Displaying posts categorized under

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION

50 STATES AND DC, CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT

Could Jerome Corsi’s lawsuit destroy the Mueller investigation? By Elad Hakim

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/could_jerome_corsis_lawsuit_destroy_the_mueller_investigation.html

Perhaps the media and the various “experts” should reconsider salivating over the recent information stemming from the Michael Cohen plea agreement in light of the lawsuit filed by Jerome Corsi. According to Fox News, “Corsi filed a ‘criminal and ethics complaint’ against Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, accusing investigators of trying to bully him into giving ‘false testimony’ against President Trump.” If this is true, Michel Cohen’s “admissions” will be rendered virtually meaningless, and Robert Mueller’s investigation should be immediately terminated.

As part of his plea agreement, Michael Cohen admitted to making false statements in a letter to Congress in 2017 regarding a 2016 Moscow building project that was being considered by the Trump administration. According to Cohen, the discussions regarding the deal continued until June 2016, as opposed to January 2016, as he previously stated in his letter.

Many well respected legal scholars have opined that Cohen’s admission has no bearing on President Trump and the Russia investigation. According to Alan Dershowitz, “special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe is creating crimes rather than uncovering past ones,” and the “devastating” report he will write will be based on people “who have lied.” Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett agreed with Dershowitz. According to National Review’s Andrew McCarthy, Mueller is building a report as opposed to a legal case. Said McCarthy, “With respect to the president and ‘collusion,’ Mueller does not have a crime he is investigating. He is investigating in hopes of finding a crime, which is a day-and-night different thing.” Together, these comments paint a picture of an investigation that is reeling and a prosecutor hoping to find something he can use against the president that would justify his interminable investigation.

Tickets for Clintons’ stadium speaking tour now marked down 90% By Thomas Lifson

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/tickets_for_clintons_stadium_speaking_tour_now_marked_down_90.html

If only this could be called a “close-out sale.” Eagle-eyed Don Surber reports:

Those of you who waited to purchase your tickets to see a power couple from the last century are in luck. Prices for some of the tickets have been sliced by 90% or more.

When the tour was announced two months ago, the cheapest seats were $70.

Now, $6 gets you in.

Don links to the site vividseats.com, selling tickets for tomorrow’s Bill and Hillary Clinton stadium tour event at Smart Financial Centre in Sugarland, Texas, a suburb of Houston in Fort Bend County. The seating capacity of the municipally owned theatre is 6,400.

Obviously, the humiliation of facing a crowd in Toronto last week that filled fewer than 17% of the seats in the giant hockey-basketball arena was more than the Clintons could bear. Even with a theater about one third as big, the danger of a sea of empty seats was so big that drastic markdowns were necessary.

Everyone who paid the original prices is now officially a sucker.

Jerome Corsi Ethics Complaint Accuses Mueller of Coercing ‘False Testimony’ By Jack Crowe

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/jerome-corsi-ethics-complaint-accuses-mueller-of-coercing-false-testimony/

Attorneys representing Jerome Corsi filed an ethics complaint Monday accusing prosecutors in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office of pressuring their client to provide “false testimony” against Republican operative Roger Stone and President Trump.

“Dr. Corsi has been threatened with immediate indictment by Mueller’s prosecutorial staff unless he testifies falsely against Roger Stone and/or President Donald Trump and his presidential campaign, among other false testimony,” Corsi’s lawyers, Larry Klayman and David Gray, said in a complaint submitted to acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker.

Prosecutors working on behalf of special counsel Robert Mueller offered Corsi a plea deal that would require him to admit to making false statements about his communications with Stone, but Corsi says he rejected the deal because he does not believe he knowingly misled prosecutors.

At issue is a September 6 interview in which Corsi told prosecutors he did not communicate with anyone about WikiLeaks’s then-impending release of hacked information about the Clinton campaign. Citing three emails Corsi sent to Stone in 2016, prosecutors informed him that they had evidence to the contrary and, after reviewing those emails, Corsi amended his testimony.

“Word is friend in embassy plans 2 more dumps. One shortly after I’m back. 2nd in Oct. Impact planned to be very damaging,” Corsi wrote in one August 2016 email to Stone, apparently referring to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

STEVEN MOORE: REGAINING TRUST ON MONEY ISSUES

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/dec/2/why-donald-trump-must-declare-war-on-government-wa/

Republicans need to regain the offensive on the fiscal issues. The GOP has somehow allowed big spending Democrats to get to the right of them on the issue of financial responsibility and balanced budgets.

