Idaho
Mother faces murder charges in death of toddler twins
An Idaho woman who said her toddler twins died last year after being vaccinated faces murder charges connected to their deaths, authorities said.
A grand jury indicted Andrea Shaw, who is accused of suffocating her 18-month-old twins in May 2025, on two counts of first-degree murder on June 29, according to court records and a statement from the Payette Police Department.
While appearing last year on an internet show produced by Children’s Health Defense — an anti-vaccine group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Shaw said her twins died after getting vaccinated. Kennedy has not been affiliated with the group since December 2024, when he formally resigned as chairman to join President Donald Trump’s administration.
Shaw, 23, was arrested by Boise police officers Tuesday and arraigned Thursday. She is being held on a $2 million bond and could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted or if she pleads guilty to first-degree murder. Her next court appearance is July 14.
Joe Filicetti, an attorney representing Shaw, wrote in a text message that she “denies anything and everything” and that the state “cannot prove” the criminal charges.
“We will defend her with wholeheartedness,” Filicetti added.
The Payette Police Department and the Payette County prosecutor’s office declined to comment Monday.
During her May 2025 appearance on the Children’s Health Defense show, Shaw said she found her twins dead in their room days after they got vaccinated for the flu and other diseases.
“They had got their shots at the same time by two nurses at the same time,” Shaw said. “And they got sick.”
Medical experts point out that the childhood vaccines at issue — hepatitis A, influenza and DTaP — are safe and effective for kids and recommended by various medical groups.
Shaw is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit brought by Children’s Health Defense and others against the American Academy of Pediatrics. The lawsuit, which was filed in January in federal court in Washington, accuses the American Academy of Pediatrics of racketeering for its “central role in an enterprise that has defrauded American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule for several decades.” In the lawsuit, Shaw is described as a mother “whose children died following routine vaccinations administered according to AAP guidelines.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics has asked the court to dismiss the suit, asserting in an April court filing that it is the “latest missive in a campaign targeting” the academy and its “use of science-backed evidence in vaccine policy.”
In January, pediatricians and other experts became alarmed when U.S. health officials made broad changes to childhood vaccine guidance, dropping several universal recommendations. Kennedy, who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years, said the changes better align the U.S. with peer nations “while strengthening transparency and informed consent.”
In March, a federal judge blocked the changes and said Kennedy likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee. But the judge’s order is not the final word; the blocks are temporary, pending either a trial or a decision for summary judgment.
Washington
Judge: Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 rioters don’t apply to DC pipe bomb suspect
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s mass pardons for supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol don’t apply to a Virginia man charged with planting pipe bombs near the national headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, a federal judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali refused to dismiss the case against Brian J. Cole Jr., concluding that Trump’s blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters explicitly applied only to people who were convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. Cole hadn’t been charged, let alone convicted, when Trump issued the pardons, Ali noted in his three-page order.
On the first day of his second term in the White House, Trump erased the largest criminal investigation in Justice Department history when he pardoned, commuted the prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of cases for all 1,500-plus people charged in the Jan. 6 attack.
Cole was arrested nearly a year after Trump’s sweeping act of clemency. He is accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the night before the riot.
The devices didn’t detonate before law enforcement officers discovered them on Jan. 6.
Prosecutors have said that Cole gave a confession after his arrest, telling FBI agents that he felt “bewildered” by conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election and “something just snapped.” Investigators also used phone records and other evidence to identify him as a suspect.
Cole’s attorneys argued that he qualifies for a pardon because his alleged actions are “inextricably and demonstrably tethered” to the events near the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“By the government’s own telling, this is exactly the kind of case that President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Presidential Pardon was invoked to reach,” defense lawyers wrote.
Prosecutors countered that Trump’s pardons have no bearing on Cole’s case since the president’s proclamation applies only to people who been convicted of or had a pending indictment for Capitol riot-related crimes.
“And even if the proclamation somehow could apply to this case, the Department of Justice’s contrary position is entitled to deference as a reasonable interpretation taken by the Executive Branch agency expressly charged with administering the proclamation,” they wrote.
Ali was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Trump, a Republican, spread baseless conspiracy theories that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from him. Supporters who attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 joined a mob’s attack on the Capitol, disrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying Biden’s electoral victory.
Cole is due back in court on Wednesday for a status hearing in his case. A trial date for his case hasn’t been scheduled yet.
Mother faces murder charges in death of toddler twins
An Idaho woman who said her toddler twins died last year after being vaccinated faces murder charges connected to their deaths, authorities said.
