Gregg Jarrett: If Comey's in legal jeopardy, will Mueller ride to his rescue?

Hillary Clinton, thanks to James Comey, escaped criminal prosecution for violating the Espionage Act. 

Now it is Comey who may have violated that same law.  If he did, will Comey escape prosecution, courtesy of his good friend, Robert Mueller?

The fired FBI Director’s legal predicament comes as The Hill reports that Comey authored seven memorandums reflecting the contents of his conversations with President Trump and that four of the memos “have been determined to contain classified information.”
If this is true and Comey kept these documents in his personal possession upon leaving government service and conveyed some of them to another individual without authorization, then it would appear that he committed multiple felonies under the Espionage Act.
It is a crime to mishandle classified information:  18 USC 798 and 1924  prohibit a government official from removing a classified document from its proper place of custody to a location which is unsecure and disclosing it to an unauthorized person.  Is this what Comey did?  It sure looks like it.

How can Mueller discharge his responsibilities in a fair, objective and impartial manner? Will the mentor investigate and, if warranted, prosecute his protégé? Doubtful.

Hillary Clinton, as Secretary of State, stored 110 emails containing classified information on her home computer server, an unauthorized place.  Yet, Comey misinterpreted the criminal statute by claiming she did not “intend to violate the law.”  This is not the legal standard, as any knowledgeable lawyer will tell you.  Clinton was never indicted, though she should have been.
David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA, was not so fortunate.  He pled guilty to removing classified documents to his personal residence where he stored them in an unsecured drawer.  He also gave them to his biographer who was not authorized to receive them.
John Deutch, also a former CIA Director, agreed to plead guilty to keeping classified material on his unauthorized laptop computer, but was pardoned by President Bill Clinton just days before the formal charges were filed.
Comey insists the information contained in the memo he gave to his lawyer friend who leaked it to the media was unclassified.  If true, it is not a violation of the Espionage Act.  But if Comey gave his friend, Columbia University Professor Daniel C. Richman, any of the four documents containing classified information, then he committed one or more crimes.
Richman now claims he received four memos from Comey, but none were marked classified.  The good professor may not realize that the “marking” in no way determines its classified status.  The content dictates classification, as Fox News Chief Intelligence Correspondent Catherine Herridge has consistently pointed out.
Importantly, if Comey maintained these four documents in his personal possession, as his Senate testimony suggests, then he may have committed at least four more crimes in the same way that Clinton, Petraeus and Deutch did.  Again, it is a felony to keep documents containing classified information in an unauthorized place, such as your personal possession, home or private unsecured computer.
As explained in an earlier column, Comey likely violated another law.  All of his memos are, unquestionably, government property under the Federal Records Act and the FBI’s own Records Management regulations.  They were composed by him in the course and scope of his employment as the Director of the FBI.  In meeting with President Trump, Comey was not acting as a private citizen.  Both Congress and the FBI agree on this obvious point.
Therefore, the memos were not Comey’s to keep in his possession.  It is a crime to convert government property to your own personal use and then give it to another person.  18 USC 641 makes it a felony to “steal, sell or convey” such property to someone else without permission.
Comey’s conduct and whether it constitutes numerous crimes should be investigated by Special Counsel, Robert Mueller.  Yet, that is not likely to happen.  Why?
In a previous column, I described in detail how Mueller and Comey have been long-time close friends, allies and partners.  They have enjoyed a mentor-protégé relationship.
This is precisely why Mueller should have disqualified himself from serving under the special counsel statute (28 CFR 600.7 and 28 CFR 45.2).  His strong relationship to Comey creates a genuine conflict of interest and, at the very least, the appearance of impropriety.
How can Mueller discharge his responsibilities in a fair, objective and impartial manner?  Will the mentor investigate and, if warranted, prosecute his protégé?  Doubtful.
The prospect of prejudice and favoritism this case presents is anathema to the fair administration of justice.
The American people expect and deserve something better than a legal charade.
Gregg Jarrett is a Fox News Anchor and former defense attorney.

Cruz: Congress shouldn't recess until ObamaCare repealed, replaced

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joined the growing chorus of lawmakers calling on Congress to forego its August recess until it passes legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare. 

"It’s crazy that we would be taking a recess," Cruz told Fox News' "Hannity" Monday night. "There are a bunch of us, myself included, that have been urging leadership back from January [to] not take any recesses.

