Gowdy wants Comey to testify again following Clinton email draft release

Following the FBI’s release of documents confirming that former FBI Director James Comey began drafting a letter on the Hillary Clinton email investigation months before completing several interviews, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. said Comey needs to testify before Congress again.

Gowdy, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee and a member of the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committee, told Fox News’ Bret Baier on “Special Report” Tuesday night that “for a number of reasons” Comey should return to Capitol Hill and the committees needed to further examine the FBI memos before he did.

“Whenever somebody decides to charge someone, there are lots of layers of scrutiny. When you decide not to charge someone, there aren’t that many layers of scrutiny but there ought to be at least a couple,” Gowdy said. “The media should do it but also Congress should look at this decision not to charge and whether or not it was made before you interviewed two dozen witnesses, including the target of the investigation, yeah we need to talk to him again.”
COMEY INSISTED NO ‘SPECIAL’ RULES IN FBI CLINTON PROBE – WHIEL DRAFTING ‘EXONERATION STATEMENT’
According to Gowdy, the timeline of events and some of Comey’s decisions along the way did not appear to add up. He was referring to Comey’s statement during his June congressional testimony in which he said the tarmac meeting between former Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former President Bill Clinton encouraged him to announce his findings in the email investigation.
“His ostensible reason for taking that decision away from the Department of Justice was that meeting on the tarmac but yet a month and a half earlier he is memorializing a decision he’s already made so the chronology does not add up,” Gowdy said. “His answers have been all over the map.”
Gowdy also told the Fox News anchor that he not only wants to talk to Comey, but also plans to speak to his former colleagues.
When asked whether Loretta Lynch, who is expected to be on Capitol Hill Friday concerning the Russia investigation, would be asked about Comey’s email draft, Gowdy said she would not.
COMEY DRAFTED LETTER ON CLINTON EMAIL INVESTIGATION BEFORE COMPLETING INTERVIEWS, FBI CONFIRMS
But he said there were “lots of reasons” to talk to her as well, in that she could “corroborate or contradict Comey’s recollection” about their conversation regarding his decision to make the announcement.
Baier’s interview also touched on Gowdy’s investigation into Samantha Power, the former ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration, and her office’s request to unmask at least 260 individuals heard on surveillance recordings.
Gowdy said during questioning, Power testified that she had not personally made all of the requests, despite them being filed under her name. He said the committee had to find out whether someone else in the intelligence community was actually behind those requests.

Report: IRS refuses to give back $59G to vet after seizing his business cash

FILE: Exterior of the Internal Revenue Service's headquarters in Washington, D.C. A military veteran reportedly said the agency took about $60G from his business in an raid that yielded no charges.  (Reuters)

The Internal Revenue Service is reportedly refusing to give back more than $59,000 to U.S. military veteran after it seized his gas station’s cash during a raid that found no evidence of criminal activity.

Oh Suk Kwon, 73, a South Korea immigrant who came to the U.S. back in the 1970s and served four years as a fleet mechanic in the U.S. army, bought a gas station in Maryland in 2007 following decades of work at an electrical plant as an auto mechanic.

“When I came to the United States, I had to do something for the country,” he told the Washington Post. He later became a U.S. citizen.
Following an honorable discharge, he continued pursuing the American dream, telling the paper: “My whole life was work, work, work.”
But just several years after opening the gas station, IRS investigators seized all the station’s cash – more than $59,000 – leaving the Kwon family cash-strapped, even though no evidence of criminal wrongdoing was found by the government, the paper reported.
After the IRS investigation ended, the station went bankrupt, Kwon’s wife passed away, and the IRS changed its policy regarding seizures like this; but the agency is still refusing to hand back Kwon his money.
His problems with the IRS started in 2011 when investigators showed up at his doorstep accusing him making money deposits in increments of less than $10,000 – a practice known as “structuring."
Structuring is commonly used by terror groups in order to avoid scrutiny. The government requires banks to report all transactions larger than $10,000 under the 1970 Banking Secrecy Act.

"They did it for money, and they destroyed a good and honest man. It is shameful."

- Attorney Edward Griffin

“Of all the cases I have worked on, this one stands out for me,” Kwon’s attorney Edward Griffin told The Post. “I firmly believe that the government did wrong in choosing to prosecute Mr. Kwon and seize his assets. There was no good policy purpose for the prosecution. They did it for money, and they destroyed a good and honest man. It is shameful. Which is why I am still fighting for him.”
A spokesman for the IRS said Kwon pleaded guilty to the structuring charge. Kwon said he merely followed the advice given by a local bank, which suggested making smaller deposits to avoid paperwork.
He told the paper the guilty plea ruined his life. He said he also felt shame after the investigators spoke with his neighbors, forcing later to move out of the neighborhood.
“They saw me as Korean. As a veteran,” he told The Post. “They were surprised to see me as a criminal. I will never forget that.”
It remains unclear whether he will get his money back. His attorney petitioned the IRS and Department of Justice this summer, but the request to hand back the money was not granted, citing lack of “additional information.”

New York Times Cartoons

Trump slams 'failing' New York Times reporter for ignoring successes on trade, climate

President Trump on Sunday criticized a New York Times story stating that he has failed to fulfill campaign promises on undoing key Obama administration policies, calling the newspaper “failing” and pointing to early successes like exiting the international Paris climate accord and getting conservative Judge Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court.

