Man Seen Detained by Citizens With Blowtorch Near LA Wildfires ID’d As Illegal Immigrant

By Rusty Weiss | RedState.com

AP Photo/Eric Thayer

The man seen in wild online video being subject to a citizen's arrest after he was spotted with a blowtorch near the scene of the Los Angeles wildfires has been identified as an illegal alien from Mexico.

RedState's Sister Toldjah reported that the man had been seen roaming the area with a bright yellow blowtorch before being confronted by fed-up residents. 

“We really banded together as a group,” a witness and participant said at the time. “A few gentlemen surrounded him and got him on his knees. They got some zip ties, a rope and we were able to do a citizens’ arrest.”

The suspect was initially only identified in media reports as being "homeless." 

Concerns arose that authorities did not have enough to keep him in custody without enough probable cause to charge the man. He would eventually be arrested on a felony probation violation.

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Matthew Seedorff @MattSeedorff

NEW: @FOXLA has exclusively obtained video of a man carrying a blow torch in Woodland Hills, CA Thursday not far from the Kenneth Fire.  LAPD says the man is in custody but “can’t confirm any connection to any fire by this suspect”. #CaliforniaWildfires #KennethFire

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO.

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Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin posted late Sunday night to X that the man in that viral video had been identified as Juan Manuel Sierra-Leyva.

Sierra-Leyva is reportedly an illegal immigrant hailing from Mexico. Melugin has been told that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) intends to place a detainer on him with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.

"They do not expect it to be honored due to California's Sanctuary State law," he writes.

Sierra-Leyva is expected to be in court on Monday, though it's important to note he has not been charged with arson as of yet. The Telegraph had revealed he was arrested just five miles from where the Kenneth fire is believed to have started.

Sean Dinse, from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Topanga Division, told reporters that "we believe" the Kenneth fire was started "deliberately" but cautioned the investigation remains ongoing.

California's Sanctuary State Law, officially known as the California Values Act (SB 54), was signed into law in 2017. It limits the cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, restricting when and how local agencies can assist with immigration enforcement.

SB 54 was passed in the California Senate on a strictly party-line vote, with all 27 Democrats voting in favor.

Meanwhile, Politico reports that Democratic legislative leaders in the State Assembly and State Senate just struck a $50 million deal to "Trump-proof" California. A significant portion of that taxpayer money — $25 million — will provide grants for immigration legal services/support groups.

While California burns, Democrats are focused on President-elect Donald Trump and making sure people like Sierra-Leyva — blowtorch in hand — have top-notch legal representation should he face deportation.

Special Counsel Jack Smith Resigns

By Sarah Arnold | Townhall.com

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

Special Counsel Jack Smith resigned from the Department of Justice on Friday after completing his two criminal investigations of President-elect Donald Trump. 

Smith’s departure from the DOJ was noted in a brief section of a court filing submitted by Justice Department officials to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Saturday afternoon. The filing urged the judge not to extend her temporary order from the previous week, which had blocked the release of Smith's final report submitted to department leaders on Tuesday.

“The Special Counsel completed his work and submitted his final confidential report on January 7, 2025, and separated from the Department on January 10,” the filing read. 

In the filing, DOJ officials requested that Cannon not extend her order from last week. This order prevents the release of Smith’s investigation into Trump’s interference in the 2020 election results. It will remain in effect until Monday. 

Smith’s departure from the DOJ comes just days before outgoing President Joe Biden’s final days in office. Justice Department officials had hinted at his resignation, which was expected. Trump has consistently called for Smith’s prosecution over his handling of the Trump cases and even proposed that he be expelled from the U.S.

He played a key role in the criminal and politically motivated investigations into Trump during the 2024 election. Smith was at the head of the table when the FBI raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and the sweeping probes into the events surrounding January 6, 2021. Critics argue that Smith used his position to target a political opponent and that his investigations were part of a more significant effort by the DOJ to weaponize the legal system against conservatives. 

Getty Villa Used Mitigation and Preparedness to Save Itself from Fire; Will Newsom Get the Memo?

