Jill Stein says Americans need to 'see the evidence of Russian culpability' in election meddling

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein told Fox News Thursday night that Americans "have yet to see the proof" that Moscow meddled in last year's election.
Stein confirmed earlier this week that the Senate Intelligence Committee had contacted her campaign to request documents, including emails, as part of its investigation into Russian activities and alleged collusion between campaigns and foreign interests.
"I think there are legitimate aims here in the investigation," Stein told Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight." "Interference in our election is much bigger than the Russians and ... I would like to see the evidence of Russian culpability here."
Stein compared the Russia investigation to the run-up to the Iraq War, saying, "We didn’t get to really see the evidence [then] ... We are still paying that price -- $5.5 trillion and counting. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me a gazillion times, shame on all of us."
Stein also addressed her attendance at a now-infamous dinner in Moscow marking the 10th anniversary of RT, a Russian state-run news and propaganda channel. She was photographed sitting at a table with Russian President Vladimir Putin and future national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is now cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
"The dinner ... was really a non-event," Stein said. "At one point, Putin came in with a couple of guys that I assumed were his bodyguards. Turns out they were actually his inner circle, but you would have never known it. Nobody was introduced to anybody ... At one point, Putin made a very rapid turn around the table and shook everybody’s hand, but without any exchange of names, so that’s about as significant as this was."

Chain Migration Cartoons 2017

Hell freezes over: Media start admitting that Trump's first year isn't a flop

I have sensed for weeks now that some in the media were on the verge of rolling out a contrary take on President Trump’s first year in office.

And in the wake of yesterday’s final passage of massive tax cuts, that moment has arrived.

The dominant media narrative, of course, is that Trump hasn’t gotten much done, that he’s in over his head, that he doesn’t understand government, that he keeps picking petty fights rather than winning big battles.
But the thing about the pundits is that they get tired of pushing the same line, week after week, month after month. Some inevitably want to seize credit for a new insight, for getting ahead of the pack with a burst of contrarian wisdom.
And that hot take is, hey, maybe Trump has gotten some important things done after all.
It’s true that the president had not gotten much from the Republican Congress this year. But a new law that cuts taxes for businesses and individuals—even though the measure polls poorly and is not mainly aimed at the middle class—puts an end to the verdict that Trump doesn’t know how to work the Hill. Like it or not, this is a sprawling piece of legislation that was quickly pushed through the House and Senate in a show of party-line muscle.
Trump hasn’t gotten much credit for the record-breaking stock market, but there is now some recognition that Dow-Almost-25,000 can’t be completely divorced from his policies. And there’s starting to be a greater appreciation for the president’s progress on slashing regulations and appointing judges (even though three nominees recently had to withdraw, one because he couldn’t answer a Senate panel’s questions about basic court procedures).
On Axios, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen stake out the new ground:
"The media often appraises presidencies and politics through liberal-tinted glasses. But the vast majority of the Republican Party like, even love, these policies ...
"We have been saying all year: Watch what he does, not what he says. Until recently, he hasn't done much. But these wins are substantial, with consequences for millions of people and many years to come."

They note that Trump has won approval not just for Neil Gorsuch but for a dozen Circuit Court judges.
And while Trump failed in repeated attempts to scrap ObamaCare, he boasted yesterday abolishing the individual mandate—a provision added to the tax bill—amounts to repealing the health care program. That’s an overstatement, but letting people wait until they get sick to buy insurance could well undermine the exchanges created by Barack Obama.
On foreign policy, there is a telling New York Times piece by conservative columnist Ross Douthat, a harsh critic of Trump. He says the decimation of ISIS has drawn scant media attention:
"There is nothing more characteristic of the Trump era, with its fire hose of misinformation, scandal and hyperbole, than that America and its allies recently managed to win a war that just two years ago consumed headlines and dominated political debate and helped Donald Trump himself get elected president — and somehow nobody seemed to notice."

It’s true there was no surrender ceremony and ISIS still exists, but it has lost physical stronghold in Iraq.
Says Douthat: “This is also a press failure, a case where the media is not adequately reporting an important success because it does not fit into the narrative of Trumpian disaster in which our journalistic entities are all invested.”
But the narrative is changing a bit. While Trump remains quite unpopular, at least according to the polls, the media are reluctantly starting to acknowledge that his presidency is having a significant impact.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

From Omarosa and Huckabee to Joe and Mika, politics of feuding takes center stage

Media Buzz

6 days ago

In Washington, politics is personal. And lately it’s been getting intensely personal.

Kind of like when you were in high school.

