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August 22, 2024 - SS agents are placed on leave after Trump assassination attempt, but not those who failed to protect him

By Susan Crabtree

Three weeks ago, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe angrily pushed back on senators’ calls to immediately fire or discipline key agents directly responsible for the security failures that led to the assassination attempt against former President Trump at last month’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Donald Rowe and Kimberly Cheatle (Credit: public domain)

Since that time, Secret Service leaders have placed several members of the Pittsburgh Field Office on administrative leave, according to three sources in the Secret Service community.

(Administrative leave occurs when a federal employee temporarily leaves their position and work duties – either because of a misconduct investigation or medical or mental health issue. These employees usually still receive pay and benefits, but those decisions are left to the discretion of agency leadership.)

While these members of the Pittsburgh Field Office were placed on leave, a different set of agents, several assigned to Trump’s permanent protective detail, are still on the job providing Trump protection, the sources say. They remain operational even though they too were deeply involved in devising the Butler rally’s security plan.

The differing treatment of the two teams is spurring internal dissension and speculation that the Pittsburgh office could bear the brunt of the serious security failures that day, even though there’s plenty of blame to go around.

During a joint Senate committee meeting July 30, Rowe said he couldn’t understand or defend why the roof where shooter Thomas Crooks fired from wasn’t better secured. He said the Secret Service is investigating whether any employees broke the rules or didn’t follow established protocol to protect obvious vulnerabilities. If so, he said they would be held accountable through the agency’s disciplinary process and face punishment, including termination.

Yet, Rowe and other senior officials back in Washington headquarters should share the blame, these sources argue. The agency’s top brass were almost certainly involved in declining at least some of the security assets requested for the Butler rally despite a heightened threat level brought on by a specific Iranian assassination plot against Trump.

Former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned in late July amid bipartisan outrage over her lack of transparency about the rally security failures. But critics in Congress and the Secret Service community are calling for more accountability in the wake of the worst security failure since President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.

Dan Bongino, a popular conservative personality who spent 11 years in the Secret Service, has blasted his former agency’s “apocalyptic security failure” and called for a full house-cleaning of the upper leadership ranks in its Washington headquarters. Rowe, he said, is just as bad, if not worse than Cheatle because he was her hand-picked deputy and played a key role in her management decisions.

“My Secret Service colleagues I worked with, where nothing like this ever happened at our advances, are horrified at Ron Rowe, ashamed at what this agency has become,” he said in on his podcast the day after Rowe testified before the Senate. “… I’m not talking about a small cadre of them. I’m talking about a big group of former agents [who] are on fire about what happened here – they are horrified about what’s going on with this agency.”

Other current Secret Service agents, including one who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, pinned the failures at Butler directly on Rowe and other top leaders alleged ties because their decisions leading up to the July 13 rally set the rank-and-file agents up for failure.

“Leadership’s mismanagement of technology and personnel are what led to the failures in Butler, but they are not the ones being held accountable,” a source in the Secret Service community told RealClearPolitics.

The FBI arrested Asif Merchant, a Pakistani man with [ties] to Iran, one day before the Butler rally. Merchant was charged with a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, including against Trump.

The arrest comes two years after U.S. officials disrupted another Iranian scheme aimed at former Trump National Security Adviser John Bolton. Trump and his national security team have faced threats from Iran since Trump ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qasam Soleimani in early January 2020.

Mid-level Secret Service managers based in D.C. routinely reduce the level of security assets as a way to cut costs. There’s even greater pressure to reject asset requests during presidential campaign years when agency resources are especially stretched thin because there are multiple candidates to protect.

Because of the heightened Iranian threat against Trump, those decision wouldn’t just be made by mid-level Secret Service managers but likely would involve top agency officials too, the sources argued. In the case of the Butler rally, it was the first time agency leaders approved counter snipers for a Trump reelection event, but they still only allotted two counter sniper teams rather than the four teams requested, multiple sources have told RCP.

Because of the sniper shortage, the Secret Service was forced to ask local law enforcement to man the rooftop where 20-year-old would-be assassin Thomas Crooks fired off his shots at Trump and the crowd, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was attending the rally with his family.

Exactly why that rooftop was not adequately covered remains a key question in the ongoing investigation with the Secret Service and local law enforcement continuing to trade accusations over that glaring failure.

Other whistleblowers have come forward to complain that Secret Service leaders did not allocate a counter-surveillance unit, roaming agents who work to find and intercept suspicious people or fortify vulnerable areas during a rally. If they had, these whistleblowers argue, those CSU teams would have intercepted and questioned Crooks as soon as he pulled out a range finder and held it up to the crowd.

Sen. Josh Hawley in early August sent a letter to Rowe saying he had received detailed information personally blaming him for directing “significant cuts” to the Countersurveillance Division, a department that performs threat assessment evaluations of events sites before the events occur and did not perform its typical evaluation of the Butler site and was not present that day. An unnamed whistleblower further alleged that Rowe directed a 20% reduction in the CSD’s manpower, an assertion that, if proven, would undercut Rowe’s repeated denials that he wasn’t involved in any decisions rejecting requests for added security for Trump over the last two years.

In an all-hands conference call last week, Rowe committed to a complete “paradigm” overhaul at the agency and said he is making headway in pressing for major budget increases. He also pledged to jettison the long-term approach of stretching resources too thin – what is known within the agency as “doing more with less” – and to improve the Secret Service’s technological capability to adapt to “constantly evolving” threats.

“We can no longer operate with that mindset,” Rowe told the agents during his address to every employee. “We can no longer wear our people down.”

Rowe argued that the near-assassination of Trump served as a wake-up call to the agency – “an opportunity to examine our own paradigm and examine our own methodologies, to challenge assumptions, to look at the new dynamic threat environment we’re operating in, look at the demand in which we’re placing on our people.”

