While the Mississippi media breathlessly covered the indictments of Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Mississippi Today covered them as well but took a different approach, one that painted a rather unflattering picture of the FBI.
Mississippi Today rolled out the coverage of Mayor Lumumba's indictment on November 6 when star reporter Anna Wolfe broke the news of his indictment. She published her 900+ word story 15 minutes before the Mayor announced his troubles in a press release and video. Coincidentally ,she met with Hizzoner the day before for 90 minutes while the indictments were still sealed.
The indictments were unsealed on November 7 and arraignments took place that afternoon.
Ms. Wolfe covered the indictments in a November 7 story. Her story portrayed the FBI agents involved in the investigation in somewhat of a different light as it dished some dirt on the investigators. Check out some passages from the story:
But the high-rollers weren’t who they appeared to be. They were FBI agents and an informant using a familiar playbook — masquerading as the same Goodfellas-esque characters, flaunting the same yacht and dropping thousands of taxpayer funds at the same strip club — they’ve used to bust public officials in other cities. One of the undercover cops was publicly condemned by the FBI for having a sexual relationship inside a Cincinnati penthouse suite that the government rented as part of their sting there, according to news reports. (KF: It was Donnie Brasco but who's keeping track?)....The article dragged up dirt from similar federal investigations:
In Cincinnati, the federal government secured a conviction and two-year prison sentence for Cincinnati City Council member Jeff Pastor after he allegedly took $55,000 in bribes, much of it cash. Testimony in that case revealed that the agents also took Pastor to Miami and, like they did for Owens and Lumumba, treated him to expensive liquor, a yacht cruise and Tootsie’s Cabaret. But when the only benefit to the official is a campaign contribution, a fine line exists between bribery and plain old politicking — especially in a political environment fueled by lax campaign finance requirements and a robust lobbying industry. And in some cases resulting from these same FBI stings elsewhere, the criminality hasn’t been so clear. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, whom the undercover agents attempted to bribe with tickets to the broadway show Hamilton, was acquitted last year on one charge of lying to the FBI. A judge dismissed several other charges alleging he promised city contracts in exchange for donations during his 2018 run for the governor of Florida, according to POLITICO. Cincinnati Councilman Alexander “PG” Sittenfeld, who was convicted last year of taking $20,000 in campaign contributions in exchange for his support of a development project in a nearly identical FBI sting, was released from prison early in May — a rare occurrence — after the court found his appeal raised a “close question” about his guilt. Though agents recorded Sittenfeld saying questionable things like, “I can move more votes than any single other person,” he argued there was no evidence his future vote or lobbying effort was predicated on him receiving the donation. This exchange — what’s known as a “quid pro quo” — has to be explicit for a campaign donation to be considered a bribe. With his pro-development record, Sittenfeld argues he would have voted in favor of the developers regardless of the donation....Keep in mind this was published the day the Mayor's indictment was unsealed. More dirt:
The agents who conducted the sting came from out of state. Sources close to the investigation said they believed two of the FBI agents posing as Nashville developers “Brian” and “Rob” were the same agents who went by “Brian” and “Rob” in similar investigations in Cincinnati and Columbus. The short, bald man playing the wealthy yacht-owning boss “Pauli” during Lumumba’s fundraiser, matches the description of the agent who went by “Vinny” in the Ohio cases.” Chris Lancaster, a realtor from outside of Nashville whose name was listed on the public development proposal in Jackson, shares a name with the businessman who worked undercover in a similar FBI sting in Tallahassee with an agent who also went by “Brian,” according to news reports. The logos used in those operations mirror the logo FST used.”....In Cincinnati and Columbus, the primary undercover agents went by aliases “Brian Bennett” and “Rob Miller.” Miller received a letter of censure from the FBI for his unprofessional conduct during the investigation. Like “Pauli” in the Jackson investigation, “Vinny” made a cameo appearance in the Cincinnati case, albeit a memorable one. At trial, Vinny described his persona as a “high-balling,” “wealthy investor boss,” the local TV station reported, who “liked to spend time on his yacht in Miami” and “was rich and rude.” In Tallahassee, the newspaper characterized the agent known as “Brian Butler” as “bald-headed and stocky” and an agent known as “Mike Miller,” posing as an Atlanta-based developer, as “mysterious” and a “handsome bearded man” — descriptions matching the agents sources said dealt with the Jackson officials.” Lancaster, who had reportedly partnered with “Brian” in Tallahassee, appears to own a legitimate real estate firm in Hendersonville, Tennessee. The company boasts the down-to-earth sales style of Lancaster and his son: “muddy boots and dirty leather gloves in their pocket.”” Sources said two women, who they believe were also undercover agents, often accompanied the supposed developers. Those women joined Lee, the councilwoman, on her shopping spree at Maison Weiss women’s clothing store in Jackson’s Highland Village shopping center, sources said.” “Some of these four agents have checkered pasts and others have even engaged in misconduct in this particular investigation,” defense lawyers for Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor, said in a court motion in his case, according to media reports. “Some have gotten plastered with alcohol during undercover meetings, some have actually offered and bought drugs, and some have even tried to ensnare their targets with women.”...
