Chargers’ Khalil Mack, Joey Bosa took pay cuts for chance to win

• June 13, 2024

COSTA MESA — Khalil Mack said Wednesday he was willing to restructure his contract during the offseason in order to stay with the Chargers because he believed it was his best chance to win. Joey Bosa said he was willing to restructure his contract because he, too, believed it was his best chance to win.

It might have seemed like a leap of faith to outsiders, given the Chargers’ 5-12 record and last-place finish in the AFC West during the 2023 season. But it was a no-brainer for Mack and Bosa, two veteran outside linebackers who are closer to the end of their careers than to their beginnings.

Mack and Bosa had their reasons, and they echoed each other in separate sessions with reporters after the second day of the Chargers’ three-day, mandatory minicamp. The hiring of Jim Harbaugh as Brandon Staley’s replacement as coach only heightened their desire to stay put.

“A lot of things went into it, but ultimately, just understanding where I’m at in my career right now and the best chance to win, that’s what it came down to,” said Mack, who is entering his third season with the Chargers and his 11th in the NFL. “I don’t have any years to waste. … That was an easy decision.”

Mack, 33, is coming off a season in which he recorded a career-best 17 sacks and topped 100 overall for a career that has been highlighted by eight selections to the Pro Bowl but zero Super Bowl appearances. He played all 17 games last season, and he had no desire to play anywhere else this season.

“Ultimately, it came down to wanting to win and this was the best team and the best chance,” he said. “There were a lot of different reasons, but understanding when you go to battle with somebody, you kind of know what you’re getting. … I know these guys (the Chargers), man, they’ve got what it takes.”

Mack said his faith in his teammates starts with quarterback Justin Herbert and continues with “my guys on defense,” including Bosa and fellow edge rushers Tuli Tuipulotu and Bud Dupree. He said he knows what’s needed to turn the Chargers from pretenders to contenders in the 2024 season.

The Harbaugh Effect was important, too.

“He’s a straight shooter,” Mack said. “I think one of the first conversations we had I let him know I signed back here to win. To win. I’m not coming on to play competitive football. I want to play meaningful football at the end of the year. So, that was pretty much our conversation.”

Bosa made similar statements during his interview.

“I want to win, I want to be on this team,” Bosa said. “I want another shot with the guys in this room, especially Khalil. And, yeah, that’s what it was. Winning football games is more important to me right now than making some extra money. We have a great opportunity here. Who knows? Maybe I’ll have a great year this year.”

Bosa did not have a great season in 2023. He was limited to only nine games because of injuries, including a season-ending sprained foot suffered during a loss in Week 11 against the Green Bay Packers. He also had toe, hamstring and hand ailments that limited his availability and effectiveness.

“I think if a guy like Khalil, coming off a year with 17 sacks, can take that (pay) cut, it shows the kind of guy he is and the kind of culture we have brewing here, and that’s who I want to be with,” Bosa said in his first public comments since before he was injured in the game against the Packers last Nov. 19.

“It was a pretty easy decision.”

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Bosa, 28, also acknowledged the importance of Harbaugh’s hiring in reworking his contract and remaining with the Chargers for a ninth season. Harbaugh spent nine years coaching the University of Michigan, leading the Wolverines to a 15-0 record and the national championship last season.

“It’s definitely a factor that we’re bringing in maybe the final piece to figure this stuff out,” Bosa said of Harbaugh’s hiring. “I didn’t really get to talk to him too much before that decision was made, but, yeah, it definitely was a factor. (But also) just the guys on the team and my history here and the way things are trending in the right direction, I wanted to be here for this moment.”

​ Orange County Register 

Swanson: A Lakers legend, Jerry West found a loving home with Clippers

• June 13, 2024

Regrettable, that the rift between the Lakers and Jerry West lasted until his death on Wednesday at 86.

A shame that the man whose inspiring life and legacy can’t be talked about without mentioning the Lakers – for whom he played 14 years and whose front-office tenure led to five NBA titles – was on poor terms with the franchise when he passed away.