Trump’s security detail, a 60-member team dedicated to protecting the former president, has faced the toughest schedules and heaviest workloads over the last year of any Secret Service division or detail. The agents have endured long hours, often working seven days a week in a row before taking time off. The Trump detail also has taken on more of the responsibility for creating and executing the security plans for rallies, these sources said, a job that was always shared with the local field office closest to each rally. But over the last year, as Trump has faced heightened threats, his detail has taken on more and more responsibility for security planning and decisions at rallies, these sources say.

For instance, the site agent, the individual charged with devising most of the security plan for the event, was a member of the Trump detail for the Butler rally. But the lead agent, who typically oversees security at the entire sequence of events – from the airport arrival to the rally to the hotel stay to airport departure – was a member of the Pittsburgh Field Office. During final preparations for a rally, the site agent and lead agent join forces in conducting walk-throughs of the security plans with supervisors from each of their teams.

Because members of the Pittsburgh Field Office shared the responsibility with the individuals from the Trump detail, sources are questioning why no one from the Trump detail has been put on administrative leave while several of their Pittsburgh counterparts have been. Even the innermost ring of security – those agents on the Trump detail who quickly used their bodies as human shields to protect Trump – are still on the job despite the obvious trauma of going through such a stressful event.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi didn’t respond to questions from RealClearPolitics about that disparity. He also didn’t answer several other detailed questions about the agency’s administrative leave and disciplinary policies.

“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler, Pennsylvania and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” Guglielmi said in a statement. “The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”

“The U.S. Secret Service holds our personnel to the highest professional standards, and any identified and substantiated violations of policy will be investigated by the Office of Professional Responsibility for potential disciplinary action,” he added. “Given this is a personnel matter, we are not in a position to comment further.”

During Rowe’s July 30 Senate testimony, the acting director and Hawley got into a shouting match over the agency’s failure to fire anyone, including those responsible for the failure to surveil the rooftop where Crooks opened fire.

“You’re asking me, Senator, to completely make a rush to judgement about somebody failing. I acknowledge this was a failure,” Rowe said during the questioning.

“Is it not prima facie that somebody has failed? The former president was shot,” Hawley shot back.

Rowe responded that he had “lost sleep” over the security failures that day and assured Hawley that he would hold people accountable “with integrity” and not “rush to judgement.”

“Then fire somebody to hold them accountable,” Hawley demanded.

Rowe countered that he needed to allow the FBI investigation to continue to gather all the facts and determine culpability and argued that there were likely several people and factors to blame for the failures, not just one scapegoat.

In the wake of the assassination attempt, whistleblowers have come forward to share with RCP what they describe as a corrosive culture of fear, favoritism, uneven disciplinary action, and retribution they say has plagued the agency for years, harming its core protective mission. The uneven discipline and lowering of hiring standards because of a staffing shortage has led to several embarrassing security breaches and misconduct scandals in recent years, sowing distrust and resentment.

Rowe has pledged to hold those responsible for the security failures in Butler accountable, but others argue his close friendship with Tim Burke, who heads the Pittsburgh Field Office, could complicate that task.

Just last year, a former member of that Pittsburgh office won a complaint he filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that enforces workplace discrimination laws, according to two sources in the Secret Service community.

The special agent complained to Burke that an office leader was sexually harassing another employee, but Burke said he didn’t believe the accusations and advised the employee to drop the matter. After the agent insisted his charges were accurate and filed formal complaints within the Secret Service, he said Burke, with the blessing of top Secret Service leaders, unfairly retaliated against him for the disclosure, putting him on administrative leave and downgrading his salary from a GS14 level carrying a salary of $104,604-$135,987, to a GS13 level, which ranges between $88,520 and $115,079. Such disciplinary action would require approval from top agency leaders, and Rowe likely knew about it even if he didn’t sign off specifically on the demotion.

Yet, just months after filing the EEOC complaint, the agent provided evidence of his sexual harassment claim and won his case, quickly regaining his GS14 status, according to three sources in the Secret Service community. He also was allowed to relocate away from the Pittsburgh Field Office. It’s unclear if Burke, who is close friends with Rowe and is generally liked by top Secret Service leaders, faced any disciplinary action for failing to take the charges seriously.

In another alarming incident that could have implications for the Iranian plot against Trump, two men of Pakistani heritage were arrested and charged with posing as Department of Homeland Security officers in Washington and duping four Secret Service agents charged with protecting President Biden and his family. According to federal prosecutors, the imposters provided the Secret Service agents with tens of thousands of gifts, including rent-free apartments, in a two-year scheme that began in February 2020 while Trump was still in office,.

At one point after Biden took office, one of the Pakistani men, Arian Taherzadeh, offered to buy a $2,000 assault rifle for an agent assigned to first lady Jill Biden’s protective detail, according to the legal filings. One of the men, Haider Ali, told witnesses he had connections to intelligence agencies in Pakistan, and he also had several visas issued by Pakistan and Iran, prosecutors said.

“Taherzadeh and Ali have attempted to use their false and fraudulent affiliation with DHS to ingratiate themselves with members of federal law enforcement and the defense community,” David Elias, an FBI agent, wrote in the affidavit.

Yet, Elias did not say why the men orchestrated the elaborate plan to impersonate DHS agents and cozy up to members of the presidential protective Secret Service detail. Prosecutors said they used their false identities to obtain security footage of the apartment building, as well as a list of the building’s residents and contact information.

The Secret Service agents implicated in the scheme were placed on administrative leave, but it’s unclear what disciplinary action, if any, was taken against them.

(Real Clear Wire, 8//22/2024)  (Archive)

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.

August 24, 2024 - Fani Willis shows up at the scene of her daughter's arrest with Nathan Wade

Kinaya Willis mugshot (Credit: Tyrone Police Department)

Embattled District Attorney Fani Willis showed up to the scene of her daughter’s recent arrest with prosecutor lover Nathan Wade, long after the pair said they’d ended their controversial affair, newly released bodycam footage shows.

