Federal Judge Refuses to Allow Media into Courtroom at Sentencing of Christian Pro-Lifers in Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (LifeSiteNews) — A federal judge is refusing to allow media and the public into the courtroom at the sentencing of Christian pro-life rescuers in the Nashville FACE Act trial. Sentences for four pro-lifers are being handed down July 2 and 3, with two more pro-lifers set to be sentenced in late September.
Today, July 2, Paul Vaughn of Centerville, Tennessee, the Christian husband and father of 11 who was arrested at gunpoint at his family home in 2022, received his sentence at 2 pm. Tomorrow, July 3, Calvin Zastrow will be sentenced at 1 pm, Coleman Boyd at 2 pm, and Dennis Green at 3 pm. Chester Gallagher and Heather Idoni will be sentenced in the same case in late September.
The six pro-life rescuers were convicted in January 2024 for participating in a March 2021 rescue at the Carafem Health Center Clinic in Mt. Joliet, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. The guilty verdict came in spite of the fact that, just a year and a half later, the same facility was forced to stop committing abortions to comply with Tennessee’s pro-life legislation after the June 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade.
Defendant Calvin Zastro alerted LifeSiteNews to federal Judge Aleta Trauger’s refusal to admit media and the wider public into the courtroom this week for sentencing. Asked why he thought this was so, Zastro told LifeSiteNews, “Because they don’t want their evil deeds to be known.”
The pro-life advocate denounced the courtroom exclusion as “unlawful” and called on fellow pro-life Americans to contact the judge in complaint. “That would be a time for a rapid response, for 100 people to call the judge and say, that ain’t right,” he said. “They’re going to set up another courtroom where they’re going to allow people in to watch. We might have video, but we’ll have audio feed there. But still, that’s not a lawful court proceeding if they deny public people from being in there to watch at the sentencing.”
Denouncing the DOJ’s tactic of intimidation toward pro-life Christians, Zastro said, “They raid you and then they threaten you with 11 years in prison to try and make you afraid and get you to comply. And then they think they’re nice when they don’t give you the max. Well, that’s not what normal Americans think.”
The max sentence for each pro-lifer is 11 years and a $350,000 fine. The potential decade-long prison sentence comes from the combined charges of violating the infamous pro-abortion FACE Act and “conspiring against rights,” a tactic the DOJ used in the Washington, D.C., FACE Act trials, which just concluded in May with all defendants receiving a prison sentence, despite the urgent medical needs of several elderly Christian pro-life grandmothers and women, who have already suffered gross mistreatment and torture behind bars.
In the present Nashville FACE Act case, the DOJ recommended the minimum 15 months for most of the pro-lifers for their peaceful protection of the lives of the unborn.
When asked what he might say to the judge and the courtroom at tomorrow’s sentence, Zastro told LifeSiteNews he was going to “trust the Holy Spirit to give me the word at the moment.”
“But my heart is to declare the glories of Christ and the humanity of the preborn children,” he insisted. “I’m not going to ask for mercy for myself. I’m not going to whine and fuss and cry. That’s not me.”
Zastro said he had been pressured even by his lawyer, who is appointed by the court, to take a plea deal, which he adamantly refused as “unacceptable.”
“They offered us a plea bargain deal that was unacceptable to the rule of law or my conscience,” he said. “And so, nobody took the deal.”
READ: Pro-life leaders demand Congress repeal FACE Act after new convictions in Tennessee
Compliance with the present Biden abortion regime, Zastro said, would be giving in to the government’s tactic of “fear, and intimidation, and ‘we’re in control’, and ‘you bow to us’.” “To me that would be saying Caesar is Lord. That’s what they want,” he said.
He also confirmed that LifeSite’s coverage of the abuse suffered by Heather Idoni at the hands of the U.S. Marshalls and the Federal Bureau of Prisons – whom Congress called out for gross medical neglect – was effective in remedying her urgent situation, in which she was being denied needed diabetes medication and prescribed medication for her heart following a stroke in April. The stroke came after extended solitary confinement with the lights kept continually on several months prior.
“The awareness you brought to Heather’s case when she was in the D.C. jail has followed through. But it’s bittersweet because they’ve always taken care of her meds, but the gals she’s transported with, they don’t take care of their meds. So, they don’t want bad press from abusing Heather, but they’ll abuse the other people that don’t have connections, that don’t get in the media. They’ll abuse them.”