West would have liked to end his NBA career with the Lakers – if they’d wanted him back. They didn’t, though, so in 2017, he joined the Clippers, with whom he was a celebrated and beloved, and yes, much-consulted consultant and executive board member.

On Wednesday, his Clippers colleagues – from owner Steve Ballmer to Coach Tyronn Lue to members of the team’s media contingent – joined the rest of the basketball world in a public outpouring of sentiment that spoke substantively to West’s class and competitiveness, his astounding basketball sensibilities and sense of humor, his passion and place in history.

Lakers owner Jeanie Buss also posted a personal tribute on Instagram and Magic Johnson, in one of his most heartfelt social media posts, assured fans that West, “despite holding jobs with other franchises … was a Lakers fan for life.” But the team itself put out just a succinct 55-word statement.

“Jerry West is forever a basketball icon. He brought Lakers fans their first championship in Los Angeles in 1972 and was integral to another six titles during his time with us. Our thoughts are with the West family and the many NBA fans who honor his legacy. Jerry West will always be a Lakers legend.”

This is the full Lakers statement pic.twitter.com/0dTQoa1WcZ

— Daman Rangoola (@damanr) June 12, 2024

Stinks, re-reading what West – the worldly and wise West Virginian – told The Athletic in 2022: “When I look back, I say, ‘Well, maybe I should have played somewhere else instead of with the Lakers, where someone would have at least appreciated how much you give, how much you cared.’”

Wonderful, though, to know that West landed with the Clippers for what he deemed his “last adventure.”

Heartening, because I can tell you, in Clipperdom, the man is greatly appreciated. And it’s lost on nobody there how much he cared.

Talking on Wednesday with members of the organization who worked closely with him in recent years, that – the great care he took with everyone and every task – was the prevailing sentiment.

Just as Magic and Kobe Bryant before them, Clippers stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were among the Clippers who would receive regular tutelage from West, because he was such a regular presence at the practice facility. Just as he was at games. And at team officials’ meetings. And, often, plopped down in his colleagues’ offices for lengthy, illuminating conversation.

He was always available to talk on the way home after games, to discuss what went well and not so well, what was going right and what could be better. He would frequently text players and coaches. He made everyone around him think, and, oh, did he make them laugh. “I can’t overstate enough what a fun person he was to work with,” said Lee Jenkins, the Clippers’ vice president of basketball affairs.

West was locked in at 4 p.m. every day when NBA action began on the East Coast, and he used his remarkable mental bandwidth to store volumes of information about college prospects.

And he lived for the moment, Jenkins said. A Hall of Famer, West rarely would reminisce about his monumental success – and then you had to pull those stories out of him. Or they had to serve a teaching purpose, said Mark Hughes, the Clippers’ senior vice president/assistant general manager.

“He was as humble a person as you would ever find, his humility and his willingness to share was special,” Hughes said. “If you were Steve Ballmer or Gus working in the equipment room, he gave people his time. He did that.”

One of his dearest friends on the Clippers’ basketball operations staff was Rishabh Desai, who was West’s junior by close to a half-century.

As Ballmer put it in a sincere collection of thoughts online: “He cared about everything and everyone.”

This is a hard day. I am honored to call Jerry a confidant, an advisor and a friend. Connie, my wife, called him my ‘basketball dad.’ He was absolutely my basketball sage: wise, loyal and so much fun. If you were in his presence, you felt his competitiveness and his drive. He…

— Steve Ballmer (@Steven_Ballmer) June 12, 2024

And Lue, a former Lakers guard drafted by West in 1998, said in his statement: “Whether I was playing or coaching, he was there for me with advice and encouragement. Sometimes, he was just there to listen.”

When West was introduced as a member of the Clippers’ organization in Playa Vista on June 14, 2017, his presence alone instantly added a mountain of credibility to the franchise working to shed its decades-long image as a laughingstock.

So even when the Clippers made controversial moves – say, trading Blake Griffin shortly after he’d signed a five-year $171 million contract to return – fans saw them differently with West aboard.

