Rep. Dan Bishop Presses John Durham on His Investigation’s Shortcomings

Ken Silva
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Rep. Dan Bishop Presses John Durham on His Investigation’s Shortcomings

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Most Republican legislators spent Wednesday’s much-anticipated congressional hearing into the Durham report by underscoring what’s been apparent for years: that the FBI lacked sufficient basis for launching a politically charged probe into possible links between the Russian government and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

But Rep. Dan Bishop, R-NC, wanted to know why the report’s author, former Special Counsel John Durham, didn’t interview key players involved in what’s now widely known in conservative circles as the Russia-Gate hoax.

As noted in Durham’s report, former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, former confidential informant Igor Danchenko and others declined to be interviewed as part of the former special counsel’s investigation.

“It seems inexplicable you didn’t compel their testimony,” Bishop said. “Can you explain that?”

Durham declined to comment on most of the individuals mentioned above, but he did speak about Danchenko—a source of phony Russia collusion information who was charged, but ultimately acquitted, of five counts of making false statements to the FBI.

Bishop noted that Danchenko had been an FBI informant until October 2020—more than a year before he was criminally charged—but that Durham didn’t interview him during that time. Durham said he had to inform Danchenko that he was the target of the special counsel’s investigation at the time, and that they “didn’t arrive at a point where we could interview him.”

As for Comey and the others, Durham said compelling their testimony would have required him to clear a number of legal hurdles.

“The only way you can compel a person’s testimony is to get a court order after someone asserts a Fifth Amendment privilege,” he said.

And even if he went through the work of obtaining a court order, Durham said that might have been a waste of time if witnesses simply claimed to have memory failures.

“You have to make the judgement if it’s worth the effort to get them to say, ‘I don’t’ recall, I don’t recall,’” he said.

Along with pressing Durham about his failure to interview key Russia-Gate players, Bishop wanted to know why the special counsel didn’t investigate why the FBI disseminated false talking points to Congress in March 2017—two months after the bureau already debunked many of the key allegations underpinning the Russia collusion narrative.

Bishop was referring to a seven-page FBI memo that falsely alleged, among other things, that former Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page had served as an intermediary between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. In fact, Page had been a CIA asset during the time he was accused of being a traitor and working with Russia.

Durham said he was aware of these false talking points disseminated by the FBI, but said they weren’t the focus of his investigation.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Bidens’ Burisma Bribes Linked to Maltese Bank Notorious for Money Laundering

Jacob Bruns
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Bidens’ Burisma Bribes Linked to Maltese Bank Notorious for Money Laundering

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Recently released emails from the infamous laptop from hell reportedly showed that the Ukraine-based energy company Burisma opened a Maltese bank account for Hunter Biden in 2016, indicating that Hunter, and perhaps President Joe Biden, may have used that account to receive bribes from Burisma.

Specifically, the alleged bribe came from Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma Holdings, in the amount of $5 million for both father and son, Kanekoa News reported.

Hunter Biden, who sat on the Burisma board and yet never received compensation, reportedly used his White House connections and leveraged his political influence to halt Ukraine’s investigations into the dealings of both Zlochevsky and Burisma.

The uncovered emails revealed that Hunter Biden and his assistant, Joan Mayer, engaged in an email correspondence with Vadym Pozharskyi, the third-ranking executive at Burisma.

Mayer provided copies of all of Hunter’s relevant documents needed to open the bank account, including his passport, a utility bill and a bank reference letter.

Mayer later asked what was meant by the requested “certified declaration of source wealth.”

She later provided a letter from Owasco, Hunter’s corporation, to confirm his annual salary, asking, “Is that what the bank is looking for?”

Later that day, a Burisma attorney emailed Hunter with the address and swift code of Satabank, a Maltese bank. Satabank would later be shut down for money laundering in 2018.

Soon thereafter, Mayer sent an email to Burisma, including “Hunter’s tax ID number and signature.”

The alleged bribery scheme was recently revealed in Congress by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

In his speech, Grassley said, “The foreign national, who allegedly bribed Joe and Hunter Biden, allegedly has audio recordings of his conversations with him, 17 such recordings.”

Grassley also referred to the informant file, which alleges that “the foreign national possesses 15 audio recordings of phone calls between him and Hunter Biden.” According to Grassley, these recordings include “two audio recordings of phone calls between him and then Vice President Joe Biden.”

The Iowa senator added, “These recordings were allegedly kept as a sort of insurance policy for the foreign national in case he got into a tight spot.”