READ: LifeSite letter to Congress: DOJ is torturing pro-lifers jailed in DC FACE Act trials
Zastro also said he was confident that he would not immediately be thrown behind bars because the DOJ wants to prosecute him further in several other FACE Act trials for involvement in other pro-life rescues.
“They want to keep me out,” he said. “In fact, the prosecution recommended I not go straight to prison so they can get me in Detroit and in Little Rock. And then also I’m being sued under FACE for the Fort Myers rescue. So, they’re going to try and keep me busy for a while.”
The contact info for Judge Aleta Trauger, who is pronouncing sentence over the Nashville pro-life rescuers at the Federal District Courthouse for the Middle District of Tennessee is below:
District Judge Aleta A. Trauger
Courtroom 6C
Chambers, Suite 6325
Staff Information:
Courtroom Deputy (615) 736-7157
Court Reporter Roxann_Harkins@tnmd.uscourts.gov
Chambers (615) 736-7143 (voice)
Chambers (615) 736-7156 (fax)
Bishop Eleganti: Covid Shots Have Led to ‘Turbo Cancer,’ Excess Deaths, Other ‘Harmful Side Effects’
(LifeSiteNews) — Swiss Bishop Marian Eleganti said the Catholic hierarchy’s embrace of COVID restrictions was a “declaration of bankruptcy of faith” and lamented that the COVID shots have caused “many harmful side effects,” including “turbo cancer,” excess deaths, and premature births.
During a video interview with LifeSiteNews journalist Andreas Wailzer in German, Bishop Eleganti was asked what he thought about the Austrian bishops’ support for the country’s general COVID jab mandate.
READ: Austrian bishops announce support for gov’t mandatory COVID jab policy, defying Vatican decree
“For me, that was clearly a fall from grace,” the former bishop of Chur said.
He said that “informed consent” and autonomous decision over one’s own body was the “basic dogma” in medical ethics during the past decades and noted that the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Luis Ladaria had declared that there must not be forced COVID injections.
“Nevertheless, the Pope imposed [a shot mandate] on all employees in the Vatican as head of state. Otherwise, they would have lost their jobs or been given another one,” Bishop Eleganti stated.
“So, for me, that was clearly an injustice.”
“We now know, and this is coming to light more and more worldwide, that we simply cannot ignore the fact that these measures were not evidence-based, that the vaccinations did not guarantee this protection against transmission, that there was no ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated.’”
“Today we have turbo-cancer phenomena; we have excess mortality since the vaccination programs in all countries. We have a decline in births due to premature births and so on.”
“So much injustice happened, and there were so many harmful side effects,” he continued. “Today we have turbo-cancer phenomena; we have excess mortality since the vaccination programs in all countries. We have a decline in births due to premature births and so on.”
READ: The Telegraph admits COVID shots may have helped cause over 3 million excess deaths
“There are many parameters that point in the same direction, that a lot has been done wrong. The masks were not evidence-based, and so on. That was also known, and these were political decisions.”
The Swiss bishop also criticized the role of the globalist U.N. and WHO in stripping away national sovereignty and acting “like a world government.”
READ: Japan’s most senior cancer doctor: COVID shots are ‘essentially murder’
“The WHO is also financed by private foundations such as Bill Gates and others,” Bishop Eleganti said. “And these institutions are not democratically legitimized, and they are also at the mercy of the powerful of high finance.”
“And that’s where you have to be critical, and nations must not give up their sovereignty so that so few people in the back room suddenly decide for the whole world like a world government and impose something on all countries that remains highly controversial, also in the future.”
READ: UN secretary-general calls for ‘global governance’ in ‘new multipolar order’ at 2024 Davos summit
The bishop reiterated that the Church “did not play a good role” during the COVID crisis.
He said that bishops and other Church leaders showed their lack of faith in the supernatural by shutting down public Easter celebrations and the healing springs in Lourdes, removing the holy water from the churches, and treating the Eucharist like “a contaminated thing.”
“For me, that is a declaration of bankruptcy of faith,” Bishop Eleganti charged.
“As it is written in Psalm 90, ‘Even though a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, such evils will not afflict you,’” he stated.
“And so also when the plague rages by day and by night,” he continued.
