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---
category: "Foreign Government"
tags:
- Organization
- PoliticalParty
- Pakistan
- BCCI
- BhuttoFamily
alias:
- PPP
- Pakistan Peoples Party
summary: "Pakistani political party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, which a 1978 government White Paper said had received two or three crores of rupees through Agha Hasan Abedi in 1977."
location: "Pakistan"
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
relations:
- type: funded
with: "[[Agha Hasan Abedi]]"
reverse: true
role: "two or three crores of rupees for the March 1977 election campaign, per the Zia government's July 1978 White Paper"
start: 1977
fn: 1
---
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) was the political party of [[Zulfikar Ali Bhutto]], prime minister of [[Pakistan]] until his overthrow by [[Zia ul-Haq]] in 1977, and later of his daughter [[Benazir Bhutto]], its leader until her death in 2007. The military government's White Paper on the 1977 elections named the banker [[Agha Hasan Abedi]] as a source of the party's campaign money.[^1][^2]
### The 1978 White Paper
In July 1978 the Government of Pakistan issued a White Paper on "The Conduct of the General Elections in March 1977." According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate report]], "in a section analyzing the illegal funding of campaign activities for the PPP, the party of Bhutto, the White Paper describes how 'the other large source of funds was the money brought in by Agha Hasan Abdi [sic]' amounting to 'two or three crores of rupees.'" A later passage described Abedi's "travels . . . loaded as he used to be with bagfuls of money." The White Paper was entered into the record of the Senate hearings on the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3, pp. 314-317).[^1]
Abedi had by then founded BCCI outside Pakistan; the report described the Bhutto government's nationalization of Pakistani banking, which took his [[United Bank Limited|United Bank]], as the impetus for the new bank. The report stated that Abedi "swiftly changed allegiances" after the coup to Bhutto's successor, Zia, and that Zia "later executed Bhutto for financial crimes, in which Abedi, among others, was clearly involved, while forming close ties to Abedi, on whose financial skills he increasingly relied."[^1]
### Under Zia
Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in April 1986 after two years of self-imposed exile, "vowing to oust Zia and restore democracy." After dismissing Prime Minister [[Mohammad Khan Junejo]] on May 29, 1988, Zia announced on July 20 that elections would be held on November 16, and declared the next day that they would be held on a non-party basis. On August 17, 1988, the day Zia was killed in the crash of his [[C-130]], Benazir Bhutto petitioned the Supreme Court to require the elections to be held on a party basis.[^3]
### Government and Dismissal
Benazir Bhutto was prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and from 1993 to 1996.[^2] President [[Ghulam Ishaq Khan]], who had chaired the Pakistani BCCI Foundation through the 1980s, removed her first government, installing an interim government under a deal with [[Nawaz Sharif]] in 1990.[^4][^5]
On December 27, 2007, while campaigning for elections due on January 8, 2008, Benazir Bhutto was shot and killed as she left a rally in [[Rawalpindi]]. Her husband, [[Asif Ali Zardari]], flew in from [[Dubai]] to escort her coffin. Protests followed across the country, with eleven deaths reported in "the PPP's heartland province of Sindh."[^2]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 3, "The Origin and Early Years of BCCI," section "Abedi As Pakistani Political Paymaster" (citing White Paper on the General Elections, Government of Pakistan, July 1978, S. Hrg. 102-350, pt. 3, pp. 314-317). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/03hist.htm
[^2]: "Benazir Bhutto killed in attack," BBC News, December 27, 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7161590.stm
[^3]: Barnetson, Denholm. "President Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel and...," United Press International, August 17, 1988. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/08/17/President-Mohammad-Zia-ul-Haq-US-Ambassador-Arnold-Raphel-and/3467587793600/
[^4]: Amir, Intikhab. "Ghulam Ishaq Khan passes away," *Dawn*, October 28, 2006. https://www.dawn.com/news/216492/ghulam-ishaq-khan-passes-away
[^5]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 5, "BCCI's Relationship with Foreign Governments, Central Banks, and International Organizations," section "Pakistan." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/05foreign.htm

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---
category: "U.S. Government"
aliases:
- "OSTP"
- "White House Office of Science and Technology Policy"
tags:
- Organization
- Government
- USA
- WhiteHouse
- AIPolicy
- RevolvingDoor
summary: "White House science and technology office whose directors under Biden and Trump shaped federal AI policy, from Eric Lander's 2022 resignation to Michael Kratsios's 2025 AI Action Plan."
location: "Washington, D.C."
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[Eric Lander]]"
reverse: true
role: "director and presidential science adviser"
start: 2021
end: 2022-02
fn: 4
- type: head_of
with: "[[Arati Prabhakar]]"
reverse: true
role: "director"
start: 2022-09
fn: 1
- type: head_of
with: "[[Michael Kratsios]]"
reverse: true
role: "director; assistant to the president for science and technology"
start: 2025-03
fn: 2
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Rachel Wallace]]"
reverse: true
role: "general counsel, later deputy counsel and chief operating officer"
fn: 4
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Jason Matheny]]"
reverse: true
role: "deputy director for national security"
start: 2021-03
fn: 9
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Tom Kalil]]"
reverse: true
role: "consultant while on the Schmidt Futures payroll"
start: 2021
fn: 6
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Marc Aidinoff]]"
reverse: true
role: "chief of staff"
fn: 6
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Daniel Correa]]"
reverse: true
role: "assistant director for innovation policy"
fn: 13
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
The Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is an office of the [[White House]] whose director advises the president on science and technology. The director, who also carries the title of assistant to the president for science and technology, is confirmed by the Senate.[^1][^2][^3] It is distinct from the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s former [[Office of Science and Technology]].
