DOJ Uses Orange-Tipped Guns as ‘Evidence’ to Keep Alleged Pentagon Leaker Caged

Ken Silva
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DOJ Uses Orange-Tipped Guns as ‘Evidence’ to Keep Alleged Pentagon Leaker Caged

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Arguing that alleged Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira should remain in pretrial detention, the Department of Justice has claimed that law enforcement found an “arsenal of weapons” where the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman lives—including AR- and AK-style weapons, and a “bazooka.”

However, the photos the DOJ has submitted as evidence tell a different story. The firearms pictured in Teixeira’s room have orange tips—the hallmark of an airsoft gun—and there’s certainly no bazooka apparent.

The DOJ said that the ATF has seized Teixeira’s guns, while the Guardsman’s father was permitted to keep his weapons. No charges were levied in relation to the alleged bazooka, which is illegal.

Teixeira’s public defenders did not address the DOJ’s bazooka claims in their response filed Thursday, nor did they mention the fact that the weapons pictured in DOJ’s evidence have orange tips. They did accuse prosecutors of ignoring the “blatant evidence demonstrating that those firearms were lawfully owned and properly stored and locked amidst his belongings.”

The public defenders, Brendan Kelley and Allen Franco, asked Magistrate Judge David Hennessy to allow Teixeira to live with his father during the upcoming criminal proceedings.

“The government cannot demonstrate that Mr. Teixeira is currently a risk of flight or obstruction, let alone a risk that could be considered ‘serious,’” the defense attorneys argued. “In the alternative, if the Court finds that such a serious risk does exist, Mr. Teixeira is still entitled to release because there are a set of conditions available that will reasonably assure his presence at trial and his compliance with court rules.”

Judge Hennessy did not immediately rule on the bail hearing. Teixeira remains in custody while the judge “takes the matter under advisement.”

Teixeira has been a divisive figure in American politics since his arrest earlier this month, for numerous reasons.

The Pentagon documents he’s accused of leaking have exposed that the U.S. has special forces in Ukraine, that U.S. officials are spying on their allies and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had plans to attack Russian territory.

But instead of being hailed as a whistleblower, mainstream media outlets and Democrat politicians have accused him of being a traitor. The New York Times and government-funded publication Bellingcat went as far as help the FBI identify Teixeira as the alleged leaker.

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

‘Insane’: Biden Energy Sec. Torched for Proposing All-Electric Vehicles for Military

Luis Cornelio
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‘Insane’: Biden Energy Sec. Torched for Proposing All-Electric Vehicles for Military

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is under fire after saying before the Senate Armed Services Committee that she wants the U.S. military to adopt an all-electric vehicle fleet by 2030. 

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, asked if she supported the leftist proposal, to which Granholm replied affirmatively. 

“I do and I think we can get there as well,” the secretary claimed. “And I do think that reducing our reliance on the volatility of globally traded fossil fuels where we know that global events, such as the war in Ukraine, can jack up prices for people back home—it does not contribute to energy security.” 

Granholm doubled-down on her policy proposal, declaring that, “I think energy security is achieved when we have homegrown, clean energy that is abundant, like you see in Iowa. We think we can be a leader globally in how we have become energy independent.” 

Ernst, along with other senate Republicans, has been extremely vocal in their despise of the Biden administration’s energy policies. 

“This administration has become so beholden to the far left, all these Green New Deal climate ideologists and extremists,” Ernst warned at a March press conference. “And what they are so fixated on in this administration is making sure that everybody is driving an electrical vehicle.” 

In 2022, the Iowa senator successfully included a provision to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that bans the sourcing of electric vehicle parts from countries that use child or slave labor, Breitbart reported. 

However, this has not stopped President Joe Biden from greenlighting leftist environmental proposals through executive orders. On April 21, for instance, Biden ordered all federal agencies to “advance environmental justice.” The Biden White House later touted an “Environmental Justice Scorecard,” which was dubbed as “the first government-wide assessment of federal agencies’ efforts to advance environmental justice.” 

Republicans have warned that an all-electric vehicle fleet in the U.S. military would likely cost the taxpayer billions of dollars, and took to Twitter to torch Granholm’s comments. 

“Is Jennifer Granholm insane?” Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, said in a fiery tweet. “Or does she want our military completely and utterly DESTROYED!? 

“This is also the same Secretary Granholm who admitted that, by 2050, 4 in 5 new vehicles sold in the United States would be powered by liquid fuels,” Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, said via Twitter. 

