National Security

Second D.C. police officer dies by suicide after Capitol riots

Published

3 years ago

January 28, 2021

A D.C. police officer who responded to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has died by suicide, according to Washington D.C.’s police chief.

Officer Jeffrey Smith is one of two cops to die by suicide due to the aftermath of the riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Officer Smith was a 12-year veteran of the force and was assigned to patrol D.C.’s 2nd District.

D.C. Acting Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday that Officer Smith died after the attack.

“Tragically, two officers who were at the Capitol on January 6th, one each from the Capitol Police and MPD, took their own lives in the aftermath of that battle,” Contee said in his statement.

According to Contee, Smith was injured during the Capitol attack.

“That was a very sad and tragic situation for us,” Contee said during a press conference on Wednesday. “He had been injured as a result of the confrontation that had occurred at the Capitol and a couple of days after that, the officer, he took his life.”

U.S. Capitol Police officer Howard Liebengood died by suicide three days after the siege. A spokesperson with the U.S. Capitol Police said Liebengood was assigned to the Senate Division and had been with the department since April 2005.

Another Capitol Police officer, Brian D. Sicknick, died the day after the riot “due to injuries sustained while on-duty,” the Capitol Police said in a statement earlier this month.

“We honor the service and sacrifices of officers Brian Sicknick, Howard Liebengood and Jeffrey Smith, and offer condolences to all the grieving families,” Contee said.

“The costs for this insurrection – both human and monetary – will be steep.”

According to the DC Police and the Capitol Police officers’ union, about 140 law enforcement officers were injured in the attack.

Follow Annaliese Levy on Twitter @AnnalieseLevy

China

Obama former AG lobbying Pentagon on behalf of a Communist Chinese drone company

Published

13 hours ago

March 15, 2024

Sara Carter Staff

President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, has reportedly been lobbying to the United States Pentagon on behalf of a Chinese company, Fox News Digital reported. The company, known as DJI, makes Chinese military tech.

Reuters reported that Lynch, now a partner at law firm Paul, Weiss, could be leveraging her government connections in order to aid the Chinese government-linked company. One specific move Lynch has done is she wrote a letter to the Pentagon last summer on behalf of one of her clients, SZ DJI Technology Co., asking for them to be removed from the DOD’s list of Chinese military companies.

Fox News reports:

DJI is one of the largest producers of drones in the world. The U.S. Treasury placed investment restrictions on it in December 2021, accusing it and seven other companies of actively supporting surveillance and repression efforts against Uyghurs.

Meanwhile, in Congress, a House GOP-led effort could restrict DJI’s activity in the U.S. even further. Stefanik and House China select Committee Chair Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., are leading a bill called the Countering CCP Drones Act, which would ban DJI from operating on U.S. communications infrastructure.

House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital “It is disgraceful but unsurprising that Barack Obama’s former Attorney General Loretta Lynch is now working on behalf of a Communist Chinese drone company that the Department of Defense has identified as a Chinese military company.”

“Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch is lobbying the DOD to request they remove DJI from this list so the Communist Chinese company can operate with impunity in America. U.S. government officials, both past and present, should be working to ban these Communist Chinese spy drones and bolster the domestic drone industry, not advocating on behalf of a Chinese military company and the Chinese Communist Party.”