### Lander
[[Eric Lander]], the geneticist whom President [[Joe Biden]] made director and a member of the Cabinet, headed an office of about 140 people. On February 7, 2022, *[[Politico]]* reported that a two-month White House investigation had found "credible evidence" that Lander had bullied his general counsel, [[Rachel Wallace]], and "credible evidence of disrespectful interactions with staff by Dr. Lander and OSTP leadership." Fourteen current and former OSTP staff described "a toxic work environment." Wallace, a career civil servant who had worked at OSTP under both [[Barack Obama|Obama]] and [[Donald Trump|Trump]], had complained in September 2021. As discipline, the White House required Lander to hold more collaborative meetings, such as "brown bag sessions." After learning of the story, Lander wrote to staff: "It's my responsibility to set a respectful tone for our community. It's clear that I have not lived up to this responsibility." Wallace said the apology "did not come close to addressing the full extent of his egregious behavior."[^4]
That evening Biden accepted Lander's resignation. Press Secretary [[Jen Psaki]] said the president accepted it "with gratitude for his work at OSTP on the pandemic, the Cancer Moonshot, climate change, and other key priorities."[^5]
In March 2022 *Politico* reported that [[Schmidt Futures]], the philanthropy of the former [[Google]] chief executive [[Eric Schmidt]], had paid for staff working in the office: its chief innovation officer, [[Tom Kalil]], remained on the Schmidt Futures payroll for four months while serving as an unpaid consultant to OSTP, and the organization indirectly covered the salary of the office's chief of staff, [[Marc Aidinoff]], for about six weeks. Wallace raised ethical concerns about the arrangement. Schmidt called the report "largely false."[^6][^7]
### Prabhakar
The Senate confirmed [[Arati Prabhakar]] as director on September 22, 2022, by 56 to 40, after invoking cloture the day before by 58 to 38. Ten Republicans voted for her (Senators [[Roy Blunt|Blunt]], [[Richard Burr|Burr]], [[Bill Cassidy|Cassidy]], [[Susan Collins|Collins]], [[Cynthia Lummis|Lummis]], [[Jerry Moran|Moran]], [[Lisa Murkowski|Murkowski]], [[Rob Portman|Portman]], [[Mike Rounds|Rounds]] and [[Thom Tillis|Tillis]]), and one Democrat, [[Joe Manchin]], voted against.[^1] Under Biden the office also published a "Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights," which described the use of automated systems "in ways that threaten the rights of the American public" as "among the great challenges posed to democracy today."[^8] During the same period [[Jason Matheny]], founding director of the [[Center for Security and Emerging Technology]], served as OSTP's deputy director for national security,[^9] and [[Jeff Alstott]] of the [[Rand Corporation|RAND Corporation]] as its assistant director for technology competition and risks.[^10]
### Kratsios and the AI Action Plan
On March 25, 2025, the Senate confirmed [[Michael Kratsios]] of South Carolina as director by 74 to 25, after a cloture vote of 73 to 25; 53 Republicans voted in favor, and all 25 votes against came from Democrats and independents.[^2] The reporter [[Caleb Ecarma]] described Kratsios as a former board member of the [[Foundation for American Innovation]] (FAI), a former chief of staff and principal at [[Thiel Capital]], a former chief financial officer of [[Clarium Capital|Clarium Capital Management]] and a former employee of [[Scale AI]], and wrote that he had interviewed engineers for the [[Department of Government Efficiency]].[^11]
In March 2025 FAI's chief economist, [[Samuel Hammond]], answered OSTP's request for comment on the plan, asking the administration to "drive AI adoption within the Federal government," to review federal IT procurement rules and to exempt AI data centers from parts of the [[National Environmental Policy Act]].[^11]
On July 23, 2025, the White House released *America's AI Action Plan*, whose cover reads "Winning the Race" and which the White House announced as "Winning the AI Race: America's AI Action Plan." The release said it identified "over 90 Federal policy actions across three pillars." The plan's introduction is signed by three officials: Kratsios, as assistant to the president for science and technology; [[David Sacks|David O. Sacks]], special advisor for AI and crypto; and [[Marco Rubio|Marco A. Rubio]], assistant to the president for national security affairs.[^3][^12] It opens with a statement by Trump that it is "a national security imperative for the United States to achieve and maintain unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance," cites [[Executive Order 14179]] of January 23, 2025, "Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence," and states that "President Trump rescinded the Biden Administration's dangerous actions on day one." It quotes Vice President [[JD Vance]]'s remark at the Paris AI Action Summit that onerous regulation "would not only unfairly benefit incumbents... it would mean paralyzing one of the most promising technologies we have seen in generations." Among its recommendations is that the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]] revise its AI Risk Management Framework "to eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change."[^3]
Kratsios said in the White House release that the plan "galvanizes Federal efforts to turbocharge our innovation capacity, build cutting-edge infrastructure, and lead globally." Sacks said "we must center American workers and avoid Orwellian uses of AI," and Rubio, then also acting national security adviser, said "Winning the AI Race is non-negotiable."[^12]
### Staff and Alumni
[[Daniel Correa]], chief executive of the [[Federation of American Scientists]], was OSTP's assistant director for innovation policy for four years under Obama.[^13]
### Footnotes
[^1]: U.S. Senate, roll call votes 117th Congress, 2nd session, No. 345 (cloture, September 21, 2022) and No. 348 (confirmation, September 22, 2022), PN2267, Arati Prabhakar. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00348.xml
[^2]: U.S. Senate, roll call votes 119th Congress, 1st session, No. 138 (cloture) and No. 139 (confirmation), March 25, 2025, PN13-8, Michael Kratsios. https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00139.xml
[^3]: The White House, *America's AI Action Plan*, July 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf
[^4]: Thompson, Alex. "Biden's top science adviser bullied and demeaned subordinates, according to White House investigation." *Politico,* February 7, 2022, archived October 20, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20251020183906/https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/07/eric-lander-white-house-investigation-00006077
[^5]: "In town pool report #11: News -- Dr. Lander resignation," February 7, 2022, and "Digest of Other White House Announcements," February 7, 2022, The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/pool-reports-february-7-2022 ; https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/digest-other-white-house-announcements-4884
[^6]: Thompson, Alex. "How Eric Schmidt built an expansive AI influence operation." *Politico,* March 28, 2022. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/28/google-eric-schmidt-white-house-00020712
[^7]: "Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says story alleging his foundation indirectly paid White House science staffers is 'largely false.'" CNBC, March 29, 2022. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/29/ex-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-responds-to-white-house-related-allegations.html
[^8]: Office of Science and Technology Policy, "Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights," archived White House website. https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/ostp/ai-bill-of-rights/
[^9]: "Jason Matheny to serve Biden White House in national security and tech roles." *FedScoop,* March 9, 2021. https://fedscoop.com/white-house-announces-top-tech-adviser-jason-matheny-national-security/
[^10]: RAND Corporation, "Jeff Alstott," staff profile and publications list, archived September 17, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260917062102/https://www.rand.org/about/people/a/alstott_jeffrey.html
[^11]: Ecarma, Caleb. "The little-known think tank pushing Trump to replace the federal workforce with AI." *Oligarch Watch*, September 10, 2025. https://oligarchwatch.substack.com/p/the-little-known-think-tank-pushing
[^12]: The White House, "White House Unveils America's AI Action Plan," July 23, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/white-house-unveils-americas-ai-action-plan/
[^13]: Federation of American Scientists, "Daniel Correa," biography, accessed September 23, 2026. https://fas.org/expert/daniel-correa/

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---
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
tags:
- Organization
- MunicipalGovernment
- Philadelphia
- Censorship
- RCHorsch
alias:
- Licenses and Inspections
- Department of Licenses and Inspections
- L&I
summary: "Philadelphia's building-code and licensing department, whose deputy commissioner Leo Goldstein closed R.C. Horsch's Underground Cinema 16 in 1969, and which Mayor Cherelle Parker split under two commissioners in 2024."