Polls show that Democrats are now more trusted on balancing the budget than Republicans. That’s like losing an arm wrestling contest with Nancy Pelosi.

The big first step for Republicans to regain American trust on fiscal responsibility is for President Trump to deliver a nationally televised prime-time speech from the Oval Office to announce an all-hands-on-deck War on Washington Waste.

Declare a debt spending emergency. If Americans believed Mr. Trump was seriously committed to this initiative, he would be regarded as a fiscal superhero. His approval ratings would sky-rocket. Who better than a businessman president to scrub out the hundreds of billions of useless expenditures that have made Americans so contemptuous of the Washington swamp.

The issue is teed up right now because the spending trends have been so alarming. The Congressional Budget Office just announced that the government is now spending $2 billion more than it takes in every day. Don’t even think about blaming the tax cuts. In 2018, the estimated $3.4 trillion raised in federal revenues was the highest level ever in American history — even with the tax cut. The problem is a spending avalanche that now exceeds $4 trillion of outlays a year.

Several weeks ago a taxpayer watchdog group called OpenTheBooks.com published an open letter signed by former Sen. Tom Coburn, Tom Smith and Adam Andrzejewski and sent to the president urging a waste war and it listed hundreds of examples of taxpayer dollars being flushed down the drain. The nearby table lists many of these little piggies. OpentheBrooks estimates $125 billion in waste at the Pentagon alone.

When Mr. Trump was shown these lists of white elephants he responded: “I thought we already took care of this.” Unfortunately, no. The bureaucratic blob made sure it wouldn’t happen.

Fighting this war on waste won’t be easy. Back in 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed the famous Grace Commission to ferret out waste, duplication and inefficiency in the federal government. That landmark commission of private sector businessmen and women examined every nook and cranny of the cavernous government agencies in and around Washington and uncovered some $420 billion in bureaucratic overspending.

8 Fake News Stories Being Peddled About Michael Cohen’s Guilty Plea Following Michael Cohen’s surprise guilty plea, the media and critics of the president wasted no time pushing collusion narratives, conspiracy theories, and outright falsehoods.By Margot Cleveland

http://thefederalist.com/2018/12/03/8-fake-news-stories-peddled-michael-cohen-right-now/

Last week, Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about efforts to build a Trump Tower complex in Moscow. Cohen told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the Trump Organization stopped pursuing the project in January 2016, but in pleading guilty Cohen stated that he continued to pursue the Trump Tower project into June of that year. Cohen claimed he lied out of loyalty to Trump and to be consistent with then-candidate Trump’s political messaging.

Following Cohen’s surprise guilty plea, the media and critics of the president wasted no time pushing collusion narratives, conspiracy theories, and outright falsehoods. Here are the top eight examples of the fake news being peddled.
1. Donald Trump Jr. Lied To Investigators

NPR’s Friday morning reporting of the development provides the clearest example of the mainstream media pushing fake news in response to Cohen’s guilty plea. After summarizing the details of his plea, NPR pivoted to Donald Trump Jr.’s role in the Moscow Trump Tower negotiations, and claimed the younger Trump lied about the timing of his involvement in the project.

“Trump Jr. told the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 that although there had been negotiations surrounding a prospective Trump Tower in Moscow, they concluded without result ‘at the end’ of 2014,” the NPR story said, adding that “Trump’s account contrasts with the new version of events given by Cohen on Thursday in a guilty plea in federal court.”

But as The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway explained on Friday, NPR confused Trump Jr.’s testimony concerning another Russian deal, which fell apart in 2014, with the Trump Tower negotiations, which the younger Trump stated ended in 2015 or 2016. Thus, contrary to NPR’s breaking story, Trump Jr.’s testimony mirrored the details contained in Cohen’s guilty plea.

GLAZOV GANG: A BLACK AMERICAN ON LEFTIST RACISM AND DESTRUCTION VIDEOS

https://jamieglazov.com/2018/12/02/glazov-gang-a-blac

This new edition of The Glazov Gang featured Will Johnson, the founder and president of UniteAmericaFirst.com.

Will exposes Leftist Racism and Destruction, revealing the progressive faith’s heart of darkness.

Don’t miss it!