“The Failing @nytimes, in a story by Peter Baker, should have mentioned the rapid terminations by me of TPP & The Paris Accord & the fast ... approvals of The Keystone XL & Dakota Access pipelines” Trump said in a two-part tweet. “Also, look at the recent EPA cancelations & our great new Supreme Court Justice!”

In a story Sunday titled, “Promise the Moon? Easy for Trump. But Now Comes the Reckoning,” Baker points out that Trump, on his winning 2016 presidential campaign trail, called ObamaCare “outrageous” and the 2015 international Iran nuclear deal led by former President Barack Obama “one of the worst and one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”
However, nearly nine months into his presidency, Trump has yet to dismantle either, though he took steps last week to address both with or without the help of his Republican-controlled Congress.
Beyond pointing out that he exited the Paris climate deal last month, Trump, in his tweets Sunday, touted the prompt approval of the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines, which were held up during Obama’s administration by lengthy environmental and approval processes.
Trump also pointed out that in March he ended U.S. involvement in the TPP, or the Trans Pacific Partnership, the 2016 international trade deal that he argued was unfair to the U.S.
And he pointed out recent efforts, under his orders, for the Environmental Protection Agency to roll back regulations on the domestic fossil fuel industry.
Baker is The Times’ chief White House correspondent and is billed as a straight-news reporter.
Last month, the newspaper published a Baker story titled, “A Divider, Not a Uniter, Trump Widens the Breach,” that reads like what could be considered an opinion piece.
Baker referred to  Trump as an “apostle of anger” and “deacon of divisiveness,” before noting that the president’s recent comments about athletes protesting the national anthem “distract from other matters, particularly Congress’ efforts on health care reform."
When reached by Fox News, Baker defended his comments as “analysis rather than opinion,” referring to it as “an observation” based on covering Trump for the past eight months.
The Times did not respond when Fox News asked if Baker is still considered a straight-news reporter.
The Baker article also details the groups that Trump has offended, including the media industry, the National Football League and Hollywood, among many others.
Baker previously had covered the White House for 15 years in the past, but moved out of the country in 2016 to serve as the paper’s Jerusalem bureau chief. Shortly after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton on Election Day, he was recalled to beef up the Times’ White House team during the Trump administration.
Trump has previously referred to the Times as “failing,” and many media watchdogs feel liberal bias is showing.

Hillary Clinton defends kneeling NFL players, says 'that's not against our anthem or flag'

Idiot

Hillary Clinton speaking in London on Sunday.  (Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival)

Hillary Clinton on Sunday defended NFL players who knelt during the national anthem, saying kneeling is a “reverent” position that is not against “our anthem or our flag.”

The former Democratic presidential candidate, who was at the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival, urged Democrats to use the issue against President Trump.

Clinton was embarking on a foreign trip to promote her book “What Happened.”
She said people should resist “what are very clear dog-whistles” to the Trump base, pointing to the example of kneeling NFL players.
“That's what black athletes kneeling was all about,” she said in response to a question about ways to resist the White House. ”That's not against our anthem or our flag.”
“Actually, kneeling is a reverent position,” she continued. “It was to demonstrate in a peaceful way against racism and injustice in our criminal system.”
Clinton urged the Democratic Party to continue to “resist” the president, saying “I think it would be a grave error for Democrats to recede from those fights, so therefore we have to stand up, fight back, resist.”
Clinton went on to compare the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential elections to the September 11 terrorist attack.
“We have really well-respected security and intelligence veterans saying this was a kind of cyber 9/11 in the sense that it was a direct attack to American institutions,” she said. “That may sound dramatic but we know they tried to recruit into election systems, not just social media propaganda.”

North Korea diplomacy will continue 'until the first bomb drops,' Tillerson says

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in an interview Sunday that the Trump administration will continue to pursue diplomacy with Pyongyang “until the first bomb drops.”

Tillerson did not specify whether the U.S. or North Korea would have to pull the trigger. He told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he wants the issue “solved diplomatically.”

“He’s (Trump) not seeking to go to war,” he said. “He has made it clear to me to continue my diplomatic efforts… until the first bomb drops.”
That statement comes despite President Trump's tweets a couple of weeks ago that his chief envoy was "wasting his time" trying to negotiate with "Little Rocket Man," a mocking nickname Trump has given the nuclear-armed nation's leader Kim Jong Un.
"I think he does want to be clear with Kim Jong-un and that regime in North Korea that he has military preparations ready to go and he has those military options on the table. And we have spent substantial time actually perfecting those," Tillerson said.
Recent mixed messaging from the top of the U.S. government has raised concerns about the potential for miscalculation amid the increasingly bellicose exchange of words by Trump and the North Korean leader.
Trump told the U.N. General Assembly last month that if the U.S. is "forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea." Trump also tweeted that Korea's leadership "won't be around much longer" if it continued its provocations, a declaration that led the North's foreign minister to assert that Trump had "declared war on our country."
Tillerson acknowledged during a recent trip to Beijing that the Trump administration was keeping open direct channels of communications with North Korea and probing the North's willingness to talk. He provided no elaboration about those channels or the substance of any discussions.
Soon after, Trump took to Twitter, saying he had told "our wonderful Secretary of State, that he is wasting his time trying to negotiate with Little Rocket Man ... Save your energy Rex, we'll do what has to be done!" Trump offered no further explanation, but he said all military options are on the table for dealing with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs.
Analysts have speculated about whether the president and his top diplomat were playing "good cop, bad cop" with North Korea, and how China might interpret the confusing signals from Washington. Beijing is the North's main trading partner, and the U.S. is counting on China to enforce U.N. sanctions.
"Rest assured that the Chinese are not confused in any way what the American policy towards North Korea (is) or what our actions and efforts are directed at," Tillerson said.