Omarosa's departure from the White House was always going to attract an unusual degree of attention—since she was not exactly a major policymaker—because Donald Trump had fired her on "The Apprentice." But yesterday it became about a feud.
While Omarosa Manigault insists she resigned, White House correspondent April Ryan reported that she was fired in a nasty confrontation—and was escorted off White House grounds.
Omarosa denied that on "Good Morning America," blaming the report on "one individual who has a personal vendetta against me"—meaning Ryan.
Ryan, a CNN contributor who also works for American Urban Radio Networks, pushed back on the air, saying she was a beat reporter doing her job. "That’s what a White House correspondent does: listens to sources inside the White House and outside of the White House," she said on CNN.
The Secret Service took the unusual step of denying any role in removing Omarosa from the White House. But several news outlets, including The New York Times, said she was hustled off the premises and was leaving after a clash with John Kelly, the chief of staff, who limited her access to Trump.
Omarosa did seem to hint at a coming book, or something, in telling Michael Strahan on "GMA" that as "the only African American woman in this White House senior staff, I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me and affected me deeply and emotionally and affected my people and my community."
Over the summer, Ryan said she and Omarosa had been friends but she was "screaming at the top of her lungs" about a false rumor involving the reporter, and "I embarrassed her in front of reporters and people in that office ... I made mincemeat of her."
See? Politics is personal.
And that also applies to the case of the Scarboroughs vs. the Huckabees.
To recap: Kirsten Gillibrand called on Trump to resign. The president ripped her in a tweet, saying she had been begging him for campaign contributions "and would do anything for them."
That set off a wave of media criticism, and Mika Brzezinski led the chorus. She’d had her own very personal clash with Trump, a onetime friend, when he claimed in a tweet that she was bleeding from a face lift. (Got it so far?)
So Brzezinski denounced the president on "Morning Joe" for what she described as a "reprehensible" attack on a woman. And then she turned to his press secretary, saying Sarah Huckabee Sanders should not defend her boss’s tweet (though that is sort of her job).
"Don’t lie," Brzezinski said. "And do not defend the president of the United States for what he did. If you do ... you should resign."
That didn’t sit well with the former governor of Arkansas, who of course is Sanders' dad.
Mike Huckabee said on Fox that "I was stunned that of all the people who are going to give a lecture on morality and family, and marriage, it’s going to be Mika?"
Huckabee defended the presidential tweet, said his daughter "deserves better from other women" and added, "Mika can go pound sand somewhere as far as I’m concerned."
Now that brought a blast from Mika’s partner and fiancé, Joe Scarborough, who was understandably upset at the reference to their romance, which became public only when they announced their engagement.
"What a sleazy thing to do," Morning Joe said, adding: "Mika never talked about marriage. She never lectured on the morality of any of that…What a judgmental, predictably stupid thing to do."
There are serious issues here—about the president and women, his battle with a leading senator, the responsibility of his press secretary. But with fathers and fiances getting involved, it became, like so much inside the Beltway, brutally personal.

Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

Trump administration can retain DACA documents, Supreme Court rules

The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted an order requiring the Trump administration and federal agencies to release internal documents related to the withdrawal of an Obama-era program that offered a deportation reprieve to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.

In a unanimous ruling, the high court ordered lower courts to hold off any demands of documents from federal agencies until a ruling is reached on the Trump administration's attempts to dismiss five lawsuits in California that challenge the legality of the order to rescind DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), Politico reported.

The lawsuits argue that the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) determination to completely rescind the limited amnesty program by March 2018 was unlawful because “It violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.”
After the government provided only 250 pages of documents related to the program’s termination, the challengers accused the administration of concealing records, claiming the termination of such program would have created a large volume of documents.

Protesters demonstrating against the decision to rescind an Obama-era program that offered a deportation reprieve to illegal immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.  (Associated Press)

U.S. District Judge William Alsup sided with the plaintiffs and ordered DHS and the Justice Department to turn over more documents related to the DACA reversal. This order, according to the Supreme Court’s opinion, was wrong and should have not been made.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised the high court’s ruling, saying it was “a crucially important ruling” and vowed to “continue to defend the Trump Administration’s lawful actions.”
“The discovery order in the DACA cases was dramatically intrusive and premature, and I am pleased with tonight’s decision that the district court’s order was ‘overly broad,’” Sessions said.
He added: “Make no mistake, this was a crucially important ruling, and the fact it was granted by a unanimous Supreme Court cannot be overstated. We will continue to defend the Trump administration’s lawful actions.”
But California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who brought one of the five lawsuits challenging the White House over the DACA decision, told Politico that the ruling was not a win for the administration as it left the possibility that the challengers were eligible to more information.
"Today the Supreme Court has essentially told us that no one — not even the president — can hide the facts," he said.
Both the White House and leaders in Congress were working on legislation to address the issue and replace the legally contentious DACA program with a legal status for those who are or were covered by the program, Fox News reported.
It is likely that a bipartisan deal will emerge in January and include border security measures at the request of the White House in exchange for a deal on DACA.

