Judicial Watch Sues for Records Linking Clinton and FBI Lawyers

Ben Sellers
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‘The corrupted FBI owes Americans total transparency on this scandal…’

Perkins Coie / IMAGE: screenshot via Youtube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) As it continues its independent investigation into the collusion between the Hillary Clinton campaign and Obama-era intelligence agencies, Judicial Watch is suing for records between the lawyers of the two concerned parties over the notorious Steele Dossier.

Previous testimony from chief FBI counsel James Baker revealed that he had met with Michael Sussmann, a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm, which represented both the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The two lawyers, who maintained a personal connection outside their professional capacities, offered one of several inroads that blurred the line between politics and law-enforcement using deep-state, partisan bureaucrats within the DOJ and other agencies.

Reeling from multiple scandals of its own, the Clinton campaign sought to persuade the FBI and others to legitimize its narrative of collusion between opponent Donald Trump and Russia by launching an investigation and then leaking to the media.

The recently submitted Mueller Report determined that there was no such collusion, but it nonetheless created a significant hindrance for Trump as he sought to pursue his presidential agenda.

“This lawsuit aims to fully expose the scandalous collusion between the Obama FBI and the Clinton–DNC political operation to target Hillary Clinton’s political opponent, Donald J. Trump,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

“The corrupted FBI owes Americans total transparency on this scandal.”

Baker and Sussmann met in September 2016, a month before the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court approved a warrant to spy on the Trump campaign.

Baker testified that, during their meeting, Sussmann—a former Justice Department attorney—gave him “documents and a thumb drive related to Russian interference in the election, hacking and possible Trump connections,” according to a Judicial Watch release.

Perkins Coie had contracted with the left-leaning opposition-research firm Fusion GPS, which had on its payroll British ex-MI6 operative Christopher Steele.

The FBI previously had Steele under contract as an intelligence asset, but it was forced to cut its ties after he was revealed to have leaked directly to the media.

Former FBI General Counsel Under Investigation for Leaking Classified Information
FBI lawyer James A. Baker/IMAGE: Fox News via Youtube

In addition to having Clinton’s lawyers capitalize on the collegial link between Sussman and Baker, Fusion hired Nellie Ohr, the wife of Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, to conduct research into Russia.

Together, the Ohrs provided another backdoor channel through which the Clinton team supplied the FBI with the now-debunked claims about Russian collusion.

Bruce Ohr’s position with the DOJ ensured that the salacious, unvetted information Steele provided made it into the top ranks of the FBI, including then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

Attorney General William Barr last week pledged to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Russia fakery and domestic espionage, while Sen. Lindsey Graham, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is also launching his own probe.

The current Judicial Watch lawsuit is in response to an unanswered Freedom of Information request submitted last October seeking essentially all of the electronic records of correspondence between Baker and Sussman from 2016.

The lawsuit was announced as part of a flurry of recent Judicial Watch activity, which has been pressing for transparency not only in the FBI spying scandal, but also in Clinton’s attempt to cover up her private e-mail server and the intelligence agencies’ leaking of information to left-friendly media outlets.

The government accountability watchdog also announced on Tuesday that it was seeking the records related to the FBI’s payment of Steele during the 2016 campaign.

Pocahontas’s Plan Would Restore Obama’s Massive Land-Grab

Ben Sellers
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‘Does she think she’s part Navajo now?’

Elizabeth Warren Wars Against Dem 'Centrists' at Nutty Netroots Conference
Elizabeth Warren/IMAGE: YouTube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., may be most notable for her zeal to nationalize privately-owned commercial interests and for her past appropriation of American Indian heritage.

In a recent announcement, she found a way to do both at once.

Warren outlined her official public-lands plan Monday in a blog post via Medium.

In it, she pledged to re-instate one of Obama’s twilight executive fiats, turning roughly 2 million acres of private or state-owned property around Utah’s Bear’s Ears National Monument into federally controlled parkland.

One of President Donald Trump’s early acts was to restore the park’s original boundaries, noting that the U.S. Antiquities Act directed the federal government to appropriate the bare minimum of private lands needed in its preservation efforts.

The area taken by Obama had value not only to the cattle ranchers and farmers who occupied it, but also for its largely undeveloped uranium and fossil-fuels deposits.

Obama claimed to be using his authority to preserve the grounds of certain Navajo Indian tribes—even though many never asked for it.

While some environmental activist groups had pushed for the land grab under the auspices that it was sacred Indian territory, other people with actual ties to the region said the claim on an area outside reservation boundaries was at best tenuous.

San Juan County Commissioner Bruce Adams mocked Warren for hopping on the bandwagon, reported the Deseret News.

“Does she think she’s part Navajo now?” he asked.

Adams said nearly 70 percent of the lands in Utah already were under federal government control and that the derision of Warren was justified by her record. He said he was “making fun of her because she’s not honest.”

In fact, the Obama theft was welcomed by very few of those living in the area, said Leland Pollock, Garfield County Commission chairman.

Pollock criticized Warren for being out of touch with the community.

