3-year illegal drivers license scheme unveils public corruption in Bay County
Public corruption brought Attorney General James Uthmeier to Bay County on Thursday.
Officials say two Bay County tax collectors' office employees were providing undocumented individuals with driver's licenses in return for compensation.
The employees identified as Bancelie Velazco and Demetrius Smith allegedly skipped steps and proper testing, then issued the licenses in exchange for cash or a 'Cash App' transaction.
Ford believes people from all over the state traveled here to buy the licenses, and that the illicit activity had been happening for around 3 years.
However, Bay County Tax Collector Chuck Perdue says they only noticed the suspicious activity last month, after reviewing April's month-end reports.
Florida Attorney General holds news conference in Bay County
Perdue says he immediately contacted Ford's office.
'I was starting to review our month-end reports, and I was seeing where, you know, on average, of my 80 employees, an employee on average during the month, will do 20 to 25 road exams. I had one employee, Mr. Smith, who did 295 exams in one month. So those exams take about 20 minutes each. So, doing the math, there's not that many work hours in the week, right?' Tax Collector Chuck Perdue said.
Sheriff Ford says the investigation has been ongoing for around a month, with the majority of headway being made on Wednesday. So far, there have been eight arrests, and officials have seized around $120,000 from the illicit proceedings.
Some of the arrests were individuals caught with fraudulent licenses, and others were people acting as brokers. Officials cited the involvement of a Callaway business called 'Cubamax'.
'The investigation also allowed us to arrest five additional individuals who are acting as brokers, running local businesses that claim to assist with immigration paperwork but instead arranged illegal transactions and funneled aliens from as far away as Miami to obtain licenses fraudulently,' Ford added.
Uthmeier and several others blamed the Biden administration for the illegal activity.
'I think today is yet another example of how the Biden border policy puts American families at risk. Here you've got hundreds of aliens that are cheating, that are breaking the law, that are buying driver's licenses without taking the test, getting on the roads, putting everybody in danger. So, you know, if there's any silver lining to come out of this terrible discovery, it's that law enforcement worked very well together. Continued to follow the breadcrumbs and ultimately uncovered, you know, pretty widespread and advanced operation,' Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said.
Officials said this is just the start of this investigation.
Perdue says it's unclear at this time if there will be any repercussions for individuals responsible for supervising the employees.
Sheriff's officials and Homeland Security Investigations will be working with the Highway Patrol and other agencies to track down the fraudulent driver's licenses. They say the fault lies with illegal immigrants who are adding pressure to the system.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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NBC News
17 minutes ago
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A Texas researcher was held at an airport for over a week. Now he faces deportation.
SAN FRANCISCO — A researcher at Texas A&M University flying home from abroad was detained for more than a week by immigration authorities at the San Francisco International Airport, sleeping in a chair and living off food sold in the airport, his family and attorneys said Thursday. It was unclear why Tae Heung "Will" Kim, who is a legal permanent resident with a green card, was detained July 21, his attorney Karl Krooth said at a news conference. Kim, who went to South Korea to attend his brother's wedding, is now in removal proceedings to be deported and is being held at an immigration detention facility in Arizona, Krooth said, adding that he has yet to talk to his client. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that any green card holder who has a drug offense is in violation of their legal status and can be detained. His attorneys said Kim was charged in 2011 with misdemeanor marijuana possession in Texas, where recreational use is illegal. His attorneys declined to discuss those charges Thursday. But one attorney told the Washington Post, which first reported on Kim's detention, that he fulfilled a community service requirement and successfully petitioned for nondisclosure to seal the offense from the public record. Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him. American citizens, legal permanent residents, visa holders and visitors have been stopped at airports and detained for days. Some have faced deportation for minor infractions. Kim, 40, has spent most of his life in the U.S., arriving at the age of 5. After helping out in his family's doll-manufacturing business following the death of his father, he recently entered a doctoral program at Texas A&M and is helping to research a vaccine for Lyme disease. His attorney said holding Kim at the airport denied him his right to due process. "The airport is not a detention facility. The airport is not in the immigration courtroom. And Customs and Border Protection officers are interrogators, they are not neutral arbiters," he said. Krooth said his client was moved between two small rooms in the daytime at the airport. "He was moved within what's called secondary inspection at least twice per day from one area where there were no windows," Krooth said. At night he was moved to another room where he slept in a chair, Krooth said. An airport spokesperson said in an email that "the airport is not notified when CBP denies entry to a passenger," referring inquiries to federal officials. His attorneys were not allowed access and Kim while he was at the airport and he was given only one phone call and periodic texts with his brother. There has been no communication with Kim since he's been transferred to Arizona, Krooth said. Kim's mother, Yehoon "Sharon" Lee, told reporters Thursday through an interpreter that her son has asthma and she worries about him getting proper medical care in detention.
