Hillary Cartoons

Hillary Clinton aides had access to State Dept. after she left, says key lawmaker

When Hillary Clinton resigned as Secretary of State in 2013, she negotiated continuing access to classified and top-secret documents for herself and six staffers under the designation "research assistants," according to a powerful senator who notes that Clinton was later deemed "extremely careless" with such information.
The staff apparently retained access even after Clinton announced her run for president in April 2015, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. The access was ostensibly granted to facilitate work on Clinton's memoir, but Grassley said he was only able to verify it after the Obama administration left the White House.

“It is so unimaginatively offensive that Hillary Clinton or her staff would have any access to classified or top secret information."
- Chris Farrell, Judicial Watch

“I have repeatedly asked the State Department whether Secretary Clinton and her associates had their clearances suspended or revoked to which the Obama Administration refused to respond,” Grassley wrote in a March 30 letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
“Recently, the State Department informed the Committee that six additional Secretary Clinton staff at State were designated as her research assistants which allowed them to retain their clearances after leaving the Department,” Grassley added.
The State Department has not yet responded it an inquiry from Fox News as to whether Clinton, or her staff, including then-chief of staff Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin, her traveling chief of staff and former assistant, who went on to become the vice chair of her presidential campaign, and Jake Sullivan, her senior policy advisor, still have access to the classified and top-secret archives and systems.
Clinton could not immediately be reached for comment.
Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Thursday launched an inquiry into the matter, citing among his concerns FBI director James Comey’s July 5 announcement where he said the FBI found Clinton and her staff were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” Grassley also contended there is “evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information...”
During the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s use of a private server and her handling of top secret and classified information, Comey acknowledged there were seven email chains on Clinton’s server that were classified at the “Top Secret/Special Access Program level.” Another 2,000 emails on her private server were also found to have contained information deemed classified now, though not marked classified when sent. The server also contained 22 top-secret emails deemed too damaging to national security to be released.
Grassley wants more answers from the State Department now that Tillerson is in charge, including whether it ever investigated or sanctioned Clinton and her staff for mishandling information.
“It is unclear what steps the State Department has taken to impose administrative sanctions,” Grassley said. “Any other government workers who engaged in such serious offenses would, at a minimum, have their clearances suspended pending an investigation. The failure to do so has given the public the impression that Secretary Clinton and her associates received special treatment.”
Grassley said former Secretary of State John Kerry ignored his queries in 2015 and 2016.
In 2015, Cheryl Mills’ attorney said her client had access as late as Oct. 30 of that year, according to documents reviewed by Fox News. After leaving the State Department, Mills was an advisor to Clinton’s presidential bid. Heather Samuelson, a lawyer who worked under Mills and also was a staffer for Clinton in 2008 during her presidential run, also apparently retained an active Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance, according to records reviewed by Fox News.
Chris Farrell, of Judicial Watch, a conservative Washington-based government watchdog group that has filed a number of lawsuits related to the Clinton email scandal, said it is “outrageous” that Clinton and her staff would have access after they left the state department, and may still have access, after such egregious behavior.
“It is so unimaginatively offensive that Hillary Clinton or her staff would have any access to classified or top secret information," Farrell said. "It is a mindblower.
“Any other government employee, I don’t care what department or agency they are from, would have had their access to classified and top secret information revoked and their clearance suspended, pending the outcome of an investigation into the mishandling of such information,” Farrell added.

Trump travel ban: Administration appeals Hawaii judge's new ruling blocking ban

President Trump’s administration on Thursday appealed the latest court ruling against his revised travel ban to the same court that refused to reinstate the original version.
A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii handed the government its latest defeat by issuing a longer-lasting hold on Trump’s executive order.
The Department of Justice filed the appeal with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the appeals court had rejected Trump’s previous order. The court upheld the decision in a 3-0 ruling on Feb. 9. The main argument from the Trump administration was that judges do not have the authority to second-guess executive decisions on items like immigration and national security, the report said.
Watson’s decision came after the DOJ argued for a narrower ruling covering only the ban on new visas for people from six Muslim-majority countries. The department urged the judge to allow a freeze on the U.S. refugee program to go forward.
Government attorney Chad Readler said halting the flow of refugees had no effect on Hawaii and the state has not shown how it is harmed by the ban. Watson disagreed.
The administration says the executive order falls within the president’s power to protect national security and will ultimately succeed, while Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin likened the revised ban to a neon sign flashing “Muslim ban” that the government hasn’t turned off.
The White House believes Trump’s executive order is legal, necessary for national security and will ultimately be allowed to move forward, spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday.
Watson’s indefinite hold is “just the latest step that will allow the administration to appeal,” Spicer said.

Congress OKs Planned Parenthood funding crackdown, as Pence breaks tie

Republican legislation letting states deny federal family planning money to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers squeezed narrowly through the Senate Thursday, rescued by an ailing GOP senator who returned to the Capitol after back surgery and a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Mike Pence.

In Congress' latest clash mixing the politics of abortion, women's health and states' rights, Pence cast the decisive vote in a 51-50 roll call. The tally had been tied after two GOP senators, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Maine's Susan Collins, joined Democrats opposing the measure.

Senate approval sent the legislation to President Donald Trump, who was expected to sign it. The House voted its consent last month.

The bill erases a regulation imposed by former President Barack Obama shortly before he left office that lets states deny family planning funds to organizations only if they are incapable of providing those services. Some states have passed laws in recent years denying the money to groups that provide abortions.

