RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-aclu-retreats-from-free-expression-1529533065

The American Civil Liberties Union has explicitly endorsed the view that free speech can harm “marginalized” groups by undermining their civil rights. “Speech that denigrates such groups can inflict serious harms and is intended to and often will impede progress toward equality,” the ACLU declares in new guidelines governing case selection and “Conflicts Between Competing Values or Priorities.”

This is presented as an explanation rather than a change of policy, and free-speech advocates know the ACLU has already lost its zeal for vigorously defending the speech it hates. ACLU leaders previously avoided acknowledging that retreat, however, in the apparent hope of preserving its reputation as the nation’s premier champion of the First Amendment.

But traditional free-speech values do not appeal to the ACLU’s increasingly partisan progressive constituency—especially after the 2017 white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville. The Virginia ACLU affiliate rightly represented the rally’s organizers when the city attempted to deny them a permit to assemble. Responding to intense post-Charlottesville criticism, last year the ACLU reconsidered its obligation to represent white-supremacist protesters.

The 2018 guidelines claim that “the ACLU is committed to defending speech rights without regard to whether the views expressed are consistent with or opposed to the ACLU’s core values, priorities and goals.” But directly contradicting that assertion, they also cite as a reason to decline taking a free-speech case “the extent to which the speech may assist in advancing the goals of white supremacists or others whose views are contrary to our values.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/06/up_to_60_organizations_may_sue_splc_for_defamation.html

According to a report from Tyler O’Neill at PJ Media, up tto 60 mostly conservative organizations may sue the Southern Poverty Law Center for being included in the organization’s list of “hate groups.” The SPLC just settled a defamation suit for more than $3 million with Muslim reformer Maajid Nawaz, whom the SPLC branded an “anti-Muslim extremist.”

Dozens of Christian and conservative groups have been similarly unfairly tarred by the SPLC as “hate groups,” and it appears they will exact their own revenge on the organization.

The SPLC published its “Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists” in 2016, listing Nawaz for an ever-changing list of reasons. The left-wing group first falsely claimed Nawaz had called for “an outright ban on the niqab,” or veil. This first charge disappeared from the website, and Quilliam accused the SPLC of “reverse engineering their justification to keep Maajid Nawaz on their list.” The SPLC later justified attacking him because he visited a strip club for his bachelor party.

Worse, the Islamist Muslim owner of the strip club who leaked the story to the press said he wanted to punish Nawaz for “being an atheist.” The SPLC, Quilliam argued, was “acting like religious police.”

“I’ve memorized half of the Quran, I am a Muslim, I am born and raised a Muslim, I learned classical Arabic, I’ve spent time in prison,” Nawaz declared last year, shortly after announcing his lawsuit. “You know who else lists heretics? The jihadists. We know what happens when you list heretics among Muslims in this way: They end up dead.”

The SPLC statement of apology was self-serving:

“The Southern Poverty Law Center was wrong to include Maajid Nawaz and the Quilliam Foundation in our Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists,” Cohen said. “Since we published the Field Guide, we have taken the time to do more research and have consulted with human rights advocates we respect.”

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on Tuesday outed two previously unidentified anti-Trump, pro-Hillary FBI investigators who were referred for investigation by the inspector general.

Meadows unmasked the pair during a joint House Oversight and Judiciary Committee hearing examining the IG report on the bureau’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Friday referred five current and former FBI employees — including Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — for disciplinary action. In addition to Strzok and Page, the report identifies anti-Trump text messages from FBI employees referred to as FBI Attorney 2, FBI Agent 1, and FBI Agent 5.

According to the IG, one of the unidentified pro-Clinton FBI investigators interviewed Hillary Clinton on July 2, 2016, along with Strzok.

Rep Ted Poe (R-Texas) asked the IG if he could reveal the identities of the unnamed FBI officials who were mentioned in the report. But Horowitz said the FBI was withholding the names from the public “because they work on counterintelligence.”

“So the FBI does not want their names released?” Poe asked Horowitz.

“Correct,” Horowitz replied.