By Jennifer Oliver O'Connell | RedState.com

AP Photo/Etienne Laurent

The Southern California Palisades Fire, which has ravaged the communities of Malibu and Pacific Palisades, burning 19,978 acres so far, is now eight percent contained. Firefighters continue to fight the blaze while officials assess the damage.

Amazingly enough, the Getty Villa will not be among the wreckage. Its buildings and the paintings, treasures, and antiquities they house survived the flames, everything intact.

The Getty Villa, the museum built by oil tycoon J. Paul Getty and home to thousands of priceless antiquities, activated its emergency operations center in response to the fast-moving Palisades fire at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday. At 11:44 a.m., fire could be seen over the ridge, less than one mile away. By 12:27, flames had reached the property.

Fast-moving, wildly unpredictable and catastrophic in the damage it caused along a vast swath of prime coastline, the Palisades fire ultimately spared the Villa and its more than 44,000 objects, including many Roman, Greek and Etruscan relics dating from 6500 BC to AD 400.

Because the Getty Trust is self-funded and has its tentacles into every aspect of California life, they get to do whatever they want. And what they wanted was to ensure their investments did not go up in flames, particularly due to the regular drought conditions of the state on top of the lame fire management and fleecing of fire funding by both Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom.

The J. Paul Getty Trust's President and Chief Executive, Katherine E. Fleming, was the mastermind behind their disaster preparedness. Fleming discussed in detail how they prepared and worked with precision to ensure their treasuries were saved and maintained. The foundation of the plan: good, old-fashioned Fire Science. The Trust also employed these fire prevention measures on a consistent and regular basis.

J. Paul Getty Trust President and Chief Executive Katherine E. Fleming described for The Times the scene on the ground and how she and her staff worked from a conference center-turned-war room at the Getty Center in Brentwood, about 10 miles away — all while 16 staff members remained at the Villa to implement emergency protocols.

“We did get lucky in some ways, and people were rushing around,” Fleming said in an interview Wednesday evening after the most immediate danger had passed. “But there were also a lot of people who were really thoughtful about this over a long period of time, and I think that clearly paid off for us.”

Two things: thought and time. Our own Larry O'Connor, who was a Los Angeles resident for a long time, discussed on his podcast how the powers that be who are supposed to craft the plans to protect infrastructure and people against fire danger tend to think only in singular projects rather than covering all the bases. They also go for quick fixes rather than long-term measures and maintenance. It appears that Fleming and her team took the big-picture approach, and they definitely took the time to get it done. The first simple tool in fire mitigation is fuel management: reducing flammable vegetation, thinning the tops of trees to prevent fires from leaping across, and removing dead wood and debris. Fleming was on it, like white on rice. 

Extensive brush-clearing over the last year, Fleming said, had been completed with the knowledge that fire is a way of life in Los Angeles, and that the region’s frequent periods of drought made a massively destructive fire inevitable. The museum had already pruned landscaping that might catch fire and made sure tree canopies were high off the ground. Low-lying brush had been significantly thinned. The grounds were irrigated Tuesday morning.

Another fire mitigation tool: Firebreaks and vegetation gaps. These could be naturally occurring features or man-made features that allow a fire to be stopped. Also, building and infrastructure design can make a difference. I have been to both of the museum's campuses, and they are impeccably designed and structured, not just for beauty, but to incorporate these two tools.

And Fleming employed one of the most vital tools: Emergency planning. The Trust's emergency response procedures were strategically thought out and well-timed.

When the Palisades Fire erupted on Tuesday, Fleming and the small team between the Getty Center (10 miles away in Brentwood) and the Getty Villa followed a set of procedures and employed advanced communications to ensure the treasures and the buildings remained unaffected by the fire. Many people on social media (including me) saw images of flames circling the structure on Pacific Coast Highway by the Getty Villa sign. The structure that was burning was not the museum -- it was the Villa de Leon, a 35-room Italian Revival mansion that has no affiliation.