The Fulton County, Georgia DA was seen with ex-Trump prosecutor Wade after her pregnant daughter Kinaya Willis, 25, was pulled over late last month for driving while using a cell phone, and then arrested for driving on a suspended license, according to the footage obtained by The Post.

The cops asked if Willis, 52, and Wade, 51, were Kinaya’s parents — but the powerful DA told them her high-profile lover was “just a friend.”

The two lawyers pulled up in a black Ford SUV after Kinaya had already been taken to the Fayette County Jail and stayed on scene for around five minutes, the footage shows.

Willis could be heard calmly saying it was “news to” her that her younger daughter’s license was suspended, as Wade, wearing a baseball hat, quietly listened before asking about why cops stopped Kinaya, a Texas Southern University student.

Willis could be heard calmly saying it was “news to” her that her younger daughter’s license was suspended. (Credit: Tyrone Police Department)

(…) At one point, Willis gave the officers her license and asked them not to put her address in the report, with one cop, seemingly aware of her high-profile position, saying her request was “for obvious reasons.”

“Y’all can have my address, the rest of the world, no,” Willis says, as seen in the footage first obtained by the Daily Mail.

After, the video showed Willis leaving the scene in her daughter’s silver Nissan Altima, while Wade drove away in the car they arrived in. (Read more: The New York Post, 9/03/2024)  (Archive)

August 26, 2024 - Kevin McCarthy likely knew about the Steele Dossier much earlier than previously known — and said nothing

OCTOBER 28: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) speaks to the media while flanked by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after House Republicans nominated him to be the next Speaker of the House, October 28, 2015. Ryan will replace outgoing House Speaker John Boehner. (Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

(…) In June 2024, former Trump official Kash Patel dropped a bombshell on Steve Bannon’s War Room, exposing the rotten core of the Republican establishment.

Patel’s blockbuster report on Paul Ryan, which first surfaced on The Gateway Pundit, revealed that Ryan—then Speaker of the House—was the first to receive the fraudulent Steele Dossier in 2016.

This dossier, now widely acknowledged as a fabrication used to justify unlawful surveillance against Donald Trump, was apparently hidden by Ryan from his colleagues, investigators, and even officials within the Trump administration.

This only came out this year – eight years after the Deep State used this document in their first attempt to impeach President Trump in the Russia collusion hoax.

The question now is glaringly clear: Where was Kevin McCarthy during all this? As a leading figure in the Republican Party and a close ally of Paul Ryan, McCarthy’s silence or potential complicity in this cover-up raises serious concerns about his leadership and integrity.

Did McCarthy know of Ryan’s possession and subsequent concealment of the Steele dossier? If so, why did he not act or inform his party members who were blindsided by these revelations?

Kash Patel posted this on Truth Social back in June:

Kash Patel: Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House had in his possession the Steele Dossier before he had [Devin Nunes] and I launch Russia Gate Investigation, and never told us (think, before anyone knew anything about fake intel, he had his own copy). I found it on my own then blew up FBI/DOJ. Why didnt he tell his own damn team? Report that fake news.

Kash Patel shared even more damning details later on The War Room, highlighting Ryan’s treachery. It turns out that while Ryan was pretending to champion the GOP’s investigation into Russiagate, he was sitting on a copy of the Steele Dossier—the very document that the Deep State used to unlawfully surveil Donald Trump.

(…) The Gateway Pundit recently received information from a very credible source that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was Paul Ryan’s right-hand man, also knew about the dossier months before Buzzfeed made it public.

This calls into question McCarthy’s potential future role in a Trump second term. How can Kevin be trusted if he kept this secret from candidate and then President Trump. Why would he not notify Trump of this slanderous piece of propaganda that the intel community was using to spy on him and his campaign and administration?

There are reports today that McCarthy could land a top position in the second Trump administration. The former speaker needs to come clean on this very important matter. (Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 8/26/2024)  (Archive)

August 25, 2024 - Vindman praises Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s arrest in France and tweets warning to Elon Musk

Alexander Vindman testifies before a House Intelligence Committee hearing as part of the impeachment inquiry into President Trump, November 19, 2019. (Credit: Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)

Retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who played a prominent role in the first impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, recently issued a stark warning to Elon Musk following the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France.

The arrest, which took place in Paris over the weekend, has sparked significant controversy and raised concerns about the future of free speech on social media platforms, as reported by Fox News.

Durov was apprehended after a preliminary investigation suggested that Telegram had not done enough to curb criminal activity on its platform, according to reports from TF1 TV and BFM TV.

The app, known for its encrypted messaging service, has over 900 million users worldwide and has been criticized for being used by criminal organizations and extremist groups to communicate and organize.

Vindman, taking to X (formerly Twitter), quickly applauded the French authorities’ actions, but his remarks went further, suggesting that Elon Musk might be the next target of such accountability.

“While Durov holds French citizenship and was arrested for violating French law, this has broader implications for other social media, including Twitter,” Vindman wrote. “There’s a growing intolerance for platforming disinfo & malign influence & a growing appetite for accountability. Musk should be nervous.”

Musk, in his typical fashion, didn’t shy away from the controversy.

He used his platform on X to criticize Durov’s arrest, sharing the hashtag #FreePavel and expressing his concerns about government censorship. “Dangerous times,” Musk remarked, highlighting the growing tension between tech giants and government regulations.

(Read more: RVM News, 8/26/2024) (Archive)

August 26, 2024 - Mark Zuckerberg admits Biden-Harris regime pressured him to censor millions of Americans — ‘Regrets’ colluding with the regime!

(Credit: #NezNation)

In a letter addressed to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Zuckerberg throws the Biden-Harris regime under the bus.

He openly admitted that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, was subjected to relentless pressure by the Biden administration to censor content related to COVID-19, even when the content was satirical or humorous, and the infamous Hunter Biden laptop.