The Tennessee realtor-turned-undercover-informant Lancaster and FBI agent Brian poked around Jackson for months before officially establishing FST in Miami in June of 2023....
Ms. Wofe was not done. She reached all the way out to San Francisco to talk to a defense lawyer was, surprise, more than critical of the FBI:
“If the money is for an innocent purpose on the face of it, they (the FBI) are basically financing the target to keep them involved and that shows a lack of judgment at least,” longtime San Francisco trial lawyer James Brosnahan told Mississippi Today. Brosnahan, who has practiced for over six decades, including five years as a federal prosecutor, argued that’s what undercover agents did to his client, former school board member and political consultant Keith Jackson. Undercover FBI agents had hired Jackson and paid him “to do perfectly lawful things,” Brosnahan told reporters after Jackson pleaded guilty in 2014 to bribing former California state Sen. Leland Yee with campaign contributions. “They also promised him great wealth. After they had done that, they began to embroil him in the matter that brings him to his plea,” Brosnahan said. “What authorized them to come into the Bay Area and do what they did? Is this government doing what we want them to do? My answer is no.” An FBI agent in that case posing as a businessman from Atlanta, whose evidence was used to justify wiretapping the target, was shortly after removed from Keith Jackson’s case for financial misconduct, according to media reports. Brosnahan also found that in the course of its Bay Area investigation, the FBI sent agents disguised as real estate investors to Joe Montana to lure him into the corruption sting. “It shows the deepest lack of judgment I can imagine,” Brosnahan said at the time. But the former 49ers quarterback didn’t bite, according to media reports.... Sittenfeld’s lawyer stressed to jurors that the councilman had taken 1,800 donations during his campaign, but the only ones causing him trouble were those from the FBI agents. “If any of the other donations were illegal, you would have heard of them,” the lawyer said in closing arguments, according to news reports.
The conscience of Mississippi, Jerry Mitchell joined in the fray on November 8 with a story that said the FBI used strip clubs and a yacht to lure bribery. Article
Miami yachts and strip clubs have continued to arise in FBI undercover investigations, including one that bears a striking resemblance to the case in Jackson. Testimony revealed that the FBI’s Cincinnati office spent more than $100,000 in 2018 to fly Cincinnati City Council member Jeff Pastor to Miami and treat him to expensive liquor, a yacht cruise and Tootsie’s Cabaret, a high-end, fully nude strip club memorialized in a 2015 song by Drake. Pastor was accused of collecting $55,000 in bribes, much of it in cash. He was quoted as telling undercover agents that he should be paid $200,000 for his help and that he wanted a “monthly retainer” for his assistance. FBI agents posed as developers, aided by developer Chinedum Ndukwe, a former safety for the Cincinnati Bengals who served as an undercover informant. A federal grand jury indicted Pastor and two other Cincinnati City Council members in a pay-to-play scheme in exchange for votes or support for development projects. The main one was the city’s dilapidated Convention Place Mall, which, like downtown Jackson, had fallen on hard times....
So let's set the timeline. Anna Wolfe meets with the Mayor and his crew on November 5 for 90 minutes. She is allowed to interview a key witness in the case, Planning & Zoning Director Jai Keeton. She breaks story of the Mayor's indictment before he makes it public. The story is rather long and obviously was not written within a few minutes. When reporting on the Mayor's indictment when it was unsealed, Mississippi Today dished up a bunch of dirt on the FBI agents involved in the case. Jerry Mitchell publishes a story the day after the indictments were unsealed that conveniently includes a good bit of information on similar federal investigations.
All this dirt sure is a whole lot of information to get within 24 hours of the Mayor announcing his indictment. Hmmm...... some of it sounds exactly what the Street Committee said several months ago about the defense team investigating the investigators. The question to be asked is did any of the information gleaned by the defense team make its way to the media.
51 comments:
Defense team is clearly going for a Chewbacca defense. Let's see how that stands up to 600+ hours of video and tape.
FBI = Famous But Incompetent or Federal Bug Inspectors
Consider the people behind the Mississippi Today curtain.
Shameful that MT is carrying the water for Chokwe's and Owens' defense, but not surprising. Ideologically driven to protect criminals and not the public (unless it fits their ideological goals). This is disgusting. Shame on everyone at MT.
I wonder why Ms Wolfe and “the conscience of Mississippi” seem determined to help out a thoroughly incompetent mayor and his administration. Instead of asking the mayor questions about his conduct, they seem determined to defend the mayor by throwing dirt on the investigators. That might well be the trial strategy employed by the mayor, but if so do we have the Wolfe and The Conscience of Mississippi working as unpaid investigators for the mayor?
If these elected officials were operating with a moral compass, it wouldn't have mattered in any event and they'd currently have no problem in their lives. Anna Wolfe is getting some sort of kickback or other favor because if she isn't, she's one of the biggest dimwits to ever stroke a pen on paper.
Just remember, this indictment came from Biden's Gestapo errr Justice Department. Therefore, the Miss. Today's department of make everything the result of racism and republicans has to find somebody new to blame for Chokwe's downfall.
It's not uncommon for communist sympathizers to turn against the institutions inherent in a democratic republic.
The goals of communism are fastest achieved when such institutions are, shall we say, out of the way.
Like the judge said: "The Romans had a proverb that money was like sea water. The more you drink the thirstier you become.”
So, instead of making the world a better place for innocent children trapped in these grifter Democrat controlled high crime and chaos inner cities, the billionaires propping up Mississippi Today choose otherwise.
But hey, crime, chaos and poor schools aren’t their problem since they live behind gates or in the burbs, while sending their offspring to private schools.
Don’t the Barksdale’s live on a gated street in NE Jackson like the Mayor?
Do any of the “top” people at Mississippi Today live at a property in Jackson that they own that isn’t gated?
In other words, do any of these haters actually have to deal with Jackson crime? The Mayor and DA put us in a very dangerous situation before Cap Police expanded and did the city’s job for them.
So I'll admit I didn't read every word of the story carefully, so maybe I missed a key detail, but who cares?
If the story is, hey some of these FBI guys have been less than saintly in prior cases, duly noted. Not at all surprised. And again, who cares?
They promised on video to secure votes for a wasteful boondoggle project in exchange for bribes. I don't care if Adolf Hitler was the undercover operative, they are going to prison.
Why so many true billionaires who could only have become so in the great economic freedom in America support hard liberalism is simply non- fathomable.
Anna is a clairvoyant!
Despite the leftest, liberals of Mississippi Today wanting to try the case in the court of public opinion, the evidence will be presented to a jury. Let's see what the jury has to say.
We have a publication that has partnered up with a crooked administration to serve each others' interests.
When the mayor of that administration finally gets indicted, reporters at that publication are fed, and dutifully publish, stories that are clearly fed to them by the criminal defense teams of said mayor and other public officials around the country who have been indicted for similar corruption.
When called out, said publication responds: "You're just jealous we got there first" and "Anyone else would have done the same."
This is a serious compromise of the Fourth Estate. This isn't a bunch of Twitter bots or TicTok nitwits.
I hope the Pulitzer and Journalism Department people at Columbia are paying attention. Good work KF!
I'm sure they just targeted Chokwe and Owens out of the blue and bribed them to set this up. You know who is marked safe from the FBI setting them up for corruption and bribery charges, me, and everyone else the FBI isn't looking into because they have no reason. I'm sure they had a hot tip Chokwe and Owens were scoundrels on the take. If you're clean there is nothing to worry about. It's kind of like an illegal alien. No matter what your bleeding-heart feels, it's still breaking the law. Bribery is still illegal. Don't break the law and get caught, end of story. Anna is going the way of the reporters who were told to cover up the Biden laptop story, and did, no credibility. You can only paint the FBI dirty if the defendants were clean. That is the litmus test, are Chokwe and Owens clean? Anna, please tell me yes, but you can't.
Wow, that is some good reporting. I wish the other media in this town got as in depth as Wolfe
This is an odd take and even odder timing. Carrying the water for the worst mayor in Jackson's history? Other than a financial incentive, no sane logical person would do this. Kind of like writing a hit piece condemning the guy who gave up El Chapo to the feds.
No Pigott, No Pulitzer.
@ 10:45 AM - Because after they've gotten all the money they need, the aspirations convert to the need for power. To have control over someone or something else. And, to a lesser degree, they tend to think of these progressive initiatives as some type of philanthropy.
Why all the hate for Anna? She is just trying to make a living. Not everybody can sit around all day and post snarky comments on a blog. Some folks have to work.
$5 gets you $10 she was fed the majority of that "good reporting".
@12:24, criticism isn't hate. Asking about media corruption, favoritism and collusion isn't hate. Drawing attention to inconsistencies isn't hate.
For those who don't know, Mississippi Today is a non-profit. That means they are not beholden to the dollar. They are only interested in reporting the truth. They're just plain good folks doing the right thing.
The defense is muddying up the water, trying to get you to look anywhere other than their clients. These defendants better realize that in District Court the jury pool comes from the entire Southern District. No “home boys” on this trial.
Good thing MT is irrelevant to most of us.
Anna's a hack. She carried water for Robert Smith, and now she's doing it for Antar.
You pluralize Barksdale, by simply adding an S. No apostrophe is needed. In any event, we used to call the wall surrounding the Barksdale's neighborhood, "That Syrofoam Thing', or 'The Hovercraft Wall'. Under the synthetic stucco and the styrofoam, there's some particle board. And, when built, the wall had generous gaps at its base - big enough for a large dog to crawl under (hence the "Hovercraft" name).
Not surprisingly, a human (or something similar) DID apparently manage to crawl under the wall, then trigger the gates from within. Search Kingfish's archives for a story about the car theft which followed.
One hopes that the wall 's vulnerabilities were subsequently assessed and corrected.
It’s a stupid defense and it’s sad Wolfe got sucked into airing it. Of course the FBI has a playbook. If I get a speeding ticket at a known speed trap, you know what isn’t a defense? That the cops give a lot of tickets here so the whole thing is bogus. It’s just all ridiculous. The only thing that matters is that they took the money. Everything else is window dressing. This isn’t rocket science
1:03 is hilarious. I needed a laugh.
Surprised Uncle Bennie didn't get his best friend Joe to pardon the Federal charges on all of these folks.
"Why all the hate for Anna? She is just trying to make a living."
Except that she makes that living as a reporter, holding herself out to the public as a credible source of news, not as a spokesperson, or public relations mouthpiece, or shill for criminal defense attorneys representing corrupt public officials.
Anna Wolfe and Mississippi Today is willingly-complicit in undermining federal public corruption prosecutions by selling defense propaganda directly to prospective jurors. The worst part is they don't even seem to see anything wrong with it.
Only MT. Not Choks fault, growing up fighting for others and someone offers you money you take it. Nice Try
Defense attorneys get just as much selling soap with ridiculous defense theories and patting Little Anna on the head as they do actually trying cases. Good luck.
Angels don't work undercover and if a Giglio issue was made on these alleged employees successfully prior to now, they would not be in a UC role now. But, yes, amazing the packet that Anna was handed by a defense attorney after they had months to imagine a defense, and they concluded that having a payment marked as a campaign check and these other cases would see them through.
Jerry would do cartwheels if the FBI pursued T or a white racist, but if a black racist son of a black militant racist who represented cop killers is charged it's a whole 'nother standard, eh? Sad to see Marxist orthodoxy replace journalism.
Hey 2:20, there’s a rumor around town that Uncle Bennie is behind the federal charges. Wyatt Emerich even talked about the theory in the Northside Sun.
4:31, I read your comment more than once, and I still have no idea what you are trying say. Did AI help you write that?
