Friday PM ~ TheFrontPageCover

The Front Page Cover
 The Events of the Week -- Featuring: 
 
Fighting for the Falsely Accused
by Michelle Malkin
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 Trump's Travel Ban 2.0 
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A week ago, we asked if Donald Trump could win by losing. The issue was his temporary travel ban, first blocked by a federal judge and then stifled by the Ninth Circuit Court. Trump was perfectly correct legally, but he could have executed better, and we hoped he'd skip the next appeal and craft a better order. At his press conference Thursday, Trump still insisted he's going to appeal, but also noted that he'll issue a new order next week: "The new order is going to be very much tailored to what I consider to be a very bad decision."
          The Washington Examiner's Daniel Allott explains the problem with the original order: "Trump's initial executive order, issued in late January, raised constitutional and humanitarian questions as nobody seemed to know exactly who was barred from the county. The poorly written order created confusion, as travelers from affected countries who were in transit were detained at airports. The order was enforced against people who already had visas, including permanent U.S. residents."
          Trump's objective with a temporary ban is to implement better vetting for incoming refugees — clearly, that's desirable. The seven nations subject to a temporary ban (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan) are particularly troublesome in this regard. Bleeding heart liberals fuss that we should welcome all refugees with open arms, but how are we to tell the difference between a person genuinely displaced by regional violence and a person — maybe even genuinely displaced — who is bent on causing havoc or death here in the U.S.? It's not as if people always tell the truth about their intentions. Democrats should know this better than anyone, given their expertise in deception.  ~The Patriot Post
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‘3rd Fleet Forward’ One of Several Tools to Deter North Korean Aggression
by Megan Eckstein
{news.usni.org} ~ Navy forces are preparing for a conflict on the Korean Peninsula – the most likely “fight tonight” scenario they face – by shifting U.S. 3rd Fleet forces as well as the most advanced platforms into the Western Pacific... Vice Adm. Joseph Aucoin, commander of U.S. 7th Fleet, said North Korea is the only country in his area of operations which is not seeing an improved relationship with the United States, and “if there’s a fight tonight, it’s probably going to happen on the Korean Peninsula.” Aucoin, speaking at the WEST 2017 conference, said that “we hope that North Korea abides by the United Nations Security Council resolution to stop development of nuclear weapons, but I’m not holding my breath on that regard.” He then described a three-pronged approach for naval forces dealing with that North Korean threat: “technology, our partnerships, and training.”...  https://news.usni.org/2017/02/22/3rd-fleet-forward-one-of-several-tools-to-deter-north-korean-aggression?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=1773268d77-USNI_NEWS_DAILY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-1773268d77-231491269&mc_cid=1773268d77&mc_eid=3999f18767
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Snatching Defeat From Jaws of Victory:
GOP Is Losing The liar-nObamacare Repeal Battle
by Jay Caruso
{redstate.com} ~ The GOP knows how to campaign effectively enough to win elections. However, when they win, their strategic initiatives are like boys throwing wet tissue paper against the ceiling in the school bathroom... Sometimes it sticks but other times it comes falling to the ground with a splat. The GOP promised since the passage of liar-nObamacare, that given the reigns of government, they would repeal what most people would agree is a garbage law. It was never intended to provide “coverage” as the revisionists would have people believe. It was passed to make coverage more “affordable.” It’s not. Premiums have risen. If you’re not lucky enough to qualify for subsidies, you’re likely paying out of your rear and that’s for a garbage plan with a super high deductible. It should have been easy for the GOP to repeal it but they’re blowing it. Allowing Democrats to control the narrative is making liar-nObamacare more popular:...This is making me mad and sick. http://www.redstate.com/jaycaruso/2017/02/22/snatching-defeat-jaws-victory-gop-losing-obamacare-repeal-battle/?utm_source=rsmorningbriefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
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Trump Wants Justice Department to Investigate Leakers...
by Josh Siegel
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{dailysignal.com} ~ Frustrated by a proliferation of leaks early in his administration, President Donald Trump last week said he directed the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation... “I’ve actually called the Justice Department to look into the leaks,” Trump said during a 75-minute news conference at the White House. “Those are criminal leaks.” Leaks—an intentional disclosure of secret information, often by an anonymous source. That changed in the recent administrations of George W. Bush, and more prominently, Barack liar-nObama, as electronic communications trails have made it easier for investigators to determine the source of leaks. liar-nObama prosecuted more whistleblowers than all of his predecessors combined, including high-profile charges against Edward Snowden, who leaked information from the National Security Agency, and Chelsea Manning, who disclosed files stolen from the Army to WikiLeaks...
Trump’s EPA Chief Releases More Than
7,000 Emails To Soros-Funded Group
by Chris White
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{dailycaller.com} ~ A liberal watchdog group released thousands of emails Wednesday showing President Donald Trump’s EPA chief shared communications with energy groups during his time as Oklahoma’s attorney general... The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a liberal watchdog group with financial ties to billionaire George Soros, released emails showing Scott Pruitt’s office communicated on several occasions with fossil fuel companies like Devon Energy earlier in February. CMD sued to have the emails released after it claimed the Oklahoma Republican stonewalled information requests for two years. “The newly released emails reveal a close and friendly relationship between Scott Pruitt’s office and the fossil fuel industry,” Nick Surgey, a director at CMD, wrote in a statement Wednesday...  http://dailycaller.com/2017/02/22/trumps-epa-chief-releases-more-than-7000-emails-to-soros-funded-group/
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Criminal Illegal Alien Released
From Jail Weeks Before Committing Murder
by Onan Coca and Jeff Dunetz
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{lidblog.com} ~ There’s a major story brewing in Denver where one of the suspects accused of robbing and then murdering a man in a Denver, Colorado light rail station should have never been able to commit the crime... But the Denver Sheriff’s office didn’t honor an ICE detainer and released a criminal illegal alien into the public to take a life. Ever Valles and Nathan Valdez have been charged with the murder of 32-year-old Tim Cruz. In and of itself, the crime is horrible. An innocent, law abiding man’s life was taken from him and his friends and family will have to suffer with that loss for the rest of their lives. However, the pain is compounded by the fact that Valles should have never been loose on the streets to commit this terrible act. Just a few weeks before the murder, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had placed a detainer on Valles after he’d been arrested by the Denver P.D for car thefts and other charges...  http://lidblog.com/criminal-illegal-alien-ever-valles/
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Fighting for the Falsely Accused
by Michelle Malkin
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{townhall.com} ~ Former Fort Worth, Texas, police officer Brian Franklin is finally free. But he is still fighting to clear his name.