Passage gives Republicans and anti-abortion groups a needed victory just six days after the party's highly touted health care overhaul disintegrated in the House due to GOP divisions. Besides erasing much of Obama's 2010 health care law, the failed House bill would have blocked federal funds for Planned Parenthood for a year.

There is already a ban on using federal funds for abortion except for rare instances.

Democrats assailed the legislation as an attack on women, two months after Trump's inauguration prompted a women's march on Washington that mushroomed into anti-Trump demonstrations around the nation.

"While Trumpcare was dealt a significant blow last week, it is clear that the terrible ideas that underpin it live on with Republicans in Congress," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., using a nickname for the failed House health care bill. Murray, among a stream of Democratic women senators who spoke, called the Senate measure "shameful" and "dangerous."

Republicans said the measure would give states more freedom to decide how to spend family planning funds. States would be free to divert money now going to groups that provide abortion to other organizations that don't, like community health centers.

"It substituted Washington's judgment for the needs of real people," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said of Obama's rule.

With Republicans holding 52-48 control of the Senate, the Collins and Murkowski defections could have derailed the bill because Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., has been absent since Feb. 20, when he had spinal surgery.

He had a second operation March 15 and has been recuperating in Georgia under doctor's orders. But he got permission to return to Washington for one day, his office said, and he did so using a walker.

"We didn't know at the time what it would be but it turned out to be the vice president's tie-breaker," Isakson told reporters after an earlier procedural vote.

The federal family planning program was created 1970 and in 2015 served 4 million clients at nearly 4,000 clinics. Most of the money is for providing services like contraceptives, family planning counseling, breast and cervical cancer screening and sexually transmitted disease prevention. It has a $286 million federal budget this year.

Most recipients are women, and two-thirds have incomes at or below the federal poverty level, around $12,000 for an individual. Six in 10 say the program's services are their only or most frequent source of health care.

Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, mocked Pence.

"Mike Pence went from yesterday's forum on empowering women to today leading a group of male politicians in a vote to take away access to birth control and cancer screenings," she said.

The Congressional Review Act has lets lawmakers undo regulations enacted in the last months of the Obama administration with a majority vote. Congress has already used the law to eliminate Obama regulations that strengthened protections for streams near coal-mining operations and prevented some people with mental disorders from gun purchases.

Under the Constitution, the vice president casts tie breaking votes. Pence broke his first tie on the nomination of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Ex-Trump adviser Carter Page rips 'false narrative' on Russia collusion

EXCLUSIVE: Former Trump adviser Carter Page, in a wide-ranging interview with Fox News, decried what he described as “propaganda” driven by a “false narrative” regarding his 2016 contacts with Russian officials, denying that he ever worked with them to help the campaign.
Page is one of several Trump associates being scrutinized amid multiple probes looking at Russia's interference in last year's campaign. As he prepares for interviews with the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, Page gave a categorical denial when asked by Fox News Chief Intelligence Correspondent Catherine Herridge whether he worked with the Russians to help the Trump campaign.
“Absolutely not,” he said, laughing. “I did nothing that could even possibly be viewed as helping them in any way.”
Asked whether he had worked with the Russians to hurt the Clinton campaign, he replied, “Absolutely not. In no way, shape or form.”
Still, Page acknowledged for the first time what he insists was a brief meeting with the Russian ambassador at the Republican National Convention – an admission sure to fuel foes of the Trump administration looking for evidence of Trump-Russia coordination.
Page, who described himself as an oil industry consultant and U.S. Naval Academy midshipman, was a relative unknown when the Trump campaign announced his hiring as a foreign policy adviser in March 2016. He would stay with the Trump team until September 2016, but says he left because “these stories kept coming out based on the dodgy dossier.”
Page appeared in the infamous “Trump Dossier” created by former British Intelligence operative Christopher Steele, working for a U.S. political research group called Fusion GPS on behalf of both Republicans and Democrats. “And so out of respect and out of doing what's best for the campaign, I thought it's best if I step aside and take a leave of absence at that at that point,” Page said.
In his opening statement before testimony by FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Adm. Mike Rogers last week, House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., put Page at the center of an alleged web of collusion to help Russia interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Schiff went through a blow-by-blow of Page’s alleged pro-Russian activities, which Page answered in his exclusive interview.
“In early July,” Schiff said at the hearing, “Carter Page travels to Moscow on a trip approved by the Trump campaign. While in Moscow, he gives a speech critical of the United States and other western countries for what he believes is a hypocritical focus on democratization and efforts to fight corruption.”
While Trump campaign “people were okay with [the trip],” Page said, “the word 'approved' … can be misleading that I was actually authorized to go and represent the campaign. It had nothing to do with the campaign. I was going as a private citizen.” 
The oft-quoted line from the speech that was characterized as anti-American was, "Washington and other western capitals have impeded potential progress through their often hypocritical focus on ideas such democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change.”
But Page told Fox News the line was taken out of context to make him look bad. “It was really about that concept of mutual respect and the way various countries including Russia, China and the United States, can work together for having a more constructive relationship primarily with the states of central Asia, such as Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan,” he said.
Schiff, at the hearing, pointed to another allegation from the dossier, that “Page also had a secret meeting with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, reported to be a former KGB agent and close friend of Russian President Putin.”
“I have never met Igor Sechin in my life,” Page countered. “Completely false. I've never met him in my entire life. I may have seen him at a conference once at a distance, but I've never shaken his hand.”
After his Moscow speech, Page attended the Republican National Convention last July in Cleveland. Steele and Schiff described how Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak met with Page – acting as a go-between on behalf of then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Then, according to Schiff, “Just prior to the convention, the Republican Party platform is changed, removing a section that supports the provision of lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine, an action that would be contrary to Russian interests.”
But Page told Herridge in the exclusive interview, “I was always very cautious. The only time, and you're the first person in the media that I'm saying this very directly to -- I said, ‘Hello,’ to him in passing, handed him my business card and never got a business card from him, as I did for many ambassadors in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention.”
Page said the reason he never mentioned the passing encounter before was “out of respect for privacy for Ambassador Kislyak. And there were very direct rules that that was an off-the-record session.”
Still, Page asserted that, “Nothing happened between me and Ambassador Kislyak. That I can assure you.  I had no direct one-on-one material discussions with him in any way, shape or form.”
Page even denied the dossier allegation that Manafort appointed him as a coordinator with the Russians: “Totally false. Just like everything else about those allegations.”
For his part, Page argued that the attacks on the Trump administration by its political foes have harmed the U.S. political system more severely than the allegations that Russia meddled in the U.S. election.
“Liars and leakers in Washington and more broadly the political class in the United States actually had a much more negative impact,” Page said. “All of the discussions about the influence that the Russian government had on the U.S. election would actually pale in comparison to the much heavier influence that the U.S. government actually had in trying to hurt then-candidate Trump. That negative impact based on these complete lies has continued to put a dark shadow over the United States in general.”