location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[Basil Merenda]]"
reverse: true
role: "commissioner for inspections, safety and compliance"
start: 2024-02-08
fn: 5
- type: head_of
with: "[[Bridget Collins-Greenwald]]"
reverse: true
role: "commissioner for quality of life"
start: 2024-02-08
fn: 5
---
The Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections enforces the building codes and business licensing laws of [[Philadelphia]]. In October 1969 its deputy commissioner, [[Leo Goldstein]], closed [[Underground Cinema 16]], the theater of Ray Hoersch, later [[R.C. Horsch]], in the week it planned to preview the [[Vietnam War]] documentary *[[In the Year of the Pig]]*.[^1][^2]
### Cinema 16 and the Tate Administration
On October 29, 1969, the department ordered Cinema 16, at 2021 Sansom Street, closed because it lacked the requisite licenses. Goldstein posted the theater, and "police were instructed to keep it empty." Hoersch, then 26, called the matter a "simple confusion" over the city's requirements.[^1] The alternative weekly *[[The Distant Drummer]]*, in an article on the administration of Mayor [[James H. J. Tate]], reported that the department had closed the theater for want of a statement of occupancy and five minor building-code violations, which were corrected within a day, and quoted Goldstein: "I first heard about the theatre (Cinema 16) when I read in the BULLETIN that they were going to play that Vietnam film (In the Year of the Pig)." In the same period the department closed the "Space" annex of the [[Theatre of the Living Arts]] and the Manning Street Theater. While Cinema 16 was shut, the film was shown at the [[Bandbox Theater]] in [[Germantown, Philadelphia|Germantown]].[^2]
### The Market Street Collapse
On June 5, 2013, during the demolition of a building at 22nd and Market Streets, a freestanding wall fell onto a [[Salvation Army]] thrift store. [[CBS News]] reported that the collapse killed six people and injured 14; *[[Billy Penn]]* reported six deaths, a seventh weeks later, and 13 people seriously injured. The contractor and a heavy equipment operator were arrested.[^3][^4] After a ten-month investigation, the Mayor's Special Independent Advisory Commission found that "the City's regulatory controls in place at the time were inadequate and there was a lack of effective action on the part of L & I personnel," and proposed "separating L & I into two separate departments," one of them a new Department of Buildings.[^3] The commission, appointed under Mayor [[Michael Nutter]], described the department as "fragmented by divergent mandates accumulated over decades of mission expansion, chronic underfunding."[^4]
### The 2024 Division
On February 8, 2024, Mayor [[Cherelle Parker]] named [[Basil Merenda]] L&I Commissioner for Inspections, Safety and Compliance, responsible for "enforcing the City's codes for the safe and lawful construction and use of buildings," and [[Bridget Collins-Greenwald]] L&I Commissioner for Quality of Life, responsible for nuisance businesses, the regulation of short-term rentals, bedbug infestations, and the city's plastic bag ban. Merenda had chaired the Joint Task Force on Regulatory Reform for Licenses and Inspections with Councilmember Mike Driscoll, who said that "the recommendation to split L&I was central to the report of the Joint Task Force."[^5] In December 2023 City Controller Christy Brady had announced a review of unlicensed properties.[^4]
### Footnotes
[^1]: "Police to Inspect Building: Cinema 16 Shut Down In License Dispute; Owner Is 'Confused'," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 30, 1969, p. 19. https://www.newspapers.com/image/169186622/
[^2]: "Mayor Tate's War On [title cut off in the scan]," *The Distant Drummer,* no. 65, December 25, 1969, p. 8, Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center. https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p16002coll34/id/473
[^3]: "Report Blames City For Failing To Heed Warnings Before Deadly Market St. Building Collapse," *CBS Philadelphia,* September 25, 2014. https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/report-blames-city-for-failing-to-heed-warnings-before-deadly-market-st-building-collapse/
[^4]: Rinde, Meir. "Mayor Parker enacts long recommended split for L&I," *Billy Penn,* February 14, 2024. https://billypenn.com/2024/02/14/philly-licenses-and-inspections-department-reform/
[^5]: Office of the Mayor, City of Philadelphia, "Mayor Cherelle L. Parker Names Commissioners of Licenses and Inspections: One for Building Enforcement and Compliance, One for Quality of Life and Nuisances," February 8, 2024. https://www.phila.gov/2024-02-08-mayor-cherelle-l-parker-names-commissioners-of-licenses-and-inspections-one-for-building-enforcement-compliance-one-for-quality-of-life-and-nuisances-long-sought-reform-in-philadelphi/

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---
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
tags:
- Organization
- LawEnforcement
- Prosecution
- Philadelphia
- OlneyHouseInvestigation
- RCHorsch
alias:
- Office of the District Attorney of Philadelphia
- Philadelphia DA's office
- DAO
summary: "Prosecutor for the city and county of Philadelphia, led since 2018 by Larry Krasner, which charged and in August 2026 withdrew state gun and drug counts against Eugene Horsch."
location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[James C. Crumlish Jr.]]"
reverse: true
role: "district attorney"
start: 1962
end: 1966
fn: 4
- type: head_of
with: "[[R. Seth Williams]]"
reverse: true
role: "district attorney"
end: 2017
fn: 6
- type: head_of
with: "[[Larry Krasner]]"
reverse: true
role: "district attorney"
start: 2018
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Alyssa Amoroso]]"
reverse: true
role: "assistant district attorney"
fn: 3
- type: prosecuted
with: "[[Eugene Horsch]]"
start: 2025
end: 2026-08-06
fn: 2
---
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office is the prosecutor for the city and county of [[Philadelphia]]. It has been led since 2018 by [[Larry Krasner]]. In 2025 it prosecuted [[Eugene Horsch]] on drug counts, and after his arrest in June 2026 it charged him with illegal gun and drug possession; on August 6, 2026, it withdrew those charges in favor of the federal prosecution.[^1][^2][^3]
### District Attorneys
[[James C. Crumlish Jr.]] was district attorney from 1962 to 1966 and later sat as a judge of the [[Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania|Commonwealth Court]] until his death in 1992.[^4] On January 19, 2012, the [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania]], in an opinion by Chief Justice [[Ronald Castille]], held that the Philadelphia costs-of-prosecution statute did not permit the office to recover the salaries of its assistant district attorneys and county detectives from [[Gerald Garzone]] and [[Louis Garzone]], the funeral directors it had prosecuted in the body-parts case of 2008.[^5]
On March 21, 2017, a federal grand jury returned a 23-count indictment charging District Attorney [[R. Seth Williams|Rufus Seth Williams]] with bribery, extortion, and honest services wire fraud "in connection with tens of thousands of dollars' worth of concealed bribes that he received from two business owners in exchange for his agreement to perform official acts," and with defrauding a nursing home and family friends of money meant for a relative's care. The case was brought by the [[United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey|United States Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey]] with the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]'s Philadelphia Division, [[Internal Revenue Service|IRS]] Criminal Investigation, and [[Homeland Security Investigations]].[^6]
Krasner first ran for district attorney in 2017. On November 4, 2025, he won a third term against the Republican nominee, [[Patrick Dugan]], a former judge of the Philadelphia Municipal Court.[^1]
### The Horsch Prosecutions
[[R.C. Horsch]] said that staff of the office attended the 1973 premiere of his film [[The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig]] at the 1812 Theater on Chestnut Street.[^7] In March 2009 the office, through Assistant District Attorney [[Jill Fertel]], prosecuted him for approaching a nine-year-old girl in [[Kensington, Philadelphia|Kensington]].[^8]