"Let’s work every day, let’s work weekends, let’s work until we get the job done," Cruz added. "We have a job to do and a short window of time, and so we ought to stop taking recesses, stop taking time off and just keep going until we get it done."
The former presidential candidate has found himself at the center of the Senate GOP's internecine warfare over healthcare legslation after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., postponed a vote on legislation he had written largely in secret.
Cruz has proposed an amendment letting insurers sell any policies they wish, so long as they also offer polices that cover a list of services required by ObamaCare. Vice President Mike Pence endorsed the amendment Monday on Rush Limbaugh's radio show.
Cruz told host Sean Hannity Monday night that his amendment was "the knob of the battle" in the Senate. "[It] says you, the consumer, you have the right to choose what health insurance you want to buy."

Lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. says new NY Times report 'much ado about nothing'

A lawyer for Donald Trump Jr. late Monday dismissed a New York Times report that the president's eldest son knew that potentially damaging information on Hillary Clinton was offered as part of a Russian government effort to assist his father in last year's election.

The paper reported that music publicist Rob Goldstone indicated in an email to Trump Jr. that the Kremlin was the source of information about purported illegal campaign contributions to the Democratic National Committee provided by attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya.

"In my view, this is much ado about nothing," said attorney Alan Furtefas, who said that Goldstone had contacted Trump Jr. late in the Republican primary campaign and "suggested that people had information concerning alleged wrongdoing" by Clinton.
"The meeting [with Veselnitskaya] lasted about 20-30 minutes and nothing came of it," Furtefas went on. "His father knew nothing about it. The bottom line is that Don Jr. did nothing wrong."
The White House referred questions to the president's son. Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the president's outside legal team, would not comment on the Times story, reiterating only that the president "was not aware of and did not attend the meeting."
Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said the Times report proved "Donald Jr. was willing to accept the help of a hostile foreign government to sway the election. In the ensuing months, the Trump family watched as news of the Kremlin’s hacking campaign developed and they did nothing but celebrate and encourage it to continue.
"It is time for Donald Trump, his family, and his team to stop lying and come clean about their contacts with Russia, what they knew about the Kremlin’s effort to help them, and when they knew it," Watson added.
Goldstone confirmed earlier Monday that he had set up the meeting between Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya on behalf of his client, singer Emin Agalarov.
In a statement Sunday, Trump Jr. acknowledged taking the meeting to learn damaging information about Clinton, but claimed that Veselnitskaya allegations were "vague, ambiguous and made no sense” and it “became clear that she had no meaningful information.”
The Times story, which cited three unnamed people with knowledge of Goldstone's email but did not relate the actual email text, was the third report in as many days concerning the meeting between Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya.
In response to an Times report published Saturday, Trump Jr. said the meeting was primarily about allowing Americans to adopt Russian children and “mentioned nothing about Mrs. Clinton.” Responding to the paper's Sunday report, Trump Jr. acknowledged that he was told Veselnitskaya "might have information helpful to the campaign."
The Veselnitskaya meeting, which was also attended by Trump's then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and adviser Jared Kushner, is the first confirmed private meeting between members of President Trump’s inner circle and a Russian national. If the content of Goldstone's email is confirmed, it would be the first public word that Trump Jr. had been made aware the material could have been emanating from the Kremlin.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Monday the Kremlin doesn't know Veselnitskaya and "cannot keep track" of every Russian lawyer who holds meetings in Russia or abroad. Although she has not been publicly linked with the Russian government itself, Veselnitskaya represented the son of a vice president of state-owned Russian Railways in a New York money-laundering case settled in May before a trial.
Trump spent time with Agalarov during his visit to Moscow for the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which Trump owned at the time. The real estate mogul appeared in a music video with Agalarov and several pageant contestants. Agalarov's father, Aras, is a Russian developer who sought to partner with Trump on a hotel project in Moscow and tried to set up a meeting between Trump and Putin during the Miss Universe contest.
Earlier Monday, Trump Jr. tried to brush off the significance of the meeting, tweeting sarcastically, "Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent ... went nowhere but had to listen."

Trump Jr. also said on Twitter he was willing to work with the Senate intelligence committee, one of the panels probing possible campaign collusion, "to pass on what I know."

Lawmakers on the committee from both parties said they indeed wanted to talk with the president's son. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the panel "needs to interview him and others who attended the meeting." Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., agreed, saying, "Based on his own admissions, this is an attempt at collusion."

Marine aircraft disaster: FBI seeks answers in Mississippi crash that killed at least 16

The FBI has reportedly joined local and state agencies to investigate what caused a U.S. Marine Corps KC-130 to corkscrew out of the sky and into a soybean field in Mississippi, killing at least 16.

The search for additional victims is continuing. The Marine Corps said the aircraft “experienced a mishap.” The plane spiraled down at about 4 p.m. in a field about 85 miles north of Jackson. The plane’s debris were scattered in a radius of about five miles.

Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks told The Associated Press that officials were still searching for bodies after nightfall.
"We're still searching the area," Banks said. "It's hard to find bodies in the dark."
Banks earlier told the Greenwood Commonwealth that 16 people were believed to be on board but would not confirm that information to the AP.
The Marine Corps says it operated the plane but has provided no information on where the flight originated or where it was going.
Alan Hammons, an official at Greenwood Airport, told WNCN that the aircraft suffered a “structural failure” at 20,000 feet. The Clarion Ledger reported that the plane departed from Naval Support Activity Mid-South Base in Millington, Tenn.
An intense fire fed by jet fuel hampered firefighters, causing them to turn to unmanned devices in an attempt to control the flames, authorities said. There were several high-intensity explosions.
Aerial pictures taken by WLBT-TV showed the skeleton of the plane burning, producing plumes of black smoke visible for miles across the flat landscape of the delta.
Austin Jones, who owns a neighboring farm, said the fire continued after sunset.
"It's burning worse now than it was early in the afternoon," said Jones. He said his son watched the plane go down while working on the farm and said it was smoking as it descended.
Officials did not have information on what caused the crash or where the flight originated.
Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

De Blasio skips slain NYPD cop's vigil to praise police in Germany

Mayor de Blasio flew all the way to Hamburg, Germany, to praise that city’s police in a speech — while cops back home continued to mourn, without him, the assassination of one of their own in The Bronx.

“Our right to protest is directly related to the fact that our police protect us,” Hizzoner told a crowd of thousands at the outdoor Hamburg Shows Attitude rally protesting the G-20 summit Saturday. “So help me by joining in applause and thanks for the police,” he said as the crowd cheered.

“There have also been great acts of bravery and restraint,” he said. “Remember, our police are working men and women, too.”
But Hamburg police weren’t feeling the love, despite the praises of “Burgermeister de Blasio.” By Saturday night — after two days of rioting — more than 200 Hamburg cops had been injured by a rowdy minority of bottle- and firebomb-tossing protesters, according to CNN.
And back home, the mayor missed an evening vigil honoring slain NYPD Officer Miosotis ­Familia at the 46th Precinct station house where she worked in The Bronx.
Familia, 48, a mother of three, was shot in the head early Wednesday by a cop-loathing ­parolee as she sat in a police command vehicle.
“It’s disgraceful that the mayor is anywhere but at this ceremony right now,” vigil attendee Maria Rinaldi, 53, of University Heights, told The Post.
“I get where he’s at right now,” said precinct neighbor Caesar Montez, 61. “But this is your city. You need to be here when a tragedy like this happens.”
De Blasio gave two speeches Saturday during his all-expenses-paid junket to Hamburg.
The first was in the morning, at the city’s Thalia Theater, where he avoided any mention of filth or delays as he praised the New York City subway system, calling it a metaphor for a harmonious society.

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Riding the subways are “people of all faiths and people of all backgrounds,” he said.
“You have the rich and the poor, people of all faiths and all backgrounds, cramped in close together.
“And I like it as a metaphor because it’s not perfect, it’s not necessarily the way you want to live, to be the sardine in the sardine can. But what you notice is there is a working harmony.”
The mayor spent much of his second outdoor rally speech ­distancing himself from US conservatives.
“My nation isn’t broken, but my nation is going through an identity crisis,” he said. “It’s on its way somewhere, and I know it’s somewhere good because I see what happens in the neighborhoods in my city . . . I see the process of change underway.”
De Blasio was accompanied at both speeches by his 19-year-old son, Dante, a Yale University ­undergrad who is spending the ­summer in Berlin.
After the rally, de Blasio gave a series of softball interviews to local media, who asked him how much German he could speak and how he and Dante were ­enjoying their visits.
But he refused to take any more questions when a Post reporter approached to ask for a response to the criticism he has received — from police, political opponents and New Yorkers — for leaving the city just one day after Familia’s assassination to grandstand on a global stage.
“It seems the mayor hasn’t learned anything from the men and women [in blue] who turned their backs on him in the past,” said Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association — in a reference to angry cops turning their backs on the mayor at past events.
“No one in uniform is surprised” by de Blasio’s show of disrespect, said Pat Lynch, president of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.

Priebus pushes back on Russia meeting story, suggests Democrats, opposition research involved

hite House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Sunday suggested a recent news story about President Trump and his advisers meeting last summer with a Russian lawyer is part of a large political smear campaign orchestrated by a group that pushed out the largely discredited “Steele dossier.”

“The individual who set up the meeting may have been affiliated with Fusion GPS, which is an opposition research firm that is being subpoenaed and talked to by the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Priebus told “Fox News Sunday.”

