CATHERINE PUGH LOSES POLITICAL CAREER DUE TO CORRUPTION (FBI RAIDS):
SHE IS NOW IN HIDING.
ATLANTA & BALTIMORE NEED TO ELECT WHITE MAYORS IMMEDIATELY.
LONG TERM BLACK LEADERSHIP IN THE ATL & BALTIMORE CREATED COMPLACENCY & ENCOURAGED CORRUPTION.
MOST BLACK LEADERS DON’T CARE ABOUT BLACK VOTERS ANYWAY, ONLY THEMSELVES.
IT’S TIME FOR REAL CHANGE.
YES, WHITE POLITICIANS CAN EFFECTIVELY LEAD BLACK VOTERS WITHOUT RACISM.
2020 ELECTION
Post Sources: New York Post, AJC, CNN, PBS, Youtube
***** Feds raid Baltimore mayor’s home amid kids book corruption scandal
FBI and IRS agents raided the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh on Thursday amid calls she resign over her shady children’s book sales.
The blitz on Pugh’s home indicated publicly for the first time that she’s being investigated by the feds, as well as by the Maryland Office of the State Prosecutor.
Authorities are looking into lucrative sales of Pugh’s “Healthy Holly” series to the University of Maryland Medical System while she was on their unpaid board of directors.
The investigation that led to Thursday’s raids began more than a year ago, sources told The Baltimore Sun.
Pugh, 69, has been on an indefinite leave of absence since April 1, when calls for a state probe into her began.
She claimed then that she was taking time off to recover from a bout of pneumonia.
The Democrat was at home at the time of the raids. Sources told local outlet WJZ that she has since left Maryland.
As agents hauled out boxes of “Healthy Holly” books and documents from Pugh’s home, Gov. Larry Hogan called for Pugh to step down.
“Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” the Republican governor tweeted. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”
Hogan directed the state’s prosecutor on April 1 to begin a probe into Pugh’s “questionable dealings.”
Besides Hogan, the Baltimore City Council, Baltimore lawmakers in the House of Delegates and the Great Baltimore Committee, a business group, have also called for Pugh’s resignation.
The feds also executed search warrants at the office of Pugh’s lawyer, Steven Silverman, City Hall, the Maryland Center for Adult Training, whose job program Pugh once ran, and the home of an aide, the FBI confirmed.
Silverman said agents served a subpoena to his office for Pugh’s financial records. “We will continue to vigorously defend the mayor,” he told the Washington Post.
The health provider paid $500,000 to buy 100,000 copies of the book from Pugh’s company, Healthy Holly LLC, in a no-bid arrangement between 2011 and 2018.
Pugh apologized that she had “done something to upset the people,” returned $100,000 to the health-care system and canceled a book deal.
She has also stepped down from the board.
Another health-care provider, Kaiser Permanente, confirmed to The Baltimore Sun this month that it had paid Pugh $114,000 for 20 copies of her book between 2015 and 2018 while the company was trying to get a contract from the city.
Kaiser was awarded a $48 million contract in 2017 to provide heath benefits to city workers by a spending board on which Pugh sits.
Pugh did not comment and her spokesman said he hasn’t talked to her.
SECURITY CLEARANCES REVOKED vs FAKE RUSSIA RUINED 2016 ELECTION THEORIES:
WHY DO YOU STILL NEED A TOP SECRET SECURITY CLEARANCE IF YOU ARE NO LONGER A DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE OR NO LONGER AN FBI DIRECTOR??
WHY DO FORMER FED GOVT OFFICIALS WHO ARE NOW PRIVATE CITIZENS, STILL NEED TOP SECRET SECURITY CLEARANCES?
SECURITY CLEARANCES SHOULD NOT BE USED TO SPY ON POLITICIANS, PRIVATE CITIZENS OR FEDERAL EMPLOYEES.
SECURITY CLEARANCE PRIVILEGES SHOULD NOT BE SOLD FOR PARTISAN POLITICS.
SECURITY CLEARANCES SHOULD NOT BE USED TO CORRUPT THE U.S. GOVT VIA FALSE INFORMATION.
REVOKING SECURITY CLEARANCES DOES NOT VIOLATE FIRST AMENDMENT, IT’S PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE.
EACH ELECTED U.S. PRESIDENT HAS LEGAL DISCRETION TO GRANT OR REVOKE SECURITY CLEARANCES.
Post Sources: Washington Times, Politico, Fox News, Youtube
****** Trump threatens to revoke Obama officials' security clearances
President Trump threatened Monday to revoke security clearance from top Obama administration officials who have fanned the flames of Russian collusion conspiracy theories, a retaliation by the White House that legal scholars said would be unprecedented but not illegal.
