By now we’ve all heard the speculation regarding the shooting at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Did USSS — the U.S. Secret Service — do a great job? Terrible job? Middling?
We here at The Ops Desk have been all over this topic for a week now. As we’ve said consistently: the “original sin” was choosing to hold an event with nearly the entire hierarchy of the executive branch in a huge, working hotel.
But what nags at us now: the ballistics just don’t add up. And that leads to all sorts of questions.
First, let’s acknowledge something up front. The agents of USSS are brave people. Whatever you think of the current status and leadership of the agency, these are people who come to work everyday knowing they are literally expected to take a bullet as part of their job description. All respect to the individual agents.
Now to the lingering questions this writer has. First, to recap the video most of us have seen by now (see below): the shooter, having descended 10 flights from his room, enters the anteroom just outside the main ballroom, armed and dressed in a long overcoat. At that point, one of the guard dogs appears to pick up his scent, alerts to him, and follows him into a different room (reportedly, a small closet-type room of some sort). The dog’s handler then appears to pull the dog away. The shooter then comes out at a run, attempting to breach the magnetometers.
Let’s start with the dog. Service dogs are there to do exactly what this dog did — pick up on a suspect armed with either explosives or a firearm (yes — the dogs are trained to alert to the scent of gunpowder). Why on earth did the handler pull him away?
Now, dogs who alert to a scent “confirm” their findings various ways — generally, but sitting. Some point, like hunting dogs. This dog doesn’t appear to do either of those things. Further, handlers get to know their dogs intimately. Did the dog simply not react sufficiently to alert his handler? Hard to tell from the video. But in truth: it doesn’t look like the handler really gives the dog a chance. If nothing else, in light of the equities here, one would expect the handler to at least give the dog more of a chance. Or perhaps to simply ask a question of this strangely garbed man who seems to enter a closet with a bomb dog that is suddenly interested in him.
Then there’s this. As the perp runs towards the magnetometers, one officer, on the lower left of the video, reacts faster than the others. He definitely appears to fire, point blank, and miss (miraculously, he doesn’t hit the three unarmed TSA agents leaning against the far wall). The perp does not appear to fire at this point, nor anywhere in the video so far released — there is no telltale smoke from the perp’s shotgun, nor is there any apparent recoil from the shotgun (for what a Mossberg shotgun blast looks like, see here).
So far, the reporting indicates only one Secret Service agent fired. This is important.
Because herein the contradiction: According to the criminal complaint (linked here), the same agent who fired at the perp is the one who was hit by the shot the perp fired.
U.S. Secret Service Officer V.G. was shot once in the chest; Officer V.G. was wearing a ballistic vest at the time…. Officer V.G. drew his service weapon and fired multiple times at ALLEN, who fell to the ground and suffered minor injuries but was not shot. ALLEN was subsequently arrested. [from the Criminal Complaint Affidavit]
Which means: the agent on the lower left, who we see fire, is the agent who was shot.
How can that be?
The perp is apparently tackled almost immediately upon leaving the frame of the video. It is therefore awfully hard to see how he could have had time to turn and fire back at the USSS agent who fired on him. Further — why would he? He’s past that guy. He’s trying to get into the ballroom.
Furthermore, if the officer we see fire in the video is the one who was hit — he would have reacted — we would see him knocked back. A Mossberg shotgun packs a hell of a wallop at close range.
Now, AG Todd Blanche stated unequivocally at one of the pressers that the perp fired one round, and that the shell casing for that round was still in the shotgun. We take him at his word.
Further: a shotgun blast at any distance would spray pellets everywhere. It is doubtful the USSS agent would have just a localized “bruise” beneath his bulletproof vest. He’d have shrapnel in his face, arms, etc (the perp wrote in his manifesto that he loaded the shotgun with buckshot).
And if the perp’s shot was from point-blank range — which is DOJ’s current narrative — then it is hard to see how the only injury to the USSS agent who was hit, whoever it was, would be simply a bruise, requiring just an overnight observation in the hospital. Ballistic vests are not designed to stop such a blast. A shotgun at point-blank range is going to do a lot of damage.
So what actually happened? Was it friendly fire that hit the agent? The current narrative from DOJ and USSS Director Curran is no.