The Meta CEO allegedly expressed deep ‘regret’ for not being more vocal in resisting the government’s demands, stating that “government pressure was wrong,” and he now recognizes that his company should have been more outspoken about the administration’s overreach.

In the letter, Zuckerberg detailed how senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, exerted consistent pressure on Meta’s teams to remove or suppress content that did not align with the regime’s narrative on COVID-19.

This included posts that were clearly humorous or satirical.

Zuckerberg’s letter also revealed another explosive detail: Meta’s decision to demote the New York Post’s bombshell story on the Biden family’s corruption in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

The story, which centered around Hunter Biden’s dealings with Burisma, was initially flagged by the FBI as potential Russian disinformation, leading Meta to temporarily suppress its distribution.

However, Zuckerberg now admits that this was a grave mistake, as the story was not Russian disinformation, and the decision to demote it was influenced by government pressure.

Zuckerberg also addressed the financial contributions he made through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, called the Zuckerbucks by election integrity advocates, during the last presidential election cycle, which he insists were intended to support electoral infrastructure in a ‘non-partisan manner.’

These contributions have disproportionately benefited Democrat strongholds.

(…) Read the full letter below:

Chairman Jordan:

I appreciate the Committee’s interest in content moderation on online platforms. As you are aware, Meta has produced thousands of documents as part of your investigation and made a dozen employees available for transcribed interviews. Further to our cooperation with your investigation, l welcome the opportunity to share what I’ve taken away from this process.

There’s a lot of talk right now around how the U.S. government interacts with companies like Meta, and I want to be clear about our position. Our platforms are for everyone — we’re about promoting speech and helping people connect in a safe and secure way.

As part of this, we regularly hear from governments around the world and others with various concerns around public discourse and public safety.

In 2021, senior officials from the Biden Administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn’t agree.

Ultimately, it was our decision whether or not to take content down, and we own our decisions, including COVID-19-related changes we made to our enforcement in the wake of this pressure.

I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.

Like I said to our teams at the time, I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any Administration in either direction – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.

In a separate situation, the FBI warned us about a potential Russian disinformation operation about the Biden family and Burisma in the lead up to the 2020 election.

That fall, when we saw a New York Post story reporting on corruption allegations involving then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s family, we sent that story to fact-checkers for review and temporarily demoted it while waiting for a reply.

It’s since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story. We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again — for instance, we no longer temporarily demote things in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers.

Apart from content moderation, I want to address the contributions I made during the last presidential cycle to support electoral infrastructure. The idea here was to make sure local election jurisdictions across the country had the resources they needed to help people vote safely during a global pandemic. I made these contributions through the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

They were designed to be non-partisan –spread across urban, rural, and suburban communities.

Still, despite the analyses I’ve seen showing otherwise, I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other. My goal is to be neutral and not play a role one way or another – or to even appear to be playing a role. So I don’t plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.

(Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 8/26/2024) (Archive)

The White House told Fox News:

“When confronted with a deadly pandemic, this administration encouraged responsible actions to protect public health and safety. Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.”

Once The New York Post dropped the Hunter Biden laptop story, Facebook demoted related posts until fact-checkers could confirm the story.

Weird, huh?

(Read more: Legal Insurrection, 8/27/2024)

August 27, 2024 - DOJ Attorney who defended FDA in court admits agency’s anti-Ivermectin campaign was a ‘mistake’ and an ‘abuse of authority’

A Department of Justice attorney has been caught admitting in an undercover video that the FDA’s campaign against the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment was not only misguided but also an overreach of its authority.

In December 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a stern warning to Americans: “Never use medications intended for animals on yourself or other people. Animal ivermectin products are very different from those approved for humans. Use of animal ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans is dangerous.”

This statement, which came during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, was not only controversial but also deeply flawed, as the FDA had previously praised the drug in other contexts.

Ivermectin, a drug that had been safely used in humans since 1966, had been vilified by the FDA during the pandemic, despite its earlier successes in treating various diseases and even being administered to African migrants by the agency itself back in 2015.

Yet, in the face of mounting evidence—105 controlled studies showing a 61% lower risk in early COVID-19 treatment—the FDA clung to its erroneous position, interested in promoting its agenda than in protecting public health.

A group of courageous doctors, refusing to be silenced, filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FDA, challenging the agencies’ unlawful attempts to block ivermectin’s use in treating COVID-19.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Southern District of Texas in Galveston, asserts that the FDA overstepped its authority and interfered unjustifiably with medical practice.

(Read more: The Gateway Pundit, 8/27/2024) (Archive)

August 27, 2024 - Springfield, Ohio residents say Haitian migrants are crashing cars, spiking insurance, harassing Americans and according to locals, eating their pets and park geese

Springfield, Ohio (Credit: Getty Images)

The government’s delivery of roughly 20,000 migrants to Springfield, Ohio, has been a boon for real estate, local employers, auto salesmen, merchants, and the migrants — but also an unwanted shock to locals as they try to manage their own community.

The damage was displayed at the August 27 city commission meeting where voters presented their concerns about the migrants.

“Maybe we should open up go-kart land again so that people can have a chance to learn how to drive without being on these public streets,” long-time resident Jeffrey Allen told the mayor and four other commissioners.

“I really challenge you guys to get out here and do something,” Anthony Harris, who describes himself as a local YouTube influencer, told the council. “These Haitians are running into trash cans. They’re running into buildings. They’re… flipping cars in the middle of the street.”

“I hate the traffic concerns that you all see,” Mayor Rob Rue said later in the meeting

Across the community, the aisle, all levels of politics, all races, we are concerned about the traffic. I personally am concerned about the traffic. I have almost hit and been hit myself. I have kids that are learning how to drive well, and it is a concern. I have the same fears that you as grandpas and aunts and uncles have. I say this with passion.