“It is also quite clear, a sacramental [holy water] that I use to place myself under the protection of God… I can’t maintain an attitude of total unbelief at the same time… [to believe] that it does not help me at all, but on the contrary could even harm me.”
Bishop Eleganti stressed that Catholics “cannot rely on secular strategies” that were often nonsensical but must resort to prayer.
He said that even people outside the Catholic Church “somehow felt” that the Church hierarchy’s response to COVID “was a surrender of faith, as if God did not exist.”
Western Talk of Ukraine Peace Just for Show – Moscow
Any Western talk of peace in the Ukraine conflict is merely a “decoy” as the US and its allies remain intent on inflicting a strategic defeat on Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Kiev on Tuesday, where he urged Vladimir Zelensky to seek a ceasefire with Russia to facilitate peace talks. The Ukrainian leader rejected the proposal, saying he has a different way to end the conflict.
Whatever discussions Ukraine and Western nations have about peace are mere “decoys, screens, tropes and memes,” said purely for their own sake, Zakharova said on her weekly radio show on Wednesday.
The Ukraine conflict is dominated by the goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia, which the US and its allies have declared “absolutely clearly and specifically,” the official explained. In practical terms, the West seeks to dismantle Russia and to end its existence, she claimed.
What did you expect from the people chosen by the US as their tools? Tools don’t have a say in what they do.
Clear-eyed politicians in the EU can see the place allocated to their nations in the US grand plan, which is that of a sacrificial animal on the altar of victory against Russia, Zakharova added. Europe’s grim future is evident in the state of its economy, she said.
”What is happening to Europe is not just a crisis, or collapse, or loss of position. It truly is a disaster,” she argued.
Read more Orban pitches ‘quick ceasefire’ to Zelensky
Western officials such as Hungary’s Orban, who publicly object to the course of action chosen in Washington, probably want to set the record straight for the future generations of Europeans, who will blame the leaders of today for their inaction, Zakharova said.
The Hungarian prime minister has repeatedly argued that Western sanctions imposed on Russia as punishment for the Ukraine conflict have failed to end hostilities and ended up hurting EU members more than they did Russia.
Budapest has used its veto power in the bloc to stop proposed restrictions that would have undermined core Hungarian national interests, such as its cooperation with Russia on nuclear energy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to order a ceasefire with Ukraine as soon as Kiev renounces its bid to join NATO and pulls its troops out of all territory which Moscow claims under its sovereignty.
Pentagon Chief Recommends Avoiding Israel-Hezbollah War But Sends Fighter Jets to Israel Anyway
For U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin an immediate diplomatic solution is needed to prevent a “costly war” between Israel and Lebanon despite “Hezbollah’s provocations.”
“Diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation. We’re urgently seeking a diplomatic agreement that restores lasting calm to Israel’s northern border and enables civilians to return safely to their homes on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border,” Austin claimed to reporters during a meeting at the Pentagon with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on June 25.
Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire on a near-daily basis since the beginning of the war in Gaza, but escalating attacks over the last several weeks have caused growing unease. And the U.S. official blamed the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah’s threats. “Hezbollah’s provocations threaten to drag the Israeli and Lebanese people into a war that they do not want and such a war would be a catastrophe for Lebanon and it would be devastating for innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians,” Austin told Gallant. “Another war between Israel and Hezbollah could easily become a regional war with terrible consequences for the Middle East, and so diplomacy is by far the best way to prevent more escalation.”
Previously, Gallant suggested Israel pursue a large-scale war against Hezbollah but during the meeting, he said he was “working closely” with Austin to find a diplomatic resolution. However, they also discussed military “readiness in every possible scenario.” Gallant insisted on the threat of nuclear war with Iran, telling Austin that “time is running out.”
“The greatest threat to the future of the world and the future of our region is Iran,” he told Austin. “Now is the time to realize the commitment of the American administrations over the years to promise to prevent Iran from possessing nuclear weapons.” Austin’s reply to Gallant indicated that the Biden regime “will always support Israel’s right to defend itself and the United States will always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself.”
The defense chief vowed Washington’s commitment to Israel as a third squadron of F-35 fighter jets is already set to make its way to Israel. “We stand together to ensure that Iran … can never achieve a nuclear weapon,” Austin added.