Priebus was responding to a story posted Saturday afternoon by The New York Times about the June 2016 meeting, shortly before Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, between a Russian lawyer and Trump, Jared Kushner and political adviser Paul Manafort.
The story is among many attempting to connect the Trump presidential campaign to Russia meddling in the 2016 White House race.
The possible connection between the meeting and Fusion GPS was reported first by Circa.com.
Circa reported Saturday that the president’s legal team thinks the meeting may have been “part of a larger election-year opposition effort aimed at creating the appearance of improper connections between Trump family members and Russia that also included a now-discredited intelligence dossier produced by a former British intelligence agent named Christopher Steele who worked for a U.S. political firm known as Fusion GPS.”
Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team, told Circa that lawyers have learned that “the person who sought the meeting is associated with Fusion GPS, a firm that according to public reports was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the president and which commissioned the phony Steele dossier."
Priebus said Sunday that the Senate committee is questioning Fusion GPS about its role in “putting together that phony dossier.”
“So, this is a developing story,” he continued. “I don’t know much about it other than it seems to be on the end of the Trump individuals, a big nothing burger but may spin out of control for the (Democratic National Committee) and the Democrats.”
Fusion GPS is reportedly run by three former Wall Street Journal reporters and has helped Planned Parenthood.
The dossier largely included reports of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
The news media began reporting widely on the dossier in fall 2016, the homestretch of the White House race, but the unverified reports have since largely been dismissed as “fake news.”

Turkish Opposition Holds Anti-Govt Rally

Supporters of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, rise their hands as they gather for a rally following their 265-mile ‘March for Justice’ in Istanbul, Sunday, July 9, 2017. Kilicdaroglu, along with thousands of supporters, walked from the capital Ankara to an Istanbul prison, to denounce the imprisonment of a party lawmaker, and the large-scale government crackdown on opponents in the wake of July 2016’s failed coup attempt. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

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Protesters rally in Istanbul in the final stage of a three-week justice march against the Turkish government.
The opposition leader held an event on Sunday in defiance of an intensifying government crack-down.
It comes after thousands of people marched from the country’s capital to Istanbul following the arrest of an opposition lawmaker.
They accuse the government of trying to create a one-party state in the wake of a failed coup last year, using powers under a state of emergency.

Pres. Trump Pushes GOP Leaders on Healthcare

FILE – In this photo taken June 27, 2017, the U.S. Senate is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. July shapes up as one of the most critical tests for President Donald Trump’s agenda in Congress. Get healthcare done in the Senate, a budget in the House and overhaul of the nation’s tax code will be next up. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

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President Trump urges Republican leaders to continue their effort to repeal and replace Obamacare.
In a tweet Sunday, the President said for years he listened to Republicans push to repeal and replace the healthcare law and now they finally have their chance.
The President’s remarks come just one day before GOP senators return to work after the July 4th recess.
They delayed a vote before their break after failing to garner enough support behind the current bill.
President Trump recently indicated he would be open to repealing Obamacare first and developing a replacement later on.

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Roy Moore: Former chief justice, fiery and outspoken, stirs far-right base in Alabama Senate race

In the blood-red state of Alabama, a fiery, outspoken jurist is running for U.S. Senate by standing up for what he believes.

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore doesn’t shrink from telling voters he has twice been ousted from the bench for defying federal courts over the Ten Commandments and same-sex marriage.

Instead, he wears those rejections as a badge of honor, telling Republican voters that they are akin to battle scars.
“I will not only say what is right, I will do what is right,” Moore said during a June forum in the east Alabama city of Oxford.
Moore is part of a crowded GOP field vying to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old seat in the U.S. Senate. Moore’s iconic status in the culture wars gives him a strong GOP voter base and makes him a leading contender in the primary on August 15.

 

But he’s also a polarizing figure. Some voters said they are voting for him because of his past fights.