Clinton Foundation to keep Harvey Weinstein's $250,000 donation

The Clinton Foundation will not return as much as $250,000 in donations from disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein following the accusations of sexual harassment and rape.

The foundation said Sunday that donations, ranging from $100,000 to $250,000, have already been spent on projects, The Daily Mail reported.

The move to keep the money was expected following tweets from the foundation’s spokesman Craig Minassian.
“Suggesting @ClintonFdn return funds from our 330,000+ donors ignores the fact that donations have been used to help people across the world,” Minassian wrote on Twitter.
The calls to return Weinstein’s money were prompted after multiple actresses have come forward and accused the Hollywood executive of sexual assault and rape, forcing numerous politicians and organization to grapple with the dilemma.
Dozens Democratic Party politicians – including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Sen. Al Franken, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Cory Booker – have pledged to donate their Weinstein’s contributions to charities focused on women’s rights.
Hillary Clinton echoed her former colleagues, saying she was “shocked and appalled” after the sexual harassment allegations were revealed about Weinstein, who hosted fundraisers for her in the past and donated more than $46,000 to her recent presidential campaign and other election efforts.
"What other people are saying, what my former colleagues are saying, is they're going to donate it to charity, and of course I will do that," she said on CNN. "I give 10% of my income to charity every year, this will be part of that. There's no – there's no doubt about it."

Hustler Larry Flynt Cartoons

Mississippi school district pulls 'To Kill a Mockingbird' because it 'makes people uncomfortable'

Harper Lee's novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" was banned from a Mississippi school district.

Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” was removed from a Mississippi school district lesson plan because the book’s language made some people feel uneasy.

Administrators at the Biloxi School District announced early this week they were pulling the novel from the 8th-grade curriculum, saying they received complaints that some of the book’s language “makes people uncomfortable.”

The Sun Herald reported that the book was pulled from the lesson plan because the novel contained “the N word.”
A message on the school's website says "To Kill A Mockingbird" teaches students that compassion and empathy don't depend upon race or education.
School board vice president Kenny Holloway says other books can teach the same lessons.

However, the book will still be available in Biloxi school libraries.
The novel, published in 1960, chronicled the adventures of Jean Louise Finch aka Scout and her brother Jeremy aka Jem and the racial inequality that existed in their small Alabama town. The book followed a court case their father, Atticus, was involved in.
In the story, Atticus defended Tom Robinson, a black man who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young white woman. Despite strong evidence of Robinson’s innocence, he was found guilty of raping Ewell.
The book was adapted into a movie in 1962, starring Gregory Peck, who won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Atticus Finch.
The Sun Herald reported the novel was listed at No. 21 on the American Library Association’s most “banned or challenged books list in the last decade.”

Hustler founder Larry Flynt offers $10 million for dirt leading to Trump impeachment

Idiot

Hustler founder Larry Flynt is running a full-page ad in Sunday’s Washington Post offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the impeachment of President Trump.  (REUTERS/Fred Prouser)

Hustler founder Larry Flynt is running a full-page ad in Sunday’s Washington Post offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the impeachment of President Trump, Fox Business reports.

Anchor Liz Claman tweeted a photo of the ad, which reads: “Larry Flynt and Hustler magazine announce a cash offer of up to $10 million for information leading to the impeachment and removal from office of Donald J. Trump.”

In the ad, Flynt airs several grievances about Trump’s actions as president, including his firing of FBI director James Comey and his “gross nepotism and appointment of unqualified persons to high office.”
“Impeachment would be a messy, contentious affair, but the alternative – three more years of destabilizing dysfunction – is worse,” the ad reads. “Both good Democrats and good Republicans who put country over party did it before with Watergate. To succeed, impeachment requires unimpeachable evidence. That’s why I am making this offer.”
The porn producer notes in the ad that this “is not my first rodeo,” citing past rewards for information on Republicans like former Rep. Bob Livingston in 1999, who resigned from Congress after admitting to an extramarital affair, and Sen. David Vitter, who weathered a prostitution scandal in 2007.
“Sure I could use that $10 million to buy luxuries or further my businesses,” Flynt writes, “but what good would that do me in a world devastated by the most powerful moron in history?”

The NFL is attacking an America that has treated it very well. Time to end the tax breaks

While we glorify football players for their accomplishments on the field, they are not heroes. I recently visited with a real hero – a young Army sergeant from my congressional district who still gets body tremors when he stands. Bombs bursting in the air exploded over his unit in Afghanistan, leaving shards of metal stuck in his skull. 