Or: did the agent accidentally manage to shoot him or herself?
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It Always Ends Badly, Doesn’t It?
So you may have seen the polling recently. Among liberals and Democrats under 45, roughly 66% now favor socialism. And the optics back it up — substantial crowds gathering for May Day in all our major cities. There’s a vibe: moral certainty without practical anchor, posture and pose without structure. It’s less an ideology than a costume, a search for identity dressed up as one.
With that, a recent story from out west caught our eye. Meet Kai Sorem, a young man whose sad story captures this new trend all-too-authentically.
Here’s a young American from Washington State who, by all outward measures, had the ingredients for a stable, productive life. Good schooling, healthy, recognized widely for his potential. Instead, he pivoted hard: a newly embraced identity, a break from whatever grounding he had, and then the leap — gripped by social justice fervor, he traveled to the Philippines to insert himself into a counter-insurgency conflict he didn’t understand and didn’t belong in. He didn’t find purpose. He found a war.
Oh — and of course he decided to transition in the process. The numerous memorial pages dedicated to him all identify Kai as a “trans-woman,” and use the “she” pronoun.
What links the crowd-level trend to the individual outcome is the absence of guardrails. Institutions that once channeled risk — military service, civic engagement, even traditional career paths — have been replaced by futile, self-directed narratives, often fueled by online reinforcement loops. There’s always some idiotic Reddit page out there to tell you how wonderful your choices are. The result is escalation: bigger statements, riskier moves, thinner connections to reality.
Kai’s story ends how you might expect: killed when the the Philippine military attacked the insurgent camp Kai and his cronies were holed up in.
What a waste. How pointless. And predictable.
Sorem’s story is extreme. But it’s not disconnected. It’s what happens when the search for meaning outruns the structures that used to shape it. And when bad choices are not only indulged — they’re encouraged.
New Orleans Blues
New Orleans and corruption have been synonymous for decades. As such, it comes as no surprise that the Sheriff of New Orleans, Susan Hutson, was indicted last week by a special grand jury empaneled by the Louisiana Attorney General, Liz Murrill.
What is surprising is the event that sparked the investigation. On May 16, 2025, 10 inmates, including accused and convicted murderers, escaped from the New Orleans Justice Center. The escape went unreported for 10 hours, a strong indication that supervision was a disaster. In most successful escapes, there is usually some degree of error or policy failure, but we cannot recall a case where that rose to the level of criminality (except in cases of collusion).
In an environment as rife with corruption as New Orleans, there can always be an exception. Sheriff Hutson and her Chief Financial Officer Bianca Brown were both the subject of a massive indictment that included charges of Malfeasance in Office, Filing False Public Records, and Obstruction of Justice.
It appears the escape itself, while inexcusable, was not the only cause of the prosecution. Hutson and Brown likely hid understaffing and perhaps financial crimes in their record keeping, creating a dangerous environment inside the prison.
The indictment itself is barebones, simply listing the statutes and not giving any indication of the narrative behind the charges. This gives prosecutors some leeway in court but leaves the public wanting more information about the acts that led to the charges.
No doubt, the particulars will be disclosed as the case proceeds, but it is safe to say Hutson and Brown were not simply incompetent or negligent (although that remains a strong possibility). The jail they supervised was a well-documented mess of understaffing, non-existent supervision, and poor maintenance. They likely made it worse and then tried to cover it up.
An audit ordered by the Louisiana State Legislature supports this assertion. It found the prisoner population increased by nearly 50 percent between 2022 and 2025, while staffing rose only 7 percent. In the week of the jailbreak, security patrols were skipped 70 percent of the time.
That is outrageous. The ease with which these dangerous inmates escaped indicates that guard staffing wasn’t the only thing neglected. Leadership also appears non-existent.
This isn’t news to the powers that be in New Orleans. The New Orleans Sheriff’s Office has been operating under a consent decree from the U.S. Department of Justice since 2013. It apparently isn’t working. The DOJ has highlighted manpower problems in Hutson’s jail for years, indicating this has been an ongoing issue that should have been fixed long ago. It would come as no surprise if Hutson and Brown were giving false data to the judge supervising the consent decree.
