Hochul Tells Sheriffs to End ICE Agreements

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Hochul Tells Sheriffs to End ICE Agreements

(Chris Wade, The Center Square) Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is telling county sheriffs they need to end agreements with ICE to honor civil detainer requests for suspected illegal aliens in response to the state’s newly minted restrictions.

In a letter to a dozen sheriffs in Broome, Madison, Nassau, Rensselaer and other counties, Hochul ordered them to terminate their so-called 287(g) agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allow local cops to be deputized by ICE for immigration enforcement. 

Hochul said the federal civil immigration pacts violate newly signed state legislation. The governor demanded that the sheriffs submit documentation verifying that they have terminated the agreements by an Aug. 25 deadline. 

“Nobody is above the law,” the Democrat said in a statement. “In New York, we will not tolerate the diversion of local resources for federal civil immigration enforcement at the expense of public safety.”

Hochul signed the “Local Cops, Local Crimes Act” in May that bans state and local law enforcement agencies from helping the federal government in civil immigration enforcement cases and bans ICE agents from wearing masks during operations.

Attorney General Letitia James warned in the letter that the new Office of Immigrant Trust would take legal action against any local police or sheriff’s department that continued to cooperate with ICE through its Section 287(g) agreements.

“The Office of Immigrant Trust will help ensure that schools, local governments, and public agencies remain places of safety and support, rather than agents of the federal administration’s campaign of fear and intimidation,” James said in a statement.

In June, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against New York state challenging the constitutionality of the new law, which lawyers for the DOJ said would make ICE agents and other federal authorities subject “to criminal penalties” for wearing masks to protect their identities. 

“Law enforcement officers risk their lives every day to keep Amricans safe, and they do not deserve to be doxed or harassed simply for carrying out their duties. New York’s anti-law enforcement policies regulate the federal government and are designed to create risk for our agents,” Attorney General Todd Blanche in statement. “These laws cannot stand.” 

Hochul responded by directing James to file a lawsuit seeking to uphold the new restrictions on immigration enforcement.

The governor’s challenger in the upcoming election, Nassau County Republican Executive Bruce Blakeman has criticized the law and vowed to challenge it in court. His running mate for lieutenant governor, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, was also among those who received a notice from Hochul demanding that they end the ICE agreements.

Education Department Drops Disparate Impact From Title VI Rules

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Education Department Drops Disparate Impact From Title VI Rules

(José Niño, Headline USA) The U.S. Department of Education stripped disparate impact provisions out of its Title VI regulations last week, The College Fix reported, ending federal treatment of race neutral school policies as civil rights violations whenever the resulting numbers break unevenly along racial lines.

The Office for Civil Rights announced the rewrite in a July 23 news release issued under Executive Order 14281.

“Disparate-impact provisions allow demographic data alone to establish that a school violated federal civil rights laws, even if there is no facially discriminatory policy, practice, or discriminatory intent involved,” the department wrote.

Those rules pushed districts into racial balancing to stay in compliance, the department argued, and the rewrite delivers on President Donald Trump’s promise to restore equality of opportunity and meritocracy. Officials singled out the Obama administration for turning the standard into a weapon that forced schools to weigh race in disciplinary decisions.

“A child is so much more than a number in a data set. The left’s notion of ‘equity’ should never prevent teachers from keeping their classrooms and students safe. With these changes, schools will be empowered to address classroom issues without fearing the federal government will weaponize antidiscrimination laws,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said.

As The College Fix noted, the standard has landed hardest on student discipline, a point the Washington Times echoed. National data shows black students drawing suspensions and expulsions at higher rates, and racial justice organizations spent years pressing districts to narrow that gap. The rule was published and took effect immediately, skipping the public comment period.

60 civil rights and educational advocacy groups condemned the department in a letter.

“Today’s action has no basis in law or morality and is further evidence that this administration is determined to undermine our laws, abandon civil rights enforcement, and deny the existence of systemic discrimination,” they wrote in a press release issued by the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund.

Michael Pillera of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law warned that districts will keep policies producing lopsided results once administrators understand Washington will not investigate.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino  

Duffeys Dead in Murder-Suicide after Viral Allegations of Touching Teenager

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Duffeys Dead in Murder-Suicide after Viral Allegations of Touching Teenager

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Shawn Duffey allegedly shot himself and his estranged wife Thursday in a murder–suicide that may have been sparked, in part, by her public allegations calling him a pedophile on TikTok.

