Kim Jong-un makes first public appearance for 20 days, North Korean state media say, amid speculation over his health
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
Friday, May 1, 2020
Comey Will Go Down As Most Corrupt FBI Director In History
Federalist co-founder Sean Davis joined Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” Wednesday to weigh in on the news that FBI agents under James Comey plotted a perjury trap for former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
“It’s clear now that James Comey will go down in history as the most corrupt FBI director in American history,” Davis said. “He has destroyed the FBI’s reputation through his actions, his arrogance, and his corruption.”
Davis said federal prosecutors have told him Comey has made it more difficult for U.S. attorneys and FBI agents across the country to get convictions.
“That will forever be James Comey’s legacy, this corrupt coup that he attempted to run against Donald Trump,” Davis said.
Congressman Devin Nunes, who was chair of the House Intelligence Committee at the height of the FBI’s antics, said it’s concerning Comey and FBI agents at the time did nothing to determine how Flynn’s secure conversation with a Russian ambassador leaked to the Washington Post.
“Why James Comey and the FBI didn’t have 400 FBI agents crawling all over Washington, D.C., trying to find out, ‘Oh my god, we just lost important tape … somehow that leaked out from the [intelligence community],'” Nunes said. “What did they do? They did nothing.”
FBI Closed Flynn Case, Dubbed ‘Crossfire Razor,’ In Early 2017, Until Strzok Ordered It To Stay Open
After it found zero evidence that Michael Flynn broke any laws or was acting as a traitor to America, the FBI closed its case against Flynn, until fired former FBI agent Peter Strzok ordered the case to stay open.
New evidence released Thursday shows that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), closed its criminal counterintelligence investigation of retired Gen. Mike Flynn on January 4, 2017, only to have it reopened by Peter Strzok.
“The goal of the investigation was to determine whether [Flynn], associated with the Trump campaign, was directed and controlled by and/or coordinated activities with the Russian Federation in a manner which is a threat to the national security and/or possibly a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act,” the FBI memorandum formally closing its investigation of Flynn stated. “Following the initiation of captioned case, the [Crossfire Hurricane] team conducted a check of logical databases for any derogatory information on [Flynn].”
“No derogatory information was identified in FBI holdings,” the memo stated.
According to the FBI document, the federal law enforcement agency also asked a redacted agency, likely the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), to conduct a similar search of its own records for derogatory information against Flynn, who at the the time was the incoming National Security Adviser for then-President-elect Donald Trump.
“No derogatory information was reported back to the FBI,” the memo concluded.
The memo also reported that the FBI used at least one confidential human source, or “CHS” in FBI lingo, to spy on Flynn during its investigation of him. Leads offered by that CHS resulted in “no derogatory information” about Flynn. At the same time, the FBI also “initiated surveillance on a certain Russian subject” to determine whether “there was contact between him and [Flynn].”
“No contact between the two individuals was observed by the surveillance teams,” the memo closing the investigation against Flynn stated.
“Following the compilation of the above information, the [Crossfire Hurricane] team determined that [Flynn] was no longer a viable candidate as part of the larger CROSSFIRE HURRICANE umbrella case,” the memo continued. “A review of logical [redacted] databases did not yield any information on which to predicate further investigative efforts.”
“The FBI is closing this investigation,” the memo concluded.
Text messages included in the latest court filings in Flynn’s ongoing criminal case show that Peter Strzok, who was fired from the FBI for misconduct, ordered an unnamed associate managing the investigation to not close the Flynn investigation, notwithstanding the fact that the FBI concluded there was no legal or factual basis to continue its investigation of Flynn.
“Hey if you haven’t closed RAZOR, don’t do so yet,” Strzok texted at 2:14 p.m. on January 4, 2017.
“Razor still open,” Strzok immediately texted to Lisa Page, a former assistant to fired former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. Strzok and Page reportedly had an adulterous affair that was captured by their text messages to each other.
Additional texts from Strzok on February 10 also confirm suspicions that Strzok personally rewrote the official FBI account of his and FBI agent Joe Pientka’s interview of Flynn on January 24, 2017.
“Lisa, you didn’t see it before my edits that went into what I sent you,” Strzok texted his former lover at 5:37 p.m. on February 20, 2017. “I was trying to completely re-write the thing so as to save [redacted] voice and 2) get it out to you for general review and comment in anticipation of needing it soon.”
The redaction is likely a reference to Pientka, who took the original notes during the Flynn interview.
“[S]houdl say 1) trying to not completely re-write….,” Strzok quickly texted to Page. “[S]hould. f*ck. I did the edits better than I’m IMing[.]”
The new documents support the case made by Flynn’s current defense attorney Sidney Powell that the FBI had no legal justification for its interview of Flynn following the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Flynn, who pleaded guilty in late 2017 to making false statements to Strzok and Pientka during the January 24 interview, is currently attempting to withdraw his plea, citing gross government misconduct and ineffective defense counsel at the time.