“She has no idea what she’s talking about,”  he said. “Elizabeth Warren would be the worst thing that would ever happen to public lands, I can tell you that right now.”

He added that Trump took action to restore the original boundaries at the request of the Utah governor, state legislature and other elected officials.

Trump Exec Order May Make Short Work of Obama Monument Designation
Bear’s Ears/Photo by Jeffrey Beall (CC)

“It’s nonsense to say the state of Utah didn’t want this. We asked for this,” Pollock said.

“This is not a communist country. You have to rely on what’s made this country great, and that is your elected officials.”

Warren, a co-sponsor of the Green New Deal bill that failed in the U.S. Senate, said federal oversight of the energy-rich land was crucial to enacting a full-fledged government takeover of the industry.

Her plan outlined a complete moratorium on any new drilling leases, including offshore and public lands.

“My administration will make it a priority to expedite leases and incentivize development in existing designated areas,” she said.

While one of Trump’s greatest successes thus far was attaining U.S. energy independence and even exporting energy resources, Warren’s rollback would have a crippling effect on the energy sector and likely cause prices to skyrocket.

That may be exactly the goal.

“Any serious effort to address climate change must include public lands ,” Warren said. “[F]ossil fuel extraction in these areas is responsible for nearly a quarter of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.”

Keeping with the Green New Deal’s controversial framework for achieving a net-zero balance of carbon emissions, Warren said she intended to convert the confiscated lands into wind turbines and solar panels that would allow for 10 percent of the country’s electricity to come through federally-run, renewable energy sources.

Of course, since the risky and expensive venture would be secured by taxpayers, Warren said she would be willing to “share royalties from renewable generation with states and local communities to help promote economic development and reduce local dependence on fossil fuel revenues.”

Fortunately, in the unlikely event that Warren were elected, her anti-pipeline aspirations may still be pipe dreams, said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Western Energy Alliance.

Both Congress and the courts have shown greater backbone in resisting executive orders than they did during the initial Obama land-grab.

That could present new challenges for Warren if consumer demand for affordable energy does not drastically decrease.

“She’s just parroting talking points from the environmental lobby and displays no actual knowledge of public lands issues,” Sgamma said. “Just banning it on public lands is not making that energy demand go away.”

Banking CEOs Face Troubled Waters at Bizarre House Financial Hearing

Ben Sellers
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‘Democrats’ barbs largely miss[ed] the mark or revealing a surprising lack of knowledge of the business of the big banks…’

Furious Maxine Waters Resents Making 'America Great Again'
Maxine Waters/IMAGE: Twitter

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) One of President Donald Trump’s go-to targets for political lampooning prior to last year’s election, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., has maintained a relatively low profile since taking over as chair of the House Financial Services Committee in January.

A recent hearing with the top executives from the nation’s seven biggest banks may help explain the silence: It seems Waters—and several other committee Democrats—are in way over heads.

“It was a disappointing day for anyone hoping Democrat House oversight of the banking industry might shed some light onto the risks and operations of America’s too-big-to-fail banks,” wrote Breitbart’s John Carney.

Following the ironic and amusing recent take-down of the Green New Deal by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Democrats have seethed that the GOP is unfairly mocking them and making hay of the Left’s outrageous rhetoric.

But Wednesday’s Financial Services hearing proved decisively that the Democrats, themselves, are their own worst enemy.

Many on the committee eschewed actual lines of inquiry to score political points over irrelevant matters like Russia collusion (which Waters asked about) and slavery reparations (Rep. Al Green, D-Texas).

“[M]uch of the questioning fell flat, with Democrats’ barbs largely missing the mark or revealing a surprising lack of knowledge of the business of the big banks,” Carney wrote.

Waters spent a portion of her allotted time at the hearing Wednesday grilling CEOs about the student loan crisis—a total debt of about $1.5 trillion nationwide that many borrowers wind up defaulting on.

The only problem was, the banks have nothing to do with the issue since President Barack Obama nationalized the student-loan industry 10 years ago.

The wasteful hearing—clocking in at nearly seven hours, including recesses—prompted a testy exchange late in the day between Waters and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin after the latter requested to leave before the session had closed.

As the hearing dragged on past 5:30 p.m., Mnuchin—who said he had been sitting there for more than three hours—had another appointment with a foreign dignitary waiting in his office. Although he offered to reschedule for another time, Waters said that he already was expected to appear twice more in May.

Nonetheless, Waters may have come off as one of the more competent of the House Democrats on the panel.

Once a key figure in the “Impeach 45” movement, on which she campaigned heavily, Waters has since been eclipsed on her own committee by radical Democratic upstarts like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-NY, and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.

A press release sent out afterward by the committee Democrats even went so far as to trumpet the absurdity.

Among the inquisition’s more bizarre moments, as noted by the Democrats themselves:

Top Environmentalist Groups Aren’t Backing Ocasio-Cortez’s ‘Green New Deal’
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez/IMAGE: screenshot via Twitter

• Financial ethics: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez—who has been embroiled in her own scandal after claims of illicitly hiding campaign contributions in a private slush-fund account and dodging taxes on a children’s book publishing business—accused Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat of having a callous disregard for financial regulations.

