The informed the academy, located north of Colorado Springs, in mid-October that it would conduct a review of its academic programs after an alumnus filed a complaint. The commission said it would give the school 30 days to respond to the complaint, according to a copy of the Oct. 14 letter shared with The Denver Post.

“Upon initial review of your complaint, HLC determined that the matter regarding United States Air Force Academy raises potential concerns regarding the institution’s compliance with the Criteria for Accreditation,” associate general counsel Robert Rucker wrote.

Retired Col. Kent Murphy, who filed the complaint, and other concerned alumni and former faculty told The Post they believe the academy is losing too many civilian Ph.D.-level instructors without the ability to fully replace them with military members who hold doctoral degrees and have the same teaching experience.

That means larger class sizes with professors and instructors taking higher class loads each semester, they said. And they fear the reductions could eventually lead the academy to reduce the number of courses it offers and eventually eliminate some academic majors.

Murphy, a 1980 academy graduate who served 25 years as an Air Force surgeon and a volunteer adviser to cadets studying pre-med, filed the complaint in October after hearing reports of civilian faculty members being let go or voluntarily leaving because of a constant threat of losing their jobs. Murphy said he fears the quality of education, particularly in the STEM fields, is suffering due to the departures.

Murphy said he hopes the Higher Learning Commission’s inquiry will get the attention of , the academy’s superintendent.

“They’re serious about this. They’re concerned. We are concerned,” Murphy said of the commission’s inquiry. “The superintendent thinks he can operate with impunity because of the current situation in the United States.”

Losing accreditation would not force the Air Force Academy to close, but it would deliver a serious blow to an institution that is widely regarded as one of the best universities in the United States. The academy already competes with the other military academies as well as Ivy League schools for the nation’s brightest students.

Bauernfeind declined The Post’s request for an interview, and Capt. Megan Morrissey, an academy spokeswoman, said officials were not able to answer a list of questions submitted by the newspaper, citing the government shutdown.

Morrissey acknowledged the Air Force Academy had received communication from the commission and intended to respond. The academy is complying with the commission’s “assumed practices for higher education,” she wrote in an email. “We welcome the opportunity to work collaboratively with HLC, addressing any concerns and demonstrating our commitment to excellence in education.”

It is unclear how many faculty members have left since President Donald Trump returned to office in January and how many have been replaced.

However, in , the academy reported that, as part of the civilian workforce reduction, it would defund 140 positions, and 104 of them were already vacant or set to be vacated through the federal , which offered buyouts to federal employees. The news release did not explain whether the 140 positions marked for elimination would come from the faculty, administrative roles or both. Eleven of the 36 remaining people whose positions were to be cut were reassigned to new jobs on campus.

In addition, 25 faculty members left the academy before the school year began, and 19 military faculty members were added, the news release said. It did not clarify whether the 25 faculty who left were civilian or military, or whether they were part of the 140 positions eliminated through federal cuts.

“I can confidently attest we are maintaining the academic rigor, accreditation and high standards expected at the U.S. Air Force Academy,” Bauernfeind said in the news release. “Our faculty and staff are providing a world-class education to our cadets, and our institution will continue to produce officers ready to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving security environment.”

Bauernfeind, who was appointed in 2024 under President Joe Biden’s administration, ruffled some feathers when he arrived on campus, according to faculty, former faculty and alumni with close ties to the school who were interviewed by The Post. But civilian faculty began leaving in the Spring 2025 semester after Trump appointed Hegseth, a former Fox News television host, to serve as secretary of defense.

Hegseth quickly moved to ban affirmative action in admissions at the three service academies that fall under the Department of Defense and ordered them to pull books focusing on diversity from their shelves. He also vowed to eliminate so-called “woke ideology” and any programs that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion on the campuses.

Critics of the civilian cuts at the Air Force Academy say this political ideology has seeped into the campus culture, and leaders are mistakenly driving away civilian faculty by implying they are weakening military education.

“To think of them as left-wing, tree-hugging hippie freaks is not the way to think of them,” said Thomas Bewley, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor at the , who served as distinguished visiting professor at the academy during the 2024-2025 academic year. “They provide a lot of context to what engineering is in the military.”

One professor who left

For one engineering professor, the decision to leave the Air Force Academy became clear after he repeatedly was told he could lose his job any day.

Brian Johns left his professorship at in Iowa in 2023 to teach systems engineering at the academy. Johns holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and a doctorate in industrial engineering. He specializes in melding complex mechanical and electrical systems so that they work together, and his latest research involves integrating artificial intelligence with software systems.

“It was a great new adventure and a new challenge to take on,” Johns said of giving up his tenured faculty position for an assistant professor position at the Air Force Academy. “It was my way of using the skills I have in the classroom to improve our national security, improve our nation.”

But in late February — in the spring semester of his second year on campus — Johns, who never served in the military, was pulled into an office by a supervisor and told that he would be fired the next day because of the federal government’s job cuts. Johns did not understand why he would be among the first to lose his job, as he was no longer on probation as a new hire and his performance reviews had been excellent.

A federal judge intervened and the government firings, including Johns’, were put on hold.

Still, talk of layoffs and firings continued.

“We had meetings where the superintendent told us a lot of departments were going to look like Swiss cheese when it was over,” Johns said. “It was not very reassuring, to be honest.

“From then on, it was, ‘Is this the Friday? Is next Friday going to be the day?’ It was creating a lot of anxiety,” he said. “The not knowing was worse than the firing. What am I going to do to my family?”

In late spring, Johns found an opening in the engineering department at . He applied and accepted a job as a teaching professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, where he started this fall.

As far as Johns knows, he is the only civilian faculty member to leave the academy’s mechanical engineering department, but he also knows that he was not replaced, which means the current faculty had to pick up his 300- and 400-level courses, teaching juniors and seniors how to design complex warfighting systems.

Those courses need to be taught by someone with a doctorate degree, he said.