McCabe draws blank on Democrats’ funding of Trump dossier, new subpoenas planned

EXCLUSIVE: Congressional investigators tell Fox News that Tuesday’s seven-hour interrogation of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe contained numerous conflicts with the testimony of previous witnesses, prompting the Republican majority staff of the House Intelligence Committee to decide to issue fresh subpoenas next week on Justice Department and FBI personnel.

While HPSCI staff would not confirm who will be summoned for testimony, all indications point to demoted DOJ official Bruce G. Ohr and FBI General Counsel James A. Baker, who accompanied McCabe, along with other lawyers, to Tuesday’s HPSCI session.

The issuance of a subpoena against the Justice Department’s top lawyer could provoke a new constitutional clash between the two branches, even worse than the months-long tug of war over documents and witnesses that has already led House Speaker Paul Ryan to accuse DOJ and FBI of “stonewalling” and HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., to threaten contempt-of-Congress citations against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“It’s hard to know who’s telling us the truth,” said one House investigator after McCabe’s questioning.
Fox News is told that several lawmakers participated in the questioning of McCabe, led chiefly by Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.

Bruce G. Ohr was demoted at the DOJ for concealing his meetings with the men behind the anti-Trump 'dossier.'  (AP)

Sources close to the investigation say that McCabe was a “friendly witness” to the Democrats in the room, who are said to have pressed the deputy director, without success, to help them build a case against President Trump for obstruction of justice in the Russia-collusion probe. “If he could have, he would have,” said one participant in the questioning.
Investigators say McCabe recounted to the panel how hard the FBI had worked to verify the contents of the anti-Trump “dossier” and stood by its credibility. But when pressed to identify what in the salacious document the bureau had actually corroborated, the sources said, McCabe cited only the fact that Trump campaign adviser Carter Page had traveled to Moscow. Beyond that, investigators said, McCabe could not even say that the bureau had verified the dossier’s allegations about the specific meetings Page supposedly held in Moscow.
The sources said that when asked when he learned that the dossier had been funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, McCabe claimed he could not recall – despite the reported existence of documents with McCabe’s own signature on them establishing his knowledge of the dossier’s financing and provenance.
The decision by HPSCI staff to subpoena Ohr comes as he is set to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Until earlier this month, when Fox News began investigating him, Ohr held two titles at DOJ: associate deputy attorney general, a post that placed him four doors down from his boss, Rosenstein; and director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), a program described by the department as “the centerpiece of the attorney general’s drug strategy.”
Ohr will retain his OCDETF title but was stripped of his higher post and ousted from his office on the fourth floor of “Main Justice.” Department officials confirmed that Ohr had withheld from superiors his secret meetings in 2016 with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the dossier with input from Russian sources; and with Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired Steele with funds supplied by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Subsequently, Fox News disclosed that Ohr’s wife Nellie, an academic expert on Russia, had worked for Fusion GPS through the summer and fall of 2016.

Glenn Simpson, shown here, met with DOJ official Bruce Ohr in 2016.

Former FBI Director James Comey, testifying before the House in March, described the dossier as a compendium of “salacious and unverified” allegations against then-candidate Donald Trump and his associates. The Nunes panel has spent much of this year investigating whether DOJ, under then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, used the dossier to justify a foreign surveillance warrant against Page, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign.
DOJ and FBI say they have cooperated extensively with Nunes and his team, including the provision of several hundred pages of classified documents relating to the dossier. The DOJ has also made McCabe available to the House Judiciary Committee for a closed-door interview on Thursday.
The Justice Department and FBI declined to comment for this report.
James Rosen joined FOX News Channel (FNC) in 1999 and is the network’s chief Washington correspondent.
Jake Gibson is a producer working at the Fox News Washington bureau who covers politics, law enforcement and intelligence issues.

Rosie O'Donnell Cartoons

FBI's McCabe grilled nearly 8 hours amid anti-Trump bias allegations

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified behind closed doors for nearly eight hours Tuesday on Capitol Hill, amid calls for his firing over allegations of conflicts of interest and anti-Trump political prejudice at the law enforcement bureau.

McCabe's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, which had been rescheduled from last week, was the latest development in a controversy swirling around text messages exchanged between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who worked on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.