Wildfires occur, and climate change has nothing to do with their spread. Had Newsom had procedures in place for proper fire management on a consistent basis, and Bass had not cut funding for essential resources the fire department needed to combat wildfires, this disaster might have been less horrific, more structures could have been saved, and the people affected might have suffered less trauma. The Getty Trust employed these simple tools, and both their museums and the things they house are still standing, despite the destruction around them. The Getty Family and Gavin Newsom are as thick as thieves: you would think he would learn this lesson from them.

Victor Davis Hanson on California Wildfires: “A DEI Green New Deal Hydrogen Bomb — The Alarming Symptoms of a Society Gone Mad.”

An incisive, two-minute breakdown of the political and ideological issues that led to this disaster:

“It was a total systems collapse from the idea of not spending money on irrigation, storage, water, fire prevention and forest management, a viable insurance industry, a DEI hierarchy, you put it all together and it's something like a DEI Green New Deal hydrogen bomb."

"Gavin Newsom was fiddling, he's almost Nero Newsom. And this has been something that is just unimaginable."

"The systems breakdown. And to finish, what we're seeing in California is a state with 40 million people. And yet the people who run it feel that it should return to a 19th century pastoral condition. They are de-civilizing the state and de-industrializing the state and de-farming the state. But they're not telling the 40 million people that their lifestyles will have to revert back to the 19th century, when you had no protection from fire."

"You didn't have enough water in California. You didn't have enough power. You didn't pump oil. So we are deliberately making these decisions not to develop energy, not to develop a timber industry, not to protect the insurance industry, not to protect houses and property. And we're doing it in almost a purely nihilistic fashion."

"And Karen Bass should resign. She came to the airport back from Africa. She had nothing to say. She was confronted at the airport. Why were you in Africa? Why did you cut the fire department? They cut the fire department by almost $18 million. They gave fire protective equipment to Ukraine's first responders. And she had nothing to say. She had nothing to say because she couldn't say anything."

"I don't want to be too pessimistic or bleak tonight, but this is one of the most alarming symptoms of a society gone mad."

"And if this continues, and if this were to spread to other states, we would become a third world country if we're not in parts already."

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE VIDEO.

BREAKING: Trump Sentenced With Unconditional Discharge PROVING the Whole Damn Thing Was POLITICAL

By Sam J. | Twitchy.com

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Trump has been sentenced with unconditional discharge in the NYC hush money case.

Which means nothing.

Nada.

No fines, no jail time, no punishment ... just a sentence so Trump can officially be called a convicted felon.

Merchan's explanation:

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Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh

JUDGE MERCHAN: "Ordinary citizens do not receive those legal protections. It is the office of the president that bestows those to the office holder. It is the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that you should once again receive the benefits of those protections." - CNN

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What a joke. All of it.

How much time and money did they waste on this?

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Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh

Trump can now fully appeal the New York hush money criminal case after today's sentencing.

I think he has a good chance at overturning it.

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Ultimately this was originally about keeping Trump out of the Oval Office but when that failed they went for what they likely considered the next best thing, being able to call Trump a convicted felon. The fact Merchan sentenced him with basically nothing PROVES just that. He can babble about legal protections for the president but ultimately we all know President Trump was politically targeted.

Don't care. Glad to have voted for the felon.

PROUD EVEN.

And now the countdown to his appeal can begin.

BREAKING: Supreme Court Rules on Trump's Application to Stay Sentencing

By Susie Moore | RedState.com

AP Photo/Susan Walsh

After a flurry of activity surrounding the impending sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump, the U.S. Supreme Court has now weighed in and has declined to stay the proceedings. 

It's been rather lively in the legal realm as President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration approaches, and those who've relentlessly hounded him with lawfare attempt to wring every last bit of juice they can out of their efforts before he takes the office they've fought so hard to keep him from. 

On the criminal front, while (former) Special Counsel Jack Smith angles to release his Final Report on the two prosecutions he levied at Trump, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is barreling ahead with the effort to see Trump sentenced and, thus, formally and inarguably a "convicted felon" when he returns to the White House. And Judge Juan Merchan appears happy to oblige. 

