How Hamas Bought Joe Biden - Daniel Greenfield

 

by Daniel Greenfield

Bloodstained currency, smuggled gold bars and a $200,000 check.

 

[Pre-order a copy of Daniel Greenfield’s first book, Domestic Enemies, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on April 30th.]

On March 1, 2018, Joe Biden got a $200,000 check. The story of where that check came from involves everything from “bloodstained currency” to smuggled gold bars to ‘The Exorcist’.

But above all else it involves an enemy Muslim tyranny with ties to 9/11 and Hamas.

When I first broke the story a week before Election Day, it was about how hospital patients in smaller poorer hospitals, including one that had inspired ‘The Exorcist’, had suffered because of the corrupt greed of the Biden family. But even then there was a strange element which led to one of the key figures in the case receiving “blood-stained currency from a Middle Eastern country” and a “torture ticket” after suing James Biden: Joe’s brother.

Four years later, in the midst of the Hamas war, the identity of the “Middle Eastern country” behind the Biden business takes on new importance because it is a state sponsor of Hamas.

And congressional investigators and investigative journalists have also traced a trail from Qatar, through James’ health care business to that $200,000 check he sent to Joe Biden.

The health care business that brought together the Biden family and an Islamic terror state had targeted stricken rural hospitals in Kentucky, Missouri and Pennsylvania.

Americore’s CEO was introduced by James Biden to Joe at a fundraiser for the Beau Biden Foundation: co-chaired by Hunter Biden whose infamous laptop bore the foundation’s sticker.

James Biden allegedly promised that Joe would get behind the company, join its board and that the company’s work would even “help his brother get elected.”

“There’s not a single door in the country that we can’t open,” James promised the company.

But the money wasn’t coming in and James Biden was taking out major personal loans from the company that was supposed to be managing struggling hospitals. And with Joe out of the White House, there wasn’t going to be any government bailout of Americore any time soon.

James Biden didn’t set out to open doors in this country, but in an enemy of the United States.

The Americore pitch sought $30 million to buy up hospitals and named Jim as the “Brother and Campaign Finance Chair of former Vice President Joe Biden.” Internal documents showed that this resulted in a meeting with a Qatari “minister”. While the Qataris had plenty of money to burn, getting it to America involved conspiracies more often associated with drug dealers.

A “former executive recalled discussion at one point of trying to move money across a Middle Eastern border in the form of gold bars”.

Qatar’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood (the parent organization of Hamas) and Iran had led to an embargo by its neighbors. And Qatar’s ties to terrorists, including to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of 9/11, who hid out there until he was allegedly tipped off by a member of the Islamic tyranny’s royal family that America was coming to get him, may have complicated the proposed investment funding mechanisms.

The next stage of the plan involved James Biden becoming the “chief global banking emissary” for Billerfy which processed payments for a cryptocurrency exchange known as Quadriga that traded money for crypto. Later that year, Billerfy’s accounts were frozen and millions were found in a personal account. Six days later, Quadriga’s 30-year-old CEO suddenly died in India, locking up $70 million in cash and $191 million in crypto. Another co-founder, Michael Patry, whose real name turned out to be Omar was raided and authorities discovered gold bars in a vault. The whole operation was then exposed as a massive ponzi scheme.

But by then James Biden had already benefited from $600,000 in “personal loans” from the health care company. On March 1, 2018, Americore wired $200,000 to James and he wrote a $200,000 check to Joe. But the loans, according to bankruptcy court documents were conditioned based on “representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could “obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections.”

Desperate for cash, James Biden traveled to Qatar with the aim of personally presenting to Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sharif Al Emadi who was later arrested and charged with bribery and laundering over $5 billion and sentenced to 20 years in prison. While little is known about the details behind the internal power struggle in the corrupt terror state, Al Emadi had been accused of “channeling Qatari support to various Islamist groups over the years” as well as subverting American and European institutions with sizable infusions of Qatari money.

As the American end of the deal fell apart in recriminations and lawsuits, one of the litigants received “blood-stained currency” and a “torture ticket” after suing James Biden and his partners. The blood money came from a Middle Eastern country known to be associated with terrorists. But the FBI refused to name the country and insisted the media also hide its identity.

Qatar is one of the few countries with that degree of political influence in Washington D.C.

But the single most shocking document from James Biden’s relationship with Qatar may be a letter that he allegedly wrote to the Qatari leadership on “behalf of the Biden family.”

“We are not particularly close to this administration and have a different vision,” Biden’s brother wrote, accusing the Trump administration of being “fractured” and “beleaguered by major issues that are not soon to be resolved.” However he promised that the Biden “family could provide a wealth of introductions and business opportunities at the highest levels that I believe would be worthy of the interest of His Excellency.”

“If this is in keeping with the vision of His Excellency, on behalf of the Biden family, I welcome your interest here,” he concluded.

Even while undermining the sitting administration, Biden’s brother was offering the services of his family to an enemy nation. This has wider implications beyond Qatar’s role backing Hamas.