When I entered his room at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, he proudly stood at full attention, brimming with nervous energy. I had come to thank him on behalf of a grateful nation, and the sergeant was as respectful as he was inspiring in his patriotism. Although he winced with pain, he would not take the meeting lying down. 

We did not discuss his injury or diagnosis. He told me how proud he was of his wife, a teacher at the local high school. And how willing he was to go back to the fight – wherever that star-spangled banner yet waves.
The teacher and the sergeant are the regular folks who make up my North Florida district, which boasts of more military bases than Starbucks, and more veterans than pelicans. These are the folks who do not understand why NFL players would disrespect our anthem or our flag or why the NFL Commissioner's office has embraced this unpatriotic conduct.

Taxpayers pay over 70 percent of the cost of stadiums. Our citizens pay more and more for tickets, and valuations of professional sports franchises have skyrocketed. Player compensation keeps growing. But the NFL Commissioner’s office can choose at any point to stop paying taxes altogether.

Our nation is increasingly diverse in thought, values, and background. Yet throughout our history, America has given proof through many nights that our flag is still here, and that freedom still reigns.
Choosing to disrespect our flag is an over-generalized indictment of the greatest nation on Earth. Kneeling for the anthem does nothing to advance solutions to racial injustice, police brutality, or any other social plight. It is a slap in the face to patriotism itself. It is a statement that America as a country is no longer worth standing for.
It is bizarre to see the NFL attacking an America that has treated it so well over the years. Taxpayers pay over 70 percent of the cost of stadiums. Our citizens pay more and more for tickets, and valuations of professional sports franchises have skyrocketed. Player compensation keeps growing. But the NFL Commissioner’s office can choose at any point to stop paying taxes altogether. Only in America, baby!
Nobody is saying pro-athletes must give up protest rights because of their job. They should simply protest on their own time, and on their own dime, like any other American. Owners who require their players to stand for the national anthem and flag should be commended, and the players who choose to play elsewhere have that right.
As for the NFL Commissioner’s office, why do they get special treatment in the tax code in the first place? Why do any professional sports leagues enjoy tax advantages unavailable to regular folks or small businesses? Special loopholes in the tax code for pro-sports leagues will shortchange the U.S. Treasury by over $150 million during the current budget window.
That money would be better spent at Walter Reed.
President Trump has called for massive tax reform to get our economy moving again. We must cut taxes for hard-working Americans, while ending the swampy loopholes crafted by special interest groups. Ending the exemption for pro-sports leagues is an obvious place to start — and President Trump agrees with that, too.
I have offered the PRO Sports Act to abolish these exemptions. Going forward, perhaps pro-athletes won’t just take a knee — maybe they will take a stand for the solutions to the social aliments they observe.
All Americans should and always must enjoy full access to First Amendment rights, but nobody has the right to expect special tax treatment while disrespecting our flag.
Republican Matt Gaetz  represents Florida's 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Trump too tough on Iran, North Korea, Clinton says

Idiot

Hillary Clinton appears at a book-signing event in New York City, June 10, 2014.  (Associated Press)

With his tough talk and hardline stances on Iran and North Korea, President Donald Trump is damaging America’s credibility abroad – and could provoke a nuclear-arms race in East Asia, Hillary Clinton says.

Trump's recent threat to decertify the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, “makes us look foolish and small and plays right into Iranian hands,” Clinton said last week.

"That is bad not just on the merits for this particular situation, but it sends a message across the globe that America's word is not good," said Clinton, who spoke in advance of Trump's announcement Friday that he wants Congress and the other nations that negotiated the deal to toughen the requirements for Iran.
"This particular president is, I think, upending the kind of trust and credibility of the United States' position and negotiation that is imperative to maintain."

"This particular president is, I think, upending the kind of trust and credibility of the United States' position and negotiation that is imperative to maintain."

- Hillary Clinton

For his part, Trump says that Clinton, as secretary of state under former President Barack Obama, helped negotiate a “terrible” deal with Iran.
Getting tough on Iran is the right approach, the president said.
“We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” Trump said Friday, according to the Washington Times. “Iran is not living up to the spirit of the deal.”
Clinton also denounced Trump's bellicose language toward North Korea, saying his verbal aggression has rattled U.S. allies.
"We will now have an arms race — a nuclear arms race in East Asia," Clinton predicted. "We will have the Japanese, who understandably are worried with missiles flying over them as the North Koreans have done, that they can't count on America."
Clinton stressed that a diplomatic solution was preferred, and suggested the inflammatory rhetoric played into Kim Jung Un's hands. She bemoaned Trump's public undercutting of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he tweeted "Save your energy, Rex" after the nation's top diplomat had suggested negotiations.
“Diplomacy, preventing war, creating some deterrents is slow, hard-going, difficult work,” said Clinton, who declined to answer when asked whether Tillerson should resign. "And you can't have impulsive people or ideological people who basically say, 'Well, we're done with you.'"
Trump on Sept. 21 signed an executive order calling for a new round of economic sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
The president said the actions were aimed at “a complete denuclearization of North Korea,” the Washington Times reported.
“North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development is a grave threat to peace and security in our world,” Trump said. “It is unacceptable that others financially support this criminal rogue regime.”
Clinton, who recently released a book that recounts her election defeat to Trump, has been an aggressive critic of the president.
In an interview with Britain’s BBC on Friday, Clinton called Trump a “sexual assaulter.”
Clinton made the comments when asked about the allegations of sexual assault made against Democratic mega-donor and Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
“This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere, whether it's in entertainment, politics,” Clinton said. “After all, we have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office.”
In the same interview, Clinton referred to the sexual transgressions of her husband – former President Bill Clinton – as being “clearly in the past,” Fox News reported.
Clinton’s comments on Iran and North Korea were scheduled to air Sunday on CNN. The White House did not immediately return a request to respond to her remarks.

