Illinois Democrat's retaliation case cost taxpayers $500G: report

Illinois gubernatorial candidate Bob Daiber, third from the right, settled a retaliation lawsuit at taxpayer expense, a newspaper reported.  (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune via Associated Press)

Records of a 2010 retaliation lawsuit involving an Illinois Democrat running for governor have resurfaced after he called for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment and touted an 80 percent female staff.

Madison County taxpayers paid nearly $500,000 to settle the suit against Bob Daiber, who allegedly retaliated against a former female employee by laying her off after she complained about not being paid as much as a male coworker, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing court records.  

Daiber, the Madison County Regional Office of Education superintendent, “denied retaliating against the employee,” and said he had tried to “work with her to find a resolution,” according to the report.
Mary Parker, a subordinate of Daiber's in the mid-2000s, had learned that male colleague with the same position was making more money than her, court records show.
The suit alleged that Parker had approached Daiber several times between 2007 and 2009 to ask for a remedy in the pay discrepancy. According to the Tribune, Daiber offered to give Parker a $4,000 raise as well as extend the job from 10 months to 12 months, both of which she rejected as unfair.
Daiber’s attorney said the male coworker had had higher qualifications and a contract that had been negotiated by the local teachers union, the Tribune reported.
Daiber later said in court he threatened Parker’s job because she had been insubordinate and not, as she claimed, for trying to negotiate a pay raise.
The jury rejected Parker’s claims of wage-based discrimination, but agreed with her claim that her position had been eliminated because she complained. A judge awarded her $432,145 to cover court costs and damages, the Tribune reported.  
The verdict was appealed, but later settled for $487,500 out of fear that the cost would increase as the legal battle wore on at the expense of taxpayers.
The general primaries for 2018 Illinois gubernatorial election will take place March 20. Daiber's Democratic rivals include Kenilworth millionaire Chris Kennedy, a son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy who has made gun control and reducing violence in Chicago a centerpiece of his platform.

'All She Wanted Was an Apology': 'Scandalous' Chronicles Paula Jones' Accusation Against Bill Clinton

Paula Jones' former attorney joined Bill Hemmer on "America's Newsroom" to reflect on the "extraordinary time" being chronicled in the Fox News Channel documentary series "Scandalous."
The seven-episode series gives a riveting, up-close look at the Clinton scandals of the 1990s.
The second episode, which airs Sunday night at 8:00pm ET, follows Jones' sexual harassment lawsuit against former President Bill Clinton and the high-stakes political drama that ensued.
Jones alleged that then-Arkansas Gov. Clinton propositioned her and exposed himself at a conference in Little Rock in 1991. He denied the allegation.
"She was a woman that really just wanted to have her good name cleared. All she wanted was an apology," said Joseph Cammarata, who represented Jones.
When that didn't happen, they filed a lawsuit, eventually reaching a $850,000 settlement with Clinton in 1999.
"It was an extraordinary time," Cammarata said. "It was amazing to have a case that attracted so much attention, nationally and internationally. It was a very, very good learning experience for me professionally. It was quite an important case to be on, and I'm glad I was on it."
He added Jones was a "wonderful client" who just wanted to have her reputation restored.
Tune in to "Scandalous" Sunday night at 8:00pm ET on Fox News Channel, and revisit last week's episode on the Whitewater scandal.

Justice Ginsburg to skip State of the Union, signals she has no plans to retire

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will not be attending President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Instead, she will be at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, for a talk that was announced in August, the Providence Journal reported.

Ginsburg, 84, also has sent signals recently that she intends to keep her seat on the bench for years to come.
When asked how long she intends to serve, she said she will stay as long as she can go “full steam,” drawing inspiration from her model, Justice John Paul Stevens, who stepped down in 2010 at age 90.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Ginsburg's nomination by President Bill Clinton and her confirmation as the second woman on the court -- following former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
“She is so spry,” said friend Ann Claire Williams, a newly retired federal appeals court judge, adding that Ginsburg’s mind is also sharp and her recall on cases “extraordinary.”

The eldest Supreme Court justice has produced two of the court’s four signed opinions so far this term. She’s even hired law clerks to take her through June 2020, just months before the next presidential election.
Ginsburg also did not attend last year’s presidential address, after attending to all eight of former President Barack Obama’s addresses, the Hill reported. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas also didn’t attend President Trump’s address last year.
Other justices have skipped out on the annual address, so the practice is not abnormal, the report said.

Anti-Trump celebs plan 'People's State of the Union'

Democrats are not interested in Border Safety & Security or in the funding and rebuilding of our Military. They are only interested in Obstruction!

They do not care if America is great again.

They do not care if America is great again.