“Mr. Corbat, is a cost-benefit analysis that weighs the cost of government fines versus the potential financial upside of potentially breaking the law—does that factor into controversial decision making around misconduct at your bank?”

• Gun laws: After a lengthy lecture about gun violence, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, used the balance of her five minutes calling on the banks to prevent legal businesses from operating and potentially violate Second Amendment rights by demanding that they adopt “a formal policy that ensures responsible lending in your bank’s business with the gun industry”.

• Illegal immigration: Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., asked a question about illegal immigrants who maintain residency status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy: “I want to ask you first and then go down the line—one, if you hire them; and, secondly, if you help them in their renewals.”

• Women’s lib: Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., who created a delay by attempting to use a whiteboard in violation of committee rules, said banks had done an inadequate job of helping women: “Goldman Sachs’ big initiative is to help 10,000 [women]. Is this initiative missing a few zeros?”

• Slave reparations: Rep. Al Green asked, “Do you believe that your bank benefited from slavery in some way in terms of its business practices?”

Omar Brushes Off 9/11 Controversy: ‘We Are Not There to Be Quiet’

Ben Sellers
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‘Everyone else’s truth is allowed, but my truth can never be…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) A new crisis over statements by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that downplayed the 9/11 terrorist attacks drew condemnation from conservative media on Wednesday, as even Democrats expressed increasing concerns over having to defend her rhetoric.

The New York Post ran a front page story criticizing Omar—a Muslim refugee originally from Somalia—for remarks she made last month while speaking at a fundraiser for the Council of American-Islamic Relations. The comments only recently surfaced on social media.

“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something, and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” Omar said.

In the speech, Omar also reportedly called on Muslims to “make people uncomfortable” through their activism.

Responding to the controversy, “Fox and Friends” host Brian Kilmeade observed Wednesday, “You have to wonder if she’s an American first.”

‘As American As Everyone Else…’

But during her first visit to “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on Wednesday night, Omar spent much of the time throwing herself a pity party while deflecting blame for the inflammatory rhetoric.

She said that the only reason she faced criticism for her comments, including recent bipartisan rebukes of anti-Semitic statements, was the fact that she, herself, is a victim of bigotry.

“If you think about, you know, historically, where our nation is at right now, there are many members of our community that, their identities are a lightning rod—they’ve become—they’re being used as a political football,” she said.

“We are talking about immigrants, we are talking about refugees, women of color—people of color—minorities … Muslims specifically,” Omar continued. “And I just happen to embody all of those identities—and so it’s easy for this to be kind of self-explanatory.”

Departing from his usual flippancy, host Stephen Colbert appeared somber and cautious to avoid broaching the 9/11 comments directly, but he pressed Omar on whether she was being used as a “cudgel” by political opponents.

Omar responded—without further clarification of her 9/11 comments—that her loyalty was, first and foremost, to the United States.

“I took an oath,” she said. “I took an oath to uphold the Constitution. I am as American as everyone else is.”

Dual-Loyalties and Double-Standards

Omar complained to Colbert about the “double-standard” she faced since “Fox and Friends” was allowed to question her loyalties with impunity while she herself was called out for mere “insinuations” that downplayed the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks and implied that Jewish groups had dual loyalties.

“This kind of double-standard really is quite offensive and is very much embedded in a lot of our culture these days where you will have people come after minorities for things that they say—they might have insinuated,” Omar said.

“But no one goes after people like the folks on ‘Fox and Friends’ that actually say those words,” she added. “It’s not about insinuation, right—they actually said that I might not be an American, my loyalties might not be to this country—but I get called out, they don’t. They get to keep their show.”

It is unclear that Omar has actually faced any consequences yet for her bombastic statements. Although Congress passed a resolution in early March that condemned all forms of hate, the original version, which specifically condemned Omar’s anti-Semitism, was watered down substantially under pressure from the Congressional Black Caucus.

House Democrats Change the Rules, Make It Much Easier to Increase Taxes
Nancy Pelosi/IMAGE: CNN via Youtube

Despite calls for Omar to be removed from a prominent Foreign Relations Committee assignment, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that a forced apology Omar had offered showed sufficient contrition.

However, Jewish leaders in Omar’s Minneapolis district said they had met with her previously to express concerns and were now considering putting forth a primary challenger for her 2020 race.

Omar said she didn’t realize the anti-Semitic stereotypes and rhetoric rooted in hate and prejudices were considered offensive to her adopted culture.

“As I’ve said to my constituents, to my colleagues, when you tell me that you are pained by something that I might say, I will always listen, and I will acknowledge your pain,” she said, before quickly deflecting back to her own victimization over being criticized.

“It’s the same that I expect—and so, when you have people on Fox News that question whether I am actually American or whether I put America first, I expect my colleagues to also say, ‘That’s not OK,’ like they should, and call that out.”