Firefighters answered a small fire on the second floor of the house at 417 West Chew Avenue on May 18, 2025. A fire marshal and a police patrolman found a marijuana grow, a BCI Defense rifle of AR-15 pattern modified to fire automatically, a 12-gauge Stevens Model 67 shotgun with a sawed-off barrel, a 9mm Girsan MC28 pistol, and more than a hundred rounds of ammunition; the serial numbers had been destroyed on all three guns. According to a spokesperson for Krasner, the defense lawyer [[Jerome Brown]] told the court that the weapons had belonged to Eugene Horsch's father, who had died three days before the raid, and that Eugene Horsch had planned to dispose of them properly. He pleaded guilty to manufacturing drugs, prosecutors withdrew the gun charges, and he received three years of probation.[^2]
After his arrest near [[Independence Hall]] on June 19, 2026, the office charged him with illegal gun and drug possession. On the morning of August 6, 2026, Assistant District Attorney [[Alyssa Amoroso]] withdrew the charges, telling a city judge that the [[United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|United States Attorney's Office]] would handle the case. Neither Horsch nor Brown attended the hearing.[^3] Amoroso, a 2017 graduate of the [[Villanova University]] law school, had interned in the office's Municipal Court Unit in 2016.[^9]
### Referral of Krasner
On September 15, 2026, in the federal habeas proceeding over Dennis Johnson's 2009 conviction for second-degree murder, Judge [[Paul S. Diamond]] of the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]] wrote: "I have thus reluctantly concluded that Philadelphia's highest law enforcement official and one of his top assistants may have violated the law." He referred "the DAO, Mr. Krasner, and Stiegler to this District's [[United States]] Attorney's Office for investigation and other appropriate action," writing that a possible threat by Krasner "could amount to obstruction of justice," that efforts to mislead the court "might amount to conspiracy," and that the supervisor Matthew Stiegler "may have committed perjury while on the stand." Krasner said: "I respectfully and vigorously disagree," and "I look forward to appealing to the higher court as soon as the law allows."[^10]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Orso, Anna, Ellie Rushing, and Jesse Bunch. "Larry Krasner reelected as Philadelphia District Attorney," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* November 4, 2025. https://www.inquirer.com/politics/philadelphia/district-attorney-election-results-winner-20251104.html
[^2]: Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, Ellie Rushing, and Barbara Laker. "Police searched Olney home last summer, but drugs, not missing women, were the focus," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 1, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/eugene-raymond-horsch-olney-home-search-guns-drugs-20260701.html
[^3]: Rushing, Ellie. "Feds will take over gun case of Olney man at center of missing women investigation, as Philly DA withdraws charges," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 6, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/eugene-horsch-federal-charges-olney-missing-women-20260806.html
[^4]: "James Crumlish," Ballotpedia; "James C. Crumlish," Find a Grave memorial 117845657 (1920 to 1992). https://ballotpedia.org/James_Crumlish ; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/117845657/james-c_-crumlish
[^5]: Commonwealth v. Garzone, 34 A.3d 67, 613 Pa. 481 (Pa. 2012), opinion of Castille, C.J., decided January 19, 2012. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13924150246787701071
[^6]: United States Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey, "Philadelphia District Attorney Rufus Seth Williams Indicted On Bribery And Extortion Charges," press release, March 21, 2017, archived. http://web.archive.org/web/20260524023339/https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/philadelphia-district-attorney-rufus-seth-williams-indicted-bribery-and-extortion-charges
[^7]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio, republishing interviews recorded in 2013. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/
[^8]: Rushing, Ellie, Barbara Laker, Ryan W. Briggs, and Max Marin. "Raymond Horsch was convicted of luring a 9-year-old girl to his car in 2009. Now those court records could be destroyed." *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 22, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/raymond-horsch-child-luring-kensington-records-expunged-20260922.html
[^9]: "Profiles in Justice: ADA Alyssa Amoroso," Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, *The Justice Wire* (Medium), about 2021. https://medium.com/philadelphia-justice/profiles-in-justice-ada-alyssa-amoroso-64b95bd178bb
[^10]: Palmer, Chris. "A federal judge said he believes DA Larry Krasner may have broken the law, and he referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 15, 2026, updated September 16, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/paul-diamond-judge-larry-krasner-crimes-prosecution-20260915.html

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---
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
tags:
- Organization
- LawEnforcement
- Philadelphia
- Police
- OlneyHouseInvestigation
- RCHorsch
- MOVE
alias:
- PPD
- Philadelphia police
summary: "Municipal police force of Philadelphia, created by the Act of Consolidation of 1854, which with the FBI has led the 2026 Olney House Investigation into women connected to R.C. Horsch."
start: 1854
location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[Frank Rizzo]]"
reverse: true
role: "police commissioner"
start: 1967
end: 1971
fn: 3
- type: head_of
with: "[[Gregore J. Sambor]]"
reverse: true
role: "police commissioner"
end: 1985
fn: 5
- type: head_of
with: "[[Danielle Outlaw]]"
reverse: true
role: "police commissioner"
start: 2020-02
end: 2023-09-22
fn: 8
- type: head_of
with: "[[John M. Stanford Jr.]]"
reverse: true
role: "interim police commissioner"
start: 2023-09-22
end: 2024-01-02
fn: 9
- type: investigated
with: "[[Olney House Investigation]]"
start: 2026-06-19
fn: 2
- type: investigated
with: "[[Eugene Horsch]]"
start: 2013
fn: 12
---
The Philadelphia Police Department is the municipal police force of [[Philadelphia]]. It was created by the Act of Consolidation of 1854, which united the city and county under a single government. Since June 2026 it has conducted, with the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], the [[Olney House Investigation]] into women connected to the house of the pornographer [[R.C. Horsch]] and his son [[Eugene Horsch]] on West Chew Avenue.[^1][^2]
### Consolidation
In July 1700 the Common Council established a night watch. The Act of Consolidation of 1854 gave the new department a jurisdiction of 129 and a half square miles and roughly 500,000 inhabitants, raised the potential size of the force to 820 patrolmen, and set tiered salaries by rank. The department is the fourth largest police force in the [[United States]].[^1]
### Leary, Rizzo, and the 1974 Crime Commission
In the riot of 1964, which began when "a scuffle with police during a routine arrest touched off days of rioting," Commissioner Howard Leary instructed police to contain the area and use minimal force; [[Frank Rizzo|Frank L. Rizzo]] fought with Leary over his strict controls on the use of firearms.[^1] To win reelection in 1967, Mayor [[James H. J. Tate]] "figured he needed to send a law and order message" and named Rizzo commissioner.[^3] Rizzo was commissioner from 1967 to 1971 and mayor from 1972 to 1980. He "declared war on the city's dissident groups, especially Black Power militants," and his police raided the offices of the [[Black Panther Party]] and strip-searched members in front of news photographers.[^1] He resigned in 1971 to run for mayor.[^3]
A crime commission reported in 1974 that graft in the department was "ongoing, widespread, systematic, and occurring at all levels of the Police Department." Three times between 1974 and 1983 courts found that the department had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and the resulting consent decrees set quotas for hiring women, African Americans, and Hispanics.[^1]
In the 1969 administration of Mayor Tate, when the [[Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections]] closed Ray Hoersch's [[Underground Cinema 16]] on Sansom Street, "police were instructed to keep it empty."[^4]
### MOVE
In 1978 police surrounded the [[Powelton Village]] base of the group [[MOVE]] to enforce a court-ordered eviction; the shootout killed one police officer and injured several officers and MOVE members. On May 13, 1985, with the approval of Mayor [[W. Wilson Goode]], the department dropped a bomb on a fortified row house in West Philadelphia on Osage Avenue. The bombing killed eleven people, five of them children, and destroyed sixty-one homes. Goode later apologized and brought in Commissioner Kevin Tucker, who introduced foot patrols, neighborhood advisory councils, and ministations.[^1]