McCabe was believed to be the "Andy" to whom Strzok and Page referred in their messages.
“I’ll be a little bit surprised if (McCabe is) still an employee of the FBI this time next week,” U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., a member of the House panel, told Fox News several days ago.
Gowdy and other committee members were tight-lipped on the details of McCabe’s testimony on Tuesday, and most avoided speaking with reporters. But the committee’s ranking member,U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said McCabe “has been a professional FBI agent” and that he does not understand “the calls of some to fire him.”
Strzok was dismissed from Mueller’s Russia probe after being linked to a number of anti-Trump messages, including those calling Trump a “menace” and a “loathsome human.” But one particular text sent by the agent caused great concern and appeared to implicate McCabe.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office – that there’s no way he gets elected – but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok wrote Aug. 15, 2016. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said last week that the text was “very troubling” because it implied the agents had “a plan to take action to make sure that Donald Trump does not get elected president of the United States at the highest levels of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Lawmakers may have also questioned McCabe on demoted DOJ official Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie Ohr. The official had undisclosed meetings with Fusion GPS – the company that produced the infamous anti-Trump dossier containing salacious allegations about then-candidate Trump. Nellie Ohr worked at Fusion GPS on Trump-related issues.
Republican members of the committee were also expected to press McCabe on issues of conflict of interest and whether he should have recused himself from the Hillary Clinton email investigation. McCabe’s wife in 2015 ran for a state Senate seat in Virginia and received money from donors linked to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
McCabe was named the agency’s deputy director in January 2016 by then-FBI Director James Comey. He briefly served as acting director of the FBI after Comey was fired by Trump in May.

Joy, fury on social media after Senate passes tax overhaul

Optimism and anger – without much middle ground – characterized social media reactions by celebrities and politicians to the news that the Senate had approved a historic tax overhaul early Wednesday.

Republicans, who have promised tax reform even as they suffered other significant legislative defeats since President Donald Trump took office, sounded a note of year-end triumph.

“Terrible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare) Repealed,” President Donald Trump tweeted at 1:09 a.m EST. “Goes to the House tomorrow morning for final vote. If approved, there will be a News Conference at The White House at approximately 1:00 P.M.”
GOP congressional leaders echoed his reaction and took stock of the once-in-a-generation scale of the reform.
“The #Senate has passed #TaxReform to boost our #economy, help grow #SmallBusiness, and give our nation more #energy independence,” tweeted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell., R-Ky.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who has served in the Senate since 1981, said the tax overhaul was overdue.
"I’m 1 of only 5 to be involved w tax reform as a senator in 1986 & again in 2017,"  Grassley tweeted. "It shouldn’t have taken so long but we’ve delivered tax cuts & tax simplification to the American ppl as promised."
Meanwhile, Democrats, in stark terms, suggested that Republicans would ultimately face a backlash from voters.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, referred to the legislation as a "heist" on Twitter, adding that "sooner or later, a reckoning is coming" because Americans are "angry."
And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the bill an "absolute disgrace."
Comedian Rosie O'Donnell, who promised on Twitter early Tuesday to pay "2 million dollars to senator susan collins and 2 million to senator jeff flake" if they voted against the tax legislation, tweeted her age and an anti-Trump hashtag minutes after the bill passed.
"55 - still alive #survivingtrump," she wrote, along with an Instagram photo of herself.

Why Trump's tax reform triumph isn't matched by public enthusiasm

After a long political drought on Capitol Hill, tax reform is a big win for President Trump, no question about it.

So why isn’t there a celebratory mood?

