she submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Boies Schiller has strong connections to the Democratic Party, and then-second son Hunter Biden — whose dad, President Biden, is likely to face Trump in the 2024 election — was of counsel at the firm from 2009 to 2014, according to OpenSecrets.
Chutkan is considered to be the “toughest” judge on Capitol rioters.AP
It’s unclear if the first son and Chutkan ever interacted while associated with the firm as Hunter courted wealthy figures in countries such as Romania and Ukraine, allegedly cutting side deals that provided greater revenue for himself than would have been the case if he signed them to Boies Schiller.
Among Chutkan’s high-profile cases at Boies Schiller was her representation of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes’ blood-testing company, in litigation against a business enemy who allegedly shared “confidential and proprietary” company information. Chutkan is listed as one of the firm’s lawyers on a DC Superior Court judge’s 2013 order ruling against the company.
Theranos’ technology was exposed as a fraud in 2015 by the Wall Street Journal.
The charges against Trump cannot disqualify him from seeking election in 2024 and there’s a chance that the trial won’t occur until after the results are in. If Trump wins the election, he could pardon himself, either preventing a trial or erasing a conviction.
Trump was indicted Tuesday on four counts related to his attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss.AP
Trump was indicted Tuesday on four counts related to his attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss — conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Trump, who polls indicate is neck-and-neck against Biden, 80, also faces federal charges in Miami for allegedly mishandling classified records and state charges in New York related to 2016 hush money payments. He may also be charged locally in Georgia for his efforts to reverse his narrow 2020 defeat in that state.
Trump railed that the case was an example of bias in the federal legal system, writing on his Truth Social network, “Why didn’t they bring this ridiculous case 2.5 years ago? They wanted it right in the middle of my campaign, that’s why!”
Joe Biden also is under investigation by a special counsel, Robert Hur, over his mishandling of classified records found at his Delaware home and personal DC office that dated to his vice presidency and Senate tenure — and Trump allies in Congress are investigating Biden for alleged corruption involving his son.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said last week that congressional Republicans are on a course to launch an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden’s role in his son’s overseas work, noting that Hunter, 53, repeatedly involved his dad in business relationships in countries where he as vice president held sway, including China, Mexico, Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Donald Trump’s political future had plenty of life left a day after he wasindicted on four federal chargesin connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The 77-year-old former president and current 2024 GOP front-runner faces 78 felony charges in three separate cases that could see him sentenced to prison for hundreds of years if convicted.
Trump has vowed to continued his campaign for a second non-consecutive White House term, and has actually seen his poll numbers buoyed by his indictments.
No US president had ever before been hit with criminal charges, but there is nothing in the Constitution that specifically bars Trump from seeking office if he were convicted, a scenario that is not without precedent.
In 1920, perennial socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs ran for the White House while imprisoned for sedition in connection with protesting US involvement in World War I.
He received 913,000 votes, 3.4% of the electorate at that time.
Donald Trump, seen in Des Moines, Iowa, last week, could continue his campaign if convicted.AFP via Getty ImagesThe question of whether he could pardon himself is more complicated.REUTERS
Could Trump pardon himself if elected?
The trickier question is whether Trump could pardon himself if he were convicted and elected.
Presidents are authorized to grant sweeping clemency for federal crimes under the Constitution, which does not specifically address whether chief executives could use that power to pardon themselves — a scenario that the nation’s founders likely never envisioned.
Trump would not be able to apply a presidential pardon to a potential conviction in Manhattan, where he faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to two women ahead of the 2016 election.
However, he wouldalmost certainly try toapply his presidential powers to any federal convictions related to his Tuesday charges or the 40 felony counts he faces in connection with his hoarding of national security documents — something he discussed with aides in the final days of his first term.
“Whether he can do so is untested. The Supreme Court may have to weigh in,” UCLA law professor Richard Hasen, a leading election law expert, told CNN.
“There is not a clear-cut answer,” Paul Schiff Berman, a constitutional law expert at the George Washington University Law School, told NY1.
“Most constitutional scholars believe that probably the answer is no, you can’t pardon yourself, because pardoning is meant to be an act of grace bestowed on someone else,” added Berman, who added that there was “nothing in the Constitution” to specifically bar the practice.
Aziz Huq, a constitutional law expert at the University of Chicago Law School, told the station there would be a case to be made that such a pardon would be an “abuse of … power.”
“However, I don’t see any meaningful mechanism whereby limits on the pardon power could be imposed,” Huq went on. “I don’t think that there is any practical way for someone who thinks that the pardon was unconstitutional, for raising that concern, either in a court or some other forum.”
A woman holds a banner about Trump’s indictment in front of the E. Barrett Prettyman United States Courthouse on Aug 2, 2023.ZUMAPRESS.comProtesters gather outside the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.Getty Images
If Trump was elected before his trial finished, he could also instruct his Justice Department to dismiss the case, Robert Ray, a lawyer who defended Trump in his first impeachment trial, told CNN.
One thing is clear under the Constitution: If Trump was convicted of a crime before the 2024 election, either by the feds or Manhattan prosecutors, he would be barred from voting for himself.
The closest parallel to the current scenario in US history came in 1974, when President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, President Richard Nixon, for any crimes he may have committed in connection with the Watergate scandal.
Ford was pilloried for his decision at the time, but defenders of the move have claimed it helped Americans move on from the trauma of the scandal and Nixon’s resignation.
Several of Trump’s GOP rivals — notably entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — have indicated they would be inclined to pardon him if they won the presidency.
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