City officials are working with state traffic officials, the mayor said:

We’re asking for a program that will focus on reckless operators, speeding, red-light violations, dangerous driving, and we’re going to initiate a 30-day blitz, and this will be highly publicized … to bring attention to the enforcement of driving laws on our roads.

Springfield’s local problems are suddenly a national issue in an election about President Joe Biden’s migration policy.

His successor, Kamala Harris cannot dodge the issue. In 2021, she declined Biden’s request to take a large role in the nation’s immigration policy. Since then, with her support, Biden’s powerful border chief has imported at least 400,000 Haitians into American society:

The vast majority of Springfield’s 20,000 migrants are from Haiti. Most of the migrants crossed the U.S. border illegally — often by pushing through the Panama jungle — and now have been given Temporary Legal Status by Biden’s pro-migration deputies.

The new population has upended the city.

NEW: Springfield, Ohio man says car insurance rates are skyrocketing in his town because the illegal Haitian immigrants don’t know how to drive.

The video from the man comes as Haitians are accused of eating pets in the small town of 60,000.

Up to 20,000 illegal Haitian immigrants have reportedly overwhelmed the small town in the past four years.

“I just got off the phone with the insurance company and was told that my insurance went up because of the cost of doing business in my area.”

“Me and my wife, have good driving records, no accidents and over. I mean, she’s never had an accident.”

“I live in Springfield, Ohio where the influx of Haitians are, and we have had an enormous amount of car accidents because they don’t know how to drive.”

“We gotta do something about it. One-third of our population is now Haitian immigrants, undocumented people.”

Insane. (Read more: Breitbart News, 9/9/2024)  (Archive)

Image

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In the last several weeks, my office has received many inquiries from actual residents of Springfield who’ve said their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.

Do you know what’s confirmed? That a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant who had no right to be here. That local health services have been overwhelmed. That communicable diseases–like TB and HIV–have been on the rise. That local schools have struggled to keep up with newcomers who don’t know English. That rents have risen so fast that many Springfield families can’t afford to put a roof over their head.

Here is Kamala Harris bragging about giving amnesty to thousands of Haitian migrants.

If you’re a reporter, or an activist, who didn’t give a shit about these suffering Americans until yesterday, I have some advice:

Spare your outrage for your fellow citizens suffering under Kamala Harris’s policies. Be outraged at yourself for letting this happen.

Jesse Watters also covers the story:

August 28, 2024 - American media and politicians hypocrisy is exposed for their Orwellian double-speak

August 28, 2024 - Democrats wants to tax unrealized gains

August 28, 2024 - US Attorney has empaneled grand jury to consider criminal charges in Trump assassination investigation

(Credit: untitled design)

The Western District of Pennsylvania has empaneled a grand jury to investigate the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, PA. A letter obtained by Human Events from America First Legal reveals that a records request for information on would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks was denied because those records are “within the scope of a grand jury subpoena.”

The letter, from the Community College of Allegheny County in response to attorney Wally Zimolong, denies the request for records on Crooks pertaining to his student files, records, documents, communication, disciplinary records, or other data containing his name.

“Please be advised that your request is denied on the basis that it requests records that relate to an ongoing criminal investigation, which are exempt from disclosure,” the letter reads.

“Specifically,” the letter continues, “the records that you have requested are within the scope of a grand jury subpoena issued to CCAC by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and which the U.S. Attorney’s Office has confirmed relate to an ongoing criminal investigation.”

The purpose of a federal grand jury is consider criminal charges against a target or range of targets. This is the first indication that a grand jury has been empaneled in the district to investigate the attempted assassination.

(…) It is not clear as yet who is being investigated by the grand jury. However, the Crooks family has retained lawyers and several Secret Service agents from the Pittsburgh field office, which covers Butler, were placed on leave. (Read more: Human Events, 8/28/2024)  (Archive)

August 29, 2024 - Trump Derangement Syndrome is addressed in campaign video by Nicole Shanahan

August 29, 2024 - Two campaign staffers for Harris were involved in the Biden-Harris administration efforts to censor Americans

Aisha Shah and Rob Flaherty (Credit: public domain)

Two campaign staffers for Vice President Kamala Harris were previously involved in efforts to censor Americans for spreading purported “disinformation” about COVID-19 while working in the Biden-Harris White House.

Then-administration officials Rob Flaherty and Aisha Shah are named as having been involved in the government’s efforts to censor Americans in legal filings related to the Murthy v. Missouri lawsuit, which alleged that the federal government violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to censor content related to the pandemic and other hot-button topics. On the Harris campaign team, Flaherty is now a deputy campaign manager and Shah is the director of digital partnerships, according to their respective LinkedIn profiles.

Flaherty served as the director of digital strategy and an assistant for President Joe Biden and Shah worked as the deputy director of partnerships, according to their profiles.

Flaherty participated in meetings with officials from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, according to a July 2023 motion for a preliminary injunction filed in the Murthy v. Missouri case. He also corresponded with social media platforms via email to encourage them to take a more aggressive posture against COVID-19 “misinformation” and content that could make users more hesitant to take coronavirus vaccines.

“Since we’ve been on the phone — the top post about vaccines today is tucker (sic) Carlson saying they don’t work. Yesterday was Tomi Lehren (sic) saying she won’t take one,” reads one email Flaherty sent to Facebook officials in April 2021. “This is exactly why I want to know what ‘Reduction’ actually looks like — if ‘reduction’ means ‘pumping our most vaccine hesitant audience with tucker (sic) Carlson saying it doesn’t work’ then… I’m not sure it’s reduction!”

Additionally, Flaherty demanded that Twitter remove a parody account linked to Finnegan Biden, the president’s granddaughter, writing to the company that he “cannot stress the degree to which this needs to be resolved immediately,” according to the motion.