Qatar was also the central intermediary in the Taliban “deal” and had formed an alliance with Iran. It is difficult to know whether the “Biden family” relationship with Qatar played any role in the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and in the sanctions relief offered to Iran.

We do know there was a relationship between the Biden family and a state sponsor of Hamas, which Joe Biden profited from, and that has disturbing implications for our national security.

“We’ve got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden,” James Biden once bragged. One of those investors had ties to Iran, Al Qaeda, Iran and Hamas.

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/how-hamas-bought-joe-biden/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Trump Whodunnit: Prosecutors admit key evidence in document case has been tampered with - John Solomon

 

by John Solomon

Legal experts call revelation a “serious violation” as Jack Smith’s team admits it also misled court.

 

In a stunning admission, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team is admitting that key evidence in former President Donald Trump’s classified documents criminal case was altered or manipulated since it was seized by the FBI, and that prosecutors misled the court about it for a period of time.

Legal experts told Just the News the revelation could prove to be a serious problem for prosecutors and a violation of court rules to preserve evidence in the state it was seized.

In a new filing Friday, Smith’s team said that the order of documents in some of the boxes of memos that were seized by the FBI from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was altered or jumbled, leaving two different chronologies: one that was digitally scanned and another the physical order in the boxes.

“Since the boxes were seized and stored, appropriate personnel have had access to the boxes for several reasons, including to comply with orders issued by this Court in the civil proceedings noted above, for investigative purposes, and to facilitate the defendants' review of the boxes,” Smith’s team wrote in a new court filing to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon.

“There are some boxes where the order of items within that box is not the same as in the associated scans,” the prosecutors wrote.

Smith’s team in a footnote also conceded it had misled the court about the problem by previously declaring that the evidence had remained in the exact state it had been seized. 

“The Government acknowledges that this is inconsistent with what Government counsel previously understood and represented to the Court,” the footnote said.

You can read the filing here:

gov.uscourts.flsd_.648653.522.0.pdf

The organization of the documents in storage boxes at Mar-a-Lago is likely to be an important part of Trump‘s defense. His team is expected to argue the documents were stored in the White House in chronological order on the days that Trump received them, and that staff simply boxed them up and sent them to his home without him accessing them or knowing they contained classified information. 

Smith’s team tried to downplay the problem and argued it’s not a reason for a delay in Trump’s case.

But several legal experts told Just the News the court filing essentially is an admission of evidence tampering, and could be problematic.  

“Prosecutors and investigators should never tamper with or alter evidence in their possession, including the order of documents in a box because one never knows what may become relevant or crucial to a court or jury later in a case,” Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said. 

Prominent defense attorney Tim Parlatore, who worked on Trump’s team earlier in the classified documents case but no longer is involved, said ”this admission is stunning on multiple levels.”

He said the revelation “reinforces the incompetence” of prosecutors “in conducting basic criminal investigations and prosecutions that I observed when I was on the team. 

“But at a deeper level, the loss of specific document locations is a destruction of exculpatory evidence,” he added. “I went through all of the boxes at NARA and the document order was important because it was clear to us that the boxes had been untouched since leaving the White House.

“For prosecutors who are trying to prove that the defendants knowingly possessed these documents to then destroy the evidence that would undermine that claim is a very serious violation,” he added.

Smith’s team tried to downplay the problem, offering several explanations for how the documents and their order could’ve been scrambled since the government took possession of the boxes.

“There are several possible explanations, including the above-described instances in which the boxes were accessed, as well as the size and shape of certain items in the boxes possibly leading to movement of items,” the prosecutors wrote. “For example, the boxes contain items smaller than standard paper such as index cards, books, and stationary, which shift easily when the boxes are carried, especially because many of the boxes are not full.”

The alteration of evidence has been an issue in earlier political scandals and prosecutions in Washington.

Erasure of an 18 1/2 minute segment of Richard Nixon’s White House tapes became a very important aspect of the Watergate scandal.

The Iran-Contra scandal exploded during the Reagan years with the revelation that documents were shredded before they could be obtained by investigators.

The Hillary Clinton classified email scandal became more complicated in 2015 with the revelation that her team used a "Bleach Bit" program to erase emails on her secret computer server, and had email devices destroyed. 

 
John Solomon

Source: https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/trump-whodunnit-prosecutors-admit-key-evidence-document-case-has

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Cost of Biden's student debt cancelation could reach $1.4 trillion, report finds - Brett Rowland

 

by Brett Rowland

The group said about $620 billion of debt cancellation has already been implemented.

 

(The Center Square) -

A new report estimates that President Joe Biden's plans to cancel student debt for some borrowers could cost taxpayers up to $1.4 trillion, depending on how the plans are implemented.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated all Biden's recent debt cancellation efforts would cost a combined $870 billion to $1.4 trillion.

"That’s more than all federal spending on higher education over the nation’s entire history," according to a report from the group. "The vast majority of this debt cancellation was put in place through executive actions under President Biden."

The group said about $620 billion of debt cancellation has already been implemented.