Duffey — not to be confused with Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy, who is blissfully married to Fox News star Rachel Campos–Duffy — may have violated an emergency protective order that his victim, 43-year-old Sara Gilson, had requested just six weeks earrlier, The Oklahoman reported.

Police in Owasso, Okla., reported receiving a 911 call at 11:16 p.m. on Thursday and hearing a woman screaming, followed by a gunshot.

A second call came shortly thereafter from Gilson’s son, saying that his stepfather had shot his mother.

Gilson’s first husband and father of her two children, Lyle Landers, said the warning signs had been there since the couple first began dating, according to the New York Post.

“Shawn had been a risk for her since they got together,” said Landers, who separated from Gilson around seven years ago.

“She had been stuck in a relationship where domestic abuse seemed ‘OK,’” Landers added. “I had begged her for five years to get away from him. I had offered to help her, in any way I could, to get away from him. But he seemed to have some sort of control over her, and she couldn’t seem to get away.”

Duffey’s life began to spiral out of control six weeks ago, when he was accused of kissing and fondling one of the 15-year-old players on a girls basketball team he coached.

The girl and her parents promptly filed a police report and obtained a restraining order. Gilson herself obtained one after Duffey “proceeded to threaten suicide and then went on the run.”

Exacerbating matters was the fact that Duffey was a member of the Osage Nation tribe and the incident happened on Indian tribal lands. That triggered federal involvement, with Owasso law enforcement officials referring the “lewd molestation” charge to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

There are no reports of Duffey having violated Gilson’s restraining order prior to Thursday. However, a viral TikTok video that Gilson posted calling her “soon-to-be-ex-husband” a “pedophile” does not seem to have helped ease his volatile state of mind.

Gilson’s video followed a recent trend of clips imitating mock Netflix-style documentaries. In a sad twist of irony, her murder may have helped give it the national exposure she grimly envisioned.

Supporters have set up a GoFundMe in Landers’s name to help his two children with Gilson. As of Monday morning, it had raised $29,485.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Chinese Gold Imports Surged to 2-Year High in June

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Chinese Gold Imports Surged to 2-Year High in June

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Chinese gold imports rose to a two-year high in June as lower prices sparked a resurgence in demand.

According to the latest customs data, China imported 173 tonnes of gold last month, the highest monthly total since March 2024. That follows gold imports of 151 tonnes in May and 157 tonnes in April.

China ranks as the world’s largest gold market.

The international gold price dipped by 7 percent in H1. The price was down even more – 10 percent – in renminbi terms, reflecting yuan strength.

Jinrui Futures Company analyst Zijie Wu told Bloomberg investors buying the price dip were “an important driver of recent demand.” He also noted that Chinese banks were motivated to use up import quotas and stock up on bullion.

“Commercial banks need to build up their inventories to provide the physical backing for retail bullion sales and gold accumulation plans, as well as preserving some safety reserve for when demand spikes.”

A new import licensing regime went into effect June 1, incentivizing importers to exhaust existing quotas.

There has also been a persistent domestic premium for gold in China. That means it’s cheaper for banks and jewelry producers to source gold from the international market.

A Tug of War in Chinese Gold Demand

Chinese gold demand has been bifurcated, with resilient investor buying and a struggling jewelry sector.

Wholesale gold demand rebounded in June, with gold withdrawals from the Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE) rising 36 percent month-on-month to 87 tonnes.

According to the World Gold Council, the month-on-month recovery was primarily driven by opportunistic restocking across the supply chain as the gold price fell, along with healthy coin and bar investment.

However, there is ongoing weakness in the gold jewelry sector, creating headwinds for overall Chinese gold demand.

Through the first half of 2026, wholesalers withdrew 598 tonnes of gold from the SGE. That was down 12 percent year-on-year and 27 percent below the 10-year average. According to the World Gold Council, “While bullion demand remained robust, sustained weakness in jewelry consumption made manufacturers and retailers cautious about replenishing, weighing on overall wholesale gold demand.”

Chinese investors tend to favor physical bullion; however, there has been growing interest in gold ETFs over the last few years.

Despite a large outflow of gold in June, Chinese ETFs added 29 tonnes of metal in H1, the second-strongest start to a year on record. Total assets under management (AUM) rose slightly by 1 percent.

The World Gold Council called Chinese ETF demand “robust amid growing geopolitical and economic uncertainties.”

“Institutional investor participation in Chinese gold ETFs has also risen, supporting demand for these products.”

Total AUM by Chinese ETFs stood at 277 tonnes valued at ¥243 billion ($36 billion) at the end of June.