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Sorry, Not Sorry: New York Times tells Trump it did not apologize for coverage

Stop buying this Crap.

President Trump tweeted Wednesday that The New York Times “apologized” to its readers for its election coverage, but the paper said it did no such thing.
Trump was likely referring to the November letter from the paper’s embattled publisher, Arthur O. Sulzberger that was released shortly after the election. Sulzberger promised readers that the paper would “reflect” on its coverage and rededicate itself to reporting on “America and the world” honestly.
Trump sent out the tweet Wednesday and The Times’ communication team tweeted back and called his tweet incorrect.
".@realdonaldtrump False, we did not apologize. We stand by our coverage & thank our millions of subscribers for supporting our journalism," the tweet read.
New York Post columnist and former Times reporter Michael Goodwin wrote at the time that the Sulzberger likely issued the statement, "because it [The Times] demonized Trump from start to finish, it failed to realize he was onto something. And because the paper decided that Trump’s supporters were a rabble of racist rednecks and homophobes, it didn’t have a clue about what was happening in the lives of the Americans who elected the new president."
Trump has been critical of The Times in the past. Earlier this year, a Times reporter had to apologize for calling First Lady Melania Trump “a hooker.”

Trump travel ban: Hawaii judge extends hold on implementing executive order

A federal judge in Hawaii issued an extension on his order blocking President Trump’s travel ban hours after hearing arguments Wednesday.
Hawaii contends the travel ban discriminates against Muslims and hurts the state’s tourist-dependent economy. State Attorney General Douglas Chin argued that the ban’s implied message is like a “neon sign flashing ‘Muslim ban, Muslim ban” that the government did not bother to turn off.
Extending the temporary order until the state's lawsuit was resolved would ensure the constitutional rights of Muslim citizens across the U.S. are vindicated after "repeated stops and starts of the last two months," the state has said.
The Trump administration had asked Judge Derrick Watson, a federal judge in Hawaii, to narrow his ruling to cover only the part of the president’s executive order that suspends new visas for people from six Muslim-majority nations.
Justice Department told Watson the freeze on the U.S. refugee program had no effect on Hawaii. Watson rejected that argument, preventing the administration from halting the flow of refugees.
Earlier this month, Watson prevented the federal government from suspending new visas for people from Somalia, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya and Yemen and freezing the nation's refugee program. His ruling came just hours before the federal government planned to start enforcing Trump's executive order.
Trump called Watson's previous ruling an example of "unprecedented judicial overreach."

North Carolina lawmakers announce plan to repeal 'bathroom bill'

Stupid Sign, Stupid Idea!

North Carolina's controversial "bathroom bill" may soon be flushed away.
At a late-night press conference Wednesday, Republican lawmakers announced an agreement with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper on legislation to repeal the law known as House Bill 2, which was enacted last year.
The law limits LGBT nondiscrimination protections and requires transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate.
The new proposal would repeal House Bill 2, but it would still leave state legislators in charge of policy on public restrooms. Local governments would be forbidden to pass nondiscrimination ordinances covering sexual orientation and gender identity until December 2020.

The announcement came after the NCAA said North Carolina sites won't be considered for championship events from 2018 to 2022 "absent any change" in House Bill 2, which it views as discrimination.
Local media outlets reported that the NCAA had set the state a noon Thursday deadline to make changes to House Bill 2 so it could be considered to host the organization's championships. North Carolina cities, schools and other groups have offered 131 bids for such events.
The law already has prompted some businesses to halt expansions and entertainers and sports organizations to cancel or move events, including the NBA All-Star game in Charlotte. An Associated Press analysis this week found that HB2 already will cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years.