Actor Mark Ruffalo, center, is among the celebrities participating in an evening of speeches and music in New York City on Monday, Jan. 29, 2018, a day before President Trump's State of the Union address.  (Associated Press)

A cabal of Hollywood elites, progressive groups and social activists are planning a “People’s State of the Union” as a “public alternative” on the eve of President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.

Notable participants in Monday's scheduled event in New York City include filmmaker Michael Moore, actors Mark Ruffalo, Alyssa Milano, Rosie Perez and Whoopi Goldberg.

They'll congregate at the Town Hall in Manhattan, the venue where suffragists met in the 1920s. Singer Andra Day and rapper Common will be performing the song, “Stand Up for Something,” from the biopic film "Marshall," about the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Tickets were still available Saturday at $47 each.
The event, coordinated by unions, organizers of the Women’s March and Planned Parenthood, is being marketed as a celebration of the “resistance,” closer to “the people’s point of view,” USA Today reported.     
Ruffalo, an inveterate progressive and vocal critic of President Trump, told People magazine, “I think it’s important because we have a president who has a difficult time with the truth, who has a radical, divisive agenda, and spends an enormous amount of time focusing on the negative and hopelessness and despair.”
Monday’s event also will serve as a platform for the launch of "We Stand United," the lead organizing group of the "People’s State of the Union."
The group’s campaign director, Julia Walsh, said, “We’re all going to work together across all different movements to make sure that we win back Congress in 2018 and hold this president in check.”

Cher Cartoons

Pres. Trump Backs Long-Term ‘Strong Dollar’ Policy

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin showing his wife, Louise Linton, a sheet of new $1 bills, the first currency notes bearing his and US Treasurer Jovita Carranza’s signatures.

The U.S. dollar bounces back after a two day slide as President Trump says he backs the “strong dollar” policy.
The president said he supports a longer-term strength of the dollar against its major competitors.
He added, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin’s “weaker dollar” comments have been misunderstood, suggesting there’s no disagreements within the administration over the economic policy.
The president made his remarks in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Previously, Secretary Mnuchin said short-term dollar weakness will boost U.S. economy.
“We are doing so well, our country is becoming so economically strong again, and strong in other ways too, by the way, that the dollar is going to get stronger and stronger, and ultimately I would wanna’ see a strong dollar,” said President Trump.
Following the president’s comment, the dollar bounced-back from its three year slide against the Euro.

Ex-chairman of Missouri Democratic Party pleads guilty in corruption case

A former Democratic Party chairman and prosecutor in Missouri was convicted of wire fraud Friday after admitting he exploited campaign funds for personal use, such as trips to California's wine country and Las Vegas.

The Kansas City Star reported that Mike Sanders pleaded guilty to the federal corruption charge, along with his aide and chief of staff, Calvin Williford, who also pleaded guilty to the same charge at a separate hearing that same day.

With a guilty plea, former Jackson County Executive Mike Sanders’ downfall is complete https://t.co/a7H7bsRcyh

— The Kansas City Star (@KCStar) January 26, 2018

Williford also testified that the pair had a scheme involving a printing company that would create phone invoices and distribute the money to Williford and other workers on Sanders’ campaigns to bypass the Missouri Ethics Commission.
Sanders admitted to converting roughly $62,000 in campaign funds for personal use through a kickback scheme using an old high school friend named Steve Hill.
Hill told the Star in December that Sanders delivered checks to him for campaign work that he never performed, and would keep 10 percent while Sanders pocketed the rest for what he said was political purposes. Authorities later found that not to be the complete story, according to the paper.
For example, in one instance Sanders’ used $4,550 in kickback money he obtained from Hill in 2012 to pay his federal taxes from 2010, the paper reported.
Sanders, who served as the chairman of the Missouri Democratic Party from 2010 to 2013, cut off the checks in late 2013 after Hill told him the FBI was investigating, the paper reported. He also worked as a Jackson County prosecutor starting in 2002, prior to becoming county executive in 2007.
Williford and two other unidentified conspirators were also tied to the kickback scheme.
Both Williford and Sanders, who were released on signature bonds pending sentencing, could face up to five years in prison, as well as a fine of up to $250,000, according to the paper.

French Oil Company CEO Tells Pres. Trump Company Will Invest More Due to Tax Reform

U.S. President Donald Trump, addresses a plenary session during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 26, 2018. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)

One of the world’s biggest oil companies is making a big investment in the U.S. in response to the new tax law.
French oil giant Total made the announcement on Thursday at the World Economic Forum.
The company’s CEO told President Trump he is working on a big project in the Gulf of Mexico, and is investing two billion dollars into the renewable energy sector.