Politico
an hour ago
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Trump's Bad-to-Worse Options on Epstein
Public polls indicate that roughly 60 percent of the American public disapprove of Trump's handling of the situation. A paltry 16 percent approve, according to a Washington Post poll released this week. Meanwhile, the administration's latest gambit — engaging with Ghislaine Maxwell — is getting messier. Maxwell, the only person convicted in the underlying scheme since Epstein died, has started making demands as a condition for giving testimony before the House Oversight Committee. (This is what happens when you give a criminal like Maxwell leverage: They try to use it.) The committee has declined to give Maxwell congressional immunity, but negotiations over the terms of a deposition are apparently ongoing. The Justice Department and House Republicans could have avoided the embarrassment of publicly negotiating with a convicted child sex trafficker and confirmed liar, but Maxwell's involvement is now dangling until who knows when. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who apparently thought it was a good idea to spend two days interviewing her, has promised to 'share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time.' The whole thing has unfolded like a lesson in how to mismanage a political crisis. Making matters worse, Trump does not appear to have any good options for moving on from this controversy, in large part because of the legal complexities that surround the case. Below are a few of the potential paths forward, from staying the course to releasing everything to a few options in between. All have conspicuous downsides for the administration, the public or both, but it's worth going through them. Status Quo Right now, the administration has two open lines of pursuit as it seeks to mollify critics who want more insight into the Epstein files: (1) unsealing grand jury transcripts from the criminal prosecutions, and (2) working with Maxwell as a potential government cooperator to obtain new information or leads that might shed further light on Epstein and Maxwell's deeds and the involvement (or lack thereof) of other people. Neither of these efforts is likely to prove particularly fruitful or satisfying to the public writ large. The grand jury transcripts likely represent just a sliver of the information in the government's possession. That is because when prosecutors present testimony to a grand jury in order to obtain an indictment, they focus on the particular defendants and co-conspirators at issue and the evidence that they are likely to introduce at trial. If there was no evidence presented at trial about other particular individuals or subjects, it is fair to assume that they were not the subject of much grand jury testimony. Indeed, in court filings on Tuesday night, the Justice Department disclosed that there were only two witnesses who testified in the grand jury proceedings, an FBI agent and NYPD detective. It is routine for federal prosecutors when charging criminal cases to present grand jury testimony from only one or more of the government agents who worked on the investigation; but as a result, the odds are low that they would have provided materially more information to the grand jury than was presented in the indictment or introduced as evidence in the trial. As for Maxwell, she is a particularly bad candidate to serve as a government cooperator, and it is unlikely that the Justice Department's engagement with her will generate credible information that the government can credibly rely or act upon. Maxwell is in prison on a 20-year sentence on heinous charges. At trial, the government presented evidence from victims who testified — in the government's own words in a sentencing submission just three years ago — that Maxwell and Epstein 'worked together to identify girls, groom them, and then entice them to travel and transport them to Epstein's properties' and that the 'girls — some of whom were as young as 14 years old — were then sexually abused.' On top of that, the DOJ already discredited Maxwell as someone who would speak honestly and charged her with two counts of perjury (later dropped after the trafficking conviction). Prosecutors said that Maxwell was willing to 'brazenly lie under oath about her conduct.' The conduct at issue is also so old — going back more than three decades — that it would be difficult to corroborate Maxwell's claims. Over time, witnesses' memories fade and documents become harder to track down. And of course, Maxwell has an obvious incentive to lie or shade the truth — both by pointing the finger at others and downplaying Epstein's connection to people who are politically aligned with the Trump administration, or Trump himself. Trump, as we now know from the Wall Street Journal 's reporting, was told in May that his name was in the files, though he has not been accused of any wrongdoing in the matter. As a political matter, the exercise also seems highly risky. Maxwell is angling for a pardon or reduction in her sentence. If that were to happen — if the Trump administration were to provide Maxwell with an early release or pardon her altogether — some people could interpret this as confirmation of the very government-backed conspiracy that the administration has been trying to refute, that powerful child sex predators work with and protect one another. Indeed, according to one poll released this week, only 4 percent of respondents — that is not a typo — said that Trump should pardon Maxwell. It is also always possible — perhaps even likely — that the controversy will eventually blow over at some point or be overtaken by some other all-consuming political story. That may not, however, undo whatever political damage has been done in the meantime. Legislation The bipartisan odd couple of Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have proposed a measure that would effectively force the government to publicly release virtually all of the unclassified material in the government's possession, with redactions for victim-related information, as well as internal DOJ communications. Similar measures could emerge in the coming weeks. If Trump for some reason decided to endorse the bill, it would surely pass. But on the merits, it is not a good idea to dump all of this material in the public domain. The government does not typically release raw investigative material from criminal cases — and with good reason. The government acquired mountains of information in the course of its investigation, including a large amount of material gathered from electronic devices. The government's investigative material would also include FBI summaries of witness interviews that could include false leads and derogatory information that the government was unable to corroborate. Releasing all of this material might offer some short-term relief in the sense that the Epstein files would finally be out. But in fact, it would simply prolong this drama and provide more fodder for more baseless conspiracy theories, potentially for years to come and with no end in sight. Self-Disclosure The Trump administration could also choose to voluntarily release the same material at issue in the Massie-Khanna legislation. That would be unwise for the reasons noted above. On top of that, the Trump administration's haphazard efforts in recent weeks have probably burned its public credibility on this topic among a sizable contingent of Americans. After spending years cultivating and promoting theories about an elaborate and wide-ranging child sex trafficking conspiracy, some of America's most senior law enforcement officials have struggled to debunk their own nonsense while also appearing to suppress information about what they found. There will be many people who do not trust the output if the administration tries to self-disclose and who will believe that government officials are withholding information about political and financial elites, including perhaps Trump himself. Firings Perhaps Trump could try one of his time-tested tactics: Firing people or otherwise forcing them out of their positions. The most obvious candidates for the chopping block would be Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Deputy Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino. It is far from clear what dismissing Bondi would accomplish. Yes, she made some conspicuous missteps — like orchestrating a botched 'Phase 1' release of material to conservative influencers at the White House back in February — but the next attorney general would face even more pressure on the issue and confront the same political minefield that Bondi has attempted to navigate. Patel and Bongino are in a slightly different category because they were instrumental in advancing Epstein conspiracy theories prior to Trump's election. But at this point — even assuming that Trump were inclined to remove one or both of them, which is far from clear — it seems unlikely that removing them would solve the administration's problems. By now, the situation has spiraled way beyond those two men. A Blue-Ribbon Commission What about establishing a bipartisan commission, akin to the one that investigated the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001? They could review the material in the DOJ's possession and report to the public on what is — and isn't — in there. The notion of convening a blue-ribbon panel of respected Washington figures is a political cliché, of course, but in this case, it may be a tempting idea, particularly given the fact that both the Republican and Democratic Parties arguably lack the widespread public credibility that would be necessary to do something similar on their own within Congress. Problems, however, would quickly arise. For one thing, the effort would prolong things even further, at least until the commission completes its work. As we saw with the Jan. 6 committee, there would also likely be serious disputes about who should sit on the committee. Should one or more prominent Epstein conspiracy theorists participate in order to lend some credence to the findings among skeptics, or would that fatally undermine the ability of the commission to do its job? A Major Press Conference Perhaps the best of the bad options is for the most senior law enforcement officials — Bondi, Patel or both — to give a press conference in which they provide a credible and confidently delivered readout of the government's investigative work and answer all of the questions posed by the media. Stay for as many hours as it takes. But for this to work, Bondi and Patel would have to fall on their swords. They would need to explain in detail exactly what they did in recent months to review the investigation, and they would need to describe with greater precision what is in the government's possession and what it does and doesn't reveal about the broader conspiracies alleged by skeptics. They would need to firmly and definitively explain that the conspiracy theories that they cultivated are wrong. Crucially, they would also need admit that they were wrong to promote and indulge those conspiracy