"Our numbers differ somewhat from our previous estimates, mainly because the President's plan to cancel $10,000 to $20,000 of student debt per person was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court and the cost of his newest plan remains uncertain," according to the report.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget noted its $870 billion to $1.4 trillion estimate was close in cost to all projected education appropriations over the next decade (about $935 billion from 2025-2034). It estimated the cost of offering universal pre-K and universal affordable child care would be $750 billion.

"As we’ve explained before, most of these student debt cancellation policies have not only been costly, but also inflationary, poorly targeted, counter to the mission of lowering college costs, and not financially justified," according to the report. "Instead of continuing down this road, lawmakers should work together on reforms that actually fix the student loan program and address the cost and quality of higher education."

 
Brett Rowland

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/cost-bidens-student-debt-cancelation-could-reach-14-trillion-report

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

U. Minnesota Dept. of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies: A Vile Font of Jew Hatred - Sara Dogan

 

by Sara Dogan

Oct. 7 was about “Hamas fighters” who “brought down border fences.”

 

[Pre-order a copy of David Horowitz’s next book, America Betrayed, by clicking here. Orders will begin shipping on May 7th.]

Editor’s note: Since the barbaric Hamas attacks against Israel on October 7^th, American universities have become an undeniable locus of Jew hatred within our nation. Much attention has deservedly been paid to the radical campus groups like Students for Justice in Palestine who call for the genocide of the Jews and cheer the terrorists of Hamas. What has received less attention—but should in fact rank as the universities’ worst offense—is the Jew hatred promoted by official departments and institutes of the universities themselves. In the case of our campuses, Jew hatred is “the call coming from inside the house.”

The Freedom Center is exposing these academic institutes and programs as “The Top Ten Jew-Hating Academic Departments” in a new report. We will be publishing one school per day as a series on Frontpage. The Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota is #6 on our list.  

Just a glance at the website for the University of Minnesota Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies reveals it to be a highly politicized unit of the wider university, dedicated to progressive activism. The site declares that “As a place where research, education, and social change go hand in hand, GWSS identifies, analyzes, and challenges structural inequalities, while imagining and creating just and transformative futures for all.” Instead of searching for truth and knowledge, the Department openly acknowledges that its vision includes “social change,” “challeng[ing] structural inequalities,” and “creating just and transformative futures for all.”

So it should come as no surprise, that like much of the progressive left, the Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies (DGWSS) is a vile font of Jew hatred on the University of Minnesota campus.

Just six days after the brutal and barbaric Hamas attack on Israel, in which innocent civilians were brutalized and raped, parents killed in front of children, children killed in front of parents, bodies gleefully mutilated by terrorists on camera, DGWSS released a “Faculty Statement on Palestine” in which they described the massacre as “Hamas fighters” (not terrorists) who “brought down border fences.” The statement went on to demonize Israel and its defensive response to the worst attack in its history as “not self-defense but the continuation of a genocidal war against Gaza and against Palestinian freedom, self-determination, and life.”  The statement declared “We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and with Palestinian scholars and organizers.” DGWSS might as well have said, “We stand with Hamas.”

The statement goes on to make clear that the Department stands for Palestine, and only Palestine. “We strongly reject the media coverage that condemns ‘both sides,’ or seeks to tell a one-sided story of an unprovoked terrorist attack,” it states. “Israeli leaders are wielding a violent power that subjugates the Palestinian people and constructs them as dehumanized terrorists, upon whom any bloodshed can be meted out.”

Ironically, the Department even claims that its glorification of Hamas “fighters,” who raped and brutalized innocent Israeli women en mass, is a stance for feminism. “As scholars and solidarity workers who seek justice everywhere, we respond to the call of Palestinian feminists and Palestinian freedom fighters for transnational solidarity and assert that Palestine is a feminist issue,” claims the  statement. “None of us will be free unless the Palestinian people are free and Palestinian land is liberated.”

Unsurprisingly, the statement goes on to “reaffirm support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement,” a genocidal attempt to isolate and destroy the world’s only Jewish state.

At the very end of the lengthy diatribe against Israel, one sentence appears to apparently mediate the clear tension created by an academic department putting forth such a horrific and anti-Semitic tirade: “This statement reflects our individual views and we do not purport to speak for the University.”  This caveat is obviously a lie. Individual professors in the department could have put out a statement under their own auspices and promoted it on their personal social media accounts. Instead, DGWSS chose to place it prominently on the official department webpage of the University of Minnesota website, where it remains several months later, amended only by a brief note, added on November 20^th, 2023, which states, in part, “This statement was written collectively by the tenured core faculty of the Department of Gender Women and Sexuality Studies. This statement does not reflect the position of the University of Minnesota.”  That legalistic note seems unlikely to reassure Jewish and Israeli students who are forced to take classes within the Department.

Largely in response to the DGWSS statement, the U.S. Department of Education is now conducting an investigation into whether the University of Minesota has violated federal anti-discrimination law due to anti-Semitism on campus.

