Free Republic

As nearly two dozen Secret Service agents and members of the military were punished or fired following a 2012 prostitution scandal in Colombia, Obama administration officials repeatedly denied that anyone from the White House was involved. But new details drawn from government documents and interviews show that senior White House aides were given information at the time suggesting that a prostitute was an overnight guest in the hotel room of a presidential advance-team member — yet that information was never thoroughly investigated or publicly acknowledged. The information that the Secret Service shared with the White House included hotel records and...

"Corruption and betrayal of the American people — the very people we stand to protect — have no place at DEA, and neither does Mr. Irizarry," Acting DEA Administrator Timothy J. Shea said. Former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Jose I. Irizarry, who previously was lauded by superiors before becoming entangled in a corruption case, pleaded guilty to 19 federal counts on Monday. Prosecutors said that the former government worker submitted false reports, and directed DEA workers to send money meant for undercover stings into accounts that he had control over or that were connected to his wife and co-conspirators,...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge Wednesday threatened to throw out the guilty plea of a veteran U.S. narcotics agent who conspired with a Colombian cartel money launderer — an unexpected twist that could derail one of the most egregious misconduct cases in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell was expected to sentence the disgraced agent, Jose I. Irizarry, but refused to do so over what she called a “totally unacceptable” legal dispute. “I have never seen anything like this,” Honeywell said, postponing the sentencing indefinitely. “I’m not even sure at...

YORK COUNTY, S.C. — A York County man who was convicted of charges tied to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol is running for the House of Representatives. State records show Elias Irizarry is running to represent South Carolina’s 43rd District in the House. The district covers parts of Chester and York counties. Irizarry, a Republican candidate, filed on Wednesday, records show. Rep. Thomas R. “Randy” Ligon currently holds the seat and is running for reelection. Channel 9 previously reported Irizarry was charged in March 2021 in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Irizarry, who was...

Former Philadelphia police officer Mark Dial has been charged with murder for killing a 27-year-old driver last month after surveillance footage showed him shooting him through his car window. Mark Dial fatally shot motorist Eddie Irizarry through his car window in North Philadelphia on August 14 - just five seconds after he got out of his patrol car. Police have now also released bodycam footage of the incident, previously seen through surveillance video from a nearby home collected by the alleged victim's family. Dial, who was fired a week later, has now been charged with murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault,...

As he enters prison, a disgraced former DEA agent who lived a decadent double life has claimed his own crimes were the tip of the iceberg... ...In interviews with the Associated Press, Irizarry, who recently began a 12-year prison sentence, has claimed that corruption is endemic in the powerful US drug agency... ...Irizarry claimed to the Associated Press that dozens of other agents joined in with his debauchery, and that they deliberately tailored drug operations so that they could visit party hotspots...

If Dora L. Irizarry is the underdog of underdogs in a quixotic and underfunded effort to dislodge incumbent Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, well, what else is new? As a Puerto Rican immigrant who grew up in the South Bronx watching neighborhood kids kill each other in acts of senseless violence and themselves through drug abuse, Irizarry is comfortable wearing her outsider shoes. Obscurity, lack of money and poor odds are no stranger to her. Been there, done that. But Irizarry is also a survivor and a fighter, and with the challenge she now faces against Spitzer, she had better be....

Incumbent Democratic State Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer has raised more than 17 times as much money as his Republican opponent, former Court of Claims Judge Dora L. Irizarry, according to the most recent campaign filings with the State Board of Elections. As reported in the two campaigns' filings on Oct. 4, Spitzer had raised $4.8 million to Irizarry's $267,000. Enjoying the powers of incumbency and a wave of worldwide publicity generated by his probe of wrongdoing on Wall Street, Spitzer has had a much easier time raising campaign funds this year than in either of his two earlier races....