ETFs are a convenient way for investors to play the gold market, but owning ETF shares is not the same as holding physical gold.

Looking ahead, there is potential for more demand resilience with the gold price being lower. It could boost the jewelry market.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

Goldman Sachs Picks Up on China’s Secret Gold Reserve Expansion

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Goldman Sachs Picks Up on China’s Secret Gold Reserve Expansion

(Mike Maharrey, Money Metals News Service) Goldman Sachs has picked up on the fact that China is expanding its gold reserves far faster than the official data indicates.

This probably comes as a surprise if you only follow mainstream financial news. Goldman is one of the few major financial actors to report on this phenomenon, but we’ve known about it for a long time.

In a recent note, Goldman analysts estimated that China bought more than 48 tonnes of gold in May via the London over-the-counter (OTC) market. The People’s Bank of China only reported a 10-tonne increase to its gold reserves.

In other words, it appears the Chinese increased their gold reserves by 4.8 times the officially reported amount in May.

Based on official numbers, the Chinese central bank added 40 tonnes of gold to its holdings in 2026. This includes a 15-tonne increase in June, the largest official monthly purchase in over two years.

Goldman applied a more conservative 2.0 times multiplier and estimated the Chinese have accumulated closer to 80 tonnes of gold so far this year. If we use the 4.8 times multiplier extrapolated from the May data, Chinese gold reserves have grown by 192 tonnes.

Based on Goldman’s nowcast tool, China bought 67 tonnes of gold per month on a three-month seasonally adjusted average through May.

Faster Than Advertised Expansion of Chinese Gold Reserves No Surprise

It may seem surprising that China is accumulating far more gold than they publicly admit, but it shouldn’t be. People who are paying attention have known this for a long time.

Last year, Money Metals’ researcher Jan Nieuwenhuijs parsed the data and determined that the Chinese central bank covertly bought 570 tonnes of gold in 2024. The People’s Bank of China only reported a 41-tonne increase in its gold reserves that year.

Nieuwenhuijs’s numbers dovetail with Goldman’s.

“Since the Ukraine war began, data show, China’s central bank has been buying roughly five times more gold than what it discloses to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).”

His analysis of formal and informal sources indicated that at the time, the People’s Bank of China was sitting on more than 5,000 tonnes of monetary gold – more than TWICE what the Chinese publicly admit.

The mainstream media has all but ignored this story for years. However, it is starting to see the light of day. Last November, the Financial Times of London reported on the secret expansion of its gold reserves.

“China’s unreported gold purchases could be more than 10 times its official figures as it quietly tries to diversify away from the United States dollar, say analysts, highlighting the increasingly opaque sources of demand behind bullion’s record-breaking rally.”

Now Goldman has joined the party.

However, this secretive Chinese gold accumulation dates back much further than the last three or four years. Analyst Jim Rickards speculated that Chinese gold reserves were far larger than reported in this article published more than a decade ago.

“In mid-2015, China suddenly announced that its gold reserves had increased by 604 tonnes. The total rose from 1,054 tonnes to 1,658 tonnes. Since then, China has updated its gold reserve position monthly (in keeping with IMF criteria). All of these figures are misleading because China keeps several thousand tonnes of gold ‘off the books’ in a separate entity called the State Administration for Foreign Exchange (SAFE). Small amounts are transferred from SAFE to PBOC monthly, and that becomes the basis for the official reserve reports.”

Goldman noted that Chinese gold buying is part of a broader trend of central banks globally expanding reserves. Investing Live summed up the Goldman position.

 “Goldman continues to frame elevated central bank accumulation as a multi-year structural trend tied to reserve diversification away from dollar assets, anchoring its $4,900 per troy ounce end-2026 price forecast. With private portfolio allocations to gold still low, the bank sees room for demand to broaden beyond central banks to private investors if geopolitical risks continue to build, keeping the medium-term price skew to the upside.”

Goldman analysts said they expect central bank gold accumulation to provide a price floor for the yellow metal, even as gold continues to face downward price pressure due to a hawkish Federal Reserve.

Mike Maharrey is a journalist and market analyst for Money Metals with over a decade of experience in precious metals. He holds a BS in accounting from the University of Kentucky and a BA in journalism from the University of South Florida.

Iran Warns It Will Expand Attacks in the Region If the US Restarts Airstrikes

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Iran Warns It Will Expand Attacks in the Region If the US Restarts Airstrikes

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) An Iranian military official said on Sunday that Iran would expand its attacks in the region if the US restarts airstrikes against the Islamic Republic, which have been halted for two days following 13 consecutive nights of the US bombing the country.