One Twitter user mocked Granholm, asking: “will war theaters provide us charging stations.”

Gov. Hobbs Lauds Brittney Griner, Who Said It’s a ‘Crime’ to Ban TransMen from Women’s Sports

Mark Pellin
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Gov. Hobbs Lauds Brittney Griner, Who Said It’s a ‘Crime’ to Ban TransMen from Women’s Sports

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Home safe from a Biden-approved prisoner exchange for a notorious Russian arms dealer, WNBA baller and LGBT activist Brittney Griner used her first public press conference in five months to declare that it’s a “crime” to protect women from competing against biological males who think they’re women.

After being asked by an ESPN reporter to comment on some states banning transgender athletes from competing against biological women, Griner wasted no time turning political, pushing the aggressive pro-trans agenda favored by the Biden regime that brought her home from a Russian prison, after she was caught with illegal drugs, while other Americans rotted in cells.

“I mean, that ranks high on the list of things that I’ll be fighting for and speaking up against,” Griner said of defending trans athletes. “You know, everyone has, everyone deserves the right to play, everyone deserves the right to come here, sit in these seats and feel safe and not feel like there’s a threat or they can’t be who they are or like it’s just all eyes on them.”

Griner, who also said she wouldn’t be playing ball overseas again unless it was for the U.S. Olympic team, declared it a “crime” to not let trans athletes compete on what a growing body of science shows is an uneven playing field against biological women.

Griner conveniently skipped any mention of biological females who have been seriously injured playing against trans athletes, or those who have lost competitions to the same.

“Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous,” said Payton McNabb, a female high school volleyball player who suffered a concussion and life-altering neck trauma after being ball-spiked in the face “by a transgender athlete on the opposing team.”

McNabb spoke earlier this month to North Carolina lawmakers who are trying to pass the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.

“I may be the first to come before you with an injury, but if this doesn’t pass, I won’t be the last,” she warned lawmakers.

Griner said it would be criminal to protect female athletes from biological men.

“So, I think it’s a crime, honestly, to separate someone for any reason,” Griner claimed. “So, I definitely will be speaking up against those, that legislation, and those laws that are trying to be passed for sure.”

Arizona’s installed Democrat governor, Katie Hobbs, offered high praise for Griner, who plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury.

North Carolina state Sen. Joyce Krawiec, a Republican who cosponsored the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, disagreed with Griner’s reasoning.

“We want to protect women’s sports,” Krawiec said. “We want our women and our girls to be able to compete against each other, and may the best girl or woman win.”

The state’s Senate on Thursday approved the bill, which has already passed the House with minor differences and is expected to be successfully reconciled. The GOP-controlled legislature with a veto-proof majority would forward the bill to Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper, a radical LGBT leftist.

‘Not Enough’: These Four Republicans Slammed McCarthy’s Debt Bill 

Luis Cornelio
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‘Not Enough’: These Four Republicans Slammed McCarthy’s Debt Bill 

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) House Republicans passed on Wednesday the Limit, Save, Grow Act to raise the debt ceiling and partially limit the federal government’s spending. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., championed the bill as a warning to President Joe Biden’s massive government spending. Four Republicans disagreed, joining Democrats, who all voted against the bill but for different reasons, in an effort to thwart the legislation.  

The bill, which came to fruition after several weeks of negotiations between the House GOP, seeks to push government spending to 2022’s levels, Newsweek reported. But Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Ken Buck, R-Colo., warned that the bill did not go far enough to cut spending. 

“Whether you drive off a cliff at 60 miles per hour or 80 miles per hour, the end result is the same: a horrific crash,” Biggs said in a press statement. “That’s what we’re presented with today. The Limit, Save, Grow Act is touted to ‘save’ $4.8 trillion. In reality, it merely reduces the 2033 projected national debt from $52 trillion to around $47 trillion.” 

Burchett said he had never voted to raise the debt ceiling “no matter who was in charge,” adding that “our country is nearly $32 trillion in debt right now.”  

Slightly differing from his colleagues who voted against the bill, Buck called the McCarthy-led legislation a “step in the right direction,” but also warned it “does not do enough to rein in the federal government’s reckless spending.” 

Gaetz, who has been vocally anti-McCarthy, credited House Republicans for attempting to cut spending but said the bill still has a bad ending.

“This plan will increase America’s debt by $16 trillion over the next ten years,” he said on a press statement. “Gaslighting nearly $50 trillion in debt to America is something my conscious cannot abide at this time.” 