Others said they want someone else for the same reasons. Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen, who filed the complaint that led to Moore’s removal, last year referred to him as the “Ayatollah of Alabama” for intertwining his personal religious beliefs and judicial responsibilities.
Incumbent Sen. Luther Strange, appointed last year by the state’s former governor and backed by Republican establishment, faces multiple challengers. Among them, in addition to Moore, is U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, a member of the House Freedom Caucus who has the endorsement of Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham. The race could lead to a runoff between the top two primary finishers.
The Senate Leadership Fund, which has ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and tries to bank candidates perceived as winnable in general elections, has put its fiscal force behind Strange.
The Republican National Committee last week authorized its Senate campaign arm, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to spend $350,000 on the Alabama Senate race, money that is expected to benefit Strange.
Moore is a West Point graduate and former military policeman during Vietnam. He became a prosecutor, circuit judge and then state chief justice.
But Alabama’s judicial discipline panel twice stripped him of his chief justice duties. In 2003 he was removed for disobeying a federal judge’s order to remove a boulder-sized Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse.
He re-took the chief justice’s office in 2012, but was suspended for the remainder of his term last year.
The suspension — not, technically, a removal — came after Moore wrote a memo telling probate judges that they remained under a state court order to deny marriage licenses to gay couples even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled gays and lesbians have a fundamental right to marry. While he was suspended, Moore left the bench to run for Senate.
“I stood up to same-sex marriage legally by pointing out active injunctions. They didn’t like that. I opposed the agenda of the Supreme Court, and they came after me,” Moore said in Oxford.
Thirty-nine-year-old Emily Holland said she admires Moore. “He goes by what the Bible says,” said Holland. “He has been to war. He refused to take down the Ten Commandments.”
Jean Hobson said she watched the Oxford debate to learn more about the other candidates, but knows she’s not voting for Strange or Moore.
“Judge Moore has been elected twice and thrown out twice,” Hobson said.
Moore also discusses other issues on the campaign trail — including a call for increased military spending — but it’s his well-known history that appears to be driving both his support and his opposition.
For now, “The Judge,” as Moore is nicknamed, revels in his outsider status in a year of anti-Washington sentiment.
“Washington doesn’t want me, evidently, from the money they are pouring behind one of the candidates and from the message we received from Washington. That’s OK,” Moore said with a slight grin as he removed his sunglasses during a sweltering June campaign stop on the Alabama Capitol steps. “I’m looking forward to going and representing the people of Alabama, what they stand for. What they believe in is what I believe in and I’ll take it to Washington whether they like it or they don’t.”

Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner respond to meeting with Russian lawyer

President Donald Trump’s eldest son, son-in-law, and then-campaign chairman met with a Russian lawyer shortly after Trump won the Republican nomination, in what appears to be the earliest known private meeting between key aides to the president and a Russian.

Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner’s attorney confirmed the June 2016 meeting of the men and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower. Then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort also attended, according to the statement from Donald Trump Jr.

“It was a short introductory meeting. I asked Jared and Paul to stop by. We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at that time and there was no follow-up,” said Donald Trump Jr. in a statement released to Fox News. “I was asked to attend the meeting by an acquaintance, but was not told the name of the person I would be meeting with beforehand.”
Trump Jr. does not serve in the administration and is not required to disclose his foreign contacts.
Kushner lawyer Jamie Gorelick, told Fox News in a statement: “As we have previously stated, Mr. Kushner’s SF-86 was prematurely submitted and, among other errors, did not list any contacts with foreign government officials. The next day, Mr. Kushner submitted supplemental information stating that he had had ‘numerous contacts with foreign officials’ about which he would be happy to provide additional information."
"He has since submitted this information, including that during the campaign and transition, he had over 100 calls or meetings with representatives of more than 20 countries, most of which were during transition," said Gorelick. "Mr. Kushner has submitted additional updates and included, out of an abundance of caution, this meeting with a Russian person, which he briefly attended at the request of his brother-in-law, Donald Trump Jr. As Mr. Kushner has consistently stated, he is eager to cooperate and share what he knows.”
Manafort helmed Trump’s campaign for about five months until August and resigned from the campaign immediately after the Associated Press reported on his firm’s covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine’s ruling political party. He is one of several people linked to President Trump who are under scrutiny by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees investigating Russian attacks on the U.S. during the 2016 campaign and potential collusion with Trump associates.
Manafort has denied any coordination with Russia and has said his work in Ukraine was not related to the campaign.

U.S. Rejects UN Treaty on Nuclear Weapons

A detail of the video board showing the votes in favor, against and the abstention is seen after a vote by the conference to adopt a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination, Friday, July 7, 2017 at United Nations headquarters. More than 120 countries have approved the first-ever treaty banning nuclear weapons at a U.N. meeting boycotted by all nuclear-armed nations. Friday’s vote was 122 countries in favor with the Netherlands opposed and Singapore abstaining.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

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The United States, along with the other nuclear powered nations of the world, rejected the UN’s treaty to ban nuclear weapons on a global scale.
All of the world’s nuclear powers – including the U.S., France, Britain, and Russia – have refused to be part of the negotiations.
The vote was approved by 122 non-nuclear members of the United Nations Friday, with the Netherlands voting against the deal, and Singapore sitting out the vote.
The dissenting nations are also permanent members of the UN Security Council and stated the treaty was unrealistic.
They added countries like North Korea would never comply with a nuclear weapons ban.

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May talks with U.S. President Donald Trump during the G20 leaders summit in Hamburg, Germany July 8, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

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President Trump meets with British Prime Minister Theresa May in Hamburg to discuss the future of trade between the U.S. and the U.K.
The President told reporters he and the Prime Minister spoke on the sidelines of the G20 leaders summit and are working on a ‘powerful deal.’
While Britain can’t seal a separate trade deal with the United States until it has left the European Union, President Trump says, once that happens, the U.S. and the U.K. will get a deal done without hesitation.
The U.K. plans to exit the European Union in 2019.