House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger said the new legislation would be voted on in the state Senate Thursday morning, with a vote in the state House to follow.
Moore and Berger said in a statement that the proposal "fully protects bathroom safety and privacy." Cooper said he supported the proposal, saying it was "not a perfect deal," but begins to repair the state's reputation.
It was unclear whether there were enough House and Senate votes to pass it. The Republican announcement followed several hours of private meetings among lawmakers, and with Berger and Moore shuttling between their corner offices at the Legislative Building.
Leaders of national and state gay rights groups said Wednesday evening they only want legislation that completely repeals HB2 and does nothing else. They have complained about previous compromise proposals -- that ultimately failed -- because they said it kept discrimination on the books against LGBT people.

Comey reportedly tried to expose possible Russia tampering before election

James Comey, the FBI director, was reportedly prepared to write an op-ed over the summer about information on Russia’s influence in the U.S. presidential election, but officials from the Obama administration blocked him from writing the piece.
Newsweek, citing two unnamed sources, reported on Wednesday that Comey pitched the idea in the White House’s situation room sometime between June and July.
The source told the magazine that there was a draft. Comey reportedly “held up a piece of paper in a meeting and said, ‘I want to go forward, what to people think of this?” He made the pitch in front on Secretary of State John Kerry and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the report said.
GINGRICH: WHY AREN'T CLINTON TIES PART OF RUSSIA PROBE
He would likely have pitched the op-ed to The New York Times.
The question of collusion between Russian interests and Trump’s campaign continues, despite repeated assertions by the president’s spokesman that it’s case closed.
Sean Spicer angrily dismissed inquiries about the matter Tuesday, declaring that “every single person who’s been briefed on this, as I’ve said ad nauseam from this podium … have been very clear that there is no connection between the president or the staff here and anyone doing anything with Russia.”
Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee announced Wednesday they are expanding their investigation of Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential campaign and beyond, vowing to remain independent and “get to the bottom of this” – amid mounting controversy over a similar probe on the House side.
The senators announced they are now scheduling interviews and reviewing thousands of sensitive documents, and are prepared to issue subpoenas if necessary.
Spicer’s claim that even Democrats who have been briefed on the matter agree there was no collusion is at odds with statements from Democrats. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and a recipient of classified briefings, has said “there is more than circumstantial evidence now” of a relationship between Russian interests and Trump associates.
Michael Flynn was fired as national security adviser when his pre-inauguration contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. emerged. As for “staff here” being in the clear, as Spicer put it, they have neither been identified as targets of the investigations nor ruled out.
A close adviser to Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner, has agreed to talk to lawmakers about his business dealings with Russians. Other Trump associates have volunteered to be interviewed by the House and Senate intelligence committees as well.

Planned Parenthood Cartoons

Shutdown threat returns after ObamaCare repeal meltdown

The specter of another government shutdown is emerging on Capitol Hill, amid concerns that Republican leaders who failed to unite the party last week on an ObamaCare overhaul will likewise struggle to finalize a spending package before the April 28 deadline.
“We should not take things for granted, especially after what happened last week,” Oklahoma GOP Rep. Tom Cole told Fox News. “The last thing we need is a self-inflicted crisis. … There frankly isn’t much time.”
Voters largely blamed congressional Republicans for the last shutdown, in 2013, when they engaged in a budget standoff with Senate Democrats and President Obama over ObamaCare funding.
Much of the federal government shuttered from Oct. 1-16, during the fight driven by Tea Party sage Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and the conservative Heritage Foundation -- both influential in sinking House Speaker Paul Ryan’s ObamaCare overhaul bill.
To avoid a repeat this year, Congress is eyeing a short-term measure known as a continuing resolution. This could bundle the roughly 12 spending bills together, despite Ryan, R-Wis., pledging last year to try to end that practice.
Cole, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, which has jurisdiction over the spending bills that fund all federal agencies, voiced concern about that approach and said these bills should have been done late last year.
But this year’s spending bill standoff is now emerging as a sequel to the clash over an ObamaCare replacement, with Ryan again having to juggle the interests of the chamber’s moderate Republicans with those of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.
About 20 of the Freedom Caucus’ roughly 35 members opposed Ryan and President Trump’s ObamaCare overhaul plan, arguing it didn’t fully repeal and replace the struggling 2010 health care law. Ryan and Trump got no support from House Democrats to get the requisite 216 House votes to pass their plan, which they scrapped Friday.
In this year’s budget battle, Ryan will likely need Democratic support, which will be tough to get if Republicans try to use the package to defund Planned Parenthood and seek spending cuts elsewhere. All this comes before debate even begins over the budget plan for next year, which Trump wants to include billions more for the military, and a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
And any compromise on spending cuts will almost certainly spark opposition from the Freedom Caucus.
“Republicans have always needed help from the Democrats,” Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House’ second-ranking Democrat, said Tuesday. “They never came up with … votes on their own.”
He and Cole agreed this week on at least one point: that GOP-led House committees should have agreed months ago on spending bills.
“They had time to figure it out,” Hoyer said. “They haven't figured it out.”
The House now has 237 Republicans, 193 Democrats and five vacant seats, which means Ryan needs 216 votes to pass legislation.
The Republican-led Senate also is behind on its spending bills, having largely been consumed by confirmation hearings for the Trump administration and now getting the votes to install Judge Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.
The budget problem is further compounded by Congress taking a roughly two-week recess starting Friday. House and Senate appropriators purportedly will have a bill ready in the final week of April -- which doesn't leave much time before the deadline.
Ryan signaled Tuesday that congressional Republicans would still revisit ObamaCare, suggesting some foes of the last bill have offered to compromise but making clear that the more immediate focus is on tax reform and other big policy issues.
“We want to get this right. We are going to keep talking to each other,” he said. “But I’m not going to put a timeline on it.”

