The Front Page Cover
~ Featuring ~
Trial by Media
by Paul Albaugh
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. Top Headlines
Otto Warmbier dead; former U.S. prisoner of North Korea, sent home in a coma, was 22. (Fox News)
Recalculation of illegal votes by non-citizens puts number closer to Trump's. (The Washington Times)
Republicans introduce new gun-carry legislation in wake of Alexandria attack. (The Washington Free Beacon)
Demos block witnesses from testifying in House intel probe. (The Washington Free Beacon)
Washington Post: Hey, maybe single-payer health care isn't such a great idea. (Hot Air)
Demos plan to halt Senate business over GOP health bill. (Hot Air)
Parties brace for outcome of Georgia election — most expensive House race ever. (The Hill)
EPA ends $1 million taxpayer-funded gym membership program. (The Washington Free Beacon)
VA whistleblower who testified in Congress stripped of job duties in Atlanta. (Washington Examiner)
Canadians could be jailed or fined for using incorrect gender pronouns. (The Daily Signal)
Policy: Don't bail out failing states like Illinois. (Investor's Business Daily)
Policy: Wisconsin's remarkable job growth should be celebrated. (E21) ~The Patriot Post
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State Department probes liar-Clinton handling of government emails, could pull her security clearance
by Malia Zimmerman
{foxnews.com} ~ The State Department has opened a formal inquiry into whether former Secretary of State liar-Hillary Clinton and her aides mishandled classified information while she was the nation’s top diplomat... Fox News has learned. Despite being under investigation, liar-Clinton and her staffers still have security clearances to access sensitive government information. The department’s investigation aims to determine whether liar-Clinton and her closest aides violated government protocols by using her private server to receive, hold and transmit classified and top-secret government documents. The department declined to say when its inquiry began, but it follows the conclusion of the FBI’s probe into the matter, which did not result in any actions being taken against liar-Clinton or any of her aides. Depending on the outcome of the current State Department inquiry, liar-Clinton and her aides could have their access to sensitive government documents terminated... http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/06/20/state-department-probes-clinton-handling-government-emails-could-pull-her-security-clearance.html?cmpid=NL_fntopEric Holder Returning To Run
For President? – Bite Your Tongue
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ If the Sessions Justice Department ever needed a reason to direct the FBI to actually investigate the Fast and Furious gun running operation, it’s here... We remember Eric Holder and Hussein liar-nObama were never investigated for using that scheme to “accidentally” arm their cartel allies in their lucrative open border drug and human trafficking ventures. Now that same guy who was held in contempt of Congress for obstruction in the Fast and Furiouis investigation, and who, along with James Comey, refused to prosecute Lois Lerner, for abuse of power in targeting conservative Americans, wants to run for President. He’s the same guy who once described the defeat of his anti-Second Amendment gun grabbing efforts as his single greatest failure as Attorney General. He’ll certainly seek to rectify that shortfall if he should somehow be elected. More than two years after curiously stepping down from his position as the chief agitator for racial preference and anti-Americanism in the nation, Eric Holder is stepping back into politics and a likely run for President in 2020...This is one complete joke. http://rickwells.us/eric-holder-returning-run-president-bite-tongue/.
"Corrupt Motive" as the
Criterion for Prosecuting a President
by Alan M. Dershowitz
{gatestoneinstitute.org} ~ My academic and political colleagues who insist that President Trump has obstructed justice point to his allegedly "corrupt motive" in firing former FBI Director James Comey... after telling him that he "hoped" he would end his investigation of General Michael Flynn. They concede – as Comey himself did – that the President has the constitutional authority to fire the director and to order him to end or start any investigation, just as he has the authority to pardon anyone being investigated. But they argue that these constitutionally authorized innocent acts become criminal if the President was "corruptly motivated." This is a dangerous argument that no civil libertarian should be pressing. Nor would they be pressing it if the shoe were on the other foot. If liar-Hillary Clinton had been elected and Republicans were investigating her for asking the Attorney General to describe the investigation of her as a "matter" rather than a "case," my colleagues would be arguing against an expansive view of existing criminal statutes, as they did when Republicans were demanding that she be locked up for espionage. The same would be true if Bill liar-Clinton or former Attorney General Loretta Lynch were being investigated for his visit to her when she was investigating his wife's misuse of email servers... https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10556/corrupt-motive-as-the-criterion-for-prosecutingby Alan M. Dershowitz
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20 Million US CITIZENS Illegally
Unmasked By liar-nOBAMA, COMEY, MUELLER
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ We’re still waiting for the outrage, feigned as it may be, from Republicans and the connection between the exposed surveillance of private individuals revealed by Dennis Montgomery... and the spying by the liar-nObama regime on their opponents. Why no call for an investigation on this by the same people who are beating the Russian dead horse? Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, where are you? This program aired June 7th but there’s been virtually nothing said about the revelations since. John Sololmon and Sara Carter of Circa News explained who Dennis Montgomery is and why he is such a key figure in exposing the corruption and illegality that is rampant in the deep state compromised FBI and intelligence agencies. In their June 7th interview with Sean Hannity, Solomon says, “We have a man tonight, that filed a lawsuit that walked out of the CIA, NSA and FBI with 47 hard drives, 600 million documents that were classified... http://rickwells.us/20-million-us-citizens-illegally-unmasked-obama-comey-mueller/
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New study bolsters
Trump's claim of rampant vote fraud
by Art Moore
{wnd.com} ~ A new study has concluded that as many as 5.7 million noncitizens may have voted in the 2008 election won by Barack liar-nObama, giving credence to President Trump’s much-maligned claim... that more than 3 million illegal-alien voters cost him the nationwide popular vote last November. A research group in New Jersey, Just Facts, announced it found that after examining post-election polling data, the number of noncitizens voting illegally in U.S. elections is likely far greater than previous estimates, the Washington Times reported. As WND reported in March, many election experts agree with the president that widespread vote fraud exists, including illegal-alien voting. But they think it’s unwise to make any estimates of the number of illegal voters, because there is no hard data at the moment. Yet, that likely will change with access now to records that were kept under wraps by the liar-nObama administration... http://www.wnd.com/2017/06/new-study-bolsters-trumps-claim-of-rampant-vote-fraud/.
