Happy New Years
From TheFrontPageCover
~ Featuring ~
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Against Impeachment for Thought Crimes
by E. DONALD ELLIOTT
{ spectator.org } ~ Both of the articles of impeachment passed by the Democrats in the House are unprecedented in that they charge “thought crimes” against a president... They are based on the dubious legal theory that doing something that is legal in and of itself but with a supposedly improper mental attitude turns an otherwise legal act into an impeachable offense. Lawyers call such offenses “specific intent” crimes, which means they turn on what was in someone’s mind at the time of the actions in question. If accepted by the Senate as a valid basis for impeachment, these articles of impeachment would set a dangerous precedent that a president may be removed from office any time that a majority of the House is suspicious of a president’s motives, which occurs frequently in an era of divided government. It is legal for a president, who is under a constitutional duty to enforce the law, to ask a foreign government to cooperate with the Attorney General to investigate an American citizen about allegations that involve possible misuse of office for private gain. It is also legal for the President to delay the delivery of foreign aid to make sure he gets the foreign government’s attention; that’s not “extortion,” which is also a specific intent crime that requires a “wrongful” or corrupt purpose. On the contrary, one of the recognized purposes of foreign aid is “to reward a government for behavior desired by the donor.” Under the theory adopted by the Democrats in the House, the President’s otherwise legal acts supposedly become “high crimes and misdemeanors” warranting impeachment if they were done with the allegedly improper intent of “digging up dirt on a political rival,” rather than for a legitimate purpose. But why isn’t “digging up dirt” on a political opponent in an election year a legitimate purpose? It is called “opposition research” and the Democrats do it all the time. Their original theory was that because a foreign government was involved, the request for an investigation would have been soliciting an illegal campaign contribution. That tortured legal theory that asking for an investigation that never happened was an impeachable offense was abandoned when the Republicans pointed out that a foreign government provided information against candidate Trump in the notorious Steele dossier. The second article of impeachment for so-called obstruction of Congress also involves a thought crime, but based on an even more far-fetched theory. The idea there is that by invoking Executive privilege, the president was somehow “obstructing” a Congressional investigation. This is specious, as Professor Jonathan Turley rightly pointed out in his testimony to the House judiciary committee. Presidents, like all other American citizens, are entitled to raise plausible objections to a Congressional subpoena and to direct their subordinates to do likewise; if the House does not agree, it may go to the third branch, the judiciary, to resolve the dispute....
Netanyahu wins Likud leadership race
by landslide, defeating Sa’ar 72%-27%
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Into Our Media Advocacy Culture
by Victor Davis Hanson
{ dailysignal.com } ~ Former FBI Director scumbag-James Comey and Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former CIA Director scumbag/commie-John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence scumbag-James Clapper have lots of things in common... One, they ran the nation’s key intelligence and investigatory agencies under President Barack scumbag/liar-nObama. They were deeply involved in the “Russian collusion” hoax. And they participated in the surveillance of the Trump campaign and transition. scumbag-Comey and McCabe both signed applications for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court warrants requesting surveillance on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. A report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz criticized scumbag-Comey and McCabe’s FBI for falsehoods and misrepresentations during its investigation of the Trump campaign. scumbag-Clapper, scumbag/commie-Brennan, and the FBI helped to disseminate the fallacious Steele dossier to the press and among government agencies. Two, scumbag-Comey, McCabe, scumbag/commie-Brennan, and scumbag-Clapper have all lied either under oath or in the public sphere. Horowitz has said that he referred scumbag-Comey for criminal prosecution for leaking classified memos he wrote about his confidential conversations with the president, but the Justice Department did not pursue charges. He signed FISA warrant applications that the inspector general has determined were misleading at best and at worst simply flat-out wrong. In testimony before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, there were 245 occasions on which scumbag-Comey claimed he couldn’t remember details or couldn’t answer questions. scumbag-Comey did not tell the truth when he said the Steele dossier was not the prime evidence that he submitted to the FISA court. He also lied about when he was briefed on the dossier...