And make sure to watch Will and Jermain Botsio discuss Henry Davis’ new video, in which he proclaims: “I Ain’t Never Been a Mo–f–in Slave!” — and they reflect on how leftists are in panic mode as American blacks flee the Democratic plantation.

Also tune in to watch Jamie shed light on how John Bolton Praises My New Book, “Jihadist Psychopath,” where he shares how President Trump’s National Security Adviser has given his work a glowing thumbs up.

Comey Makes a Deal With House Republicans to Testify By Rick Moran

https://pjmedia.com/trending/comey-makes-a-deal-with-house-republicans-to-testify/

Former FBI director James Comey has come to an agreement with House Republicans to testify behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee about his actions during the Hillary Clinton email and Russian collusion investigations.

Comey had sued the committee, demanding he be allowed to testify in public about his actions. But the agreement states that he will give his deposition in private, although a transcript will be released to the public.

The Daily Caller reports:

Comey sought a public hearing, claiming in a court filing Thursday that he feared “selective leaks” from Republicans. But in an emergency court hearing Friday, Comey’s attorneys acknowledged that the request to quash the congressional subpoena was unorthodox, suggesting the motion had little chance of succeeding.

Comey wrote Sunday on Twitter that he was “grateful for a fair hearing from judge.”

He said that he will testify “in the dark” but that Republicans had agreed he is “free to talk when done and transcript released in 24 hours.”

“This is the closest I can get to public testimony,” he wrote.

The bid to squash the subpoena was more than “unorthodox.” It was arrogant. A witness before any committee cannot negotiate the manner of his appearance. Comey says he feared Republicans would selectively leak his testimony, trying to make him and the Democrats look bad. While that is entirely possible, it’s not up to Comey to protect a political party or his tattered reputation by avoiding a congressional committee.

Republicans argued against Comey’s motion to block the subpoena, noting that other current and former FBI officials have testified privately during the course of the committees’ investigation of the Clinton and Trump probes.

“Sixteen other people have testified under oath in the same setting that we’re asking him to do it and his claim that he needs to do it in public is, in my opinion, a farce,” Virginia GOP Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, told Fox News on Friday.

Republicans have accused the FBI and Justice Department of going easy on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and of abusing the surveillance court process to obtain spy warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. CONTINUE AT SITE

Michael Cohen’s Lawyers Ask for No Prison Time After Plea The request came in a late-night memorandum ahead of his sentencing hearing and cited his cooperation with prosecutorsBy Rebecca Davis O’Brien and Rebecca Ballhaus

https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-cohens-lawyers-ask-for-no-prison-time-after-plea-

Lawyers for Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, asked a federal judge in a memorandum filed late Friday night to impose no prison time for Mr. Cohen at his scheduled sentencing later this month, citing Mr. Cohen’s contrition and his cooperation with law enforcement.

In their plea for leniency, Mr. Cohen’s lawyers said Mr. Cohen’s decision to cooperate with investigators reflected his “personal resolve, notwithstanding past errors, to re-point his internal compass true north toward a productive, ethical and thoroughly law abiding life.”

The memo stressed the “weighty and fraught” decision by Mr. Cohen to break with his longtime former boss, who the filing noted has repeatedly attacked the special-counsel investigation into his associates as a “witch hunt” and a “hoax.” Mr. Cohen, the lawyers said, “could have fought the government and continued to hold to the party line, positioning himself perhaps for a pardon.”

“In the circumstances of this case, at this time, in this climate, Michael’s decision to cooperate required and requires singular determination and personal conviction,” the lawyers wrote.

The filing came a day after Mr. Cohen, now 52 years old, pleaded guilty to one count brought by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office, in which he admitted lying to Congress about efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 Presidential campaign.

In August, Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to eight counts, including five counts of tax fraud, one count of making false statements to a bank, and two campaign-finance violations related to hush-money payments to two women who said they had sexual encounters with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen told the court that Mr. Trump ordered him to arrange the payments, which the president has denied.
CONTINUE AT SITE

Don’t Let Mueller’s Report Go Unanswered Because it is a prosecutor’s product, it will inevitably be one-sided. Trump ought to be allowed to respond. By Alan M. Dershowitz

https://www.wsj.com/articles/dont-let-muellers-report-go-unanswered-1543786233?cx_testId=16&cx_testVariant=cx&cx_artPos=3&cx_tag=collabctx&cx_navSource=newsReel#cxrecs_s

Special counsel Robert Mueller is likely to wrap up his investigation soon and issue a confidential report to the attorney general. It is important to understand the legal status of such a report and how it should be released and evaluated under the Justice Department regulations governing special counsels.