It took months for all 10 inmates to be captured. The final prisoner, Derrick Groves, wasn’t recaptured until October 2025. He was in jail after being convicted of a double murder and was most definitely a danger to the public. And the group of escapees weren’t shy about where the blame lay for their easy exit. They wrote graffiti above the hole they made behind their toilet: “to easy lol,” indicating a complete breakdown of supervision at the jail complex run by Hutson. Not only did they not try to hide it—they advertised it!
Considering the spelling from these inmantes, we can only surmise that they’re products of the New Orleans public school system.
It seems everyone knew about the malfeasance at the New Orleans Justice Center—the feds, the legislature, the guards, the sheriff, even the perps. The incompetent Hutson is facing serious jail time. No doubt, more misconduct will emerge. The question is, “Will anything change?” Anywhere else the answer would be yes. In New Orleans, anything is possible.
In the Big Easy, it is “to easy” indeed.
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Justice For SOME In Minneapolis
On April 11, a young female reporter was assaulted by spouses Christopher and DeYanna Ostroushko and their daughter, Paige, while covering a protest in Minneapolis. The reporter’s glasses were broken; she suffered a concussion, neck and back pain, and scrapes on her legs—an obvious assault. Yet no members of the Ostroushko family were initially charged.
If the reporter worked for CNN, we have little doubt the trio would have been immediately arrested. But the reporter, Savanah Hernandez, 23, worked for Turning Point USA, so prosecutions were put on hold by the radical Hennepin County DA, Mary Moriarty.
The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office filed no charges despite all three family members being arrested by sheriff’s deputies on scene. Moriarty changed course only after the U.S. Department of Justice indicted the three on April 28. She quickly announced misdemeanor charges against only Christopher Ostroushko on April 29th.
That charge appears driven by scrutiny following the federal indictment. Moriarty’s hand was forced, and her delay highlights bias against conservative victims in her jurisdiction.
As the left often claims, we are a nation of laws. Clearly, that only applies when victims align with a particular political persuasion in Moriarty’s district. That is an unacceptable travesty of justice—especially in an assault that chills freedom of the press and speech, two core rights.
Moriarty should be ashamed. This was a ground-ball case. Charges could have been brought immediately or within days. Only politics explains a nearly 20-day delay. Video, the victim’s statement, and basic witness follow-up were more than sufficient to proceed.
Moriarty should explain her actions. Voters on all sides should remember this in the next Hennepin County Attorney election. She has already announced she will not run again, despite a strong 2022 victory. But another progressive is on the ballot. Cedrick Frazier is running against former U.S. Attorney Anders Folk. Hennepin County residents should vote for experience and impartiality this fall and elect Folk.
And Harmeet Dhillon should expand her investigation to why the Hennepin County District Attorney seems so resistant to doing her job when it comes to conservatives.
Weekend Pod: Are You SURE You Understand The James Comey Case?
Friends, the James Comey case has been reported as simply a case of a series of seashells broadcast over the internet forming a threat. But is there more?
There is.
Join Paul, Chris, and Eric as we discuss why there is more here than meets the eye. And why Mr. Comey may well have trouble ahead.
For instance: Were you aware that there’s a forfeiture action included in the indictment? If so — have you asked yourself why?
So join the boys for a deep-dive into the current case against former FBI Director James Comey. Click below for the sizzle reel, and HERE for the full thing….
Brainpower for Beijing: Charles Lieber, Soft Justice, and a Hard National Security Lesson
There’s an old saying in policing: follow the pattern, not the excuse. And when you look at the story of Charles Lieber, the pattern should concern every American.
First, some background. Let’s recall a previous Ops Drop, featuring Chinese spies and the Democrats who love them:
Disgraced former California Congressman Eric Swalwell, who had a relationship with Chinese spy Fang Fang.
Deceased California Senator, Dianne Feinstein, who employed a driver for 20 years who was a confirmed Chinese spy.
Former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “liaison” to the Asian community, Larry He, who had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Former Chief Diversity Officer to Andrew Cuomo and Deputy Chief of Staff to current NY Governor Kathy Hochul, Linda Sun, who has been charged with a $44 million dollar COVID-fraud scheme. She had previously been arrested on eight counts of operation as an agent of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party.
Hunter and “the Big Guy” Joe Biden, who were happy to be in the oil business with the man Hunter himself called, “the f*cking spy chief of China.”