On the president’s security clearance hit list are former CIA Director John O. Brennan, former Director of National Security James R. Clapper, former FBI Director James B. Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former National Security Adviser Susan E. Rice and National Security Agency Director Michael V. Hayden, said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“They’ve politicized and in some cases actually monetized their public service security clearances,” she said. “Making baseless accusations of improper contact with Russia or being influenced by Russiaagainst the president is extremely inappropriate.”
Former intelligence officials typically keep their high-level security clearances after leaving government jobs and sometimes provide informal advice to current officials.
These six officials publicly leveled accusations of criminal wrongdoing — including treason — against Mr. Trump in frequent TV news appearances.
Several also pocket paychecks for doing it.
Mr. Brennan is a paid analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Mr. Clapper and Mr. Hayden are paid analysts for CNN.
Mr. Clapper also is suspected of leaking to CNN in January 2017 information about the anti-Trump dossier that helped spur the FBI’s Russia collusion investigation.
Mr. Brennan took several jabs at the president last week after his meeting in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Donald Trump’s press conference performance in Helsinki rises to & exceeds the threshold of ‘high crimes & misdemeanors.’ It was nothing short of treasonous. Not only were Trump’s comments imbecilic, he is wholly in the pocket of Putin. Republican Patriots: Where are you???” he tweeted.
Mrs. Sanders said the president thinks top-security clearance for former officials who make “these baseless charges provides inappropriate legitimacy to accusations with zero evidence.”
Sean M. Bigley, a lawyer specializing in security clearance cases, said the president was in uncharted territory but as commander in chief had carte blanche authority to revoke security clearances.
“There is nothing legally that would preclude the president from taking that action,” he said.
What’s more, the only recourse to challenge a security clearance revocation is through an administrative appeal process that the president could deny, said Mr. Bigley.
The president’s opponents in Washington quickly accused him of politicizing security clearances.
Mr. Clapper responded on CNN, “It’s kind of a sad commentary, where for political reasons, this is kind of a petty way of retribution, I suppose, for speaking out against the president.”
He said all of the former officials have been speaking “out of genuine concerns about President Trump.”
Others called it an attack on free speech.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence who has spearheaded accusations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia, said the president had set “a terrible new precedent.”
“An enemies list is ugly, undemocratic and un-American. Is there no length Trump will not go to stifle opposition? Wake up GOP,” Mr. Schiff tweeted.
“This is what totalitarianism looks like,” tweeted Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, Hawaii Democrat.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, raised the idea of targeting Mr. Brennan’s security clearance in a tweet early Monday and later presented the suggestion to Mr. Trump in a meeting at the White House.
Mr. Paul has been one of the most vocal defenders of Mr. Trump’s performance at the Helsinki meeting, and Mr. Brennan has been one of the loudest critics.
“Public officials should not use their security clearances to leverage speaking fees or network talking head fees,” Mr. Paul tweeted.
The White House announcement followed Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mr. Paul.
The unusual circumstances engulfing Mr. Trump’s presidency made the scrutiny clearance threat “very appropriate,” said David K. Rehr, a scholar of Washington politics at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government.
He said that all of the Obama intelligence officials on the list had their fingers in the Trump collusion conspiracy and now had a financial incentive to promote the conspiracy theories.
“People need to know that if they are public servants that they are public servants and not servants of political campaigns,” he said.
Mrs. Sanders rejected the accusation that the president was seeking to punish the former officials for exercising their First Amendment right to free speech.
“The president doesn’t like the fact that people are politicizing agencies and departments that are specifically meant to not be political and not meant to be monetized off of security clearances,” she said. “When you’re the person that holds the nation’s deepest, most-sacred secrets at your hands, and you go out and you make false accusations against the president of the United States, he thinks that is something to be very concerned with, and we’re exploring what those options are and what that looks like.”
The politicizing of security clearances and the security clearance process is not entirely new to Washington.
Democrats pounced on the Trump White House for the slow pace of security clearance approval for top aides such as Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Republicans in the House and Senate introduced legislation to strip Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton of her security clearance over use of a secret email account and email server for official business as secretary of state.
Mrs. Clinton also came under fire from Republicans for arranging top-secret security clearance for her attorney David Kendall amid the email scandal.
Mr. McCabe lost his security clearance when he was fired as FBI deputy director in January.
“You would think the White House would check with the FBI before trying to throw shiny objects to the press corps,” said McCabe spokeswoman Melissa Schwartz.
Mr. Comey has been engaged in an escalating war of words with Mr. Trumpsince the president fired him in May 2017.
Ms. Rice said Sunday on a talk show that she didn’t know Mr. Trump’s motivations for seeking a better relationship with Russia, but “I think that’s a legitimate question.”
