IRS whistleblower provides Congress origins of Biden probe, evidence of political interference - John Solomon

 

​ by John Solomon

Special Agent Gary Shapley turned over 23 pages of evidence, gave six hours of testimony to House Ways and Means Committee.

 

A decorated IRS agent provided Congress six hours of testimony and seven critical documents Friday that gave lawmakers insights into the origins of the Hunter Biden criminal tax probe and evidence of political interference inside the Justice Department dating to the 2020 election.

Gary Shapley, an IRS supervisory criminal investigator granted whistleblower status, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, fielding questions from staff from Democrat and Republican lawmakers, his legal team announced.

Sources familiar with the session told Just the News that Shapley turned over seven documents totaling 23 pages that summarized the evidence and predicate for the original investigation into the taxes and overseas finances of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son. 

The memos also summarized multiple instances dating to 2020 in which DOJ officials thwarted, hampered or interfered with the frontline career investigators’ efforts – ranging from blocking certain tactics to allowing tolling agreements to expire that extended the statute of limitations on certain alleged offenses. Shapley described IRS and FBI agents being concerned by the interference.

The lawyers for Shapley, Mark Lytle and Tristan Leavitt, declined to discuss the specific of his testimony but confirmed the session occurred and that it involved bipartisan questioning.

"IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley testified for about six hours today to Democrat and Republican staff of the House Ways and Means Committee," his legal team said in a statement. "Both sides had equal opportunity to ask whatever questions they wanted, and Special Agent Shapley answered all of their questions."

Shapley's name had been concealed prior to Wednesday, when Just the News confirmed his identity. He has alleged that federal prosecutors engaged in "preferential treatment and politics" to prevent charges from being brought against Hunter Biden as part of an ongoing tax investigation.

In a brief interview with CBS ahead of his testimony, Shapley previewed the concerns that led him to reach out to the DOJ inspector general and Congress as a whistleblower.

"There were multiple steps that were slow-walked – were just completely not done – at the direction of the Department of Justice," the 14-year veteran agent told CBS.

"When I took control of this particular investigation, I immediately saw deviations from the normal process. It was way outside the norm of what I've experienced in the past,” he also said.

Shapley, a widely respected IRS agent who helped the agency build big cases included against Swiss banks, first approached the government’s internal watchdog with the help of whistleblower attorney Mark Zaid late last year.

Shapley eventually went to Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, the same watchdog who debunked the Russia collusion narrative and unmasked FBI abuses in the probe of former President Donald Trump.

The IRS agent has since filed a formal complaint of retaliation with the Office of Special Counsel, alleging that he was sidelined from the investigation after he made protected disclosures and that he had been passed over for promotion despite being the most qualified candidate for the post.

His attorneys have since disclosed to Congress that Shapley and his entire team had been officially removed from the case at the behest of the Justice Department in what they deemed another retaliatory act.

Lytle and Leavitt wrote to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel earlier this week, suggesting there were other whistleblowers coming forward to back Shapley’s story.

They cited a separate agent’s communication to the IRS. In that communication, Shapley's subordinate case agent appeared to indicate that the pair's efforts to call attention to pervasive problems affecting the investigation had gone on for years.

"For the last couple years, my SSA and I have tried to gain the attention of our senior leadership about certain issues prevalent regarding the investigation.

"I have asked for countless meetings with our chief and deputy chief, often to be left out on an island and not heard from. The lack of IRS-CI senior leadership involvement is deeply troubling and unacceptable," the case agent told Werfel.

In his whistleblower complaint to the Office of Special Counsel, obtained by Just the News, Shapley disclosed evidence of interference in the Hunter Biden case started in the summer of 2020.

Shapley’s “protected disclosures began in the summer of 2020, when he began noting irregularities in how the Department of Justice was handling the case,” including at least one U.S. attorney’s office and the DOJ’s tax division, according to the complaint.

Shapley “informed his management chain that DOJ's handing of the case failed to follow established precedent,” the complaint letter also states.

File

OSC letter IRS

Two years of complaints boiled over in an Oct. 7, 2022, meeting with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, the chief prosecutors in the Hunter Biden case, also according to the letter. 

“In a charged meeting on October 7,2022, U.S.Attorney for the District of Delaware became aware that both the IRS and the FBI had longstanding concerns about the handling of the case, and that he had been communicating his concerns up his chain of command,” the complaint letter states.

After that meeting, Shapley “and his IRS team were no longer invited to any further prosecutorial team calls and meetings on the case, effectively excluding them from the case,” also according to the letter.

 
John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/sat-irs-whistleblower-provides-congress-origins-biden-probe

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John Durham to testify to House Judiciary Committee in June - Ben Whedon

 

​ by Ben Whedon

His report found that the FBI began its investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign without any predicating evidence.

 

Special Counsel John Durham will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in June, a source confirmed to Just the News.

Durham recently published his final report after years of investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. He will appear before House lawmakers on June 21.

The special counsel found that the FBI began its investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign without any predicating evidence.

Durham Report

It further highlighted that senior intelligence and Obama administration officials, among them former CIA Director John Brennan and FBI James Comey, were aware of a plan by the Clinton campaign to fabricate ties between Trump and Moscow even before the presidential contest concluded in Trump's favor.

Durham also noted that the case against Trump's campaign was so weak that British intelligence officials refused to participate in the investigation.

The House Judiciary Committee is one of several Republican-dominated panels investigating the Biden administration. Senate Republicans have also called on Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, the chairman of the upper chamber's corresponding committee, to call Durham to testify.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/john-durham-testify-house-judiciary-committee-june

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Kafka Comes to College - Mark Tapson

 

​ by Mark Tapson

Opposing the racist DEI agenda gets you thrown into a surreal judicial nightmare.

 

On Friday, April 14 2023, Ohio Northern University law professor Scott Gerber and his students were shocked and alarmed to see campus security officers, backed up by armed local police, unceremoniously enter the classroom, remove Gerber, and escort him to the Dean’s office. There the professor with 22 years experience, a history of excellent evaluations, and courses filled to capacity was immediately barred from teaching, banished from the ONU campus, and told that if he didn’t sign a separation agreement and release of claims by April 21^st, the university would commence dismissal proceedings against him. On what grounds? Insufficient “collegiality.”

The real reason, as Gerber went on to explain in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece published a few weeks later, titled “DEI Brings Kafka to My Law School,” was insufficient compliance with the school’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, to which he had objected publicly and in newspaper op-eds and television interviews.