❄️🏔 Happy to represent French companies at the #Davos diner hosted by President @realDonaldTrump. It was very interesting and casual. That’s what Davos is for: share ideas, exchange views, work on issues and make things go forward. @Total #WEF18 #WEF pic.twitter.com/HmKYUYrOBn

— Patrick Pouyanné (@PPouyanne) January 25, 2018

Total is the world’s fourth largest oil company and already invests around one billion dollars into the U.S. each year.
This comes as numbers show the U.S. economy ending 2017 on a high note, growing 2.6 percent in the fourth quarter.
The economy grew a total of 2.3 percent last year, well ahead of the 1.5 percent growth in 2016.
Economists say President Trump’s newly passed tax law will continue to create more jobs and boost economic growth through the end of this year.

Self-proclaimed feminist stars keep attacking Sarah Sanders for her looks

Iconic singer Cher made fun of White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders' fashion choices on Twitter comparing Sanders to a "sister wife." Defenders were quick to call Cher out, claiming she was hypocritical for bullying another woman.

Hollywood women have banded together like never before on issues including pay inequality and sexual harassment, declaring that women all over the world need to stick together and be supportive of one another. But experts say several stars aren't practicing what they preach when it comes to Donald Trump's press secretary, Sarah Sanders.

Self-proclaimed activist Chelsea Handler wrote in an op-ed for Thrive in Dec. 2016: "Let's stop it with the dialogue about how women look or what they wear, or if they've gained or lost weight. We are more guilty of this with each other than most men are."

Cher has often spoken out about the sexualization of women, declaring at the Women's March on Jan. 20 that she "believe[s] in this movement."
But both stars recently attacked Sanders solely over her looks.

Cher tweeted to Sanders on Tuesday to "stop dressing like a sister wife." After fans slammed Cher for the hurtful tweet, she followed up by admitting it was "kinda mean" but "so funny."
Handler has gone even further than Cher by mocking Sanders' "summer whore lipstick" and calling her a "harlot" on her Netflix show. Comedian Fortune Feimster even wore exaggerated makeup to play Sanders for a skit on Handler's now-defunct series.

Comedian Fortune Feimster portrays Press Secretary Sarah Sanders on Chelsea Handler's Netflix show.  (Netflix)

And "Saturday Night Live" took a similar swipe at the press secretary's outfits by putting the show's Sanders character in a revealing outfit to dance provocatively to a pop song in a November 2017 episode.

Aidy Bryant as White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders during "Press Conference" on Saturday, November 4, 2017.  (NBC)

The show has also dressed the Sanders character, played by Aidy Bryant, in a bright pink dress to mock the press secretary's frequent color choice.
Penny Nance, President and CEO of Concerned Women for America, told Fox News Cher's recent insults proves Hollywood feminists don't play by their own rules when it comes to conservative women.
"Cher's attack on Sarah is yet another example of how liberal women in all types of powerful positions stand up for only those women who adhere to their ideology," Nance told Fox News. "If you're a conservative woman, prepare to be thrown out of the feminist tent. Their message is that some women will be supported. That some women will be empowered. That some women will [be] trusted. But they don't support all women and especially those of us who support life."

"They don't just attack her for being conservative. They dare to treat her as if she's not a woman"

Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture at the Media Research Center, echoed Nance's comments adding that the recent attacks on Sanders' looks are "especially offensive."
"They don't just attack her for being conservative. They dare to treat her as if she's not a woman. They blast her clothes and say she dresses like a 'sister wife,'" Gainor said. "...Chelsea Handler called her a 'harlot' with 'summer whore lipstick.' And these are women doing this. Imagine the media outrage if conservatives dared to treat a liberal woman with such disgust."
He added, "Liberals hate anyone who doesn't side with them."

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders speaks to members of the media on July, 21. 2017.  (AP)

Branding and public relations expert Scott Pinsker told Fox News these stars are hurting their brands by attacking Trump's press secretary.
"An awful lot of women in America look more like Sarah Sanders than the Hollywood starlets who are bashing Trump and his supporters on all the award shows," Pinsker explained. "If you want to disagree with Ms. Sanders' political positions, that's perfectly legitimate, but mocking her for being normal-looking isn't exactly empowering to women."

FBI Hillary Cartoons

FBI officials worried about being too tough on Hillary Clinton during email investigation, texts show

FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were concerned about being too tough on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the bureau’s investigation into her email practices because she might hold it against them as president, text messages released on Thursday indicated.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released new messages between bureau officials Page and Strzok, who were having an affair and exchanged more than 50,000 texts with each other during the election.