As Brian Sieman, the team’s talented TV play-by-play broadcaster, explained: “Many people felt ‘if Jerry West approves this, so do I.’”

But West never wanted credit: “Oh no,” he told Dan Patrick on his show shortly after the Clippers landed Leonard and George in one blockbuster night in 2019. “I should get very little (credit) at all. I’ve gotten far too much credit in my life, Dan, I really have.”

What West wanted was to win. To be part of a group working together toward that goal.

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He’d pulled the levers to bring Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant to the Lakers in 1996. West served as an adviser to Golden State Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber from 2011 to 2017, when they won the first two of their four most recent championships. And West helped turn the previously hapless Memphis Grizzlies into a playoff-caliber team.

Of the Clippers, he said he’d “never been around any organization that’s better than this one, that’s for sure.”

He wanted to help the Clippers level up, and in 2021, they took a step. Despite losing Leonard to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the second round, they still managed to reach the Western Conference finals for the first time. But there’s been no title.

During an appearance on George’s “Podcast P” show a year ago, West bemoaned the team’s recent postseason misfortune, wondering if perhaps there wasn’t, in fact, a jinx or hex in place.

I know this: If the stars ever do align and a championship does come the Clippers’ way, West will have helped point them in the right direction. And the Clippers will absolutely, happily continue to give him the credit he’s due.

On behalf of Tyronn Lue, on the passing of Jerry West. pic.twitter.com/h6X0qX136H

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) June 12, 2024

​ Orange County Register 

Fryer: A look back at Orange County’s highlights, standouts in 2023-24

• June 13, 2024

It is impossible in the space provided to include all of the Orange County highlights from the 2023-24 high school sports year.

Here is some of it …

• Orange County’s most dominating athlete this year might have been Newport Harbor senior wrestler Duda Rodrigues. She went undefeated for the second year in a row, winning everything she could through the CIF State Championships, where she pinned all of her opponents to win the 155-pound title. Rodrigues competed in high school wrestling for only two years, having moved to Orange County from Brazil before her junior year. …

• Also dominating this year was Santa Margarita swimmer Teagan O’Dell, who might turn out to be Orange County’s best girls swimmer since Janet Evans at El Dorado in the 1980s. O’Dell, a junior, swam county-leading times in five events. At the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championships, O’Dell won the 200 individual medley in 1 minute, 53.63 seconds, just shy of the national-high school record (1:53.38) she set at the 2023 CIF State finals. …

• Another likely near-future Olympian was JSerra senior Ryder Dodd, who scored 103 goals this year although he missed a few games while leading Team USA in scoring at the Pan American Games. …

• Dodd was selected as the male athlete of the year by the Orange County Athletic Directors Association. OCADA named Ocean View senior Isis Salazar the girls athlete of the year. Salazar competed in five sports this year. Two years ago, she scored a touchdown as a running back on the Ocean View football team. …

• The best athletic event of the year might have been Mater Dei vs. Servite boys volleyball match on March 13 at Servite. Mater Dei won the first two sets, Servite won the next two sets. In the decisive fifth set, Servite and Mater Dei traded match-point chances before Mater Dei took the set for the victory, 25-18, 25-17, 24-26, 23-25, 23-21. …

• Servite’s 27-20 overtime win over Long Beach Poly in the CIF-SS Division 2 football playoffs was a dazzler, too. Servite could have won it in regulation but an extra-point attempt went awry, Poly missed a field goal on the final play of regulation, and overtime’s final play was a Poly fumble recovered by Servite’s Brandon Mosqueda. …

Servite wide receiver Devan Parker, left,, wide receiver Quinn Rosenkranz, center, and running back Quaid Carr, right, celebrate winning the CIF-SS Division 2 quarterfinal playoff against Long Beach Poly in Norwalk on Friday, November 10, 2023. (Photo by Paul Rodriguez, Contributing Photographer)

• Another great football game was Mission Viejo’s 34-28 triple-overtime win over Los Alamitos in a nonleague game in September. …