You can read the full documents here.
Trudeau announces ban on 1,500 kinds of assault weapons
Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
has introduced a long-promised ban on assault-style weapons following
the country's worst gun massacre in April.
New rules would make it illegal to sell, transport, import or use 1,500 varieties of assault weapons.The ban is effective immediately but there will be a two-year amnesty period for law-abiding gun owners to comply.
Mr Trudeau also said he would introduce legislation, which has yet to pass, to offer a buy-back programme.
Unlike the US, gun ownership is not enshrined in Canada's constitution, but gun ownership is still popular, especially in rural parts of the country.
Mr Trudeau made a point of saying that most gun owners are law-abiding citizens, but argued that assault-weapons serve no beneficial purpose.
"These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only — only to kill the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time," he said in a press conference on Friday.
"You don't need an AR-15 to bring down a deer."
The call to ban assault weapons was heightened after a number of high-profile shootings -- in 2017, at a mosque in Quebec, in 2018 on a commercial street in Toronto and most recently, in a rampage across the province of Nova Scotia that became the deadliest shooting in Canada's history.
RCMP have said that the shooter was not licensed to own firearms, but had what appeared to be an assault-style weapon, as well as other guns. The RCMP did not specify which kind, so it is unknown if it will be covered by the ban.
Mr Trudeau campaigned on the ban ahead of last November's election, and he said he was planning on introducing the ban in March, but it was delayed because of coronavirus.
His government had already expanded background check requirements and made it tougher to transport handguns, prior to November's election.
More than 80,000 of these weapons are registered with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The government is able to ban the weapons immediately through current regulation, but a buy-back programme would require multi-party support in parliament and would likely cost the government hundreds of millions of dollars.
Joe Biden Might Not Be Guilty, But Corporate Media Is
Five weeks and 19 interviews later, presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden has not been asked directly about the substantiated sexual assault accusations from Tara Reade.
Joe Biden might not be guilty. But the corporate media is.
Here’s what we know. We know Tara Reade alleges that in 1993 her boss, Sen. Joe Biden, sexually assaulted her, and we know that five people have thus far corroborated that she told them about this at the time. We know that, and we know that Vice President Biden denies committing sexual assault, and further, denies his office even received a complaint.
Next, we know that Reade has demanded Biden open his sealed Senate records, which should contain a report if one was filed, and that Biden has thus far refused.
Finally, we know that the corporate media ignored and manipulated this story for weeks and that some still remain silent on it. Just Wednesday morning, one popular Washington newsletter got to the subject after 14 more important stories, choosing to characterize it as “The Story That’s Not Going Away.”
It’s a difficult spot for corporate media to be in. For months, liberal guests, anchors, and reporters at CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and elsewhere propped up Biden’s candidacy against Sen. Bernie Sanders. With a baggage train that stretches to Beijing, and well into a public cognitive decline, he was not the ideal Democratic candidate.
He didn’t embody youth, he wasn’t black, and he’s wasn’t a woman for three, but he also wasn’t gay, broke, or deeply unlikable. Finally, he wasn’t a communist. Or to sum it all up, he seemed the safest bet.
Or was he? Shortly after Sanders was defeated and all declared well, it began to unravel, first with strange interview after strange interview, and then boom: With a five-times corroborated sexual assault allegation. Tough to ignore, right? You’d think so. But maybe not.
The Washington Post interviewed Reade shortly after she made her first, less serious allegation of uncomfortable touching in an essay in April 2019, but didn’t publish the interview. In March 2020, Reade went public with accusations of sexual assault, but still nothing from the Post. The Post did eventually publish — after The New York Times ran a story on the accusations, which was almost three weeks after she went public. The Times editor in chief then admitted the paper quietly edited its story under pressure from the Biden campaign.
A Washington Free Beacon review of all 10 interviews with the vice president in the three weeks after the accusation found nary a question on the charge. On April 16, 24 days after the allegation, a CBS reporter asked Sanders what he thought, but even then couched the question, asking about Sanders ally Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying “she thinks its legitimate and relevant to talk about sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden.”
“Do you agree?”
Biden had yet to face one direct question.
It was still another day before CNN reported on the story at all, couching their coverage as “Democrats [grappling] with questions” about the accusation.
On Sunday, not a single morning show mentioned the news. On Monday, The Washington Post’s story was titled, “Trump allies highlight new claims regarding allegations against Biden.” By Tuesday, five weeks into the story, a Media Research Center analysis found 24-hour news network CNN had spent shy of 15 minutes on the story, PBS had spent seven minutes, MSNBC had spent less than five minutes, CBS had spent one minute, and NBC and ABC, zero seconds.
Five weeks and 19 interviews later, Biden has not been asked.
The coverage stands in stark, vivid, bloody contrast with the corporate media’s crucifixion of Justice Brett Kavanaugh — a man accused by two women, one of whom could not prove she’d ever met the judge, and the other, whose accusations were not corroborated by a single source.
