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Prosecutors Emails Show Race and Politics Motivated Case Against Bill Cosby

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Cosby’s Appellate Attorney Jennifer Bonjean told NNPA Newswire that Cosby’s fight for justice isn’t over. “Not even close. Even as we move through the Superior Court, Mr. Cosby has rights under the Post-Conviction Relief Act, and this is precisely the type of material that’s outside of the record that may be relevant to a claim that Mr. Cosby’s Constitutional Rights were violated,” Bonjean stated.

Published

6 years ago

October 11, 2019

Oakland Post

After a Right-to-Know battle with Montgomery County officials, Philadelphia area student journalism centered outlet, YC News, also reported that they obtained emails that show inappropriate conduct on the part of prosecutors. (Photo: Pool Photo)

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

Disturbing emails that revealed the prosecution of Bill Cosby was a politically motivated, and unethical witch hunt could play a key role in Cosby’s attempt to clear his name.

The emails prompted responses from Cosby, his longtime publicist Andrew Wyatt, and Appellate Attorney Jennifer Bonjean.

“If the media is interested in the truth and facts, they won’t ignore this scheme led by Kevin Steele to destroy me and my family,” Cosby stated through Wyatt from the maximum-security SCI-Phoenix in Collegeville, Penn.

The two outlets, celebrity gossip site TMZ and the small Philadelphia area student journalism centered outlet YC News (which first reported the stories), show mainstream media’s refusal to fully inform the public about the Cosby case.

“The prosecutors’ behavior is filled with racist hatred, political corruption, and homophobic slurs.” Cosby stated.

“I’m told by Wyatt that these sick people in the District Attorney’s office called someone a fairy, which cements their hatred for Blacks and the LGBTQ community. I expect the Superior Court to grant me a new trial regarding Email-gate.”

Bonjean told NNPA Newswire that Cosby’s fight for justice isn’t over.

“Not even close. Even as we move through the Superior Court, Mr. Cosby has rights under the Post-Conviction Relief Act, and this is precisely the type of material that’s outside of the record that may be relevant to a claim that Mr. Cosby’s Constitutional Rights were violated,” Bonjean stated.

“This provides another vehicle in which to attack things if we do strikeout in the Superior Court.”

The bombshell emails include comments made by Deputy District Attorney Thomas McGoldrick and Assistant District Attorney Stewart Ryan.

The men suggest that Cosby’s accusers should attack Cosby with knives.

Ryan responded to an article link sent by Deputy District Attorney Thomas McGoldrick about NBC’s “Dateline,” airing a joint interview with Cosby’s alleged victims.

“Interview him with small, very sharp knives,” McGoldrick wrote.

“They should do it ‘To Catch a Predator’ style,'” Ryan wrote in response to the email. “Then allow the 27 victims to interview him.”

At the very least, the emails once again prove that Cosby and African Americans, in general, do not benefit from their Constitutional right to presumption of innocence in the criminal justice system.

“District Attorneys are elected officials who have a duty to all of the people in whatever jurisdiction they are in,” Bonjean stated.

“And, that means even the people who are accused of a crime. They have a duty to everyone. This gives you pause when you see this type of behavior – even with it happening behind the scenes,” she stated.

A spokesperson for the Montgomery County D.A.’s office told TMZ, which first reported the emails, “This was an ill-advised attempt at humor related to stories in the news at the time. No communications impacted the administration of justice in the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Cosby.”

However, Ryan and another assistant district attorney, Kristen Feden, both openly made racist remarks during jury selection of Cosby’s 2018 trial.

When Cosby’s lawyers alleged that prosecutors were trying to keep African Americans off the jury, Feden remarked that the defense had its token juror.

“They already have their one,” Feden stated in court.

Ryan, over objections by Cosby’s lawyers, said in court: “I’m tired of this Black sh.t.”

After a Right-to-Know battle with Montgomery County officials, YC News also reported that they obtained emails that show inappropriate conduct on the part of prosecutors.

The outlet reported that Steele was pressured to have Cosby arrested before and immediately following Steele’s election.

Immediately after Steele won a hotly-contested election on November 4, 2015, McGoldrick – who worked in the prosecutor’s office – was advised by relatives via email: “First order of business – lock-up that creep Bill Cosby.”

