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VFW cartoon showing veterans facing a firing squad sparks calls for an investigation

By CNN

(CNN) — A cartoon depicting a firing squad of bureaucrats and media with rifles aimed at US veterans has prompted a powerful congressman to call for an investigation into one of America’s oldest veterans advocacy groups, stoking a debate over free speech for political satire.

Rep. Mike Bost, the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, has asked VA Secretary Doug Collins to investigate the Veterans of Foreign Wars after the satirical cartoon meant to protest cuts to veterans benefits appeared on T-shirts being sold on behalf of the group, which has about 1.3 million members.

The VFW, which was founded in 1899, says it has used the cartoon in different variations since the 1930s to protest efforts to cut veterans benefits. The most recent version features a pair of men in business suits, labeled “bureaucrats” and “media,” pointing rifles at two veterans in military fatigues, with the the phrase “Honor the Contract” printed below. The phrases “Punishing Service,” “Removing Benefits” and “Waste and Fraud” are included in the image.

The VFW says it rolled the T-shirts on June 30, with the Grunt Style military apparel company handling the sale and proceeds meant to fund veterans mental health and suicide prevention initiatives. The following day, Bost, an Illinois Republican, wrote to Collins and issued a news release criticizing the image.

In the letter, which was obtained by CNN, Bost and Rep. Jack Bergman, a Michigan Republican, wrote: “VFW has repeatedly authorized the use of its name, trademarks, and likeness on commercial merchandise depicting graphic, inflammatory, politically charged imagery surrounding pending veterans’ legislation.”

Bost and Bergman say the imagery “can reasonably be interpreted as glorifying or normalizing political violence,” and that “regardless of intent, such messaging risks inflaming public anger toward public officials” at a time when threats against public officials and journalists “are at an all-time high.”

Bost and Bergman also ask the VA to “review whether VFW’s accreditation, and the good standing of its representatives, remain consistent with the responsibilities imposed upon accredited organizations and their representatives” under federal statutes governing such organizations. The letter asks the VA to obtain information from the VFW about its financial arrangements for selling merchandise.

A VFW spokesperson told CNN that Grunt Style is producing the T-shirt and started taking preorders late last month. The VFW plans to sell the shirt at a pop-up store at the organization’s July 25 national convention in Reno, Nevada, the spokesperson said.

The VFW and other veterans service organizations have recently come out against a bill introduced by Bost and his counterpart on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, Chairman Jerry Moran. The “Take Care of America’s Veterans Act” would cut billions of dollars in benefits to veterans suffering from tinnitus and sleep apnea.

The money saved from those cuts would pay for the “Major Richard Star Act,” a bipartisan piece of legislation that would allow veterans to receive both their retirement benefits and combat injury-related benefits. Veterans are currently allowed to receive one, but not both, of those benefits.

A VFW spokesman told CNN that the recent version of the cartoon was not issued specifically to protest the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. But the VFW is pushing back vigorously against Bost’s letter to the VA.

VFW general counsel John Muckelbauer said in a statement that “The letter identifies no allegation that the VFW or any of our accredited representatives violated VA accreditation standards, acted unethically, or failed a single veteran. Instead, it seeks to question our fitness because we disagreed with pending legislation. … That should concern every veteran.”

In a news release issued the day after Bost’s letter, the VFW said the cartoon “is not a depiction of violence. It is a symbolic representation of the consequences veterans face when Congress targets the benefits they earned through their service. It is also protected First Amendment speech.”

Democrats in Congress and other veterans advocacy groups have come out in support of the VFW. Rep. Mark Takano, ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sent a statement to CNN about Bost’s letter, saying that “these actions look less like oversight and more like retaliation against a veterans’ organization for opposing his bill.”

The group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which has about 450,000 members, issued a statement saying it is “disturbed” by Bost’s overture to the VA.

“Attempts by elected officials to use the weight of their office against [veterans service organizations] because they disagree with their advocacy or raise serious concerns about proposed legislation should concern every veteran (and American), regardless of where they stand on this particular issue,” the group said.

It’s unclear how the VA will respond to Bost’s letter. The agency did not respond to an email from CNN that asked whether it will review the VFW’s accreditation, as Bost requested, and whether it will ask VFW for its financial information.

Kathleen McCarthy, spokesperson for the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said the VA had not yet responded to the letter sent by Bost and Bergman. She added that Bost is not seeking to have the VFW’s charter pulled.

“This is not about silencing any organization or discouraging debate. Chairman Bost welcomes strong policy disagreements and values the role veterans service organizations play in informing Congress,” McCarthy said in an email. “His concern is that our public discourse remains factual, respectful, and free from rhetoric that could be interpreted as encouraging violence.”