FBI Attorney 2 reportedly worked as the top lawyer on the Russia probe and also worked on the special counsel’s investigation until this February.

House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes referred to this individual in a tweet Monday:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/06/berkeley-jury-finds-antifa-not-guilty-of-violent-beating-of-trump-supporter-despite-multiple-witnesses Remember the Antifa riots in Berkeley back in 2017?At one of the rallies, several firefighters and police officers personally witnessed at close range a mob of Antifa rioters violently attack a guy who was just sitting on a wall; the attackers would have killed the man if the cops had not interrupted the attack […]

http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/06/18/jury-deliberates-over-alleged-berkeley-protest-attack-of-trump

The jury has found all five defendants not guilty of misdemeanor assault, and not guilty of assault causing great bodily injury, also a misdemeanor. About 30 supporters of the defendants were in the courtroom for the reading of the verdicts, which began at about 3:40 p.m. Some cried quietly as the clerk read the decisions for each person. After the reading, there was a brief round of applause before the judge released the jury.

One of the defendants, Scott Hedrick, said it was a relief for the case to be over.

“It’s been over a year of this,” he said. “It was intense. We’re all just ready to move on with our lives.”

The men, who met through the underground punk scene, said they now plan to hold benefit concerts to help raise money for their attorneys.

Several jurors told Berkeleyside the group found itself in agreement relatively early on regarding the not guilty verdicts. But they wanted to make sure they worked through the process carefully. They deliberated for nearly a day. Ultimately, they said, they were not convinced a crime had occurred. There were other viable explanations for what took place, they said.

Original story: March 4, 2017, brought a day of violent political clashes to downtown Berkeley’s Civic Center Park. The event, dubbed the “March on Berkeley” by its pro-Trump organizers, was the first of several large protests in the city in 2017 that would pit pro- and anti-Trump activists against each other. There were verbal altercations and street brawls. And despite efforts by some to keep events peaceful, nearly every rally resulted in violence and arrests. Both sides have blamed the other for provoking the fights.

Wednesday, a trial began in Alameda County Superior Court where jurors have been asked to decide if five self-described “anti-fascist” defendants are guilty of attacking Trump supporter Moshe Daniel Quillinan during his evaluation by Berkeley firefighters for a large cut on his head that ultimately required 10 staples to close, according to testimony last week.

https://amgreatness.com/2018/06/20/a-feeble-pushback-against

For even the most cynical among us, there is a Baghdad Bob aura of unreality about the Justice Department Inspector General’s report absolving the FBI of partisan wrongdoing in the Clinton email investigation. The IG report follows in Comey’s footsteps: enumerating appalling and illegal behavior, and then concluding there is nothing to prosecute.

There’s no such thing as being too cynical when it comes to our government. Yet once again, Americans have had to suffer through the cycle: assurances that while the FBI investigation of Clinton was crooked, the honest Inspector General Michael Horowitz would bring us justice. This from the same press that assured us Robert Mueller is an honorable man.

The contrast with the treatment meted out to President Trump, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, and camp Carter Page, is turning people’s stomachs.

Alan Dershowitz, who has emerged as the only Democrat on the national stage with any principles, explained what should be plain to see, in an interview with Maria Bartiromo:

“We’ll stop him.” That is not an expression of bias . . . It’s a message to the American people that the FBI is going to interfere in an election . . . . How can Strzok remain an FBI agent? The red line was crossed . . . you’re not allowed to try to use your office to try and stop somebody from being elected president of the United States.

Horowitz’s report supports Dershowitz’s view that a red line was crossed:

The inspector general concluded that Strzok’s text, along with others disparaging Trump, “is not only indicative of a biased state of mind but, even more seriously, implies a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects.

But the report exonerates Strzok anyway.