Commissioner [[Gregore J. Sambor]], a military veteran, had been ordered by Goode to prepare the tactical plan and delegated it to three officers. The plan called for tear gas to be fired into the house and for "a satchel of explosives" to be dropped on a rooftop bunker; Sambor admitted that he "had no backup plan if the tear gas didn't work." When the fire started he allowed it to burn. The MOVE Commission found that the three officers had prepared the plan "hastily and without sufficient information or adequate intelligence." Sambor retired six months later, and gave no interviews afterward except when compelled to testify in a federal case in 1996. "I was told any possibility for injury or death inside the bunker was minimal," he said.[^5]
In the [[39th District]] scandal, officers were accused of "systematically robbing, beating, and framing suspects in drug cases"; ten were imprisoned and about four million dollars was paid in settlements. In March 2015 the [[Department of Justice|Justice Department]] criticized the department for a "lack of transparency" in use-of-force cases.[^1]
### Commissioners Since 2008
[[Charles H. Ramsey]], a former chief of police of [[Washington, D.C.]], was appointed by Mayor [[Michael Nutter]] and was commissioner from January 2008 to January 2016; he promoted [[Kevin Bethel]] to deputy commissioner for patrol operations in 2009.[^6][^7] [[Danielle Outlaw]], who had become chief of police in [[Portland, Oregon]], in 2017, was sworn in in February 2020 as the first Black woman to lead the department. She left on September 22, 2023, to become a deputy security chief at the [[Port Authority of New York and New Jersey]], and her top deputy, [[John M. Stanford Jr.]], was named interim commissioner.[^8] Mayor [[Jim Kenney]] appointed Stanford on September 22, 2023, and named [[Frank Vanore]], who had joined the department in 1990, interim first deputy commissioner.[^9] Bethel, who had joined the force in 1986 and retired in 2016, was sworn in as commissioner on January 2, 2024.[^7]
### Narcotics Bureau and the Nordo Cases
An Internal Affairs report of August 2018 found that, from a meeting in May 2017 called by Inspector [[Raymond Evers]] and Chief Inspector Anthony Boyle, the Narcotics Bureau had developed a practice of running low-level arrestees as informants off the books, falsifying paperwork and withholding information from the [[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]].[^10] The former homicide detective [[Philip Nordo]], dismissed in 2017, was convicted on June 1, 2022, of rape, sexual assault, stalking, and other offenses, and the district attorney's Conviction Integrity Unit reviewed about 62 homicide convictions in which he had been involved.[^11]
### The Horsch Cases
In 2013 the department found about 1.9 million dollars' worth of marijuana in the house on West Chew Avenue in [[Olney, Philadelphia|Olney]], and Eugene Horsch was sentenced to four to eight years. After a fire at the house on May 18, 2025, a fire marshal and a patrolman discovered a marijuana grow and three firearms with destroyed serial numbers.[^12][^13] In December 2014 an assistant United States attorney, [[Elizabeth F. Abrams]], prosecuted a felon-in-possession case investigated by the FBI and the department.[^14]
Commissioner Bethel, Deputy Commissioner Vanore, and Special Agent in Charge [[Wayne Jacobs]] of the FBI's Philadelphia Field Office said at a briefing on September 16, 2026, that five women shown in material recovered from the house appeared to be dead; on August 12 Inspector Evers had identified [[Gabrielle Amarando]] and [[Maribel Fresses]] as two of them.[^2][^10]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Elkins, Alex. "Police Department, Philadelphia," *The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia,* Rutgers University, 2016. https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/police-department-philadelphia/
[^2]: Sharber, Cory. "Police, FBI provide updates on Horsch missing women case," *WHYY,* September 16, 2026. https://whyy.org/articles/olney-home-investigation-abuse/
[^3]: Finkel, Ken. "The Rise of Rizzo," PhillyHistory Blog, City of Philadelphia Department of Records, September 10, 2018. https://blog.phillyhistory.org/index.php/2018/09/the-rise-of-rizzo/
[^4]: "Police to Inspect Building: Cinema 16 Shut Down In License Dispute; Owner Is 'Confused'," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 30, 1969, p. 19. https://www.newspapers.com/image/169186622/
[^5]: Gambacorta, David. "Gregore J. Sambor, police commissioner," *Philadelphia Daily News,* May 6, 2010. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/special_packages/dailynews/20100506_Gregore_J__Sambor__police_commissioner.html
[^6]: "Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, Former D.C. Police Chief, Announces Retirement," *NBC4 Washington,* October 2015; Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy, George Mason University, "Charles H. Ramsey." https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/philadelphia-police-commissioner-charles-ramsey-announces-retirement/69043/ ; https://cebcp.org/hall-of-fame/charles-ramsey/
[^7]: "Kevin J. Bethel sworn in as Philadelphia's newest police commissioner," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* January 2, 2024, and "Kevin Bethel, Philly's new police commissioner, has a 'strong and direct' style," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* November 22, 2023. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/kevin-bethel-philadelphia-police-commissioner-sworn-in-20240102.html
[^8]: Palmer, Chris, Anna Orso, and Oona Goodin-Smith. "Danielle Outlaw, Philadelphia Police Commissioner, resigns for a job at Port Authority of New York and New Jersey," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 5, 2023. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/danielle-outlaw-philadephia-police-commissioner-resigns-replacement-20230905.html
[^9]: Office of the Mayor, City of Philadelphia, "Mayor Jim Kenney Appoints John M. Stanford, Jr. as Interim Police Commissioner for the Philadelphia Police Department, Frank Vanore as Interim 1st Deputy Commissioner," September 22, 2023. https://www.phila.gov/2023-09-22-mayor-jim-kenney-appoints-john-m-stanford-jr-as-interim-police-commissioner-for-the-philadelphia-police-department-frank-vanore-as-interim-1st-deputy-commissioner/
[^10]: "Report: Philly narcotics cops faked paperwork to hide informants. Hundreds of cases may be challenged," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* January 13, 2019; Rushing, Ellie, Barbara Laker, Max Marin, and Ryan W. Briggs. "'I knew she was gone': Police say at least two missing women likely killed inside Olney home linked to violent pornography," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 12, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-police-narcotics-drugs-informants-practices-raymond-evers-anthony-boyle-20190113.html ; https://www.inquirer.com/news/eugene-horsch-murder-missing-women-20260812.html
[^11]: Office of the Philadelphia District Attorney, "Former Homicide Detective Philip Nordo Accused of Sexual Assault, Theft Found Guilty on All Counts," press release, June 1, 2022. https://phillyda.org/news/former-homicide-detective-philip-nordo-accused-of-sexual-assault-theft-found-guilty-on-all-counts/
[^12]: "Five takeaways from Philly missing women mystery connected to Raymond and Eugene Horsch," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* August 4, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-eugene-horsch-olney-missing-women-20260804.html
[^13]: Marin, Max, Ryan W. Briggs, Ellie Rushing, and Barbara Laker. "Police searched Olney home last summer, but drugs, not missing women, were the focus," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 1, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/eugene-raymond-horsch-olney-home-search-guns-drugs-20260701.html
[^14]: United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, "Man Charged With Possession Of A Firearm By A Convicted Felon," press release, December 16, 2014, archived. https://web.archive.org/web/20260524074237/https://www.justice.gov/usao-edpa/pr/man-charged-possession-firearm-convicted-felon

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---
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
tags:
- Organization
- StateJudiciary
- Court
- Pennsylvania
- Garzone
- RCHorsch
alias:
- Pennsylvania Superior Court
- Pa. Super. Ct.
summary: "Intermediate appellate court of Pennsylvania, established in 1895, which ruled on the Garzone and Mastromarino body-parts sentences in 2010 and on which Judge John B. Hannum sat before 1969."