Flaherty subsequently testified to the House Judiciary Committee in May, defending his actions because the pandemic was still severe at the time, “misinformation” presented a public health challenge by increasing vaccine hesitancy and pointing out that social media companies ultimately determine what content is permitted on their platforms. (Read more: The Daily Caller, 8/29/2024)  (Archive)

August 29, 2024 - MSNBC's Ari Melber threatens to sue Trump aide Corey Lewandowski for defamation; Corey offers proof of Melbers own words

Below is the transcript of the exchange:

Ari Melber: I quoted a New York Times article that said, at the convention, Donald Trump “was his own biggest prop.” It was a New York Times quote about how he–

Corey Lewandowski: Let me read it to you.

Ari Melber: –how he had become such an important figure in rebounding from what was a horrific assassination attempt. Fox News–

Corey Lewandowski: Let me read it to you.

Ari Melber: Corey, I said I’d address it. I’m gonna finish. Fox News, many viewers may not know about this, but apparently you do, and some do. Fox News, which has been caught in defamation, ran a false piece falsely stating that I said something else that I didn’t say. So, I stand on that. I stand on the New York Times quote.

Corey Lewandowski: So, you didn’t say, “This bandage was a prop, a spectacle from a candidate who’s obsessed with spectacles.”

Ari Melber: Uh, Mr. Lewandowski, I did not say that. That is a false quote.

Corey Lewandowski: I have it right here.

Ari Melber: What you have is a false quote.

Corey Lewandowski: You absolutely said it.

Ari Melber: What you have is a false quote. And if – I’m putting you on notice – if you continue to repeat falsely that I said that, you will be potentially in a defamation situation because I didn’t say that. But I understand that you’re working off the internet, which has a lot of false information.

Corey Lewandowski: Well, this is what it said. Right here.

Undeterred, Lewandowski revealed that he had the proof, and shortly after the broadcast, he released a video clip on social media showing Melber’s exact words from an earlier episode of The Beat. The footage left no doubt that Melber had indeed made the statements that Lewandowski had attributed to him. (The Gateway Pundit, 8/29/2024)

August 30, 2024 - Law school dean tells MSNBC it’s time to scrap the American Constitution; NYT agrees

Eugene Robinson (l) and Chemerinsky (Credit: Screenshot/Rumble/MSNBC)

Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the University of California at Berkeley’s law school, called for a new constitution Friday, claiming that failing to make changes would cause the U.S. to “drift toward authoritarianism.”

Chemerinsky appeared on “Morning Joe” to discuss “increasingly problematic” constitutional provisions that he believed were “undermining democracy.” Chemerinsky cited the equal representation of states in the U.S. Senate and lifetime tenure for Supreme Court justices as provisions that could bring about secession during the interview that promoted his new book, “No Democracy Lasts Forever: How the Constitution Threatens the United States.”

“Choices that were made in adapting the Constitution have come to haunt us,” Chemerinsky told “Morning Joe” co-host Willie Geist. “The Electoral College increasingly is choosing the president who lost the popular vote. Two senators per state is undermining democracy. In the last session of Congress, there were 50 Democratic senators and 50 Republican senators, but the 50 Democratic senators represented 42 million people.”

“Life tenure for Supreme Court justices is increasingly problematic,” Chemerinsky continued. “For much of American history, the tenure for Supreme Court justice was an average of 15 years. Since 1970, it’s been 27 years. All of these are choices made in 1787, but they have become much more salient in recent years.”

(…) “Isn’t it absurd that we’re governed in 2024 by a Constitution written in 1787 for a small agrarian, slave-owning society? Yes, you’re right, of course, there’s much in the current Constitution to keep,” Chemerinsky told Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson. “And you’re right that the country is divided now, which would make the new Constitution difficult. But the Constitution was adopted in 1787 when the country was deeply divided. In many states, it was passed by only a few votes. I’m not saying there will be a constitutional convention tomorrow or next year, but I do think it’s time to begin thinking of a constitution for the 21st century rather than be governed by the one from the 18th century.” (Read more: The Daily Caller, 8/30/2024) (Archive)

August 30, 2024 - Dan Bongino suggests a whistleblower has come forward re the January 6 pipe bomb; is a career-ender for many

 

September 1, 2024 - CF whistleblowers gather evidence for complaint to assure USPS doesn't interfere in 2024 election; USPS contract driver Jesse Morgan is vindicated; 9 trucks, 1 - 1.5 million fake ballots in each

September 1, 2024

New Complaint Filed Alleging that US Postal Service (USPS) Committed Electoral Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election | The Gateway Pundit

A new development that merits attention. A complaint was filed on Friday before the U.S. District Court in Maryland presenting evidence that the USPS acted illegally in shipping at least one million mail-in ballots from a facility in Bethpage, New York to Pennsylvania on October 21, 2020. The suit was brought by attorney Brian Della Rocca, but the critical evidence was collected by two friends of mine — John Moynihan and Larry Doyle. Full disclosure, I have known John since 1998 and we were partners in BERG Associates, LLC. John, in my opinion, is one of the best financial and forensic investigators in the world. Hands down.

Here is the bottom-line — the truck driver, Jesse Morgan, picked up a container filled with 20 Gaylord boxes. There were mail-in ballots in each of the Gaylords. A Gaylord can hold from 50,000 up to 100,000 ballots. Do the math — Mr. Morgan was transporting at least one million mail-in ballots (already filled in with signatures on the envelopes). So, what you say? The mail-in ballots are First Class mail. Every piece of First Class mail is supposed to be imaged per USPS regulations. The facility where Morgan picked up the load of ballots is ONLY certified for handling packages and Express Mail. There is no legal justification to account for those ballots to have passed through that warehouse.

Let me give you the highlights of the complaint and John’s affidavit.

4. As a result, allegations of problems with the delivery of mail-in ballots by the USPS were rampant and continue, to this day, to be challenged. As time passes, the allegations are not being disproven but, in fact, many of the allegations have turned out to be true.