Planned Parenthood videos: Anti-abortion activists charged with 15 felonies for secret tapes

Two anti-abortion activists who made undercover videos of themselves trying to buy fetal tissue from Planned Parenthood were charged with 15 felonies, California prosecutors announced Tuesday.
State Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. Becerra said the two used a fictitious bioresearch company to meet with women's health care providers and covertly record them.
Prosecutors said they invaded the privacy of medical providers by filming without consent.
Daleiden and Merritt allegedly filmed 14 people without permission between October 2013 and July 2015 in Los Angeles, San Francisco and El Dorado counties. One felony count was filed for each person and the 15th was for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy.
Daleiden called the charges “bogus” and that they were coming from “Planned Parenthood's political cronies."
"The public knows the real criminals are Planned Parenthood and their business partners," Daleiden said.
Planned Parenthood said in a tweet that the charges send a “clear message… You can’t target women & health care providers without consequences.”
Daleiden and Merritt had previously been indicted in Texas on similar charges in January of 2016, but all of the charges were eventually dropped by July as prosecutors said a grand jury had overstepped its authority. The grand jury had originally been convened to investigate Planned Parenthood, but after finding no wrongdoing turned around and indicted Daleiden and Merritt instead.

FBI scrutinized by Congress over probe into alleged Russia-Trump link

Two leading House and Senate committees are examining the FBI’s handling of its investigation into Russia’s possible links to Trump campaign associates and the country’s alleged interference with the 2016 presidential election.
The Senate Judiciary Committee, headed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is investigating whether the FBI wrongly included political opposition research from Trump’s opponents in its probe, and then paid the author of that controversial report, a former British spy, to work for the FBI on its investigation. The committee’s probe began March 6 with the letter Grassley sent the FBI and was furthered Monday with requests for information from the company that did the opposition research.
“When political opposition research becomes the basis for law enforcement or intelligence efforts, it raises substantial questions about the independence of law enforcement and intelligence from politics,” Grassley said Monday.
The House Intelligence Committee, headed by Rep. Devin Nunes, R- Calif., is looking into how classified documents containing foreign surveillance transcripts with references to Trump’s transition team were illegally disclosed to the media. The committee’s probe began Jan. 25.
The leaks could have come from the FBI, a source close to the investigation notes, because that agency requested multiple Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants that helped capture some of the foreign surveillance. In addition, sources say, the FBI is not cooperating with the House investigation, unlike the National Security Agency, which has been transparent with the committee. In addition, multiple sources suggest that British intelligence also passed along information to U.S. intelligence agencies.
Meanwhile, the FBI will take full control over the law enforcement investigation into Russia’s interference in the election, Trump’s possible ties to Russia, as well as the leaks, Fox News has learned.
In Grassley’s probe, he is calling into question the FBI’s use of a “controversial and unsubstantiated dossier” compiled by a political opposition research company against then-presidential candidate Trump.
Fusion GPS, a Washington, D.C.-based research and strategic intelligence company, was paid during the campaign by backers of Trump’s Republican and Democrat opponents to perform opposition research, Grassley said. And that company hired former British spy Christopher Steele to write the dossier that was distributed widely to political opponents, the media and the FBI.
The unverified reported was published by the online publication BuzzFeed and included embarrassing allegations that Russian intelligence supposedly could use against Trump.
Most concerning, Grassley said, is that “Fusion GPS and Steele reportedly shared the dossier with the FBI, which then offered to pay Steele to continue his political opposition research on Trump.”
Grassley wants to determine “the extent to which the FBI has relied on the political dossier in its investigation.” The senator also has requested documentation from Fusion GPS as to who hired and paid them, when Steele was hired, how the FBI got involved and whether Fusion GPS was aware of the FBI paying Steele. 
Meanwhile, House Intelligence Chairman Nunes said last Wednesday that a source in the intelligence community presented him with “dozens” of reports that were produced from “incidentally collected” communications between members of the Trump transition team and foreign targets. Nunes met with his intelligence source at a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) in the old executive office building on the White House grounds where they could access the computers without being noticed. They couldn’t go to the source’s agency and use the secured computer network, a source told Fox News, because it would “out” the source.
Nunes said Trump staff members’ identities reportedly were “unmasked” within intelligence agencies through foreign surveillance unrelated to Trump or Russia, and the names were illegally disseminated among intelligence agencies and to the media in what many believe was an effort to embarrass Trump and undermine his presidency.
At least one of those unmasked was former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who had information about his communication with the Russian ambassador leaked to press, resulting in a public scandal and his resignation.
Nunes’ committee, like the FBI, has been looking into what actions Russia took against the U.S. during the 2016 election, whether anyone from a political campaign conspired in the activities; whether the communications of officials or associates of any campaign were subject to any kind of improper surveillance; and which intelligence officials leaked classified information that exposed foreign surveillance, conversations between President Trump and other world leaders.
While Nunes refutes Trump’s claims that Obama had him wiretapped during the campaign, Nunes said “…. it's still possible that other surveillance activities were used against President's Trump and his associates.”
An FBI spokesperson said the agency does not have a comment on Grassley’s letter or any additional comments on the House probe.