She called Mr. Trump’s one-on-one meeting with Mr. Putin “a historic mistake.”
As national security adviser under Mr. Obama, Ms. Rice was widely criticized for initially explaining the terrorist attack on U.S. personnel in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 as a spontaneous protest against an anti-Muslim video produced in the U.S. The performance prevented her from being nominated as secretary of state.
Mr. Clapper raised questions last August on CNN about Mr. Trump’s “ability to be — his fitness to be — in this office. I also am beginning to wonder about his motivation for it. Maybe he is looking for a way out.”
Mr. Hayden has published a book this year titled “The Assault on Intelligence: American National Security in an Age of Lies.” He said on CBS this spring of Mr. Trump, “We’ve had presidents who disagree with us; we’ve had presidents who lie. We’ve not had presidents for whom objective reality doesn’t seem to be compelling.”
Former House intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, called Mr. Trump’s action petty.
“It’s certainly below the stature of the office of the president of the United States,” he said on CNN. “I just wish that the president would be bigger than that.”
He said of Mr. Brennan, “It’s also not customary for the former CIA director to be off the reservation where he is, either. I don’t think John Brennan should do it.”
TThe gunman who allegedly killed at least 17 people at a Florida high school on Wednesday was a former student who posted disturbing material on social media and was "crazy about guns".
Police identified the suspect as Nikolas Cruz, a 19-year-old who had been expelled from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, about 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami.
The suspect was wearing a gas mask and carrying smoke grenades, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida told CNN.
Mr Nelson, who said he had been briefed by the FBI, said the attacker "set off the fire alarm so the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall. And there the carnage began."
He said he did not know if the gunman had used the smoke grenades but he assumed that's why he had a gas mask on.
Frightened students ran out onto the streets as shots rang out before SWAT team members swarmed the building.
Authorities later announced that they had taken the suspect into custody and took him to hospital after locating him in Coral Springs, a little over a mile away from the school. The gunman surrendered to police without a struggle, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.
Inside the suspect's disturbing Instagram page
The Instagram page of the alleged shooter paints a picture of a man obsessed with guns and knives.
One of the more recent posts shows target practice, captioned "Group therapy. Sometimes it really f---ing works."
Others show him posing proudly with his weapons, which include pistols and knives, and in one Instagram post, he seemingly asks followers for advice on a certain model of gun.
He also posed for selfies where he wore all black clothes and a balaclava.
One photograph shows a dead toad, which he claims to have killed.
His Instagram profile contained the word “annihilator.”
One post about purchasing a shotgun reads: “I plan on getting this but I need more information on it so if someone could give advice on how much I’m spending and background cheeks [sic] please to god let me know."
Students at the school have confirmed the Instagram page is his.
One student, who escaped the shooting, wrote on Twitter: "He literally had an Instagram where he posted pictures of animals he killed gruesomely."
Flagged as a threat
Jim Gard, a Maths teacher, said Cruz had been in his class last year.
“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” Mr Gard told the Miami Herald. “There were problems with him last year threatening students.”
However, Robert Runcie, the Broward County School District Superintendent, told reporters he was not aware of any concerns raised about the student.
“We received no warnings,” Mr Runcie said outside the school. “Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn't have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.”
One student, who did not wish to be named, told TV station WSVN-7 that Cruz had said he had guns at home and talked about using them.
“He’s been a troubled kid,” the student said. “He’s always had a certain amount of issues going on. He shot guns because he felt it gave him, I guess, an exhilarating feeling.”
'Very disturbing' social media history
Mr Israel said the gunman had an AR-15 assault rifle and "countless magazines".
“We already began to dissect his websites and the things on social media that he was on and some of the things that came to mind are very, very disturbing," he said.
His Instagram account was taken down after the shooting, but screenshots were sent to various media outlets.
“Everything he posts is about weapons,” one student told ABC News. “It’s sick.”
Daniel Huerfano, a student who fled Wednesday's attack, said he recognised Cruz from an Instagram photo in which Cruz posed with a gun in front of his face. Huerfano recalled Cruz as a shy student and remembered seeing him walking around with his lunch bag.
"He was that weird kid that you see ... like a loner," he added.
One pupil said other teenagers had long thought the suspect would “shoot up the school”.
The pupil told local television station WFOR-TV: “A lot of people were saying it was going to be him. A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school. It turns out that everyone predicted it. That’s crazy.”
Broward County Mayor Beam Furr said during an interview with CNN that the shooter was getting treatment at a mental health clinic for a while, but that he hadn't been back to the clinic for more than a year.
"It wasn't like there wasn't concern for him," Mr Furr said. "We try to keep our eyes out on those kids who aren't connected ... Most teachers try to steer them toward some kind of connections. ... In this case, we didn't find a way to connect with this kid."