• The most impactful news of the 2023-24 school year relates to what’s coming for the 2024-25 school year and beyond: teams in most sports will be placed into CIF Southern Section playoff divisions according to that season’s regular-season performance. That’s how it’s has been done for football the last two seasons. Now other sports will do the same, using ratings compiled by MaxPreps.com and others. …

• The second-most impactful news of the school year also relates to what’s coming in 2024-25: new league structures were approved by county schools in October. Included is the construction of the Crestview League boys basketball group that includes Canyon (22-8 last season), Cypress (23-7), Foothill (21-9), La Habra (29-5) and Sonora (20-9). Those five teams were 36-6 in their leagues last season. …

• In his first year as Mater Dei’s football coach, Frank McManus led the Monarchs to CIF-SS and CIF State championships. In April, the school’s administration decided it did not like the manner in which McManus was doing his job. Mater Dei hired Raul Lara, who coached Long Beach Poly to five CIF-SS championships. …

Mater Dei head coach Frank McManus, left, reacts while preparing to present the trophy to quarterback Elijah Brown, center, after the 2023 CIF Open Division high school football state championship game against Serra Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Mission Viejo, Calif. (AP Photo/Ryan Sun)

• Brea Olinda sophomore Julia Teven started the track and field season struggling to clear 4 feet, 6 inches in the high jump. She ended the season by clearing 5 feet, 7 inches to finish in third place at the CIF State meet. That’s some pretty good progress …

• Aliso Niguel sophomore Jaslene Massey was a formidable middle blocker on the school’s girls volleyball team during the fall and this spring finished third in the shot put at the CIF State meet. She also is adept in the high jump and the long jump, and just might become a fine heptathlete some day. …

• Schools like Aliso Niguel, Mission Viejo and Trabuco Hills deserve applause for adding Unified track and field to their sports programs. Unified sports pair student-athletes with intellectual disabilities with a partner who is a student-athlete who does not have intellectual disabilities to form a tandem for competition. The CIF State Track and Field Championships this past season again included unified competition. …

• Corona del Mar senior Niels Hoffman won the CIF-SS tennis individual championship, becoming only the fourth county player to win consecutive CIF-SS boys individual titles in the sport. The CIF Southern Section has held boys tennis championships since 1922. …

Corona del Mar’s Niels Hoffmann, left, stands with runner-up Tyler Lee of Beckman after capturing his second consecutive CIF-SS singles title Thursday in Claremont. (Photo by Dan Albano, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Trabuco Hills junior Holly Barker ran the second-fastest 3,200 meters in Orange County history. Her time of 10 minutes, 2.52 seconds at the Arcadia Invitational was the eighth-best time in the nation this school year. She was the county girls cross country athlete of the year in the fall. …

• Dana Hills junior Evan Noonan was Orange County’s only first-place finisher in an individual event at the CIF State Track and Field Championships where he won the 3,200 in 8:43.12. It was the third-best time in that event in county history. He is behind only 1970s greats Eric Hulst of Laguna Beach and Ralph Serna of Loara, and their respective times of 8:41.60 and 8:42.90 are converted from yards to meters. Noonan was the county boys cross country athlete of the year for the ‘23 season. …

• Fountain Valley’s boys wrestling program, led by county wrestler of the year Ryland Whitworth, won a CIF-SS individual tournament team championship for the second year in a row and for the fourth time in five years. With several non-seniors on this year’s team, including Hunter Jauregui and Chris Qureshi, it looks like Barons wrestling will be in good shape next year, too. …

• Girls flag football took off in its first year as an official CIF-SS sport. The sport has grown enough so that it will have CIF-SS championships next season. Newport Harbor, led by junior quarterback Maia Helmar, went 25-1. …

• Kevin Kiernan announced his resignation as girls basketball coach at Mater Dei. He coached the Monarchs to six CIF-SS championships and three state championships. Kiernan, one of the all-time great people in county sports, remains at Mater Dei as athletic director. Including his years at La Quinta and Troy, he is the state’s all–time leader in girls basketball coaching victories with 900. …