The investigation was prompted by a letter sent to federal officials by former University of Minnesota regent Michael Hsu and law professor Richard Painter who argued, according to MPR News, that the DGWSS statement “is antisemitic because it condemns Israel while ‘justifying the terrorist attacks by Hamas.’”

“This is not about being pro-Palestinian,” Painter told MPR News. “This is about official statements of departments on websites paid for by the Minnesota taxpayers that justify the actions of Hamas.”

For its politicized use of official university resources to promote anti-Semitism and glorify Hamas, the University of Minnesota Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies belongs on the list of the worst Jew-hating academic departments in America.

Previous articles in series:

[1] ‘Jew-Hating’ Asian American Studies Program Exposed at Northwestern University.

[2] UIUC’s Department of Latino Studies Endorses ‘Jew Hatred’.

[3] U. Maryland Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies: A Case Study in ‘Jew Hatred’.

[4] University of Colorado-Boulder Ethnic Studies Department: Shilling for Hamas.

[5] UNC Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies: Celebrating October 7th.

Sara Dogan is the National Campus Director for the David Horowitz Freedom Center. She has written extensively on issues including academic freedom and anti-Semitism on campus.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/u-minnesota-dept-of-gender-women-and-sexuality-studies-a-vile-font-of-jew-hatred/

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

'No leadership': Resurfaced post comes back to haunt Biden after anti-Israel protests sweep the nation - Andrew Mark Miller

 

by Andrew Mark Miller

Anti-Israel protests have brought colleges across the country to a standstill in recent weeks

 

A 2020 social media post by then-presidential candidate Joe Biden blaming then-President Trump for violence in the United States is drawing renewed criticism after violence has erupted on college campuses nationwide stemming from anti-Israel protests.

"Remember: every example of violence Donald Trump decries has happened on his watch," Biden posted on Twitter, now known as X, in August 2020. "Under his leadership. During his presidency."

Social media users have looked back on that post in recent days, given the increased violence and arrests being made as anti-Israel activists have caused chaos on over a dozen college campuses in recent weeks. 

"It's now the year 2024, three full years into Joe Biden's presidency and Jewish students are being blocked from their college campuses, and being told to stay home and remote learn," conservative political commentator Stephen Miller recently posted on X.

BIDEN ADMIN ACCUSES ISRAELI MILITARY OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN STUNNING CONDEMNATION

Protester breaks window at Columbia University. President Biden's past social media posts are resurfacing as anti-Israel protests are causing chaos across the country. (Getty Images)

"Is this the soul of the nation healed?"

"Joe Biden has looked the other way as Democrat foot soldiers hijack universities across America," Fox News Contributor Lisa Boothe told Fox News Digital. "He's more concerned about winning votes in Dearborn, Michigan, than condemning the 20-year-olds cheering for intifada."

Former White House press secretary and Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer told Fox News Digital that Biden "would be well served by reading his old tweets and taking action."

"There are antisemitic uprisings on campuses across the country, and all Joe Biden can do is passively sit there and hope they go away," Fleischer said. "He’s shown no leadership, despite this being far worse than the two-day Unite the Right protest in Charlottesville."

MICHAEL MOORE WARNS BIDEN TO 'PULL THE PLUG' ON ISRAEL AID OR RISK LOSING ELECTION

NYPD officers perform mass arrests of anti-Israel agitators as they stage a demonstration outside of NYU’s Stern School of Business in Manhattan, New York on Monday, April 22, 2024. The protesters staged a tent encampment in front of the school as they demanded a permanent cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

David Avella, chairman of GOPAC and a veteran Republican strategist, told Fox News Digital that polling shows Americans feel less safe after three years of Biden.

"Gallup reported more than 75% of Americans believe there's more crime in the country than there was in 2022," Avella said. 

"Whether Biden’s statements condemning violence are hollow have less impact on his reelection then the fact that Americans feel less safe. Forty percent of Americans said they were afraid to walk alone at night within a mile of their home," Avella continued. "The last time we were at this level was 1993. In the next election, President Clinton was at 46% approval and Republicans gained 54 seats in the House of Representatives, and gained eight seats in the Senate.  President Biden is at 39% approval and Americans are watching violence occur every day."

President Biden speaks at Abbotts Creek Community Center during an event to promote his economic agenda in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Jan. 18, 2024. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

Conservatives on social media have recently resurfaced other posts from Biden during the summer of 2020, including a post where he said, "Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?"

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response.

"President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful," White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement on Tuesday. "Forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful — it is wrong. And hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America."

 

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/resurfaced-post-comes-back-haunt-biden-anti-israel-protests-sweep-nation

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Emails show Facebook chafed at Biden White House pressure to suppress COVID-19 lab leak story - Misti Severi

 

by Misti Severi

The preliminary staff report is the result of a months-long investigation into the alleged coercion, where President Joe Biden's White House reportedly pushed social media platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and YouTube, to censor books, videos, and posts.

 

Emails released Wednesday show Facebook officials chafed at the Biden White House pressure campaign to censor reports that the COVID-19 pandemic came from a lab leak in China.