Another student, named as Brandon, was asked whether he was surprised to learn the identity of the gunman, and replied: “No.” He continued: “He told me he got kicked out of two private schools, and was held back twice. He seemed a little off.”
'Crazy about guns'
Chad Williams, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas High school, remembered Cruz as a troubled classmate from when they attended middle school together. He said Cruz would set off the fire alarm, day after day, and finally got expelled in the eighth grade.
More recently, Williams saw Cruz carrying several publications about guns when they ran into each other at the high school. Williams thought Cruz was there to pick up a younger sibling.
“He was crazy about guns,” Williams told Reuters, speaking by the side of the road near the high school. “He was kind of an outcast. He didn’t have many friends. He would do anything crazy for a laugh, but he was trouble.”
Victoria Olvera, a 17-year-old junior, said Cruz was expelled last school year after a fight with his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend. She said Cruz had been abusive to his girlfriend.
'If anyone would do it, it was him'
Dakota Mutchler, 17, said he used to be close friends with Cruz but hadn't seen him in more than a year following his expulsion from school.
"He started progressively getting a little more weird," Mutchler said. "He started going after one of my friends, threatening her, and I cut him off from there.
"I think everyone had in their minds if anybody was going to do it, it was going to be him."
Travis Julmice, an 18-year-old senior, said he had not been in a class with Cruz since middle school.
"You could tell he was a little off," Julmice told Reuters at the Coral Springs hotel. "He was always like a troubled kid, getting in-school suspension a lot. And detentions."
Three cities have filed suit against the Pentagon for lapses that allowed a mass shooter in Texas to buy a gun, even though he carried a conviction in military court that should have barred his purchase.
Devin P. Kelley, who was convicted of domestic violence while serving in the U.S. Air Force, was never reported by the military for inclusion on an FBI database of individuals blocked from purchasing firearms. Kelley went on to kill more than two dozen churchgoers in Sutherland Springs, Tex., last month in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.
In the complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., the three cities — New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia — say they rely on the integrity of the FBI’s background check system. The suit alleges that the defendants, which include the military branches and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have an “admitted, systemic and longstanding failure to comply with the law.”
The cities are seeking to force the Defense Department to fully participate in the reporting system, which they said is already required by law. They also want the court to oversee the department’s compliance efforts.
“The Executive Branch and Congress have both had their chances to repair this clearly broken system. Now, after twenty years of failure, it’s time for the Courts to step in,” Ken Taber, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman and lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence also helped prepare the suit.
A spokesman for the Defense Department declined to comment Wednesday, citing a policy against commenting on ongoing litigation. A spokesman for the Justice Department said the attorney general has launched his own investigation into the issue.
“After visiting first responders and victims’ families in Sutherland Springs, Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed the ATF and FBI to conduct a comprehensive review with the Department of Defense of how certain information is reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System,” Justice Department spokesman Devin O’Malley said in an email Wednesday. “The Justice Department is reviewing yesterday’s lawsuit and determining next steps.”
Members of a family ravaged by the Sutherland Springs shooting have also filed suit against the Air Force, alleging its failure to report Kelley’s criminal background led to their loved ones’ slayings.
Military officials have long acknowledged problems with the way it reports records to the FBI gun background check database.
According to Pentagon guidelines, military law enforcement personnel are supposed to submit fingerprint cards as well as information about the results of a criminal proceeding to the FBI database if troops are charged with or convicted of certain violent crimes, including domestic violence and child abuse.
However, a recent review by the Pentagon’s oversight agency, which examined 2,502 criminal cases between January 2015 and December 2016, found that 1 in 4 fingerprint cards were not submitted to the database. Military law enforcement failed to submit one-third of the final disposition reports, the review found.
Kelley’s record should have disqualified him from purchasing a weapon. Kelley spent a year in jail for crushing his young stepson’s skull, assaulting his wife and making other threats. He received a bad-conduct discharge from the military in 2014, a step below a dishonorable discharge.
Two years after his discharge, Kelley cleared a background check and bought a Ruger AR-556 semiautomatic rifle from a San Antonio sporting goods shop.
The weapon was found in front of the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs after the Nov. 5 killings.
Speaking at a rally in Harrisburg, PA, President Donald Trump assured American citizens that the Salvadoran gang known as MS-13 would be quickly removed from the country.
Following chants of “build that wall,” President Trump addressed the crowd in relation to the deadly Salvadoran gang MS-13:
“We will build a wall folks, don’t even worry about it. Go to sleep. As the final thing we needed, we need it.” said President Trump in relation to the wall, adding:
If the Democrats knew what the hell they were doing, they would approve it so easy because we want to stop crime in our country. Obviously, they don’t mind illegals coming in. They don’t mind drugs pouring in. They don’t mind MS-13 coming in.
