Author: Papa Giorgio

Double Mastectomies As Young as 12-Years Old

Published by Papa Giorgio

(See my “Detransition Tag” for all related posts)

  • The research did not look at ‘bottom’ surgeries among minors, which involve removing or modifying youngsters’ sex organs. These procedures are also thought to have risen in recent years. (DAILY MAIL)

The deeper you dig in the dark warrens of adolescent transgender medicine, the more convinced you become that the doctors who operate on young girls are criminal or insane or both.

I know that sounds extreme. But how can a decent person read the bare statistics in a recent article in one of the world’s leading paediatrics journals without feeling rage?

A brief report from four doctors at Vanderbilt University, “Gender-Affirming Chest Reconstruction Among Transgender and Gender-Diverse Adolescents in the US From 2016 to 2019” appeared in JAMA PEDIATRICS earlier this week. It is “the largest investigation to date of gender-affirming chest reconstruction in a pediatric population” to date.

The researchers found that the incidence of “gender-affirming chest reconstruction” surgery for children under 18 – better known as double mastectomies or “top jobs” — increased by 389 percent between 2016 and 2019. (These “chest reconstructions” included some boys who presumably wanted breast implants – but these were only 1.4 percent.)

An estimated 1,130 “top jobs” were performed during those four years on girls as young as 12. What kind of doctor amputates the healthy breasts of a 12-year-old girl?

According to the data, based on the Nationwide Ambulatory Surgery Sample, the Vanderbilt doctors calculated that 5.5 percent of the children were under 14, 21.5 percent under 15, and 56 percent under 16.

It gets worse.

Through the distorted lens of the billion-dollar sex-reassignment surgery industry, “top jobs” might make sense as the last step in the gender-affirmation template. After a gender-dysphoric girl has experimented with living in a male body for months or years, she wants her chest to look masculine. She proceeds through the following steps:

  • I know I’m a boy in a girl’s body.
  • I need social affirmation.
  • I need puberty blockers.
  • I need cross-sex hormones.
  • I need a double mastectomy.

But according to the figures compiled by the Vanderbilt doctors, only 19.9 percent of these girls had hormone therapy before surgery. That means that the overwhelming majority of these young girls – 80.1 percent – had their breasts amputated without attempting to masculinise their bodies.

[….]

Amputation without hormone therapy makes no sense even in the Alice in Wonderland universe of transgender medicine. It is sheer mutilation. It is worse than prescribing liposuction for a 12-year-old suffering from anorexia nervosa. Or amputating limbs or severing spinal cords for people suffering from Body Integrity Identity Disorder. Where are the studies which show that “top jobs” alone will solve girls’ gender dysphoria?

Furthermore, more than a third of the girls had been diagnosed with anxiety or depression. (The study fails to mention autism, which is often implicated in gender dysphoria.) What kind of surgeon amputates the breasts of a mentally-ill teenager?

[….]

The data in this study are already nearly three years old. How many more girls will be maimed for life by sociopathic surgeons before Americans wake up to this grotesque violation of human rights?

(MERCATOR NET)

Detransitioned teen, Layla Jane, sues Kaiser Permanente after getting double mastectomy at age 13:

DAILY MAIL has this on Layla Jane (hat-tip GATEWAY PUNDIT):

According to legal papers, Layla experienced moodiness, anxiety, gender confusion and anger issues as a child. At age 11 learned about radical transgender ideology and went online to learn more about the new trend.

She self-diagnosed that she was a boy and believed transitioning would solve her mental health problems.

According to the suit, doctors at the Permanente Medical Group and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals rushed her on to cross-sex hormones and a double mastectomy without properly assessing her mental health problems.

Her evaluations lasted only 30 minutes and 75 minutes, records show.

Legal papers identify the carers as Susanne Watson, a psychiatrist in Oakland, San Francisco-based plastic surgeon Winnie Tong, and Lisa Taylor, a pediatric endocrinologist in Oakland.

They are accused of ‘intentional, malicious, and oppressive concealment of important information and false representations’ that saw Layla pushed into the procedures.

It’s claimed they presented Layla Jane and her parents with a terrifying choice: ‘Would you rather have a live son, or a dead daughter?’ — language that echoes complaints from other detransitioners across the US.

‘These are decisions I will have to live with for the rest of my life,’ Layla said in a statement.

‘I’m ready to join the growing group of detransitioners so that no other child has to go through the torment I went through at the hands of doctors I should have been able to trust.’