The mission of DEI, of course, is the implementation of social justice revenge. It has metastasized throughout every institution of society: government agencies, the military, corporations, the legal and medical fields, law enforcement, the entertainment industry, literally every Human Resources department anywhere. But perhaps nowhere is it more deeply entrenched than in the field of higher education, where Critical Theory – the subversive ideology behind DEI – originated and was developed.

It is hardly news anymore that university administrations and faculties skew far left politically and are dominated by a totalitarian degree of wokeness. Lockstep conformity to political correctness is expected or persecution for your lack of “collegiality” will ensue: at best, being ostracized by one’s peers, and at worst, being exiled from a career you trained for, excelled in, and loved. “And more than anything else, I love teaching,” Gerber wrote.

As he details in his WSJ piece, in the week prior to being essentially frog-marched out of his classroom in the middle of a lecture – an outrageously unnecessary measure clearly intended to send an intimidating message to any other professor who might step out of line – he had published an op-ed at The Hill defending Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s “right to have friends – even rich ones,” referring to the Left’s recent attempt to manufacture a corruption scandal involving the black conservative Justice whom the Left considers a race traitor.

The week before that, Gerber gave a TV interview in which he “criticized DEI programs that discriminate against white men in the name of ‘racial and social justice’ and for being indifferent to the type of diversity higher education should value most: viewpoint diversity.” In the week before that, he published op-eds in a national newspaper and in Ohio reiterating his argument.

During a meeting earlier this semester of the University Council, a faculty governance body of which Gerber was vice chairman, he had requested that the school’s DEI program address this issue of viewpoint diversity. The administration replied bluntly that diversity of viewpoints “is not part of our diversity, belonging and inclusion plan.”

And there you have it: diversity of viewpoints, which is the only diversity that should matter, is precisely the kind that is anathema under the racist DEI agenda, which values diversity of skin color and gender identity but uniformity of viewpoints above all else.

ONU has launched an investigation into Gerber but refused to supply him or his lawyers with any specifics. Denied even the basic right to know his purported transgression, He racked his brain “to think of rules I might have broken.” In his Wall Street Journal article, Gerber likened himself to Josef K, the protagonist of Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial, a young bank cashier who is arrested one day by emissaries of an unnamed agency, trapped in a surreal judicial nightmare, and ultimately executed without ever even being told the nature of his crime.

“Perhaps decency is a sacrifice ONU is willing to make to grease the wheels of the DEI agenda. It looks like the law is, too,” Gerber lamented. The school is unambiguously guilty of violating his rights. The American Association of University Professors even notified ONU on two separate occasions that “an absence of collegiality ought never, by itself, constitute a basis for non-reappointment, denial of tenure, or dismissal for cause.” Dr. Melissa J. Baumann, President of Ohio Northern University, doubled down on the school’s passive-aggressive silence by informing AAUP that “ONU will not be providing a response.”

A GoFundMe page in his support has been created, and Gerber has secured legal assistance from FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Harvard Law school professor Randall Kennedy composed a letter signed by more than fifty other professors expecting “a proper resolution of this distressing situation.” On May 18 Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars, sent a fiery letter in defense of Gerber to President Baumann. In it he wrote,

I am appalled by the treatment ONU’s senior administrators have meted out to Professor Gerber. His account published in The Wall Street Journal and the statement issued by FIRE are powerful indictments of the unfairness, callousness, and abuse of process that ONU has exhibited – I would say “in this case,” but in fact there is no case. As far as we on the outside can tell, there was only administrative whim.

[…]

What could possibly justify interrupting a professor’s class in order to take him under escort to the dean? In the real world we call this bullying. Then to demand his capitulation on the spot without naming charges or following the university’s written procedures? In the real world we call this contempt and intimidation.

He goes on to urge Baumann to “apologize publicly to Professor Gerber and explain to your board that you made a grave mistake,” though Wood acknowledges that this is “unlikely to happen,” given the unapologetic nature of authoritarian regimes.

Gerber’s story echoes that of many other professors around the country (and elsewhere in the Western world) who have run afoul of the Campus Diversity Gestapo and been summarily cast out of “decent” society as what George Orwell called an “unperson.” This unconscionable bullying, as Peter Wood labeled it, must never be allowed to stand – for the sake of academic freedom, for the sake of viewpoint diversity, for the sake of a civilization that values freedom of thought, due process, and human rights.

Ohio Northern University must reinstate Gerber immediately and make public restitution, including the apology Wood demanded. And every other institution of higher learning around the country must be put on notice that the racist, totalitarian Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion scam must end.

Mark Tapson is the Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, focusing on popular culture. He is also the host of an original podcast on Frontpage, “The Right Take With Mark Tapson.”

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/kafka-comes-to-college/

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Biden’s Antisemitism Strategy Fails to Condemn BDS, Includes CAIR - Daniel Greenfield

 

​ by Daniel Greenfield

This is the Biden administration's betrayal of Jews in a nutshell.

 

There were many expectations for Biden’s U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism among the usual organizational types, but anyone with common sense could have seen this coming a mile away.

The U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism fails to address Muslim and leftist antisemitism, it briefly delves into, but does not address where campus antisemitism is coming from, has a single throwaway line about the attacks on Orthodox Jews in New York City, and gives the IHRA pro-Israel definition of antisemitism nearly equal billing with the Nexus anti-Israel one.

The strategy claims that “there are several definitions of antisemitism, which serve as valuable tools to raise awareness and increase understanding of antisemitism”, including the IHRA, but noting that the Biden administration “welcomes and appreciates the Nexus Document and notes other such efforts.”

As I note in an upcoming article, “the Nexus definition of antisemitism was created to protect anti-Israel activists from charges of antisemitism. That definition, which the Biden administration chose to promote, claims that BDS or “boycotting goods made in the West Bank and/or Israel is not antisemitic”, and argues that, “opposition to Zionism and/or Israel does not necessarily reflect specific anti-Jewish animus nor purposefully lead to antisemitic behaviors and conditions”.

While Biden’s U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism doesn’t condemn BDS and waffles on pro and anti-Israel positions, it does take the time to bring CAIR into it.

The press release boasts that “the Council on American-Islamic Relations will launch a tour to educate religious communities about steps they can take to protect their houses of worship from hate incidents.”

That’s the same CAIR that has defended Islamic terrorism against Jews, defended Muslim terrorists like Ahmed Ferhani who plotted attacks on synagogues, and which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial involving the funding of Hamas.