"I've been vindicated," he told me in an interview last week, "but not yet exonerated." Franklin served 21 years in prison -- a harrowing 7,700 days -- of a life sentence after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in 1995. But he steadfastly maintained his innocence, studied law in the prison library and won a reversal of his conviction last spring. In December, a jury acquitted him after a second criminal trial.

"It's been a roller coaster ride up and down," Franklin reflected. Hellish doesn't begin to describe the journey. His accuser had lied that she was a virgin before Franklin allegedly raped her. Prosecutors produced physical exam results of damage to her genitals as proof of his crime. In fact, she had been the victim of molestation by her stepfather for years.

Moreover, the young accuser's story of when she was allegedly raped changed to fit a timeline developed by prosecutors. That timeline was debunked when Franklin's employment time records and time-stamped and dated store receipts showed he was nowhere near the alleged rape location -- the backyard of her biological father, who was a friend of Franklin's.

There were no witnesses. There was no DNA. Yet, the cop with "law enforcement in my blood" lost his job, reputation and freedom.

"It's the easiest crime to be falsely accused of," Franklin told me. Prosecutors "used my position as a police officer against me." His family and church stood by him. But as soon as he was arrested, he had already been branded a "RAPIST" in the court of public opinion. His original jury "prejudged me," Franklin recalled. Given the reckless witch hunts in cases like his and the Duke Lacrosse case, he observed, "I'm surprised anybody gets acquitted these days."

After Franklin's conviction, lead prosecutor Rose Salinas learned that his accuser had signed an affidavit detailing the daily sexual abuse by her stepfather from the ages of 6-16. Those claims, Salinas concluded, "render irrelevant any medical evidence introduced at Brian Franklin's trial to show guilt," "clearly show she that she testified falsely" and "cast serious doubts on the integrity of his conviction." Had she known of the accuser's withheld evidence, Salinas acknowledged, she "would have immediately dismissed the charges" against Franklin.

But he was still years away from winning his release as his various writs and petitions worked through the laborious criminal justice system. "There were times when a court would rule against me and I felt hit it in the stomach and down in the dumps," Franklin recounted over the phone from Kerrville, Texas, where he now lives with his mother. He leaned on his faith and family to get through the darkest times.

"I did not become hardened and I did not become institutionalized. I would not let myself become one of them."

Though he and his resilient family celebrated what they call a "Merry Acquitmas" in December, Franklin must still win a declaration of actual innocence from the state of Texas before he can be eligible for financial reparations for the falsely accused. He took a job at a grocery story and is trying to raise money on GoFundMe --
https://www.gofundme.com/Brian-Franklin -- for his legal bills.

Someday, Franklin told me, he would like to work full-time again in law enforcement and help others who have been wrongfully charged, convicted and imprisoned. He has already weighed in to support former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, who was railroaded by the social justice mob and accused of sexual assaults during the racially charged summer of Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

After reporting on the junk science, prosecutorial misconduct, police incompetence and due process violations run amok in his case over the past year, I've heard from several DNA experts, private investigators and former LEOs across the country disturbed by the gross miscarriage of justice against Holtzclaw. He filed his appellate brief with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Feb. 1.

"I've studied this case from both sides and have come to the conclusion that he really is innocent," Franklin wrote on Facebook. "I know about innocence. I was a cop wrongfully convicted of rape...For those of you who jump to conclusions when you don't know what you're talking about, shame on you. Learn the facts first."

Brian Franklin is a beacon not only for law enforcement officers fighting the tyranny of "guilty until proven innocent," but for every falsely accused citizen. His vow:

"I will not give up. I will persevere. I am right. I'm not gonna give up."

https://townhall.com/columnists/michellemalkin/2017/02/22/fighting-for-the-falsely-accused-n2288893?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=

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