The legislation, passed by the House yesterday, has been so widely disparaged, by opponents and many in the media, that it just isn’t very popular with the public. (The House will revote today because of a rules glitch.)
In a USA Today poll, 32 percent support the bill, 48 percent oppose it.
In a CNN poll, 33 percent support the bill, 55 percent oppose it.
In a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll yesterday, 24 percent say it is a good idea, 41 percent say it’s a bad one.
And many surveys echo one by the New York Times and Survey Monkey, that only a third of Americans expect their taxes to go down.
Now the numbers reflect some undeniable partisanship. A majority of Republicans support the measure, which makes sense because it is passing only with GOP votes. It’s no surprise that Democrats and some independents who don’t like Trump don’t think much of his tax bill, either.
The pounding by the press focuses on the fact that the lion’s share of benefits go to corporations and that some middle-class families, especially in high-tax states, will pay more, either now or in the future. Even some in the top 5 percent aren’t happy, as reflected in this Times column: “Tax Cuts Benefit the Ultra Rich, but Not the Merely Rich.”
A Wall Street Journal headline: “Middle Class to Get 23% of Tax Cuts for Individuals Under GOP Bill.”
The street obviously likes the tax cuts because the market has continued to climb, now gaining 5,000 points during Trump’s tenure to finish yesterday at 24,754.
The bill’s image got scuffed a bit by what is being called, somewhat unfairly, the Corker Kickback (a play on the Cornhusker Kickback used to pass ObamaCare). After Sen. Bob Corker flipped from no to yes, it was revealed that Orrin Hatch had added a big fat break for real estate profits—and Corker is a Tennessee developer who would benefit (along with another prominent Republican).
Thus, a Times editorial is headlined “Tax Bill Lets Trump and Republicans Feather Their Own Nests.”
At yesterday’s White House briefing, NBC’s Hallie Jackson said: “You’re getting a lot of questions what will benefit the president, what won’t benefit the president. I get he doesn’t want to release taxes. That would obviously put all of these questions to rest.” Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated the standard answer that Trump remains under audit.
Whatever the sniping back and forth over tax reform—which is normal in a bill so complicated—public sentiment may change over time. ObamaCare, having survived years of Republican criticism and Trump’s attempt to repeal it, is above 50 percent approval for the first time.
If the measure delivers real tax relief to enough Americans—and the corporate cuts keep the economic expansion going—the bill could rise in popularity. And if not, the Republicans will face some heavy lifting in 2018.
Howard Kurtz is a Fox News analyst and the host of "MediaBuzz" (Sundays 11 a.m.). He is the author of five books and is based in Washington. Follow him at @HowardKurtz. Click here for more information on Howard Kurtz. 

Senate OKs tax reform package, sends bill back to House for final vote

The U.S. Senate passed the most sweeping rewrite of the nation's tax laws in more than three decades early Wednesday, all but ensuring the bill will soon become law.

The vote also likely helped hand President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans a major year-end legislative triumph.

The final vote, shortly before 1 a.m. EST, was 51-48, with no Democrats voting in favor of the bill and all Republicans supporting it.
Only U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who had announced his support for the bill earlier this month, was not present for the vote. His office said he “looks forward to returning to Washington in January" as he recovers from brain cancer treatment.
The Senate's vote meant that Vice President Mike Pence, who had postponed a trip to the Middle East to be at the Capitol if needed, was not required to break a tie vote.
During the vote, protesters interrupted with chants of "kill the bill, don't kill us," and Pence repeatedly called for order.
Before Trump can sign the tax overhaul into law, the House of Representatives must re-vote because of procedural flaws in the chamber's vote earlier Tuesday.
The office of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said House members would reconsider the Senate's bill Wednesday morning and send it to President Trump for his signature.
The House voted 227-203 in favor of the tax bill Tuesday afternoon, but the package ran into trouble in the Senate because of two provisions that Democrats said ran afoul of the Senate's strict budget reconciliation rules.
In order to avoid a filibuster according to Senate rules, the tax overhaul must directly address fiscal issues, not policy matters. Matters that are considered extraneous to budget are subject to potential filibustering, meaning they would require 60 votes for passage, instead of a 51-vote majority.
Senate Democrats, including Vermont independent Bernie Sanders and Oregon's Ron Wyden, specifically objected to two provisions in the House bill: one providing for the use of 529 savings accounts for home schooling expenses; and the other establishing criteria to determine whether endowments of private universities are subject to the legislation’s new excise tax.
Additionally, Democrats objected to the name of the House bill.
The Senate parliamentarian reportedly sided with Democrats, forcing the Senate to remove those provisions before the vote.
Top Democrats charged that the procedural snafu was a sign that Republicans were rushing the legislation through Congress.
“The House revote is the latest evidence of just how shoddily written the GOP tax scam really is," House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.
The complex legislation, weeks in the making, scales back the popular deduction for state and local taxes, bad news for Americans in some of the wealthiest suburbs of New York, New Jersey and California.
The bill preserves the deduction for medical expenses, rebuffing an effort by House Republicans to eliminate it.
It also provides steep tax cuts for businesses and wealthy families, and more modest reductions for low- and middle-income families.

Obama Hezbollah Cartoons

Lawmaker demands investigation into report Obama WH undermined anti-Hezbollah task force

Rep. Robert Pittenger of North Carolina called for an investigation into a report on the Obama administration's handling of an anti-Hezbollah task force.

A Republican congressman on Monday urged the House to look into a report the Obama administration held up a Drug Enforcement Administration task force’s investigation into Hezbollah’s drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations, all to ensure the Iran nuclear deal remained on track.

After the bombshell exposé in Politico Sunday revealed that Obama administration officials road-blocked the campaign of the task force, Project Cassandra, to curtail the Lebanese militant group’s criminal activities, Rep. Robert Pittenger of North Carolina sent a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy.