Trump, of course, was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in May 2024 on 34 counts of falsifying business records (rendered felonious via some legal sorcery we've yet to fully grasp but may, someday, when/if the appeals on the merits ever wind up resolved). With post-trial motions in flux (some denied, some still pending), Merchan indicated last week that he intends to proceed with Trump's sentencing on Friday (January 10), just 10 days ahead of the inauguration. 

Trump's legal team sprung into action, seeking first a stay from Merchan. Then, when that was denied, they appealed to the New York Appellate Division, which, on Tuesday, also declined to stay the proceedings. 

Trump's lawyers then filed an emergency application directly with the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, seeking a stay of the proceedings pending the resolution of his interlocutory appeals on the presidential immunity issue. 

Trump's legal team followed that up with a request to the New York Court of Appeals (the state's highest court), which shot down the request Thursday morning. 

Justice Sonia Sotomayor oversees the Second Circuit (which includes New York) and thus signed the order denying Trump's request. With SCOTUS declining to intervene, Trump's sentencing will proceed in Manhattan on Friday morning.

BREAKING: New York Court of Appeals Rules on Trump's Request to Stay Sentencing

By Susie Moore | RedState.com

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

While President-elect Donald Trump — and all four of the other living presidents — are at the Washington National Cathedral attending the funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter, the New York Court of Appeals has ruled on Trump's request to stay sentencing in the Manhattan criminal case against him, currently set for Friday morning. 

In a brief letter from Court Clerk Heather Davis directed to Trump's attorney, Todd Blanche, she indicates that Judge Jenny Rivera reviewed the proposed order submitted on behalf of Trump and has declined to sign it, meaning the court will not entertain his request for stay.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s highest court on Thursday declined to block Donald Trump’s upcoming sentencing in his hush money case, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the president-elect’s likely last option to prevent the hearing from taking place Friday.

One judge of the New York Court of Appeals issued a brief order declining to grant a hearing to Trump’s legal team.

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In a filing to the top New York court, Trump’s attorneys had said Merchan and the state’s mid-level appellate court both “erroneously failed” to stop the sentencing, arguing that the Constitution requires an automatic pause as they appeal the judge’s ruling upholding the verdict.

 Trump also filed an emergency application with the United States Supreme Court on Thursday. We can expect a ruling on that shortly and will, of course, report on that as soon as it is handed down. 

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RELATED ARTICLE

NEW: Trump Files Emergency Application With SCOTUS to Place Sentencing on Hold

By Susie Moore | RedState.com

Sarah Meyssonnier/Pool via AP, File

As noted in previous reporting, there are a lot of moving pieces on the Trump legal front. Tuesday saw the New York Appellate Division agreeing with Judge Juan Merchan's decision not to stay sentencing in President-elect Donald Trump's Manhattan criminal case. As it currently stands, sentencing is set for Friday, January 10. 

Wednesday morning, Trump's legal team filed an emergency application with the U.S. Supreme Court (bypassing the New York Court of Appeals) seeking a stay of the proceedings.

"President Trump’s legal team filed an emergency petition with the United States Supreme Court, asking the Court to correct the unjust actions by New York courts and stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt," Trump spokesman and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung told Fox News Digital. 

"The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the Constitution, and established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed." 

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Trump's lawyers, in their petition to the high court, said it should "immediately order a stay of pending criminal proceedings in the Supreme Court of New York County, New York, pending the final resolution of President Trump’s interlocutory appeal raising questions of Presidential immunity, including in this Court if necessary." 

"The Court should also enter, if necessary, a temporary administrative stay while it considers this stay application," the filing states. 

Expect a fairly quick turnaround from the Supreme Court. They've already issued a series of orders Wednesday morning, but we may see a response from them on Trump's application yet today. If they decline to enter the stay, sentencing will proceed on Friday, though Merchan has indicated he'll likely impose an "unconditional discharge," meaning the conviction will stand (for now), but there will be no incarceration or serious punishment imposed. 

We'll continue to follow the story and provide updates as they become available.