“Good news. With 94.35 percent of the vote in, Kevin [Steele] leads 83,582 to 67,442,” McGoldrick responded. “I still have my job!”

Steele, whose campaign platform included prosecuting Cosby, was elected Montgomery County District Attorney later that night. Immediately, he was pressured to go after Cosby.

“[Former Attorney General Kathleen] Kane and Cosby are key topics,” Montgomery County Deputy Chief Detective Mark Bernstiel wrote in an email to others involved in the Steele campaign.

What’s more, then-District Attorney, Risa Ferman, was one of several to remind Steele that “Bill Cosby’s fate hinge[d] on a small-town election.”

Ferman sent an email to Steele on November 2, 2015.

The email contained an article in Rolling Stone that several others circulated – the article was headlined: “Bill Cosby’s Fate Could Hinge On A Small Town Election.”

Several individuals reminded Steele and other soon-to-be critical figures in the Cosby prosecution to prepare to prosecute the comedian “if – and only if” – Steele won the nomination.

According to the emails, those closest to Steele said the “Cosby card” was a great idea.

“I am so proud and happy that you won the election,” an individual told Steele in an email. “Some media were saying that playing the Cosby card was not a good idea, but I think it worked well, and I’m glad you toughened up a little bit.”

Cosby was convicted in 2018 of aggravated indecent assault after the trial judge reversed himself by allowing five other alleged victims to testify against Cosby.

Most of the women to accuse Cosby were clients of attorneys Gloria Allred and Lisa Bloom, whose ethics were recently called their into question by the New York Times.

Allred is Bloom’s mother.

In a new book about the Harvey Weinstein scandal by Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, Bloom said she “could discredit his accusers and make [Weinstein] a hero.”

The Times published an alleged memo from Bloom with an action plan to bolster Weinstein’s image. Bloom’s strategy allegedly included placing articles with favorable news outlets to discredit Weinstein accuser Rose McGowan.

She also said she could suppress negative stories that appear in a Google search.

“I feel equipped to help you against the Roses of the world, because I have represented so many of them,” Bloom allegedly wrote.

“As I’ve been saying for over five years, this has been a political scheme orchestrated by Gloria Allred, Kevin Steele, and Judge Steven T. O’Neill to destroy Mr. Cosby and his legacy,” Andrew Wyatt, Cosby’s longtime spokesman, wrote in an email to NNPA Newswire.

“These egregious characters are cut from the same cloth as the man residing in the White House – racist, white elitists who have acknowledged in their actual email transmissions that they have a deep-rooted hatred for Mr. Cosby. Kevin Steele, Stu Ryan, Thomas McGoldrick, and Jesse King all should be rounded up, investigated by the FBI and charged for abusing their power,” Wyatt wrote.

He continued:

“Most importantly, they should be charged for filing false charges against Mr. Cosby, who always believed that white racists politically motivated his conviction in the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

“Mr. Cosby feels that if the Superior Court is truly fair and impartial, they will grant him a new trial in lieu of this newly found evidence called Email-gate.”

Bonjean said prosecutors are supposed to be looking for the truth.

“They are not supposed to be advancing the political agenda. I understand it’s a political position, but that’s not supposed to be your motivation,” Bonjean stated.

“Prosecutors are supposed to be seeking truth by the rules of professional responsibility. So, when you see these types of things, it makes you question whether they are seeking the truth or do they have an agenda that they’re going to advance regardless of what the truth is.”

She continued:

“This is a concern, but also a concern is that when you see this win-at-all-cost attitude that this agency had so much so that they were literally designing a campaign around the idea of convicted a single person. When you see this win-at-all-cost attitude, that’s where miscarriages of justice happen. And so it should give us defense attorneys real pause because we should be thinking about what else is out there.

“I certainly would like to know because prosecutors have so much power, and they have the ability to do good. This behavior puts people at risk. This type of unethical behavior can undermine the fairness of the process. I am hoping that we will have the opportunity to see what else is out there. And it makes me think that we should be exploring these other possibilities because the win-at-all-costs is a red flag for us that we should be investigating.”

The emails also “show a common scheme led by [District Attorney] Kevin Steele and his cohorts in order to create scandal against Mr. Cosby so that they could fabricate a motive to bring sexual assault charges against Mr. Cosby,” stated Wyatt.