• Eric Borba resigned after 16 seasons as Orange Lutheran’s baseball coach. And what a way to go out. Orange Lutheran beat La Mirada in the CIF Southern California Regional Division I championship game. Borba’s teams had won some big tournaments, including three National High School Invitational championships, but had not won a championship that had the initials “CIF” on it until this year. …

Orange Lutheran head coach Eric Borba holds the championship trophy after his team defeated Corona during the championship game of the PBR Spring Invitational at Hart Park in Orange on Friday, March 8, 2024. (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG)

• Longtime Loara boys basketball coach Ed Prange died in November at age 59 of a heart attack. He was an excellent and dedicated coach, and one of the nicer people to coach the game. …

• Rich Boyce resigned as boys basketball coach at Edison. There was no smarter basketball coach in the county. …

• After 20 years of trying, JSerra boys basketball beat Mater Dei for the first time, 68-62 on Jan. 24, as senior guard Aidan Fowler scored 36 points for the Lions. …

• After the boys basketball season ended, Brandon Benjamin transferred back to Canyon after spending one season at Mater Dei. Benjamin, who will be a senior next year, was the county boys basketball player of the year at Canyon in 2022-23.

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​ Orange County Register 

Costa Mesa man charged in fatal Newport Beach crash; street racing alleged

• June 13, 2024

A 35-year-old Costa Mesa man has been charged in a two-vehicle fatal crash in Newport Beach that police said Wednesday was the result of street racing.

Andrew Bilat Awad was charged Friday with gross vehicular manslaughter with speeds exceeding 100 mph, according to the criminal complaint.

Awad is accused of killing 86-year-old Bob Gilroy of Newport Beach on Sept. 30 at MacArthur Boulevard and Bowspirit Drive, according to Sgt. Steve Oberon of the Newport Beach Police Department.

Awad was arrested Sunday, Oberon said. It was not clear if Awad was currently in custody.

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​ Orange County Register 

Suspect arrested in shooting of 2 teens in Santa Ana, killing 1

• June 13, 2024

A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of fatally shooting a 13-year-old boy and injuring a 16-year-old male bystander in Santa Ana, police said Wednesday, June 12.

The shooting occurred the afternoon of June 5 in a neighborhood on the 900 block of West Bishop Street. Two 13-year-old boys were on foot when they were shot at. One teen fled the scene uninjured while the other suffered a gunshot wound in the upper torso and died in the hospital two days later, police said in a statement.

A third teen, described as an innocent bystander, was shot inside his residence and was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

On June 7, police arrested Raymond Mario Jimenez from Santa Ana on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and shooting inside an inhabited dwelling.

The shooting was believed to be gang-related, Santa Ana police have said.

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​ Orange County Register 

Angels manager Ron Washington thrilled with players’ response to extended pregame meeting

• June 13, 2024

PHOENIX — Class went long for the Angels on Wednesday afternoon.

The Angels have met almost every day this season to go over what went wrong – and right – from the previous game, but the “classroom,” as Manager Ron Washington calls it, was different this time.

Washington said “there were some things we wanted to address,” so the session ended up being much longer than usual.

“When you get guys into what you’re doing, the conversation is getting longer and longer,” Washington said. “We ended up having to cut it off because we (could) have done it all the way to game time.”

The general theme, Washington said, “was more about us making certain that we take care of each other. Can’t get into your feelings. Just hold each other accountable. That’s all. And just play baseball. And where there are mistakes we are going to talk about it. When it’s things that are done extremely well, we’re going to talk about it, so it’s not like we just talked about negative stuff.”

Washington said a few players addressed the group.

“It was tremendous,” Washington said. “I’ve been in the game 54 years and that was one of the most moving times I’ve had with these guys. … They stood up like grown men and handled their business. I was very proud of them.”

Washington said he didn’t want to speak, but players pushed him to say a few things.

Such meetings have been necessary for the Angels as they go through this painful rebuilding season. The Angels came into Wednesday’s game with a 25-41 record. Fundamental mistakes have been frequent, including in Tuesday night’s ugly 9-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Washington said it’s important for players to help guide each other in these times, instead of simply having the coaching staff direct things.