5. These allegations include, but are not limited to, lost mail-in ballots (which were subsequently found after the elections), late delivery of mail-in ballots, improperly post-marked mail-in ballots that were still allowed to proceed to their destination despite postmarks being provided on valid mail-in ballots, and fraudulent mail-in ballots being sent via USPS.

John’s affidavit gets to the heart of the matter:

3. On November 21, 2020, Doyle and I participated in a phone call with a contact (“NC”) who notified us of allegations that the United States Postal Service (“USPS”) experienced certain “failures” involving mail-in ballots during the 2020 Presidential Election and wondered if we would assist with the investigation.

4. On November 24, 2020, Doyle and I met with NC and others in Arlington, VA to discuss the investigation and learn about the whistleblower, Jesse Richard Morgan, a truck driver employed by a contractor for the USPS who alleged he carried mail-in ballots among USPS facilities in Bethpage, NY, Harrisburg, PA, and Lancaster, PA (“Affiant Morgan”).

5. On November 25, 2020, Doyle and I began our investigation in earnest and identified a few companies of interest and, within those companies, employees who may have information.

6. As a result of Affiant Morgan, Doyle and I focused our investigation on the USPS facility on Grumman Road in Bethpage, NY (“Grumman Road Facility”).

7. On November 27, 2020, I enlisted the assistance of former colleagues from the DEA who are retired and live near the Grumman Road Facility.

8. On November 30, 2020, after learning the identities of several USPS employees within the Grumman Road Facility with whom Affiant Morgan had contact, Doyle and I conducted an interview with one such USPS employee (“CI-1”).

9. CI-1 stated the following facts:

a. CI-1 is involved with loading trucks at the Grumman Road Facility – known as an expeditor.

b. CI-1 told us that the Grumman Road Facility has never processed first class mail and still does not process mail because the facility does not have the proper equipment to do so (allegedly known as an “Oregon Machine”).

c. CI-1 stated that mail-in ballots were in the gaylords with signatures on the outside envelope at the facility on numerous occasions and asked a supervisor about what to do with them.

d. CI-1 was told to just get them loaded onto the trailers for delivery and to get them to their destination.

e. CI-1 told us that the Grumman Road Facility is only equipped to process packages and express mail, not first-class mail.

f. Doyle and I asked a few more times if CI-1 was sure that ballots were seen at the Grumman Road Facility and CI-1 confirmed each time.

10. On December 2, 2020, after having spoken with a Postal Inspector with knowledge of the Grumman Road Facility (“CI-2”), I asked if the Grumman Road Facility would receive and process first-class mail. CI-2 told me the following:

a. The Grumman Road Facility only handles parcel post.

b. Mail-in ballots should not have been delivered to the Grumman Road Facility because the facility does not have the processing machines (the Oregon Machine) required to handle the processing of first-class mail or bulk mail.

The goal of this lawsuit is to prevent the USPS from interfering in the upcoming election. It is important to note that the shipment picked up by Mr. Morgan was not the only one. It is the only one where John Moynihan and Larry Doyle obtained corroborating evidence.

Case v USPS Postmaster General and MD Officials
I have had a number of people inquiring as to whether my partner JM and I are/were involved in this heavily spread post by @PatrickByrne. To Patrick’s credit, he actually includes this post by @OwenGregorian that provides meaningful background re our efforts in these cases. https://x.com/OwenGregorian/status/1830202012534710576

My partner JM and attorney BDR have a professional relationship with PB. I do not. That fact really is neither here nor there. I actually reference in our Pinned Tweet that my partner and I have both joint and individual business interests.

The simple fact is we are all focused on bringing Truth, Transparency, Accountability and Justice to the electoral process.

The two cases are:
1. A USPS FOIA case initially brought in early 2022 and ongoing: https://courtlistener.com/docket/63178307/della-rocca-v-united-states-postal-service/

2. A case filed by our attorney Brian Della Rocca v Postmaster General and selected officials in the State of Maryland in August 2024. PB reviews the recent injunction filed in the case. https://pacermonitor.com/public/case/54832847/Della_Rocca_v_Lee_et_al

Pope Francis: A dangerous advocate for open borders at the cost of Europe's Christian heritage

Pope Francis’ advocacy for what appears to be compassion through open borders is actually a dangerous agenda that threatens to dismantle Europe’s Christian heritage and accelerate the continent’s Islamization. (Credit: public domain)

Pope Francis has once again positioned himself as a staunch advocate for open borders, declaring in a recent statement that rejecting migrants is a “serious sin.” He stated, “It must be said clearly: there are those who work systematically and with every means possible to repel migrants… this is a grave sin.” This statement, however, is not merely about promoting compassion—it represents a dangerous agenda that threatens to undermine Europe’s Christian heritage and sovereignty. The Marxist Pope’s call for more immigration, particularly from predominantly Islamic countries, raises serious concerns about the future of Europe and the survival of its Christian identity.

A Pope Out of Step with Europe’s Christian Defenders

In his latest speech, Pope Francis called for the expansion of safe migration routes and condemned what he described as the “militarization” of borders. He claimed, “God is with the migrants, not with those who repel them,” and in doing so, praised non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that facilitate the entry of migrants into Europe, portraying them as heroes of humanity.

However, not everyone within the Catholic Church agrees with the Pope’s stance. Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, a leading conservative voice, has warned that using the Bible to promote migration is a “false interpretation.” He argues that it is better to help people thrive in their own cultures than to encourage them to migrate to Europe, where they may undermine the very values that have sustained the continent for centuries.

Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria has echoed these concerns, urging Europeans to stop encouraging Africans to migrate. He insists that people are better off in their homelands, an attitude that indirectly opposes the Pope’s call for open borders.

Adding to these voices, Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan has criticized the Pope’s migration policies, arguing that they could lead to the Islamization of Europe and undermine its Christian roots. Schneider claims that the influx of Muslim immigrants is part of a broader agenda to dilute the Christian identity of Europe​.