“It����ap just messy,” Johns said. “Everybody’s trying to do their best there, but a lot of these decisions are made outside of their control, whether it’s coming from the secretary of defense — or the secretary of war, as we are calling him now — or the superintendent. We don’t know who’s making these decisions.”

Johns said people on the faculty now live in fear of retaliation and are afraid to speak out. Academic freedom is gone, he said. And the instructors who are not in the military are not getting paid because of the government shutdown.

“I’m thanking my lucky stars I got out of there,” he said.

The importance of accreditation

The Higher Learning Commission’s accreditation is important because it assures students and prospective students that they will receive a quality education.

The commission does not comment on inquiries into any academic programs, spokeswoman Laura Janota said. If the commission were to take any action against the academy, it would be posted online.

The commission has accredited the Air Force Academy since 1959, and the accreditation was reaffirmed during the 2018-2019 school year, according to the . The academy is due for its next formal review during the 2028-2029 academic year.

The academy needs accreditation to attract top-notch students, said Anthony Aretz, who graduated from there in 1980 and later served as president at two universities. The Air Force often sends its officers to law school, medical school or to earn master’s and doctoral degrees, but their credits from the academy would no longer transfer to another university if it lost accreditation, he said.

“If the cadet is a graduate but the academy is not accredited, the other college wouldn’t accept their degree,” he said. “The academies hold a unique position in our country. They’re valued for their quality and how they prepare leaders for our Department of Defense and the rest of our country. You don’t want to lose that prestige that attracts those types of students.”

Accreditation organizations like the Higher Learning Commission operate independently of the federal government, so its investigators should be immune to political influence, Aretz said.

The departure of civilian faculty and a shortage of military replacements have led to larger class sizes, Aretz said. And instructors are teaching more courses than usual. If the cuts continue, the academy could be forced to drop some courses from its curriculum, and eventually, some majors, he said.

The academy’s August news release said all majors remained intact for the 2025-2026 school year, and that it had added four new classes to a list of 750 offered, plus three new minors.

The Air Force Academy’s website said the student-to-faculty ratio is eight to one for the more than 4,100 cadets on campus. The Higher Learning Commission’s latest data, which is from 2023, shows 234 faculty members.

Janota said the commission does not have a specific formula for the number of Ph.D.-holding instructors a campus needs in order to provide an adequate education to its students.

Accreditation inquiries typically are tight-lipped, and if the commission determines the academy has a sufficient number of faculty members, the review never will become public, Aretz said.

The first step is what the commission is doing now, which is asking the academy’s leadership to respond to the complaint. The commission could follow up with more questions and could eventually send a team of inspectors to the campus to question the administration, faculty and students, Aretz said.

“They’re there to help institutions maintain their academic quality,” he said.

The role of civilian instructors

At the Air Force Academy, the majority of the faculty are in the Air Force.

Their experiences at bases around the world and in warfighting are valued in the classroom. To teach there, they must hold at least a master’s degree and a rank of captain or higher. Most rotate in for a three-year assignment before they return to the fighting force. Some go on to earn doctorate degrees and return to teach at the academy throughout their careers.

The academy also hires non-military faculty, who bring expertise from years of classroom experience, scholarship and research. Those faculty often are the glue that holds a department together, helping new uniformed instructors learn how to run a classroom and keep the course curriculum on track, Bewley said.

“The civilian professors there really anchor the programs,” Bewley said. “They are really the backbone.”

Many of those civilian faculty members served in the Air Force and then, after retiring, brought their doctorate degrees back to teach the military branch’s future officers.

But Hegseth has vowed to oust anyone with “woke ideology” and has mistakenly determined that civilian faculty are a problem, Bewley said. Engineers do not weave diversity, equity and inclusion into lesson plans about aircraft mechanics, missile designs and satellite technology, he said.

“The fish is rotting from the head down,” said retired Brig. Gen. Martin France, a 1981 academy graduate who previously served as chairman of the school’s astronautical engineering program. “Obviously, none of the changes that would revert the academy back to a higher-quality academic program are going to be allowed or endorsed, given who we have as the secretary of defense and the president. A lot of this is part of the anti-woke agenda. Unfortunately, I don’t have any great hope of anything changing under this administration.”

France, who rotated in and out of the academy’s faculty during his 37-year career, said he agrees with the idea of having more Air Force officers with doctoral degrees on faculty. But the method used by Bauernfeind and the Trump administration has cut people with little planning or strategy, he said.

“Replacing established civilian professors with active duty, in my mind, is that����ap not in itself a bad thing to do,” France said. “But it takes many years to produce qualified people within the active duty force. You can’t turn a faucet on and have enough Ph.D. professors.”

Air Force officers specialize in highly technical areas ranging from flying fighter jets to operating satellites to designing rockets.

For example, the Space Force needs astrophysicists who know how to interfere with a foreign government’s satellites, just like the academy needs experts who teach cadets how to do that. But it is not easy to call up the chain of command and request a lieutenant colonel with a Ph.D. in astrophysics to leave Space Command for a teaching job, said Murphy, the academy graduate and adviser who filed the complaint.

“What we found out is there is no pool of military educators out there buzzing around waiting for a phone call. They don’t exist,” Murphy said. “You’re not going to get 35 fighter pilots to get a pass to go teach at the military academy.”

France added that the shortage of people qualified and available to teach at the academy does not stop in the technical fields. The entire service does not have enough Chinese, Russian or Arabic speakers, and those instructors are needed, too.

One current instructor, who agreed to speak to The Post on the condition of anonymity because he fears retaliation, said his department is losing multiple people because of government cuts, the shutdown and the general feeling of uncertainty on campus.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to teach the upper-level courses because of the lack of instructors with doctorate degrees, he said.

“You don’t have the right players for the team,” he said. “You don’t switch half your team and still have the same flow.”

Bauernfeind started making the cuts within the non-military faculty with no real plan for how to replace them from within the military ranks, the instructor said. It’s impossible to replace a professor with 20 years of experience with a younger captain with a master’s degree, he said. Even someone fresh from a doctoral program needs time to gain experience in the classroom.