“House Republicans just delivered a plan that will address the country’s debt crisis,” McCarthy boasted on a press release. “Our conference came together to pass the only plan in Washington that will tackle the debt ceiling, stop excessive federal spending and inflation, and put our country back on track for sustained economic growth.” 

The bill is expected to be rejected by the Democrat-led U.S. Senate with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer calling it “dead on arrival.” 

“These measures, and they’re truly extreme, have no place in a debate about avoiding default,” Schumer said Wednesday during a speech on the U.S. Senate floor. “I urge Speaker McCarthy to stop wasting any more time on this DOA, dead on arrival, bill. Time is running out for Congress to work together to avoid catastrophe.” 

Biden refused to meet with McCarthy to debate the debt ceiling. “I’m happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended,” Biden said Wednesday when asked by reporters on the debt ceiling. “That’s not negotiable.” 

Planned Parenthood Murdered Nearly 375,000 Unborn Babies in 2022

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Planned Parenthood Murdered Nearly 375,000 Unborn Babies in 2022

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Planned Parenthood murdered almost 375,000 unborn children in 2022, setting another record for the organization’s elective abortions as the leading cause of death for children in the United States.

The multi-billion baby-murdering industry released its new annual report this week, in which the organization stated that PP murdered 374,155 children last year amid receiving $670.4 million in government grants and reimbursements, which is an increase of about 5.8% from the previous year. According to the Daily Wire, PP performed 1,025 abortions daily or terminated a baby every 84 seconds.

In his National Review article, Dr. Michael New, a self-described conservative Catholic professor and researcher, wrote that PP recorded the second-most abortions performed by the organization in its history, which represent approximately 40% of abortions last year in the U.S.    

“This is unsurprising,” he said.

Guttmacher Institute estimated that last year just under 1 million unborn children were murdered in their mothers’ wombs, with fewer than half of the abortions performed by PP. 

Pro-life advocates are not very surprised about the numbers, considering that Joe Biden — the supposed Catholic — repealed the Trump administration’s Protect Life Rule. This allowed PP to become eligible for more Title X grants from the government.

Last year, abortion data revealed that less than 5% of abortions that were performed in cases of rape, incest or the risk to the mother’s life or health or a fetal abnormality. That means that 95% of times when a unborn baby was murdered, it was because of “elective or unspecified reasons.”

Lila Rose, founder and president of the pro-life organization Live Action, responded to the latest numbers released by the organization.

“Planned Parenthood just released their annual report. They are killing an unprecedented number of babies, and have cornered a full 40% of the US abortion market. They kill 1,025 boys and girls every day. Horrific,” she said.

“Shut. Them. Down.”

Former Ark. GOP Gov. Hutchinson Enters Presidential Race

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Former Ark. GOP Gov. Hutchinson Enters Presidential Race

(Kim Jarrett, The Center Square) Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson aimed at President Joe Biden’s policy in his Wednesday announcement as a 2024 presidential candidate and did not mention his Republican opponents directly.

“In this campaign for president, I stand alone in terms of my experience, my record, and leadership from Congress to the DEA to homeland security,” Hutchinson said in Bentonville. “I have served our country in times of crisis.”

Hutchinson mentioned the economy first and blamed Biden for the higher inflation and interest rates.

“The Biden administration has turned its back on the American worker,” Hutchinson said. “To turn our economy around, we have to stop the ‘break the bank’ federal spending that has led to high inflation and rising interest rates.”

The former federal prosecutor aimed at both parties when addressing the national debt.

“Both Democratic and Republican administrations bear responsibility for our current $31 trillion national debt,” Hutchinson said. “I would like to say we would be debt free in ’33. Well, it might take longer than that.”

Hutchinson said he backed law enforcement, including federal agents.

“The argument to defund police is designed to undermine our rule of law,” Hutchinson said. “We should not defund the police. We should not defund the FBI. But we do need serious reform to re-function the core functions of federal law enforcement.”

Hutchinson enters an already crowded field for the Republican primary led by former President Donald Trump. Radio host and commentator Larry Elder, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy top the list as other announced candidates. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is also exploring a possible run. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is often mentioned as a candidate but he has not announced his intentions.

Hutchinson did not mention Trump in his campaign announcement but has said previously he doesn’t think Trump should run if he were indicted. A New York grand jury indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Biden formally announced his candidacy early Tuesday morning.