Similarly, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, has accused Pope Francis of promoting a globalist agenda that prioritizes open borders at the expense of Christian culture and values. Viganò has been particularly vocal in his opposition, framing the Pope’s stance as a threat to the very foundation of Christian nations​.

Finally, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has expressed concerns about the potential consequences of mass immigration. He warns that uncontrolled migration could erode Europe’s Christian values, calling for a stronger defense of the continent’s cultural and religious heritage​.

These dissenting voices highlight a significant divide within the Catholic Church over the issue of migration, reflecting broader concerns about the cultural and religious impacts of Pope Francis’ policies.

(Read more: RAIR Foundation, 9/02/2024)  (Archive)

September 3, 2024 - Cory Mills drops more information on attempted assassination of Trump

Kash Patel: I do want to start with, if I can, does everybody remember that President Trump was shot in the head? It seems like it didn’t happen. It seems like the mainstream media just glossed over it. Now they’re like, whatever. Thankfully, we have guys like Cory Mills leading out an investigation on the assassination of a former president who’s running for the presidency of the United States, a guy who was hit in the head with a bullet. I still don’t have any more answers from the United States Congress Committee that was stood up on this, but thankfully, Cory is running his own investigation Can you give us a background on what you’ve been doing and what the results are and what headwinds you’re running into?

Cory Mills: Yeah, absolutely. Kash, you’re exactly right. Look how quickly they glanced over in mainstream media in an attempted assassination of the Republican nominee and the former President of the United States of America. I mean, it’s as if it had never taken place. And meanwhile, you had a commission which was stood up by Speaker Johnson, which, I’ll be completely honest, had nothing to do with meritocracy and everything to do with trying to cover the multiple parts of the conference to ensure everyone feels equally represented within the conference, as opposed to saying, ‘We’re not looking at trying to just do a Kumbaya moment. We’re trying to get facts here.’

And so that’s why myself and congressman Eli Crane, out of Arizona, we started running our own parallel investigation. And in that independent forum, we brought in great members like Andy Biggs and Chip Roy and Matt Gaetz. And we were able to start bringing witnesses to start getting to the point to include whistleblower Ben Schafer, who was actually one of the counter-snipers on the ground July 13th there in Butler, PA.

So, what we’re understanding is this. We know that… And Kash, I’m going to go ahead and say the obvious. If this was a real investigation, it would have happened on July 14th. You would have immediately subpoenaed the security plan, the comps plan. You’d have started bringing people in for independent questioning. You’d have done cooperations of what fact fiction boards that we could put in place. We would have started determine pure and simple, was this gross criminal negligence or was this purposeful intent?

Now, here’s the problem when you’ve waited this long. They’ve had enough time in the federal government. We know, think about, go back to FISA and how it was abused, 287,000 plus time by the FBI. Go to the Department of Injustice where it’s been weaponized to a point where it’s after your political opponent not trying to fight injustice. We know that the federal government at this point has probably gone back and memorialized documents to say July 9, July 10, July 11, to try act as if they’ve dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s.

But what we have found is this. We know that they were offered compatible comms plan and compatible radio by the local law enforcement and Secret Service denied it. We know that local law enforcement offered a surveillance drone and drone capabilities for the day of the actual rally and the Secret Service denied it.

We know that there was a final day of planning that was supposed to happen in the morning of July 13th and the Secret Service didn’t come.

We know that after the shooting, that was taking place by Thomas Crooks, that you had people on the stage who didn’t even know what the security plan was because you can hear him going, What are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing?

That should have been an automatic prep and training to say, We know the motorcade was a rolling safe room, or that we already have a safe room that we’re moving them to in the event of an accident or some type of an incident. None of this has been done.

Kash Patel: Sorry, I hate to interrupt. Please. Can I just jump in real quick? I just learned more, and you’re my buddy, I just learned more about what happened the attempted assassination attempt of Donald Trump in the last 60 seconds than I have in the last 45 days from the United States Congress and the committee they stood up. So, Cory, thank you for breaking that down.

(Gateway Pundit, 9/5/2024)

September 3, 2024 - Former aide to New York Governors Hochul and Cuomo is charged with spying for communist China; lives a lavish lifestyle

Linda Sun and her husband, Christopher Hu leaving Brooklyn Federal Court after being arraigned on Sep. 3, 2024. (Credit: Paul Martinka/NYP)

The former high-ranking aide for Gov. Kathy Hochul and disgraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who was arrested along with her husband Tuesday, acted as a foreign agent for China in exchange for millions of dollars in kickbacks and fancy perks such as salted ducks, according to a bombshell indictment.

The damning 64-page indictment accuses Linda Sun, 41, and her husband, Christopher Hu, 40, of reaping their corrupt gains on a gaudy new $4 million house in Manhasset, a $2 million second home in Honolulu high-rise and luxury cars such as 2024 Ferrari.

Sun shadily used her position under Hochul and Cuomo – who are unnamed but clearly referenced in the court documents – to turn the governor’s office into a virtual mouthpiece for the People’s Republic of China and Chinese Community [sic] Party, the indictment contends.

At several points, Sun bragged to Chinese consulate officials about effectively blocking Cuomo and Hochul from meeting with or publicly even mentioning Taiwan, including when the disputed island sent 200,000 much-needed masks to New York during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, documents state.

“The defendant Linda Sun received substantial economic and other benefits from representatives of the PRC government and the CCP, including the facilitation of millions of dollars in transactions for the PRC-based business activities of Sun’s husband, the defendant Chris Hu,” the indictment reads in part.

Sun and Hu laundered kickbacks she received from China and the CCP to buy the $4.1 million Long Island home that FBI agents raided in July, the indictment contends.

The pair are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn federal court on charges of violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering conspiracy. (Read more: The New York Post, 9/03/2024)  (Archive)

September 4, 2024 - Jimmy Dore and Matt Taibbi: Harris and Walz vow to end free speech in America