“It����ap a terrible shame to see this institution we’ve built over the last 60 years just be deconstructed without any real plan,” the instructor said.

Multiple people interviewed by The Post said Bauernfeind removed the word “educate” from the academy’s mission statement, and they believe that move reflects his disdain for the intellectual class on campus.

“We are degrading the value of education and it really is a step toward an anti-intellectual bias in our military that we can’t afford,” France said.

‘A distraction’

The departure of civilian faculty came up during the August meeting of the , a body of political appointees charged with monitoring and advising the institution’s operations, including its curriculum, instruction and academic methods.

During that meeting, board members and members of the general public raised questions about the faculty departures as well as changes to the curriculum, according to minutes from the meeting and accounts from two people in attendance.

Four people, including Bewley and Murphy, asked the superintendent to pause cuts to the faculty until academy leaders created a plan to replace those who had left.

Another four people expressed concerns about world history no longer being a mandatory class for cadets.

“Lt. Gen. Bauernfeind expressed that they are still in the planning process for this potential change to make sure that USAFA understands the value of American history in establishing a common ground with all cadets,” the meeting minutes stated.

Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and founder of who was shot to death in September while speaking on a Utah college campus, was on the Board of Visitors at the time.

During the August meeting, Kirk questioned the superintendent on how he was making sure the faculty complied with Trump’s directives to eliminate critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion from the classrooms. He asked, “How the Academy is ensuring compliance with the faculty to ensure USAFA doesn’t push the worldview of oppression, oppressor/oppressed dynamics, anti-western, anti-American and gender ideology,” according to meeting minutes.

That injection of political ideology is part of the problem at the academy, Bewley said. Instead of focusing on the actual problem at the Board of Visitors meeting, the conversation turned into “a political sham,” he said.

Kirk talked about DEI and critical race theory and “some MAGA drumming points to rouse up the base, but there was nothing really relevant to the challenges of how we are going to train our officers to develop the weapons systems to win the next war,” Bewley said. “It was a distraction.”

Concerns over cuts to the Air Force Academy faculty and the Higher Learning Commission have gotten the attention of politicians.

Spokespeople for Democratic U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper and U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank, R-Colorado Springs, both of whom sit on the Board of Visitors, said they were aware of the commission’s inquiry. Both said they want to work with the Trump administration to make sure the academy offers a world-class education, although neither offered specifics about how to respond to the commission’s review or how to prevent more faculty from leaving.

The alumni and former instructors who are speaking out said they want the superintendent to pause staffing cuts and for the Defense Department to fund the positions that still exist, Murphy said.

They also want the secretary of the Air Force to form a “blue ribbon panel” of stakeholders with an interest in the academy’s success, including the superintendent, faculty, distinguished alumni, leaders within the Air Force and Space Force, and politicians, he said.

Murphy said he did not relish his complaint to the Higher Learning Commission, but he wanted to get leadership’s attention. Speaking at meetings and writing letters has not been working.

“I love the academy,” Murphy said. “I want the reputation to be pristine.”

The settlement comes after Fox News Channel to settle a similar lawsuit in 2023 and Newsmax paid what court papers describe as $40 million to from a different voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which also was of pro-Trump conspiracy theories on the network.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled earlier that Newsmax did indeed defame Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems by airing false information about the company and its equipment.

But Davis left it to a jury to eventually decide whether that was done with malice, and, if so, how much Dominion deserved from Newsmax in damages. Newsmax and Dominion reached the settlement before the trial could take place.

The settlement was disclosed by Newsmax on Monday in a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It said the deal was reached Friday.

“Newsmax believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020,” the company said in a statement. “We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism.”

A spokesperson for Dominion said the company was pleased to have settled the lawsuit.

The disclosure of the settlement came as Trump, who lost his 2020 reelection bid to Democrat Joe Biden, vowed in a social media post Monday to eliminate mail-in ballots and voting machines such as those supplied by Dominion and other companies. It was unclear how the Republican president could achieve that.

The same judge also handled the Dominion-Fox News case and made a similar ruling that the network repeated numerous lies by Trump’s allies about his 2020 loss despite internal communications showing Fox officials knew the claims were bogus. At the time, Davis found it was “CRYSTAL clear” that none of the allegations was true.

Internal correspondence from Newsmax officials likewise shows they knew the claims were baseless.

“How long are we going to play along with election fraud?” Newsmax host Bob Sellers said two days after the 2020 election was called for Biden, according to internal documents revealed as part of the case.

Newsmax took pride in not calling the election for Biden and, the internal documents show, saw a business opportunity in catering to viewers who believed Trump won. Private communications that surfaced as part of Dominion’s earlier defamation case against Fox News also revealed how the network’s business interests intersected with decisions it made related to coverage of Trump’s 2020 election claims.

At Newsmax, employees repeatedly warned against false allegations from pro-Trump guests such as attorney Sidney Powell, according to documents in the lawsuit. In one text, even Newsmax owner Chris Ruddy, a Trump ally, said he found it “scary” that Trump was meeting with Powell.

Dominion was at the heart of many of the wild claims aired by guests on Newsmax and elsewhere, who promoted a conspiracy theory involving deceased Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez to rig the machines for Biden. The network retracted some of the more bombastic allegations in December 2020.

Though Trump has insisted his fraud claims are real, there’s no evidence they were, and the lawsuits in the Fox and Newsmax cases show how some of the president����ap biggest supporters knew they were false at the time. Trump’s then-attorney general, William Barr, said there was no evidence of widespread fraud.

Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits alleging fraud, some before Trump-appointed judges. Numerous recounts, reviews and audits of the election results, including some run by Republicans, turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error and affirmed Biden’s win.

After returning to office, Trump pardoned those who tried to halt the transfer of power during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and directed his Department of Justice to investigate Chris Krebs, a former Trump cybersecurity appointee who had vouched for the security and accuracy of the 2020 election.