Elon Announces ‘Cis’ and ‘Cisgender’ are Now Slurs on Twitter

Molly Bruns
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Elon Announces ‘Cis’ and ‘Cisgender’ are Now Slurs on Twitter

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced that the words “cis” and “cisgender” are now classified as slurs on the platform.

Musk believed people who used the term often said it as a derogatory slur against straight Twitter users, according to the Post Millennial.

“Repeated, targeted harassment against any account will cause the harassing accounts to receive, at minimum, temporary suspensions,” Musk said. “The words ‘cis’ or ‘cisgender’ are considered slurs on this platform.”

 

The sudden decision came after user James Esses faced harassment and doxxing for a tweet where he explained why he did not want others to refer to him as “cis.”

“I formally and publicly declare that I reject the label of ‘cis’. I don’t believe in gender ideology,” Esses said. “I don’t self-identify as ‘cis’. Using this term makes me feel unsafe and is demonstrative of your hatred towards me. Anyone who uses the term ‘cis’ to describe me is a bigot.”

Musk also called the man who coined the term, sexologist and pedophile Volkmar Sigusch, a “contemptible creep” and encouraged users to “ignore him.”

Before Musk took over the platform, “misgendering” someone was a violation of Twitter’s rules. Several users, such as commentator Meghan Murphy, lost their accounts over using a trans person’s correct pronouns.

Until now, there has been no consequences for referring to people as “cis,” even if they reject the label personally.

When Musk took over the platform he loosened the terms of service, allowing conservative users to have more of a voice on the platform without the worry of banishment or doxxing by other users

Along with the new Twitter team, Musk also discovered that the federal government spied on private messages, influenced the spread of information—such as the Hunter Biden laptop story—and censored users for denouncing masking and vaccinations in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawyer for Rapper Kodak Black Rips 2-Tiered Justice in Hunter’s Firearms Case

Molly Bruns
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Lawyer for Rapper Kodak Black Rips 2-Tiered Justice in Hunter’s Firearms Case

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Attorney for rapper Kodak Black called out the Biden Justice Department in the wake of Hunter Biden’s “sweetheart deal,” questioning whether the American justice system has two tiers.

Black received a sentence of three years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm—similar to the charges the younger Biden reached a plea agreement on Tuesday.

According to the Daily Caller, Biden will now enter a pre-trial diversion program for the charge while the investigation continues and likely avoid any time behind bars.

“There’s no such thing as not getting jail time on a gun charge on any kind of gun charge,” said Bradford Cohen, Black’s attorney, in an interview on Fox News.

Cohen, along with several GOP legislatures, criticized the plea deal on social media.

“2 tiers of justice? Kodak was charged for the same crime. Got over 3 years,” Cohen said on Instagram. “Mr. Biden will not serve a day. Feels right? Do FBI agents and federal authorities take cases personally?”

Black received a pardon by former President Donald Trump in 2021 after spending two years in prison.

Cohen said the plea deal with the regime’s First Son was unusual, and prosecutors usually address crimes like these in a more decisive manner—particularly when they involve public figures.

“I’ve never seen anyone where this offense was charged, and they didn’t get some sort of prison sentence,” Cohen said. “And in fact, most of the time in federal court, you very rarely see people get anything but a prison sentence.”

Cohen mentioned the case of Felicity Huffman, who faced charges and two weeks in prison for bribing college administrators to get her daughter into school.

Cohen compared the Huffman and Biden cases, pointing out the obvious favoritism handed to the younger Biden.

“A federal crime is supposed to be a federal crime,” Cohen said. “And federal crimes are supposed to be very serious federal crimes, and that’s why you look at prison sentences.”

GOP Mayor Ousted in New Jersey for Refusing to Fly ‘Pride’ Flag

Jacob Bruns
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GOP Mayor Ousted in New Jersey for Refusing to Fly ‘Pride’ Flag

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) A Republican mayor in New Jersey was removed from his position after he refused to fly the gay pride flag.

Rochelle Park Mayor Perrin Mosca refused to fly the gay flag over the town hall because he said that it singles out and privileges a particular group, Townhall reported. City Council members from both parties agreed to strip Mosca of his title.

But according to Mosca, everyone had agreed that no particular group would get to fly a flag on public property.

“A majority had agreed that as a township we would not put up any flags that singled out one group over another group. That should have been the end of the issue,” Mosca said.

He also suggested that “private flags do not belong on public property,” and that only the American flag, state flag and township flag were viable. All others, including the LGBT flag, would only cause division.

But instead of receiving support for his moderate position, Mosca was forced out of his position by a Democrat and three Republicans.