“These revelations are shocking and infuriating,” Pittenger said in a statement to Fox News. “While American soldiers were bravely fighting ISIS terrorists, with some paying the ultimate price, the Obama administration reportedly was protecting Hezbollah terrorists who were funding themselves by trafficking illegal drugs. No wonder President Obama couldn’t bring himself to call them ‘Radical Islamist Terrorists.’”
Politico reported that the red tape against Project Cassandra allowed Hezbollah to evolve into a major global security threat bankrolling terrorist and military operations.
When Project Cassandra leaders, who were working out of a DEA’s Counter facility in Chantilly, Virginia, sought approvals for some significant investigations, prosecutions, arrests and financial sanctions, Justice and Treasury Department officials delayed, hindered or rejected their requests, according to Politico.

The report detailed how the closer the U.S. got to finalizing the Iran nuclear deal, the more difficult it was to conduct Hezbollah investigations. After President Obama announced the deal in January 2016, Project Cassandra officials were transferred to other assignments, Politico added.
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION UNDERMINED ANTI-HEZBOLLAH TASK FORCE TO HELP SECURE IRAN NUKE DEAL, REPORT SAYS
“This is the same administration that sent $1.7 billion in cash ransom to Iran,” Pittenger continued in the statement. “The growing nexus between terrorist organizations and Latin American drug cartels poses a grave threat to our national security, especially considering the porous state of our southern border. Last month, I hosted a forum in Buenos Aires for 220 Members of Parliament and government officials from 15 South American countries with government and private sector experts to address the critical challenge of intercepting drug related funding of terrorism.”
Hezbollah was formed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 1982 to fight Israel’s invasion of Beirut. Under the leadership of Hassan Nasrallah, who took over in 1992 after his predecessor, Abbas Mussawi, was killed in an Israeli airstrike, the group moved from seeking to implement an Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon to focusing on fighting Israel and integration into Lebanon’s sectarian-based politics.
Nasrallah, now 57, has played a key role in ending a feud among Shiites, focusing attention toward fighting Israel and later expanding the group’s regional reach.

Trump shuts down ginned-up liberal 'uprising' in three words

You would’ve thought they were preparing for the apocalypse.

Former Obama White House Ethics Chief, Walter Shaub, tweeted that he was “stocking up” on gear to “take the streets.” In his words, it was supposed to be a “defining moment for the Republic.”

Actor-turned-activist George Takei tweeted that Americans should “shut the country down.”
Cenk Uygur, the founder and CEO of far-left online news show “The Young Turks” prophesied that this should be an “uprising like we’ve never seen in America.”

When asked about the firing on Sunday night, the president shut down all of the rumors (and all of their plans) by simply declaring, “no, I’m not.”

Former Attorney General Eric Holder drew what he called an “absolute red line.”
Their message was clear: if President Trump fires special counsel Robert Mueller, the American people should act as if their 241-year-old experiment in democracy has come to an end.
But unfortunately, when asked about the firing on Sunday night, the president shut down all of the rumors (and all of their plans) by simply declaring, “no, I’m not.” In an instant, he vanquished all the left’s dreams of sparking a “Tahrir square like uprising” and made their hysterics over the potential firing appear foolish.
Make no mistake. The left will soon decide on another issue (or rumor of an issue) to incense their base and stir outrage in our country. Eventually, they’ll decide on a new red line and then pray that the president crosses it. Their dream of widespread panic isn’t going away—it’s just deferred for a little while.
Here’s the problem.
First, regardless of their empty assurances that their uprising will be peaceful—their rhetoric says otherwise. They pay lip service to holding a peaceful protest while using inflammatory language like “stock up on gear” and “shut down the country.” But if there is anything that “Antifa” has taught the United States, it’s that there are plenty members of the far-left with no intentions of keeping the peace.

You can’t spew alarmist, end-of-the-world rhetoric and then expect your base to respond with careful, dignified street protests.

You can’t spew alarmist, end-of-the-world rhetoric and then expect your base to respond with careful, dignified street protests. It doesn’t work that way. Leaders have a unique duty to dial down their followers’ radical impulses. Instead, it seems that some culture leaders prefer to do quite the contrary.
Second, liberals’ selective outrage is appalling. Moveon.org, the organization behind the protests, made their motto “nobody is above the law.” Ostensibly, that’s an idea that both sides of the aisle could get behind. Patriotic Americans would agree that all citizens are equal under the law. But to many who hold progressive political views, that idea only applies to one side of the political spectrum.
Notably, these same activists made no such calls for mass protests after former FBI Director James Comey cleared Hillary Clinton of criminal charges a year ago. And there was no indignation from these folks after it came to light that the FBI softened the language in Comey’s statement in her favor. That’s why it’s difficult to believe that these activists are genuinely motivated to uphold the rule of law, and not just their own political ideologies.
One thing is true: the President’s words may have temporarily halted what the left saw as a “defining moment for the republic.” But they will find new opportunities. New pots to stir. And new calls for chaos.
Jeremy C. Hunt is a 24-year-old writer and commentator. He also serves as an active duty U.S. Army officer. Follow him on Twitter @thejeremyhunt. The views expressed in this article are those of Jeremy C. Hunt only and not those of the Department of Defense.