lynch and clinton cartoons

Hillary Clinton calls Trump 'sexual assaulter' in BBC interview, but says Bill's behavior 'in the past'

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton referred to President Trump in an interview Friday as a “sexual assaulter” before dismissing the past allegations of sexual impropriety against her husband as old news.  (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Hillary Clinton moved to take the heat off Harvey Weinstein Friday by outright calling President Trump a “sexual assaulter” – while roundly dismissing past allegations of sexual impropriety against her husband as old news.

Clinton made the comments during an interview with BBC's Andrew Marr, who asked about the allegations of sexual assault made against Democratic mega-donor and Hollywood producer Weinstein. 

“This kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anywhere, whether it's in entertainment, politics,” Clinton said. “After all, we have someone admitting to being a sexual assaulter in the Oval Office.”
Marr responded by pointing out Clinton has dismissed allegations made by women against her husband, former President Bill Clinton, that Trump highlighted during the hard-fought presidential campaign.
“That has all been litigated,” Clinton replied. “That was subject of a huge investigation in the late '90s and there were conclusions drawn. That was clearly in the past.”
CLINTONS NOT SPEAKING TO EACH OTHER AFTER FIGHT, AUTHOR SAYS
Clinton, in her accusation against Trump, was referring to the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape of Trump in 2005 in which he said he can “do anything” to women as a star, including grabbing “them by the p----.” Trump later apologized for his comments and called it “locker room talk” but has never admitted to sexual assault.
After the video surfaced in October 2016, Trump held a press conference with Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick, who had all accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct in the past.
In the latest interview, Clinton expressed disappointment the "Access Hollywood" tape didn’t sink Trump in the campaign.
“The really sad part of the campaign was how this horrific tape, what he said about women in the past, what he said about women during the campaign, was discounted by a lot of voters,” she said.
Clinton, who is on a tour promoting her memoir about the campaign, also said she was “really shocked and appalled” at the recent revelations about Weinstein.

Hillary Clinton said she was “really shocked and appalled” at the recent revelations about Harvey Weinstein.  (REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

“He's been a supporter -- he's been a funder for all of us, for Obama, for me, for people who have run for office in the United States,” she said. “So it was just disgusting and the stories that have come out are heartbreaking. And I really commend the women who have been willing to step forward now and tell their stories.”
Weinstein has raised thousands for the Clintons.
A White House spokesman did not return a request for comment.
But earlier this week, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway called Clinton a "hypocrite" on women's issues.
“She needs to not be a hypocrite about women’s empowerment and what it means to be pro-woman,” Conway told Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.” “She is on a book tour talking about herself and a campaign she lost—not talking about women’s empowerment, she’s not trying to help victims of sexual assault.”
Conway also blasted Clinton for taking five days to release a statement condemning Weinstein: "I felt like a woman who ran to be commander-in-chief and president of the United States, who talks about women’s empowerment, took an awfully long time to give support to these women."

Judicial Watch says FBI has found Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting documents

Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch said Friday that the FBI has uncovered 30 pages of documents related to the controversial 2016 tarmac meeting between former President Bill Clinton and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

The newly uncovered documents will be sent to Judicial Watch by the end of November in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, a spokesman for the group told Fox News.

Judicial Watch originally filed a FOIA request in July 2016 -- which the Justice Department did not comply with -- seeking “all records of communications between any agent, employee, or representative” of the FBI for the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server use, and all records related to the June 27, 2016 meeting between Lynch and Bill Clinton.
“We presume they are new documents. We won’t know what’s in them until we see them, unfortunately,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told Fox News in an email Friday. “The fact they just ‘found’ them is yet another scandal.”
JUDICIAL WATCH CLASHES WITH DOJ OVER 'TALKING POINTS' FROM LYNCH-CLINTON TARMAC MEETING
The FBI initially did not find any documents or records related to the tarmac meeting, according to an FBI letter reviewed by Fox News, but in a related case this summer, the Justice Department recovered email correspondence regarding the meeting.
“Upon further review, we subsequently determined potentially responsive documents may exist,” the FBI wrote to Judicial Watch in a letter on Aug. 10. The FBI wrote that the request had been “reopened” and is “currently in the process of searching for any responsive material.”
The tarmac meeting fueled Republican complaints at the time that Lynch had improperly met with the husband of an investigation subject, just before the probe into Hillary Clinton's personal email use was completed with no charges filed.
Fired FBI Director James Comey, in Senate testimony in June, described that tarmac meeting as problematic.
COMEY SAYS LYNCH TARMAC MEETING, DIRECTIVE TO DOWNPLAY PROBE PROMPTED HIM TO GO ROGUE ON CLINTON CASE
Congressional Republicans have called for a second special counsel to investigate Comey, Lynch and Clinton.