We are getting them all out of here. Members of congress who will be voting on border security have a simple choice. They can either vote to help drug cartels and criminal aliens trying to enter the United States, like frankly, the Democrats are doing, or they can vote to help American citizens and American families be safe.
That is the choice.
President Trump continued:
At the heart of my administration’s efforts to restore the rule of law has been a nationwide crackdown on criminal gangs, and that means taking the fight to the sanctuary cities that shield these dangerous criminals from removal. The last very weak administration allowed thousands and thousands of gang members to cross our borders and enter into our communities, where they wreaked havoc on our citizens. The bloodthirsty cartel known as MS-13 has infiltrated our schools, threatening innocent children.
We have seen the horrible assaults and many killings all along Long Island where I grew up. We are seeing the vicious spread of transnational gangs into all 50 states and the human suffering they bring with them. I have been with the parents.
It is devastation. A very respected General recently told me that MS-13 are the equivalent in their meanness to Al Qaeda. My administration will not rest until we have dismantled these violent gangs, and we are doing it rapidly, and we are sending them the hell out of our country.
At this point, President Trump received. thunderous applause. He went on to say, “We are sending them back home where they belong. One by one, we are finding the illegal immigrant drug dealers, members and killers and removing them from our country. Once they are gone, you see what we are doing. They will not let them back in. They are not coming back.”
US MARINES SUFFER 16 TROOP LOSS AFTER KC-130 CRASHES IN MISSISSIPPI:
WAS IT AN AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT OR TAMPERED WITH (ISIL)?
PRAY FOR THE FAMILIES OF THESE BRAVE SOLDIERS.
PLEASE PRAY DAILY FOR ALL US MILITARY TROOPS EVERYWHERE IN JESUS NAME.
Sources: AP, USA Today, YouTube
***** 16 dead in military plane crash in Mississippi
JACKSON, Miss. — A military refueling aircraft crashed Monday afternoon in a soybean field in Leflore County, killing at least 16 and leaving a debris field five miles in radius, officials said.
Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Director Lee Smithson said the plane crashed on the Sunflower-Leflore county line.
Leflore County EMA Director Frank Randle confirmed that 16 are dead in the crash.
"Most of them are gonna be Marines," he said. He could not confirm whether there were any civilians on the plane.
The U.S. Marine Corps Twitter account posted that "A USMC KC-130 mishap occurred the evening of July 10. Further information will be released as available."
Marine Corps spokeswoman Lt. Kristine Rascicot confirmed that the plane that crashes was a USMC KC-130, but said she was not able to release any more details.
Capt. Sarah Burns said in a statement that a Marine C-130 "experienced a mishap" Monday evening, echoing almost the exact language of the tweet.
A KC-130 aircraft is an extended-range tanker version of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules that has been modified for aerial refueling.The C-130 Hercules is a four-engine turboprop aircraft used primarily for military transportation. It's known as a workhorse used in refueling, humanitarian missions, firefighting, search and rescue, and combat missions, according to the Lockheed Martin website.
It wasn't clear Monday evening where the flight originated or where it was headed.
Leflore County deputy coroner Will Gnemi confirmed that his office was called to the accident scene. He said investigators were looking for other victims at the rural crash site, searching in a soybean field with tall vegetation.
Greenwood Fire Chief Marcus Banks told the Greenwood Commonwealth's Tim Kalich that the debris field was about five miles in radius.
Banks told the Commonwealth that the call came in around 4 p.m. An aircraft crash truck rushed to the scene, and 4,000 gallons of foam were used in an effort to put out the fire, he said.
Firefighters were driven away by several "high-intensity explosions," Banks told the Commonwealth, adding that they thought it was possibly some ammunition igniting.
The Commonwealth reported that the flight last contacted air traffic controllers at an elevation of about 20,000 feet.
"Please join Deborah and me in praying for those hurting after this tragedy," Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement on Facebook. "Our men and women in uniform risk themselves every day to secure our freedom."
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the NTSB was not involved in the investigation because the plane was a military aircraft.
COMEY NOW APPEARS TO BE A LOYAL OBAMA HOLDOVER (DIVIDED FEDERAL GOVT):
TRUMP NEEDS TO DRAIN THE SWAMP OR RISK IMPEACHMENT.
Sources: Fox News, YouTube
**** Trump's personal lawyer to file complaint after Comey testimony , source says
President Trump’s lawyer will file a complaint with the Department of Justice’s Inspector General's Office and the Senate Judiciary Committee after it was revealed Thursday that former FBI director James Comey leaked memos to a friend in order to inform the media about conversations with the president, a source told Fox News.
is not clear when the attorney, Marc Kasowitz, will file the complaint. But the move appears to show that team Trump is trying to go on the offensive after Comey’s testimony.