“It’s very impactful, because we’re on them all the time as coaches,” Washington said. “It’s nice when each and every one of them hold each other accountable. And there was some accountability in there today. And I was very proud of the way they handled it. I really was. So now when they talk to (the media), don’t be surprised how well they handle themselves.”

O’HOPPE, WARD OUT

Catcher Logan O’Hoppe was not in the lineup a day after he took a foul ball square in the cup. O’Hoppe said he was “100%” physically able to play on Wednesday, but Washington wanted to give him a day off anyway.

“I just didn’t want to push him back out there,” Washington said. “He’s ready to go. He’ll be back in there tomorrow. I want him to move around and make sure everything is well.”

O’Hoppe was reluctant to miss the game, adding that his goal one day is to catch 150 games in a season.

Outfielder Taylor Ward came out of Tuesday’s game with lower back stiffness. Ward said he was “better,” on Wednesday, but he agreed that “it’s best” to take another day.

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NOTES

A day after right-hander Chase Silseth gave up six runs in 2⅔ innings in the first Triple-A game of his rehab assignment, Washington said that Silseth “came out of it healthy.” As for the performance, “I think the numbers told what he looked like.” …

Infielder Brandon Drury “came out well” after the first game of his rehab assignment at Triple-A. Drury was 1 for 3 with a walk. Drury is expected to play in the minors for the rest of the week. …

Pitching coach Barry Enright received his National League championship ring from the Diamondbacks before Wednesday night’s game. Enright was the Diamondbacks’ assistant pitching coach last season.

UP NEXT

Angels (RHP Griffin Canning, 2-6, 4.65 ERA) at Diamondbacks (RHP Brandon Pfaadt, 2-5, 4.60), Thursday, 6:40 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM

​ Orange County Register 

Republicans stick to attacking criminal justice system, echoing Trump, after Hunter Biden conviction

• June 12, 2024

By JONATHAN J. COOPER and ERIC TUCKER

PHOENIX — Republicans are responding to Hunter Biden’s conviction on federal gun charges with some version of, “That’s it?”

Loyal to Donald Trump, they largely echoed the former president’s claim that the Justice Department has treated President Joe Biden’s son with kid gloves while zealously prosecuting Trump. Using the attention given to Hunter Biden’s conviction for charges related to buying a gun while addicted to drugs, they pressed unsubstantiated or debunked allegations that Joe Biden — while vice president — acted to advance his family members’ foreign business interests.

The GOP’s argument that Joe Biden is ordering prosecutors to target political opponents has been hurt by the Biden-led Justice Department prosecuting the president’s son — with Biden declining to stop the investigation or pardon Hunter Biden. But in making that case, Republicans may be trying to deflect from Trump’s own stated intentions to wield the criminal justice system against opponents if he returns to the White House.

While president, Trump tried to undercut the Justice Department investigation into his campaign’s alleged ties to Russia and issued pardons to a raft of former campaign aides, friends and donors. And on the campaign trail, Trump has repeatedly declared he is the victim of a “rigged” system and promised to appoint a special prosecutor to target Biden and his family.

House Republicans voted Wednesday to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, further escalating their battle with the Justice Department.

And Trump sent a fundraising email with the subject line, “Haul out the Guillotine!” The email claimed Trump’s critics have a “Sick Dream” to see him beheaded, the latest example of Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric since his hush money conviction.

In a deal with prosecutors last year, Hunter Biden was supposed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble for two years. But the deal fell apart after the judge, who was nominated by Trump, questioned unusual aspects of the proposed agreement, and the lawyers could not resolve the matter.

He was convicted Tuesday and faces a potential 25 years in prison, though as a first-time offender he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.

He still faces a trial in September in California on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes, and congressional Republicans have signaled they will keep going after him in their stalled impeachment effort into the president. The president has not been accused or charged with any wrongdoing by prosecutors investigating his son.