Facebook's President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg described the White House as "highly cynical and dishonest," in an email dated July 2021, according to an 800-page report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The report detailed alleged coercion between the Biden White House and Big Tech.

The full report can be found here.

Committee Chairman Jim Jordan highlighted portions of the report, which allegedly showed Facebook officials commenting on the "intense pressure" they felt from the Biden administration. The company had censored reports that the virus was "man made" from February through May of 2021 when it started demoting the reports instead.

Internal emails from July of 2021 showed Clegg's frustration with the Biden administration when he asked why the company removed reports that the virus was "man made." Members of his team responded and admitted that they should not have caved to external pressure.

“Because we were under pressure from the administration and others to do more and it was part of the ‘more’ package," a team member said. "We shouldn’t have done it.”

Jordan claimed the documents showed a "chilling effect" that the government had on social media platforms amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Facebook knew the White House wanted them to censor, but they didn’t exactly know what or how much," Jordan said in a thread on X. "The First Amendment is first for a reason. Without it, we cannot enjoy our other liberties."

The emails were part of a preliminary staff report that came out of a months-long investigation into a larger campaign to pressure social media platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and YouTube, to censor books, videos, and posts.

"The First Amendment prohibits the government from 'abridging the freedom of speech.' Thus, 'any law or government policy that reduces that freedom on the [social media] platforms . . . violates the First Amendment,'" the committee said in a press release. "By suppressing free speech and intentionally distorting public debate in the modern town square, ideas and policies were no longer fairly tested and debated on their merits."

The report concluded that the White House censorship targeted "true information, satire, and other content that did not violate the platforms' policies," and that the White House had leverage because the companies had other policy concerns they needed addressed by the Biden administration that was unrelated to the censorship.

White House officials have denied the reports that they tried to pressure social media platforms to censor material on their sites, claiming the sites had the power to say no without any repercussions.

“We had no intention in coercing any social media companies into taking any action,” Andy Slavitt, the administration’s former head of Covid-19 response, told Jordan in a hearing Wednesday. “We never received any indication that our dialogue ever was interpreted that way. I want to be clear that they made their own decisions.”

 
Misti Severi

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/house-weaponization-committee-drops-major-800-page-report-white-house-censorship-big

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Records show Archives official met with Biden White House counsel day of indictment against Trump - Steven Richards

 

by Steven Richards

The White House visitor logs show other Nat'l Archives officials visited Biden Administration officials throughout the earliest stages of the probe into President Trump. White House officials met with Nat'l Archives on at least 19 other occasions.

 

On June 8, 2023, Gary Stern, the General Counsel of the National Archives arrived at the White House for a meeting with Special Counsel to President Biden Richard Sauber. The meeting reportedly took place in the Navy Mess, a “nautical” themed dining room run by the seafaring military branch, according to White House records.

It is not known what Stern and Sauber discussed, but the very same day, the Justice Department filed its indictment against former President Donald Trump alleging he “unlawfully” retained classified documents.

The record of the meeting, obtained from the Biden White House visitor logs is the latest evidence showing the close cooperation between the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Biden White House regarding the Trump classified documents case.

As Just the News recently reported, Stern began communicating with White House officials as early as May 2021 as he sought to retrieve documents retained by former President Trump. The Archives asserts that Trump improperly retained these documents after his term ended, a belief disputed by Trump’s legal team.

Last week, newly unsealed court documents showed that beginning in 2021, the Biden White House coordinated closely with Archives officials, presumably to ratchet up pressure on Trump to return classified documents and coordinated with Justice Department officials to draft a criminal referral.

These efforts came at the same time that President Biden’s staff was made aware of the president’s own classified documents problem.

According to the visitor logs, Stern also met with White House officials on at least 19 other occasions from 2021 to 2023 as his agency sought the documents retained by Trump, though only a handful of meetings were with the White House Counsel’s office.

In early August, records indicate Stern met with then-Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su in the West Wing. The unsealed court records show Stern would ultimately consult with Su in January 2022 about his agency’s efforts to retrieve the classified memos from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property, Just the News reported last week.

Su referred Stern to Department of Justice officials, Associate Deputy Attorneys General Emily Loeb and David Newman. It was from this referral that the federal case against the former president was born. Later in 2022, Attorney General Merrick Garland would approve an official investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and would appoint Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee the criminal investigation in November.

Previously, Just the News reported that then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su was engaged in conversations with the FBI, DOJ, and the National Archives as early as April 2022, shortly after Trump and his associates voluntarily returned 15 boxes of classified documents and other presidential records to the agency. But now, according to the dates referenced in the court documents, these contacts are known to have started months earlier.

In Just the News’s previous reporting, documents showed the Biden White House was engaged in conversations with the FBI, DOJ, and National Archives to facilitate access to the documents for investigators probing the former president’s handling of classified documents, despite publicly claiming it had no prior knowledge about the well-publicized FBI raid on Trump's Mar-a-Lago.

On September 1, Stern circulated a draft referral intended for the Justice Department after documents were not returned to seek the agencies assistance.