“I believe that if the Americans once again fall for the Zionists’ deception, or move in line with them, and insist on continuing the war, particularly through airstrikes, geographically this will expand further,” said Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia, according to AFP.

An Iranian missile launcher firing toward US targets across the Persian Gulf (PressTV)

Since the US paused its airstrikes, Iran has also stopped its retaliatory attacks on US bases, which have targeted facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, the UAE, and Jordan, where at least three US troops were killed, and dozens were injured in recent weeks. US attacks on Iran this month have killed more than 50 Iranians, according to Iran’s Health Ministry.

The US halted its strikes on Iran after President Trump threatened to carry out his biggest attack yet, and according to a report from The New York Times, he has shelved plans for a major escalation, at least for now.

The report said that the pause came after Trump held a meeting with his top aides, who warned that a major escalation risks depleting US Patriot missile interceptors and other air defenses to a dangerous level. Officials also expressed concern about more regional escalations, as Saudi Arabia appears to be back at war with Yemen’s Ansar Allah, known as the Houthis, following the Saudi strikes on the Sanaa international airport in Yemen, an attack that President Trump approved.

US officials have framed the pause in strikes on Iran as a way to give room for diplomacy, but it’s unclear if any negotiations are taking place at all, and the renewed US bombing campaign made talks with the US even more politically fraught than before. While the strikes have halted for the moment, they could restart at any time, and the US continues enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

‘I Almost Cried’: Video Shows Lindsey Graham Celebrating Start of Iran War

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‘I Almost Cried’: Video Shows Lindsey Graham Celebrating Start of Iran War

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Footage from an unreleased documentary about the late Lindsey Graham shows the notoriously hawkish senator celebrating the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran just days after the bombing campaign started.

“Look what we’ve done here. I almost cried. How long have we been pushing this?” a laughing Graham is heard saying in the footage, released by Alex Holder, a filmmaker granted extensive access to the South Carolina senator in the years leading up to his death.

Graham goes on to say that he spoke with President Trump, who he said was also very happy about the war. “I talked to Trump this morning, he’s jacked, he said, ‘best thing I have ever done.’ He loves blowing stuff up,” he said.

Graham then appeared to take credit for helping convince Trump to launch the war. “There are a lot of people inside who didn’t want to do it, so I had my challenges,” he said, adding that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were like “Roosevelt and Churchill.”

Holder also released footage of a phone call between Graham and Netanyahu from early March, during which Graham said he was going to travel to Florida to meet with President Trump to convince him to join Israel’s bombing campaign in Lebanon, but Netanyahu talked him out of it.

“We’re concentrating right now on Iran,” Netanyahu told Graham. “If we tell Hezbollah that we’re going all the way, we threaten them, but if we actually do it, then they have no reason not to go all the way against us. And right now that’s not our interest.”

Graham had a close relationship with Netanyahu and spoke with him frequently and visited Israel often. Holder told The Wall Street Journal that he joined Graham in a trip to Israel and likened his treatment there to how a prime minister or a king would be treated.

Graham was also known as someone who could work with Democrats, and Holder released a call between him and Jake Sullivan, who served as President Biden’s national security advisor.

According to the Journal, Sullivan asked Graham how long the war would last. “In three to four weeks, we’re going to have them in a spot where they start losing control of some cities,” Graham replied. “Get the Arabs more openly involved tomorrow, and then have almost irreversible momentum.”

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

7 Shot in Seattle; Suspect Still on the Loose

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7 Shot in Seattle; Suspect Still on the Loose

(Headline USA) Police searched for a second suspect Monday after gunfire erupted at a crowded food festival beneath Seattle’s Space Needle, leaving three people dead and four others wounded, including a toddler. Another suspect was earlier arrested.

Investigators believe the two suspects were shooting at each other Sunday and, although one remained on the loose, Assistant Seattle Police Chief Tyrone Davis told a news conference Sunday night that there was no ongoing threat to the public.

Police did not have a description of the outstanding suspect, he said.

“We’re still trying to figure this out,” Davis said. Police did not immediately respond to phone and email messages early Monday.

Two people died at the scene and a third died at a hospital. They were described as two men, ages 19 and 44, and a 56-year-old woman.

The four wounded, including a 2-year-old boy, were hospitalized and in stable condition early Monday, police said. The rest of the wounded were adults. Davis couldn’t say if any of the victims were involved in the confrontation.