In the 12 days after Kavanaugh’s first accuser was revealed, ABC, CBS, and NBC spent nearly six hours on the story, and CNN and MSNBC declared him guilty. The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway chronicled the differences in coverage exhaustively here.
There’s a lesson in this contrast. The corporate news media doesn’t care about women, nor truth. They care about ruling and will sacrifice any offering that gets them closer to it. Victims of sexual assault both real and imagined, they’re just bodies on the altar — unless the accused is in a protected class. Eat your hearts out, Aztecs.
It’s not just Biden and Kavanaugh. It’s the reason anchors, reporters, and executives at nearly every corporate channel, newspaper, and even NPR have been accused of sexual harassment, assault, or rape over the past five years, but only Roger Ailes is the subject of a miniseries and a feature film.
Sexual assault is serious business. It shames victims, destroys families, and ruin lives. Unfortunately, for too many in politics and the corporate media, sexual assault is serious business as usual.
Joe Biden might not be guilty. But the corporate media damn well is.
Shock Poll: Majorities Still Believe Debunked Fake News About Trump And Russia
It's nothing short of a scandal that 53 percent of Americans believe that this completely discredited document 'was real in its findings of Trump colluding with the Russians.'
The media’s approval and credibility ratings may be low, but they still have a tremendous amount of political power. Whether they are attempting to destroy the life and reputation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, working overtime to protect the reputation of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, pushing the impeachment of a sitting president, attempting to control the outcomes of elections, or spending years peddling a false tale of treasonous collusion with Russia to steal the 2016 election, they get significant results despite failure to report accurately.
Evidence of that power and how irresponsibly it is used is found in a recent Harvard-Harris poll for April 2020. A majority of Americans, 53 percent, believe the Christopher Steele dossier “was real in its findings of Trump colluding with the Russians.” Only 47 percent of Americans chose the factually correct option that it was Clinton-funded campaign oppo fueled by disinformation.
The Steele dossier, and its central and elaborate theory that Trump was a secret agent of the Russian government who had betrayed his country to steal the 2016 election, has been completely discredited by multiple government investigations. The limitless special counsel probe, ostensibly led by Robert Mueller, could find no evidence that Trump had colluded with Russia. In fact, the Mueller team could find no evidence that any American had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election.
A more serious investigation by the Department of Justice’s inspector generalrevealed that the dossier was discredited by the federal government by January 2017. The leaky FBI forgot to leak that important fact, but the inspector general goes through the dossier’s many problems throughout its 478-page document.
One of the DOJ’s failures, for example, was that they “omitted the fact that Steele’s Primary Subsource, who the FBI found credible, had made statements in January 2017 raising significant questions about the reliability of allegations included in the FISA applications” based on the dossier. Of the dossier, the inspector general wrote, “We determined that prior to and during the pendency of the FISAs, the FBI was unable to corroborate any of the specific substantive allegations against Carter Page contained in the election reporting and relied on in the FISA applications.” By “reporting,” the IG is referring to the dossier.
Later, the IG writes that anything found to have been true in the dossier was already publicly available and reported elsewhere. “The FBI concluded, among other things, that although consistent with known efforts by Russia to interfere in the 2016 U.S. elections, much of the material in the Steele election reports, including allegations about Donald Trump and members of the Trump campaign relied upon in the Carter Page FISA applications, could not be corroborated; that certain allegations were inaccurate or inconsistent with information gathered by the Crossfire Hurricane team; and that the limited information that was corroborated related to time, location, and title information, much of which was publicly available.”
So it’s nothing short of a scandal that 53 percent of Americans believe that this completely discredited document “was real in its findings of Trump colluding with the Russians.”
But how could they think otherwise? While the false Steele dossier was legitimized and parroted daily for three years in every major media outlet, the IG findings of its falsehood were buried. The Washington Post has more than 24,000 articles on Trump and Russia. The paper even won awards for its participation in the conspiracy theory that Trump had colluded with Russia. When it all turned out to be definitively false, they simply moved on to the next story — Ukraine and impeachment. True, a laudable review of the false reporting appeared online to very little fanfare, but notably focused on other media outlets than the Post.
The New York Times was a central media outlet in promoting the false and dangerous conspiracy theory of treasonous collusion with Russia to steal the 2016 election. Nearly 18,000 articles about Trump and Russia appear on their web site. While Maggie Haberman and Ken Vogel publicly tweeted that the dossier’s authors and funders had willfully misled them about the partisan nature of the disinformation, they kept that information hidden or downplayed in subsequent stories.
When the Steele dossier became increasingly discredited, the Times’ reporters allowed the paper to be used to “put out an implausible new origin story for the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe.” When the dossier was exposed definitively in government reports as false, it was impossible for faithful readers of the Times to learn that information because it was never reported.