However, Israeli military officials and experts continue to raise doubts about the army’s capabilities in a scenario against Hezbollah. Israel Defense Forces chief General Yitzhak Brik previously said that “waging war on Hezbollah is a step tantamount to mass suicide,” adding that the Israeli “army is small in size and it is unable to win even in one front and certainly not in six fronts at the same time.”
Iran FM warns if Israel’s regime threatens destruction, it has to be destroyed as well
On Friday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that if Israel embarks on full-scale military aggression in Lebanon against Hezbollah, they will immediately retaliate and an obliterating war will ensue. “All options, including the full involvement of all resistance fronts, are on the table,” it added.
Albeit Iran deems as psychological warfare the Zionist regime’s propaganda about intending to attack Lebanon, should it embark on full-scale military aggression, an obliterating war will ensue. All options, incl. the full involvement of all Resistance Fronts, are on the table.
— I.R.IRAN Mission to UN, NY (@Iran_UN) June 28, 2024
Foreign Minister Israel Katz responded saying that if “Hezbollah does not cease its fire and withdraw from southern Lebanon, we will act against it with full force until security is restored and residents can return to their homes. A regime that threatens destruction deserves to be destroyed.”
The Axis of Resistance, an informal Iranian-led political and military coalition in West Asia and North Africa, which includes Hezbollah, Hamas, Yemen’s Houthis and other groups in Syria and Iraq has been targeting Israel since it started its genocidal retaliation to the initial Hamas attack in Gaza.
Iran itself also launched an unprecedented missile-and-drone strike on Israel on April 14, two weeks after an alleged Israel airstrike near Tehran’s embassy in Damascus killed several senior officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Iranian strike was almost entirely repelled by Israel, the United States and other allies, though a seven-year-old girl was seriously injured in the attack.
Back on June 19, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said during a speech that no place in Israel would be spared from the group’s weapons in case of a full-blown war, adding that Hezbollah would fight with “no rules” and “no ceilings.” Nasrallah also blasted Cyprus for allowing Israel to use its territory for military exercises and appeared to threaten Israel’s offshore gas rigs. “Israel knows that what also awaits it in the Mediterranean is very big,” the militant group’s leader said.
Speaking at a ceremony commemorating senior Hezbollah commander Taleb Abdullah, whom Israel killed in an airstrike a week before, Nasrallah said the Shiite terror group does not want “total war” but is only acting in support of Hamas. “We will continue to support Gaza and we are ready for anything. We are not afraid,” said Nasrallah. “Our demand is clear: A complete and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.”
IsraelCollapse.com contains more stories related to the ongoing conflicts between Israel and other nations.
Blinken Bets Big on AI to Combat ‘Misinformation’
The current US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, has revealed that his department is testing AI-based tools as a way to fight “misinformation.”
In conversation with the State Department’s chief data and AI officer Matthew Graviss, he cited a number of initiatives – such as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and Washington’s Enterprise AI Strategy as the foundations for the ultimate goal – using AI to “advance our foreign policy.”
The second part of the push to equip the State Department with AI tools is to – “strengthen this institution.”
According to Blinken, his department is a leader within the government when it comes to testing and “harnessing” the technology. Some reports speak about this as combating whatever happens to be considered foreign disinformation.
And while on the subject of meddling, the Washington Times says AI tests are “part of an ambitious media monitoring and analysis project that spans the globe.”
As sinister as that may sound, packaging the message as the need to combat (only) “foreign disinformation” certainly makes the policy more palatable at home, where the department’s past activity features in congressional probes into government-orchestrated online censorship.
This scrutiny is presented as something hindering the Department of State’s “anti-disinformation” work – while the tools now in development are quite openly described as a possible different means “to pursue the same goals.”
Blinken’s remarks reveal how the technology is used seemingly innocuously as a (translation and summarization) tool “in multilateral organizations;” but then he praised the ability of AI-powered tools to make mass surveillance (“monitoring”) cover a much larger number of media, making its scope and scale “vast,” as the report put it.
And also – combat “disinformation” – which Blinken quite dramatically refers to as “one of the poisons in the international system today.”
“We have one program that we’re using that is able to basically ingest a million articles every day from around the world — to be able to do that in a couple hundred countries in over a hundred languages — and then immediately translate, synthesize and give you a clear picture of what’s happening in the information space immediately,” the secretary is quoted as saying.