The gunfire erupted around 6 p.m. Sunday in the waning hours of the Bite of Seattle, an annual three-day festival that draws hundreds of food and retail vendors and performers.

Dozens of officers were providing security at the event and some saw one of the suspects firing, Davis said. One suspect surrendered at the scene, but the other fled. Law enforcement searched the grounds to no avail.

A large number of police and emergency crews responded and began evacuating the area around the sprawling Seattle Center campus.

Faith Adia Hunter said she and her friends had just gotten food from a crepe vendor when gunfire broke out. She realized a shooter was near them. She and others found shelter in the nearby Seattle Children’s Museum.

“We were right next to him when it started so we took off running,” Hunter said. “So we took off running too into the building with the crowd.”

In the chaos, many vendors bolted toward the exits, abandoning their food stands. Hours afterward, some milled outside the police tape, wondering when they would be allowed to return to collect their tents, food and cooking gear.

Roberto Ramirez, a vendor at the event, said he heard what sounded like firecrackers before people began yelling “shooter” and frantically running.

“Suddenly everything was empty,” he said. “People were freaked out.”

After the initial panic, new guests continued to arrive unaware of what had happened and were told by police to leave, he said.

Estan Wakonabo said he and his girlfriend were at the festival waiting in line for a photo booth when he was shoved from behind and he turned to see a rush of people fleeing.

“People were hiding, were pushing, people were falling on the ground, baby strollers were falling,” Wakonabo said, adding that was when he heard gunshots.

“Once I heard a ‘pop, pop, pop,’ that’s when I knew it was a shooter,” he said.

After he escorted his girlfriend to safety, he returned to the scene to take photos and saw multiple victims on the ground, Wakonabo said.

The festival started in 1982 and draws 350,000 attendees, according to its website.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

WaPo Editor Who Ignited Russia Hoax Downplays China Fraud

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WaPo Editor Who Ignited Russia Hoax Downplays China Fraud

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Washington Post Associate Editor David Ignatius joined fellow deep-state mouthpiece Joe Scarborough and friends to push baseless claims that President Donald Trump had “fact-checked” himself by exposing China’s efforts to meddle in the 2020 election.

Ignatius made his latest appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” after publishing an opinion column in which he put his own unique spin on the massive scandal that Trump unveiled in a July 16 primetime address.

“Rather than supporting Trump’s inflammatory claims about Chinese election meddling and other threats, the documents undermine many of his arguments,” Ignatius claimed in his column. “And contrary to his portrait of a diabolical ‘deep state,’ they show an intelligence community that’s almost comically cautious and bureaucratic in reaching its conclusions.”

The 58 pages of documents, in fact, revealed seditious conduct — including a top FBI official, Nikki Floris, who boasted of running a full-fledged “shadow government” out of the FBI while massaging Trump’s daily intelligence briefings to downplay the vulnerabilities of U.S. election systems to hacking and other manipulation.

Ignatius — who claimed to have “spent hours” poring over the documents while doubting that Trump actually read them — acknowledged that there was a sort of upside-down world in which fact was fiction and vice versa.

“There’s an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ aspect to this discussion,” he said.

“Foreign election interference is indeed a serious problem, and Russia has been the leading culprit,” he continued. “But Trump spent much of his first term claiming that the investigation of Russian meddling was a ‘hoax,’ and in the first months of his second term, he dismantled much of the election-security enforcement capability at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. It makes your head spin, which may be Trump’s intention”

Ignatius proceeded to claim that the newly released documents showed the intel community functioning exactly as intended by tying up top-level discussions about the need for action in bureaucratic gridlock and debate.

“For students of the intelligence process, the interagency debate is fascinating,” he said. “The analysts bounce drafts back and forth, with fussy precision.”

Ignatius’s column expectedly glossed over the damning details that undermined his thesis, while echoing an absurd talking point — originally issued by none other than Hunter Biden — that the documents actually showed Russia interfering against Joe Biden.

But Ignatius neglected to delve into the fact that the true enemy of the people was neither China nor Russia — though the threat of any foreign entity meddling in U.S. elections remains very real — but rather the deep state itself for pushing disinformation like the cover-up of Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal, undermining trust in the very institutions they were tasked with safeguarding.

Indeed, reporter Catherine Herridge showed that the same seditious FBI operatives whose names surfaced in the Trump document dump had openly lied to GOP senators who were investigating the Biden family’s foreign influence-peddling.