FBI cites black extremists as new domestic terrorist threat

In a leaked FBI counterterrorism report, "black identity extremist" or BIE are described as a domestic threat for motivating attacks against law enforcement. Critics say the government report is racist, targeting African Americans, while the FBI stands by its findings.

The 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., has spawned a violent domestic threat from “black identity extremists” who have stepped up attacks on police, according to an explosive new report by the FBI’s counterterrorism division.

The warning, first reported by Foreign Policy magazine, says that “it is very likely BIEs proactively target police and openly identify and justify their actions with social-political agendas commensurate with their perceived injustices against African Americans ...”

Brown, an African-American 18-year-old, was shot in August 2014 after struggling with white police officer Darren Wilson. Although Brown's supporters claimed it was a deadly case of police brutality, Wilson was cleared of wrongdoing and resigned in November 2014.

Hours before Michael Brown's fatal confrontation with a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., he was seen on a surveillance camera in a nearby store.  (Reuters)

Police officials said that Wilson stopped Brown after getting a call about a robbery at a convenience store in which the clerk was strong-armed after the suspect – with whom Brown was a match -- attempted to leave.
Wilson and Brown got into a scuffle as Brown reportedly reached for the police officer’s gun, and Wilson then gave chase, shooting him. Brown's family said he had his hands up when he was shot, police said it was untrue.
The shooting led to protests in Ferguson that then spread to other parts of the country. It gained added momentum after subsequent racially charged police shootings, spurred on via social media and the group Black Lives Matter.
The FBI report said that the agency previously had analyzed the potential for violence of black identity extremism, a term that was unfamiliar before it appeared in the document. What has changed, according to the report, is that violence has now actually occurred and is 'likely" to continue.

Micah Johnson killed five law enforcement officers in Dallas on July 7, 2016, during a protest over two fatal police shootings of black men.  (Associated Press)

“It is very likely that BIEs’ perceptions of unjust treatment of African-Americans and the perceived unchallenged illegitimate actions of law enforcement will inspire premeditated attacks against law enforcement over the next year,” the report said. “It is very likely additional controversial police shootings of African-Americans and the associated legal proceedings will continue to serve as drivers for violence against law enforcement.”
Attacks in which police officers are targeted have been on the rise in recent years. The most high-profile such incident occurred last year in Dallas, when a gunman named Micah Johnson hid in a parking garage and fired on 11 police officers, killing five of them, during a protest against officer-involved shootings. The FBI report noted that Johnson referred to anger over police shootings and toward whites as what drove him to kill the five police officers.

Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson said he believes a new FBI report represents racial profiling.  (Associated Press)

The FBI report drew accusations of racial profiling.
DeRay Mckesson of Black Lives Matter told The Guardian the terrorism report echoes the days when the FBI tracked activist groups including the NAACP and those that opposed wars.
“We knew that we were likely being watched,” said Mckesson, a longtime critic of government monitoriing of protest groups. “This is confirmation that the work of social justice continues to threaten those in power.”
The Guardian also quoted an unnamed source it described only as a former senior official from the Department of Homeland Security saying that the category "black identity extremist" was troubling.

Police officer Darren Wilson during his medical examination after he fatally shot Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo.  (The Associated Press)

"This is a new umbrella designation that has no basis," the source is quoted as saying. "There are civil rights and privacy issues all over this."
But others say that the FBI is correctly sounding an alarm about a serious trend.
"It's not racial profiling, it's violence profiling," Scott Walter, president of Capital Research Center, a conservative think tank, told Fox News. "Identity politics can kill, whether it's white identity politics, which killed in Charlottesville, or black identity politics, which kills cops."
"We have to be able to distinguish between free speech and violence," Walter said. "[Many] longtime [black] activist groups were not obsessed with violence."

Randy Sutton, a former Las Vegas law enforcement official who now is the national spokesman for Blue Lives Matter, told Fox News that the FBI report makes official what he and others in police work have been observing in recent years.
"Nobody is saying anything negative about protests," Sutton said, "Protesting is everyone's right. This is about commiting acts of violence. Many Black Lives Matter protests call for violence against police, with chants like 'What do we want?' and 'Dead cops!' It's terrorism, and it's no different than Islamic terrorism."
Sutton said the rising number of ambush attacks on police has had a chilling effect on how they do their jobs.
"Police are not being as aggressive because of the political climate," he said. "There's been a dramatic decrease in proactive policing."

Haqqani captors killed child, raped wife, Canadian ex-hostage says

After landing in Canada with his family Friday night, Canadian ex-hostage Joshua Boyle told reporters some frightening news about his family's ordeal in Afghanistan.

He said the Haqqani network, which held him and his wife captive for five years, had killed his infant daughter in captivity and raped his wife.

Boyle landed in Canada late Friday with his American wife and three young children.
The couple was rescued Wednesday, five years after they had been abducted by the Taliban-linked extremist network while in Afghanistan as part of a backpacking trip.
Coleman was pregnant at the time and had four children in captivity. The birth of the fourth child had not been publicly known before Boyle appeared before journalists at the Toronto airport.