start: 1895
location: "Pennsylvania"
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
The Superior Court of Pennsylvania is one of the two statewide intermediate appellate courts of [[Pennsylvania]]; the other is the [[Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania|Commonwealth Court]]. It was established in 1895 to hear appeals from the Courts of Common Pleas and relieve the caseload of the [[Supreme Court of Pennsylvania]]. It has fifteen judges, elected to ten-year terms.[^1][^2]
### Judges
[[John B. Hannum]], a former chairman of the Chester County Republican Committee, sat on the court by appointment before [[Richard Nixon]] named him to the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania]] in 1969. The Federal Judicial Center dates his service on the court to 1968 and 1969, and his *[[The Philadelphia Inquirer|Inquirer]]* obituary gives his appointment as 1967.[^3]
### The Body-Parts Appeals
After [[Gerald Garzone]] and [[Louis Garzone]] of the [[Garzone Funeral Home]] in [[Kensington, Philadelphia|Kensington]] pleaded guilty in 2008 to selling corpses to the tissue-recovery company of [[Michael Mastromarino]], the trial court, on a motion by the [[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office|Commonwealth]], ordered each to pay about 90,000 dollars in costs, most of it the salaries of the assistant district attorneys and county detectives assigned to the case. On April 13, 2010, in an opinion by Judge Stevens, the court vacated the salary portion in Gerald Garzone's case and affirmed the rest: "although the crimes in this case are particularly heinous, if the General Assembly intended to permit such recovery of regularly paid salaries of assistant district attorneys and detectives to be costs associated with the prosecution, the Legislature would have expressly done so." It ruled in Louis Garzone's appeal the next day. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirmed on January 19, 2012.[^4][^5][^6]
Mastromarino had been sentenced in Philadelphia on October 22, 2008, to 25 to 58 years, concurrent with his sentence in [[New York City|New York]], including consecutive sentences on 32 of 244 theft counts and aggravated sentences for abuse of corpse. The court affirmed the sentence on July 21, 2010, again in an opinion by Judge Stevens.[^7]
In the [[Olney House Investigation]] of 2026, police examined the access of the pornographer [[R.C. Horsch]] to the Garzone crematorium in the years before 2007.[^8]
### Post-Conviction Appeals
The firm of the Philadelphia defense lawyer [[Jerome Brown]], counsel to R.C. Horsch in 2009 and to his son [[Eugene Horsch]] in 2026, advertises two post-conviction victories in the court resting on alleged detective misconduct, *Commonwealth v. Silverman* (2019) and *Commonwealth v. Ronald Thomas* (2020).[^9]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania, "Superior Court." https://www.pacourts.us/courts/superior-court
[^2]: "Pennsylvania Superior Court: Over 125 Years of Justice," Jenkins Law Library, December 1, 2023. https://www.jenkinslaw.org/blog/2023/12/01/pennsylvania-superior-court-over-125-years-justice
[^3]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "Hannum, John Berne." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/hannum-john-berne; Downey, Sally A. "John B. Hannum, 92, judge," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* April 25, 2007. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20070425_John_B__Hannum__92__judge.html
[^4]: Commonwealth v. Garzone (Gerald Garzone), 993 A.2d 306, 2010 PA Super 57 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed April 13, 2010), opinion of Stevens, J. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12429640407209552656
[^5]: Commonwealth v. Garzone (Louis Garzone), 993 A.2d 1245 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed April 14, 2010), No. 780 EDA 2009.
[^6]: Commonwealth v. Garzone, 34 A.3d 67, 613 Pa. 481 (Pa. 2012), opinion of Castille, C.J., decided January 19, 2012. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13924150246787701071
[^7]: Commonwealth v. Mastromarino, 2 A.3d 581, 2010 PA Super 128 (Pa. Super. Ct., filed July 21, 2010), opinion of Stevens, J. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=1483314488518887260
[^8]: Briggs, Ryan W., Max Marin, Barbara Laker, and Ellie Rushing. "Raymond Horsch had access to a Kensington crematorium linked to illegal body parts sales, years before missing persons investigation," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 21, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/news/raymond-horsch-missing-women-kensington-bodies-crematorium-20260921.html
[^9]: Law Offices of Jerome Michael Brown, firm website. https://jeromebrownlaw.com/

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---
category: "U.S. Government"
aliases:
- "US AI Safety Institute"
- "U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute"
- "AI Safety Institute"
- "AISI"
- "USAISI"
- "Center for AI Standards and Innovation"
- "CAISI"
tags:
- Organization
- Government
- NIST
- AISafety
- EffectiveAltruism
- DepartmentOfCommerce
summary: "Federal AI-evaluation body created inside NIST in November 2023, renamed the Center for AI Standards and Innovation in June 2025, with Paul Christiano as its first head of AI safety."
start: 2023-11
relations:
- type: head_of
with: "[[Elizabeth Kelly]]"
reverse: true
role: "inaugural director"
start: 2024-02
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Elham Tabassi]]"
reverse: true
role: "chief technology officer"
start: 2024-02
fn: 1
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Paul Christiano]]"
reverse: true
role: "head of AI safety; later senior technical advisor"
start: 2024-04
fn: 5
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Adam Russell]]"
reverse: true
role: "chief vision officer"
start: 2024-04
fn: 5
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Mara Campbell]]"
reverse: true
role: "acting chief operating officer and chief of staff"
start: 2024-04
fn: 5
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Rob Reich]]"
reverse: true
role: "senior advisor"
start: 2024-04
fn: 5
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Mark Latonero]]"
reverse: true
role: "head of international engagement"
start: 2024-04
fn: 5
- type: head_of
with: "[[Collin Burns]]"
reverse: true
role: "selected as director, removed April 2026"
start: 2026-04
end: 2026-04
fn: 2
- type: head_of
with: "[[Chris Fall]]"
reverse: true
role: "director"
start: 2026-04
end: 2026-07
fn: 14
- type: head_of
with: "[[Arvind Raman]]"
reverse: true
role: "acting director"
start: 2026-07
fn: 14
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
The U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI) is a body within the [[National Institute of Standards and Technology]] (NIST) of the [[Department of Commerce]], created in November 2023 at the direction of President [[Joe Biden]] to carry out the tasks his executive order on artificial intelligence assigned to Commerce.[^1][^2] In June 2025 the [[Donald Trump]] administration renamed it the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI).[^2] NIST describes CAISI as "industry's primary point of contact within the U.S. government to facilitate testing and collaborative research related to harnessing and securing the potential of commercial AI systems."[^3]
### Leadership Under Raimondo
On February 7, 2024, Commerce Secretary [[Gina Raimondo]] named [[Elizabeth Kelly]], then special assistant to the president for economic policy, as the institute's inaugural director and [[Elham Tabassi]], NIST's chief AI advisor, as chief technology officer. Kelly said that "our first priority will be executing the tasks assigned to NIST in President Biden's executive order," and that she looked forward "to building the institute as a long-term asset for the country and the world."[^1]
On March 7, 2024, *[[VentureBeat]]* reported, citing unnamed sources, that NIST staff members were threatening to resign over the expected appointment of [[Paul Christiano]], whom it described as an "effective altruist," that the hire "was allegedly rushed through the hiring process without anyone knowing until today," and that it had come directly from Raimondo. The staff concern was that his ties to effective altruism and longtermism "could threaten the institute's objectivity." Divyansh Kaushik of the [[Federation of American Scientists]] defended him as qualified for the executive order's work on chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear risks.[^4]
On April 16, 2024, Raimondo named Christiano head of AI safety, [[Adam Russell]] chief vision officer, [[Mara Campbell]] acting chief operating officer and chief of staff, [[Rob Reich]] senior advisor, and [[Mark Latonero]] head of international engagement, saying: "we need the top talent our nation has to offer."[^5] The Commerce Department's release stated that Christiano would "design and conduct tests of frontier AI models, focusing on model evaluations for capabilities of national security concern," and noted that he had "launched a leading initiative to conduct third-party evaluations of frontier models, now housed at Model Evaluation and Threat Research ([[METR]])." Russell came from the AI division of the [[University of Southern California]]'s Information Sciences Institute and had been a program manager at the [[DARPA|Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]] and at the [[Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity]] and had helped establish [[ARPA-H]]. Campbell had been deputy chief operating officer of the Commerce Department's [[Economic Development Administration]]. Latonero had been deputy director of the National AI Initiative Office at the White House [[Office of Science and Technology Policy]]. Reich, a professor of political science at [[Stanford University]] and associate director of its [[Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence|Institute for Human-Centered AI]], took public-service leave to advise the institute and "lead engagement with civil society organizations."[^6]