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Sheriff exposes liberal columnist's traffic stop tale for the lie that it is

A sheriff in Missouri is firing back at a now-suspended newspaper columnist who claimed to experience what “minority motorists” must feel when getting pulled over by cops, saying he was lucky he didn’t “get shot” during a recent traffic stop.

Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey has refuted a June 30 opinion column by longtime Columbia Daily Tribune columnist Bill Clark, who was stopped 10 days earlier for failing to use his turn signal. Clark, an 84-year-old white man, suggested in the column that he might’ve been pulled over because of his “liberal bumper stickers,” an obvious sign of an “aging hippie with a weed habit,” he claimed.

“I’m lucky I didn’t get shot,” Clark wrote. “Sirens wailed and when I stopped, two officers were out of the sheriff’s vehicle. When I reached over to turn off the radio and then take my wallet out of my pocket to produce the driver’s license and insurance card, I realized my hands were not at the top of my steering wheel. Danger lurked and official arrogance was to follow.”
Clark, who claimed he received a “good dose of arrogance” during the stop, said he understands how someone could lose respect for cops after the stop, saying his life “seemed to be in danger” during the interaction with two deputies.

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Clark's column ticked off the local police

“When you are in the shoes of the minority, you learn a lot more about their journey,” Clark wrote.
But a review of dashcam video told a different story, according to Carey, who contacted the newspaper’s managing editor, Charles Westmoreland, to disagree with Clark’s version of events. Carey also released the 11-minute video and penned an 1,800-word response to Clark’s column, blasting it as “sensationalism” and disputed the claims of “arrogance” on behalf of the deputies.
“In his column he indicates, ‘I’m lucky I didn’t get shot,’” Carey wrote. “There is never a weapon drawn, the deputies don’t take a position of cover, there are no loud verbal commands, no panic or anything else for that matter by the deputies. Would you agree this is sensationalism at its best? I say yes!”

2 US Air Force B-1 bombers fly near North Korean border in show of force

Two U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers on Saturday flew near the Korean Demilitarized Zone in a show of force, the Air Force said in a statement. 

The two B-1 bombers flew 2,000 miles from Anderson Air Force Base in Guam to conduct a precision strike training exercise with South Korean fighter jets. The bombers were also joined by Japanese fighters during their flight.

These missions are called “Jungle Lightening” by the Air Force.
Later, the Air Force called the mission a "demonstration of the ironclad U.S. commitment to our allies."
The bombers fired releasing inert weapons at the Pilsung Range. The mission took 10 hours, according to the statement.
"North Korea's actions are a threat to our allies, partners and homeland," Gen. Terrence O' Shaughnessy, the Pacific Air Forces commander, said. "Let me be clear, if called upon we are trained, equipped and ready to unleash the full lethal capability of our allied air forces."
This is the second 'show of force' by the US military since the July 4 North Korea test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, a first for the rogue, communist regime.
On the night after the launch, the US and South Korean military conducted a joint missile test using short range missiles into waters off the peninsula.
A North Korean test of an ICBM is a momentous step forward for Pyongyang as it works to build an arsenal of long-range nuclear-armed missiles that can hit anywhere in the United States. The North isn’t there yet — some analysts suggest it will take several more years to perfect such an arsenal, and many more tests — but a successful launch of an ICBM has long been seen as a red line, after which it would only be a matter of time — if the country isn’t stopped.
President Trump said North Korea’s plan to develop an ICBM capable of hitting the U.S. “won’t happen” and has since made tough talk on the issue a signature.
Amid heightened tensions with North Korea, the U.S. will conduct a flight test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), an element of the nation’s ballistic missile defense system, Fox News has learned. The test, which will be conducted by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), is scheduled to take place this month.
The THAAD test will be conducted against an intermediate ballistic missile. THAAD is not a weapon used against ICBMs, but only short and medium range missiles.
There is currently a THAAD battery in South Korea but only two of the scheduled six launchers on the battery are operational as the South Korean government performs an "environmental impact" study at the golf course where the battery is deployed.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Lucas Tomlinson is the Pentagon and State Department producer for Fox News Channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews

DOJ Asks Federal Judge to Allow Texas Voter ID Law to Stand

The Department of Justice is asking a federal judge to stop any further action against Texas voter ID law.
DOJ officials say a plan enacted last month by a republican controlled legislature fixes parts of the law considered discriminatory against African Americans and Latinos.
Texas original 2011 voter ID law also faced a number of legal challenges.
Judges repeatedly found it discriminated against minority and elderly voters.
The Trump administration dropped an Obama-era argument that Texas lawmakers had enacted the law with a discriminatory intent.