“One more thing: she might be our next president,” Page texted Strzok on Feb. 25, 2016, in the midst of the presidential campaign, in reference to Clinton.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley released new messages between bureau officials Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, who were having an affair and exchanged more than 50,000 texts with each other.  (Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

“The last thing you need [is] going in there loaded for bear,” she continued. “You think she’s going to remember or care that it was more [DOJ] than [FBI]?”
Strzok replied that he “agreed” and he had relayed their discussion with someone named “Bill.”
Strzok not only worked on the Clinton case, but was assigned to the special counsel’s probe into Russia and the Trump campaign after a number of anti-Trump texts were discovered on his phone. Page also briefly worked on the special counsel investigation.
DOJ RECOVERS MISSING TEXT MESSAGES BETWEEN ANTI-TRUMP FBI AGENTS STRZOK AND PAGE
Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said Thursday in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray that the exchange, among others, concerned him.
“The text messages that were provided raise serious concerns about the impartiality of senior leadership running both the Clinton and Trump investigations,” Grassley said.

FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were concerned about being too tough on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during the bureau’s investigation into her email practices because she might hold it against them as president, newly released text messages indicate.

During the campaign, the FBI investigated Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Then-FBI Director James Comey decided against recommending prosecution, but faulted Clinton and her associates for being “extremely careless” with classified information.
“It's clear that [Strzok and Page] did not want her charged,” Rep. Trey Gowdy, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” He added, “They wanted her to be the president of the United States.”
Republicans, arguing some top officials at the FBI are politically biased against Trump, have seized on the texts, including one where Strzok and Page spoke of a “secret society” within the Department of Justice and the FBI and Strzok spoke of an “insurance policy” against a Trump win.
“The fix was in even before they interviewed the target of the investigation,” Gowdy, R-S.C., said.
New texts released by Grassley on Thursday also indicated that FBI officials believed FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should be recused from the Clinton investigation because of his family’s ties to Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is close with the Clintons.
In an October 28, 2016 text exchange, Page told Strzok that then- FBI Chief of Staff James Rybicki thought McCabe should not have participated in the probe.
“Rybicki just called to check in,” she wrote. “He very clearly 100% believes that Andy should be recused because of the ‘perception.’”
“God,” Strzok replied.

New texts released by Grassley on Thursday also indicate FBI officials believed FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe should be recused from the Clinton investigation because of his family’s ties to Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is close with the Clintons.

Asked by Page why McCabe should be recused now, if not before, Strzok said: “I assume McAuliffe picked up.”
McCabe eventually recused himself from the Clinton probe one week before the election.
“If McCabe eventually recused himself one week before the election, why did he not do so sooner?” Grassley asked Wray in the letter.
Grassley also told Wray he was concerned that Page and Strzok were transmitting government records on personal systems inappropriately. In a June 2017 message, Strzok wrote of typing a document on a “home computer.”
The senator said Page and Strzok also referenced other conversations “via iMessage, presumably on their personal Apple devices.”
“It appears that Strzok and Page transmitted federal records pertaining to the Clinton investigation on private, non-government services,” Grassley said. “It is important to determine whether their own similar conduct was a factor in not focusing on and developing evidence of similar violations by Secretary Clinton and her aides.”
The new messages surfaced the same day the Justice Department’s inspector general said he recovered a number of missing text messages between Strzok and Page.
Fox News has learned from U.S. government officials that the inspector general recovered the texts by taking possession of "at least four" phones belonging to Strzok and Page.

Congressional Black Caucus tried to bury 2005 Obama-Farrakhan photo, photographer says

Obama with Farrakhan in 2005: The hidden pic

Photojournalist Askia Muhammad released a photo this week showing former President Barack Obama and the controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan from Obama's years as a state senator -- and the photographer revealed Thursday that the Congressional Black Caucus had pressured him for more than a decade to keep it hidden.

Muhammad told the Trice Edney News Wire last week that he believed that the image “absolutely would have made a difference” in the 2008 presidential campaign had it been made public.

The image taken in 2005 at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting on Capitol Hill showed then-Senator Obama, a young Democrat from Illinois, smiling side-by-side with Farrakhan.
Muhammad told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that the same day he snapped the photo, the CBC contacted him.
“A staff member from the black caucus called me and said ‘we have to have the picture back,’ and I was kind of taken aback. And we talked a couple of times on the phone after that, and I said ‘Okay, I will give the picture back to Minister Farrakhan’s chief of staff,’” he said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
He added that after he gave the original copy to Farrakhan’s staff, he kept his own copy but remained quiet.
“I gave the original disk to him and in a sense swore myself to secrecy because I had quietly made a copy for myself,” Muhammad said. “It’s my picture, it’s my art, and it’s my intellectual property. I owned it and I wanted to keep it.”
He said the CBC called him  while he was still on Capitol Hill and he believed that it was because “they sensed the future.”
“Minister Farrakhan and his reputation would hurt someone trying to win acceptance in the broad cross-section,” he said, referring to the possibility at the time that the young senator was being considered for a presidential run.
Muhammad also said that Obama had, at some point, people from the Nation of Islam working on his staff and in his offices.
“In fact he had people from the Nation of Islam working on his staff and in his office in the Chicago, his Senate staff. The members of the Nation of Islam helped him in his Senate campaign and on the South Side of Chicago.”
The Congressional Black Caucus did not immediately reply to Fox News’ request for a comment.               