Omar pointed to the unfairness over a recent comment she made attacking White House adviser Stephen Miller, who is Jewish, as a “white nationalist.” She said others in Congress had launched similar race-baiting, ad-hominem attacks but had gone unnoticed.

Colbert expressed his solidarity, saying he also had called Miller a “white nationalist” on his show and not been criticized for it.

“You see this outrage when I speak the truth—everyone else’s truth is allowed, but my truth can never be,” the embattled and downtrodden Islamic radical complained.

Making ‘Good Trouble’

But Omar said even after calls from Pelosi—and a visit from former President Barack Obama—encouraging far-left freshman Democrats to tone it down, she had no intention of doing so.

“I think Nancy knows this very well: Women have been told to go slow and not be seen and not be heard for many years, um—and she wouldn’t have made it to where she is if she did,” Omar said, “and that’s certainly the case for minority women.”

Omar said that she, along with outspoken Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, had been engaging in a sort of modern civil rights battle by rejecting Congressional decorum and protocols.

Tlaib and Omar Sign a Pledge to Impeach Trump
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib / IMAGE: One America News Network

“The three of us, we are people of color,” Omar said. “We are not there to be quiet. We are not there to be invisible. We are there to follow the lead of people like Congressman John Lewis and make good trouble.”

That trouble, however, has even many moderate Democrats concerned that it could prove to be politically costly.

Although largely defensive of Omar’s 9/11 and “white nationalist” remarks, even left-wing CNN fretted on Thursday that Omar was providing fundraising fodder for the GOP.

“In a few months, Omar has displaced Nancy Pelosi as the Republicans’ favorite liberal boogeyman,” it wrote, “a new face the GOP can weaponize in an attempt to depict the entire Democratic party as extreme and out-of-touch.”

It noted the dilemma that the Left—which has long championed identity politics—was facing as Omar’s demagoguery risked alienating Jewish supporters and other traditionally liberal voting blocs.

“Moderate Democrats have been forced to respond to her comments, and the results have been awkward,” CNN said.

“… If Omar intends to stop speaking out, either to deny Republicans the ammunition or to acquiesce to Democratic leadership’s wishes, she shows no signs of doing so,” the article continued.

“She sees her notoriety as a political asset, burnishing her credentials as a fearless speaker of truth to power.”

Fearful NFL Prospect Deletes His Pro-Trump, Anti-Kaepernick Tweets

Ben Sellers
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‘There is a chance I might end up in San Francisco…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa, one of the top picks in the upcoming NFL draft, scrubbed his Twitter account recently of any risque political commentary that might that might enrage social justice warriors or trigger snowflakes.

“I had to,” he told ESPN writer Kevin Van Valkenburg. “There is a chance I might end up in San Francisco.”

Bosa’s stats in three seasons with the Buckeyes included 26 sacks and 51 tackles for loss of yards.

According to Sports Illustrated, the bottom-finishing Arizona Cardinals will likely opt to prioritize their quarterback needs by drafting Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray.

That means Bosa is projected to be the No. 2 draft pick, which would fall to the San Francisco 49ers.

But the team’s talented acquisition may not go over well with some teammates and fans in the Bay Area who continue to rally around the 49ers’ controversial ex-quarterback, Colin Kaepernick.

After Kaepernick drew national attention for leading the NFL’s anthem-kneeling movement, Bosa referred to him on Twitter as “a clown” in August 2016.

Bosa—an NFL legacy following his brother, Los Angeles Chargers DE Joey, and dad, former Miami Dolphins DE John—was also outspoken on social media in support of conservative icons Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.

He posted a picture of the two presidents with the caption “Goats” (an acronym for “Greatest Of All Time”).

Other since-deleted online comments criticized singer Beyonce and the movie “Black Panther.”

However, in recent months, according to ESPN, Bosa has toned it down considerably and become “increasingly bland” while trying to cultivate a more marketable public persona.

NFL Players Coalition Uses $90 Million Anti-Kneeling Settlement to Fund Left-Wing Politically Activity
Eli Harold and Colin Kaepernick / IMAGE: NFL Network via Youtube

Meanwhile, the struggling 49ers finished last season with a 4–12 record, facing growing pains under the direction of new head coach Kyle Shanahan that were compounded early on by a season-ending AFL tear for new starting QB Jimmy Garoppolo.

The team last made it to the Super Bowl in 2012 with Kaepernick at the helm.

But when the aging QB and budding social activist began to see diminishing returns in his play-making, he was benched as the starter in the 2016 season.

He opted out of his 49ers contract the following March.

The 31-year-old Kaepernick went unsigned for the past two seasons, claiming that the cause was team owners’ racism rather than his flagging athleticism and diva attitude.

However, he recently settled a suit against the NFL and continues to fuel rumors of a comeback.

Thus, if the Cards decided to front-load their D-line by drafting Bosa, that could present the possibility—albeit highly unlikely—that he and Kaepernick might even become teammates.