Kasowitz is focusing on part of the testimony where Comey said he leaked the private conversation he had with Trump in order to prompt the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Russian interference.
“I woke up in the middle of the night on Monday night, ‘cause it didn’t dawn on me originally that there might be corroboration for our conversation; there might be a tape,” Comey said. “And my judgment was I needed to get that out in the public square so I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons but I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. So I asked a close friend of mine to do it.”
Daniel Richman, a Columbia University law professor and close friend of Comey, has confirmed he leaked contents of one of Comey’s memos to The New York Times. Richman served with Comey in the Southern District of New York and at the FBI.
Kasowitz said in a statement that "Comey’s excuse for this unauthorized disclosure of privileged information and appears to entirely retaliatory. We will leave it the appropriate authorities to determine whether this leaks should be investigated along with all those others being investigated."
Comey, during his testimony, accused the Trump administration of “spreading “lies, plain and simple” about him and the FBI in the aftermath of his abrupt firing last month, declaring that the administration “defamed him and more importantly the FBI.”
In that testimony he had already disclosed that Trump demanded his "loyalty" and directly pushed him to "lift the cloud" of investigation by declaring publicly the president was not the target of the FBI probe into his campaign's Russia ties.
Comey said that he declined to do so in large part because of the "duty to correct" that would be created if that situation changed. Comey also said in his written testimony that Trump, in a strange private encounter near the grandfather clock in the Oval Office, pushed him to end his investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
OBAMA & HIS OPERATIVES FIGHTING AGAINST TRUMP ADMIN (PROTESTS & LEAKS):
TRUMP ACKNOWLEDGES THIS BUT WON'T LET OBAMA'S OPPOSITION STOP HIM FROM HEALING THIS NATION.
TRUMP SAYS IT'S "JUST POLITICS".
Sources: CNN, Fox News, YouTube
****** Trump: Obama and former aides behind protests, leaks
President Trump said in an exclusive interview Tuesday that he believes former President Barack Obama and his top aides are behind the protests and leaks that have tormented the new administration – and he doesn’t expect it to stop anytime soon.
Trump, during an interview with “Fox & Friends,” blamed Obama acolytes and the ex-president himself for the organized demonstrations that have sprung up nationwide since the Nov. 8 election, and also for the politically embarrassing leaks that have hindered Trump’s messaging.
“I think that President Obama’s behind it because his people are certainly behind it,” Trump said. “And some of the leaks possibly come from that group, you know, some of the leaks – which are very serious leaks, because they’re very bad in terms of national security.”
Trump didn’t provide evidence to support the charge.
He certainly is not alone, though, in his view that top Obama administration officials could be involved. A former senior intelligence official told Fox News earlier this monththat he suspects ex-CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper – among others – were connected to leaks.
Some of those officials have pushed back. A Clapper spokesman, in a recent statement, appeared to distance the former intel boss from any leaks, voicing support for a probe while urging the new administration to take a sober approach to the investigation.
“Leaks need to be investigated, but those investigations should be conducted in a manner that is not disparaging of our dedicated IC professionals, nor destructive to the entire community,” spokesman Shawn Turner said.
Ben Rhodes, former deputy national security adviser, also denied any involvement in leaks in an email to The Atlantic.
“It’s totally absurd and doesn’t make any sense,” he wrote.
But the assertion that Obama – who began his political career as a community organizer – is actively aiding protests against Trump is new. Though, Trump added, it doesn’t necessarily bother him.
“But I also understand that’s politics,” Trump said. “And in terms of him being behind things, that’s politics. And it will probably continue.”
He added: “I’m not really surprised because I understand the way the world works. It’s politics. I mean I’m changing things that he’s wanted to do.”
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has written a letter to Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed in support of Uber, as the city considers regulations of Uber pickups at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
The Atlanta airport earlier this year proposed to legalize airport ride-share pickups and require fingerprint-based background checks for Uber X and Lyft drivers to pick up at Hartsfield-Jackson. Taxi and limo drivers who have long been fingerprinted say they want a level playing field.
Uber and Lyft have objected to the proposed requirement, saying they do their own background checks, which do not require fingerprints. The city of Atlanta is revising the airport proposal but has not said how it will change.
Holder, who was the nation’s first black attorney general, argues in the letter to Reed: “Requiring fingerprint-based background checks for non-law enforcement purposes can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color.”