The ZOA notes that, “the Biden Strategy uses the soft phrase U.S. “has embraced” [past tense] the positive consensus IHRA definition of antisemitism – while much more strongly states Biden “welcomes and appreciates” the dangerous “Nexus” definition of antisemitism. The Biden Strategy then also “notes” other definitions, which can mean even more harmful definitions such as the JDA definition.”

It also points out that, “Third, the Biden Strategy fails to explicitly identify or deal with any source of antisemitism by name other than white supremacy. The Biden Strategy never identifies Black supremacist antisemitism such as that of Louis Farrakhan; BlackLivesMatter (BLM) antisemitism and anti-Jewish pogroms; radical Islamist antisemitism; or the hatred of Jews and the sole Jewish state promoted in Congress by Squad members such as Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Betty McCollum, Cori Bush, Bernie Sanders and Jamaal Bowman.”

The Coalition for Jewish Values also blasted the strategy, “the President’s statement also highlights the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville in 2017 and seems to tie antisemitism exclusively to white supremacy. This distracts attention from other sources of antisemitism; the vast majority of attacks upon Jews in New York are perpetrated by People of Color.”

This is the Biden administration’s betrayal of Jews in a nutshell.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/bidens-antisemitism-strategy-fails-to-condemn-bds-includes-cair/

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Iran's Nuclear Program: Does the Biden Administration Have a Policy? - Majid Rafizadeh

 

​ by Majid Rafizadeh

So far, the Biden Administration's lack of strategy towards the Iranian regime -- became evident during the recent briefing about Iran that disappointed U.S. Senators.

• Since 2021, the Biden Administration has been cozying up to Iran in a way that has often seemed agonizingly embarrassing to entice it back to the disastrous 2015 "JCPOA" nuclear deal of the Obama Administration. Mercifully those efforts did not succeed: the new deal would still most likely have enabled Iran, after a few years, legitimately to have all the nuclear weapons it liked.

• Meanwhile, in Israel, on May 22, US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides was asked, "Can Israel attack Iran without the US? What about the lack of meetings between President Biden and PM Netanyahu?" Nides answered: "The coordination between Israel and US vis-à-vis our mutual enemies, our common threats in the region, is rock solid. One of the things President Biden assured both PM Bennett and Lapid, and Netanyahu, was that there would be complete transparency regarding coordination on Iran.... And it's not just Iran, it's its proxies. We stand here to support Israel and work with it to make sure Iran never attains a nuclear weapon."

• The trouble is, can we believe him?

• So far, the Biden Administration's lack of strategy towards the Iranian regime also became evident during the recent briefing about Iran that disappointed U.S. Senators.

• "Strategic ambiguity on Iran policy only serves to embolden the regime and push our partners closer to China." — Senator Jim Risch, May 17, 2023.

• The Biden administration is also not putting any pressure on the European Union to stop trading with Iran. In fact, bragged the Tehran Times, "The value of Iran's export to the European Union (EU)'s member states rose 28 percent in the first nine months of 2022."

• Iran's increasing trade with and exports to the EU are also increasing the regime's revenues and assisting it to supply more weapons to Russia.

• "The source claimed that two Russian-flagged cargo ships, departed an Iranian port in January bound for Russia via the Caspian Sea, carrying approximately 100 million bullets and around 300,000 shells. Ammunition for rocket launchers, mortars and machine guns was allegedly included in the shipments. The source said Moscow paid for the ammunition in cash." – Sky News, March 8, 2023.

• Finally, Iran is now producing more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China, which desperately needs more oil, while the Biden Administration suspended new oil and gas leases on public lands and waters.

• The Biden Administration's policies of appeasement are directly energizing the Iranian regime. We need to remember what Winston Churchill warned against about appeasing aggressors: "Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last."

Ever since President Joe Biden assumed office, Iran has been freely enriching uranium to levels just short of nuclear breakout – levels not needed for peaceful nuclear technology – and violating sanctions. Pictured: The Isfahan uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan, Iran. (Photo by Getty Images)

The Biden Administration's reluctance to enforce existing sanctions on Iran -- the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, according to the State Department in 2021 -- looks suspiciously like total appeasement of Iran's ruling mullahs.

Since 2021, the Biden Administration has been cozying up to Iran in a way that has often seemed agonizingly embarrassing to entice it back to the disastrous 2015 "JCPOA" nuclear deal of the Obama Administration. Mercifully those efforts did not succeed: the new deal would still most likely have enabled Iran, after a few years, legitimately to have all the nuclear weapons it liked.

Meanwhile, in Israel, on May 22, US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides was asked, "Can Israel attack Iran without the US? What about the lack of meetings between President Biden and PM Netanyahu?" Nides answered:

"The coordination between Israel and US vis-à-vis our mutual enemies, our common threats in the region, is rock solid. One of the things President Biden assured both PM Bennett and Lapid, and Netanyahu, was that there would be complete transparency regarding coordination on Iran.... And it's not just Iran, it's its proxies. We stand here to support Israel and work with it to make sure Iran never attains a nuclear weapon."

The trouble is, can we believe him?

So far, the Biden Administration's lack of strategy towards the Iranian regime also became evident during the recent briefing about Iran that disappointed U.S. Senators. According to Senator Josh Hawley:

"Based on what I heard ... they really don't have much to say on the topic, and I didn't think it was particularly useful briefing. I don't know if they really have a coherent strategy if there is one I didn't I didn't hear."

Senator Jim Risch had similar message; he released a brief statement on May 16, saying:

"It's been over six months since President Biden declared the JCPOA 'dead' and we're still no closer to a more comprehensive Iran policy. Strategic ambiguity on Iran policy only serves to embolden the regime and push our partners closer to China."

Not only has the Biden administration abandoned the "maximum pressure" policy on the mullahs, also, ever since President Joe Biden assumed office, Iran has been freely enriching uranium to levels just short of nuclear breakout – levels not needed for peaceful nuclear technology – and violating sanctions. With Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Iran has become a major weapons smuggler and exporter to the aggressors. Russia has depleted the supply of attack drones that it previously bought from Iran and, according to a report published on May 15, 2023, is looking to purchase more.

According to White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby:

"Iran also continues to provide Russia with one-way attack UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). Since August, Iran has provided Russia with more than 400 UAVs primarily of the Shahed variety...Russia has expended most of these UAVs, using them to target Ukrainian critical infrastructure inside Ukraine. By providing Russia with these UAVs, Iran has been directly enabling Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine."