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Trial by Media
By Paul Albaugh: Far too often when a crime occurs, people often tend to rush to judgment on who did it, what happened, why it happened and what the consequences should be for those involved. In today's age, with everyone having endless information at their fingertips, this has become commonplace.
The mainstream media is guilty of rushing to judgment on most issues, and tragic events such as a death or murder are no exception. It can also be said that the mainstream media often pours gasoline on the fire — all to keep people tuned in to the disaster. More often than not, tragedies end up being glorified by continuous coverage and the speculations and opinions spewed forth by the "news experts" are designed more to get people talking than they are to carefully weigh the facts.
It's as if the accused are going through trial by media before they get to their trial by jury. Two criminal cases decided on Friday serve as examples.
The first case involved Minnesota police officer, Jeronimo Yanez, who shot to death Philando Castile during a traffic stop in July of last year. Yanez faced a trial by jury and was acquitted of manslaughter and all other charges related to the incident.
Recall that the media had repeated the narrative that Officer Yanez had murdered an armed but law-abiding citizen who had done nothing wrong, and it was most likely, the story went, because of racism. The facts presented to the jury showed that Officer Yanez was following protocol. Castile lawfully informed Yanez that he was carrying a firearm, although he told the officer after being asked for his driver's license. Yanez told Castile "don't reach for it" once and "don't pull it out" twice before he opened fire on Castile, who was reaching for something.
It really doesn't matter what Castile was reaching for — as Officer Yanez testified, he felt that his life was in danger. Castile's girlfriend, who was in the passenger seat at the time, insisted Castile was reaching for his driver's license, not his gun. What is undisputed is that Castile was reaching for something. Should Officer Yanez have been a bit clearer in his instructions? Absolutely. Should Castile have stopped reaching for whatever he was reaching for and placed his hands in view and asked for clearer instructions from officer Yanez? Absolutely.
Tragically, Castile lost his life. Yanez, despite being acquitted, has been relieved of his duties as a law enforcement officer and will live the rest of his life with the decision he made that day. Yanez is certain to face more trial by media on the verdict, but, with the facts before them, the jury could not "beyond a reasonable doubt" charge Yanez with manslaughter.
The second case involved Michelle Carter, a young woman who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter — Massachusetts Judge Lawrence Moniz found her responsible for the death of her boyfriend, Conrad Roy III. (Carter waived her right to a trial by jury.) Carter had been sending her boyfriend text messages and calling him in the days and weeks ahead of his death, telling him repeatedly to kill himself.
Some commentators condemned the decision. National Review's David French called it a "terrible verdict," arguing that Carter should not be held responsible for her boyfriend's death because Roy was the one who carried out the action in killing himself. Meanwhile, Hot Air's Jazz Shaw echoed similar sentiments and argued that Carter in essence has been charged with a thought crime. That is, she thought that her boyfriend should kill himself and she told him to do so. Do we really want the courts punishing people for their thoughts and words?
Carter arguably had the right to say what she did to her boyfriend, but were her words consequence free? Was it right that she initiated a form of psychological bullying to the point that it prompted her boyfriend to take his own life? Words have meaning and words have consequences — ask Rep. Steve Scalise. Roy was mentally unstable and it seems that Carter may be as well.
The point of briefly covering these two cases is this: We have a justice system in place to decide cases. We should not rush to judge other people based on a few newspaper headlines or breaking news stories that rarely ever present all of the facts and evidence. The American justice system features the concept of innocent until proven guilty, and that hasn't changed despite news stories that portray people as guilty until proven innocent. Americans have the right to a trial by jury for a reason — so that all of the evidence and facts can be presented and decided by our peers.
Is our justice system perfect? Do all trials end up with justice being truly served? Sadly no, but the media would serve the public far better if it would do more reporting and less adjudicating, and leave the rest up to the jurors and the court system. ~The Patriot Post
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