As an initial trial date approached in the Dominion case earlier this year, Trump issued an executive order attacking the law firm that litigated it and the Fox case, Susman Godfrey. The order, part of a series targeting law firms Trump has tussled with, cited Susman Godfrey’s work on elections and said the government would not do business with any of its clients or permit any of its staff in federal buildings.

A federal judge put that action on hold, saying the framers would view it as “a shocking abuse of power. ”

“We are aware of several inaccuracies made by an Aurora councilwoman regarding the charges that are pending against Solomon Galligan, a defendant who was arrested in 2024 for an incident at Black Forest Hills Elementary School,” . “In the interest of transparency and public accountability, we feel it is important to set the record straight.”

Aurora City Councilwoman said in an that she’s launching an effort to recall Padden, in part over the pending dismissal of Galligan’s charges in the incident outside the elementary in the Cherry Creek School District.

Jurinsky also pointed to another case where a teenager living in Aurora illegally was sentenced to two years of probation in the fatal crash that killed Kaitlyn Weaver.

“She has dismissed cases that absolutely should have been prosecuted, and she has given a lot of probation for … crimes that should have warranted several years in prison,” Jurinsky said in the interview.

Jurinsky did not respond to multiple requests for comment on Thursday. Padden was not available for comment.

Galligan was found incompetent to stand trial last month, Padden said in her statement.

Under Colorado law, that means the court is required to dismiss the charges, and the District Attorney’s Office is unable to take the case to trial.

In the interview with Fox, Jurinsky accused Padden of “shrink shopping” to find a psychiatrist who would say Galligan is not fit to stand trial.

But Padden rebutted that in her statement, noting that Galligan underwent two mental competency evaluations — one by the state Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health in 2024 and another by an independent psychiatrist in June.

The second evaluation was requested by Galligan’s attorneys, not the District Attorney’s Office, Padden said.

The psychiatrist’s 63-page report concluded that Galligan suffers from multiple mental health conditions and is not competent to stand trial, Padden said.

The 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has not yet dropped the charges pending against Galligan, including felony attempted kidnapping and misdemeanor child abuse, according to court records.

Padden said her office has until July 28 to submit a formal response to the defendant’s attorney’s motion to dismiss the charges.

“As the District Attorney, I have many concerns about this statutory process and its impact on community safety in situations where charges must be dismissed,” Padden stated. “Even before the defense’s motion to dismiss was filed in this case, I was speaking with legislators about proposed reforms to the statute. I will continue those discussions to collaborate about a solution that promotes community safety.”

If the case is dismissed, Galligan will be civilly committed for mental health treatment, not released back into the community.

The jury ruled that Lindell and his media company, Frankspeech, must pay $2.3 million in damages for his attacks on Eric Coomer, the former director of security for Denver-based Dominion. The jury found that three of the 10 cited attacks leveled by Lindell or published on his platform amounted to defamation.

Coomer sued Lindell in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in April 2022. He alleged the MyPillow CEO, a prominent backer of President Donald Trump and the president����ap false claims that he won the 2020 election, defamed him when he called him a traitor, and claimed to have proof — in effect, directly accusing Coomer of committing a crime.

Coomer said Lindell’s attacks led to severe emotional and physical distress, death threats and the loss of his career in election security. Coomer had asked for more than $2 million in economic damages and another $60 million in non-economic and punitive damages.

Charles J. Cain, one of Coomer’s attorneys, said after the verdict that there were “mixed emotions in the sense that he’s been through a lot, and he’s still going to be looking over his shoulder even after this one.”

He added that he hopes the jury’s findings serve as a deterrent against election workers being targeted, but acknowledged, “We don’t believe this will stop the conspiracy theories.”

Lindell, in a scrum with media after the verdict, called the lawsuit “lawfare” and pledged to appeal. He emphasized that the jury found several of the statements in the case were not defamatory and that his most prominent company, MyPillow, was found not guilty of defamation.

“It����ap a huge breakthrough about free speech and my First Amendment right,” Lindell said.

He also said he didn’t plan to stop commenting on election security.

“I will not stop talking until we don’t have voting machines in this country,” Lindell said.

During closing arguments last week, Lindell’s attorneys rebutted the defamation claim by saying Lindell believed the allegations he was making, and that it was protected speech under the First Amendment. Defense attorney Jennifer DeMaster accused Coomer and his attorneys of acting as a “ministry of truth” that sought to police criticism.

“The only thing that matters is if Mr. Lindell believes these things are true,” DeMaster said during closing arguments. “That is the crux. That is the only thing that matters when it comes to our beloved First Amendment.”

Cain countered that Lindell stepped further than criticism of the government with his specific claims that Coomer committed treason and that he had evidence of such crimes.

“(Coomer) was accused of a crime — not an alleged crime, as you see on the TV news broadcast, an actual crime. And (with the suggestion) that there was evidence for that crime,” Cain told the jury in closing remarks Friday. “That is defamation.”

Lindell has pleaded poverty during the trial and claimed he spent his fortune hunting for evidence of election fraud and defending legal cases related to his accusations. After the verdict, he said he is “millions in the hole.” 

False claims of election rigging led to several high-profile lawsuits and big-dollar settlements. Fox News from Dominion for $800 million. The right-wing media organizations and each settled separate defamation lawsuits filed by Coomer.

“(Plaintiff Eric Coomer) was accused of a crime — not an alleged crime, as you see on the TV news broadcast, an actual crime. And (with the suggestion) that there was evidence for that crime,” Charles J. Cain, an attorney for Coomer, told the jury in closing remarks Friday. “That is defamation.”

Coomer, who lives in Colorado, sued Lindell in April 2022, alleging the MyPillow CEO defamed him. He said Lindell’s personal attacks tying him to false claims of election fraud caused severe distress and cost him his career in election security. 

The trial began in U.S. District Court in Denver on June 2. On Friday, after closing arguments, the jury began deliberating about 2 p.m. and had not yet returned a verdict by early evening; it’s likely the deliberations will continue Monday.