“Attached is a draft letter that we could consider sending to the Attorney General about missing Trump records,” Stern wrote in an email. “It focuses only on the paper records that we believe to be missing.”

When he circulated the draft letter internally, Stern told colleagues he had been in contact with “DOJ counsel” about the matter and was continuing to communicate with the White House Counsel’s Office, showing the Biden administration was in the loop about the efforts to repossess Trump’s documents.

The draft letter urged the Attorney General to assist NARA in recovering presidential records “unlawfully removed from the U.S. Government custody or possibly destroyed in violation of the Presidential Records Act (PRA).”

Case 9.23-cr-80101-AMC Document 469-1.pdf

The following day, according to White House records, Stern again visited the White House and met with then-White House Counsel Dana Remus in the West Wing, likely with then-National Archivist David Ferriero, who is recorded visiting Remus on the same day.

Remus is an Obama Administration and Biden campaign alum who then moved to the Biden White House. She left the administration in August 2022.

"The National Archives is an Executive Branch Agency.  As is the case with every administration, National Archives senior staff routinely meet and work with White House officials on issues dealing with the Presidential Records Act, the Presidential Libraries Act, records management, access to government records, and the overall administration of the agency," said NARA, in statement released by the National Archives Public and Media Communications staff.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News.

Records show Ferriero, the head of NARA, visited Biden’s White House two other times, one in early February 2021 and another in September 2021, shortly after the first meeting with Stern and Remus. In the second meeting, records show that Ferriero and Stern again met with Remus in the West Wing.

Based on a letter from Remus to Ferriero released on Oct. 8, 2021 by the White House, that meeting appears to have covered the House Jan. 6 Select Committee’s efforts to obtain documents from President Trump’s term in office. In the letter, Remus declined to exercise executive privilege over the Trump records requested by the committee.

That summer, in June, the unsealed court records show that Ferriero was becoming increasingly frustrated with the Trump team’s efforts to return the classified documents. After he was forwarded an email from the Trump team that explained they were working on coordinating a transfer of certain material NARA had asked for, Ferriero said the arrangements did not address the “24 missing boxes.”

“I am running out of patience,” Ferriero wrote, according to the court exhibits.

Ferriero could not be reached for comment by Just the News. The Archivist retired from the agency in April 2022.

“I’m extraordinarily proud of what we have accomplished together during my tenure and hope that you too take pride in our efforts and results,” Ferriero wrote in his retirement announcement.

“It is not easy to leave the National Archives with so much exciting work in progress,” he added.

Famously, Ferriero described how he watched the media coverage of President Biden’s inauguration and saw something that bothered him, President Trump and his wife Melania being followed by a “minion” carrying white boxes out of the White House.

“A minion behind them was carrying a white records box,” he recalled. “And I’m like, ‘What the hell is he doing?’” Ferriero said. This observation would eventually spur the request to Trump’s team for the records.

In a question and answer session at UNC Chapel Hill, Ferriero told the audience that “political savvy” is a useful skill, even for navigating supposedly nonpartisan offices. In his previous jobs, which included the direct of the New York Public Libraries, he said he had to determine “who has the power, who controls the purse strings for the public and who you need to be sucking up to to get what you need.”

After the raid on Mar-a-Lago, the FBI neatly laid out documents as a photo-op for media. When documents – some classified – were seized from President Biden's unsecure garage and the Penn-Biden Center, the FBI did not do the same. 

[Update: this story was updated with a statement from the National Archives]

 
Steven Richards

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/records-show-archives-official-met-biden-wh-counsel-day-indictment

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Will the West Get Ever Serious about Sanctions on Iran? - Con Coughlin

 

by Con Coughlin

Without Chinese oil imports, for example, the Iranian oil industry would most likely collapse, thereby increasing the pressure on the Iranian regime to mend its ways.

 

• [D]espite the clear and present threat Iran poses to the security of both the Middle East and the wider world, Western governments are still proving reluctant to take any measures needed to cripple the Iranian economy.

• A key factor in the reluctance of Western leaders to punish Iran for its aggression is the appeasement policy the Biden administration has pursued towards Iran in recent years in the naive hope that, by going easy on Iran, the Iranian regime might be persuaded to agree to a new deal on its nuclear activities.

• "The Iranians have mastered the art of sanctions circumvention. If the Biden administration is really going to have an impact, it has to shift the focus to China." — Fernando Ferreira, head of geopolitical risk service at the Rapidan Energy Group, Financial Times, April 17, 2024.

• If the West is really serious about holding Iran to account for its aggressive activities, then it... should include the possibility of imposing secondary sanctions against any country that continues to do business with Tehran in defiance of Western sanctions.

• Without Chinese oil imports, for example, the Iranian oil industry would most likely collapse, thereby increasing the pressure on the Iranian regime to mend its ways.

(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)

If attempts by Western leaders to impose further sanctions against Iran in retaliation for its direct attack against Israel are to have any validity, they will need to be a great deal more effective than those implemented in recent decades.