Spicer slams 'false' report claiming ex-official blocked from testifying to Nunes panel

The White House fired back Tuesday at a report claiming former acting Attorney General Sally Yates was blocked by Trump administration officials from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.
Yates, an Obama administration appointee who previously served as deputy AG, was fired by President Trump in January after she refused to defend the president's travel ban. The Washington Post reported she was blocked from testifying at a hearing originally expected for Tuesday because the topics she intended to discuss were covered by what's known as executive privilege.
During the White House briefing Tuesday, Press Secretary Sean Spicer flat-out denied there was any truth to the report.
"I hope she testifies. I look forward to it," Spicer shot back, when asked about the article.
"The report in the Washington Post is 100 percent false," Spicer told reporters.
A senior administration official also told Fox News in an email earlier Tuesday, "The White House has taken no action to prevent Sally Yates from testifying and the Department of Justice specifically told her that it would not stop her and to suggest otherwise is completely irresponsible."
The conflicting claims over Yates are the latest turn in the developing controversy involving the House Intelligence Committee's work on the Russia investigation. FBI Director James Comey testified last week to the committee that his bureau was investigating possible ties between Russia and Trump campaign associates, while rejecting Trump assertions that his team may have been subject to surveillance by the Obama administration.
Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., later claimed he's learned that Trump transition team communications may have been incidentally picked up during surveillance operations. After reports he reviewed secret documents on White House grounds, top Democrats called on him to recuse himself from Russia matters -- a call he has rejected, with support from House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, on Tuesday claimed Yates was planning to provide information to Nunes' committee that likely would contradict White House statements. At the same committee session, the panel also was planning to hear from former CIA Director John Brennan.
But sources said the committee abruptly canceled the hearing, after Yates' lawyer sent a letter to the White House.
The Friday letter from lawyer David A. O'Neil to White House Counsel Don McGahn said: "If I do not receive a response by Monday, March 27, at 10 am EDT, I will conclude that the White House does not assert executive privilege over these matters with respect to the hearing or other settings."
O'Neil had written that committee staff had informed Yates she would be questioned on the "January 2017 communications regarding concerns about the conduct of a senior White House official." In the letter obtained by Fox News, O'Neil also argued that "any claim of privilege has been waived as a result of the multiple public comments of current senior White House officials describing the January 2017 communications."
The White House did not provide a response, and Yates and her lawyer then believed they tacitly had approval to speak to the committee. While the hearing was canceled, Spicer said Tuesday the White House was not opposed to her testimony.

Sen. Chuck Schumer Cartoons

Father of Maryland high school rape suspect arrested by ICE

 JESSUP, Md. –  The father of an 18-year-old Rockville High School student charged with the rape of a fellow classmate has been arrested for being in the country illegally, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE spokesperson Sarah Rodriguez said

43-year-old Adolfo Sanchez-Reyes was arrested last Friday “after a review of his immigration history revealed he was unlawfully present in the United States” from Guatemala.
AG SESSIONS: I WOULD 'PLEAD' WITH MARYLAND NOT TO BECOME SANCTUARY STATE
Sanchez-Reyes has been issued a notice to appear in immigration court and is currently being detained at the Howard County Detention Center in Jessup.
Sanchez-Reyes is the father of 18-year-old Henry Sanchez-Milian, one of two teenage students charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sexual offenses of a 14-year-old girl inside a bathroom at the Montgomery County high school.
Authorities have said Sanchez-Milian is also in the country illegally after he was stopped and detained by a U.S. border patrol agent in Texas last August.
MARYLAND GOVERNOR VOWS TO FIGHT 'SANCTUARY' MOVEMENT AMID RAPE CASE
“He was stopped at the border and detained by ICE,” said Andrew Jezic, the 18-year-old’s attorney. “He was detained for 12 days, but then ICE made the discretionary decision to simply let him go. They put him on a plane in Texas and his father had to pay for the ticket. His father picked him up at BWI Airport and he's been in this country with the full awareness of ICE.”
Jezic said his client is innocent and the encounter with the 14-year-old girl was pre-planned and consensual.

Schumer goes off on Trump supporter at NYC restaurant, witness says

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., caused a scene at a Manhattan restaurant when he began yelling at a wealthy and well-connected Donald Trump supporter that the POTUS is “a liar.”
Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, lost his cool on Sunday night at Upper East Side restaurant Sette Mezzo, according to witnesses.
He was dining with friends when he encountered Joseph A. Califano Jr. — the former U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare under President Jimmy Carter and domestic policy adviser to President Lyndon B. Johnson — and his wife, Hilary, who were having a quiet dinner.
Onlookers said Schumer was incensed that Hilary — the daughter of William S. Paley, the founder and chairman of CBS — had voted for Trump, even though her husband, Joseph, is a well-known Democrat.
One witness said of the restaurant rant, “They are a highly respected couple, and Schumer made a scene, yelling, ‘She voted for Trump!’ The Califanos left the restaurant, but Schumer followed them outside.” On the sidewalk, Schumer carried on with his fantastical filibuster: “ ‘How could you vote for Trump? He’s a liar!’ He kept repeating, ‘He’s a liar!’ ”
Hilary confirmed the confrontation, telling Page Six, “Sen. Schumer was really rude . . . He’s our senator, and I don’t really like him. Yes, I voted for Trump. Schumer joined us outside and he told me Trump was a liar. I should have told him that Hillary Clinton was a liar, but I was so surprised I didn’t say anything.”