Pres. Trump Reaffirms Plans for Border Wall, ‘Absolutely’ Wants Mexico to Pay It

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President Trump reaffirms his plans of building a southern border wall, and says he “absolutely” still wants Mexico to pay for it.
The president made the remarks when questioned by a reporter Friday as he sat down next to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at the G-20 summit in Germany.
However, Mexico’s foreign minister says the proposed border wall was not part of their bilateral talks
He also said the U.S. and Mexico share a ‘”complex relationship” with many issues.
Earlier this year, Pena Nieto canceled a meeting with President Trump as tensions between the two countries escalated after he said Mexico does not believe in walls.

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North Korea tensions: South's president seeks meeting with Kim Jong Un

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Thursday he is willing to meet with North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un amid heightened tensions in the wake of Pyongyang’s first intercontinental ballistic missile test-launch.

Moon, in a speech ahead of the G-20 summit in Germany, also  proposed the two Koreas resume reunions of families separated by war, stop hostile activities along the DMZ and cooperate on the 2018 Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

"The current situation where there is no contact between the relevant authorities of the South and the North is highly dangerous," Moon said. "I am ready to meet with Chairman Kim Jong Un of North Korea at any time at any place, if the conditions are met and if it will provide an opportunity to transform the tension and confrontation on the Korean Peninsula."
Moon added that he is ready to put all issues on the negotiating table, including the North’s nuclear program and the signing of a peace treaty to officially end the Korean War.
Since taking office in May, Moon has been trying to improve ties with North Korea, but his efforts have produced little, with the North testing a series of newly developed missiles including an ICBM on Tuesday.
The North's ICBM launch, its most successful missile test to date, has stoked security worries in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo as it showed the country could eventually perfect a reliable nuclear missile capable of reaching anywhere in the United States. Analysts say the missile tested Tuesday could reach Alaska if launched at a normal trajectory.
After the launch, Kim said he would never put his weapons programs up for negotiation unless the United States abandons its hostile policy toward his country. Kim's statement suggested he will order more missile and nuclear tests until North Korea develops a functioning ICBM that can place the entire U.S. within its striking distance.
In a show of force against North Korea, South Korea and the United States staged "deep strike" precision missile firing drills on Wednesday. In North Korea's capital, thousands of people rallied Thursday in Kim Il Sung square to celebrate the launch.

De Blasio races to Germany to protest G20 summit

Idiot

Mayor Bill de Blasio is jetting off to Germany on Thursday to protest President Trump and other world leaders attending the G20 Summit meeting.

The day after a cop was assassinated in The Bronx, de Blasio skipped an afternoon swearing-in ceremony for 524 new NYPD recruits ahead of his flight overseas.

A last-minute advisory from City Hall said Hizzoner “will attend several events surrounding the G20 Summit, including Saturday’s Hamburg Zeigt Haltung rally.”
Organizers of that demonstration — “Hamburg Shows Attitude,” in English — say 10,000 people have registered to oppose G20 participants including Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdgoan.
“All stand for an attitude that we find unacceptable and do not want to accept,” Lutheran Bishop Kirsten Fehrs has said.
City Council members said they were unaware of de Blasio’s plan to abandon the Big Apple to push his progressive agenda in Europe.

Pence: Trump laid out a 'vision for the West' in Warsaw speech

Vice President Mike Pence praised President Trump's speech in Poland Thursday, telling Fox News' "Hannity" that Trump demonstrated "a commitment of will that will never back down to the shared values that we in this trans-Atlantic alliance have shared for more than 75 years."

Trump's address in Warsaw's historic Krasinski Square called on the U.S. and its Western allies to confront common threats, declaring "Our values will prevail, our people will thrive and our civilization will triumph."

Pence told host Laura Ingraham that Trump's speech displayed "unapologetic American leadership."
"It really is remarkable to think that for the last eight years we had an administration that was, more often than not, apologizing for America around the world," the vice president said. "And today in Warsaw ... President Donald Trump reaffirmed our nation’s commitment to be the leader of the free world."
Pence noted that Trump had urged Russia to cease what the president called "its destabilizing activities ... and its support for hostile regimes" ahead of Friday's much-anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
"For me, it was an example of the kind of bracing and direct and candid leadership that people across this country welcome in this president," said Pence, who later added, "frankly, ... leaders around the world, they are welcoming a President of the United States who’s embracing his role as leader of the free world."