For decades, the US and its allies have been imposing sanctions against Tehran in an attempt to restrain its malign support for terror organisations, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

Wide-ranging sanctions have also been imposed against Tehran to curb its nuclear programme, which most Western intelligence agencies believe is ultimately aimed at fulfilling the Iranian regime's quest to acquire a nuclear weapons arsenal.

This has led to restrictions being placed on Iran's ability to access technology and material that might be used to aid its nuclear development, while a range of other economic sanctions, especially limiting Iran's ability to export oil, have been implemented.

These sanctions were strengthened even more by the US after Iranian-backed militias were accused of attacking US forces in Syria and Iraq in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel.

The UK, too, has adopted a more robust approach to Tehran after British security officials uncovered a number of Iranian plots to kill or kidnap Iranian opposition figures residing in the UK. Seven senior members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and one Iranian organisation were added to the UK's sanctions list in January over claims they were involved in threats to kill journalists on British soil.

Iran's direct attack against Israel earlier this month -- the first time Iran carried out such a mission since its 1979 Islamic Revolution -- has prompted Western leaders to formulate a new round of sanctions against Tehran aimed at targeting Iran's drone and missile production industries.

In a coordinated announcement made by the US, UK and Canada this week, new measures were imposed against individuals and companies that are "closely involved" in Iran's drone production.

The US Treasury announced it was "sanctioning over one dozen entities, individuals, and vessels that have played a central role in facilitating and financing the clandestine sale of Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles."

The measures will also result in two individuals facing a travel ban to the UK and an asset freeze, while four companies will be subjected to an asset freeze.

The measures are a direct response to the Iranian attack against Israel, in which more than 300 drones, missiles and ballistic missiles were fired at Israel.

Even so, the fact that the sanctions announced did not extend measures against Iran's lucrative oil industry, whose revenues are primarily responsible for keeping the mullahs in power, shows that, despite the clear and present threat Iran poses to the security of both the Middle East and the wider world, Western governments are still proving reluctant to take the measures needed to cripple the Iranian economy.

A key factor in the reluctance of Western leaders to punish Iran for its aggression is the appeasement policy the Biden administration has pursued towards Iran in recent years in the naive hope that, by going easy on Iran, the Iranian regime might be persuaded to agree to a new deal on its nuclear activities.

US President Joe Biden's desperation to strike a new deal with Tehran even led to him award a sanctions waiver to Iran granting the regime access to $10 billion, money that critics argue is being used to fund Iran's terrorist network throughout the Middle East.

The fallacy of this approach was exposed when Iran threatened, in the wake of its unprecedented attack against Israel, to commence work on building nuclear weapons if Israel attacked any of its nuclear facilities, thereby revealing the true nature of Iran's ultimate nuclear ambitions.

The real challenge Western leaders face, though, in their bid to increase sanctions against Iran, is that all the evidence suggests that, in terms of having any impact on the Iranian regime, they are proving woefully ineffective.

An important factor in the regime's ability to withstand Western sanctions has been the willingness of other autocratic states, such as China and Russia, to continue doing business with Tehran. China has now become the world's largest importer of Iranian oil, while Moscow has enjoyed a number of lucrative contracts with Tehran to supply weapons for use in the Ukraine conflict.

Consequently, the sanctions are failing to have the desired effect in curbing Iran's destabilising activities.

As Fernando Ferreira, head of geopolitical risk service at the Rapidan Energy Group in the US, explained in a recent interview with London's Financial Times, "The Iranians have mastered the art of sanctions circumvention. If the Biden administration is really going to have an impact, it has to shift the focus to China."

All the indications from Tehran certainly suggest it does not feel in any way threatened by the prospect of further sanctions. As Iran's oil minister Javad Owji remarked recently, while Iran's enemies wanted to stop its exports, "today, we can export oil anywhere we want, and with minimal discounts".

If the West is really serious about holding Iran to account for its aggressive activities, then it needs to look at new ways at making sure sanctions have their desired effect.

This should include the possibility of imposing secondary sanctions against any country that continues to do business with Tehran in defiance of Western sanctions.

Without Chinese oil imports, for example, the Iranian oil industry would most likely collapse, thereby increasing the pressure on the Iranian regime to mend its ways.

Similarly, Moscow's lucrative arms deals with Tehran provide an important financial lifeline for Iran's arms industry, which is used to arm and equip Iran's global terrorist infrastructure.

If Western leaders really want the sanctions to have the desired effect of curbing Iran's malign activities, then imposing secondary sanctions on those countries that continue to do business with Tehran will send a clear message that the West is not prepared to tolerate any violations of its sanctions regime.

Con Coughlin is the Telegraph's Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20609/west-serious-iran-sanctions

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

The Ottoman Infection: How Great Nations Die - Lawrence Kadish

 

by Lawrence Kadish

America, take note!

 

The United States needs to return to strategic energy independence. Through state-of-the art technology, we now have the means of not only meeting our domestic needs, but the ability to export oil to our allies. Doing so would replace the Russians and Iranians, whose energy stockpiles continue to be wielded as weapons against the West. Pictured: An oil derrick in Monahans, Texas, in the oil- and gas-producing Permian Basin, on March 27, 2024. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Plagued with inept leadership, a fractured society, and an unstable economy, the once powerful, centuries-old Ottoman Empire was described by early 20^th century contemporaries as the sick man of Europe. And then it collapsed into the dustbin of history.