The Biden administration is also not putting any pressure on the European Union to stop trading with Iran. In fact, bragged the Tehran Times,

"The value of Iran's export to the European Union (EU)'s member states rose 28 percent in the first nine months of 2022... Iran exported commodities worth €799 million to the union in the nine-month period of this year, while the figure was €623 million in the same time span of the previous year... the total value of trade between Iran and the European Union reached €3.947 billion in January-September 2022, while the figure was €3.025 billion in the same period of 2021."

Iran's increasing trade with and exports to the EU are also increasing the regime's revenues and assisting it to supply more weapons to Russia. The Iranian regime, in favor of the Russian invasion from the outset, praised Russia's decision to send troops into Ukraine. Iran's weapons exports to Russia have not been limited just to exporting drones. according to a recent report from Sky News:

"Iran has secretly supplied large quantities of bullets, rockets and mortar shells to Russia for the war in Ukraine and plans to send more, a security source has told Sky News.

"The source claimed that two Russian-flagged cargo ships, departed an Iranian port in January bound for Russia via the Caspian Sea, carrying approximately 100 million bullets and around 300,000 shells.

"Ammunition for rocket launchers, mortars and machine guns was allegedly included in the shipments.

"The source said Moscow paid for the ammunition in cash."

Finally, Iran is now producing more oil and selling it at levels close to the pre-sanctions era to countries such as China, which desperately needs more oil, while the Biden Administration suspended new oil and gas leases on public lands and waters.

The Biden Administration's policies of appeasement are directly energizing the Iranian regime. We need to remember what Winston Churchill warned against about appeasing aggressors:

"Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured. But I fear -- I fear greatly -- the storm will not pass. It will rage and it will roar, ever more loudly, ever more widely. It will spread to the South; it will spread to the North."

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Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US Foreign Policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19675/iran-nuclear-program-biden-policy

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When a Whistleblower Ain’t a Whistleblower - Allen West

 

​ by Allen West

Politicizing and weaponizing the FBI against its own agents - and the American people.

 

“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” — Quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, and Thomas Paine.

The quote mentioned above is used often, and history has taught us that it has proven to be true regardless of attribution. However, just for the record, I did a little research, and the actual quote of Thomas Jefferson came from a letter written in 1825 to Mr. William Short:

“Some are Whigs, liberals, democrats, call them what you please. Others are Tories, services, aristocrats, &c. The latter fear the people and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society; the former consider the people as the safest depository of power in the last resort; they cherish them, therefore, and wish to leave in them all the powers to the exercise of which they are competent.”

It is imperative to understand that Jefferson’s use of “liberal” is in keeping with the classical liberal principles of John Locke, whom Jefferson studied, and the ideas of natural rights theory. He is not referring to this post-modern liberalism aligned with progressive socialism, Marxism, and communism. As well, the Democrats Jefferson refers to are not the same. Today they are the ones who seek to tear down his statue and remove him from the very institution that he founded, the University of Virginia.

Both quotations are pertinent, prescient, and indeed reflect the political landscape here in America. Look no further than last week’s hearing in the House Judiciary Committee subcommittee on government weaponization. What was evident to everyone watching is that for today’s progressive socialist leftists, whistleblowers are only those who parrot and advance their ideological agenda. It was appalling to see the line of questions – attacks — levied by the political “higher class of society” against these honorable FBI agents who presented facts and personal experiences. 

The testimony of these men solidifies what we already know: the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been horrifically politicized and weaponized against its agents and the American people.

Let the facts speak for themselves.

Parents who attended school board meetings over their concerns about the indoctrination of their children were designated as domestic terrorists. I find that rather interesting because I have yet to see a concerned parent riot, commit violent acts, and burn down a school. Yet, we have an organization, Antifa, that is doing exactly that, including committing acts of violence against law enforcement agencies. Not a doggone thing is being done about it, and no investigation. However, if you were in Washington, DC, on January 6th, you had FBI agents visiting your home. Indeed an act of weaponized intimidation.

The FBI has found itself showing up on the doorsteps of pro-life activists. We know it has even had agents infiltrating the Catholic Church, all because of supporting the first unalienable right, life, for the born and unborn. However, it seems that the FBI cannot seem to infiltrate the organization Jane’s Revenge which claimed responsibility for firebombing pro-life advocacy centers and vandalizing churches. Instead of infiltrating the Catholic Church, what about the Satanic Temple of America? They freely admit abortion — really infanticide – is a part of their “rituals.” They are bringing a lawsuit against the US Supreme Court so that they may continue to murder unborn babies in the womb up to birth and maybe afterward. It’s interesting to note, isn’t it, that the Satanic Temple of America and the Democrat Party share the same policy position?

The Durham report has confirmed that the Trump Russia narrative was a Democrat, political, concocted hoax. Yet, we have senior FBI leaders, James Comey, Peter Strozk, Andrew McCabe, and Lisa Paige, who enabled it and pushed it unconstitutionally, resulting in surveillance against political opposition. The FBI used federal taxpayer dollars to conduct an operation against political opposition. We also know that the FBI aligned with, and even paid taxpayer dollars to, social media platforms to suppress – censor — the freedom of speech and expression of those who did not support the COVID shenanigans and Fauci’s lies.

To hear the accounts of these brave whistleblowers and what they have experienced was chilling. But what was most disturbing and should give warning to us all is the admonishment that “this government will crush you.” We have seen that in armed FBI SWAT teams barging into the homes of everyday Americans; just ask Sherronna Bishop of Colorado.

I wrote a previous Townhall piece about the “New American Stasi State,” trust me, I hate being right about these things. But this is what we are facing. The FBI we once watched on ABC Sunday nights starring Efrem Zimbalist Jr. no longer exists. There are honorable men and women, but the organization is not one of honor, integrity, or moral character. Remember that FBI Director Christopher Wray lied to the Senate Committee of Oversight Chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, about an important meeting he had to attend, the reason the committee hearing could not continue. We found out later that he had to take the FBI jet to the Adirondacks for a vacation. The “higher class of society.”

The left is trying to parry this into a discussion about defunding a law enforcement agency. But, of course, that is not the case. The left, enabled by their Soros-backed District Attorneys, has undermined the rule of law and law and order by cutting funding to law enforcement agencies as part of their ideological agenda of chaos and rampant crime on the streets. The FBI has lost its way and is not honoring the rule of law but enabling leftist rule through coercion, intimidation, threats, and acts of retribution against their agents. It is an agency that utterly needs restructuring and reform. Yet, it is not the only one. The same is true for the IRS, DOJ (who just ordered the IRS to stop investigations into Hunter Biden), DOD, Homeland Security, ATF, and State Department.