In the above video Chloe Cole is mentioned:

Chloe Cole—joined by Harmeet Dhillon who is representing her—talks about suing the doctors who originally transitioned her: “It’s a medical malpractice case. I want to hold the adults who put me in harm’s way accountable.”

Real Terrorists vs Domestic | Dearborn and Yonkers

Published by Papa Giorgio

BARENAKED ISLAM’s headline on this reads:

  • ‘DEARBORNISTAN’ Happy ending after Muslim pulls out a gun in police station and aims it at the officers

THE BLAZE has this:

A 33-year-old walked into a Detroit-area police station armed with a handgun in late December and attempted to open fire. Owing to performance issues and the swiftness of a nearby officer, he was unable to follow through with a possible Christmastime massacre.

Amid claims by Ali Naji’s family that the dead gunman was a victim of unlawful deadly force, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced Thursday that the officer who put him down will not face criminal charges.

Video by THIS IS BUTTER

PJ-MEDIA notes a different story involving Jihadi threats to police (Yonkers, N.Y.):

While Maxine Waters is fulminating (yeah, what else is new) against Donald Trump, accusing him of “attempting to organize his domestic terrorists,” and the Biden regime continues its efforts to portray Trump and his supporters as “insurrectionists,” the actual terrorists haven’t stopped their activities even for a moment. On Friday, the feds tore themselves away from trying to fabricate cases of “white supremacist” terrorism long enough to arrest a real terrorist who plotted to murder police in Yonkers, N.Y. This guy was an Islamic jihadi. Remember them? They’re still at it, even as our government and law enforcement apparatus have decided that patriotic Americans constitute a much greater threat.

The New York Post reported Friday that “an ISIS-loving radical Islamic extremist from Yonkers was busted by the feds Friday for plotting to kill the city’s police officers and mayor beginning on the street where the local St. Patrick’s Day parade was set to go down.” This charmer is a thirty-two-year-old man named Ridon Kola, who “directly messaged the Yonkers police, saying ‘I will crucify Yonkers cops and their bosses all along McLean ave. It will be a horror scene . . . Allahu Ekberr.’”

McLean Ave. in Yonkers was the site of Saturday’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and so Yonkers police were concerned that Kola might have planned to wage his jihad against the paradegoers. They moved quickly to arrest him on Friday so as to forestall that possibility. Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano commented proudly: “Yonkers is proud to host one of New York’s largest St. Patrick’s Day parades and threats like this will not intimidate us from celebrating the many contributions of our Irish American community.” That was great, but this episode brought American authorities no closer than they were already to understanding why people such as Ridon Kola plot bloodshed and murder in the first place……..

Dry Bar Double Feature – Shayne Smith

Published by Papa Giorgio

Double Feature

(Hat-Tip to Kate B.)

The Dry Bar Double Feature is back, this time around we’re featuring fan favorite Shayne Smith. Whether it’s his first full Dry Bar Comedy special Prison For Wizards, or his second special Alligator Boys, both of Shayne Smith’s Dry Bar Comedy specials are packed full of hilarious stories that are sure to have you laughing from start to finish.

Dylan Mulvaney Celebrates “Womanhood” Even Though Still a Man

Published by Papa Giorgio

(ADDED CANDACE OWENS AT THE BOTTOM)

Today on the Matt Walsh Show, infamous male TikToker Dylan Mulvaney has a star-studded extravaganza in New York celebrating his “day 365 of girlhood.” The entire Daily Wire lineup made an appearance during the show. We’ll play the clip and talk about it. Joe Biden lashes out at those who want to protect children from abuse, calling us “sinful.” The president also uses an alleged letter from a child to promote the gender wage gap myth. Netflix quietly cancels its kid’s show featuring a non-binary bison. And in our Daily Cancellation, a conservative author is ruthlessly mocked by the Left for not being able to define the word “woke.” But since when is the Left in any position to make fun of anyone else for not being able to define a word?

PJ-MEDIA has this find:

…..I still haven’t quite recovered from the clip of Drew Barrymore kneeling before Dylan Mulvaney like he’s some sort of god, yet now I have to react to yet another clip featuring Mulvaney that is going viral — though, and this one is a real doozy, too.

This new footage features Mulvaney during an appearance on The Price is Right. And it.. well… just watch it.