First and foremost, because it is the report of a prosecutor, it will inevitably be one-sided. Prosecutors pick the witnesses they present to a grand jury. Defense lawyers are not allowed to appear with their clients, or to present witnesses who might contradict the prosecutor’s case. Prosecutors need not provide exculpatory evidence, even if they are aware of it. Nor need they interview witnesses who might contradict their narrative. That is why it is generally considered unfair for prosecutors to issue “reports.” Normally prosecutors announce only that the subject has been indicted or not, without further comment.

Special counsels are permitted, and sometimes required, to issue reports—but in doing so they are governed by rules. The title “special counsel” might seem to give their findings special weight—to which they are not legally, morally or logically entitled. That is why in a high-stakes case like this one, it is imperative that the target’s legal team be allowed to issue its own report, presenting its side of the case. Basic fairness requires this, and the American public is entitled to judge for itself which side is more persuasive.

There should never be a presumption in favor of crediting the one-sided reports prepared by prosecutors. Such reports have no higher status than an indictment, and an indictment handed up by a grand jury is not proof of guilt—only a charging instrument. Like an indictment, a special counsel’s report should not undercut the presumption of innocence.

The Russia Probe Has Nothing to Do with Russia By Roger L Simon

https://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/the-russia-probe-has-nothing-to-do-with-russia/

America is at war with itself and the Russia probe is the leading, but far from the only, front in that war.

Bad as Vladimir Putin is, the investigation has little or nothing to do with Russia–which has been what it is since the days of the tsars–and everything to do with us.

From the Okhrana (the tsars’ secret police that authored the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and specialized in agents provocateurs) to the Cheka to the NKVD to the KGB to the FSB, it has always been the same. The Russians — Soviet or not — have always engaged in disinformation. Their recent Facebook and Twitter offerings were nothing more than the tip of an iceberg that’s been sailing for years.

In other words words, there’s nothing new here. The indictments of the Russian hackers by Mueller and Company were no more than a face-saving charade. They will never be arrested and no one will care. No one remembers who they were even now, less than a year later, except that they vastly expand the number of those indicted for breathless press reports.

U.S. leaders have been trying, and largely failing, to cope with Russia in all its guises since Franklin Roosevelt. FDR was gulled by New York Times Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty, the progenitor of “fake news” and probably its worst practitioner, into thinking Stalin wasn’t so evil after all and that Dzhugashvili didn’t really starve over a million Ukrainians. And what little he did had to be done. After all, as Duranty put it, you had to break some eggs to make an omelet.
Exposing Joseph Stalin’s Media Apologist

Roosevelt went on to cede Eastern Europe to Stalin at Yalta, setting up decades of misery. When Reagan came along and tried to reverse the situation, building the military and confronting Moscow, many of our Democrat friends — the same ones attacking Trump for being soft on Russia — cried foul and went viciously after Reagan as a war monger.

The hypocrisy is beyond comprehension. Do these people think we’ve had a lobotomy and can’t remember anything? Maybe they have.

Nevertheless, after the Wall fell, things only got better for a brief time because Russia remained Russia and our leaders remained ineffectual or worse in their ability to deal with it. George W. Bush naively looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his “soul.” Obama was sleazier. He colluded with the Russian dictator, being caught on video whispering to Putin’s lackey Medvedev to tell Vladimir that he, Barack, would be freer to make concessions after the election. (If Trump had been caught doing such a thing, CNN would be playing it fifty times a day for the next fifty years.) And then he literally gave Syria to the Russian dictator, walking back on his red line on chemical weapons. (Again, if Trump had done that, CNN would have had a mega-orgasm. We need a new word for extreme hypocrisy.)

But now we’re in the era of Trump and that intramural blood sport the Russia probe is in full blast, threatening never to end, people being arrested right and left for process crimes or for engaging in the kind of corruption that has pervaded Washington, D.C., in both political parties since any of us were alive.

The latest is that we learn Donald, a businessman, was trying to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. As news, that’s right up there with the sky is blue and the sun rises in the East. CONTINUE AT SITE