Lindell has repeatedly tied Coomer to unfounded claims related to 2020 and said he belongs in prison. Lindell also hosted a “Cyber Symposium” in 2021, where he brought on Colorado podcast host Joe Oltmann. Oltmann had previously accused “Eric, the Dominion guy” of working with “antifa” to swing the election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden to defeat then-President Donald Trump. Oltmann specifically named Coomer at the symposium.

Coomer’s attorneys argued that the example, and other instances of Lindell elevating conspiracy theories that targeted Coomer, amounted to publishing defamatory statements.

“The defendants didn’t just act with reckless disregard, they acted with no regard as to who they were going to put on stage and what they were going to say,” Cain said.

Lindell’s attorneys countered Friday that the defendant sincerely believed the claims he was making. Attorney Jennifer DeMaster also accused Coomer and his lawyers of acting as a “ministry of truth” that was trying to police free speech.

“All of the evidence in this case points to one unassailable truth: Mike Lindell was a man in pursuit of the truth about the 2020 election,” DeMaster said. “… We don’t need a Ph.D in computer science to criticize our government function. And what government function is more vital than the right to vote?”

Cain challenged the idea that earnest belief is a defense against defamation.

Lindell has accused Coomer of engaging in “lawfare,” or using the courts to silence him and sap his bank account. He has testified to losing millions of dollars since launching his crusade against voting machines.

The false election claims have prompted several other lawsuits. Denver-based Dominion, Coomer’s former employer, against Fox News for more than $800 million. Coomer also with the rightwing media outlet Newsmax in 2021 that included a public retraction and apology.

In this case, Coomer is asking for Lindell to retract all defamatory statements and has asked for $2.7 million in economic damages, $20 million in noneconomic damages and $40 million in punitive damages, with Lindell to be personally on the hook for half and the rest to be split evenly between MyPillow and Frank Speech, Lindell’s media company.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Lindell also continued his attacks against Eric Coomer, the former Dominion Voting Systems executive, even as he sought to distance himself from claims that he specifically coordinated attacks against Coomer at a 2021 convention Lindell organized about the conspiracy theory.

Lindell attacked Coomer as merely seeking money and grinding a political ax.

“(I) cost Dr. Coomer what?” Lindell said in response to a question from one of Coomer’s attorneys. “He’s out there suing people for money.”

Coomer filed suit against Lindell in April 2022. He accused Lindell of defaming him in a series of statements and media appearances, causing emotional and physical distress and costing him his career in election security.

Lindell has accused Coomer of treason and said he belongs in jail for being “part of the biggest crime this world has ever seen.” Lindell doubled down on his attacks against Coomer from the witness stand — but argued many of the more salacious statements were because Coomer sued him and Lindell was angry about the “lawfare.”

However, Coomer notes in his lawsuit that Lindell tied him to wider conspiracies about Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems and called him “treasonous” as early as May 2021.

An attorney for Lindell, upon cross-examination, asked if Lindell was perhaps being hyperbolic with some of his rhetoric. Lindell responded that, “In my mind, it’s pretty big. Now, if that����ap hyperbole, that’s subjective, I suppose.”

Coomer accuses Lindell of parroting remarks that started with Colorado-based podcaster Joe Oltmann and broadcasting them to a wider audience. Oltmann accused “Eric, the Dominion guy” of coordinating with forces opposed to President Donald Trump to deny his reelection in 2020.

Oltmann repeated the statements during a panel at Lindell’s “Cyber Syposium” that was held in South Dakota in August 2021. On the stand Monday, Lindell sought to distance himself from Oltmann’s statements then. Lindell said he had lost his voice, and left the organizing of the Oltmann’s panel to other people.

“Who put them up there, to this day, I could not tell you,” Lindell said.

“So that’s another thing you’re not taking responsibility for,” Coomer’s attorney, Charles J. Cain, said. “You’re not taking responsibility for what you’ve done to Dr. Coomer, and you’re not taking responsibility for who got up on your stage.”

Coomer’s lawsuit is being heard by a jury in U.S. District Court in Denver. Coomer is asking for a retraction of all defamatory remarks made by Lindell and monetary damages.

Dominion has filed its own series of lawsuits over allegations it rigged the 2020 election against Trump. The company settled one lawsuit with for nearly $800 million.

Coomer has accused Lindell of seeking to profit from his alleged defamation. His legal team cited examples of him offering promo codes associated with election fraud claims, including this case.

Lindell said his pillow company is on “the razor’s edge” in the fallout of him becoming the face of election fraud and that he now has to borrow money to make payroll.

Testimony resumes Tuesday, and the trial is expected to continue through this week.

Opening statements kicked off a trial in federal court in Denver that will decide whether Lindell defamed Eric Coomer, a former director at Dominion, when he accused Coomer of treason during Lindell’s discredited effort to undermine the results of 2020 presidential election. Coomer, who filed the suit in April 2022, is seeking damages from Lindell for the physical and emotional distress that attorneys say resulted from Lindell’s false claims.

Dominion has filed its own string of lawsuits to combat unproven allegations that it was involved in rigging the 2020 election against President Donald Trump. The company with Fox News for nearly $800 million.

In addition to Dominion, election deniers targeted Coomer after Colorado-based podcaster Joe Oltmann publicly identified “Eric, the Dominion guy.” Lindell, Coomer contends, regurgitated and elevated Oltmann’s claims to a wider audience.

“This is more than a mere insult to (Coomer),” Charlie Cain, one of Coomer’s attorneys, said in court Tuesday. “This was about severe distress and fearing for his life for the last four years.”

Cain said Lindell’s claims were “extreme and outrageous.” He displayed a threatening text message Coomer received, and he said Coomer needed therapy and medication to deal with the stress.

Cain argued that Lindell was upset at Coomer in part because Newsmax, a conservative TV channel, had stopped allowing Lindell on air after the in April 2021.

Shortly after, Lindell accused Coomer of treason and said he should turn himself in to authorities.