theories themselves. And at this point, they would need to disclose — even if it's in generalized form — what the Wall Street Journal has reported is in the government's possession that concerns Trump himself. The overriding problem with this proposal, apart from Bondi and Patel's willingness to do this, is that the public can no longer trust them on this subject. They have burned their credibility on the issue across the political spectrum, and people will be justifiably skeptical about whether they are receiving a complete and accurate account. There is at least one clear takeaway from all of this and from the absence of any clear path forward for the administration: Trump officials never should have promoted or endorsed the Epstein conspiracy theories in the first place, despite whatever political or electoral upside they thought it provided. Doing so was reckless and irresponsible, and it fell far below the professional standards that should apply to our most senior law enforcement officials. In hindsight — if not in real-time itself — their promotional efforts appeared craven, self-interested and highly distasteful. Lest we forgot, there were actual victims here. They should not be political pawns, and they should not have become the subject of a years-long, ongoing political campaign that has, among other things, extended and re-publicized the horror of what they experienced. Still, the original and most significant political liabilities were created by Trump. No one forced Trump to associate with a creep like Epstein for years. No one forced him to tell New York magazine for a story in 2002 that Epstein was a 'terrific guy,' and that 'It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' And no one forced him to endorse the release of the Epstein files as he was campaigning for reelection in a way that riled up members of his base but also lent further support to conspiracy theorists and grifters. On top of that, no one forced Trump to select a vice president and senior law enforcement officials with their own baggage on this topic and whose comments over the years have practically been playing on a news media loop for the last few weeks. It is not surprising that the sort of people who behaved this way would now struggle to hold the public's confidence on this subject or to portray themselves as credible, sober-minded and responsible public officials. These were all choices that Trump made himself. No amount of baseless finger-pointing or blame-shifting — at Democrats, the media or anyone else — can change that.
The Intercept
2 hours ago
- The Intercept
American Nurse Who Tried to Save 'No Other Land' Activist Was Detained and Deported by Israel
Israel detained and then deported an American nurse who tried to save the life of Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist who worked on the Oscar-winning documentary film 'No Other Land.' After Israeli settler Yinon Levi allegedly shot and killed Hathaleen on Monday in Umm al-Khair, a village in the occupied West Bank, the critical care nurse gave Hathaleen four rounds of CPR. She cradled his head in her hands, checking his pulse and whispering 'You're OK,' as he bled out, the nurse told The Intercept. The medical worker asked not to be named because they fear for their safety. Hathaleen was then taken away in an ambulance, where he died before reaching the hospital. About 20 feet away, and minutes before Hathaleen was shot, another Israeli settler in an excavator tried to destroy the village's main water pipe, according to media reports. A local man named Ahmad, Awdah's cousin, was struck in the head with the excavator's arm and nearly knocked unconscious after he tried to stop the driver. Turning to Ahmad after Hathaleen was taken away, the nurse administered a neurological exam; he was severely concussed with diminished mental function before he too was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. 'They don't want people to feel comfortable helping Palestinians.' Soon after, on Monday evening, Israeli law enforcement officers detained the American nurse and an Italian citizen on the scene. The authorities took them to a police station, where they were detained for nearly 24 hours. In detention, the nurse said they recognized five Palestinians from the village sitting on the ground, blindfolded and zip-tied. At the same time, the nurse said, Levi was walking around freely and sharing cigarettes with the police officers — 'no handcuffs or anything.' After reporting as ordered to another police outpost, the nurse was deported on Thursday to Jordan. The nurse believes it's because they witnessed the settler incursion and violence, then provided medical care to Hathaleen and his cousin. 'They don't want people to feel comfortable helping Palestinians,' the nurse said. In the attack on the village of Umm al-Khair, several Americans attempted to help the Palestinians, according to interviews with eyewitnesses, and they were detained by Israeli authorities. In one of the cases, the American was stopped by authorities from giving medical aid to a Palestinian. Attempts to block and remove first responders stand as examples of one of the ways Palestinians are denied medical care after being attacked by Israelis. 'This fits a longstanding pattern,' said Yousef Munayyer, the head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab Center Washington DC, who has researched settler violence. 