Trump apologizes for Britain First retweets in interview, host says

President Trump attends a dinner with business leaders and heads of state during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  (Reuters) 

President Donald Trump apologized for retweeting content from a far-right group called Britain First, according to Piers Morgan.

Morgan, the former CNN talk show host who conducted the interview for the U.K. television channel ITV, posted a photo Friday of their meeting in Davos, Switzerland, and said Trump claimed he did not know about Britain First.

“I don’t want to be involved with these people,” Trump told Morgan, according to the host’s tweet. “If you’re telling me they’re horrible racist people. I certainly apologize.”

BREAKING NEWS:
President Trump has publicly apologised for retweeting far-right group Britain First.
Says he didn't know who they were. 'I don't want to be involved with these people. If you're telling me they're horrible racist people. I certainly apologize.' pic.twitter.com/S1apSWC7rR

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 26, 2018

The furor erupted after Trump, who has almost 48 million Twitter followers, in November retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by a leader of Britain First. The tiny group regularly posts inflammatory videos purporting to show Muslims engaged in acts of violence, but without providing context or supporting information.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and Trump traded criticism at the time over the retweets and British lawmakers labeled the U.S. leader a hate peddler.

The U.K. ambassador in Washington complained to the White House, and May’s spokesman said the president was wrong to retweet the group’s content. Trump responded with a tweet urging May to focus on “the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom” instead of on him.
Trump told Morgan that he is “often the least racist person that anybody is going to meet. Certainly I wasn’t endorsing anybody.”
The full interview with Trump is scheduled to air Sunday on ITV.

Trump was talked out of firing Mueller last June, source says

President Trump told top officials this past June that he wanted to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, but was talked out of doing so by White House counsel Don McGahn and other aides, a source close to the White House told Fox News late Thursday.

The source could neither confirm nor deny a New York Times report :-) that Trump ordered Mueller's dismissal, but backed down when McGahn threatened to resign instead.

However, the source added that then-White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Steven Bannon believed last summer that Trump would fire Mueller and were very worried about the political fallout.
TRUMP OPEN TO TALKING TO MUELLER
"They said, 'This is going to blow up,'" the source recounted to Fox.
White House lawyer Ty Cobb declined to comment on either the source's account or the New York Times report "out of respect for the Office of the Special Counsel and its process."
According to the Times report, which cited "four people told of the matter," Trump claimed that Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Those conflicts included the fact that Mueller had been interviewed to replace the fired James Comey as FBI Director the day before he was appointed special counsel in May. Another alleged conflict Trump cited was that Mueller had once resigned his membership at Trump National Golf Club in northern Virginia in a dispute over fees.
The Times also reported that McGahn told White House officials that Trump would not carry out Mueller's firing on his own.
The Times also reported that Trump considered firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and elevating Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand to oversee Mueller's investigation. The report did not say what Trump's rationale for dismissing Rosenstein would be.
TRUMP SETS RED LINE FOR MUELLER ON RUSSIA PROBE, WARNS HE'LL EXPOSE 'CONFLICTS'
The response from Democrats was nearly immediate. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that if the report in The Times is true, Trump has crossed a "red line."

"Any attempt to remove the Special Counsel, pardon key witnesses or otherwise interfere in the investigation would be a gross abuse of power, and all members of Congress, from both parties, have a responsibility to our Constitution and to our country to make that clear immediately," Warner said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in early March after acknowledging that he had two previously undisclosed encounters with the Russian ambassador during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
On Wednesday, Trump told reporters that "I'd love to" talk to Mueller as part of the investigation, subject to his lawyers' approval. The president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and told reporters that there was "no collusion whatsoever" and "no obstruction whatsoever."
In a July interview with The New York Times, Trump warned Mueller against expanding the special counsel investigation to his family's financial affairs.
"I think that's a violation. Look, this is about Russia," said Trump, who added that Mueller had "many other conflicts" in addition to his interview to run the FBI.
Fox News' Samuel Chamberlain contributed to this report, along with The Associated Press.
Ed Henry currently serves as FOX News Channel’s (FNC) chief national correspondent. He joined the network in June 2011.

Clinton Missing Email Cartoons

Hannity: DOJ has started recovering missing FBI texts, DOJ sources say

Fox News’ Sean Hannity said Wednesday night on “Hannity” that the Justice Department has started recovering some of the missing texts between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, citing DOJ sources.  