Are are liberals ever going to start taking the Chinese seriously?
Now meet Charles Lieber, Harvard scientist. Lieber was not some fringe academic working in obscurity. He was one of the crown jewels of American science—a world-renowned former Harvard chemistry chairman, a pioneer in nanotechnology, and a researcher operating at the razor’s edge of innovation. His work focused on nanoscale materials—ultra-small electronic structures that can directly interface with living tissue, including the human brain. That means nanowires, bioelectronic sensors, and advanced neural interfaces capable of connecting electronics to biology in ways that sound like science fiction but are rapidly becoming scientific fact.
Handled responsibly, this technology could transform medicine. It could restore movement to paralysis victims, improve prosthetic control, and unlock new treatments for devastating neurological diseases. In the right hands, it’s revolutionary.
In the wrong hands, it’s strategic power. And that’s where the Charles Lieber story turns from academic scandal to national security warning flare.
Lieber was convicted in federal court in December 2021 after a jury found him guilty on six felony counts for lying about his financial ties to China’s Thousand Talents Program—a state-backed recruitment pipeline designed to pull elite scientific expertise out of the West and over to Beijing. Prosecutors established that Lieber concealed hundreds of thousands of dollars he’d received from affiliations with such entities as the Wuhan University of Technology — all while receiving U.S. taxpayer-supported research funding.
Read that again: OUR money helped fund a scientist who was secretly in Beijing’s employ. There’s a word for that, we think. Oh yeah — spying.
Then came the sentence—and for many, the shock.
Massachusetts federal judge Rya Zobel, appointed by Jimmy Carter and herself a Harvard alumnus, sentenced Lieber to just two days in prison—the time he spent in custody at arrest—followed by six months under home confinement.
He also received supervised release and financial penalties, but from a counterintelligence standpoint, the message landed with a thud: one of America’s most prized scientific minds was caught concealing his ties to a strategic rival, and the practical punishment amounted to less jail time than many street-level offenders receive.
Now Lieber has resurfaced in China, reportedly leading Shenzhen’s Institute for Brain Research, Advanced Interfaces and Neurotechnologies—known as i-BRAIN—where he is working on advanced brain-computer interface technology with state backing. Yup — he went there.
Note that this is not small-ball science. Brain-computer interfaces are next-generation capability. Civilian uses may help the disabled communicate or control robotic limbs — but military applications could one day improve command-and-control systems, accelerate battlefield decision-making, and enhance man-machine integration for warfighters.
And under Beijing’s military-civil fusion doctrine, the distinction between civilian and military technology is generally paper thin.
Here’s the hard truth cops understand: capability plus intent equals threat. China is building capability at breakneck speed. Its intent—to surpass the United States technologically, economically, and militarily—is no secret. That’s a threat.
America didn’t just lose a professor. We helped train, fund, and empower a scientific asset now working to advance the ambitions of our chief geopolitical rival.
And when we caught him at it originally, the usual pinheaded academic-industrial complex, led by Harvard, let him off the hook.
Seems the left’s vast capacity for “tolerance” is tolerating America right out of our leadership role in the world. Which is, undoubtedly, what they want.
And finally….
As Chief Justice Roberts famously put it all the way back in 2007: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Looks like the left just lost the last card it plays whenever its out of arguments.
What if, what if….he was strapped with a frag bomb ? What if there we say five of them working as an assassination team ? The combinations are many. Lucky was the watchword. I conclude the Service needed to do a much better job.
Everything you have said is, once again, spot on. I saw you on America's Newsroom recently, and man, let me tell you....it was refreshing to see a Fox News contributor not tow the company line and not speculate, but simply lay out the facts we have been presented with thus far.
USA Pirro has now charged the suspect with shooting the agent. I am curious to see how she is going to connect the "round" (it is a single pellet of birdshot) that was taken from the vest of the agent to the shotgun the suspect had in his possession. I am not considered a ballistics expert, but I don't believe it is possible to say with any amount of certainty that a birdshot pellet came from a particular firearm, much less prove it in a court of law. Also, let's not forget that this is the same prosecutor who couldn't get a suspect indicted for assaulting a federal agent even though he was seen on video hurling an object into the agent's chest.