'I can't tell you how many times we've seen cases where Palestinians who have been injured, either by settlers or by the military, are denied medical assistance until they've bled out.' The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. The Israeli military referred questions to the Israeli police, who did not immediately respond. Ahmad, the injured Palestinian, survived, but the nurse was put under scrutiny. According to the nurse, Israeli police said they suspected that the nurse tampered with evidence — a computer located in a public room for villagers to use. The nurse denied the allegations. They were in the room to return medical supplies, according to their account. The nurse's account was corroborated by two other eyewitnesses interviewed by The Intercept. One of them, Tynan Kavanaugh, an American medical student who has been volunteering with clinics in the West Bank, helped the nurse attend to the two Palestinians. Kavanaugh was in the middle of assessing Ahmad when a uniformed Israeli police officer stopped him from rendering aid, he told The Intercept. 'He's like, 'Get out of here,'' Kavanaugh recalled in an interview. 'So I put my hands up, I walk back through a line of soldiers back into the village, and they corral all the Palestinians and foreigners into this little fenced-off area.' When Kavanaugh was taken away, along with Palestinian detainees, another man stepped in to render aid alongside the nurse. Read our complete coverage Israeli soldiers have repeatedly raided Umm Al-Khair in the days since Hathaleen's death. The military detained 17 Palestinians and released at least 11, with reports of beatings in custody, according to Drop Site News. On Tuesday, an Israeli magistrate court in Jerusalem refused to keep Levi in custody, and he was released on house arrest. Levi has a reputation for carrying out violent attacks against Palestinians. The Biden administration sanctioned him last year, but President Donald Trump has lifted sanctions on all Israeli settlers. Israeli police have so far refused to release Hathaleen's body despite his family's pleas. Israeli settler violence in the West Bank has increased in recent months and years. In June, Israeli settlers injured 100 Palestinians — marking the highest monthly figure since U.N. OCHA started documenting casualties in 2005. In the first two weeks of July, settlers injured 88 Palestinians and carried out multiple attacks against key water infrastructure. Kavanaugh, the American nurse, and a third American all described how Levi, the settler who attacked Hathaleen, walked freely among Israeli military personnel for more than 40 minutes after the shooting. He seemed to be pointing out Palestinians for the soldiers to arrest, said the eyewitnesses, who provided The Intercept with videos that match the scene they described. 'He did not appear to be in custody, at all. He was just walking around with them, and giving them direction,' said Kavanaugh. 'The fact that someone was just murdered was just a non-factor.' Charlie Nichols, a journalist with Project Walsh, an independent student newsroom, said he also saw Levi point out people for the military to arrest. 'He's not in handcuffs,' Nichols said. 'Nobody's touching him. He's obviously not in any kind of hot water; they're very buddy-buddy …there was no fear on his face.' 'There was no fear on his face.' Nichols said that he and Kavanaugh could see Levi through a fence, where they had been corralled by the Israeli military, alongside Palestinian detainees. 'After he points someone out, soldiers would walk in and take that person out,' he said. 'The fact that somebody had been murdered … and the people who were the victims were arrested, it was the most absurd thing I have witnessed.' 'The police are complicit in what is happening,' the nurse said. 'They are there to enforce the settlers' violence against the Palestinians.' Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, who co-directed 'No Other Land,' corroborated the account in a post on X. 'The settlers walk around as if there is a massive force field protecting them,' said Munayyer, of the Arab Center Washington DC, 'because there is. And the Palestinians have no such expectation. They have no such protection.' 'There's no expectation of accountability,' he said, 'and the military and police are in on it.' While he was still at the village, Kavanaugh realized that Levi was standing just a few feet away from him and the nurse as they administered CPR to Hathaleen. Kavanaugh noticed a bullet wound in Hathaleen's chest and ruffled through medical supplies, but they didn't have needles or materials to close his chest wounds effectively. Hathaleen was eventually taken away by an Israeli ambulance and died before reaching the hospital. 'The village has so little water that I'm standing there trying to talk to [them] covered in blood that I can't wash off.' Some of Hathaleen's friends and family members, who were nearby, asked Kavanaugh what happened. 'I just say: He was very seriously hurt, that I did CPR, and I think there's hope, but I can't say anything more than it's in God's hands now,' Kavanaugh said. 'The village has so little water that I'm standing there trying to talk to [them] covered in blood that I can't wash off.' The American nurse was in Umm Al-Khair the day of Hathaleen's killing at his request; they met a few days earlier, and he had asked her to provide health check ups for villagers. Hathaleen learned that it would be the nurse's birthday on Sunday, so he helped plan a surprise birthday party in his home. 'They opened up their home, fed us a big dinner,' the nurse said, 'and we did birthday cakes and candles, and they invited us in to play with their kids.'
