The Sunday Times — owned by Rupert Murdoch — sent long lens photographers to stalk a U.S. federal judge on vacation in an effort to link her to a Reform UK donor’s pardon application.
| PULSE POINTS |
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times photographed Susan Brnovich, a Trump-appointed federal judge, during a private vacation in Montenegro, the homeland of her late husband’s family. The newspaper linked her visit to George Cottrell, a donor to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, and his ongoing pardon application, attempting to create an appearance of impropriety despite her having no official role in the process. 📰 DETAIL: Cottrell, who previously served time in the U.S. following a wire fraud plea, previously paid the late Mark Brnovich, Judge Brnovich’s husband and the former state attorney general for Arizona, for legitimate legal advice. Contrary to The Times‘ efforts to portray this as a surreptitious arrangement, it was conducted via a well-established New York law firm, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, and reported by Mr. Brnovich in routine federal paperwork. Cottrell dedicated his book How to Launder Money: A Guide for Law Enforcement, Prosecutors and Policymakers, recommending stronger anti-money laundering laws, to Mr. Brnovich, a supporter of President Donald J. Trump, and maintained a personal friendship with Judge Brnovich after she was widowed in January. Significantly, she did not stay with Cottrell in Montenegro, with The Sunday Times acknowledging that she had her own hotel accommodation and merely paid the Reform donor a social visit. 💬 KEY QUOTE: “Judge Brnovich is a personal friend, as was her late husband. She was visiting on a family vacation and did not stay with me. I consider the tactics employed by The Sunday Times, in photographing her on a private family holiday, and then contriving to link her social visit to my application for a pardon, a matter over which she, as a sitting judge, has no say, to be nothing more than tactics designed to intimidate me and those around me in furtherance of its own politically motivated agenda.” – Statement from Cottrell’s lawyers at Carter Ruck |
Gabriel Pogrund and The Times are now harassing a recently widowed friend of many conservative figures, in another failing smear attempt.
It’s become that sick and desperate. https://t.co/eN1czXd6Pb
— Raheem J. Kassam (@RaheemKassam) July 26, 2026
Image by World Economic Forum/swiss-image.ch/Monika Flueckiger.
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