Federal law enforcement officials had notified congressional committees that a technical glitch affected thousands of FBI cellphones between Dec. 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017. This meant that 5 months’ worth of texts would be missing from Strzok and Page, both of whom are under scrutiny after it was revealed that the former members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team exchanged anti-Trump texts during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Hannity said sources at the DOJ told him they have begun to recover some of the texts from that time period. Specific content from those texts has not been released.
The missing messages have caused problems for the Justice Department inspector general's office.
Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have sent a letter to Inspector General Michael Horowitz noting that the IG's office said on Dec. 13 that it had all the messages between Strzok and Page between Nov. 30, 2016, and July 28, 2017.
Lawmakers later learned of the five-month gap.
The lawmakers said they wanted the IG's office to "reconcile" those two points.
The five-month stretch of missing messages covers a period of time that includes President Donald Trump's inauguration, the firings of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey and the standing-up of former FBI Director Mueller as special counsel to investigate alleged Trump campaign collusion with Russian officials during the 2016 election.

North Korea proudly displays captured USS Pueblo as war trophy

A North Korean military guard keeps watch over the USS Pueblo in Pyongyang, North Korea.  (Associated Press)

This week marks the 50th anniversary of when the USS Pueblo was captured by North Korea -- and the Hermit Kingdom is seizing on the opportunity to aggrandize the U.S. Navy ship’s capture as a trophy against Washington amid escalating tensions.

The ship has become a spectacle in the frozen Pothong River on the outskirts of the "Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum" complex in central Pyongyang, where thousands of North Koreans learn their country’s version of how, despite the odds, it was able to defeat the Americans in the Korean War.

The USS Pueblo is the only U.S. ship held captive by a foreign government, and is still officially in commission in the U.S. Naval Vessel Register.
Playing up the capture
North Korea’s state-run media is playing up the capture as it claims the U.S. is trying to disrupt North-South relations heading into next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea.
On Jan. 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo tried to evade a North Korean submarine chaser, but was eventually captured as another submarine chaser, four torpedo boats and two MiG-21 fighter jets joined the scene.
One crewmember lost his life in the pursuit as the ship was peppered with gunfire and boarded -- an event that Americans insist took place in international waters. The 82 surviving sailors were taken prisoner and held captive in two different camps for 335 days.
North Korea claims the ship entered its territorial waters when it was attacked.
The incident came at the height of the Cold War, and set the stage for a potential serious military conflict. However, it drew to a close Dec. 21, 1968, when Maj. Gen. Gilbert H. Woodward, the chief U.S. negotiator, signed a statement acknowledging that the Pueblo had "illegally intruded into the territorial waters of North Korea" – although he disavowed that before and after.
Many of the men were crippled, malnourished and almost blind from the treatment they received during their capture.
'Hell Week'
They endured the worst of the treatment during a time the crew refers to as “Hell Week,” in which the North Koreans discovered the crew had discreetly given “the finger” in a series of staged propaganda photos. Initially, the crew said it was a “Hawaiian good luck sign."
To commemorate the anniversary, North Korea’s official news agency quoted a naval officer as saying the ship serves as a reminder for the U.S. that it will undergo a “crushing defeat” if it threatens the country’s independence. It also said a student visiting the ship felt the "pleasant sensation of a victor" as he looked at photos of the American crew.
The story of the USS Pueblo went largely underreported, which has been difficult for some crewmembers to accept.
“There are a lot of people who have no idea of what we went through,” Don Peppard, an administrative assistant on the Pueblo and president of the ship’s veterans association, told Fox News. “I think we’re lost to history.”
The U.S. government didn’t recognize the crew’s sacrifice until 1989, and awarded them Prisoner of War medals.

'I Asked You a Question': Martha Challenges NM Mayor Who Pledged to Defy Trump on Immigration

Martha MacCallum debated the mayor of New Mexico's capital city after he boycotted a meeting with President Trump and pledged to defy the federal government.
Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales said President Trump's invitation to the nation's mayors to meet at the White House was "disingenuous" because the federal government simultaneously notified about two dozen jurisdictions of possible violations of federal immigration law.
"Of course I didn't want to participate in the meeting. Nor do I think we should [meet] before the administration is honest [about working] with local governments," Gonzales, a Democrat, said.

Javier Gonzales on border security: "Building a wall is not going to do anything to help secure our country." #TheStory pic.twitter.com/nZ67vUWOyd

— Fox News (@FoxNews) January 25, 2018

Gonzales said the feds are "threatening" his city by listing it along with several other jurisdictions the Department of Justice believes is not complying with federal immigration law.
"You're calling it a threat, and they're calling it federal law," MacCallum said. "[They say] you're putting the needs and wants of illegal immigrants ahead of American citizens."
Gonzales disagreed and said that if Trump offers meaningful immigration reforms that "protect DREAMers" he may reconsider his boycott.
He added that he does not want a wall on his state's border with Chihuahua, Mexico.
"Building a wall is going to do nothing to help secure our country," he said.
MacCallum asked what he is instructing his city law enforcement to do if they encounter someone suspected of being in the nation illegally.
Gonzales said he asks them to target people committing violent crimes.
"I asked you a question," MacCallum said. "What do they tell the police officers in Santa Fe in terms of whether or not they need to turn in people who have been requested to be turned over [to] ICE?"