"The stupidity and evil of the Haqqani network's kidnapping of a pilgrim and his heavily pregnant wife engaged in helping ordinary villagers in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan was eclipsed only by the stupidity and evil of authorizing the murder of my infant daughter," he said.
Boyle said his wife was raped by a guard who was assisted by his superiors. He asked for the Afghan government to bring them to justice.
He said he was in Afghanistan to help villagers "who live deep inside Taliban-controlled Afghanistan where no NGO, no aid worker and no government has ever successfully been able to bring the necessary help."

Ex-hostage Joshua Boyle speaks to reporters after arriving in Toronto, Oct. 13, 2017. Boyle, his wife Caitlin Coleman, and their three children landed in Canada after being held hostage in Afghanistan.  (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press via Associated Press)

On the plane from London, Boyle provided a written statement to the Associated Press saying his family has "unparalleled resilience and determination."
Coleman, who is from Stewartstown, Pa., sat in the aisle of the business class cabin wearing a tan-colored headscarf.
She nodded wordlessly when she confirmed her identity to a reporter on board the flight. In the two seats next to her were her two elder children. In the seat beyond that was Boyle, with their youngest child in his lap. U.S. State Department officials were on the plane with them.
The handwritten statement that Boyle gave the AP expressed disagreement with U.S. foreign policy.
"God has given me and my family unparalleled resilience and determination, and to allow that to stagnate, to pursue personal pleasure or comfort while there is still deliberate and organized injustice in the world would be a betrayal of all I believe, and tantamount to sacrilege," he wrote.
He nodded to one of the State Department officials and said, "Their interests are not my interests."
He added that one of his children is in poor health and had to be force-fed by their Pakistani rescuers.

The family was able to leave from the plane with their escorts before the rest of the passengers. There was about a 5- to 10-minute delay before everyone else was allowed out.
Dan Boyle, Joshua's younger brother, said outside the family home in Smith Falls, Ontario, that he had spoken to his brother a few times in the past few days.
"He's doing very well. He sounds a lot like how he sounded five years ago. He sounds like he had his head on his shoulders and his wits about him," he said.

The Canadian government said in a statement they will "continue to support him and his family now that they have returned."

Linda and Patrick Boyle, parents of Joshua Boyle, speak to reporters outside their home in Smiths Falls, Ontario, Oct. 12, 2017.  (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via Associated Press)

"Today, we join the Boyle family in rejoicing over the long-awaited return to Canada of their loved ones," the Canadian government said.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the Pakistani raid that led to the family's rescue was based on a tip from U.S. intelligence and shows that Pakistan will act against a "common enemy" when Washington shares information.
U.S. officials have long accused Pakistan of ignoring groups like the Haqqani network, which was holding the family.

A U.S. national security official, who was not authorized to discuss operational details of the release and spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. obtained actionable information, passed it to Pakistani government officials, asked them to interdict and recover the hostages -- and they did.
On Friday, President Donald Trump, who previously warned Pakistan to stop harboring militants, praised Pakistan for its "cooperation on many fronts." On Twitter, he wrote that the U.S. is starting to develop "a much better relationship with Pakistan and its leaders."

The operation appeared to have unfolded quickly and ended with what some described as a dangerous raid, a shootout and a captor's final, terrifying threat to "kill the hostage." Boyle told his parents that he, his wife and their children were intercepted by Pakistani forces while being transported in the back or trunk of their captors' car and that some of his captors were killed. He suffered only a shrapnel wound, his family said.

U.S. officials did not confirm those details.

A U.S. military official said that a military hostage team had flown to Pakistan on Wednesday prepared to fly the family out. The team did a preliminary health assessment and had a transport plane ready to go, but sometime after daybreak Thursday, as the family members were walking to the plane, Boyle said he did not want to board, the official said.

Boyle's father said his son did not want to board the plane because it was headed to Bagram Air Base and the family wanted to return directly to North America. Another U.S. official said Boyle was nervous about being in "custody" given his family ties.

He was once married to Zaynab Khadr, the older sister of former Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr and the daughter of a senior al-Qaida financier. Her father, the late Ahmed Said Khadr, and the family stayed with Osama bin Laden briefly when Omar Khadr was a boy.

The Canadian-born Omar Khadr was 15 when he was captured by U.S. troops following a firefight and was taken to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay. Officials had discounted any link between that background and Boyle's capture, with one official describing it in 2014 as a "horrible coincidence."

The U.S. Justice Department said neither Boyle nor Coleman is wanted for any federal crime.

U.S. officials call the Haqqani group a terrorist organization and have targeted its leaders with drone strikes. But the group also operates like a criminal network. Unlike the Islamic State group, it does not typically execute Western hostages, preferring to ransom them for cash.

The Haqqani network had previously demanded the release of Anas Haqqani, a son of the founder of the group, in exchange for turning over the American-Canadian family. In one of the videos released by their captors, Boyle implored the Afghan government not to execute Taliban prisoners, or he and his wife would be killed.

U.S. officials have said that several other Americans are being held by militant groups in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

They include Kevin King, 60, a teacher at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul who was abducted in August 2016, and Paul Overby, an author in his 70s who had traveled to the region several times but disappeared in eastern Afghanistan in mid-2014.