KEN STARR: Hillary WAS Behind Vince Foster’s Death

Ben Sellers
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‘She told him he didn’t get the picture, and he would always be a little hick town lawyer who was obviously not ready for the big time…’

Hillary Clinton Says Trump Will Go On Firing Spree After Midterms
Hillary Clinton/IMAGE: MSNBC via YouTube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Former independent counsel Kenneth Starr—the one-time nemesis of the Clinton family—has now revealed that Hillary Clinton was behind the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster.

But contrary to the many conspiracy theories that have survived a quarter of a century later, Starr—whose investigation determined no evidence of foul play—still maintains that Hillary didn’t pull the trigger.

Instead, Starr acknowledged recently that the then-first lady berated and humiliated Foster, driving him to suicide, according to the Daily Mail.

Foster’s 1993 shooting death in a public park on the outskirts of Washington D.C. unleashed a wave of controversy that marked the arrival of the Clintons on the national stage, less than six months into Bill Clinton’s first presidential term.

As some questioned the forensic reports about where and how he was shot, Foster became one of the earliest entries on an ever-expanding list of Clinton associates who met their demise under suspicious circumstances.

There was speculation that Foster—a friend and colleague of then-First Lady Hillary Clinton from the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas—might have to testify against her as investigators probed the Whitewater real-estate scandal.

Starr’s was the last of several investigations, all of which ruled suicide, determining there was insufficient evidence to call it a murder. On his team was a young future Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh.

But as other scandals mounted, the need to investigate sexual harassment claims against Bill Clinton shifted Starr’s and the public’s focus from Foster’s death, and—out of consideration for his grieving family—the conspiracies went dormant.

The latest revelation comes from investigative journalist Ronald Kessler, who had previously published books about the Secret Service and FBI. It was while interviewing FBI sources for one of the books that he learned the truth.

The clash between Hillary Clinton and Foster occurred a week before his death, during a meeting to discuss the healthcare overhaul that Hillary was overseeing, according to Coy Copeland, one of the FBI agents Kessler interviewed.

Writing for the Daily Mail, Kessler said, “Hillary violently disagreed with a legal objection Foster raised at the meeting and ridiculed him in front of his peers.”

Although Foster may already have been depressed—and was thinking about resigning and returning to Arkansas—the upbraiding, in which Hillary blamed Foster for all of the problems the Clintons were facing, was the final nail in the coffin.

His behavior changed dramatically in the intervening week leading up to his death.

“Hillary put him down really, really bad in a pretty good-size meeting,” Copeland said. “She told him he didn’t get the picture, and he would always be a little hick town lawyer who was obviously not ready for the big time.”

Although the FBI investigators learned about Hillary’s belittlement of Foster, Starr inexplicably kept this out of his final report.

KEN STARR: Hillary WAS Behind Vince Foster's Death
Ken Starr / IMAGE: Face the Nation via Youtube

But Kessler met the former independent counsel at a recent book festival in Maryland and needled him about the undisclosed findings.

Detailing his encounter with Starr, Kessler said he reluctantly copped to not wanting to unnecessarily hurt Hillary Clinton’s feelings.

“At first, he beat around the bush, citing well-established facts indicating that Foster was already depressed before Hillary lashed into him at the White House meeting,” Kessler wrote.

“But when pressed, Starr admitted he ‘did not want to inflict further pain’ on Hillary by revealing that her humiliation of Foster a week before he took his own life pushed him over the edge.”

Kessler said that after Starr’s meticulous investigation into the circumstances and theories surrounding Foster’s death, his decision to leave out such a critical detail remains a mystery.

“No one can explain a suicide in rational terms,” he wrote. “But the FBI investigation concluded that it was Hillary’s vilification of Foster in front of other White House aides—coming on top of his ongoing depression—that triggered the White House official’s suicide.”

In the wake of many other scandals swirling around the Clintons, publicly disclosing that information about the quality of her character may well have shaped the course of history.

Or it at least might have saved a lot of money in costly investigations, Kessler said.

As one FBI supervisor noted, Starr’s one flaw may have been that he was too kind.

“If so, he should not have been a prosecutor and suppressed a key finding of an investigation that cost taxpayers $39.2 million,” Kessler said.

Nadler Wants Full Mueller Report; He Opposed 1998 Starr Release

Ben Sellers
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‘The details … will leak out, because 50 people in this town cannot keep a secret…’

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) There is no shortage of examples when it comes to the Left’s hypocrisy—and the Russia investigation by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been rife with them.

Democrats have called for a fully unredacted version of the report Mueller submitted to Attorney General William Barr, and they’re citing as precedent the 1998 release of Kenneth Starr’s report investigating the sexual misconduct of then-President Bill Clinton.

One of the most vocal in demanding transparency has been Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, who has threatened to use subpoena powers in a bid to obtain the full, unredacted Mueller Report.

But as noted by the NTK Network, Nadler inconveniently was on record arguing against the release of the Starr Report for precisely the reasons that a declassification of the entire Mueller Report seems unlikely.

In arguing against letting the public see the 445-page Starr Report—topping off at more roughly 2,200 pages with appendices—which read like a seedy erotica novel at times, Nadler argued:

    • “It is grossly unfair because, with respect to the 2,200 pages of evidence and the 17 boxes of other evidence, the entire committee on the Judiciary is going to see it, to decide what must be kept confidential and protecting privacy of third parties. That means 50 people are going to see it. It is going to leak out. Those privacy rights are going to be violated. That is ensured by this resolution.”