Christiano had founded the [[Alignment Research Center]], to which [[Open Philanthropy]] gave 1,515,000 dollars in 2022, and was one of the original trustees of [[Anthropic]]'s [[Long-Term Benefit Trust]], which he left that month to take the post.[^7][^8] Reich had been a director of the Clear Fund, the legal entity of [[GiveWell]], on its returns for 2013 through April 2019, on the same board as [[Holden Karnofsky]] and [[Cari Tuna]]; GiveWell's own board listing of 2018 identified him as "a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University."[^9][^10] The Action Fund of the [[Center for AI Safety]] stated that it had led a bipartisan congressional effort that "secured $10 million to establish" the institute.[^11]
### Renaming
The Daily Signal reported in April 2026 that Commerce Secretary [[Howard Lutnick]] had said at the time of the June 2025 renaming: "For far too long, censorship and regulations have been used under the guise of national security. Innovators will no longer be limited by these standards," and that "CAISI will evaluate and enhance U.S. innovation of these rapidly developing commercial AI systems while ensuring they remain secure to our national security standards."[^2] NIST's page for the center lists among its tasks unclassified evaluations of AI capabilities posing national-security risks, in which "CAISI will focus on demonstrable risks, such as cybersecurity, biosecurity, and chemical weapons," assessments of "U.S. and adversary AI systems," including "the possibility of backdoors and other covert, malicious behavior," coordination with the [[Department of Defense]], the [[Department of Energy]], the [[Department of Homeland Security]], the Office of Science and Technology Policy and "the Intelligence Community," and representing U.S. interests abroad "to guard against burdensome and unnecessary regulation of American technologies by foreign governments." Its published work in 2026 included evaluations of [[DeepSeek]] V4 Pro and of two models from the Chinese company [[Z.ai]], and a joint assessment with the British [[AI Security Institute]] of Moonshot AI's Kimi K3.[^3] In September 2026 the [[OpenAI Foundation]] described Christiano as a senior technical advisor at CAISI when it appointed him to its board.[^7]
### Leadership Turnover, 2026
[[Collin Burns]], the first-listed author of [[OpenAI]]'s 2023 "Weak-to-strong generalization" research, on which OpenAI's president [[Greg Brockman]] was listed as a contributor, was selected in April 2026 to direct CAISI.[^2][^12][^13] Accounts of his departure differ. The Daily Signal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported on April 23, 2026 that Burns, "a former researcher at Anthropic and OpenAI, was tapped to lead" the center, "but while Burns was in the onboarding process, the Commerce Department selected a different person to lead the organization," [[Chris Fall]], who had directed the Department of Energy's [[Office of Science]] in the first Trump administration. It noted that Anthropic had declined the [[Pentagon]]'s request for unrestricted use of its technology and that Secretary of War [[Pete Hegseth]] had declared the company a "supply chain risk to national security."[^2] A letter of August 13, 2026 from Representative [[Ro Khanna]] to Lutnick, published by the Democratic side of the [[House Select Committee on the CCP]], stated instead that Burns "was ousted just four days into his tenure as CAISI's leader," adding: "Many believe this was driven by the administration's hostility toward his former employer."[^13]
On July 20, 2026, CNBC confirmed that Fall had resigned about three months after being picked; a Commerce spokesperson, Kristen Eichamer, said that NIST's director, [[Arvind Raman]], would serve as acting director and declined to say why Fall had left. The same report noted that [[David Sacks]] had stepped down as [[White House]] AI and crypto czar in March 2026 without being replaced.[^14] Khanna's letter stated that the Trump administration's AI Action Plan had directed CAISI to evaluate Chinese frontier models "for alignment with Chinese Communist Party talking points and censorship," and that CAISI had reportedly stopped publishing findings on content manipulation in its latest evaluations of Chinese models.[^13]
In September 2026 the publication *Effort*, founded by [[Brian Chau]], wrote, citing a former employee of the [[Foundation for American Innovation]], that [[Sophia Brown]], formerly strategy and partnerships director of the [[Horizon Institute for Public Service]], had been hired into CAISI under the Intergovernmental Personnel Act through that foundation.[^15]
### Footnotes
[^1]: National Institute of Standards and Technology, "U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Announces Key Executive Leadership at U.S. AI Safety Institute," February 7, 2024. https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/02/us-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-announces-key-executive-leadership-us
[^2]: Mitchell, Elizabeth Troutman. "Trump Admin Changes Plan to Tap Former Anthropic Researcher to Direct Federal AI Safety Org." *The Daily Signal,* April 23, 2026. https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/04/23/trump-anthropic-researcher/
[^3]: National Institute of Standards and Technology, "Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI)," retrieved September 23, 2026. https://www.nist.gov/caisi
[^4]: Goldman, Sharon. "NIST staffers revolt against expected appointment of 'effective altruist' AI researcher to US AI Safety Institute." *VentureBeat,* March 7, 2024. https://venturebeat.com/ai/nist-staffers-revolt-against-potential-appointment-of-effective-altruist-ai-researcher-to-us-ai-safety-institute
[^5]: National Institute of Standards and Technology, "U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Announces Expansion of U.S. AI Safety Institute Leadership Team," April 16, 2024. https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/04/us-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-announces-expansion-us-ai-safety
[^6]: U.S. Department of Commerce, "U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Announces Expansion of U.S. AI Safety Institute Leadership Team," April 16, 2024, archived December 31, 2024. http://web.archive.org/web/20241231010954/https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2024/04/us-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-announces-expansion-us-ai-safety
[^7]: OpenAI Foundation, "Paul Christiano joins OpenAI Foundation Board," September 9, 2026, https://openaifoundation.org/news/paul-christiano-joins-openai-foundation-board ; Open Philanthropy, "Alignment Research Center, General Support," March 2022, archived November 9, 2025, http://web.archive.org/web/20251109144648/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/alignment-research-center-general-support/ ; Open Philanthropy, "Alignment Research Center, General Support (November 2022)," archived October 5, 2025. http://web.archive.org/web/20251005184734/https://www.openphilanthropy.org/grants/alignment-research-center-general-support-november-2022/
[^8]: Anthropic, "The Long-Term Benefit Trust," September 19, 2023, with later updates. https://www.anthropic.com/news/the-long-term-benefit-trust
[^9]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, "The Clear Fund," EIN 20-8625442, Form 990 officer and director listings for fiscal years 2013 to 2024, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/208625442
[^10]: GiveWell, "People," archived December 21, 2018. http://web.archive.org/web/20181221001410/https://www.givewell.org/about/people
[^11]: Center for AI Safety Action Fund, "2024 Annual Impact Report." https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/66438c042d15b14b53b83006/68012dcfec6880aba24f528a_CAIS-ActionFund-ImpactReport_05.pdf
[^12]: OpenAI, "Weak-to-strong generalization," December 14, 2023, archived September 17, 2026. http://web.archive.org/web/20260917090610/https://openai.com/index/weak-to-strong-generalization/
[^13]: Khanna, Ro. Letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, August 13, 2026, published by the Democrats of the House Select Committee on the CCP. https://democrats-selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/democrats-selectcommitteeontheccp.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/8.13.26-khanna-letter-to-commerce-on-caisi.pdf
[^14]: Capoot, Ashley. "Trump administration's head of AI safety agency resigns after 3 months on job." *CNBC,* July 20, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/20/trumps-head-of-ai-safety-agency-caisi-resigns-after-months-on-job.html
[^15]: Effort. "Effective Altruism is Buying Political Staff." September 19, 2026. https://www.effort.news/aisi

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---
category: "Law Enforcement & Legal"
tags:
- Organization
- FederalJudiciary
- Court
- Philadelphia
- Pennsylvania
- RCHorsch
- OlneyHouseInvestigation
alias:
- Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- E.D. Pa.