The family had left Pakistan on a commercial flight after Boyle reportedly balked at taking a U.S. plane out of Pakistan, fearing that his background could land him in the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

Steve Bannon recruiting rabble-rousers to take on GOP establishment

"Nobody's safe," former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon says about the Republican Party establishment. "We're coming after all of them." Bannon is pictured in the White House, Jan. 28, 2017.  (Reuters)

When Steve Bannon left the Trump administration in August, he said he could do more to shake up Washington from outside the White House than from inside.

Now, it looks as if Bannon's plan is coming together.

Bannon has been recruiting and promoting challengers to GOP incumbents and the party's preferred candidates in next year's midterm elections.
It's an insurgency that could give Washington the jolt it needs to end years of stagnation and gridlock -- and get the U.S. moving again.
But it could also imperil Republican majorities in the House and Senate.
The emerging Bannon class of rabble-rousers share limited ideological ties but have a common intent to upend Washington and knock out Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., standard-bearer of the establishment.
It's a crop of candidates that unnerves a GOP that lost seats -- and a shot at the Senate majority -- in 2010 and 2012 with political novices and controversial nominees and fears a stinging repeat in 2018.
"The main thing that binds them together is a rejection of the Republican Party establishment, a rejection of the political elites, the financial elites and the media elites," said Andy Surabian, a former Bannon aide and senior adviser to the pro-Trump PAC Great America Alliance.

"The main thing that binds them together is a rejection of the Republican Party establishment, a rejection of the political elites, the financial elites and the media elites."

- Andy Surabian, senior adviser to the Great America Alliance, a pro-Trump political action committee

Bannon helped elevate twice-suspended Judge Roy Moore, who won an Alabama runoff over McConnell's pick, Sen. Luther Strange.
Moore was removed from office for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from Alabama's judicial building and then suspended for insisting probate judges refuse same-sex couples marriage licenses.
Moore faces Democrat Doug Jones in a December election where polls show a single-digit lead for the Republican, a remarkable development in Attorney General Jeff Sessions' heavily GOP state.
"We don't have leadership. We have followership," Moore said Friday at the Values Voter Summit where he argued for scrapping the health care law with no replacement.
In West Virginia, the grassroots conservative group Tea Party Express endorsed Patrick Morrissey, also a Great America Alliance choice, over establishment favorite Rep. Evan Jenkins in a competitive race to unseat Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
Senate Republicans had been upbeat about adding to their 52-48 majority, especially with Democrats defending more seats in 2018, including 10 in states Trump won in last year's presidential election. But the Bannon challenge could cost them, leaving incumbents on the losing end in primaries or GOP candidates roughed up for the general election.
Consider Mississippi, where state Sen. Chris McDaniel lost to veteran Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014, but is weighing a bid next year against Roger Wicker, the state's other senator in the national legislature.
McDaniel misdefined "mamacita," the Spanish word for mommy as "hot mama," and said he would withhold his tax payments if the government paid reparations for slavery. He also was forced to denounce a supporter who photographed and posted an image of Cochran's bed-ridden wife.
He argued in court that his 2014 loss was due in part to African Americans fraudulently voting in the primary. He's back again and speaking in Bannon terms.
"They will do anything, they will say anything, to just maintain a hold on power," McDaniel said in an Associated Press interview about McConnell and his allies.
He's already envisioning the theme of a challenge against Wicker.
"On one side, a liberty-minded, constitutional conservative. On the other side, Wicker and McConnell," he said.
In Arizona, former state Sen. Kelli Ward, who is challenging Trump antagonist Sen. Jeff Flake, remains known for entertaining the debunked theory that jet aircraft are used to intentionally affect the weather or poison people.
In 2015, she gave conflicting answers about her beliefs after holding a public hearing she said was to answer constituents' questions. But John McCain used it to marginalize her in his winning GOP Senate primary against her, and McConnell reprised it in August in a web ad which referred to her as "chemtrail Kelli."
Former New York Rep. Michael Grimm, who spent eight months in prison for federal tax evasion, is challenging two-term Rep. Dan Donovan -- with the encouragement of Bannon.
In announcing his candidacy, Grimm was apologetic for his conviction. Still out there are viral videos of him famously telling a television reporter during an on-camera interview at the U.S. Capitol after a question he didn't like: "You ever do that to me again, I'll throw you off this (expletive) balcony."
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is sticking with the incumbent: "I support Dan Donovan, plain and simple," Ryan said this week.
But he stopped short of suggesting Bannon stand down. "It's a free country," he said.
In Nevada, Bannon is encouraging Republican Danny Tarkanian in his challenge to GOP Sen. Dean Heller. Tarkanian, son of famed basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, is zero-for-five in state and federal elections.
These outsiders share strong opposition to increasing the nation's debt even if it means an economy-rattling default and unsparing criticism of congressional Republicans, especially McConnell, for failing to dismantle the Obama-era health care law, an unfulfilled seven-year-old promise.
In Wyoming, Erik Prince, founder of security contractor Blackwater, is considering a Republican primary challenge to Sen. John Barrasso, a senior member of the Senate GOP leadership team. Bannon has urged Prince, brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, to run.
Bannon has given at least one Senate incumbent -- Texas Sen. Ted Cruz -- a pass, but others are in his cross-hairs.
"Nobody's safe. We're coming after all of them," Bannon said during a Fox News interview Wednesday. "And we're going to win."