Rep. Jim Jordan: I'm convinced FBI was trying to stop Trump from being elected

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told the Todd Starnes Show he is convinced the FBI was actively trying to stop Donald Trump from being elected president of the United States.

Last week, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., called for the firing of special counsel Robert Mueller.

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“We are at risk of a coup d’etat in this country if we allow an unaccountable person with no oversight to undermine the duly-elected president of the United States,” Gaetz said. “And I would offer that is precisely what is happening right now with the indisputable conflicts of interest that are present with Mr. Mueller and others at the Department of Justice.”
I asked Jordan if he bought into the argument that something nefarious was afoot.
“The whole pretext is wrong. Think about this – you had – I’m convinced now – the FBI actively seeking with intent – actively trying to stop Donald Trump from being president of the United States,” Jordan told Starnes.
Continue reading at ToddStarnes.com 
Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary. His latest book is “The Deplorables’ Guide to Making America Great Again.” Follow him on Twitter @ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.

White House says North Korea was behind massive ‘WannaCry’ cyberattack in May

North Korea was behind the massive “WannaCry” cyberattack in May that spread around the world costing billions of dollars, White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert announced in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Monday.

In the article, entitled, “It’s Official: North Korea Is Behind WannaCry,” Bossert wrote that the Hermit Kingdom was the main culprit behind the May 2017 global cyberattack in which computers running Windows were targeted. During the infamous attack, data were encrypted and ransom payment, in the form of bitcoin, was demanded of users if they wanted their data back.

“Cybersecurity isn’t easy, but simple principles still apply. Accountability is one, cooperation another,” Bossert's op-ed read. “They are the cornerstones of security and resilience in any society. In furtherance of both, and after careful investigation, the U.S. today publicly attributes the massive ‘WannaCry’ cyber attack to North Korea.”
Bossert went on to say the attack spread across the world and rendered hundreds of thousands of computers in in hospitals, schools, businesses, and homes useless unless the ransom was paid.
“While victims received ransom demands, paying did not unlock their computers,” the homeland security adviser said. “It was cowardly, costly and careless. The attack was widespread and cost billions, and North Korea is directly responsible.”
He added that the Department of Homeland Security was not taking the allegation lightly. He said it was based on credible evidence, that the United Kingdom attributes the attack to North Korea and that Microsoft traced the attack to cyber affiliates of the regime.

White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert.  (AP, File)

“North Korea has acted especially badly, largely unchecked, for more than a decade, and its malicious behavior is growing more egregious. WannaCry was indiscriminately reckless,” Bossert asserted. “Stopping malicious behavior like this starts with accountability. It also requires governments and businesses to cooperate to mitigate cyber risk and increase the cost to hackers.”
He added, “The U.S. must lead this effort, rallying allies and responsible tech companies throughout the free world to increase the security and resilience of the internet.”
Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, released a statement Monday evening regarding the revelation.
“I commend the men and women of our Intelligence Community for their strong work in following the evidence and putting forth their assessment of these events, and I urge our international partners to fulfill their responsibilities under the sanctions regimes that are now in place,” he said in the statement. “I look forward to hearing additional details in classified session in the coming days.”
Cummings also commented on how the news was released to the public.
“President Trump is handling the intelligence assessments regarding North Korea and Russia completely differently, staging an elaborate media roll-out to press on sanctions against North Korea while at the same time discrediting the assessment by these very same intelligence agencies that the Kremlin interfered with our election. Why isn’t President Trump taking these same steps in response to Russia?”

Robert Mueller Cartoons

Gregg Jarrett: Mueller's allegedly lawless acts have corrupted his probe and demand his removal

FILE - In this Oct. 28, 2013, file photo, former FBI Director Robert Mueller is seated before President Barack Obama and FBI Director James Comey arrive at an installation ceremony at FBI Headquarters in Washington. A veteran FBI counterintelligence agent was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller's team investigating Russian election meddling after the discovery of an exchange of text messages seen as potentially anti-President Donald Trump, a person familiar with the matter said Saturday, Dec. 2, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)  (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is accused of acting in complete disregard for the law and must be removed.  And so, too, must his entire team.  