Had Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election – by hook or crook, but mostly by crook – the country would have continued its decline and continued the cliff jumping leap begun by Barack Obama (2008-2016). This is the kind of thing you would be in store for.Exempli gratia:

There would have been no ClintonInvestigation. The country would not have learned about President Clinton’s secret email server. The Supreme Court of the U.S. would have found such an investigation a “blatant invasion and violation of privacy.” James Comey would have returned as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, specially appointed by Clinton on the day of her inauguration in January 2017, some say in perpetuity, although this would be denied by both President Clinton and Director Comey.
Bill Clinton would have been appointed as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.
No special Inspector General Report would have been required.
Director Comey would not have ordered an investigation of voter fraud in all fifty states related to the count of the national election, taking the lead from a federal district judge, Comey declares that all state voter registrationlaws are illegal, except in connection to Republican candidates and voters.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/report-agent-peter-strzok-escorted-from-fbi-building/

FBI agent Peter Strzok was escorted from the FBI building Friday as part of the internal investigation into his conduct during the bureau’s probes of Hillary Clinton and Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, CNN reported.

Strzok, whose controversial texts to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, his colleague and lover, landed him in the middle of an internal FBI investigation, worked on both the Clinton and Russia probes. He was one of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators before texts showing bias against President Trump got him removed from the team.

Last week’s bombshell report by the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, found a previously undisclosed text by Strzok assuring Page that they would “stop” a Trump presidency from coming to pass. The damning text “cast a cloud” over the agency’s investigation and undermined the FBI’s credibility, Horowitz said.

“Pete has steadfastly played by the rules and respected the process, and yet he continues to be the target of unfounded personal attacks, political games, and inappropriate information leaks,” Strzok’s attorney, Aitan Goelman, said in a statement to CNN. “All of this seriously calls into question the impartiality of the disciplinary process, which now appears tainted by political influence.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/06/clinton-email-investigators-broke-rules-to-please-hillary/The investigators assumed their new boss would reward them for going to extremes to help her.

Review the Clinton email scandal, the Steele dossier, the insertion of at least one FBI informant into the Trump campaign, the misleading of the FISA court by FBI and DOJ officials intent on monitoring U.S. citizens, and, now, the inspector general’s report. There emerges a common denominator: the surety by all involved that Hillary Clinton would be president, and the need to prepare for that fact.

Examine the IG’s transcript of a random, pre-election series of electronic chitchat between high-ranking FBI employees:

15:07:41, Agent 1: “ . . . I’m done interviewing the President — then type the 302. 18 hour day . . . ”

15:13:32, FBI Employee: “you interviewed the president?”

15:17:09, Agent 1: “you know — HRC” [Hillary Rodham Clinton]

15:17:18, Agent 1: “future pres”

15:17:22, Agent 1: “Trump cant win”

“Trump can’t win” explains the salty language also of the Page-Strzok text trove, where the two paramours talk of Trump supporters that they “can smell” and an “insurance” plan to preclude Trump’s nearly nonexistent chances. (“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration . . . that there’s no way [Trump] gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”)

Perhaps the most iconic example of deep-state bias was the following Page-Strzok exchange:

Page: “[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Right?!”

Strzok: “No. No he won’t. We’ll stop it.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fbi-bias-training-1529445819

At a Monday hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Christopher Wray assured lawmakers that he will implement anti-bias training to insure that his agents don’t allow their political views to influence their work. Mr. Wray’s “ Starbucks ” response to bureau scandals suggests that he too requires training.

On Thursday the Justice Department released its inspector general’s report detailing the bureau’s mishandling of the Clinton email investigation and the extreme bias against Donald Trump expressed by some FBI officials. That day Mr. Wray said that he took the report “very seriously,” and then lauded himself and his colleagues for their response. “We’ve already started taking the necessary steps to address” the issues raised in the report, said Mr. Wray. He added:

Because change starts at the top—including right here with me—we’re going to begin by requiring all our senior executives, from around the world, to convene for in-depth training on the lessons we should learn from today’s report. Then we’re going to train every single FBI employee—new hires and veterans alike—on what went wrong, so those mistakes will never be repeated… We’re going to make sure we have the policies, procedures, and training needed for everyone to understand and remember what’s expected of us.

That includes:

Drilling home the importance of objectivity—and of avoiding even the appearance of personal conflicts or political bias in our work…