Holder’s reasoning, also voiced by Uber: FBI records may lack information about the final outcome of some cases, and may not indicate if someone arrested was charged or convicted, so a fingerprint-based check “can prevent people from getting a job even if they were never found guilty of a crime.” That “disproportionately disadvantages people who have been arrested,” which “can have a discriminatory impact on communities of color,” Holder wrote.
Reed’s office and the airport acknowledged receiving the letter but declined to comment on it.
Holder, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2009 and left office in April 2015, works for law firm Covington & Burling LLP. The firm has a relationship with Uber that is also connected to Holder. Holder’s former chief of staff Margaret Richardson also now works at Covington & Burling and is a member of Uber’s U.S. Safety Advisory Board, providing “critical recommendations and counsel” to Uber.
Holder has written recent similar letters to officials in New Jersey and Chicago amid ride-share debates there.
And former U.S. Secret Service director Mark Sullivan also wrote a letter in support of Uber to Reed. Sullivan is also on Uber’s safety advisory board.
“In my opinion the City’s proposal to require a fingerprint-based background check for drivers doing pick-ups with Uber and Lyft at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlatna International Airport will neither increase nor improve airport security,” Sullivan wrote in his letter. He also wrote: “
Because there is a significant lack of information about the final outcome of cases, an individual may be prevented from a work opportunity even if he or she was never convicted or even charged with a crime.”
However, the state’s requirements for a “for-hire endorsement” on a driver license specify that in order to be eligible, applicants shall not have been convicted of a felony or crime of moral turpitude.
“The standards for the state level are a conviction,” said Georgia Bureau of Investigation director of privacy and compliance Dawn Diedrich. A plea of nolo contendere is also considered a conviction.
Diedrich said if there is an arrest on record without information about whether there was a conviction, “you can ask the applicant” if the charges were dismissed.
Killing of man who allegedly pointed a replica firearm at officers in California is 1,000th entry in Guardian database tracking police killings this year.
The number of people killed by law enforcement in the US this year has reached 1,000 after officers in Oakland, California, shot dead a man who allegedly pointed a replica gun at them.
Authorities said several officers opened fire on the man on Sunday evening when he walked toward them as they towed away cars that had been used to perform so-called “sideshow” stunts in east Oakland. Officers discovered later that the gun was a replica, police said.
“Officers working sideshow approached by subject who pointed firearm in their direction,” the Oakland police department said on Twitter. “Officers fatally shot subject.” A spokeswoman said the department would investigate the shooting itself. The man’s name was not released.
Hundreds of cars had been involved in hours of chaotic sideshow stunts that shut down several intersections in Oakland from late on Saturday into the early hours of Sunday, according to police.
One man was arrested and several shots were fired.
The man shot in Oakland became the 1,000th database entry in The Counted, an ongoing investigation by the Guardian to record every fatality caused by police and other law enforcement officers in 2015, to monitor the demographics of the people who died and detail how and why they were killed.
Sunday’s incident was the 883rd fatal shooting by a law enforcement officer so far in 2015, according to the Guardian’s records. Another 47 people died after being shocked with an officer’s Taser, 33 died after being struck by a law enforcement officer’s vehicle, and 36 were killed in custody.
Another received a deadly blow to the head during a fight with an officer.
The shooting was also the 183rd death recorded in California, by far the greatest total of any state. Nine states, however, have recorded more deaths per capita, with Oklahoma having the highest rate.
The US government publishes no comprehensive record of people killed by law enforcement, even after a series of controversial deaths unleashed a national protest movement and demands from activists and lawmakers alike for better data on the subject.
An analysis of the statistics collected so far found the rate of deaths currently stands at 3.1 per day. This rate has remained relatively steady throughout the year, peaking through the month of March to a daily rate of almost four and dipping to an average of 2.6 through June.
The Counted was launched on 1 June, logging 464 deaths in the year to that point.
At that time 102 or 22% of those killed had been unarmed. This proportion has since fallen slightly to 20% or 198 of the total 1,000. In 59 deaths, however, it remains unclear whether the suspect was armed.
As of 1 June, black Americans were more than twice as likely to be unarmed as white Americans when killed by police. At that point 32% of the 135 black people killed by police had been unarmed, compared with 15% of the 234 white people. This disparity has since shrunk, with 26% of the 248 black people and 18% of 490 white people being recorded as unarmed.
Brittany Packnett, a member of Barack Obama’s taskforce on 21st century policing and a founder of the Campaign Zero movement that lobbies to curb the levels of police violence in America, said the milestone should be met with “sadness, but not deep shock”.
“Black folks like me have known for a long time that the police do not always represent safety for us and that an encounter could be deadly,” said Packnett. “But having these statistics that add to our personal stories should continue to move everyone towards wanting to having a part in correcting this.”