Trump set to undo Obama's action against global warming

Moving forward with a campaign pledge to unravel former President Obama's sweeping plan to curb global warming, President Trump on Tuesday is set to sign an executive order that will suspend, rescind or flag for review more than a half-dozen measures in an effort to boost domestic energy production in the form of fossil fuels.
As part of the roll-back, Trump will initiate a review of the Clean Power Plan, which restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants.
The regulation, which was the former president's signature effort to curb carbon emissions, has been the subject of long-running legal challenges by Republican-led states and those who profit from burning oil, coal and gas.
Trump, who has called global warming a "hoax" invented by the Chinese, has repeatedly criticized the power-plant rule and others as an attack on American workers and the struggling U.S. coal industry. The contents of the order were outlined to reporters in a sometimes tense briefing with a senior White House official, whom aides insisted speak without attribution, despite Trump's criticism of the use of unnamed sources.
The official at one point appeared to break with mainstream climate science, denying familiarity with widely publicized concerns about the potential adverse economic impacts of climate change, such as rising sea levels and more extreme weather.
In addition to pulling back from the Clean Power Plan, the administration will also lift a 14-month-old moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands.
The Obama administration had imposed a three-year moratorium on new federal coal leases in January 2016, arguing that the $1 billion-a-year program must be modernized to ensure a fair financial return to taxpayers and address climate change.
Trump accused his predecessor of waging a "war on coal" and boasted in a speech to Congress that he has made "a historic effort to massively reduce job-crushing regulations," including some that threaten "the future and livelihoods of our great coal miners."
The order will also chip away at other regulations, including scrapping language on the "social cost" of greenhouse gases. It will initiate a review of efforts to reduce the emission of methane in oil and natural gas production as well as a Bureau of Land Management hydraulic fracturing rule, to determine whether those reflect the president's policy priorities.
It will also rescind Obama-era executive orders and memoranda, including one that addressed climate change and national security and one that sought to prepare the country for the impacts of climate change.
The administration is still in discussion about whether it intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change. But the moves to be announced Tuesday will undoubtedly make it more difficult for the U.S. to achieve its goals.
Trump's Environmental Protection Agency chief, Scott Pruitt, alarmed environmental groups and scientists earlier this month when he said he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming. The statement is at odds with mainstream scientific consensus and Pruitt's own agency.
The overwhelming majority of peer-reviewed studies and climate scientists agree the planet is warming, mostly due to man-made sources, including carbon dioxide, methane, halocarbons and nitrogen oxide.
The official who briefed reporters said the president does believe in man-made climate change.
Former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy accused the Trump administration of wanting "us to travel back to when smokestacks damaged our health and polluted our air, instead of taking every opportunity to support clean jobs of the future."
"This is not just dangerous; it's embarrassing to us and our businesses on a global scale to be dismissing opportunities for new technologies, economic growth, and US leadership," she said in a statement.
Michael Oppenheimer, a climate scientist at Princeton University, told The New York Times that Trump’s order signals that the U.S. will fall short of its pledge to cut emissions of about 26 percent by 2025. He said Trump’s order “sends a signal to other countries that they might not have to meet their commitments—which would mean that the world would fail to stay out of the climate danger zone.”

Freedom Caucus Cartoons

EPA chief: Trump to undo Obama plan to curb global warming

EPA chief Scott Pruitt

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says President Donald Trump in the coming days will sign a new executive order that unravels his predecessor's sweeping plan to curb global warming.
EPA chief Scott Pruitt says the executive order to be signed Tuesday will undo the Obama administration's Clean Power Plan, an environmental regulation that restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants.
The 2015 rule has been on hold since last year while a federal appeals court considers a challenge by coal-friendly Republican-led states and more than 100 companies.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Pruitt said Trump's intention is to bring back coal-mining jobs and reduce the cost of electricity.
Supporters of former President Barack Obama's plan say it would spur thousands of clean-energy jobs.

Kushner to lead new WH office focused on using business ideas to fix gov't bureaucracy

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, will be tapped to lead a new White House office that will effort to use business solutions to fix “government stagnation”, a senior White House official told Fox News Sunday.
"We can confirm we are making an announcement tomorrow to establish the White House office of American Innovation and look forward to sharing additional details," the official said.
The office will be filled by former business executives and seeks to bring in new thinking into Washington, the Washington Post reported. The Post first reported that Kushner would head the new office.
“We should have excellence in government,” Kushner said. “The government should be run like a great American company. Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens.”
Trump told the newspaper that the office would focus on fixing “government stagnation.” It will have the authority to overhaul federal bureaucracy and fulfill campaign promises – such as reforming health care for veterans and fighting opioid addition. Kushner would report directly to Trump.
Kushner hopes to bring in aggressive, nonideological views into team and he seeks talent from inside and outside Washington. The Post reported that the office is focused primarily on technology and data and is working with Apple chief executive Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gate, Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff and Tesla chief executive Elon Musk.
Some of the tech giants have openly criticized Trump’s policies but insist they are eager to help the administration with its issues.
“I’m hopeful that Jared will be collaborative with our industry in moving this forward. When I talk to him, he does remind me of a lot of the young, scrappy entrepreneurs that I invest in in their 30s.” Benioff told the Post.
This effort has been developing since shortly after the inauguration, the official said.
Trump's daughter Ivanka, who is married to Kushner and has a West Wing office but no official job, will get involved on issues she is focused on, such as workforce development.