Lindell’s attorneys, meanwhile, argued to the jury Tuesday that Lindell made the claims against Coomer because he believed them — and because Lindell had been intentionally baited by Coomer.

Attorney Chris Kachouroff said Lindell, “rightly or wrongly,” was upset about not being allowed on Newsmax anymore. After Lindell publicly attacked Coomer in the wake of the Newsmax settlement, Kachouroff said, Coomer attempted to “bait” Lindell into defaming him by serving him with a lawsuit shortly before Lindell spoke at a rally at the Colorado state Capitol. That prompted Lindell to take the mic and say that Coomer would soon be behind bars.

Lindell made several other comments about Coomer in the subsequent days, Kachouroff acknowledged, but only because Coomer “triggered” Lindell by having him served with a lawsuit so publicly. He said that was Coomer’s goal, and Kachouroff quoted an email and text from Coomer about wanting to sue Lindell.

More fundamentally, Kachouroff said, Lindell believed the debunked claims he made about the 2020 election.

“Evidence will show that Mike believed he was telling the truth, that he believed they were truthful at the time he made them, and the First Amendment protects him,” Kachouroff said.

He argued that Coomer’s professional reputation had suffered because Coomer’s own anti-Trump Facebook posts came to light, not because of claims made by Lindell.

The trial is set to last through the end of next week. Coomer began testifying Tuesday morning, and he denied that his lawsuit was a “shakedown of Mike Lindell.”

Lindell, who sat with his team of attorneys a few feet from Coomer, is expected to testify in his own defense. MyPillow, the company he founded in 2009, is also a defendant, as is FrankSpeech, Lindell’s media company.

Oltmann, whom Cain accused of fabricating his own research on Coomer, is not a defendant. He was subpoenaed by Coomer’s attorneys and is expected to testify Wednesday.

That is how his conduct is characterized in a lawsuit brought by Eric Coomer, a Colorado resident and former director of product strategy and security for Dominion Voting Systems. Coomer alleges that Lindell and his companies have “gone out of their way to target” Coomer in their pursuit of the repeatedly debunked conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from President Donald Trump when he lost to Joe Biden.

Coomer filed his in Denver District Court in April 2022, and it was later transferred to federal court. The suit says Coomer was defamed by Lindell and suffered severe emotional and physical distress as a result.

The trial is set to last two weeks, with opening arguments set for Tuesday morning. U.S. District Court Judge Nina Wang is overseeing the case. Monday was largely relegated to jury selection, as attorneys for each side sought to suss out bias by prospective jurors.

Questions included where jurors get their news, which social media platforms they use, if they have negative feelings about Trump or his Make America Great Again movement, and their opinions of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and of Lindell’s company, MyPillow.

Following Trump’s 2020 election loss, Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems, that supplies equipment to many counties, became central to a conspiracy theory positing that the election was rigged against Trump.

Dominion, as a company, has filed multiple lawsuits over allegations that it was involved in election rigging. It settled one lawsuit against Fox News for . The conspiracists specifically after Colorado podcaster Joe Oltmann named “Eric, the Dominion guy” on his program.

Lindell, a Trump ally and media figure, then ran with the allegations on his platforms, according to Coomer’s lawsuit.

Coomer said he can no longer work in the election industry, after more than 15 years, because of “unwarranted distrust inspired by Defendants’ lies,” according to the lawsuit. Coomer alleges he has faced “frequent credible death threats and the burden of being made the face of an imagined criminal conspiracy of unprecedented scope in American history.”

“(Lindell) has claimed, without evidence, that Dr. Coomer committed treason and that he should turn himself into the authorities,” Coomer’s complaint against Lindell states.

Ahead of the trial’s start, Lindell spoke to supporters and the media on Monday morning. He argued that the lawsuit was “frivolous” and that he had never even heard of Coomer — but he also didn’t step back from his claims about election fraud.

On the courthouse steps ahead of jury selection, he said electronic voting machines should be melted down and turned into prison bars.

“As long as the outcome, whatever it is, leads to getting to paper ballots, hand-counted, like 132 other countries that banned electronic voting machines — if we can get there, I would sacrifice everything. And I have,” Lindell said. “This is the end goal.” 

He also cast the trial as a biblical fight between good and evil. His news conference ended with about two dozen supporters praying over him. Several carried signs calling to “Free Tina Peters,” the former Mesa County Clerk who’s serving time in prison for convictions related to providing unauthorized access to election machines following the 2020 election and giving a security badge to a man associated with Lindell.

Coomer is asking for a retraction of all defamatory remarks made by Lindell and monetary damages.

First, Trump banned the Associated Press from White House briefings and Air Force One.

Then he gave his hand-selected press team exclusive authority to decide who gets access to cover the president up-close at news briefings, at public events and during travel both domestic and abroad.

Combined the two decisions put at risk the most powerful check on the executive branch’s actions — public scrutiny — and open the gate for future presidents to surround their activities with sycophants disguised as journalists who issue forth nothing more than state-sponsored reports for the American people.

The Associated Press is an organization that for nearly 180 years has served this country with the facts and detailed reporting our republic needs to have an informed electorate.

The AP is not just a single newspaper. Rather it supplies subscribing newspapers and websites around the world with content that a single organization could never collect on its own. The AP has been at the crux of history for almost two centuries.

An Associated Press correspondent was at the small farmhouse in Virginia when Robert E. Lee surrendered, ready to send a dispatch to member newspapers with the news that the Civil War had finally ended.

The U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington is based on the photo captured by AP photographer Joe Rosenthal who was in the middle of the bloodiest battle for the Pacific islands.

Nick Ut����ap photo of Kim Phuc running naked from a napalm attack on her Vietnamese village brought the horrors of the war to American’s living rooms.

Reporters and photographers from the Associated Press were traveling with the presidents and captured for America the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.

It was AP photographer with blood streaming down his face, fist raised in defiance and Secret Service members surrounding him to protect him from a would-be assassin shooting from a nearby building.

AP reporters also keep an eye on our elected officials at the federal, state and local levels. They capture crime and tragedies, joyful celebrations and political protests.