Residents of Rochelle Park condemned the Council for its belligerent behavior.

“That’s not right, everybody’s entitled to their opinion,” one resident said. “I say live and let live but everybody has a right to their opinion.”

According to a local paper, the Daily Voice, Mosca had also run into trouble with the local Republican party.

GOP Municipal Chairman Frank Valenzuela said that he “embarrassed the township and brought its governance to a screeching halt, threatening two decades of progress.”

Valenzuela also accused his fellow Republican of using his position “to create a negative atmosphere guided by his personal ideals versus what is best for the residents of Rochelle Park.

Mosca, a local high school teacher, said that people must “consider the political motives” of Valenzuela, who is “struggling for relevancy within the Republican Party.”

Deputy Mayor Jennifer Appice took over until the Council can decide on a more permanent solution.

Rep. Jerry Nadler Falsely Accuses FBI of Trying to Entrap Hillary Clinton

Ken Silva
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Rep. Jerry Nadler Falsely Accuses FBI of Trying to Entrap Hillary Clinton

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., began Wednesday’s much-anticipated congressional hearing into the Durham report by falsely accusing the FBI of trying to entrap Hillary Clinton.

“The Durham Report tells us that the FBI encouraged a confidential human source to infiltrate the Clinton Campaign—not the Trump campaign—and take steps to entrap unsuccessfully aides to Secretary Clinton. This story is right there in pages 74 and 75 of the report,” Nadler said, referring to former Special Counsel John Durham’s 316-page report on the Russia collusion hoax.

“I suspect we won’t hear a word about it from House Republicans today, because it doesn’t fit the MAGA narrative.”

Nadler’s statement is a gross misrepresentation of the contents of page 74-75 of the Durham Report. In fact, the report shows that the FBI steered its informant away from investigating Clinton criminality, and did not save evidence that the informant made an illegal contribution to the Clinton campaign.

Indeed, Durham said in the report that the FBI informant wasn’t targeting Clinton at all initially. Instead, the informant was working on a separate counterintelligence matter for the bureau, when he or she learned that a foreign government official with known criminal ties was trying to connect with the Clinton campaign.

“A Foreign Government-3 insider (“Insider-I”), who was known to the FBI to have foreign intelligence and criminal connections, had solicited [the informant] to set up a meeting with candidate Clinton because Insider-I wanted to propose ‘something’ that [the informant] understood to be campaign contributions on behalf of Foreign Government-3 in exchange for the protection of Foreign Government-3’s interests should Clinton become President,” Durham said.

Durham said the informant and the foreign insider were going to go to a Clinton fundraiser in November 2015, but the informant ended up not going to the event.

The informant did attend a January 2016 fundraiser, but said the foreign insider “got cold feet” and didn’t go. Durham noted that a separate FBI document about the incident said that the foreign insider was told by the Clinton campaign not to attend.

In any event, the informant made a $2,700 donation on behalf of the foreign insider to the Clinton campaign without the knowledge of FBI handling agents.

“When interviewed by the Office about this contribution, one of [the informant’s] FBI handlers could not explain why this apparent illegal contribution was not documented in FBI records. Although the handling agent at the time asked [the informant] about the payment, there is no indication that the agent documented the contribution in the [informant’s] source file,” Durham said of the illegal campaign contribution.

“Moreover, despite the CHS [confidential human source] telling the handling agent that the CHS was going to Insider-1 ‘s house ‘after the event to update [him/her],’ there was no follow up by the handling agent to document that in the source file.”

Durham said that the FBI never opened an investigation into this apparent foreign influence operation. In fact, the handling agent subsequently told the informant to stay away from all events relating to Clinton’s campaign, he said.

According to the special prosecutor’s report, the informant’s handler sent him or her the following message: “Do NOT attend any more campaign events, set up meetings, or anything else relating to [Clinton’s] campaign. We need to keep you completely away from that situation. I don’t know all the details, but it’s for your own protection.”

Durham concluded this portion of the report by comparing the FBI’s lack of investigation into the Clinton campaign with its overzealous probe of Donald Trump.

“Contrasted with the FBI’s rapid opening of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI appears to have made no effort to investigate the possible illegal campaign contribution … or the Clinton campaign’s purported acceptance of a campaign contribution that was made by the FBI’s own long-term CHS on behalf of Insider-I and, ultimately, Foreign Govemrnent-3,” Durham concluded.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Author of Kids Book about Gay Penguins Says Library’s Removal is Unconstitutional

Ezekiel Loseke
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Author of Kids Book about Gay Penguins Says Library’s Removal is Unconstitutional

(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) A homosexual couple that authored a book about gay penguins is suing a Florida school district, claiming that restricting access to their book is unconstitutional.