But, if we do not end the evolution of the Secret State Police, our American version of the East German Stasi police, the FBI, we will live in a state of fear, which is tyranny. Americans cannot Live Free if they are in a state of tyranny. 

Recently, a female whistleblower in the Department of Health and Human Services testified that the Biden administration lost approximately 85,000 children here illegally. But, of course, she was also dismissed by the progressive socialist leftists. Why? Because to the leftists in America, a whistleblower ain’t a whistleblower if they are exposing the tyranny and corruption of the party of the jackass.

This is a major election issue for 2024–destroying the New American Stasi State.

Steadfast and Loyal.

Allen West

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/when-a-whistleblower-aint-a-whistleblower/

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Georgia Gov. Kemp meets with Israeli leaders on economic development trip -- JNS

 

​ by JNS

The Republican has said he is not running for president, though there is speculation that he just might throw his hat in the ring.

 

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on a state visit to Israel. Source: Twitter/Gov. Brian Kemp.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp arrived in Israel over the weekend for a weeklong visit focused on strengthening economic ties between the southern U.S. state and Israel.

He met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday for about an hour “to discuss U.S.-Israeli relations, the threat of a nuclear Iran and economic development opportunities in Georgia,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported 

The newspaper added that Netanyahu asked Kemp about a state bill to combat antisemitism, “a sign the stalled measure has attracted the attention of Israel’s senior leaders.”

The Republican governor also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Eli Cohen, Israeli minister of foreign affairs.

“I expressed my appreciation for his support in battling BDS and antisemitism. We discussed the common challenges and the potential for deepening our cooperation,” Herzog tweeted. The Israeli president “peppered Kemp with questions about the state’s economy,” the Atlanta paper reported. “Cohen promised to send a trade delegation to Atlanta to strengthen ties between the two governments.”

Cohen tweeted that the governor is a “true friend of Israel.” Kemp and his delegation also made a “special proclamation” celebrating Israel’s 75th anniversary and 75 years of strong bilateral relations with the United States, according to Cohen. “Discussed the many opportunities to further strengthen them,” he added.

Kemp tweeted something to the same effect.

We also had the privilege of spending time with Minister of Foreign Affairs @elicoh1 today, where I presented him with an official State of Georgia proclamation celebrating the 75th year of Israeli independence and our strong bilateral connections. pic.twitter.com/JCGj1wZwm7

— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) May 21, 2023

The Georgia governor visited the Tower of David and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, both in Jerusalem, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

“Israel is a relatively small trade partner with Georgia, ranking as the state’s 34th-largest export market. About 20 Israeli firms have operations in Georgia,” according to the Atlanta paper.

The state exported $280 million worth of goods and services to Israel in 2021, per Georgia’s economic development department, the Associated Press reported. Georgia’s imports from Israel were worth $560 million, which is the 29th largest for the state, per the AP, which added that state officials said that 1,000 Georgians work for Israeli companies.

The overseas trip is Kemp’s fourth since becoming governor, according to the AP. He has said he is not running for president in 2024, but there is speculation that he might launch a campaign.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (left) on a state visit to Israel. Source: Twitter/Gov. Brian Kemp.

 

JNS

Source: https://www.jns.org/jns/economy/23/5/22/290059/

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Report from Ukraine: Why They Fight - Richard Kemp

 

​ by Richard Kemp

While torture and murder cannot be undone, Russia's child kidnapping can, and it is inexplicable that so far there has been no large scale international outrage.

• I asked what they now needed most from our countries. Of course more guns, more ammo, more tanks, more rockets plus combat planes always featured. But another consistent answer was striking even if not surprising: please do not try to force our country to make peace with the invaders.

• The government in Kyiv has so far documented 19,393 kidnapped children, and there are most likely many more that are as yet unidentified.

• Like the torture and murder of civilians in Izium and elsewhere, and the summary execution of prisoners of war, these kidnappings are war crimes. It is for these abductions that the International Criminal Court in March issued arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin and his so-called Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova.

• Putin's forces and civilian bureaucrats have seized children from orphanages and children's homes, removed them directly from their parents or taken them into "care" after killing their families. Some have been forcibly fostered or adopted in cities including Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Rostov. Names and dates of birth are sometimes changed to render them untraceable.

• While torture and murder cannot be undone, Russia's child kidnapping can, and it is inexplicable that so far there has been no large scale international outrage.

• [K]nowledge of these wicked depredations is why they fight; and why they and the fighting men on Ukraine's other battlefields remain determined to keep attacking, holding the invaders from their families' doors until they drive them back beyond their borders, no matter what the personal cost might be.

Russian forces and civilian bureaucrats have seized nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children from orphanages and children's homes, removed them directly from their parents or taken them into "care" after killing their families. Knowledge of these wicked depredations is why Ukrainians fight on the battlefield, determined to keep attacking, holding the invaders from their families' doors. Pictured: A Ukrainian soldier in Bakhmut, Ukraine, on April 23, 2023. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)

This week, near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, I spent time with commanders and soldiers who have been fighting the Russian invaders in the shattered city, sometimes for months on end. This has been one of the longest battles anywhere in the world since 1945 and by far the most brutal in this war, with Russians and Ukrainians often fighting at close quarters, artillery hammering the city into Stalingrad-like rubble and a level of slaughter unequalled anywhere else in Putin's vicious war.

Talking to these battle-worn men, their gratitude for the arms, ammunition and equipment supplied by the West was palpable and sometimes emotional. They credited us with keeping them alive and keeping them fighting. I asked what they now needed most from our countries. Of course more guns, more ammo, more tanks, more rockets plus combat planes always featured. But another consistent answer was striking even if not surprising: please do not try to force our country to make peace with the invaders.

This from men who have seen their brothers-in-arms cut down by bullets, bomb blasts and scything shell splinters; have battled to prevent the life ebb from their comrades' mangled bodies; have endured the mind-numbing percussion of unending artillery bombardments and have risked their very lives with every hour spent in the ruined city. At one point the deadly reality of life in Bakhmut was driven home by fleets of laden ambulances hurtling past us, heading away from the battle zone.

With their blunt rejection of peace negotiations, were these fighting men disproving the words of US General Douglas MacArthur in his famous Duty, Honor, Country speech at West Point: "The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war"?

I did not ask them that question because I immediately understood what lay behind their grim determination to keep fighting despite the horror of it all.