A grand jury indicted Andrea Shaw, who is accused of suffocating her 18-month-old twins in May 2025, on two counts of first-degree murder on June 29, according to court records and a statement from the Payette Police Department.
While appearing last year on an internet show produced by Children’s Health Defense — an anti-vaccine group founded by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Shaw said her twins died after getting vaccinated. Kennedy has not been affiliated with the group since December 2024, when he formally resigned as chairman to join President Donald Trump’s administration.
Shaw, 23, was arrested by Boise police officers Tuesday and arraigned Thursday. She is being held on a $2 million bond and could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted or if she pleads guilty to first-degree murder. Her next court appearance is July 14.
Joe Filicetti, an attorney representing Shaw, wrote in a text message that she “denies anything and everything” and that the state “cannot prove” the criminal charges.
“We will defend her with wholeheartedness,” Filicetti added.
The Payette Police Department and the Payette County prosecutor’s office declined to comment Monday.
During her May 2025 appearance on the Children’s Health Defense show, Shaw said she found her twins dead in their room days after they got vaccinated for the flu and other diseases.
“They had got their shots at the same time by two nurses at the same time,” Shaw said. “And they got sick.”
Medical experts point out that the childhood vaccines at issue — hepatitis A, influenza and DTaP — are safe and effective for kids and recommended by various medical groups.
Shaw is also a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit brought by Children’s Health Defense and others against the American Academy of Pediatrics. The lawsuit, which was filed in January in federal court in Washington, accuses the American Academy of Pediatrics of racketeering for its “central role in an enterprise that has defrauded American families about the safety of the childhood vaccine schedule for several decades.” In the lawsuit, Shaw is described as a mother “whose children died following routine vaccinations administered according to AAP guidelines.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics has asked the court to dismiss the suit, asserting in an April court filing that it is the “latest missive in a campaign targeting” the academy and its “use of science-backed evidence in vaccine policy.”
In January, pediatricians and other experts became alarmed when U.S. health officials made broad changes to childhood vaccine guidance, dropping several universal recommendations. Kennedy, who helped lead the anti-vaccine movement for years, said the changes better align the U.S. with peer nations “while strengthening transparency and informed consent.”
In March, a federal judge blocked the changes and said Kennedy likely violated federal procedures in revamping a key vaccine advisory committee. But the judge’s order is not the final word; the blocks are temporary, pending either a trial or a decision for summary judgment.
Washington
Judge: Trump’s pardons for Jan. 6 rioters don’t apply to DC pipe bomb suspect
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s mass pardons for supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol don’t apply to a Virginia man charged with planting pipe bombs near the national headquarters of the Democratic and Republican parties on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, a federal judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Judge Amir Ali refused to dismiss the case against Brian J. Cole Jr., concluding that Trump’s blanket pardons for Jan. 6 rioters explicitly applied only to people who were convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. Cole hadn’t been charged, let alone convicted, when Trump issued the pardons, Ali noted in his three-page order.
On the first day of his second term in the White House, Trump erased the largest criminal investigation in Justice Department history when he pardoned, commuted the prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of cases for all 1,500-plus people charged in the Jan. 6 attack.
Cole was arrested nearly a year after Trump’s sweeping act of clemency. He is accused of placing two pipe bombs outside the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C., on the night before the riot.
The devices didn’t detonate before law enforcement officers discovered them on Jan. 6.
Prosecutors have said that Cole gave a confession after his arrest, telling FBI agents that he felt “bewildered” by conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election and “something just snapped.” Investigators also used phone records and other evidence to identify him as a suspect.
Cole’s attorneys argued that he qualifies for a pardon because his alleged actions are “inextricably and demonstrably tethered” to the events near the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“By the government’s own telling, this is exactly the kind of case that President Trump’s January 20, 2025 Presidential Pardon was invoked to reach,” defense lawyers wrote.
Prosecutors countered that Trump’s pardons have no bearing on Cole’s case since the president’s proclamation applies only to people who been convicted of or had a pending indictment for Capitol riot-related crimes.
“And even if the proclamation somehow could apply to this case, the Department of Justice’s contrary position is entitled to deference as a reasonable interpretation taken by the Executive Branch agency expressly charged with administering the proclamation,” they wrote.
Ali was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Trump, a Republican, spread baseless conspiracy theories that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from him. Supporters who attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 joined a mob’s attack on the Capitol, disrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying Biden’s electoral victory.
Cole is due back in court on Wednesday for a status hearing in his case. A trial date for his case hasn’t been scheduled yet.