Upon watching this video, it becomes abundantly clear that Dylan Mulvaney is an individual who has always sought attention in a rather desperate manner. His flamboyant and over-the-top demeanor, coupled with a disposition reminiscent of the iconic Richard Simmons from Sweatin’ to the Oldies, is embarrassing and apparent.

It is true that contestants on The Price is Right are known to get very excited and even extremely animated, but have you ever seen a contestant engage in the kind of behavior exhibited by Mr. Mulvaney here? Upon winning the game he proceeds to flail around on the floor, prance about on stage, dance, and even fall down, and get back up in dramatic fashion. He literally performs for the cameras for close to a full minute.

According to a study published in the National Library of Medicine, patients with gender identity disorder (gender dysphoria) have a disproportionately high frequency of personality disorders. “The frequency of personality disorders was 81.4%. The most frequent personality disorder was narcissistic personality disorder (57.1%) and the least was borderline personality disorder. The average number of diagnoses was 3.00 per patient.”….

BEN SHAPIORO
Dylan Mulvaney has a video from when he was on The Price Is Right a few years ago. If you look closely, it appears he is putting on the same act today as he was then. So, this all an act?

The most absurd sight of the day is courtesy of Dylan Mulvaney. Yesterday, Dylan celebrated “365 Days of Girlhood” by dressing like a girl and putting on a musical at the Rainbow Room in New York. Dylan even gave the Daily Wire crew a shoutout at the end.

CANDACE OWENS

Candace Owens discusses Dylan Mulvaney’s celebration of “day 365 of ‘girlhood'” with a strange variety show that included me and the other Daily Wire hosts. What an honor. (Full Candace Owens episode HERE)

Woman Offered $100,000 To Take Off Her Mask

Published by Papa Giorgio

(See Steve Kirsch’s post on the story) Tech millionaire Steve Kirsch tweeted that he offered $100,000 to his Delta first class seatmate to remove her mask for the entire flight, despite his explanation that masks don’t work. The tweet has been viewed over 20 million times, and he claimed that the seatmate works for a pharmaceutical company.

GUTFELD & GUESTS

These Major Bombshells Are A Problem For Biden

Published by Papa Giorgio

Creepy uncle Joe says it’s not true. Hunter Biden’s own lawyer says it is:

  • “We knew about Hunter. We knew about Joe’s brother, James. But Comer revealing that it could be six or seven Biden family members is massive news.”

Maybe this is why Hunter’s lawyer said opposing things in their counter-suit (CONSERVATIVE REVIEW):

Hunter Biden’s lawyers claim John Paul Mac Isaac invaded the troubled presidential son’s privacy by providing his computer files to allies of former president Donald Trump and members of the media before the 2020 election. The countersuit is a response to Mac Isaac’s lawsuit against Biden and various news outlets who accused the repairman of stealing the computer.

Mac Isaac has said Biden dropped off his laptop for repairs in April 2019 but never came back to retrieve it. The repairman says he reviewed the laptop’s contents and, troubled by what he saw, provided a copy of the laptop hard drive to the FBI in late 2019. He then gave a copy of the computer to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who later shared the documents with the New York Post and other news outlets.

[….]

RPT COMMENT #1 —  So Hunter’s lawyer IS admitting the laptop is Hunter’s!

[….]

“This is not an admission by Mr. Biden that Mac Isaac (or others) in fact possessed any particular laptop containing electronically stored data belonging to Mr. Biden,” the court filing says. “Rather, Mr. Biden simply acknowledges that at some point, Mac Isaac obtained electronically stored data, some of which belonged to Mr. Biden.”

[….]

RPT COMMENT #2 — ohhh… look at this dog-faced pony soldier lawyer try to legalese* out of admitting the laptop was Hunter’s!

*Attorneys use Legalese to be able to tell lies about regular people without the regular people being able to understand what’s said about them.

Ron DeSantis EXPOSES Book Ban Hoax

Published by Papa Giorgio
THE CLAY TRAVIS & BUCK SEXTON SHOW

On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a news conference to criticize media coverage of Florida’s school library book policies and the Stop WOKE Act, characterizing them as a “hoax.” Speaking at the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office, DeSantis accused those spreading false narratives of attempting to “pollute and sexualize our children.”

TIMCAST

Ron DeSantis EXPOSES Book Ban Hoax, Books SO GRAPHIC Twitter CENSORS His Livestream

This morning Governor DeSantis held a press conference exposing the false political narrative that Florida is banning legitimate books from schools. He calls it “Exposing the book ban hoax.”