Earlier I had visited nearby Izium, where the Russian occupation is marked not only by rubbleised and bullet-pocked schools, hospitals, houses and apartment blocks but also by shallow graves in the middle of the woods, now empty and each marked by a rough-hewn timber cross.

After the Russians had been driven out by the Ukrainian army's counter offensive last September, 447 bodies were exhumed here, mostly civilian men, women and children, almost all showing signs of violent death, many executed, some mutilated and some with hands bound. The surrounding woodland is scarred with tank scrapes, large holes in the ground where Russian armour had been dug in to provide added protection against artillery and anti-tank fire and to aid concealment from ground and air. One of these scrapes had contained the corpses of 17 Ukrainian soldiers. Before they piled earth on top of them, the Russians had, for good measure, dumped an anti-tank mine on the bodies, intended to kill and maim those tasked with digging them out.

Some of the dead civilians had been brought to these woods from the town of Izium and from Balakliia, a few miles away. In both places I walked around police stations containing squalid cells and lightless basements where the Russians had jammed in their captives, men, women and children; and terrorised, tortured, sexually abused and murdered them.

I saw the same baleful sites at Bucha near Kyiv a few days later. Places like this are to be found in many towns and villages the Russians occupied. They are horribly reminiscent of Nazi torture and killing centres I've visited in Poland, France and on the Channel Island of Alderney. Like them, these sites deserve to be preserved, both as a reminder of the evil men do and as a memorial to the poor souls who suffered so terribly under the Russian jackboot.

From areas of the country that Putin's army occupied since the invasion last February, they have also abducted Ukrainian children, including babies, on an industrial scale. The government in Kyiv has so far documented 19,393 kidnapped children, and there are most likely many more that are as yet unidentified.

Some are still held in areas of Ukraine the Russian army continues to occupy, and others have been transported to Russian territory. Like the torture and murder of civilians in Izium and elsewhere, and the summary execution of prisoners of war, these kidnappings are war crimes. It is for these abductions that the International Criminal Court in March issued arrest warrants against Vladimir Putin and his so-called Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova.

Putin's forces and civilian bureaucrats have seized children from orphanages and children's homes, removed them directly from their parents or taken them into "care" after killing their families. Some have been forcibly fostered or adopted in cities including Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Rostov. Names and dates of birth are sometimes changed to render them untraceable. Those children who speak up for their native land, sing the national anthem or speak ill of Putin are "re-educated" by Russian authorities, a process that has included extended periods of detention and solitary confinement as well as bullying and savage beatings. Some children have been enlisted into a Russian "youth army" where they are trained and prepared to fight one day against their own people.

In Kyiv I met the red-eyed mothers of some of these children, every one of them going through a living hell that will never end until their sons and daughters are returned to them. The Ukrainian government and the NGO Save Ukraine, as well as individual parents that are able to, are making efforts to retrieve these children but so far only very small numbers have been brought home. While torture and murder cannot be undone, Russia's child kidnapping can, and it is inexplicable that so far there has been no large-scale international outrage.

The kidnapping of Ukrainian children has grotesque echoes of the Third Reich, which forcibly removed at least 20,000 Polish children from their families and transported them to Germany — the same number as the children that we know have been kidnapped by Putin so far. Many of them faced an almost identical fate as the abducted Ukrainian children today.

Returning to the defenders of Bakhmut, knowledge of these wicked depredations is why they fight; and why they and the fighting men on Ukraine's other battlefields remain determined to keep attacking, holding the invaders from their families' doors until they drive them back beyond their borders, no matter what the personal cost might be.

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Colonel Richard Kemp is a former British Army Commander. He was also head of the international terrorism team in the U.K. Cabinet Office and is now a writer and speaker on international and military affairs. He is a Shillman Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19673/report-from-ukraine

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The Miracle that is Israel - Joseph Puder

 

​ by Joseph Puder

If you don’t believe in miracles, you’re not a realist.

 

Israel’s founding father and its first Prime Minster David (Green) Ben Gurion once said, “If you do not believe in miracles, you are not a realist.” In Israel, miracles have occurred repeatedly, and I am not referring to the “parting of the waters” before Moses and the Children of Israel on their exodus from Egypt after 400 years of slavery. In fact, when Ben Gurion declared in the Tel Aviv Museum on May 14, 1948, the establishment of the Jewish state to be called Israel, it was given little chance of survival.

President Harry Truman’s Secretary of State, George Marshall, urged Truman not to recognize the Jewish state. He argued that the Jewish State would have little chance of survival against the massive Arab forces surrounding it. He also pointed out to Truman that recognition of Israel in 1948 would harm US relations with the Arabs.

Emerging from the ashes of the Holocaust, Jewish survivors from Europe, along with Jews driven out of the Arab states streamed into the newly found State of Israel following the British departure from Palestine in May 1948. The Palestinian Jews (Jews were then called Palestinians, while those calling themselves Palestinians today were simply called Arabs) had very little in terms of arms and personnel to defend themselves against the surrounding established Arab states of Egypt, the Emirate of Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. These states had standing armies and large armories that included planes, tanks, artillery, warships, etc. The Jews of Israel had light arms, and some machine guns, but no artillery, tanks, aircrafts, or warships. The Arab states were able to openly purchase modern arms from Britain and France (their former colonial masters) without hinderance. The Jews of Israel were placed under an international embargo that included the US. Moreover, the Arab states combined manpower by far exceeded the Jewish population of about 700,000, and the Arab combined militaries surpassed that of Israel in 1948.

With their backs against the wall, and the helplessness of the European Jews on their minds, the Jews of Israel were determined to fight and triumph against all odds. And the odds were totally against them. Ingenuity, initiative, as well as capable military leadership helped secure some heavy arms from Czechoslovakia in later stages of the War of Independence along with victories. Some tactical arms invented by the Yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine) such as the Davidka, a homemade primitive mortar that made a lot of noise but little damage because of its inaccuracy, helped win battles. The battle over Safed in Galilee was won with the Davidka. Its noise frightened the Arab forces who retreated, fearing that the Israelis had heavy artillery.

It seems that God left another miracle for his Jewish people to take place 19 years later, during the Six Day War. When the War of Independence ended in 1949, the Jewish state survived but its crown jewel, the Old City of Jerusalem was conquered by the Arab (Jordanian) Legion, commanded by the British officer, Glubb Pasha. The Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews was denied to them, and the Jewish population of the Old City that survived the battles for Jerusalem were expelled.