Nearly 18,000 articles based on the dossier’s central conspiracy theory, with awards for parroting its false information, and no admission of the journalistic failures once they were exposed. Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet felt no need to admit his errors on the story, previously saying of the false Russia coverage, “We built our newsroom to cover one story, and we did it truly well.”
Or take CNN, which went full conspiracy on the Trump-Russia story. In addition to round-the-clock peddling of the false and dangerous conspiracy theory for more than three years, CNN has some 11,473 stories on its website about Trump and Russia.
Three years ago this week, Jake Tapper delivered a closing sermon for his show about a poll he found “alarming.” Asked if the Obama administration “intentionally spied on Trump and members of his campaign during the 2016 election,” 32 percent of the public said yes. Tapper was alarmed not that the number of Americans knowing this fact wasn’t higher but that it was that high.
32 percent of the public thinks President Obama intentionally spied on Donald Trump and members of his campaign and 52 percent of Republicans believe this charge. A charge that there is literally no evidence to support. It is the definition of fake news.
CNN had reported just days earlier that the FBI began spying on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page in 2016. Here’s how their story began:
The FBI last year used a dossier of allegations of Russian ties to Donald Trump’s campaign as part of the justification to win approval to secretly monitor a Trump associate, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.
If your news organization reports, accurately, that the FBI had secured a FISA warrant to spy on a member of the Trump campaign, you shouldn’t get mad at people for believing what you report. But Tapper was apoplectic.
It didn’t take much intelligence to figure out that the dossier was complete bunk, but major media outlets were still relying on it and dubious selective leaks from intelligence operatives for their coverage. Tapper was one of the reporters who falsely suggested that Steele was a trustworthy official. A high-level leak to CNN about a briefing of the dossier to Trump and former President Barack Obama was one of the major stories that got the Russia conspiracy coverage really going. CNN won awards for their dutiful regurgitation and legitimization of that leak.
When the dossier was definitively discredited in the explosive IG report, Evan Perez (an undisclosed but extremely close personal friend of Fusion GPS operatives who peddled the dossier to compliant media) told Jake Tapper that the “topline” takeaway was that Trump was wrong to think he’d been wronged by the FBI. Note the chyron CNN used, which matches the desired talking point of compromised intelligence officials and dossier peddlers.
CNN’s original story on the dossier was “Intel chiefs presented Trump with claims of Russian efforts to compromise him,” but when the dossier was definitively discredited, it downplayed or ignored the finding, instead going with “How the FBI attempted to verify a salacious allegation in the Steele dossier.”
So if Tapper was upset that 32 percent of the public thought the Obama administration spied on the Trump campaign, and it did, how upset must he be that 53 percent believe what his network falsely peddled for years? A majority of Americans — and 81 percent of liberals, the group CNN caters to — believe that Trump colluded with Russia.
Tapper won’t deliver a sermon about Americans believing the fake news he and his outlet published, obviously. Everyone else should remember that, however much outlets and journalists may have discredited themselves through their garbage reporting, they still hold a tremendous amount of influence over, for example, 81 percent of liberals.
Major airlines to require face coverings on all flights
Major Airlines to Require
Face Coverings on all Flights
Face Coverings on all Flights
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| In this Monday, April 27, 2020, photo provided by Vince Warburton, passengers get off an American Airlines flight airplane after they landed at Los Angeles International Airport. (Vince Warburton via AP) |
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 7:35 AM PT — Friday, May 1, 2020
UPDATED 7:35 AM PT — Friday, May 1, 2020
American, Delta and United Airlineswill now require face coverings on all flights. The major airline companies joined JetBlue on Thursday in requiring passengers to wear face masks on flights in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Starting May 4, all customers must wear a face covering while traveling, including in flight, as well as during check-in, boarding and deplaning. Learn more at https://t.co/Yfzwl0sJUL pic.twitter.com/kRrZj6K958
— JetBlue (@JetBlue) April 28, 2020
The move is in response to passengers complaining of overcrowding and a lack of social distancing on flights amid the pandemic.
“It was like a claustrophobic scene. That’s how it felt to me because we didn’t have space. We just had our own seat. Everybody was in their own seat, but everybody was covered and I was in the middle, so everybody was together, basically. If someone sneezed, we all would have been sick.”
— Princess Johnson, passenger – Indianapolis
— Princess Johnson, passenger – Indianapolis
The new policy will go into effect on Monday for JetBlue, Delta and United Airlines travelers. American Airlines will begin the following week.
Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our people and our customers.
— Delta (@Delta) April 30, 2020
Starting May 4, Delta will require all customers to wear an appropriate face covering or mask throughout their travel, aligning with best practice guidelines from @CDCgov.
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| A traveler wears a face mask while pulling her baggage to a gate to catch a flight out of Colorado Springs Airport, Friday, April 24, 2020, in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) |
We’re In A New Cold War, This Time With China
In our exultation, we forgot to finish the job. Communism lived on in mainland China, and is once again challenging the free world for dominance.