The lawsuit challenges Florida’s anti-grooming law, according to The New York Times.

The homosexual duo’s lawsuit seeks to force children to have access to their book and to find the anti-grooming law unconstitutional.

“Our book has been banned because Tango has two dads,” said Justin Richardson, one of the authors of the book.

Richardson acknowledged that the book had been challenged regularly, but that it had not been restricted on a permanent basis. Sherri Owens, a spokeswoman for the Lake County school district, said that the district removed the book for legal reasons.

“We removed access to And Tango Makes Three for our kindergarten through third-grade students in alignment with Florida House Bill 1557, which at the time prohibited classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for those grade levels,” she said in an email.

The story was widely mocked on social media, according to Twitchy.

A Twitter account that goes by jimtreacher.substack.com noticed a pattern in the arguments of leftists.

“‘Restricting access.’ Same rhetoric Dems use when we don’t want to pay for their birth control,” he tweeted in response to the NYTimes article.

“LOL all books must be in all libraries or it’s unconstitutional. Basic stuff folks,” one critic tweeted, while another noted that “There is no ‘right’ to have your book available anywhere you want it.”

Vanessa Atlanta Wisedog pointed out that this lawsuit, if it were to win, would backfire.

“We now demand a copy of Mein Kampf be in every school library including first grade,” the account tweeted, commenting on what a lack of literary standards could mean. “Be careful what you wish for.”

Blinken Claims China Sending Fentanyl Chemicals to Cartels ‘On Accident’

Molly Bruns
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Blinken Claims China Sending Fentanyl Chemicals to Cartels ‘On Accident’

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that the U.S. government should reach out to China for assistance in the fentanyl crisis, after revealing that Chinese companies accidentally shipped to cartels the very chemicals needed make fentanyl.

Blinken made the comments during an interview with CBS News, after his visit to China, when asked about the situation with the Eastern power and what he thought about their promise to stop producing fentanyl, according to Breitbart.

Blinken said that China’s domestic production of fentanyl dropped drastically in recent years, after the government put the drug on a prohibited list.

However, he also admitted that since the prohibition of the drug in China, many Chinese manufacturers moved the chemicals and production equipment to Mexico, increasing trafficking in the U.S.

“Part of the challenge is making sure that chemical manufacturers that are producing these precursors in China and then, in some cases, inadvertently sending it to the wrong people in Mexico or other places, sometimes intentionally, deliberately, that’s what’s got to stop,” he explained.

Blinken also expressed hope that the U.S. and China could cooperate to address the problem.

“It’s not about pointing fingers,” he said. “It’s simply finding a way to cooperate.”

He also refused to address the problem as a potentially deliberate act on China’s part, despite the recent discovery that China is selling fentanyl manufacturing equipment to Mexican cartels.

“The pill presses that are used to press that finished fentanyl into pills are coming in from China exclusively,” said assistant director to DHS’s Homeland Security Investigations, Matthew Millhollin. “We just seized over 200 pill presses at a warehouse in Los Angeles. This came in directly from China. This problem begins and ends in China.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than 379 million doses of fentanyl in 2022—enough to kill every American citizen.

“Just two milligrams of fentanyl, the small amount that fits on the tip of a pencil, is considered a potentially deadly dose,” according to DEA administrator Anne Milgram.

Democrat Voters Rebuke DNC, Solid Majority Want Biden, RFK Jr. Debate

Mark Pellin
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Democrat Voters Rebuke DNC, Solid Majority Want Biden, RFK Jr. Debate

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Democrat voters delivered a stinging rebuke to their party’s politically incestuous leaders and their attempt to pave an easy path for President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, with a majority of them expressing a keen desire to see the incumbent on a debate stage with challenger Robert F. Kennedy Jr..

Assuming, of course, the stumbler-in-chief could keep on his feet for a debate with anybody.

A solid majority comprising nearly 58% of Democrat voters want to see a primary debate between the two top contenders, according to a Trafalgar Group poll released Monday. Close to 80% of all likely general election voters for the 2024 tilt want to see the same debate matchup, including 93% of Republicans and 80% unaffiliated voters polled.