“We now have substantial proof that our suspicions regarding this false conviction against Mr. Cosby, Wyatt wrote. “Thus, you will notice that these emails were disseminated amongst various assistant district attorneys within Montgomery County; several months before any charges were filed against Mr. Cosby.”

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke

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PRESS ROOM: NBA Hall of Fame Nominee Terry Cummings Joins 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to Launch Victory & Values Initiative

NNPA NEWSWIRE — NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th.

Published

1 week ago

February 27, 2026

admin

Cummings becomes an honorary member, joining other role model sports stars

NBA Hall of Fame nominee and Basketball Legend Terry Cummings has officially become an honorary member of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County, marking a powerful new chapter for the 100 Black Men and youth development across the region.

Cummings was administered the official member’s oath and ceremonially pinned during a special induction ceremony held on Friday, February 20th. The moment signified more than membership — it marked the launch of the organization’s transformative new platform, the Victory & Values Initiative.

The Victory & Values Initiative is a groundbreaking youth development program designed to empower elementary and middle school students through a dynamic blend of sports, mentorship, and STEM exposure. The initiative focuses on building health, discipline, character, leadership, and access to opportunity — creating pathways for long-term academic and personal success.

“This is about more than sports,” said Cummings during the ceremony. “It’s about using the platform of athletics to teach life lessons, create access, and build the next generation of leaders.”

The induction ceremony also featured notable guests including NASCAR’s newest Star Driver, Lavar Scott and NASCAR Director of Athletic Performance, Phil Horton, who joined Cummings for a powerful Victory & Values Town Hall discussion. The Town Hall was moderated by renowned Sports Emcee John Hollins and focused on leadership, resilience, discipline, and the importance of mentorship in shaping young lives.

A “Day at NASCAR” for 75+ Youth

Cummings wasted no time getting to work. On his first full day as an honorary member, he joined his new brothers of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County to host a “Day at NASCAR,” escorting more than 75 youth to a once-in-a-lifetime experience at EchoPark Motor Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway).

The youth participants received behind-the-scenes access including: an exclusive tour of Pit Row, access to the Garage Area and exploration of the interactive Fan Zone.

The experience culminated with a surprise meet-and-greet and Q&A session with NASCAR Superstar Bubba Wallace, who shared insights on perseverance, preparation, and breaking barriers in professional sports.

The day served as a living example of the ‘Victory & Values’ Initiative in action — exposing youth to new industries, expanding their vision for the future, and connecting them directly with high- level mentors and role models.

Building Leaders Through Access and Mentorship

The 100 Black Men of DeKalb County – a chapter of the largest, national mentoring organization in the county – continues to expand its footprint with programs focused on academic excellence, economic empowerment, leadership development, and health & wellness.

The launch of ‘Victory & Values’ represents a strategic expansion of the organization’s impact

intentionally integrating athletics and STEM to engage youth at an early age while reinforcing core principles such as integrity, accountability, teamwork, and perseverance.

“Our mission has always been to mentor the next generation,” said Vaughn Irons, President-Elect of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County. “With Terry Cummings joining the brotherhood, along with partners in NASCAR and professional sports, we are creating unprecedented access and exposure for our youth. Victory & Values is about turning inspiration into structured opportunity.”

By connecting elementary and middle school students to professional athletes, executives, STEM professionals, and community leaders, the initiative aims to:

Increase youth exposure to careers in sports business, engineering, and performance science
Strengthen mentorship pipelines
Promote physical wellness and mental resilience
Build character-driven leadership at an early age

Open Invitation to Youth and Families

All youth are invited to participate in the Victory & Values Initiative, along with the other countless, impactful programs offered by the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County.

Parents and guardians seeking mentorship, leadership development, academic enrichment, and transformative exposure opportunities for their children are encouraged to connect with the organization.

As NBA Legend Terry Cummings’ induction demonstrates, Victory & Values is more than a program — it is a movement designed to build champions in life, not just in sports.

For more information about the Victory & Values Initiative or to enroll a student, contact: 100 Black Men of DeKalb County at Phone at 404.241.1338, info@100bmod.org or Tee Foxx at 404.791.6525,