But given the scale of the operation, and the shortcomings of the current limitations of AI – those in the know might wish Blinken good luck with the accuracy and reliability of getting that “immediate, clear picture.”
However, when the “AI weapon” is pointed at online platforms as a means of identifying and censoring “disfavored” speech, it is objectively more likely to be efficient.
And the State Department is no stranger to such – strange given its mission – activities: after all, it is the home of the investigated-by-Congress and highly controversial Global Engagement Center.
UN Declares War on Free Speech to Censor The Truth, Subvert Accountability, Control Populations
Antonio Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations, (UN) just released the globalist’s latest game-plan for population control, surveillance and censorship. The game-plan, titled Global Principles for Information Integrity, seeks to put an end to “harmful misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech” online, all while “upholding human rights such as the freedom of speech.”
Guterres presented the game-plan with a sense of urgency, commanding governments, technology companies, the media and advertisers to take control and establish official narratives, while quashing opposition voices. The UN supports Big Tech’s algorithmic control over the information stream online and seeks to control online speech further. A global body of elites seek to delete what they believe is the disinformation, and they seek to discredit and demonetize the voices of dissent. All the censorship coming from global power systems is war on free speech, but it’s also a war on truth, so that these power systems cannot be held to account for their abuses.
UN’s information surveillance and control system seeks to centralize censorship for global domination
The UN is erecting an information surveillance and control system that crafts authoritarian narratives that limit access to life saving knowledge. These control systems not only censor, but they train people what to say, how to behave, and what to think. The UN wants to create a world of simps who surrender their sovereignty and bow down to manipulative and abusive entities and false authorities.
These algorithms or automated review processes will be programmed to filter and remove content deemed objectionable or politically sensitive. This can include blocking websites, social media posts, or entire platforms that criticize the government, promote dissent, or discuss sensitive topics like human rights abuses or political opposition.
In times of political unrest or during manufactured crises, governments may impose internet shutdowns or restrict access to specific websites or social media platforms. This tactic effectively silences dissenting voices, prevents the spread of information about protests or the abuses of governments, and limits the ability of citizens to communicate and organize. Examples of this tyranny were observed on the Facebook social media platform, when Meta targeted and shut down community groups that discussed COVID-19 vaccine injury. Any opposition to vaccine mandates were derided as “misinformation” and any groups that organized for medical freedom were algorithmically shut down or their reach was severely restricted.
Furthermore, surveillance technologies can be used to monitor online activities in real time, tracking individuals’ digital footprints, and identify dissenting voices or activists. This surveillance creates a chilling effect, deterring individuals from expressing controversial opinions or participating in political discourse online.
By manipulating search results, governments and pharmaceutical companies can influence search engine algorithms to prioritize or bury certain information about cures for infectious disease, heart disease, cancer, and other chronic illnesses. By controlling what information surfaces at the top of search results, pharmaceutical companies can shape public perception, suppress alternative viewpoints, or promote propaganda and official narratives to keep people sick and coming back for more drugs and vaccines that don’t work.
UN will abuse their power to command narratives and skirt accountability for totalitarian actions
Governments may enact laws and regulations that impose restrictions on digital content, such as requiring platforms to remove “harmful” or “offensive” content. These laws can be vague and broadly interpreted, allowing authorities to target journalists, activists or ordinary citizens who express dissenting views. This was seen in the U.S. under the Biden regime’s targeting of the so-called “disinformation dozen” who were removed from and demonetized across social media platforms. The Biden regime also crafted a “do not promote list” for books that discussed the topic of vaccination. The federal government coerced one of the biggest book distributors – Amazon – to restrict access to these books.
Authorities may selectively target journalists, human rights defenders, activists or members of marginalized communities with harassment, intimidation or legal threats. This creates a climate of fear and self-censorship, where individuals refrain from expressing dissenting opinions or advocating for social change. The UN can throttle internet speeds or block communication channels such as messaging apps or VoIP services during periods of unrest and uncertainty. This restricts the ability of individuals to communicate securely, share information or coordinate protests or activism.
Like its predecessors, these UN-backed information control systems will be implemented without transparency or accountability, and there will be no due process for their targets. This lack of oversight allows those in power to manipulate information flows without public scrutiny, exacerbating the impact of censorship on democratic processes and civil liberties.
With this move, the UN and its military alliances are practically declaring war on the press, on research analysts and independent journalism.