The-CNN-Wire
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A DC trial was wrapping up when jurors made a discovery that shocked the courtroom

By CNN
(CNN) — The charges at a monthlong criminal trial in Washington’s federal court last month were fairly straightforward: That one man had allegedly held up seven 7-Elevens and a few other gas stations in spring 2023 and stolen cars.But the trial of Shamell Naquan Joyner had a twist. While deliberating, jurors found a Chinese yuan in one sweatshirt that was in evidence. And inside a jacket that was also part of the case, they found suspicious white powder in a folded up piece of paper. The prosecutors and judge said it appeared to be drugs.The DC US Attorney’s Office, law enforcement on the case and the defense team hadn’t known.The events of the jury deliberation raised eyebrows across the federal court in recent days, as word spread of what happened.Several longtime lawyers in Washington told CNN last week they hadn’t heard of a situation as embarrassing as this one, though some former prosecutors in DC conceded that every few years, a jury might land upon a piece of evidence that wasn’t examined by law enforcement thoroughly enough.Judge Rudolph Contreras, who presided over the trial, was flabbergasted.“The Court shares Mr. Joyner’s amazement at law enforcement’s failure to uncover the Chinese Yuan, note, and powdery substance in the physical evidence,” the judge, who has a decade of experience on the bench, wrote in an opinion a few days later.“Mr. Liolos, who I know is from New York, is probably astonished that any money got past the police department,” the judge also said on the bench, referring to John Liolos, one of Joyner’s lawyers.The FBI declined to comment when asked how agents on the case weren’t aware of the drugs and money in the pockets.When asked about how the evidence oversight happened, a spokesperson for the DC US Attorney’s Office didn’t answer directly.The accusationsProsecutors alleged Joyner had robbed 10 convenience stores and gas stations in central Washington, Maryland and northern Virginia in the spring of 2023. The robberies at first started a few days apart in April, then by May 2, Joyner was hitting several in the same day, they alleged. He also was accused of armed carjackings around two of the days that the armed robberies occurred.The series of incidents resulted in a 28-count indictment against Joyner in 2003. He wasn’t charged with drug possession.The case was big for the US Attorney’s Office. The trial lasted a full month, with the jury hearing witnesses testify over 10 trial days, then deliberations lasting another week. Joyner had as many as nine lawyers and three prosecutors at trial.The discoveryAs the jury was leaving on July 22, their second day of deliberations, a juror told courthouse staff they had found some items inside a jacket and a sweatshirt found in one of the carjacked cars that had been worn by the alleged robber.“We were looking at (the jacket), and (one of the jurors) reached in the breast pocket and she pulled out — it looked like a receipt, but there was a white powder or white substance inside,” the jury foreperson told the court on July 23, the next morning, according to a trial transcript obtained by CNN.“Some of it, kind of, spilled out a little bit, but (a juror) put it back in the pocket and we put it back in the bag,” the unnamed juror said.There was a sweatshirt the jurors could examine too as evidence in the jury room. A juror had looked in the pocket there “and he pulled out — it was crumpled up — it was a bill … one of the Chinese Yuan bills,” the foreperson then said.When the jurors found the suspected drugs and money in the pockets at the end of the second day of jury deliberations, the issue opened up major legal questions for Joyner.Both items of clothing had been key evidence putting Joyner at the scene of two of the May 2 robberies, and were inside the Toyota he was accused of stealing when police captured it a few days later.Would the jurors be prejudiced against Joyner now? Had the jury finding the suspected drugs corroborated witness testimony from the trial further than what Joyner’s defense lawyers anticipated?The Justice Department argued that a witness testified about Joyner stealing money during the armed robbery of four different convenience stores. At one of the 7-Elevens, a witness said the robber took his wallet, and it had in it a Chinese Yuan from a college study abroad trip.A cooperator who drove Joyner separately testified Joyner had paid him in drugs the night Joyner allegedly held up a gas station. The jacket with the apparent drugs in the pocket had been worn by the armed robber.After the discovery in the pockets, Contreras brought each of the jurors into the courtroom one by one.He told them the Chinese bill and the apparent drugs weren’t part of the evidence in the case. The jurors each told the court they could set aside those items in their consideration of the case against Joyner.They went back to deliberating.The verdictThe following Monday — the fifth day of deliberations — the jury had reached another predicament.They said they realized they couldn’t agree on more than half of the charges — representing five of the alleged armed robberies and one carjacking — Joyner faced.“The jury remains deadlocked on or unable to vote on the remaining 15 counts in this case,” they said in a note to the judge. “Our differences are in the areas of what constitutes a reasonable doubt and in how to determine identity beyond a reasonable doubt … In the absence of additional evidence or testimony, we cannot reach verdicts on the remaining 15 counts.”So, Contreras ended deliberations, taking a partial verdict.The diligence of the jury, unable to come to an agreement on several of the charges against Joyner, echoed an unusual challenge the US Attorney’s Office has faced in several other criminal trials this year.Still, the jury found Joyner guilty of 13 criminal charges, representing an armed robbery in mid-April 2023 in downtown Washington, and four armed robberies and a carjacking on May 2, 2023, in Northwest Washington and Maryland. “The jury’s verdict ensures the defendant will face a 31year mandatory minimum sentence, making the D.C. community safer with this serial robber off the streets,” a spokesperson from the US Attorney’s Office said about the case.Joyner’s defense attorneys haven’t yet appealed his conviction. They declined to comment because a final judgment in the case is not set in stone.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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