RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/latest-arrest-shows-the-corruption-of-the-fbi/

On Saturday, the FBI arrested one of its own. Charles McGonigal, who used to head counterintel for the Bureau in New York and investigated Trump over Russiagate, was busted at JFK Airport and has been charged with violating the sanctions placed on Oleg Deripaska.

Deripaska, a Russian oligarch allied with Putin, has his name scrawled on parts of Russiagate. Before Christopher Steele was brought on board to produce the infamous dossier aimed at Trump, the British ex-agent had been working on a project for Deripaska to go after Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, who would also prove to be an FBI target.

In the tangled relationship that is an apt metaphor for Russiagate, the Russian billionaire appeared at times to be an FBI asset and at other times employed FBI personnel.

McGonigal is reportedly one of a number of ex-FBI agents who became freelance consultants, like American versions of Steele, under investigation. And connections between ex-FBI officials and the Russians have gone even higher than McGonigal. Louis Freeh, Bill Clinton’s former FBI director, represented a number of Russian oligarchs and his deceased predecessor, Director William Sessions worked for a top Russian mafia figure linked to Putin.

We may very well find that the retired FBI officials who haven’t gotten contracts as commentators for cable news have gone to work for the Russians. And McGonigal may be the first of a number of FBI figures who were tasked with fighting Russian influence who instead learned enough to go to work for the Russians.

If McGonigal is guilty, it’s because he was following in the footsteps of retired FBI directors and top elected officials. Deripaska had previously managed to purchase the services of former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole to “persuade U.S. officials his client isn’t a criminal” and of a firm linked to Hillary’s communications director and Bill Clinton’s deputy press secretary. When you can buy both sides of the 1996 presidential election, why quibble at a mere FBI official? Russia may be a mafia state, but unfortunately we’ve become one too.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19345/civil-criminal-line

There are two major reasons why criminal liability has been extended to cover negligent behavior. The first is evidentiary: it is often difficult or impossible to prove a specific intent to commit a crime, so the law takes a shortcut, substituting negligence, which is far easier to prove.

The second reason is to put the burden of preventing harms on the persons most able to do so.

Another consequence [of this expanding criminalization of what used to be civil violations], which we are currently experiencing in the political world, is the weaponization of the criminal justice system for partisan purposes.

There are two fundamental mechanisms of justice for wrongs committed. The first is civil, in which the wrong is compensated economically — by the payment of money. The second is criminal, in which the wrongdoer is punished — by imprisonment, probation or fine.

Our constitution recognizes this historic distinction by guaranteeing different rights in civil and criminal cases. The Bill of Rights provides that “in all criminal prosecutions,” a plethora of important procedural protections must be accorded the defendant. These include a “speedy and public trial by an impartial jury”, “the assistance of counsel”, the ability to confront adverse witnesses and call favorable ones, prohibitions against compelled self-incrimination and double jeopardy, reasonable bail and no “cruel and unusual punishment.”

In civil cases, on the other hand, there is little more than trial by jury and basic due process.

https://thespectator.com/topic/the-democrat-think-tank-implicated-by-bidens-classified-documents-penn-biden-center/

Joe Biden has become the Typhoid Mary of classified documents, spreading them as he goes. They keep turning up in batch after batch, everywhere but the floor at a Wilmington Starbucks. The president has said almost nothing about the mess, except to reassure us that “people know I take classified documents seriously.” That defense has since taken on a slight change of punctuation: “People know I take classified documents. Seriously.” He certainly does. He takes them everywhere.

Most recently, classified documents were found at the Penn Biden Center, a foreign policy think tank in Washington, DC established by Biden in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania. The documents raise additional questions. Why were Biden’s lawyers searching there in the first place? We still don’t know. More broadly, how was this center funded, and what were Joe Biden’s connections to the university? Again, we don’t know. Similar questions arise about the Biden Center at the University of Delaware, where Biden has stored over 1,800 boxes.

All these questions remain unanswered, and the White House is stonewalling anyone who dares to ask. The universities themselves are silent as a graveyard.

Important as these questions are, they are not the only ones surrounding Penn’s Washington-based Center. Two others have received little attention but point to deeper troubles at our politicized universities.