Poe quits Freedom Caucus in aftermath of failed ObamaCare overhaul

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas

The fallout over House Republicans' failed ObamaCare overhaul bill continued Sunday when Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, resigned from the conservative House Freedom Caucus.
Poe intended to vote in favor of the bill and personally told President Trump last week that he would support the measure.
“To deliver on the conservative agenda we have promised the American people for eight years, we must come together to find solutions  to move this country forward," Poe said in a statement. "Saying no is easy, leading is hard, but that is what we were elected to do. Leaving this caucus will allow me to be a more effective member of Congress and advocate for the people of Texas. It is time to lead."
Poe resigned hours after President Trump called out the Freedom Caucus and conservative groups Club for Growth and The Heritage Foundation for not supporting the measure.
“Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!,” Trump tweeted.
On Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., canceled the final vote for the ObamaCare replacement bill after concluding he didn’t have enough support despite the chamber’s GOP majority.
Ryan was purportedly about 20 votes short of the requisite 216, amid strong opposition from the chamber’s conservative House Freedom Caucus, which has 30 to 40 Republican members. Several moderate House Republicans also did not support the bill, written by Ryan and his leadership team.
In the days leading up to the planned vote, Trump suggested those who wouldn’t support the overhaul bill could lose in their 2018 reelection primaries. And in a closed-door Capitol Hill meeting last week, the president made clear to Freedom Caucus leader Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., that he would hold the congressman responsible if the bill failed.
Trump and Ryan spoke Saturday and Sunday. Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said the leaders spoke Saturday for roughly an hour about “moving forward on (their) agenda” and that their relationship is “stronger than ever right now.”
Strong also said Trump made clear Sunday that his tweet earlier in the day had nothing to do with the speaker.
“They are both eager to get back to work on the agenda," she said.

Schumer jumps at chance to work with Trump on health care, other issues

Eric Shawn reports: Health care, take two

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer jumped at a chance to find common ground with President Trump on coming up with a solution to a new health care bill Sunday as Trump’s aides opened the door to working with moderate democrats on health care and other pressing issues.
Schumer, D-N.Y., said Trump must be willing to drop attempts to repeal Barack Obama’s signature achievement, warning that Trump was destined to “lose again” on other parts of his agenda if he remained obligated to appease conservative Republicans.
“If he changes, he could have a different presidency,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week.” "But he's going to have to tell the Freedom Caucus and the hard-right special wealthy interests who are dominating his presidency ... he can't work with them, and we'll certainly look at his proposals."
Trump turned the blame for the failure of the health care law from the Democrats to conservative lawmakers Sunday, tweeting: "Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!" The bill was pulled from the House floor Friday in a defeat for the Trump, having lacked support from conservative Republicans, some moderate Republicans and Democrats.
Trump aides made it clear Sunday that the president could seek support from moderate Democrats on upcoming legislative battles ranging from budget and tax cuts to health care, leaving the door open on possibly revisiting new health care legislation.
White House chief of staff Reince Priebus scolded conservative Republicans, explaining that Trump had felt "disappointed" with a "number of people he thought were loyal to him that weren't."
"It's time for the party to start governing," Priebus told “Fox News Sunday”. "I think it's time for our folks to come together, and I also think it's time to potentially get a few moderate Democrats on board as well."
The health-care bill’s failure caused a ripple effect in the Freedom Caucus.
Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, resigned from the group. Poe intended to vote in favor of the bill and personally told Trump last week that he would support the measure. He resigned hours after Trump’s tweet.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the Freedom Caucus, told ABC’s “The Week” that he was doing a lot of “self-critiquing” after the health care defeat. He insisted the GOP overhaul effort was not over and that he regretted not spending more time with moderate Republicans and Democrats "to find some consensus."
Much of the blame has been directed at the conservative group and its roughly 35 members, after House Speaker Paul Ryan realized that he didn’t have enough support for the bill in the GOP-led chamber and canceled the final vote Friday.
Ryan purportedly needed about 20 more votes, mostly from Freedom Caucus members and a handful of GOP House moderates.
Trump and Ryan spoke Saturday and Sunday. Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said the leaders spoke Saturday for roughly an hour about “moving forward on (their) agenda” and that their relationship is “stronger than ever right now.”

Freedom Caucus Jokes & Cartoons

Biden says he could have won the presidency if he ran

Former Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday that if he had run for president in 2016 he could have won.
Biden told students at Colgate University in New York that the Democratic primary would have been "very difficult."
Biden said his son Beau's battle with brain cancer kept him out of the race.
Biden said anyone who runs for president should be able to "look the public in the eye and promise you they can give you 100 percent," the Observer-Dispatch of Utica reported.  

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The former vice president says that he doesn't regret not running, but added, "Do I regret not being president? Yes."
Biden also added that he hopes President Donald Trump "grows into the job a little bit."

Arrests after scuffle breaks out at California Trump rally

A scuffle broke out on a Southern California beach where President Donald Trump supporters were marching as counter-protesters doused organizers with pepper spray, authorities said Saturday.
The violence erupted when the march of about 2,000 people at Bolsa Chica State Beach reached a group of about 30 counter-protesters, some of whom began spraying the irritant, said Capt. Kevin Pearsall of the California State Parks Police.
Three people were arrested on suspicion of illegal use of pepper spray and a fourth person was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery, Pearsall said.
Pearsall added that two people had suffered minor injuries, not requiring medical attention.
One anti-Trump protester who allegedly used the eye irritant was kicked and punched in the sand by Trump supporters, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Before the march started the counter-protesters had said they intended to try and stop the march’s progress with the use of a “human wall.”