Biden definitively ruled out pardoning his son during an ABC News interview last week. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday did not rule out the president issuing a potential commutation that might reduce or erase a sentence while leaving the conviction intact.

Hunter Biden’s conviction came weeks after a New York jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts related to a hush money payment to a porn actor during the 2016 campaign. Trump falsely claims the verdict was “rigged.” Biden said he accepted his son’s verdict.

Trump’s campaign issued a statement calling the Hunter Biden verdict “nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family.” Several of his allies followed.

“Remember this was Joe Biden’s corrupt DOJ that tried to negotiate outside immunity unrelated to this case,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican and a contender to be Trump’s vice presidential running mate. “Today is the first step in delivering accountability for the Biden Crime Family.”

Sen. J.D. Vance, an Ohio Republican and another vice presidential contender, shared a post by Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno saying the gun charges were meant to “insulate and protect” the president.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said the guilty verdict was “appropriate” and didn’t undercut his own criticism of a two-tiered system of justice for Trump and the Bidens.

“Every case is different,” Johnson said. “And clearly the evidence was overwhelming here. I don’t think that’s the case in the Trump trial, and all the charges that have been brought against him have been obviously brought for political purposes. Hunter Biden is a separate incident.”

Democrats did not attack the Justice Department or the courts. Said Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., the No. 3 House Democrat: “Hunter Biden sat before a jury of his peers, a verdict was rendered and House Democrats believe in the rule of law, and so we respect that ruling.”

As president, Trump repeatedly sought to shape the criminal inquiry into whether his 2016 presidential campaign had conspired with Russia.

He fired the FBI director who led the investigation, berated the attorney general he appointed for recusing himself from overseeing the probe and directed his White House counsel to seek the termination of special counsel Robert Mueller. Those acts, and others, contributed to an investigation into whether he had illegally sought to obstruct the Russia inquiry; Mueller did find evidence of obstruction but declined to make a finding about whether Trump had broken the law.

More recently, Trump and allies have suggested that if elected he might advocate the imprisonment of political opponents, something he championed even before he became president.

In a Fox & Friends interview this month, he falsely asserted that he had not used the words “lock her up” in reference to Hillary Clinton and his 2016 opponent’s use of a private email server to transmit sensitive information as secretary of state. He said he could’ve sought to have her jailed but that it “would have been a terrible thing.”

He suggested things are different now that he faces four felony indictments, including the New York case that resulted in a conviction.

“And then this happened to me, and so I may feel differently about it,” he said.

The charges against Hunter Biden stem from a dark period in his life, during which he acknowledges a spiraling descent following the death of his brother, Beau Biden, to cancer in 2015. Jurors found him guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer when he bought a revolver in 2018, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days.

Many in Trump’s Republican Party are staunchly against gun control and some of his supporters have questioned whether Hunter Biden should have been tried on the gun charges.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and high-profile Trump supporter, posted on X, “The Hunter Biden gun conviction is kinda dumb.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters at the Capitol that the gun charge was a “waste of time,” though he said other accusations related to Hunter Biden’s taxes were “serious.”

“I just think he’s being punished,” Graham said, adding the average person would be “put in drug diversion or something.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., made similar comments.

“Hunter might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it,” Massie posted on X. “There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country, and none of them should be in jail for purchasing or possessing a firearm against current laws.”

Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

1 man killed and another injured in Costa Mesa stabbings

• June 12, 2024

COSTA MESA — Police Wednesday were looking for a suspect in the fatal stabbing of one man and the wounding of another victim in Costa Mesa.

Officers responded to a knife attack in the 1700 block of Placentia Avenue at about 11 p.m. Tuesday. A 22-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene.

Authorities did not immediately release the name of the victim.

While investigating the fatal stabbing, police found a 19-year-old man who had been attacked earlier at Placentia Avenue and Shalimar Drive. The second victim, who was taken to a hospital by family members, was believed to have been attacked by the same suspect.

Police suspect the attacks were gang-related.

Anyone who may have helpful information for police was asked to call Detective Ramon Hernandez at 714-754-5097.

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​ Orange County Register