When the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved, the Western world thought, with considerable justification, that the generational struggle with communism had ended. But in our exultation, we forgot to finish the job. Communism lived on in mainland China and is once again challenging the free world for dominance.
This time, they’re doing it with our money. As we have begun to realize these past few years, and as the coronavirus outbreak has made even clearer, China has used our free markets and open-mindedness against us, running an economy based on the bizarre fusion of communism and mercantilism while cracking down ever more on its people’s natural rights and freedoms. It is time for the free world to rejoin the fight.
Harsh in War, Generous in Peace
Historically, the United States has been generous in victory. As the Civil War drew to a close, President Abraham Lincoln resisted calls for vengeance against the conquered South, famously saying after the fall of Richmond that he would prefer to “let ’em up easy.”
After the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson declined the territorial concessions America’s allies were demanding, focusing instead on an ultimately misguided plan for permanent peace. Likewise, after the Second World War, presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman did not look to conquer territory, as Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union did, but to rebuild the shattered lands of Europe and Japan, making former fascist enemies into democratic friends.
That spirit of magnanimity was likely in President George H.W. Bush’s heart at the end of the Cold War. As the Iron Curtain in Europe fell and the Soviet Union collapsed, Bush was right to reach out to our former adversaries to help with their transitions to liberal democracy and a market economy. His error, though, was in extending that same hand to Communist China, a nation that had not thrown off the shackles of socialism and had only recently suppressed the first glimmers of democratic sentiment in the Tiananmen Square of 1989.
Mercy in victory is good, but it does no good to let ‘em up easy when you haven’t knocked ‘em down yet. Bush struck the perfect tone with the Soviet Union’s premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, rewarding political concessions by the communists with economic concessions on our side. The result was a gradual and mostly peaceful winding down of what Ronald Reagan had rightly called an “evil empire.”
Who Lost China?
But if Bush struck the right note in Europe, he was well off-key in Asia. Colin Dueck explained the problem in “Hard Line: the Republican Party and U.S. Foreign Policy Since World War II.” “For Bush, the strategic relationship with China…was vital to the United States. So were Sino-American economic ties. Bush was loath to in any way encourage massive social or political upheaval within China. He believed that continued U.S. economic and political engagement with China would best serve the cause of reform in that country.”
At the time, there was some reason to believe that might work, but it required a very optimistic view of human nature. With the Soviet Union, Bush demanded greater self-determination of the peoples that country dominated. When that was granted, he promised economic aid.
China was less in need of aid, which removed the carrot from the equation, but Bush removed the stick as well. His condemnation of the Tiananmen Square massacre was muted. While China agreed to free some political dissidents so Congress would reauthorize most-favored nation trading status, these concessions to a few individuals let them avoid loosening control of their people as a whole.
Communism was in retreat, and China was isolated. Bush’s conservative temperament was what the relationship with the Soviet Union called for, but our relationship with China still needed Reagan’s bold vision. Instead, we accommodated the rising red power in the East.
We hoped a soft touch would turn China down the same path as the newly free nations of central Europe. Instead, access to western capital only fueled China’s industrial machine.
The increased wealth to which their citizens now had access did not, in any meaningful sense, lead to more freedom, as it had elsewhere. Communist China combined the economic policies of the 19th-century British Empire with the political rights of the Soviet Union. Instead of a liberal democracy, we got red mercantilism.
Finish The Job
America’s broad-mindedness and openness to trade has been good when dealing with nations like us. With other industrialized democracies, like Japan, more trade—including fewer restrictions on their end—would be an improvement. But with Red China, the coronavirus pandemic has shown the folly of our live-and-let-live approach to trade there. It also highlights how we no longer demand even the minor improvements to human rights that we used to insist on as a matter of course.
Instead, Red China has been the one demanding concessions from the rest of the world—and getting them. American companies will criticize their own nation, but any dissent against China is quickly squashed, as we saw in the NBA kerfuffle last year. They are not rolling tanks in the streets any more, but only because they don’t have to: their wealth—our wealth!—does the job for them. As Lenin prophesied 100 years ago, we capitalists have sold the communists the rope with which they seek to hang us.
The coming confrontation with China resembles our Cold War with the Soviet Union because it is the continuation of that struggle, one that was ended before it was over. We declared peace, but Red China kept on fighting.
The consequences of 30 years of surrender are now apparent. Whether we wish it or not, the new Cold War is upon us. The struggle must be joined. The rights, the freedoms, and the jobs of the West are at stake, and our leaders must no longer fail to fight for them. This time, we should not give up until we have won.
National Archives Admin Refutes Joe Biden: Tara Reade’s Alleged Complaint Wouldn’t Go to Our Records
Article by Haris Alic in "Breitbart News":
The National Archives and Records Administration on Friday disputed former Vice President Joe Biden’s claim that the record of a sexual harassment complaint allegedly made by former staffer Tara Reade would be in its possession.