- EDPA
summary: "Federal trial court for southeastern Pennsylvania, sitting in Philadelphia, created when Congress divided the District of Pennsylvania in 1818, which heard four federal cases against R.C. Horsch and his son Eugene."
start: 1818-04-20
location: "Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
relations:
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Francis Hopkinson]]"
reverse: true
role: "judge of the District of Pennsylvania"
start: 1789-09-26
end: 1791-05-09
fn: 3
- type: employed_by
with: "[[Paul S. Diamond]]"
reverse: true
role: "district judge"
fn: 11
---
The [[United States]] District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is the federal trial court for southeastern [[Pennsylvania]], sitting in [[Philadelphia]]. It descends from the District of Pennsylvania organized by the [[Judiciary Act of 1789]] and was created when Congress divided that district in 1818. Between 1974 and 2026 its judges heard four federal cases involving [[R.C. Horsch]] and his son [[Eugene Horsch]].[^1][^2]
### The District of Pennsylvania
The Judiciary Act of 1789 organized Pennsylvania as one judicial district and authorized one judgeship.[^1] [[George Washington]] nominated [[Francis Hopkinson]], born in Philadelphia in 1737 and a delegate to the [[Continental Congress]] in 1776, on September 24, 1789; his commission issued on September 26, and his service ended with his death on May 9, 1791.[^3] The court sat in Philadelphia and in [[York, Pennsylvania|York]] until Congress limited its sessions to Philadelphia in 1796. Pennsylvania was assigned to the Third Circuit in 1801, and the Judiciary Act of 1802 again organized the federal courts into six circuits.[^1][^2] An act of April 20, 1818, divided the Commonwealth into two judicial districts, the Eastern and the Western, and in 1901 Congress established the Middle District of Pennsylvania.[^1][^2] Appeals lie to the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit]].[^2]
### The Horsch Cases
In October 1974 Judge [[John B. Hannum]], a former chairman of the Chester County Republican Committee appointed by [[Richard Nixon]] in 1969, decided *Hoersch v. Froehlke*, rejecting the claim of Raymond C. Hoersch Jr., later R.C. Horsch, that his involuntary call to active duty in 1970 had been invalid.[^4]
In April 1985 Hoersch, who had spent seven years as a fugitive, part of them in [[New Zealand]] under a stolen identity, was sentenced by Judge [[Joseph L. McGlynn Jr.]], a former assistant United States attorney in the district, to three years for manufacturing methamphetamine, and Judge [[Donald W. Van Artsdalen]], a former district attorney of [[Bucks County, Pennsylvania|Bucks County]], added a year and a day for jumping bail. He was represented by [[Sally A. Kocher]] of the [[Defender Association of Philadelphia]].[^5][^6][^7]
*United States v. Horsch*, No. 2:09-cr-00794, filed on December 15, 2009, charged him with cultivating marijuana at his house in [[New Britain Township, Pennsylvania|New Britain Township]]. Assistant United States Attorney [[Elizabeth F. Abrams]] prosecuted, [[Jerome Brown]] defended, and Judge [[Richard Barclay Surrick]] sentenced him in 2012 to 54 months.[^8]
*United States v. Horsch*, No. 2:26-cr-00296, the prosecution of Eugene Horsch on counts of possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing a fraudulent federal identification document, followed a federal grand jury indictment of July 9, 2026, and is assigned to Judge [[John Milton Younge]], a former general counsel of the [[Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority]] and judge of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas appointed by [[Donald Trump]] in 2019. Brown again appears for the defense. The trial was postponed in September 2026 at the defense's request to begin no earlier than March 22.[^9][^10]
### Judge Diamond and the District Attorney
On September 15, 2026, in a habeas proceeding over a 2009 murder conviction, Judge [[Paul S. Diamond]] of the court referred District Attorney [[Larry Krasner]], his supervisor Matthew Stiegler, and the [[Philadelphia District Attorney's Office]] to the district's United States Attorney's Office "for investigation and other appropriate action."[^11]
### Footnotes
[^1]: Federal Judicial Center, "U.S. District Courts for the Districts of Pennsylvania: Legislative History." https://www.fjc.gov/history/courts/us-district-courts-districts-pennsylvania-legislative-history
[^2]: United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, "History of the Court." https://www.pawd.uscourts.gov/history
[^3]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "Hopkinson, Francis." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/hopkinson-francis
[^4]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "Hannum, John Berne"; Hoersch v. Froehlke, 382 F. Supp. 1235 (E.D. Pa. 1974), Civ. A. No. 72-1759, decided October 11, 1974. https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/hannum-john-berne ; https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2596970/hoersch-v-froehlke/
[^5]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "McGlynn, Joseph Leo, Jr." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/mcglynn-joseph-leo-jr
[^6]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "VanArtsdalen, Donald West." https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/vanartsdalen-donald-west
[^7]: Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," *Philadelphia Daily News,* April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/
[^8]: *United States v. Horsch,* No. 2:09-cr-00794-RBS (E.D. Pa.), filed December 15, 2009; judgments of June 28 and July 3, 2012, docket via CourtListener RECAP. https://www.courtlistener.com/?q=Horsch&type=r&court=paed
[^9]: Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, "Younge, John Milton"; Kramer, Jillian. "Eugene Horsch indicted in federal court on firearms, fake credentials charges," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* July 9, 2026. https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/younge-john-milton ; https://www.inquirer.com/crime/eugene-horsch-olney-house-federal-indictment-20260709.html
[^10]: Charns, David. "Eugene Horsch trial delayed amid missing women investigations." *NBC10 Philadelphia,* September 22, 2026. https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/eugene-horsch-trial-delayed-amid-philadelphia-missing-women-investigations/4467226/
[^11]: Palmer, Chris. "A federal judge said he believes DA Larry Krasner may have broken the law, and he referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* September 15, 2026, updated September 16, 2026. https://www.inquirer.com/crime/paul-diamond-judge-larry-krasner-crimes-prosecution-20260915.html