The period preceding the Six Day War of June 1967 was one filled with fear and trepidation. The Egyptian dictator Abdul Nasser threatened to push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea. The odds were once again against Israel. The Soviet Union had supplied Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, with massive amounts of modern Mig fighter aircrafts, and tanks. Once again, in terms of manpower, and arms, the combined Arab forces by far exceeded that of Israel. In Israeli cities graves were dug in anticipation of vast casualties. An atmosphere of doom engulfed the Jewish nation. Would there be another Holocaust?

God, however, was not about to abandon his people. Miraculously, Jordan’s King Hussein agreed to join Egypt and Syria (with additional contingents from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Sudan, and other Arab countries) in a war of annihilation against Israel. Hussein though, was subjected to numerous assassination attempts by Nasser’s agents, and he was accused by Egypt and Syria of being a puppet of the West. He had all the reasons to stay out of the War. Levi Eshkol, Israel’s Prime Minister, appealed to him to stay out, assuring him that Israel had no intention of attacking Jordan in any way. This is where God’s hand somehow intervened. Hussein’s decision to intervene, bombarding Israeli military bases (including my own), compelled Israel to move against Jordan. On June 7, 1967, Israel’s commander of the Jerusalem Brigade announced, “Temple Mount is in our hands.” This was a 2000 year yearning fulfilled. The concluding prayer “Next year in Jerusalem the Rebuilt” became a reality.

Israel has been situated in a hostile environment, where the neighboring Muslim states wished to eradicate its existence through wars, terror, demography, and now possibly by Iranian nuclear arms sought by its theocratic regime. Predictions of the demise of the Jewish state were numerous through the intervening years. Yet, 75 years later, Israel is stronger than ever. Its population has reached the 10 million mark and its military is rated as one of the best in the world.

In 1979, Israel was achieving one of its most cherished goals: peace with Egypt, the most powerful Arab state. But, not before another devasting war took place in October 1973, known as the Yom Kippur War. Israel’s casualties mounted, particularly in the early stages of the war. Moshe Dayan, Israel’s Defense Minister, predicted doom and was in despair, but in the end, Israel stood at the gates of Cairo and Damascus, and yet another miraculous salvation had occurred. Not that one would discount the bravery and sacrifice of Israeli men and women in battle. But as the old saying goes, “God helps those who help themselves.”

Before the onset of the 21st Century, Israel made peace with Egypt and Jordan. Realizing that they can no longer afford to fight Israel, or remove it from the region, the Arab moderate states chose a less aggressive path. Peace ensued in September 2020 with Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and a bit later with Morocco and Sudan (pending). Many African states that severed relations with Israel due to Arab pressure have since resumed diplomatic relations with the Jewish state. A similar phenomenon occurred in Asia. Israeli technology, its agricultural, medical, and military advancements have attracted interest in Israel.

Although the current rift in Israeli society does not completely fulfill Isaiah’s prophetic words of being “a Light to the Nations,” in many ways Israel is still a miracle and a beacon of light.

Joseph Puder, a freelance journalist, is the Founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Taskforce for America and Israel (ITAI). He is a regular contributor to Frontpage.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-miracle-that-is-israel/

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez heckled by protesters during New York town hall - Charlotte Hazard

 

​ by Charlotte Hazard

One protester was escorted out after yelling "American citizens before migrants."

New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was heckled by protesters during a New York town hall on immigration and the debt ceiling crisis. 

A man was escorted out of the town hall Friday evening after he began shouting, "American citizens before migrants," while the congresswoman was speaking.

"Where are you on the migrant issue?" the man asked. "You're absent. You're a piece of s***."

The man was booed by other members of the audience as he was escorted out. 

As Ocasio-Cortez brought up ending the debt limit in the country, another protester shouted out, "$100 billion for Ukraine that you voted for," according to the Washington Examiner.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday revised the deadline for lawmakers to reach a deal, saying they have until June 5 after previously warning that a default could come at the start of June. 

Other protesters in the audience were holding up signs that read, "Stop funding Ukraine," "America First. Vetted legal migrants only" and one that read "AOC STOP LYING."

Charlotte Hazard

Source: https://justthenews.com/events/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-heckled-protesters-during-new-york-town-hall

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Before the Durham report, TV networks allowed Russiagate booster Adam Schiff to claim 'evidence' of collusion - Joseph A. Wulfsohn

 

​ by Joseph A. Wulfsohn

CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, NBC repeatedly invited the top Democrat during the Mueller investigation

At the center of the recently released report from Special Counsel John Durham was the question of whether there was any merit to launch any investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. 

Durham's conclusion was that since the original probe, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane, was based on "raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence," the FBI was wrong in fast-tracking a full investigation as then-deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe ordered in July 2016.

While the DOJ was largely silent on its probe, there was no one in Washington as vocal about the existence of "evidence" that proved such collusion than Adam Schiff. 

Schiff, the California Democratic lawmaker now running for Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat, was the top Democrat on the House Intel Committee during the Trump administration. And having such a senior role on Capitol Hill allowed unprecedented access to the nation's top secrets, particularly when it comes to foreign adversaries. When he repeatedly claimed that he had seen "evidence" of collusion, many in the media had reason to believe what he said was credible.

RUSSIAGATE GOVERNMENT FIGURES EXPOSED IN DURHAM REPORT WERE REWARDED WITH CUSHY TV GIGS, LUCRATIVE BOOK DEALS

TV networks repeatedly rolled out the red carpet for Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who peddled the Russian collusion hoax. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

However, both the Mueller probe in 2019 and the Durham probe in 2023 concluded that there was no evidence that such collusion between Trump and Russia ever transpired. 

What "evidence" did Schiff see that neither Mueller nor Durham apparently came across in their years-long investigations? That remains unclear. But what is clear is that TV networks rolled out the red carpet for Schiff to peddle Russiagate, often times with little or no pushback. 

On March 20, 2017, Schiff attempted to push back on former DNI James Clapper's public assertion he saw no evidence of collusion, telling "Meet The Press" moderator Chuck Todd on NBC there was "circumstantial evidence of collusion" as well as "direct evidence… of deception."

But just three days later, Schiff noticeably ratcheted up his rhetoric in another interview with Todd on MSNBC "MTP Daily." 

"Reviewing the evidence that I have, I don't think you can conclude that at all, far from it," Schiff said about Clapper's comments. 