The press conference starts with a film on some of the books that were banned and it is so graphic that news networks covering the press conference had to cut the feed. DeSantis acknowledged this when he began the press conference.

The film also debunks the lies that Florida is banning the teaching of slavery in schools…..

(RIGHT SCOOP)

VIDEOS

FULL PRESSER

Did Officer Brian Sicknick Die From Injury Sustained By Rioters? (Tucker)

Published by Papa Giorgio

Final Update!

“Whatever happened to Brian Sicknick was very obviously not the result of violence he suffered at the entrance to the Capitol. This tape overturns the single most powerful and politically useful lie the Democrats have told us about January 6.”

Update (1-8-2023)

Fox News host Tucker Carlson reflects on the January 6 Capitol breach two years later on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’

UPDATE (4-27-2021)

The medical examiner rejected the idea of bear spray being an issue regarding the death of Brian Sicknick. “D.C. Chief Medical Examiner Francisco J. Diaz has determined that Brian Sicknick, the United States Capitol Police officer who died following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, died of natural causes” (ABC). The WASHINGTON TIMES also notes that “Prosecutors told a federal judge Tuesday that U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was assaulted with Mace — not the more dangerous bear spray as originally reported — debunking another false narrative that emerged after the officer’s death the day after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.” CNBC also notes the following:

  • Police officer Brian Sicknick suffered strokes and died of natural causes a day after he grappled with pro-Trump rioters at the Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol, Washington’s chief medical examiner ruled.

And finally, THE DAILY WIRE notes the following:

…The New York Times reported on Jan. 8 that two unnamed law enforcement officials said Sicknick died after being hit with a fire extinguisher. House Democrats cited the report as part of its case to impeach Trump on charges that he cited an insurrection at the Capitol.

“The insurrectionists killed a Capitol Police officer by striking him in the head with a fire extinguisher,” the Democrats wrote in a memo for the impeachment proceedings.

There has also been speculation that Sicknick died from a reaction to bear spray that was dispensed at the Capitol. Federal prosecutors charged two men last month with hitting Sicknick and several other police officers with the chemical irritant outside the Capitol.

Diaz’s ruling appears to rule out bear spray as a cause of death….

UPDATE (2-15-2021)

(AMERICAN GREATNESS)

Like so many fake news stories about Donald Trump and his supporters, millions of Americans believe the Sicknick story as truth; even a correction won’t change their minds.

In a quiet but stunning correction, the New York Times backed away from its original report that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by a Trump supporter wielding a fire extinguisher during the January 6 melee at the Capitol building. Shortly after American Greatness published my column Friday that showed how the Times gradually was backpedaling on its January 8 bombshell, the paper posted this caveat:

UPDATE: New information has emerged regarding the death of the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick that questions the initial cause of his death provided by officials close to the Capitol Police.

The paper continued to revise its story within the body of the original January 8 story: “Law enforcement officials initially said Mr. Sicknick was struck with a fire extinguisher, but weeks later, police sources and investigators were at odds over whether he was hit. Medical experts have said he did not die of blunt force trauma, according to one law enforcement official.”

What’s missing, however, is how the Times first described what happened to Sicknick. “Mr. Sicknick, 42, an officer for the Capitol Police, died on Thursday from brain injuries he sustained after Trump loyalists who overtook the complex struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials.”

The account of Sicknick’s death was reported as fact, not speculation or rumor. Further, it appears that the anonymous sources were not law enforcement officials but people “close” to the police department—which means they could have been anyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to inveterate liar U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser.

Not only was the Times’ untrue story about Sicknick’s death accepted as fact by every news media organization from the Wall Street Journal to the Washington Post, political pundits on the NeverTrump Right also regurgitated the narrative that Sicknick was “murdered” as did lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

[….]

*The Times’ correction might be one reason why Democrats on Saturday reversed their demand to subpoena witnesses. House impeachment managers cited the original January 8 Times’ article as evidence in their impeachment memo: “The insurrectionists killed a Capitol Police officer by striking him in the head with a fire extinguisher.”

Any arrangement to compel testimony would have provided Trump’s legal team with an opportunity to expose yet another myth in the Democrats’ “incitement” case against the former president.

Now that the Times has essentially retracted its explosive article, will other news organizations, pundits, and lawmakers follow suit? Unfortunately, like so many media-manufactured stories about Donald Trump and his supporters, millions of Americans already believe the Sicknick story as truth; even a Times’ correction won’t change their minds.