Senate Republicans Warn of National Security Threat Due to Increased Leaks

Reporters ask questions after the Trump administration’s tax reform proposal in the White House briefing room. (Kevin Lamarque)

Senate Republicans are issuing a national security warning as the Trump administration is facing an alarming amount of media leaks.
A report released Thursday by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman says they’re now taking place about once a day.
It shows at least 125 stories with leaked information were found between the president’s inauguration and May 25th.
This is nearly seven times faster than Presidents Obama and Bush in their first 126 days in office.
The report adds the leaks exposed operations against enemies, and caused a diplomatic incident with an ally.

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'South Park' creator worries show is becoming too much like CNN

The creator of “South Park” said in an interview published Monday that TV shows have gotten so inundated with jokes about President Trump, people have gotten tired of them.
“We fell into the same trap that “Saturday Night Live” fell into, where it was like, Dude, we’re just becoming CNN now,” Trey Parker told The Los Angeles Times. “We’re becoming: ‘Tune in to see what we’re going to say about Trump.’ Matt (Stone) and I hated it but we got stuck in it somehow.”
Parker said the show will not focus on Trump the way others do.
“We probably could put up billboards — “Look what we’re going to do to Trump next week!” — and get crazy ratings,” Parker said. “But I just don’t care.”
CNN faced widespread backlash Wednesday for seeming to imply the network would reveal the identity of the Reddit user who made an anti-CNN, Trump-themed GIF if he reneged on an apology – but some critics suggested the network also could have a legal problem on its hands.
Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter to cite Georgia state law’s prohibition against “theft by extortion.”
“Troubling. I assume CNN's lawyers are examining GA § 16-8-16 Theft by extortion. If CNN constructively obtained the gif-maker's IP...it's a GA crime if they threatened to ‘Disseminate any information tending to subject any person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule....’” he wrote, citing a portion of the statute.

Rep. Steve Scalise re-admitted to intensive care unit

Doctors at the hospital where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., has been recovering from a gunshot wound downgraded his condition from "fair" to "serious" Wednesday after he contracted an infection.
MedStar Washington Hospital Center said Scalise had been re-admitted to the intensive care unit. The hospital added that it would provide another update sometime Thursday.
Scalise and four others were hurt when a gunman opened fire on a GOP baseball practice in Virginia on June 14. The gunman, identified as James T. Hodgkinson, was fatally shot by Capitol police.
The congressman was struck in the hip and the bullet tore into blood vessels, bones and internal organs. He has undergone several surgeries.
Sources told Fox News that doctors had anticipated that Scalise would suffer an infection related to the shooting. Sources close to the congressman indicated that they had been told from the start that the Louisianan's recovery would have ups and downs.
The shooting in the Virginia suburb that critically wounded Scalise and injured several others has forced members of Congress to examine their security arrangements to determine if they are sufficient.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said she favors more money for the U.S. Capitol Police force, which is seeking an 8 percent increase to nearly $427 million for next year.
Pelosi said more money would help the agency enhance its presence when members of Congress, staff and others congregate away from the Capitol.
"It's security for other people who are there, too," she said at one point. "If somebody is coming after a member of Congress, you don't want to be anywhere nearby."
Even before the shooting, Speaker Paul Ryan and Pelosi had begun talking about changes that could improve members' safety, said Ryan's spokeswoman, AshLee Strong.
Fox News’ Chad Pergram and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump Administration Looks for Help to Pressure North Korea

Washington, D.C- Trey Yingst, OAN Chief White House Correspondent
An ICBM test Tuesday has the Trump administration looking for new partners to put pressure on the North Korean regime.
While US intelligence was aware of the first stage KN-17 missile, a second, range extending portion, was used for the first time by North Korea. The missile reached an estimated altitude of 1,741 miles before landing off the coast of South Korea.
In response, President Trump is weighing options ahead of the G20 Summit where he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The President took to Twitter Wednesday to voice his frustration with the lack of assistance from the Chinese government. 
“Trade between China and North Korea grew almost 40% in the first quarter. So much for China working with us – but we had to give it a try!,” President Trump tweeted.
Continued economic relations between the Chinese and the North Koreans now have the Trump administration looking for other partners to pressure the regime of Kim Jong Un.
Senior Administration officials have confirmed that President Trump will meet Russian President Putin on Friday, but have declined to say how much will be discussed regarding North Korea.
In the past, President Trump has said he would like to develop a closer relationship with Russia in order to combat such threats as North Korea.

OAN to WAPO: Thanks for the Publicity

OAN Newsroom
We want to take a moment to send a quick shout out to the Washington Post.
On Wednesday they released an article about One America News, attacking our organization.
We want to say thanks for the publicity and for putting us in the same category as President Trump and Fox News, who they also continuously attack.
While there were numerous fact errors and untruths in the reporting and the information was obtained by disgruntled employees, we aren’t mad at you.
So even though you got some things wrong, we are honored that you took the time to report about us.

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