The first is that the Penn Biden Center was (and is) effectively an adjunct of one political party, based at a major research university. That’s wrong. No university should embrace such partisanship. It violates the university’s fundamental duty as an institution to maintain its scholarly neutrality. Of course, professors and students are welcome to take whatever political stances they wish, either as individuals or as voluntary groups. But the university itself (and its departments) should avoid them unless they bear directly on the university’s educational responsibilities.

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/01/24/as-trust-in-elites-collapses-its-time-to-weave-a-new-social-fabric/

How optimistic are you about America’s future? How much do you trust the institutions that hold society together? Do you think that now is an ideal time to build wealth and set your family up for success?

If your answers were “not very, not much, and no,” then you are not alone.

Earlier this month, the global communications firm Edelman released its annual barometer of trust survey, which found that trust in societal institutions is plummeting around the world. At the same time, economic anxiety is rising in the world’s top economies, including Japan, France, Germany, Singapore, and the U.S., resulting in record-setting levels of global pessimism.

In short, people in the developed world believe the social fabric of their countries is unraveling before their very eyes.

While this may seem grim, the survey also provides some clues as to how we can weave a new, more resilient social fabric.

Let’s take a look at some of the findings: In the 28 countries surveyed by Edelman, only 40% of people agree with the statement “My family and I will be better off in five years.” This is a staggering 10-point drop from last year, with 24 of the 28 countries registering all-time lows. Economic optimism is lower than the average in the United States, with only 36% who agree. This represents a one-point drop from 2022.

This economic anxiety is so intense that people fear job loss and inflation more than they fear nuclear war, food shortages, and energy shortages.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2023/01/23/fbi-agent-investigating-trump-for-russia-ties-gets-arrested-for-russia-ties-n1664212

Charles McGonigal — the former FBI agent who led the Trump-Russia investigation — has been arrested for “agreeing to provide services” to the billionaire Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

FACT-O-RAMA! It seems everything the left accuses Trump of doing – like hoarding classified documents and collusing with Russians- they are guilty of doing themselves.

Sergey Shestakov, a former Soviet, then Russian diplomat, now an American citizen, was arrested as well.

The two men are charged with trying to have Deripaska removed from the U.S. sanctions list.

“Both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better,” Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, claimed in a statement. “This Office will continue to prosecute those who violate U.S. sanctions enacted in response to Russian belligerence in Ukraine in order to line their own pockets.”

Charges against both men include:

A single count of violating the IEEPA (International Emergency Economic Powers Act)
One count of conspiring to commit money laundering
An additional count of money laundering

Each of these counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in a federal hoosegow. Shestakov was also charged with one count of lying to the FBI, which could snag him a maximum of five additional years.

In short, the high-ranking FBI agent sent to investigate Trump for colluding with Russia was busted for colluding with a Russian oligarch.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2023/01/23/leading-democrats-abandon-bidens-sinking-ship-n1664342

As each new day brings fresh revelations of more classified documents discovered in Old Joe Biden’s garage and luxury beach home, the import of it all is clear: the people who are running this administration have tired of their dementia-ridden front man, and have determined to get rid of him. Another indication of this comes from the fact that the rats are abandoning the sinking ship in ever-increasing numbers. Or, as the Associated Press put it more politely on Sunday, “senior Democrats, dismayed by a steady stream of startling disclosures, expressed criticism Sunday of how President Joe Biden handled classified material after leaving office as vice president and disappointment that the White House has not been more forthcoming with the public.” Whether they want Joe to resign in disgrace or simply to bow out of contention for the 2024 Marxist party nomination is as yet unclear, but there’s no doubt that they want Old Joe to start packing sooner than January 2029.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who is the Chou En-Lai of Senate Democrats — that is, their second-ranking member — declared that Old Joe should be “embarrassed by the situation,” as if the corrupt, venal, mendacious pretend president were capable of embarrassment. “Well, of course,” Durbin insisted. “Let’s be honest about it. When that information is found, it diminishes the stature of any person who is in possession of it because it’s not supposed to happen. … The elected official bears ultimate responsibility.”