America, take note. Consider what medicine needs to be administered in Washington to prevent a fatal malaise from taking down a great nation, for no country is immune to the Ottoman infection.

For the United States, it begins with returning to strategic energy independence. Through state-of-the art technology, we now have the means of not only meeting our domestic needs, but the ability to export oil to our allies. Doing so would replace the Russians and Iranians, whose energy stockpiles continue to be wielded as weapons against the West.

It has been estimated that, were U.S. oil production allowed an open spigot, prices would go back down to $40 or $50 a barrel, nearly half its current $83. That price would create an economic cardiac arrest for Russia and Iran, leaving them unable to afford their global aggression against the West.

Next, the U.S. should return to a policy of strong economic growth. No country has ever taxed itself into prosperity. Let us unleash once again America's best weapon: a creative, robust, open economic marketplace.

Washington needs to lower everyone's taxes and tear up those mountains of regulations that are now throttling growth.

With a strong pro-growth agenda, it is equally important also to provide low-cost loans for business expansion,

We need to recognize that we are being challenged for global leadership by China and that they are engaged in espionage that transits every facet of our nation – from defense to AI to Wall Street. The Communist Chinese will continue to do their best to cripple and displace the U.S. technologically, militarily and economically.

While a strong American military is key, another means to confront that threat is to see the U.S. bring manufacturing back home. Where that is not feasible, one can partner with countries such as India, which are not dedicated to confronting the United States. Otherwise, keep the creation of basic necessities, such as medicine or computer chips as home-grown domestic products.

If America is to remain recognizable as a sovereign nation, we need to secure our borders. It remains inconceivable that it is estimated we currently have more than 20 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., half of which entered since 2021. The current condition of our city streets speaks to the chaos that has been created by White House border policies that are out of control and a national security risk.

Nations get sick. Those that refuse to recognize the lethal risk from these maladies, and refuse to "take their medicine" run the risk of dying.

Just ask the Ottomans.

Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20610/how-great-nations-die

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

Illegal immigration outlawed in Oklahoma starting July 1 - Kim Jarrett

 

by Kim Jarrett

Anyone living in Oklahoma as illegal immigrants would be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $500, or both.

 

(The Center Square) -

(The Center Square) - A bill that would make illegal immigration a state crime on July 1 is being praised and criticized by state lawmakers.

House Bill 4156 creates the crime of “impermissible occupation." It is defined as a person willfully and without permission entering and remaining in Oklahoma without first obtaining legal authorization to enter the United States, according to the bill.

Anyone living in Oklahoma as illegal immigrants would be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $500, or both. Anyone found guilty would be required to leave the state within 72 hours following conviction or release from custody, whichever comes later, according to the bill. A second offense would be a felony.

Gov. Kevin Stitt signed it Tuesday.

“I am disappointed this bill is necessary. Since President Biden took office in 2021, more than 10 million people have poured over the southern border,” Stitt said. “Countless individuals from across the globe, including thousands of Chinese nationals as well as people affiliated with terror organizations, have illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. Oklahomans are concerned by who could be lying in wait for an opportunity to bring harm to our country.”

Attorney General Gentner Drummond said the bill would help stem the state's illegal marijuana grow operations.

“Oklahoma has reaped the consequences of the Biden Administration’s utter failure to secure our nation’s border, as evidenced by the flood of illegal marijuana grows and other criminal activity connected to Chinese syndicates and Mexican cartels,” Drummond said. “HB 4156 gives law enforcement the tools necessary to ensure public safety for all Oklahomans. I am grateful to House Speaker McCall and Senate President Pro Tempore Treat for their swift action in making the bill a reality.”

Others said the bill is unconstitutional.

"This legislation is dangerous and scary, and I am saddened to see the Governor overlook the many—progressive, conservative, and religious—voices in opposition of this bill. Not to mention the voices of people who would be directly impacted," said House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson, D-Oklahoma City. "This legislation is all about partisan politics in an election year, not about solving real problems for Oklahomans. Border security is the responsibility of the federal government."

Member of the Latino Caucus said the bill is making some Oklahomans anxious.

"Our caucus has done our best to quell fear and address questions at various town hall meetings from Oklahoma City to Tulsa," said Sen. Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City, who chairs the caucus. "It has been abundantly clear that folks across the state understand what is at stake — profound loss of revenue and workforce, strain on law enforcement, and expensive legal challenges. We have said from the very beginning that there are common sense policy solutions that we should be discussing, and I am disappointed that the governor chose not to revisit that conversation.”

The law is similar to one in Texas that is currently being challenged in federal court. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds also signed a bill making illegal immigration a state crime. The bill takes effect on July 1 and is not facing a court challenge at this time.

 
Kim Jarrett

Source: https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/illegal-immigration-outlawed-oklahoma-starting-july-1

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter