INTERNACIONAL
Military families demand DOJ distribute nearly $800M from French cement company found guilty of bribing ISIS
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In November 2017, Chief Petty Officer Kenton Stacy was injured in Raqqa, Syria while clearing the second floor of a hospital that ISIS had booby trapped with explosives.
Now a quadriplegic, Stacy, his wife Lindsey, and their 4 children are part of a lawsuit brought by military families against the French cement company, Lafarge, recently found guilty by a French Court of paying millions of dollars in bribes to ISIS to keep their factory open in ISIS-controlled territory in Syria.
«I mean, they were essentially funneling money to fund terrorists and ISIS and all these heinous crimes and evil acts,» Lindsey Stacy told Fox News while standing by the side of her husband, the former Navy Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) specialist, who just had another surgery to deal with injuries sustained in Syria 9 years ago.
«It’s very overwhelming, Kenton struggles mentally and physically with his own battles and the kids and I. We have our own struggles,» she continued. «It’s hard to juggle, especially when our oldest son has cerebral palsy, and he requires his own 24-7 care.»
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Lafarge pleaded guilty to paying $17 million to the Islamic State group to keep a plant in Syria open, the Justice Department announced in federal court in New York City on Nov. 14, 2017. (Christophe Ena/AP)
President Trump praised Stacy’s service to the nation in his 2018 State of the Union Address to Congress. Army Staff Sergeant Justin Peck bounded into a booby-trapped building to rescue Kenton and then gave him more than 2 hours of CPR while medics worked to save his life.
«Kenton Stacy would have died if not for Justin’s selfless love for a fellow warrior. Tonight, Kenton is recovering in Texas. Raqqa is liberated.…All of America salutes you.»
In a landmark ruling in April, a French court convicted Lafarge, the world’s largest cement manufacturer, of providing material support to a terror group and sentenced its former CEO to 6 years in prison. Eight former Lafarge employees were found guilty. Lafarge is appealing.
The company acknowledged the court’s finding describing the issue as a «legacy matter,» which was «in flagrant violation of Lafarge’s Code of Conduct.»
Nearly 1,000 plaintiffs, most of them military families, are part of earlier litigation in the Eastern District of New York.
«They were killed in Syria by a gruesome terrorist organization that was funded in part by Lafarge. And that’s not an allegation. That is undisputed fact. Lafarge pled guilty to doing that in 2022.»
Todd Toral, the lawyer from Jenner & Block, is representing Stacy and about 25 other families.
Toral, who is also a US Marine, is seeking compensation for those families from the $777 million Lafarge paid to the Justice Department as part of the settlement. The DOJ has had that money since Oct 2022.
«I think the ruling by the court in France is significant generally, because it’s the first time in many, many years that a corporation, and not just the corporation, but executives at a corporation have been held to account for their misconduct in aiding terrorism,» Toral said in an interview with Fox.
In order to operate in ISIS-controlled areas of Syria, Lafarge paid more than $6.5 million to ISIS from 2013–2014 through its Syrian subsidiary to keep production facilities running. The cement produced at its factory in Jalabiya, a factory which was bought for $680 million months before the Syrian uprising began in 2011, was also used for tunnels and bunkers, which helped the terrorist group.
The lawsuit is significant because it marks the first time a company has faced U.S. charges for supporting a terrorist group.
DOJ ACCELERATES SETTLEMENT OFFERS IN CAMP LEJEUNE WATER CONTAMINATION CASES
President Donald Trump arrives at the commencement ceremony on Cadet Memorial Field at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., on May 20, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
In October 2022, Lafarge settled with the DOJ before the French ruling, paying more than $777 million into an asset forfeiture fund currently controlled by the DOJ, funds which are supposed to compensate victims of the ISIS attacks, many of them American Gold Star families, like Hailey Dayton, whose father was the first American killed by ISIS in Syria on Thanksgiving Day 2016.
«I was 15 when my dad was killed,» Hailey Dayton told Fox from her home in Florida. «I saw six guys in Navy white step out of the van. I got so excited because I thought my dad came back to surprise us. I remember opening the door, huge smile on my face, and I was looking at the men, trying to find my dad and I didn’t find, I didn’t see him, but instead I saw six guys with tears in their eyes.»
The Biden Justice Department denied requests to distribute the Lafarge funds while the case was still pending before a French Court. Lafarge was found guilty by that court in April. In February, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., pressed then-Attorney General Pam Bondi on when the DOJ planned to release the funds to the families.
«In February 2025, my colleagues and I sent you a letter urging the department to review the petitions for remission submitted by the families of those fallen service members, including several of my constituents. The previous administration ignored these victims and our requests and left their petitions unresolved,» Biggs asked Bondi during a Congressional hearing.
«Congressman, we are aware of that and we’re committed to doing everything we can to support the victims and work with you. Thank you for that question,» Bondi replied. That was more than a year ago and the DOJ has still not distributed the compensation funds.
Now the plaintiffs, most of them military families, say the decision to release the funds rests with Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
«I don’t know why. I don’t know why they’re ignoring us. To me, it feels like being a pawn. My dad, he went in when he was 19, he served 23 years,» Dayton, the Gol Star daughter of Chief Petty Officer Scott Dayton, said.
«To the current Department of Justice, I would, say, make things right.»
Lindsey Stacy, who says she and her family have difficulty making ends meet given Kenton Stacy’s severe injuries, added, «There’s a lot of families out there that could benefit from these funds. I mean, it’s been almost nine years. It would be nice to, you know, for justice to be served.»
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Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche attends a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 19, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
«They have been convicted recently in their own country, guilty. It has been a long battle, but it’d be nice just for it to come to an end, get some closure and be able to just take care of our family,» she added. «I mean he made a huge sacrifice for our country and it would just be nice if they’d stand right by us and all the other co-plaintiffs.»
«We can think of no group of people who are more worthy of receiving compensation from that victim’s compensation fund than these families who lost a son, lost a brother, lost a husband, and they deserve to be treated better by the United States of America,» Toral, who continues to press his clients’ case said in an interview ahead of Memorial Day Weekend.
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The Department of Justice, which controls the $777 million dollars in penalties forfeited by Lafarge, issued the following statement:
«The Department is committed to compensating all victims to the maximum extent permitted by law. While we cannot comment on a pending matter, the Department will always engage in the appropriate process to evaluate claims and ensure that our brave servicemembers receive any amount of compensation to which they are entitled.»
france, isis, donald trump, terrorism
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President Donald Trump lost his Supreme Court bid to restrict birthright citizenship through executive order, but one of his own appointees may have handed Republicans a blueprint for pursuing much of the same goal through Congress.
Voting with the 6-3 majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that Executive Order 14160, which restricts automatic citizenship to people born to U.S. citizens or permanent residents, couldn’t take effect. But in a concurring opinion, he also pointed to a different path forward. Kavanaugh argued the court should have resolved the case under federal law rather than the Constitution, laying out a potential legislative path for Congress to pursue changes to birthright citizenship.
Congress first wrote the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship language into federal law in 1940, then carried it over into the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
Because Congress adopted that language after the Supreme Court’s landmark 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which established that most people born in the United States automatically become U.S. citizens, Kavanaugh said lawmakers effectively incorporated the court’s interpretation into federal statute.
TRUMP SUFFERS MAJOR SUPREME COURT DEFEAT AS JUSTICES UPHOLD BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP
Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination to the Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill, Sept. 27, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
Kavanaugh said Trump couldn’t use an executive order to change a law Congress had already passed, but instead suggested Congress could rewrite the law to limit birthright citizenship for children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily.
«Congress could — consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment—amend §1401(a) or otherwise enact new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country,» he wrote.
ALITO WARNS SUPREME COURT MADE ‘SERIOUS MISTAKE’ THAT COULD HAVE NATIONAL SECURITY CONSEQUENCES
Demonstrators rally in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Kavanaugh argued that large-scale illegal immigration and modern international travel have created circumstances the Reconstruction Congress never envisioned. In his view, that gives Congress room to establish new exceptions to birthright citizenship that are comparable to the historical exceptions recognized under the citizenship clause, including children born to foreign diplomats and enemy forces occupying U.S. territory.
«Those two categories of foreign citizens—namely, those unlawfully or temporarily in the country—are relevantly similar to the four categories of persons recognized as exceptions in Wong Kim Ark,» Kavanaugh wrote.
While the majority rejected Kavanaugh’s constitutional reasoning, Republicans quickly seized on the idea that any future effort to limit birthright citizenship would have to come through Congress rather than the White House.
REPUBLICAN ACCUSES SCOTUS OF BETRAYING US, PUSHES BILL RESTRICTING BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, PREGNANT VISITORS
Hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling came out, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said birthright citizenship has «been abused» and suggested that Congress will have to amend the Constitution.
«It’s one of those things that was intended to serve a noble and important purpose and has been thwarted and overused and abused,» Johnson told reporters. «I’m sure that the conclusion from this decision is you have to amend the Constitution to fix that.»
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., renewed his push for a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship, arguing that legislation alone would not be enough.
Demonstrators rally in support of birthright citizenship outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)
«I introduced a constitutional amendment months ago, actually, to fix birthright citizenship,» Paul wrote on X. «After the Supreme Court decision, that amendment matters more than ever. I’m asking my colleagues to take it seriously and help me get this passed.»
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, echoed Paul’s calls to pass a constitutional amendment.
«The long fight for a constitutional amendment begins now,» Lee wrote on X. «We must explicitly exclude foreign nationals who break our laws, violate our borders, or exploit loopholes to make their families American.»
Trump argued that Congress could change birthright citizenship through legislation instead of a constitutional amendment.
«No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!» Trump wrote on Truth Social. «Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!»
Several Republicans quickly pointed to existing legislation, including Sen. Tom Cotton’s, R-Ark., Constitutional Citizenship Clarification Act, as well as proposals from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rick Scott, R-Fla., aimed at cracking down on birth tourism.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department indicated it would shift tactics, announcing a crackdown on birth tourism by targeting alleged visa fraud and related criminal conduct rather than attempting to enforce Executive Order 14160.
But, Kavanaugh’s roadmap is far from a guarantee. On the constitutional question, a 5-4 majority concluded that the citizenship clause itself protects birthright citizenship, meaning any congressional effort to restrict it through ordinary legislation would likely face immediate constitutional challenges.
«Justice Thomas says in the final paragraph of his dissent that he’s not confident that the decision is going to stand the test of time, so it could well be that the court would revisit it if Congress were to take the steps that Justice Kavanaugh describes,» Notre Dame Law School professor Haley Proctor told Fox News Digital. «This is an important decision. I don’t think the court’s going to revisit it lightly, and the only sure way to get a new answer here would be to amend the Constitution.»
Kavanaugh offered a similar roadmap in a recent Trump case over tariffs. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal emergency law known as IEEPA did not give Trump the authority to impose sweeping tariffs. But Kavanaugh argued the administration had simply relied on the wrong legal authority instead of rejecting the policy outright.
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«The Court today concludes that the President checked the wrong statutory box by relying on IEEPA rather than another statute to impose these tariffs,» Kavanaugh wrote.
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Instead, Kavanaugh said Trump could rely on several existing trade laws to impose many of the same tariffs, though those laws would require additional legal steps.
Trump later called Kavanaugh his «new hero» in a Truth Social post praising the justice’s dissent in the February tariff decision.
supreme court, constitution, republicans elections, politics, congress
INTERNACIONAL
Detuvieron en Ecuador a “Churrón”, el líder criminal de Los Choneros por el que EEUU ofrecía USD 5 millones
El narcotraficante y líder criminal ecuatoriano Francisco Manuel Bermúdez Cagua, conocido como ‘Churrón’, fue detenido el jueves por la noche en un operativo militar en el norte de Guayaquil, la ciudad más poblada de Ecuador. Por su captura, Estados Unidos ofrecía una recompensa de hasta USD 5 millones.
El ministro de Defensa Nacional, Gian Carlo Loffredo, anunció la aprehensión vía redes sociales y afirmó que Bermúdez estaba al frente de Los Choneros, la banda criminal más antigua del país. El máximo líder de esta organización, José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, fue recapturado en 2025 y extraditado al país norteamericano.
Bermúdez es requerido por la justicia estadounidense por delitos de tráfico de cocaína y tenencia de armas con fines de narcotráfico. Según Loffredo, el detenido será trasladado a la Cárcel del Encuentro, una prisión diseñada bajo estrictas condiciones para líderes y cabecillas criminales, inspirada en el modelo carcelario de El Salvador.
Los Choneros controlaron la actividad criminal en Ecuador hasta finales de 2020, cuando estalló una guerra de bandas por el control del crimen en el país.
La Oficina de Asuntos Internacionales de Narcóticos y Aplicación de la Ley del Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos había anunciado la recompensa de USD 5 millones por información que permita la detención o condena de Francisco Bermúdez, uno de los líderes de la organización considerada terrorista por los gobiernos de Ecuador y Estados Unidos.
“Bermúdez Cagua, quien es el primer miembro de Los Choneros en aparecer en la lista de objetivos del programa de recompensas contra el narcotráfico, participa en la toma de decisiones sobre el tráfico de drogas y armas para Los Choneros”, detalló Tommy Pigott, portavoz principal adjunto del Departamento de Estado.
La declaración recordó que el 27 de junio de 2025, el reciente detenido, junto a otros líderes de la organización, Darío Javier Peñafiel Nieto (“Topo”) y José Adolfo Macías Villamar (“Fito”), fueron acusados por el Distrito Este de Nueva York de conspiración para importar y distribuir cocaína, así como de posesión de armas de fuego para facilitar el tráfico de drogas.
En la acusación, Churrón y Topo figuran como lugartenientes de alto rango de Fito, quien fue capturado a fines en una residencia de Manta tras un año y medio de fuga. “Fueron lugartenientes de alto rango dentro de la estructura de liderazgo de la organización”, señalaba el documento. La cartera al mando del secretario de Estado de EEUU, Marco Rubio, subrayó que Los Choneros mantienen vínculos con el cártel mexicano de Sinaloa y controlan rutas clave del tráfico de drogas a través de Ecuador.
Durante una visita a Ecuador el 5 de septiembre el año pasado, Rubio declaró a Los Choneros y Los Lobos como organizaciones terroristas extranjeras. Esta medida autoriza la sanción de bienes, propiedades y fondos de ambos grupos en el sistema bancario estadounidense y prohíbe cualquier transacción de ciudadanos norteamericanos que involucre activos vinculados a esas organizaciones.
En esa ocasión, el jefe de la diplomacia estadounidense también anunció una ayuda económica de USD 19 millones a Quito, de los cuales 13,5 millones se destinarían a la lucha contra el narcotráfico y 6 millones a la adquisición de drones para la fuerza naval.
Con el regreso de Donald Trump a la Casa Blanca, Estados Unidos incluyó a 12 grupos latinoamericanos en la lista de organizaciones terroristas extranjeras.
Entre los grupos designados figuran, en México: Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cártel del Noroeste, Cártel de la Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cárteles Unidos y Cártel del Golfo; en Ecuador: Los Choneros y Los Lobos; en El Salvador: Mara Salvatrucha y Barrio 18; y en Venezuela: Tren de Aragua y Cártel de los Soles.
(Con información de EFE)
Crime
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