Immigrant activists protest at Schumer's home, chanting 'If Chuck won't let us dream, we won't let him sleep'

Protesters gather across the street from the home of U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in Brooklyn, N.Y.  (Associated Press)

About 75 immigrant activists protested this week outside U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Brooklyn, N.Y., home to denounce the deal to end the government shutdown without protections for young immigrants.

“If Chuck won’t let us dream, we won’t let him sleep,” some chanted. “No! Not one more deportation.”

Senate Democrats -- led by Schumer -- angered liberal activists Monday by yielding on GOP demands to reopen the government without an immigration deal to protect from deportation younger immigrants known as "Dreamers."
Tuesday's protest was organized by local groups including Make the Road New York.
A spokesman for Schumer released the following statement:
"For the first time ever, we forced the Majority Leader [U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.] to guarantee a vote to protect our Dreamers so that these young people can continue to work, study and serve in our military. These fine young people are American in every sense of the word but for their status and the Senator [Schumer] will work hard -- day and night -- to pass legislation to protect them."
Bklyner, a local blog, reported that the event was organized by several groups, including the Working Families Party and the Center for Popular Democracy.
“We're targeting Dems who voted for this CR (continuing resolution),” Angel Padilla, a policy director for Indivisible, an organization formed shortly after Donald Trump was elected, told the Daily Beast. “They sold out Dreamers. They failed to stand up to Trump's white supremacy. They had the support of the grassroots and they caved. It also demonstrates that Democrats remain terrified of immigration. And they will continue to run from it.”

Anti-Trumper Cartoon

New info on alleged 'secret society' of anti-Trumpers; Samsung blamed for missing FBI texts

The FBI blamed phone supplier Samsung for "technical" glitches that resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of text messages exchanged between FBI agents under scrutiny for their anti-Trump views. But new information about an alleged "secret society" of anti-Trump agents within the FBI and Justice Department has raised more concerns about political bias within the embattled agency ... President Donald Trump reacted Tuesday night: "Where are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok? Blaming Samsung!," the president tweeted. Earlier Tuesday, GOP lawmakers pressed the Justice Department's watchdog to explain why he did not inform them last month that the FBI "failed to preserve" five months of text messages between Strzok and Page. It was one of two significant developments late Tuesday involving the texts, as Sen. Ron Johnson, the Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman, revealed more to Fox News about the pair's messages exchanged the day after Trump's election victory that spoke of a "secret society." An informant had told lawmakers that a group of FBI officials "were holding secret meetings off-site," Johnson said on "Special Report." He declined to further elaborate, saying that lawmakers "have to dig into it."

A rare media win for Trump as Schumer gets slammed over the shutdown

The media consensus is in: The Democrats got their butt kicked.

Even liberal columnists are saying so.

Chuck Schumer overreached on the government shutdown, and he's wound up with the worst of both worlds. Left-wing groups are furious with him for caving in, and he barely got anything from the Republicans in exchange for stopping the shutdown.
The headline on liberal New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg's piece captures the sentiment: "Schumer Sells Out the Resistance."
Talking Points Memo slapped this headline on an AP story, calling Schumer "The Face of Retreat" and saying he has become a "punching bag."
That’s not how it looked during the countdown to the closure. The conventional wisdom heading into the shutdown was that President Trump and the Republicans would take the lion's share of the blame because they control everything in Washington.
But the Senate Democratic leader thought that because the DACA program is popular, he could use a shutdown as leverage to win concessions and win plaudits from the party's left-wing base.
What Schumer failed to anticipate was that the public didn’t think an immigration dispute was worth closing down much of the federal bureaucracy and furloughing millions of workers. It’s the same lesson that Republicans learned in 2013 when they shut down the government over an effort to repeal ObamaCare. In both cases, the minority party simply didn’t have the power to deliver.
Maybe that’s why Schumer yesterday said he was taking his part of the deal off the table, the Democrats voting for wall funding as part of a DACA compromise. That was part of his one-on-one offer to Trump when he thought they could avert a shutdown, but he now complains that the president and his staff kept shifting their position.
A look at the coverage in the New York Times is instructive. A news analysis by veteran Carl Hulse says that "over the weekend it became clear that using the shutdown to insist on protections for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants was a serious miscalculation. By abandoning the strategy on its third day, Democrats believe they limited whatever damage there may be and gave the public time to forget about the disruption before the crucial November election."
And, he writes, "by supporting the government's reopening, they provoked a surge of outrage from the party's left as progressive activists and lawmakers assailed the deal as a capitulation based on a mere promise by Mr. McConnell, a longtime foe known for his obstruction of the Democratic agenda.
On the op-ed page, Michelle Goldberg writes that "it's hard to overstate how disgusted many progressive leaders are." She says that "political cowardice carries its own risk. It emboldens your enemies and disheartens your allies ...
"Democrats reinforced their reputation for fecklessness. 'Make no mistake: Schumer and Dems caved,' tweeted Fox News's Brit Hume. 'What a political fiasco.' It makes me sick to say it, but he's right."
I’m sure she doesn’t agree with Brit all that often.
The op-ed page also features moderate conservative David Brooks, who can't stand Trump and is supportive of the dreamers. But he offers a checklist of all the things the Democrats did wrong:
"It's not that people don't like DACA. They do. It's that they just don't recognize themselves in a party that thinks it's worth closing the government, destabilizing the economy and straining the military for it."
Brooks mocks the party's "superb messaging": "We bravely shut down the government to save the Dreamers even though Donald Trump is responsible for shutting down the government ...
"The problem was not that the leadership capitulated on Monday. It was that the Democrats talked themselves into this crazy position on Friday."
And it’s the damning quotes from pro-immigrant groups that shows the pressure Schumer was under.
So it’s a rare media win for Trump, but the problem hasn’t gone away. The funding for the government will run out again soon and the impasse over the wall and the dreamers will be even harder to solve. One thing seems virtually certain: The Democrats won’t be playing the shutdown card again.
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. 