The truth in all matters related to Donald Trump is only of secondary concern, if at all. And once again, reporters who egregiously exploited a man’s untimely death to score political points against a man they revile won’t be held accountable. Another hoax down the memory hole.

I, like other conservative outlets, believed this story. I linked to RIGHT SCOOP regarding the story and agreed (and still do — if the story was true — not just in this situation):

  • I hope they have on video exactly who hit this brave officer with a fire extinguisher and prosecute them for murder. This cannot go unpunished.

*ANOTHER REASON WHY NO WITNESSES CALLED

RPT NOTE: As well as the first witness called would have been Nancy Pelosi, who was IN CHARGE of Capitol Hill security… the Buck didn’t stop with her apparently…. the DEMS couldn’t afford the narrative to break!

GATEWAY PUNDIT notes the “moving on” timeline:

It is well known that Pelosi, Bowser and Mitch McConnell refused to increase security on January 6th for the US Capitol.

Senator Ted Cruz agreed this morning that the Trump legal team will call in Speaker Pelosi to testify along with Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Following this announcement, the House Impeachment Managers backed off from calling witnesses.

They moved on to closing arguments.

REMEMBER AS WELL

Mark Levin discusses Mark Meadows revelation from February 7th (TRUMP WAR ROOM). I do not listen to Mark all that much, but this is the maddest I have heard him (at the end: 6:03 to 6:15 mark).

…Meadows told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo that even though Trump was vocal about offering Capitol Police and National Guard presence at the Capitol on multiple occasions prior to January 6, his offers were rejected “every time.”

“We also know that in January, but also throughout the summer, that the president was very vocal in making sure that we had plenty of National Guard, plenty of additional support because he supports our rule of law and supports our law enforcement and offered additional help,” Meadows told Bartiromo.

“Even in January, that was a given, as many as 10,000 National Guard troops were told to be on the ready by the Secretary of Defense,” Meadows said. “That was a direct order from President Trump and yet here is what we see … all kinds of blame going around but yet not a whole lot of accountability.”…

(DJHJ MEDIA)

What is not known by the typical cable news watcher, probably, is that both the Capital Police and the mayor of D.C. turned down offers to help secure the government areas before and as the mob of crazed Lefties and Righties descended on the Capital:

    • …Three days before the riot, the Pentagon offered National Guard manpower. And as the mob descended on the building Wednesday, Justice Department leaders reached out to offer up FBI agents. Capitol Police turned them down both times, according to senior defense officials and two people familiar with the matter. Despite plenty of warnings of a possible insurrection and ample resources and time to prepare, police planned only for a free speech demonstration. (WASHINGTON TIMES)
    • Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser told federal law enforcement to stand down just one day before a mob of Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, smashing windows, entering the chambers, and forcing lawmakers and congressional staff inside into lockdown. “To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway,” Bowser wrote in a letter to acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, and Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy. According to Bowser, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department in coordination with the U.S. Park Police, Capitol Police, and Secret Sevice were well-equipped to handle whatever problems could come up during the Trump rallies planned for Wednesday. (THE FEDERALIST)

FIRST POST (2-10-2021)

(RIGHT SCOOP) At the open of his show tonight, Tucker Carlson had a great monologue about the lies Democrats are telling about what happened on January 6th… The monologue runs for just over 12 minutes, but you can keep watching if you want (HERE). The part I wanted to highlight specifically is what Tucker reported about Officer Sicknick’s death. It was reported widely that Sicknick was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher by a rioter and that he later died. But according to Tucker, that’s not what happened:

In this short clip, Tucker reveals that Sicknick’s own brother said that Sicknick texted him the night of the Capitol riot, after it was over, and said that he’d been pepper sprayed twice but was in good shape. His brother then noted that Sicknick collapsed in the Capitol and that he was resuscitated with CPR. The family was told that he was in the hospital on a ventilator after having had a blood clot and a stroke.

Tucker says that there is zero evidence that Sicknick was ever ‘bludgeoned’ with a fire extinguisher despite CNN, MSNBC, and other major media outlets having reported it. And Democrats are still saying it….

(BTW, I hope every rioter in these scenes is arrested. But this is the only fire extinguisher video [1:40 mark] I could find)

This is not the entire article… and I suggest reading the entire thing… however, I wish to post part of it here as i think it important (AMERICAN GREATNESS):

What Happened to Officer Brian Sicknick? No one should discount the idea that Democrats and the news media would intentionally promote a totally fabricated story to destroy Donald Trump and vilify his supporters.