Joe Biden said that Tara Reade's complaint could only be at the National Archives, at what was then called the Office of Fair Employment Practices. But, a National Archives spokesperson told me that they do not hold records from that office.
Joe Biden said that Tara Reade's complaint could only be at the National Archives, at what was then called the Office of Fair Employment Practices. But, a National Archives spokesperson told me that they do not hold records from that office.
Instead, a Senate Historical Office staffer said the Fair Employment Practices records are governed by a Senate resolution mandating that "records containing personal privacy, information closed by statute, and records of executive nomination are closed for 50 years."
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/05/01/national-archives-admin-refutes-joe-biden-tara-reades-alleged-complaint-wouldnt-go-to-our-records/
Dow falls 450 points after best month in three decades, Amazon leading tech lower
Article by Fred Imbert and Thomas Franck in "CNBC Business":
Stocks slumped on Friday as shares of Amazon led the major indexes lower on the month’s first day of trading following its first-quarter results.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 400 points, about 1.6%, as Goldman Sachs and UnitedHealth each fell more than 2.75%. The S&P 500 dropped 1.6% with consumer discretionary and energy stocks leading the broad market index down. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.5% as a host of big-tech names fell in morning trading.
Tech titan Amazon led declining stocks on the week’s final day of trading with shares down 5.5% after announcing plans to spend all its second-quarter profits on its coronavirus response. The e-commerce behemoth also posted a first-quarter profit that missed analyst expectations.
Apple reported quarterly earnings that topped analyst expectations, but its revenue growth remained flat on a year-over-year basis.
It also did not offer guidance for the quarter ending in June amid
uncertainty over the coronavirus outbreak. The tech giant’s stock gained
1.3%.
Both Apple and Amazon are among the companies that led the S&P 500′s comeback from the late-March lows and were two of the best performers in April. Amazon rallied nearly 27% in April while Apple jumped 15.3%.
“A historically strong April in markets ended on a down note as more soft economic data offset fading optimism for coronavirus treatments while earnings were mixed,” wrote Tom Essaye of the Sevens Report. Stocks “are sharply lower mostly on continuation from yesterday’s selling as markets digest the recent rally, although AAPL & AMZN earnings were mildly disappointing.”
Wall Street was coming off its biggest monthly surge in over 30 years, with the S&P 500 gaining 12.7% while the Dow advanced 11.1%. It was the third-biggest monthly gain for the S&P 500 since World War II. The Dow had its fourth-largest post-war monthly rally and its best month in 33 years.
The Nasdaq Composite closed 15.5% higher for April, logging in its biggest one-month gain since June 2000.
Those gains were partly driven by hopes of reopening the economy sooner than expected.
Stocks that would benefit most from that reopening jumped at the end of March, including Carnival Corp, MGM Resorts and Kohl’s. However, those shares all fell Friday, down 4%, 6% and 1.1%, respectively.
Hope for a potential treatment for the coronavirus has also helped the market make a comeback. Earlier in the week, Gilead Sciences said a study of its remdesivir drug conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases met its primary endpoint.
The number of new infections around the world has also fallen in recent weeks, leading some countries and U.S. states to slowly reopen their economies.
But Phillip Colmar and Santiago Espinosa, strategists at MRB Partners, urged investors to remain cautious.
“The sharp relief rally in equities has now moved ahead of underlying fundamentals, leaving room for near-term disappointments,” they said in a note to clients. “Many authorities are looking to reopen their economies but doing so safely and to near previous output levels will require a series of medical breakthroughs and widespread distribution of the treatment.”
More than 3.2 million virus cases have been confirmed globally, according to Johns Hopkins University, with over 1 million infections in the U.S. alone.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/30/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html
Both Apple and Amazon are among the companies that led the S&P 500′s comeback from the late-March lows and were two of the best performers in April. Amazon rallied nearly 27% in April while Apple jumped 15.3%.
“A historically strong April in markets ended on a down note as more soft economic data offset fading optimism for coronavirus treatments while earnings were mixed,” wrote Tom Essaye of the Sevens Report. Stocks “are sharply lower mostly on continuation from yesterday’s selling as markets digest the recent rally, although AAPL & AMZN earnings were mildly disappointing.”
Wall Street was coming off its biggest monthly surge in over 30 years, with the S&P 500 gaining 12.7% while the Dow advanced 11.1%. It was the third-biggest monthly gain for the S&P 500 since World War II. The Dow had its fourth-largest post-war monthly rally and its best month in 33 years.
The Nasdaq Composite closed 15.5% higher for April, logging in its biggest one-month gain since June 2000.
Those gains were partly driven by hopes of reopening the economy sooner than expected.
Stocks that would benefit most from that reopening jumped at the end of March, including Carnival Corp, MGM Resorts and Kohl’s. However, those shares all fell Friday, down 4%, 6% and 1.1%, respectively.