North Korea's nuclear program 'ever closer' to putting US at risk, CIA boss says

North Korea’s nuclear program is believed to be aimed coercion rather than defense and is moving “ever closer” to putting the U.S. at risk, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said Tuesday.

Pompeo, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, said the next logical step for Pyongyang would be to develop its program to be able to fire multiple weapons toward the U.S., according to Reuters.

“I want everyone to understand that we are working diligently to make sure that a year from now I can still tell you that they are several months away from having that capacity,” he said.

Jan. 23, 2018: CIA Director Mike Pompeo speaks on intelligence issues at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.  (AP)

Pompeo said he believed that North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un would use the weapons to not only stay in power, but for the possibility of reuniting the Korean Peninsula. He said the hermit kingdom’s nuclear program has developed at a “very rapid clip,” but Kim is still hoping for more than just a parade showpiece.
The CIA chief declined to comment on whether there were options for strikes on North Korean weapons facilities that would not lead to a nuclear war, according to Reuters.
He said the CIA was working to prepare a full slate of options for President Trump to choose from and insisted the president was “laser-focused” on solving the nuclear crisis by diplomatic means.
“The president is intent on delivering a solution through diplomatic means. We are equally, at the same time, ensuring that if we conclude that is not possible, that we present the president with a range of options that can achieve his stated intention,” Pompeo said.
The Trump administration has reportedly said that all options were on the table in dealing with North Korea. The debate over possible military options has slowed because of the upcoming Olympics in South Korea, Reuters reported.

Trump fires back at Schumer: 'If there is no Wall, there is no DACA'

President Donald Trump fired back Tuesday night at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for offering, then rescinding, a deal to support border wall funding in return for an immigration package that protects illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. 

"Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA," the president tweeted around 11 p.m. EST. "We must have safety and security, together with a strong Military, for our great people!"

Earlier Tuesday evening, White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley slammed Schumer during an appearance on Fox News' "Outnumbered Overtime."
“He comes over here with a phony plan and a fake promise,” Gidley said, referring to Schumer, D-N.Y.
A Schumer aide confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday that the leader withdrew his offer of a boost in funding for the president’s proposed border wall. It was initially made during negotiations over the government spending bill with the president last Friday, the aide said.
Schumer’s office says he pulled the wall offer on Sunday.
But Gidley said they didn’t take the offer seriously, saying the Democrat offered less than one-tenth of what was needed to secure the border in his “bogus negotiation.” The administration wants $18 billion for a border wall.
“You can't rescind money you never really offered in the first place,” he said.
After a three-day government shutdown, Democrats agreed to re-open the government Monday after Republicans assured them the Senate would soon consider legislation that would protect the so-called Dreamers.
SCHUMER BASHED BY LEFT OVER SHUTDOWN-ENDING DEAL
During Tuesday’s press briefing at the White House, press secretary Sarah Sanders said the president opposes an immigration proposal brokered by Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona and Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.
“In a bipartisan meeting here at the White House two weeks ago we outlined a path forward on four issues: serious border security, an end to chain migration, the cancellation of the outdated and unsafe visa lottery and a permanent solution to DACA,” Sanders said. “Unfortunately, the Flake-Graham-Durbin agreement does not meet these bench marks.”