What could have possibly prompted the president to be the first man to restrict their access to the White House and American’s access to critical information about the executive branch?

The Associated Press decided to , while acknowledging that Trump had recently signed an executive order to change the name to the Gulf of America.

The White House made it abundantly clear that banning the AP was not content neutral and was in fact retaliatory based on the AP’s speech.: “We stand by our decision to hold the Fake News accountable for their lies.”

It is unclear what “lie” the Associated Press told about the international body of water that has been known as the Gulf of Mexico for about 400 years, but one thing is clear: Trump is using his power to chill free speech and undermine the free press, both of which are protected from government retribution by the U.S. Bill of Rights and the cornerstone of America’s republic.

The Associated Press is not perfect. It is made up of reporters, editors, photographers and staff who do their best to quickly get information out that is accurate. Mistakes have been made, and corrections issued over the years, but Trump has selected one of the least partisan news outlets in America to target. When other papers decided not to publish any news stories about Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop heeding warnings that the damning contents were fake, the Associated Press reported on the issue in an honest and transparent way. The AP did not have access to the laptop but repeated what the New York Post had found. The story quoted the director of national intelligence that there was no intelligence to support that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.

The AP described the emails between Hunter Biden and the Russian oligarchs who paid him millions to be on their board as “consequential,” especially because one thanked Hunter for inviting him to Washington to meet his father.

Historically, access to the White House, Air Force One and daily events with the president are rotated among journalists who are members of the White House Correspondents Association. The reporters are known as the “pool,” and their detailed minute-by-minute reports of the president����ap public meetings, events, travels and press conferences are available to anyone on the White House’s website and can be republished for free. Past presidents have used the system precisely to avoid even the appearance of retaliation or favoritism toward America’s free press.

Unfortunately, both decisions were made in direct response to speech Trump did not like, rather than for legitimate reasons like perceived threats to national security, or belligerent behavior.

To put these actions into perspective consider this: When President Bill Clinton spoke at the 1998 White House Correspondents dinner, Matt Drudge, who broke the Monica Lewinsky story, was there with the “mainstream media” basking in the glory of his scoop. It was the ultimate “flex” by America’s free press that Drudge attended the event. The non-traditional journalist might have been from outside the Beltway, but Drudge was a journalist who had held Clinton accountable.

Even during the height of the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon didn’t kick the Washington Post out of the pool.

Fox News covered President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline relentlessly (an area of coverage ), and yet they remained in the pool.

Personally, I don’t care what we call the gulf: Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of America, the Gulf of Panama.

I do care that the Associated Press considered the president’s executive order and decided that because it has member news organizations in Mexico, and across Central and South America who pay for their content, as well as reporters based across the Southern Hemisphere, it would stick with the historic naming convention for bodies of water. The AP did change its style in accordance with the president����ap order to call the tallest peak in North America Mount McKinley instead of Denali.

“As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” the Associated Press wrote, explaining that it uses both the Gulf of California and the Sea of Cortez to describe the body of water so that readers in Mexico understand the reference.

I also care deeply that the president is setting a precedent that news organizations who don’t comply with his orders will be denied access to the White House.

What happens when the White House gets to pick the reporters who participate in the pool and access becomes conditional on positive news coverage? Can the facts coming from the White House be trusted if reporters fear losing access over coverage a president doesn’t like or want? That is precisely why, for decades, no president has controlled the press access to the White House pool. Freedom of the press to be critical and honest even in the face of pressure from the president is too important.

Most of the pool reports are boring hour-by-hour briefs of the president����ap activities. on Feb. 25 at 4:20 p.m. we learned: “Trump confirmed that he has spoken with House Republicans who have said they won’t support the budget resolution, but didn’t name names.”

I’ve been in a presidential pool once. President Barack Obama was in Colorado Springs for the Air Force Academy. Local reporters are often granted access to travel with pool reporters to cover events with the president, and my editor had arranged with the White House for me to have a brief 5-minute interview with the president.

My interview focused on questions about Obama’s failed efforts to fix the Veterans Administration so that the cadets graduating that day would someday get the good health care they deserved. No one restricted my questions or controlled the conversation. Nearly two decades later, troubling problems persist at the VA.

The about changes to the VA barely got noticed, but it felt good to ask tough questions of the U.S. president about something that mattered deeply to my friends, neighbors and colleagues in the military town of Colorado Springs.

When we were headed back to the airport in the presidential motorcade we heard that a U.S. Airforce jet that had participated in the graduation ceremony’s famous flyover had crashed into a field. The pilot safely ejected and when we arrived at the airport Obama shook the pilot����ap hand before getting on Air Force One.

The Associated Press pool reporter covered the moment, and a photographer for the Colorado Springs Gazette, Christian Murdock, captured the moment. The photo was used in newspapers across the country in conjunction with the report from the AP reporter.

Was it a big deal?

Maybe not internationally, but it mattered to the community, service members and to the historical record.

I rest better knowing that Associated Press reporters and photographers are our eyes and ears with the White House pool.

Megan Schrader is the editor of The Denver Post’s opinion pages.

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Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement they were targeting more than 100 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in the metro Denver operation. But local immigrant rights groups pushed back on that Thursday, saying they believed the people detained in the roundup largely weren’t criminals.

Armed federal agents surged into communities Wednesday to detain immigrants without legal status, employing the use of flashing smoke grenades and unmarked vehicles. The raids, which started in the early morning hours, largely took place at residences, including Cedar Run Apartments in Denver and Whispering Pines Apartments in Aurora

ICE officials in Denver have not responded to multiple inquiries from The Denver Post since Wednesday asking how many people were detained in this week’s operation, how many were members of Tren de Aragua, how many have been jailed on criminal charges, and where detainees are being held and processed.

Fox News reported in the Denver-area raids, but that only one was a Tren de Aragua member. Border czar Tom Homan blamed a leak that allegedly tipped off gang members as for why the enforcement action — part of President Donald Trump “Operation Aurora” mass-deportation effort — fell short.