GDP Report: U.S. Economic Growth Slows

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GDP Report: U.S. Economic Growth Slows

(Casey Harper, The Center Square) The U.S. economy is growing at a slower pace, newly released economic data shows.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis released Gross Domestic Product Data Thursday that showed the size of the U.S. economy increased by 1.1% in the first quarter of 2023, more slowly than the previous quarter.

Last quarter, GDP increased by 2.6%.

“The increase in real GDP reflected increases in consumer spending, exports, federal government spending, state and local government spending, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by decreases in private inventory investment and residential fixed investment,” the BEA said. “Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased…”

Democrats celebrated the growth as evidence the U.S. is not in a recession, but the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to continue raising interest rates to combat inflation, which will likely slow economic growth further.

“Overall the economy is a little below what CBO forecast prior to the pandemic. But that is not surprising given that the pandemic did lasting damage to the economy,” Jason Furman, an economist and Harvard professor, wrote on Twitter. “Plus it is well within the rounding error of the pre-pandemic forecast.”

Americans did see their personal savings and disposable income increase.

“Disposable personal income increased $571.2 billion, or 12.5 percent, in the first quarter, compared with an increase of $403.0 billion, or 8.9 percent, in the fourth quarter,” BEA said.

“Real disposable personal income increased 8.0 percent in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 5.0 percent in the fourth. Personal saving was $946.2 billion in the first quarter, compared with $758.8 billion in the fourth quarter. The personal saving rate—personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income—was 4.8 percent in the first quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the fourth.”

Regulators Knew SVB Was in Trouble Since 2021, Did Nothing

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Regulators Knew SVB Was in Trouble Since 2021, Did Nothing

(Casey Harper, The Center Square) A closer look at the months leading up to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, the second-largest bank collapse in history, shows that regulators saw the warning signs since last year but did not step in.

SVB’s collapse sent shockwaves through the markets, destabilized the economy, and raised fears of a domino effect of other banks. Seemingly backing those fears, other banks have recently collapsed as well.

House Oversight Republicans are now reporting that the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco was well aware of SVB’s problems beginning in 2021 but did little to address them.

“SF Fed appears to have failed to adequately supervise SVB and respond to the bank’s mismanagement, ultimately leading to SVB’s seizure by federal regulators – the second largest bank failure in U.S. history – and threatening a panic in our banking system,” House Oversight Republicans, led by Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a letter to to the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, kicking off an investigation into the regulator’s role in the collapse.

The letter lays out troubling details about SF Fed’s oversight of the troubled bank, showing that at least six “Matters Requiring Attention” were filed against the bank, but these were citations that did not require the bank to change.

“These warnings, dating back to at least November 2021, are not public and reports outline that SVB was under full supervisory review by the SF Fed as early as July 2022,” the letter said, adding that “at the end of 2022, almost 96 percent of deposits held at SVB were uninsured, making the bank susceptible to a run.”

“While the signs of significant and alarming risk were clear, no regulator used more severe tools, such as fines or consent orders, to require action from SVB,” the lawmakers added.

The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank declined to comment.

Critics have also blasted the Biden administration’s role in bailing out SVB, saying the bank’s well-connected board, many of whom were Democrat donors, received special attention.

“Silicon Valley Bank was bailed out by Biden because many of the customers were well connected,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. “This is deeply concerning for every American who doesn’t have a direct line to the Oval Office.”

The Federal Reserve is expected to give a full report on SVB’s collapse at the beginning of May.

Congress Members Want Answers about Chinese ‘Police Stations’ in the U.S.

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Congress Members Want Answers about Chinese ‘Police Stations’ in the U.S.

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) In a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray, congressional members on the U.S. Select Committee on the Chinese Community Party expressed concerns about the FBI potentially not knowing about Chinese “police stations” operating in the U.S. They also asked Wray to provide information about the FBI’s efforts to investigate Chinese transnational repression in America.

The committee received a classified briefing on March 30 after requesting information on Feb. 24. However, the briefing didn’t answer their questions, prompting them to formally ask 12 questions they want answered in writing. They also expect to have another classified briefing once they receive additional information.

U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., led a coalition of 12 members who signed the letter.

In the letter, sent Wednesday, they cite a September 2022 report published by the Madrid, Spain-based nongovernmental organization Safeguard Defenders, which explains how the PRC uses “illicit methods to harass, threaten, intimidate and force targets to return to China for persecution.” The PRC does this using officers working in at least 102 “Chinese Overseas Police Service Centers” or “police stations” in 53 countries, the organization said, adding that the agents are engaging in “persuasions to return” operations designed to “intimidate and force targets to return to China for persecution.”