There is devastating new evidence to suggest that Mueller and his staff of lawyers improperly, if not illegally, obtained tens of thousands of private documents belonging to President-elect Trump's Presidential Transition Team (PTT).  The material includes emails, laptops and cell phones used by 13 PTT members.   

Critically, a "significant volume of privileged material" was taken by Mueller, according to the Trump transition lawyer, and then used by the special counsel team in its investigation. Mueller's staff apparently admits this egregious violation, which the law strictly forbids.
Under the law, the only remedy is Mueller's dismissal from the case.
The Records Are Private
The Presidential Transition Act states that all records of transition operations are private and confidential. 
On November 16, 2016, roughly ten days after Trump was elected president, the Chief Records Officer of the U.S. Government sent a letter to all federal agencies reminding them that "the materials that PTT members create or receive are not Federal or Presidential records, but are considered private materials."
Yet Mueller seems to have ignored the law.  Without a warrant or subpoena, his team of lawyers brazenly demanded these private records from the General Services Administration (GSA) which held custody of the materials.  The GSA does this as a service to all incoming presidents out of courtesy, but it neither owns the documents nor is authorized to release them to anyone under any circumstances because they are deemed entirely private.

If true, Mueller's conduct is not only unethical and improper, it constitutes lawlessness. On this basis, he must be removed and replaced.

Counsel for the Trump Transition Team has sent a letter to Congress alleging the Fourth Amendment was violated in "failing to obtain a warrant for the search or seizure of private property in which the owner has a reasonable expectation of privacy (Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 489)." 
Mueller might contest the claim of an unlawful seizure because the GSA willingly handed over the documents, but this disregards the fact that the GSA broke the law and Mueller surely knew it when he pressured the agency to do so. 
Privileged Material
The most serious charge against Mueller is that he obtained, reviewed and used material that is privileged.
For months, Mueller allegedly failed to disclose to the transition team that he acquired these privileged documents.  Under the law, he and his lawyers are not entitled to possess or read any of them.  Even worse, the transition team says it warned the special counsel six months ago that it had no right to access the records without gaining permission from the PTT.
Courts have clearly stated what prosecutors are supposed to do under these circumstances: "An attorney who receives privileged documents has an ethical duty to cease review of the documents, notify the privilege holder, and return the documents."  (U.S. v. Taylor 764 Fed Sup 2nd, 230, 235)
Did Mueller do this?  Apparently not.  He never notified PTT when his staff of lawyers encountered the privileged documents and he compounded his violation of the law by possessing and accessing them for months.     
Only the owner of such materials can waive the privileged that protects them.  Since the GSA does not, under the law, own the records, only the transition team can make such a waiver.  It did not.
Hence, if any illegally obtained documents have been used in the Trump-Russia case, then the results are tainted and invalid.  This is a well-established principle of law.   
Mueller Must Be Removed
The use by Mueller of even one privileged document can, and must, result in his disqualification from the case. 
The case of Finn v. Schiller, 72 F.3rd 1182, 1189 spells out the required remedy for this violation of the law: "Courts have frequently used their supervisory authority to disqualify prosecutors for obtaining materials protected by the attorney-client privilege." 
Statutory law also demands Mueller's removal.  Pursuant to 5 C.F.R. 2635.501, government employees, including prosecutors, are directed to "take appropriate steps to avoid an appearance of loss of impartiality in the performance of his or her official duties."  
The lawyer for the Trump transition team states that the special counsel's office admitted in a telephone conversation on Friday that it failed to use an "ethical wall" or "taint team" to segregate any privileged records.  This is often done to keep them isolated from lawyers and investigators involved in the case. 
Yet, Mueller did not adopt such precautionary measures.  Instead, he apparently allowed his team to utilize the documents while questioning witnesses in the Trump-Russia case. 
If true, Mueller's conduct is not only unethical and improper, it constitutes lawlessness.  On this basis, he must be removed and replaced.
Given the insular nature of the special counsel operation, it is reasonable to conclude that all the lawyers and investigators likely accessed the privileged documents.  Therefore, not just Mueller, but his entire team must be dismissed.  This would include Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who oversees the case.
Either Congress should take aggressive action or the Presidential Transition Team (now Trump for America, Inc.) must petition a federal judge to order their removal. 
The integrity of the special counsel probe has been deeply compromised by numerous allegations of corrupt acts.  In its current composition, it seems beyond repair.
Gregg Jarrett joined FOX News Channel (FNC) in 2002 and is based in New York. He currently serves as legal analyst and offers commentary across both FNC and FOX Business Network (FBN).