As the Starr Report’s findings made the impeachment of Clinton seem imminent, Nadler said its release—only two months before the 1998 midterm elections—was “doing everything it can to make the president’s defense as difficult as possible … because 50 people in this town cannot keep a secret.”

Like Nadler, current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also voted against releasing the Starr Report.

The conclusions of the two reports are, of course, one key difference. The prosecutor investigating Clinton’s case was recommending action be taken against the president for perjury and obstruction of justice—leading to only the first impeachment of a president in roughly 130 years. It was, therefore, in the public interest, to know the reasons behind it.

Ultimately, the bid for transparency harmed Congressional Republicans in the Clinton case. Voters, having the full details available, came to regard the impeachment as a political maneuver and punished the GOP in the November midterms.

In the case of Trump, despite repeated efforts by his opponents to file articles of impeachment and seek other ways to remove him from office, all have failed, with the investigation concluding there was no Russian collusion and an insufficient case for obstruction of justice.

BOOK: Bill Sought Monica After Hillary's Health Care Fail
Bill Clinton & Monica Lewinsky/IMAGE: YouTube

Another reason for providing less transparency in the Mueller report may be the subject matter.

While Clinton’s dalliances and lies to the American public may have been embarrassing, they did not relate to the sensitive issue of national security.

By contrast, one thing that both Trump supporters and critics have agreed on is that it details the efforts Russia took to undermine the U.S. election.

There is a compelling case for redacting information that could help Russia’s ongoing efforts to sow discord and undermine the democratic process.

There is also, simply enough, a different set of laws guiding the two separate circumstances.

Mueller, who was appointed special counsel through the Department of Justice, fell subject to DOJ oversight and regulations—including the release of his report to the attorney general.

Starr’s designation as an independent counsel followed a different set of statutes, the now expired Ethics in Government Act of 1978, which required that his report be submitted directly to Congress.

Notwithstanding, many Republicans in the current Congress—as well as President Trump himself—have publicly expressed support for a broader disclosure of the report.

Barr has previously said he hoped to release as much as possible, and on Tuesday the attorney general said a full version, after redactions, would be presented next week.

Clinton Stooge Terry McAuliffe Makes a ‘Full Flop’ on Opposing Va. Infanticide

Ben Sellers
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‘A woman’s life or death may be on the line and, you know, one doctor is as good as three…’

Democrats Celebrate as Health Care System Collapses
Terry McAuliffe/Photo by sharedferret (CC)

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Long known for maintaining friendly ties with the Chinese government, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe tiptoed nearer to endorsing the U.S.’s own variation of a “one child” policy with a recent flip–flop on partial-birth abortions.

McAuliffe—a possible 2020 presidential aspirant closely aligned with the Clinton family—backpedaled recently on comments he made in January that repudiated the practice of infanticide, according to PolitiFact, which ruled his statements a “Full Flop.”

After a controversial bill, proposed by state Sen. Kathy Tran of Fairfax, was defeated by the state’s Republican-led General Assembly, McAuliffe’s successor, current Gov. Ralph Northam, defended the effort—and then some.

The proposed bill would have allowed a single doctor to approve a late-term abortion in the third trimester if the pregnancy was deemed detrimental to a mother’s health. The current standard requires that three physicians must determine “substantial and irremediable” harm to the mother.

Tran had acknowledged during discussion of the bill that it would apply to babies even as they were crowning.

In his defense—shortly before an even bigger scandal involving evidence of racism on his medical school yearbook page—Northam went even farther, implying that there would be justification for “aborting” an infant even after birth at the mother’s wishes.

McAuliffe then said on CNN’s “State of the Union” he thought Northam had misspoken.

“No Democrat I know is for infanticide, none, none,” he said. “I just don’t know of anyone who is for it.”

But after being pressed on the issue in an April 1 interview with a Portsmouth radio show, McAuliffe finally admitted that he, too, would have supported the bill.

Naturally, McAuliffe—a native of New York, which recently passed its own partial-birth law—tried to qualify his support by saying he was championing the rural women of the Old Dominion in places where only one doctor would be available.

“A woman’s life or death may be on the line and, you know, one doctor is as good as three,” said McAuliffe, conceding he had not read the actual bill. “Why do you need three if you’ve got a qualified doctor?”

PolitiFact said a request to McAuliffe’s spokesperson, Crystal Carson, for clarity did little to help. Rather, Carson attempted to deflect and blame Republicans for playing semantic games.

“The only people talking about ‘infanticide’ are anti-choice, anti-women Republicans,” Carson told PolitiFact in an email. “Of course Governor McAuliffe is against ‘infanticide’—any reasonable person would be.”

Carson added that the issue raised in the bill had “nothing to do with that—but instead reduces invasive, medically-unnecessary requirements put on women across the Commonwealth and enables them to make their own health care decisions in consultation with their doctors.”