CNN'S JAKE TAPPER SAYS DURHAM REPORT IS ‘DEVASTATING’ FOR FBI AFTER SPENDING YEARS LEGITIMIZING RUSSIAGATE

When Todd pressed whether Schiff was solely relying on a "circumstantial case," Schiff replied "no," insisting the case "is more than that."

"So you have seen direct evidence of collusion?" Todd asked. 

"I don't want to go into specifics, but I will say that there is evidence that is not circumstantial, and it's very much worthy of investigation," Schiff responded. 

The following Sunday, on CBS' "Face The Nation," Schiff was asked whether he had seen any intelligence showing collusion regarding an effort to spread misinformation about Hillary Clinton. Schiff sidestepped the question but defended the foundation of the FBI's investigation as "justified" and it had a "sufficient basis" to begin and continue, something Durham concluded otherwise in his report. He went on to say that he disagreed with his GOP colleagues asserting there was no evidence of collusion, telling CBS anchor John Dickerson, "I don't think that's accurate, and I have an obligation to say so."

Special Counsel John Durham concluded that the Russia investigation should never have been launched since it was based on "raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence. (Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)

In October 2017, Schiff touted the now-infamous Steele dossier, the Clinton campaign-funded memo put together by ex-British spy Christopher Steele that laid out salacious and unfounded accusations about then-candidate Trump and his alleged ties to Russia, telling ABC's George Stephanopoulos that "a lot of that has been corroborated" and Steele "may have found out even before our own intelligence agencies that the Russians were in fact aiming to help Donald Trump in the election."

Earlier that year, Schiff read some of the dossier into the congressional record.

In November 2017, Schiff teased to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, who noted that "collusion" is not a legal term, that they're "very close to a prosecutable case" against the Trump campaign regarding the conspiracy statute but added that "they're still pieces that we need to find."

MSNBC'S NICOLLE WALLACE REJECTS DURHAM REPORT SINCE HER CAREER ‘WAS BUILT UPON A FRAUD’ IN RUSSIAGATE: CRITICS 

In December 2017, after former Trump national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI about his communications with Russians during the transition, Schiff called it the "most palpable evidence of collusion in terms of violating the Logan Act," though he conceded it would "likely not be prosecuted."

The following week, CNN's Jake Tapper pointed out how there hasn't been an "actual connection" or "proof" of collusion. Schiff pointed to what he called the "pattern and the chronology" of the various interactions between members of Trump's circle and Russians. 

"We do know this: the Russians offered help, the campaign accepted help, the Russians gave help and the president made full use of that help. And that is pretty damning whether it is proof beyond reasonable doubt of a conspiracy or not," Schiff told Tapper, who later tweeted out the interview writing "On #CNNSOTU @RepAdamSchiff says evidence of Russian collusion is 'damning.'" 

On #CNNSOTU @RepAdamSchiff says evidence of Russian collusion is 'damning'https://t.co/Dtf9PcTvjk

— Jake Tapper, long-suffering Philly sports fan (@jaketapper) December 10, 2017

 

When asked by Tapper in a March 2018 interview whether Democrats have seen evidence of collusion, Schiff replied, "Yes, we have."

It wasn't until halfway through 2018 when Schiff's talking points shifted from saying he had seen evidence of collusion to asserting there's evidence "in plain sight," a linguistic sleight of hand indicating there was nothing else hidden and that any alleged proof was already in the public domain. 

In August 2018, Schiff told CBS' Margaret Brennan there's "plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy in plain sight." In January 2019, Schiff told CNN's Alisyn Camerota there is "clear evidence on the issue of collusion" while acting notably less certain about accusations of conspiracy. The following month, he told CNN's Dana Bash "you can see evidence in plain sight on the issue of collusion." 

He similarly told ABC's Stephanopoulos "to not see what's plainly in front of us means you basically don't want to see the evidence of collusion because it is quite abundant." In early March 2019, Schiff claimed to Brennan the emails involving the 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer are "direct evidence" of collusion.

MEDIA RUSHES TO DISMISS DURHAM FINDINGS THAT FURTHER DEBUNKED BELOVED RUSSIAN COLLUSION NARRATIVE

Even after the conclusion of the Mueller report, which found no evidence of collusion, Schiff remained defiant. In late March 2019, after then-Attorney General William Barr released a summary of the Mueller report that declared there wasn't any collusion, Schiff doubled down, saying there was "ample evidence of collusion in plain sight," stressing that's "not the same thing as" proving a conspiracy, which is the crime. 

"I distinguished between the two probably dozens of times," Schiff asserted to then-CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

The next month, when asked on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" whether he was "wrong" to say there was "direct evidence" of collusion, he replied "no," saying what's been in the "public record" is direct evidence of collusion. Days later, Schiff sidestepped a question from Tapper over whether he regrets "anything" he said in recent years about collusion. He offered the same sentiment in July 2019 while being grilled by then co-host of "The View" Meghan McCain, who demanded to know what his evidence was. He told her "I've also been saying… the evidence is in plain sight, not hidden anywhere."

Schiff was regularly invited on CNN, frequently by Jake Tapper, where the top Democrat was allowed to repeat his false claim of having seen evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. (Screenshot/CNN)

In November 2021, Schiff was similarly confronted by "The View" guest host Morgan Ortagus over whether he had any reflections for his promotion of the now-debunked Steele dossier, but he called the premise of the question a "smokescreen" to "shield Donald Trump's culpability for inviting Russia to help him in the election." 

Following the release of the Durham report, Schiff called the investigation a "big bust" and that any attacks by the GOP towards him are retaliatory over his roles in leading Trump's impeachment as well as the Jan. 6 committee. 

Liberal MSNBC host Alex Wagner chose to not ask him about his repeated claims of collusion and instead praised him by saying "I think a lot of people are very deeply appreciative of what you've done in Congress" and that any effort to oust him are "for reasons that have nothing to do with anything other than jealously that you're effective at your job."

Fox News Digital sent inquiries to CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC asking all of them whether they regret having Schiff on-air so frequently throughout Russiagate and whether they will reevaluate inviting him on their programs. None of them responded.  

Schiff's office also did not respond to Fox News Digital's inquiries including whether he regrets saying he had seen "direct evidence" of collusion, whether he regrets giving credence to the Steele dossier and whether he acknowledges Durham's conclusion that Crossfire Hurricane was launched based on "raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence."

 

Joseph A. Wulfsohn  is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to joseph.wulfsohn@fox.com and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/media/before-durham-report-tv-networks-allowed-russiagate-booster-adam-schiff-claim-evidence-collusion

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