The report cites a Chinese report on the PRC State Council Overseas Chinese Affairs Office in 2014 announcing its plans to establish 60 police stations worldwide. Since then, 46 centers have been identified in 40 countries, according to the Safeguard Defenders report. As of 2018, these offices were operating in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver in Canada and in San Francisco, Houston, Minnesota and Nebraska in the U.S.

Months after Safeguard Defenders publicized its report, the Department of Justice announced it arrested two Chinese operatives in New York City on April 17 “in connection with opening and operating an illegal overseas police station in lower Manhattan, New York, for a provincial branch of the Ministry of Public Safety (MPS) of the People’s Republic of China.”

The DOJ later announced that it filed at least 44 criminal complaints against Chinese nationals who were “at large” for allegedly committing crimes against American citizens or residents on behalf of the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Public Security and were operating Chinese “police stations” in New York City.

However, committee members raised concerns, saying, “According to the DOJ, the FBI did not conduct a search of the secret police station until October 2022—a month after the Safeguard Defenders report—raising concerns that the FBI was unaware of the illegal operation prior to the public reporting.”

In February, the committee asked the FBI to answer seven questions about its awareness about or investigation of Chinese police stations operating in the U.S. but only received “vague information – virtually all of which could be found in public reporting – which did not address any of the questions,” they said.

The committee is asking the FBI to respond to these and five additional questions in the letter in writing by May 10.

The questions ask if the FBI was aware of the Chinese police stations operating in the U.S. before the Safeguard Defender report, what steps it was taking to investigate their existence and close them, what level of resources they needed to investigate, what roles were the Chinese police stations playing in gathering intelligence information, what was the FBI’s strategy for combating transnational repressions, among others.

“The threat of PRC transnational repression schemes that target U.S. citizens – primarily Chinese Americans – undermines the foundational American principles of freedom and liberty,” they argued, adding that law enforcement agencies must better protect Americans from future threats.

Fox Ratings Tumble in Tucker Carlson Slot after His Firing

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Fox Ratings Tumble in Tucker Carlson Slot after His Firing

(Headline USA) Hundreds of thousands of Fox News viewers are reacting to Tucker Carlson’s firing by abandoning the network in his old time slot — at least temporarily.

Fox drew 1.33 million viewers for substitute host Brian Kilmeade in the 8 p.m. Eastern hour on Wednesday night, putting the network second to MSNBC’s Chris Hayes in a competition Carlson used to dominate, the Nielsen company said.

That’s down 56% from the 3.05 million viewers Carlson reached last Wednesday, Nielsen said. For all of 2022, Carlson averaged 3.03 million viewers, second only to Fox’s The Five as the most popular program on cable television.

Carlson offered his own alternative to Kilmeade on Wednesday, posting a two-minute monologue on Twitter at 8 p.m. By Thursday afternoon, that video had been viewed 62.7 million times, according to Twitter.

Kilmeade had 1.7 million viewers on Tuesday and 2.59 million on Monday, when he told people who hadn’t already heard the news that Carlson would no longer be there.

Carlson had 2.65 million viewers on Friday for what he didn’t know at the time would be his last show on Fox. He was fired on Monday with no explanation given publicly, although there are no shortage of theories — including a former employee’s dubious lawsuit that cited a toxic work atmosphere at his show, offensive statements by Carlson that came out as part of the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox and his reporting on the J6 protests that made the establishment jittery.

The ratings slump echoes what happened at Fox following the 2020 election, when many viewers angered by the network’s crucial election night declaration that Joe Biden had won Arizona followed then-President Donald Trump’s advice to seek alternatives. That caused tremendous angst behind the scenes at Fox, which was illustrated in documents released as part of the Dominion case.

Asked for comment, Fox responded with a statement noting that Fox has been cable news’ most-watched network for 21 years with its team “trusted more by viewers than any other news source.”

In the wake of Carlson’s firing, viewing at the conservative network Newsmax has shot up for Eric Bolling, who hosts a show in the same 8 p.m. Eastern slot.

For example, Bolling had 510,000 viewers Wednesday night, compared to 168,000 on Wednesday a week ago, Nielsen said. On Tuesday, Bolling had 562,000 viewers, up from 122,000 the same day a week earlier.

The challenge for Newsmax will be making it last. Fox surged again following Biden’s inauguration as president, and Newsmax couldn’t keep up the momentum.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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