Although Kennedy continues to trail Biden in recent polling, with the incumbent up 62% to 16%, the popular Democrat scion has seen his national profile spike after an establishment-challenging appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, a similarly explosive interview with Daily Wire’s Jordan Peterson, along with an endorsement from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

Biden’s age also remained a significant concern for likely voters in the Trafalgar poll, with nearly 30% of Democrats conceding that “Biden is too old to effectively serve a 2nd term in the White House,” while 92% of Republicans and 64% of unaffiliated voters expressed similar worries.

None of which has compelled the Democrat National Committee to revisit its controversial decision to skip primary presidential debates, and strong-arm donors into funding Biden’s campaign.

“Some of the donors say they are expecting to be asked to organize future events to raise money for Biden’s reelection,” the Washington Post informed. “The national Democratic Party has said it will support Biden’s reelection, and it has no plans to sponsor primary debates.”

Kennedy blasted the decision when it was announced, calling it “unfortunate,” and he reiterated that point this week during an interview with The Hill’s Rising.

“I would love to participate in a debate if President Biden participates. I think it’s wrong that he’s not going to participate,” Kennedy said.

“If he doesn’t feel that he can debate, it’s not good,” he said of Biden’s dodge. “Because there are so many people in this country who feel that the system is rigged.”

Kennedy called the incumbent’s decision to stay off a debate stage a “strategic choice” for Biden.

“If I were in his shoes, I wouldn’t want to debate, either,” Kennedy said. “But I think it’s bad for America at this point.”

Johns Hopkins Forced to Yank Woke ‘Lesbian’ Definition in LGBT Glossary Guide

Mark Pellin
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Johns Hopkins Forced to Yank Woke ‘Lesbian’ Definition in LGBT Glossary Guide

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) The once-esteemed Johns Hopkins University received a blistering round of criticism earlier this month when it went full Orwellian woke and redefined the term “lesbian” by excluding any reference to “women”.

The condemnation of what one critic called “the homophobic statement of the decade” came from all quarters, with conservatives joining LGBT activists, and was so intense that the university was compelled to revise it misguided guidance.

As part of its “Diversity & Inclusion, Gender & Sexuality Resources” guide, Johns Hopkins had originally included a new definition for ‘lesbian” in its glossary of LGBTQ identities and terms:

Lesbian [sexual orientation]: A non-man attracted to non-men. While past definitions refer to ‘lesbian’ as a woman who is emotionally, romantically, and/or sexually attracted to other women, this updated definition includes non-binary people who may also identify with the label.

The exclusion of the word “woman” in its alleged inclusion guide did not go unnoticed or ignored, and the university was blasted for its attempt to “erase” women.

“Congrats! You’re winning ‘homophobic statement of the decade’ by defining lesbians as ‘non men attracted to non men,'” snarked self-identified lesbian columnist EJ Rosetta.

“Lesbian was literally the only word in English language that is not tied to man- as in male- feMALE, man- woMAN,” tennis star Martina Navratilova, who is a lesbian, tweeted after the glossary erupted on social media.  “And now lesbians are non men?!? Wtf?!?,” adding, “Unreal… another example of erasure of women. Pathetic.”

Making matters worse, the university failed to apply the same erased status to gay men, which the glossary defined as “A man who is emotionally, romantically, sexually, affectionately, or relationally attracted to other men, or who identifies as a member of the gay community.”

Critics not only slammed the LGBT hypocrisy, but also Johns Hopkins’ pandering to the transgender movement in “such a way that leaves little doubt what the true goal of transgenderism is,” wrote PJ Media’s Matt Margolis.

“A lesbian can’t be a woman attracted to other women because of non-binary people, but a gay man can still be a ‘gay man.’ Why is that? How does this make any sense?” Margolis asked. “Why is it that transgender ideology is so anti-woman? Haven’t you noticed that women tend to be the victims of transgenderism?”

Twitter’s Patriot Chick noted the same theme, writing, “Aa and…the final goal of Transgender Ideology…erasing women. We now have 2 genders: MAN and NONMAN.”

Johns Hopkins, as predicted, offered an escapist explanation for its original definition and its decision to scrap the revised terminology, claiming that the glossary “is not intended to serve as the definitive answers as to how all people understand or use these terms,” Megan Christin, the university’s director of strategic communications, told NBC News.

“While the glossary is a resource posted on the website of the Johns Hopkins University Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), the definitions were not reviewed or approved by ODI leadership and the language in question has been removed pending review,” the university spokesperson waffled.

“If it’s destroying anything, it’s the reputation it has built up,” one commentator said of Johns Hopkins initial decision and its subsequent revision. “To describe it as ‘prestigious’ has become untrue. Now just a scheme for robbing the young.”

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