Hope for a potential treatment for the coronavirus has also helped the market make a comeback. Earlier in the week, Gilead Sciences said a study of its remdesivir drug conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases met its primary endpoint.
The number of new infections around the world has also fallen in recent weeks, leading some countries and U.S. states to slowly reopen their economies.
But Phillip Colmar and Santiago Espinosa, strategists at MRB Partners, urged investors to remain cautious.
“The sharp relief rally in equities has now moved ahead of underlying fundamentals, leaving room for near-term disappointments,” they said in a note to clients. “Many authorities are looking to reopen their economies but doing so safely and to near previous output levels will require a series of medical breakthroughs and widespread distribution of the treatment.”
More than 3.2 million virus cases have been confirmed globally, according to Johns Hopkins University, with over 1 million infections in the U.S. alone.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/30/stock-market-futures-open-to-close-news.html
Jim Jordan Discusses Newly Release FBI Documents in Case Against Michael Flynn
Jim Jordan appears on Fox News to discuss the unsealed documents released yesterday showing the FBI “small group” framing a case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
Rep. Jordan rightly puts the recent release into context by asking why Robert Mueller and Chris Wray did not bring out this exculpatory information. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team knew Flynn was framed. Rod Rosenstein knew Flynn was framed. Chris Wray and Dana Boente knew Flynn was framed. Yet no-one did anything. WATCH:
Devin Nunes Discusses Latest Flynn Revelations Showing Stunning FBI Corruption
Devin Nunes appears for an interview with Lou Dobbs to discuss his perspective on the latest stunning revelations around the Flynn case. Nunes outlines the importance of looking at the big picture and also considering how the same FBI that was investigating Flynn was purposefully leaking to allies in the media.
Nunes is pretty fired-up in this interview about the scale of corruption the recently released documents highlight.
FARA was always the way the Obama Administration IC apparatus, writ large, would legally justify political surveillance. [FARA = FISA] Hence Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, knowing purpose of DOJ-NSD, who ran FARA/FISA operations, would not allow an inspector general.
This is why Flynn had to be removed at all costs.
Obama-era political surveillance was being done through the intelligence apparatus (including FBI contractors) since 2012; with FARA as a justification for FISA abuse when needed. Flynn’s mere existence in the administration would have exposed that background surveillance network.
Sidney Powell Reacts to Latest Revelations in Flynn Case
Michael Flynn’s defense counsel, Sidney Powell, calls-in to FBN for an interview to discuss the latest developments in the case against her client. Powell: “There will be more evidence forthcoming. We still have a lot more that they said they will disclose to us.”
Within the latest documents provided by a review from Missouri U.S. Attorney Jensen, it surfaces that Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and the small group were using a Microsoft instant messaging program known as Lync. This suggests there may be more documents forthcoming from alternate communication networks.
Joe Biden Denies Tara Reade’s Sexual Assault Allegation
Article by Shelby Talcott in "The Daily Caller":
Former Vice President Joe Biden denied the allegation of sexual assault against him directly Friday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, was publicly accused by Tara Reade five weeks ago of sexually assaulting her in the early 1990s. The alleged incident occurred during Reade’s time as a former senate staffer for the then-Delaware senator.
Reade’s accusation was largely avoided by legacy outlets for a month before more evidence came to light that could corroborate her story. Since then, pressure has mounted for Biden to directly address the allegation, as he previously only denied it through a spokesperson.
“Morning Joe” announced Thursday evening that co-hosts Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist would be joined by Biden the following morning. Biden was expected “to respond for the first time to the recent allegation of sexual assault,” the network tweeted.
Biden denied the allegation in a written statement minutes before he was set to go on MSNBC to address the incident Friday.
The media’s avoidance surrounding Reade’s allegation allowed Biden five weeks of silence, The Washington Free Beacon noted in an analysis published April 29. Biden faced 142 questions in 19 interviews since Reade’s allegation came to light.
This equals nearly four hours of speaking time, many of which came on big networks. Biden was asked a total of zero questions about Reade’s sexual assault allegation, the Free Beacon reported.
Biden spoke at length with Brzezinski about the allegation. He said in Friday’s written statement that he would tell the Senate to look through the files from his time as a Delaware senator at the National Archives Record.
Reade allegedly issued a complaint against him in 1993, and Biden said that this complaint would be made public if found.
Brzezinski asked if he is “absolutely certain” that there is no record of a complaint from Reade about him.
“I am absolutely positive that no one I am aware of was ever made aware of a complaint, formal complaint made of or by Tara Reade against me at the time,” Biden said.
He explained that the documents “could be taken out of context” if fully released.
The video is at this link (apologies for not posting the video):
https://twitter.com/i/status/1256195709101015040
https://dailycaller.com/2020/05/01/joe-biden-sexual-assault-allegation-accusation-tara-reade-morning-joe-scarborough-mika-brzezinski/
Additional 11-Pages of FBI Documents Unsealed – Biggest Surprise: President Obama Implicated
Yesterday Judge Emmet Sullivan unsealed an additional 11-pages of documents showing more background information about how the FBI was targeting former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn. [Court pdf Here] Also embedded below.