I'm embarrassed that Jimmy Barksdale was one of my pledge brothers in Sigma Chi at Ole Miss.
Two things can be true at once: the FBI is not, as they like to say, the premier law enforcement agency in the world; and, Jackson officials caught up in this undercover scheme acted with guilty intent. Another commenter correctly observed this is just a “look over here” defense strategy that MS Today is oddly happy to promote.
Lemme get this straight: a corrupt newspaper is defending a corrupt mayor and DA from attacks by a corrupt Federal agency.
I've no idea about the merits of this case that is being tried in the media before any evidence is before a court. What I do know is that "gated communities" of more than a
very few houses and little to no road in Jackson have access gates not a gate with remote control or a code.
Access gates are necessary for fire and police access
Without an access gate, the homeowners pay for maintenance including potholes inside the gate. They pay always for maintaining the gate and entrance as well which is not "cheap".
While an access gate may deter criminals as it slows any vehicle escape, even a coded gate and expensive home security will not eliminate determined professional criminals as the robberies of athletes has just demonstrated.
I don't know why some of you just make up stuff and attribute imaginary infallibility or bad behaviors/attitudes to those you perceive as being " privileged".
Money doesn't make one immune to tragedy or guaranteed happiness.
January 24, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Which article? I have the Northside Sun and don't remember reading that.
In response to 9:15: So now we have two comments about the Barksdales living in neighborhood that is "gated," which has absolutely nothing to with any of the (serious) issues at hand.
I suppose it might be misdirection from Lumumba's team, as he seems to think people are actually that stupid, and he is actually that smart, neither of which are true.
11:38 AM, living in gated subdivisions (along with sending their kids to private schools) ABSOLUTELY DOES have much to do with the serious issues at hand. White Liberal Democrats, those Malcom X warned us about, protect themselves and their families from the very crime, chaos and failed school systems the grifter Democrats use to control cities like Jackson forever.
Yeah, a non profit run by ones of Mississippi’s richest people if not richest.
9:15,
I think a lot of us are more or less aware of that.
You “clearly” live on a gated street and haven’t had your neighbors robbed or carjacked in their yard/driveway or gunshots right outside your house.
Thanks for playing.
I’m no palm reader but if the Barksdale’s neighborhood wasn’t gated and Cap Police wasn’t expanded then they wouldn’t live in Jackson.
So, the question is where do the people that don’t get the gated thing live since multiple people mentioned it or how long have they lived in Jackson, or both?
1:59, Because Jackson, Mississippi, is actually run by white liberal democrats. Got it.
Wow, 7:10, I just tried reading 4:31, and I agree. Maybe we're not insiders. Maybe we should be GLAD we're not insiders.
All right. Get back to subject of post. No more neighborhoods.
3:08, I agree with your first paragraph.
As for the second, I used to live in Jackson until about 8 years ago, shortly after I was robbed at gunpoint just after dark in a parking lot next to a crowded restaurant, with a JPD cruiser parked outside and a uniformed officer inside.
While I understand why people, including Lumumba, live in gated neighborhoods in Jackson, I still don't think that has anything to do with Anna Wolfe and Mississippi Today carrying water for Chockwe Antar Lumumba, except as a distraction.
Actually, I think distraction is all Lumumba has left to defend himself with at this point, so I expect more of it, especially the racial variety.
-11:38
4:27 PM, White Liberal Democrats provide cover to the grifter Democrats running cities like Jackson via propaganda in exchange for votes in state and national elections. Under the grifter Democrats, life has gotten nothing but hellishly worse for the poor people in Jackson that can’t afford gated subdivisions and private schools, but the White Liberal Democrats can always be counted on to make excuses, i.e. provide cover for the grifters, via propaganda.
In Jackson, it all started with the demise of the Jackson Police Department via then Mayor Kane Ditto. And now, decades later, even very young innocent children dying from stray bullets and the murder of Kingston Frazier doesn’t get the White Liberal Democrats on board with making Jackson safer. Because if Jackson gets safer, people that don’t vote for grifters will move in to Jackson. And if people that don’t vote for grifters move in to Jackson and vote the grifters out, the grifters have no jobs, nor the incentive to support the White Liberal Democrats in state and national elections.
BUT, things are changing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6Zg2grc0o4 (go to 2:50 to be extremely entertained).
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