The recent passage of the New York law invited comparisons with Chinese policies, both from its pro-life opponents and from Chinese immigrants who came to America seeking escape from a culture of forced abortions and other atrocities.

But for McAuliffe, a firm pro-Chinese stance, including his pledge to be a “brick wall” on pro-abortion issues, may help ingratiate him to a key source for funding his campaign.

McAuliffe was implicated as a key player in a Clinton-era scandal to swap nuclear secrets for campaign donations from Chinese donors, which the Independent Sentinel called the “most serious scandal in U.S. history.”

The former bundler and DNC chair also rented out the Lincoln bedroom in the White House to the Chinese and other wealthy donors.

During the Obama era McAuliffe—who also served on the board of the Clinton Foundation—went into business with Hillary Clinton’s brother, Tony Rodham, on a failed business to market green automobiles, but their enterprise was later investigated as a front for providing Chinese donors with permanent residency visas.

FBI Docs Show Clinton’s Private Server Host Concerned with ‘Cover Up’

Ben Sellers
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‘We should probably remove all Clinton files, folders, info off our servers etc. on an independent drive….’

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Hillary Clinton/IMAGE: CBS News via Youtube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) A new release of documents provided to government-accountability guardians Judicial Watch added further support to the long-held suspicions that a concerted cover-up effort occurred to wipe the contents of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

The release of 422 pages of heavily redacted FBI materials, provided under the Freedom of Information Act, showed multiple references to cleaning up and deleting archives from the Clinton email accounts being hosted by Colorado-based Platte River Networks.

In an electronic correspondence dated Dec. 11, 2014, two company staffers appeared to joke about a “cover-up” while referencing the contents of a redacted message from a Chicago wealth management firm, Gresham Partners, LLC.

The message likely related to a change in Clinton’s e-mail retention policy.

“Its all part of the Hilary coverup operation,” it read, followed by a smiley face. “I’ll have to tell you about it at the party.”

It is unclear from the context what specific role Gresham played in managing the email servers. Other wealth-management companies also were involved in contracting with Platte River for the private server, including a New York-based tax attorney overseeing the Clinton Executive Services Corp.

The messages revealed a flurry of efforts, overseen by Hillary’s chief of staff, Cheryl Mills—along with the Clintons’ personal tech advisor and aide, Justin Cooper—to lock down access and “clean up” files in early March 2015, around the time that the news broke publicly of Clinton’s private server.

One March 5 email reads, “[Redacted] going to send over a list of recommendations for us to apply for additional security against hackers. He did say we should probably remove all Clinton files, folders, info off our servers etc. on an independent drive.”

Cooper, known to have played a pivotal role in setting up the server, appeared to be the only male staffer directly associated with the Clinton server at that time, according to Platte River’s Active User lists, which indicated someone with the name “Justin” was an admin for the server.

He was later revealed to have overseen the task of destroying Clinton’s cellular and Blackberry devices by smashing them with a hammer.

“I think it’s practical to not just throw an old device into a garbage receptacle where someone might pick it up and try to use it,” Cooper said in later testimony before Congress.

In addition to the emails, the Judicial Watch release includes handwritten FBI notes from a Feb. 18, 2016 interview with an unidentified staffer at Platte River, pertaining to the bureau’s “Midyear Exam” investigation into the emails.

Two of the company’s tech specialists, Paul Combetta and Bill Thornton, subsequently declined to appear during the Congressional hearings, instead pleading the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination.

The FBI notes referenced the Dec. 11 email about the “Hillary cover up operation” and a work ticket that involved a cleanup of the server’s archive account.

The notes suggested the “cover up” remark likely was related to a change in the email retention policy, which Clinton’s staff directed be switched to 60 days. The tech worker being interviewed did not recall the previous policy.

The Platte River specialists also revealed they had given someone with the Clinton staff live access to the archive account, which was on the server as of January 2015 but seemed to have vanished at some point before the February 2016 interview.

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The March 2015 public revelations about the private server appeared to have triggered a cascade of mixed messages, with Clinton officials formally instructing the Platte River staff to preserve what was on the servers but advising them in a March 25 conference call not to answer questions in reference to a conversation with Clinton attorney David Kendall.

By August 2015, the pressure appeared to be mounting for Platte River to furnish the backups it had.

“So does this mean we don’t have offsite backups currently?” the staffers wrote. “That could be a problem if someone hacks this thing and jacks it up. We will have to be able to produce a copy of it somehow, or we’re in some deep shit.”

However, little remained on the servers themselves after a BleachBit program was used on March 31 to wipe them clean.

Clinton herself later claimed ignorance, responding to an August 2015 question about wiping the servers by saying, “What, like with a cloth or something?”

Mills, who appeared to have directly overseen much of the “cleanup” was not only present for Hillary Clinton’s deposition during the FBI investigation, but was given immunity from prosecution.

That decision widely questioned and criticized as attention turned more to scrutinizing the cover-up efforts within the FBI itself.