Further confusing matters, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said more than 100 members of Tren de Aragua were deported from Colorado on Wednesday. But it was not clear where they would have been sent since Venezuela has refused to accept its citizens back.

“This isn’t a game,” Homan told reporters Thursday. “We know that TdA is dangerous,” he added, referring to the Venezuelan gang. “Everybody can agree to that, but when they get a heads-up that we are coming, it����ap only a matter of time before our officers are ambushed. Their job is dangerous enough. So we are going to address this very seriously.”

Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky, a Republican, also said roughly 30 people were arrested in the raids, although she added that all of them had “severe criminal records or gang ties.”

“Aurora is ultimately going to be a safer community with every criminal taken off of the streets,” Jurinsky said.

But activists and neighbors believe the majority of detainees aren’t criminals, and they said immigration enforcement actions they witnessed took place without warrants. Although to have judicial warrants to detain immigrants who lack documentation, agents do need them  without consent.

“We have only known about random detainments,” said Lamine Kane, an organizer at nonprofit . “Most people were randomly picked up without warrants, and some people’s homes were violated by (officers) forcing into them.”

U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Democrat whose district includes Aurora, said his office has fielded concerns from hundreds of Coloradans in recent days, including worries over the possibility of the military being pulled into domestic immigration enforcement efforts.

“I believe that if someone, regardless of their immigration status, is committing violent crimes, they have no place in Colorado,” Crow said. “But I don’t support scaring or rounding up our peaceful neighbors, family members and small business owners who live, work and contribute to our community.”

Aftermath of the raid on Macon Street

Although the raids rattled residents and advocates, Aurora — a community of more than 400,000 people — was far from a ghost town early Thursday afternoon. At Latino grocery chain Lowe’s Mercado, 10777 E. Colfax Ave., it was business as usual during the lunch rush. Snippets of Spanish and English conversations floated along the aisles as bright piñatas hung overhead.

But Macon Street sat somewhat quiet, minus the occasional foot traffic. It was a stark contrast to 24 hours earlier, when a raid took place at two apartment buildings there, with locals gathering to observe a dozen uniformed federal agents in action.

Pradev Subba, who lives in a neighboring complex, told The Post that law enforcement personnel — including from Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Marshals Service — detained a man and a woman. A few doors down, Jeff Kass, the manager at , 11430 E. Colfax Ave., described Wednesday’s scene.

“They showed up, then you read only two people (detained),” he said in front of the counter of his store Thursday. “It’s kind of excessive force.”

How has the experience left him feeling? “Weird,” Kass said.

On the other end of the street, a representative for Hope Lutheran Church, 1345 Macon St., said she would pray for all involved.

Kayla Frawley, the director of organizing for the Colorado People’s Alliance, drove to the Macon Street apartment complexes hit by raids to connect with the loved ones of detainees and offer to help with the next steps.

“These raids impact our community in horrible ways,” Frawley said. “Kids couldn’t get to school on time, people couldn’t get home and get to work — both non-immigrants and immigrants.”

On Thursday morning, Frawley said she met with a relative whose father was taken by immigration agents from a chicken shop off of Peoria Street. “Agents targeted him as he was routinely there,” she said.

Frawley said judicial warrants weren’t being used in this week’s detainments, the result of collaboration between various federal agencies, including ICE, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations.

“These last 30 hours have been devastating,” she said.

“Sweeping up immigrant community members indiscriminately”

On Wednesday, Kane also experienced the disorder of local immigration enforcement actions firsthand. His organization has not received confirmation of gang member arrests — ICE’s stated focus.

He pointed to an instance of an African immigrant detained in a parking lot while on his way to work Wednesday, something recounted to him by a family member of the detainee.

“Many targeted lived here for years and contribute to our economy,” Kane said. “Raids disrupt workplaces, separate parents from children, breaking trust between immigrant communities and local institutions, pushing families into the shadows.”

The also contends ICE agents “are sweeping up immigrant community members indiscriminately,” instead of targeting people charged with crimes, according to a Thursday news release.

Staff attorney Shira Hereld said she visited an apartment occupied by a young girl and her baby sister, its door “blasted open by flash-bang grenades.” Their single mother was detained by ICE.

In spite of the disarray, a few Denver area institutions, such as the , 1373 Grant St., continue to offer shelter to migrants.

Kurt Kaufman, a ministerial associate, said the building wasn’t visited by ICE during the Wednesday raids, “but the impact was still felt.” They held a meeting that day to get advice from Elevation Law and brainstorm how to move forward as a community in response to immigration enforcement actions.

“We are indeed afraid and have taken steps here to prevent raids on our building,” Kaufman said. “That being said, we are standing strong and will continue to be a sanctuary for anyone and everyone that enters our building seeking it.”

Organizational support is in demand

For now, local immigration-focused organizations are working to meet surging demand for their services.

works with detained immigrants directly, visiting them at the ICE detention center in Aurora and offering assistance upon their release.

Since Wednesday, executive director Andrea Loya said the group has seen an uptick in phone calls from people “wondering what to do.” Callers are seeking information on how to find detained family members.

“From what we know, there is no evidence that these people are gang members,” Loya said.

The organizations partnered with Casa de Paz are working with families to figure out where detainees are being held.

Of all of her concerns following the raids, Loya is most worried about the lingering effect on children who witnessed them.

“Once things were said and done, kids were left crying and in fear,” she said. “Little kids who were in arms because they didn’t want to go back home or exit their home — and it’s disheartening.”

In the past few weeks, has also seen a rise in demand from government agencies and other groups, said founder and executive director Nga Vương-Sandoval. Those requests include providing testimony on the impact of current immigration policies and leading both professional development and cultural awareness trainings.

And she believes appeals for their expertise as refugees and immigrants will only persist.

“The urgency of this moment cannot be overstated,” said Vương-Sandoval, a Vietnamese refugee herself. “The need to protect refugee and immigrant families and children is not just necessary — it’s critical.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.