The release today is even more revealing than the handwritten notes released last night; and specifically President Obama’s “by the book” statement on January 5, 2017, takes on an entirely new light. They may not realize it yet, but this release implicates Obama.
(L-R) Peter Strzok, James Comey, President Obama, Andrew McCabe and Bill Priestap
Within the release we discover an “Electronic Communication” or “EC” from the Washington FBI field office recommending to close the FBI investigation of General Flynn on January 4, 2017, due to “no derogatory information.” However, FBI Agent Peter Strzok immediately responds to the FBI team [main headquarters] saying: “don’t do it yet’… and the plot unfolds.
There are FBI codenames within the release that need some explanation prior to review:
- Crossfire Hurricane (CH) is the overall investigation that began in July 2016
- Crossfire Typhoon (CT) is George Papadopoulos.
- Crossfire Razor (CR) is Michael Flynn.
- Cross Wind is still unknown. [Could be a person, or a subset of the case]
Let’s take a walk through the information starting with the FBI electronic communication.
First it is valuable to note three points from the first page:
- “DOJSCO” – The Special Counsel Office had this information from the outset. That means everyone in/around the Mueller investigation already knew this information. That also means that Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein was aware of it.
- Pay close attention to the dates. This EC was written on January 4, 2017. Dates are critical. When you compare the text messages and emails from Peter Strzok and other participants always refer to the dates to tell the big story.
- Note the framework for the investigation itself was centered around Michael Flynn violating FARA (Foreign Agent Registration Act) laws based on a fraudulent premise of Flynn working for Russian interests. The FBI using FARA is a critical point. FARA was used as the primary justification by the DOJ and FBI for all political surveillance.
The FBI Washington Field Office says they are going to close the investigation of General Flynn because there is no derogatory information as a result of multiple investigative inquires:
The EC document then describes their work with Confidential Human Source (CHS) Stefan Halper. Interestingly, Halper lied to the FBI and told them he had attended an event with Michael Flynn in Moscow and was a direct eye-witness. “During the debriefing the CTH relayed an incident s/he witnessed”…. Halper never attended the Moscow event; he lied to the FBI.
The EC notes the FBI is closing this investigation. However, Peter Strzok goes bananas and immediately starts texting FBI officials to keep the investigation open….
Which leads to a 2:22pm message where Peter Strzok notes “7th floor involved”. That means FBI Director James Comey is now engaged on the issue.
James Comey being actively engaged is important. Previously Comey said he was unaware of what they were doing… Additionally this text and activity is January 4, 2017.
The very next day, January 5th, James Comey goes to the White House for a meeting with President Obama and Vice-President Biden.
January 5th is the White House meeting where National Security Advisor Susan Rice, FBI Director James Comey (Crossfire Hurricane), and Deputy AG Sally Yates (Flynn FARA) are talking to President Obama about the status of the Flynn FBI investigation and President Obama says “by the book”.
- 1/4/17 – FBI wants to close investigation.
- 1/4/17 – Peter Strzok says no wait… I have a plan.
- 1/4/17 – James Comey involved. “7th Floor Involved”
- 1/5/17 – James Comey goes to White House.
- 1/5/17 – President Obama says: OK, but make sure “by the book”.
- [Susan Rice Memo]
“President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the Intelligence and law enforcement communities “by the book“.”
“The President stressed that he is not asking about, initiating or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would, “by the book.””
- 1/6/17 – James Comey briefs President-elect Trump in Trump Tower on the Steele Dossier. [Comey Memos]
- 1/6/17 – Christopher Steele deletes all files relating to his Trump Dossier.
It doesn’t take an investigative genius to see what took place here.
SIDEBAR on THIS ISSUE: This long forgotten letter from Susan Rice’s lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler (who was also the former White House Counsel to President Obama). Notice that in Ruemmler’s letter she specifically says the January 5th meeting was about Flynn:
[Feb 23, 2018] The memorandum to file drafted by Ambassador Rice memorialized an important national security discussion between President Obama and the FBI Director and the Deputy Attorney General. President Obama and his national security team were justifiably concerned about potential risks to the Nation’s security from sharing highly classified information about Russia with certain members of the Trump transition team, particularly Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.[…] While serving as National Security Advisor, Ambassador Rice was not briefed on the existence of any FBI investigation into allegations of collusion between Mr. Trump’s associates and Russia, and she later learned of the fact of this investigation from Director Comey’s subsequent public testimony.
How could Ms. Susan Rice be aware of a “national security compromise”, “particularly surrounding Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn” after a “briefing by the FBI”, if she was “not briefed on the existence of an FBI investigation”? With all of this information, these stories are falling apart.
I’ll pause there before explaining more….
Here are the 11-pages released. There is a lot more in there.