The claim is so pervasive as not to be questioned: Five people died as a result of the January 6 “insurrection” at the Capitol building, killed by blood-thirsty Trump voters at the president’s behest, out for revenge over a stolen election.

Even though only one death—the shooting of Ashli Babbitt by a still-unidentified police officer—is provable by video evidence, the other fatalities nonetheless are accepted as an article of faith to stoke public outrage about what happened that day.

[….]

NARRATIVE vs. EVIDENCE

Democrats wasted no time exploiting Sicknick’s untimely death. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) immediately ordered flags flown at half-staff at the Capitol; news and opinion outlets on both the Left and NeverTrump Right blamed the so-called “insurrectionists” for killing Sicknick.

National Review claimed, without evidence, that Sicknick was “murdered.” The president and his allies in the Senate, pundits raged, were accomplices. “When he told followers to ‘STAND UP,’ they listened and murdered a cop while storming the Capitol,” one Washington Examiner writer tweeted about the role of Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “Make him pay.”

Lawmakers of both parties paid their respects to Sicknick last week during a rare Capitol ceremony; his body lay in honor in the Rotunda on February 3 following a brief memorial service. When Joe Biden and his wife walked away from the display, the president shook his head in grief.

The widely-accepted circumstances surrounding Sicknick’s death are part of the Democrats’ impeachment crusade against Donald Trump. “The insurrectionists killed a Capitol Police officer by striking him in the head with a fire extinguisher,” House impeachment managers allege in a memorandum detailing their evidence.

But that inflammatory accusation isn’t backed by an autopsy report or any hard evidence such as a video clip. It isn’t backed by charging documents filed against anyone suspected of killing Sicknick; nearly five weeks later, no one has been accused of murdering the officer even though federal law enforcement officials have arrested more than 200 people tied to their involvement in the January 6 melee.

No, the only proof the House impeachment managers can find is the January 8, New York Times article that relied not on evidence but on background from “two law enforcement officials.”

STRUGGLING TO BUILD A CASE

If Sicknick is the face representing the carnage of January 6, Democrats are at risk of losing their most compelling sympathy storyline just as the impeachment trial gets underway. 

“Investigators are struggling to build a federal murder case regarding fallen U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, vexed by a lack of evidence that could prove someone caused his death,” CNN disclosed last week. “Authorities have reviewed video and photographs that show Sicknick engaging with rioters amid the siege but have yet to identify a moment in which he suffered his fatal injuries.”

A medical examiner’s report has not been released and law enforcement authorities are tight-lipped; in a January 26 email to me, an FBI spokeswoman refused to comment on the status of the investigation. The District of Columbia medical examiner’s office told me Monday by email they “will release the cause and manner of death when this information is available.”

Sources, however, told CNN that the medical examiner “did not find signs that the officer sustained any blunt force trauma . . . and early reports that he was fatally struck by a fire extinguisher are not true.” Investigators also couldn’t confirm that Sicknick died as a result of reaction to pepper spray.

Messaging from the FBI does little to inspire trust in the Sicknick storyline. The agency at first issued a statement that claimed 37 suspects were under investigation for the officer’s death but later said the statement was in error and relied on “incorrect internal information.”

During a January 12 press briefing on its sweeping investigation into the events of January 6, the assistant director for the FBI’s D.C. field office twice referred to Sicknick as having “passed away,” with no mention of his having been “murdered” or “killed.” A distinction, in this matter, with a big difference.

WILL OPTICS TRUMP THE TRUTH

Comments from Sicknick’s family also raise legitimate suspicions about what happened to their loved one. 

“Many details regarding Wednesday’s events and the direct causes of Brian’s injuries remain unknown, and our family asks the public and the press to respect our wishes in not making Brian’s passing a political issue,” his older brother wrote in a statement released January 8.

[….]

The more likely explanation is that Sicknick wasn’t murdered but died of other causes that neither law enforcement nor the family wants made public. It’s certainly the family’s prerogative to keep it secret; it is not, however, acceptable for the FBI to continue avoiding questions while at the same time feeding the public a false account of what happened to him. And since the medical examiner’s office hadn’t confirmed the cause of death, it’s beyond irresponsible for anyone, particularly a reporter, to describe it as murder…..