House Republicans Lead Investigation Into the Clinton Foundation
Tom Fitton/IMAGE: Fox 10 Phoenix via Youtube

Judicial Watch has led the charge in investigating Clinton’s role in Benghazi and in the email scandal, with several previous document releases available on its website.

The new release helped to “further demonstrate the sham nature of the FBI/DOJ ‘investigation’ of her,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton in a statement.

“These shocking new documents show that various Obama agencies were protecting Hillary Clinton from the consequences of her misconduct. It is well past time for the DOJ to stop shielding Hillary Clinton and hold her fully accountable to the rule of law.”

Following a court order that allowed discovery to include depositions of key figures, Judicial Watch has been in the process of interviewing both Clinton staffers and other officials within the Obama administration on the government role in helping cover up potentially criminal activity.

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee also announced this week that he had recommended eight people to the office of Attorney General William Barr for possible prosecution related to the cover-up efforts of the FBI and other intelligence agencies that were investigating Clinton.

Trump, Coulter and Dems Unite to Bash Departing DHS Sec. Nielsen

Ben Sellers
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‘It was long past time for her to go…’

DHS Sec. Nielsen Defends Trump’s Misstatement on Border Apprehensions 1
Kirstjen Nielsen/IMAGE: YouTube

(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen made it through the November midterm unscathed after speculation had swirled that she would be among several Cabinet-level officials needing to be replaced.

But while the whims of CEO-in-Chief Donald Trump may have contributed to Nielsen’s undoing following a 16-month tenure, it was the onslaught of women and children at the southern border that sealed it.

Trump announced Nielsen’s departure via Twitter over the weekend, elevating Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to the DHS secretary spot.

It was not immediately clear what the direct circumstances were for Nielsen’s exit—although some sources pointed to a possible behind-the-scenes “showdown” on Sunday between Nielsen and the president.

Trump had been critical and undermining of Nielsen in the past, intimating during a Fox News interview last November that replacing her was not entirely off the table.

“I like her very much, I respect her very much,” he said, but “I would like her to be much tougher on the border. Much tougher.”

The announcement came shortly after a trip the president made to survey the wall progress at Calexico, California last week.

During the visit, Trump called on migrants to “turn around” and said the U.S. no longer had room to accommodate them, while also backpedaling on an earlier threat to close the border.

Democrats in Congress were quick to snipe at both Nielsen and Trump in an effort to score political points while continuing to deny any sort of legitimate immigration crisis at the border.

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., welcomed the departure and said it was past overdue.

Others also harped on Nielsen’s role in separating children and parents—a move that was intended to close the “catch-and-release” loophole created by the Flores settlement whereby minors may only be detained for a defined period of 20 days.

That means parents—whether legal or illegal—who are accompanying them may also be released into the U.S.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., criticized Nielsen as being “unqualified” for the job, which she had assumed not long after her DHS boss, John Kelly, became Trump’s chief of staff.

It also seemed unlikely that the next nominee would win the support of Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.

The bigoted misandrist—who previously attacked Nielsen and Press Secretary Sarah Sanders for having “sold their souls” in working for Trump—made clear, even before the president had furnished any names, that she considered every appointment of his to be a dud.

And while no longer politically relevant, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pounced on the opportunity to weigh in.

However, Clinton’s response invited ample calls over her duplicity. While serving as a U.S. senator, she previously voted in favor of policies very similar to Trump’s, such as funding for a physical barrier at the border.

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed into law legislation that was designed to toughen deportation, and was criticized for triggering a “humanitarian crisis.”

Some on the right also celebrated Nielsen’s leaving—notably former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clark and Ann Coulter, a frequent Trump critic, who celebrated the news in a series of tweets while criticizing Nielsen and Trump for failing to build the long-promised border wall.

But others were more prepared to offer empathy to Nielsen for the untenable situation she faced.

Last week, Jeh Johnson, the Obama-era DHS secretary, put the current crisis into perspective on MSNBC’s liberal “Morning Joe.”

“On Tuesday, there were 4,000 apprehensions,” he said. “I know that a thousand overwhelms the system. I cannot begin to imagine what 4,000 a day looks like, so we are truly in a crisis.”

Nielsen’s effective management drew praise from some Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, who worked closely with Nielsen.

Nielsen had been one of the most vocal critics of the political games whereby open-borders advocates have encouraged vulnerable refugees to storm the country en masse and take advantage of the existing legislative loopholes.

For the migrants themselves, this can lead to scenarios including health epidemics, rape, assault, or even being sold into slavery by coyotes and drug cartels along the perilous journey.

Even so, groups like Pueblo Sin Fronteras have pressed onward, organizing caravans of migrants for the express purpose of overwhelming border authorities, and then coaching them to falsely claim asylum to delay the deportation process.

Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have been released in recent months due to the lack of adequate space in detention centers while processing the cases.

After Mexican officials announced last week that the “mother of all caravans” was beginning to form in Central America, Trump cut off funding to three of the worst-offending countries and also threatened to close down the entire border.

He later reversed on the border closure but warned Mexico that he might impose a tariff if it failed to address the illegal immigration problem.

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