While left-wing media bias and propaganda is par for the course, though, Ignatius himself is far from a dispassionate observer. He not only took an active role in the now discredited Russia hoax that Democrats long used to cast aspersions on Trump’s legitimacy — he launched it.

It was an anonymously sourced Ignatius column that first called attention to innocent phone calls between incoming National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian envoy Sergey Lavrov in December 2016.

After illegally unmasking Flynn’s identity, members of then-President Barack Obama’s inner circle met with the president on Jan. 5, 2017, to form the plot for ensnaring Flynn in an FBI perjury trap by leaking details to Ignatius.

Not long after, operatives from Hillary Clinton’s campaign team who were working in close coordination with the FBI succeeded in laundering the debunked opposition research known as the “Steele dossier” to other members of the media, after having shopped it around extensively.

Ignatius, of course, stood in vocal opposition to Trump’s appointment of Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence, going on “Morning Joe” in 2024 to panic-monger about her threat to national security — aka the deep state.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

FBI Agent Lied to GOP Senators in Cover-Up of Hunter’s Laptop

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FBI Agent Lied to GOP Senators in Cover-Up of Hunter’s Laptop

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) President Donald Trump’s July 16 primetime address revealed not only that China was actively working to manipulate U.S. elections, but also that deep-state operatives within the U.S. government were engaged in covering up the election vulnerabilities.

Among the most shocking disclosures from the declassified-document dump, now available on the White House website, was the role of senior FBI counterintelligence official Nikki Floris, now a Microsoft executive, who took it upon herself to usurp the president’s authority.

“[I]’m basically running a shadow government across the FBI at this point,” Floris told a colleague in an internal message from 2020.

The bombshell prompted independent investigative journalist Catherine Herridge to dig in further, including communication with a senior member of former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s team.

“What they told me is that they did see a pattern where there was a sense or a feeling in the intelligence community that they just knew better,” Herridge said in an interview with NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich.

“They had to save President Trump from his own instincts, from his own tendencies, and that there was very much a globalist view and they had to preserve a globalist view,” Herridge added.

Herridge said that the plot extended well beyond efforts to massage Trump’s daily intelligence briefings about the election and China’s efforts to influence it.

“Whether it was downplaying or suppressing intelligence about the threat from China, whether it was giving a pass and calling the Hunter Biden laptop, ‘Russian disinformation’ … there was this level of a bureaucracy, a kind of conspiracy, that was making decisions about the kind of information that should be reaching policymakers and, ultimately, the commander-in-chief,” she said.

One particularly brazen display of unaccountability was the “spies who lie” scandal. Biden campaign officials actively colluded with 51 top-ranking members of the intel community to sow doubt about the veracity of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, which implicated him and his family in a multitude of criminal activity.

Although witnesses and forensic experts quickly proved that the laptop was real, the uncertainty was enough to lend plausible deniability, helping leftist networks and social media to censor and contain the scandal.

Meanwhile, an investigation led by Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, into the contents of the laptop and the Biden family’s influence-peddling schemes was tamped down by none other than Floris, who deceptively briefed the senators that the evidence they had uncovered was all part of a Russian disinformation plot to meddle in the 2020 race.

In her interview with Pavlich, Herridge said the newly declassified materials allowed her to “connect the dots” in order to understand the true scope of the conspiracy to steal the 2020 election.

While it already was widely known that intel operatives had selectively withheld key details about the Biden family scandals, allowing people to jump to false conclusions, the role that Floris and her co-conspirators played in actively attempting to throw elected leaders off the trail of an investigation may be indicative of broader criminal activity.

“A defensive briefing is given by the FBI when they think that you are the target of a foreign disinformation campaign — in this case they were briefed about Russia,” Herridge said.

“And Senator Johnson told me he believes this was an effort by the FBI to discourage him and Senator Grassley from pursuing the Hunter Biden laptop,” she added. “And that this whole ‘defensive briefing’ was designed to lay the groundwork for that larger obfuscation, which was that the laptop was not credible and it was not authentic.”

Speculation has swirled around ongoing Justice Department investigations into the seditious activity committed by government operatives between Trump’s 2016 election and his return to office last year. At least one of the current probes is being led by Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. Attorney for Southern Florida.

Former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, former DNI James Clapper and former Biden prosecutor Jack Smith are among those believed to be under investigation. It is unclear whether Floris or then-FBI Director Christopher Wray has yet been implicated for their actions during the 2020 campaign or thereafter.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

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