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The Accelerating Growth Of The
Second Amendment Sanctuary Movement
by Dave Workman
{ lidblog.com } ~ More than a hundred counties, cities, and towns in Virginia have joined the spreading Second Amendment Sanctuary movement... as newly-empowered Democrats look to crack down on gun owners. In New Jersey, the community of West Milford Township has been joined by the community of Sussex Borough in opposition to new gun control laws. In Washington, grassroots volunteers are scrambling to fill Initiative 1094 petitions to get on the November ballot. That initiative seeks to repeal gun control Initiative 1639, adopted by voters in 2018. In Illinois, more than half of the counties have adopted sanctuary resolutions. Ditto in Colorado. These and other signs—the entire states of Alaska, Idaho Kansas, and Wyoming have “gone sanctuary”—suggest that the long-anticipated “civil war” may have already started. However, it’s a war of words and ideals. No shots have been fired, no state has seceded, but the combined message is simple: Leave our guns and our rights alone. Anti-gunners contend this is nothing more than symbolism, but symbolism can be a powerful political weapon. Not since the national elections in 1994, when more than 50 members of Congress lost their jobs after voting for the scumbag/liar-Clinton Crime ban, has there appeared to be a renewed sense of urgency among gun owners. Despite the presence of Donald Trump in the Oval Office making the threat seem diminished, with Democrats now in control of legislatures in both Washington and West Virginia, there appears to be a growing likelihood of legislative confrontations over respective state legislation aimed at gun restrictions... https://lidblog.com/second-amendment-sanctuary-movement/ .
DiGenova Calls Admiral Mike Rogers’
Cooperation With Durham Team to Be the
‘Biggest Single Development’ in Case
by Elizabeth Vaughn
{ redstate.com } ~ Last week, it was reported that Admiral Mike Rogers, who served as Director of the National Security Agency under President scumbag/liar-nObama... has been cooperating with U.S. Attorney John Durham’s criminal inquiry into the origins of the Trump/Russia collusion investigation. This was big news for two reasons. I wrote about the first reason in a recent post, in which I called Rogers the “Unsung Hero.” He was one of the few scumbag/liar-nObama administration officials who actually had integrity, a man who noticed that something was amiss and acted. It was this man who traveled to Trump Tower on November 17, 2016, to brief then-President-elect Donald Trump that communications from the building were being tapped. He did not notify his superior, then-Director of National Intelligence scumbag-James Clapper, beforehand. Later that day, the Trump transition team announced they were moving their operations to a new location in New Jersey. Within days, the Washington Post reported that “scumbag-James Clapper and Defense Secretary Ash Carter had recommended the removal of Mike Rogers from his NSA position.” Rogers was not fired, for obvious reasons. The second reason predates the FBI’s application to the FISA Court for a warrant to spy on Carter Page by a couple of years, but in light of IG Horowitz’s report, this story becomes even more relevant. Rogers discovered that American citizens were being spied upon and drew attention to the abuse of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the scumbag/liar-nObama administration. According to former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova, Section 702 allows the government to essentially weaponize the NSA’s ability to collect data and surveil private U.S. citizens. Used as intended, it has been a useful law enforcement tool. Abused as it had been by scumbag/liar-nObama administration officials up until Rogers’ discovery in 2014, it became a weapon. DiGenova said, “For more than four years before the election of Donald Trump, there was an illegal spying operation going on by FBI private contractors — four of them — to steal personal information, electronic information about Americans and to use it against the Republican Party.”....
Here Are the ‘Courageous’
Leaders Honored by CAIR
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Former NSA chief helping criminal
probe of Russia-collusion claims
by wnd.com
There's been a fair bit of information that's become available about the criminal investigation U.S. Attorney John Durham is doing into the origins of the scumbag/liar-nObama administration's "Russia collusion" claims about the Trump 2016 investigation.
We know that it now involves potential criminal activity. We know several of the top Obama administration intel agency officials have come under review. And we know he disagrees with some of the relatively mild conclusions from a report from Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz into the same issues.
Now The Intercept is reporting that retired Adm. Michael Rogers is cooperating with Durham's investigation.
He is a former director of the National Security Agency.
The report said the information was confirmed by four people familiar with the situation.
"Rogers has met the prosecutor leading the probe, Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, on multiple occasions, according to two people familiar with Rogers's cooperation. While the substance of those meetings is not clear, Rogers has cooperated voluntarily, several people with knowledge of the matter said," according to the report.
The report explained, "The inquiry has been a pillar of Attorney General William Barr's tenure. He appointed Durham to lead the inquiry last spring, directing him to determine whether the FBI was justified in opening a counterintelligence investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and alleged links between Russia and the Trump campaign, among other matters. What began as a broad review has turned into a criminal investigation, according to the New York Times."
The report said a week ago a nonpartisan review of the investigation by the Justice Department inspector general concluded that while the FBI and Justice Department committed serious errors in their applications to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, the investigation was opened properly and without political bias.
It was over that report that Barr and Durham both disagreed with Horowitz.
The revelation points out that Rogers is the first former intel director known to have been interviewed in the investigation.
"Politico and NBC News have previously reported that Durham intends to interview both former CIA Director scumbag/commie-John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence scumbag-James Clapper. It is unclear if that has happened. scumbag/commie-Brennan and the Justice Department declined to comment. scumbag-Clapper could not be reached for comment," the report said.
The Washington Examiner reported Rogers is the "latest to sit down with U.S. Atttorney John Durham in the widening inquiry."
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