Obama’s taskforce, convened after unrest in Ferguson, followed the decision not to prosecute the white officer who shot dead Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old, and made the collection of more reliable data on the number of police killings in the US one of its central recommendations.
FBI director James Comey said earlier this year that it was “ridiculous and embarrassing” that the Guardian and a separate project by the Washington Post had better information than the federal government about deaths at the hands of law enforcement officers.
The Department of Justice is trialling a new program, which resembles The Counted, to proactively collect data on killings by police. Currently, the FBI records the number of “justifiable homicides” reported to the bureau voluntarily by police departments that choose to participate.
Packnett said that while the government was “still in the beginning stages” of instigating that process, campaigners realised “it’s not enough just to talk about police involved shootings”.
“We have to talk about in custody deaths, we have to talk about non-lethal police violence, we need to talk about particularly vulnerable communities like children and the LGBTQ community,” Packnett said.
“We have to track it all, and we have to track it knowing that stronger, more comprehensive data can better lead us to the place of building solutions.”
As the nation reels from another stunning act of terror delivered by one of our own, I wonder-- what is behind this senseless violence perpetuated by primarily young white males?
Twelve people are now dead, 59 injured among them a 3 month old baby--all because they attended the premiere of a movie based on a comic? The latest release of the Batman series, The Dark Knight Rises had a midnight showing in Aurora, Colorado, when 24-year-old James Eagan Holmes decided to walk into the theater and open fire like he was part of the fictional story on screen and the movie goers merely fictional themselves.
There is something utterly maniacal about this kind of violence, completely beyond the realm of sane and logical interpretation. What fuels this madness, this evil?
Reports say Holmes, who is now in police custody and due in court on Monday, was dressed in bullet proof vests, gas mask, dark clothing, ballistic helmet, ballistic leggings and throat protector. He allegedly opened fire commando style after throwing one smoke and tear gas bombs into the viewing crowd.
He reportedly used up to 4 guns, at least one AK style rifle, an AR15 assault rifle and 2 Glock handguns. Bullets penetrated an adjoining theater, wounding one.
Holmes apartment is currently booby-trapped and authorities said in a press conference Friday afternoon that this is a difficult situation which may take days to neuralize. Strangely, after his bloody rampage inside the theater, the alleged killer was apprenhended outside quietly without resisting and then told police about his bomb-rigged apartment.
Seems odd for one hell-bent on killing to warn law enforcement of what lay ahead at his place of residence.
One witness, Jennifer Seeger told CNN news that she ducked when the gunman pointed his gun directly at her and felt the sting of gun powder on her forehead as he sprayed bullets into people around her. She said she folded herself in a fetal position, then crawled out when he moved up some stairs.
We all remember that other senseless tragedy where 22 year old Jared Lee Loughner opened fired in Tucson, Arizona on January 8, 2011, killing 6 including a sitting judge and a nine year old young girl and seriously wounding Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford and 11 others.
Then there was Timothy McVeigh, since executed for the terror he unleased in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people and wounding over 800.
Again, what is behind the young male home ground terrorists? Speaking at a press conference one Colorado official said something interesting: "It doesn't look like an incident of terrorism at this time." If it's not terrorism, what is it? If the difinition of terrorism is unleasing acts of senseless mass violence on innocent folks here and around the globe, then this is it. Or is it only when it is ochestrated by 'foreigners'--those people from 'over there?'
When Norway happened in July of 2011, the media immediately thought Islamist terrorists were behind the atrocities. Many stopped calling the mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik a terrorist, when the dust settled and they saw it was a white male. But isn't he a terrorist for murdering 76 people and injuring many more?
We are forever hunting those 'others' considered our biggest threat--namely Islamic terrorists but there is this madness right in our backyard and beyond.
In fact, according to host of CNN's Global Public Square host Fareed Zakaria of the 294 terror attacks committed in Europe in 2009, only one was conducted by Islamists. That's a third of one percent. There were 249 terror attacks in Europe in 2010.
Only three of those attacks were carried out by Islamist terrorists. Again, that's about one percent. Most of the attacks were by separatist groups or anarchists."
Then there are the troubled teens who have committed mass violence in their schools. Again, there were young, white males who walked into schools, heavily armed and shot anyone in sight, some killing themselves after. There was the memorable massacre at Columbine, followed by several more.
This young man's only run-in with the law according to Colorado police, was a speeding violation. He was also intellegient and college educated, reportedly enrolled in a PhD program in neuroscience at the local university but at the point of dropping out. What turns someone like that--a simple speeding ticket holder into a mass murderer?
Was dropping out from the university, a trigger to a psychopathic personality lurking beneath the quiet, smiling eduated exterior? or is there much more to this sinister plot than meets the eyes? Where did he get his ammo, arsenal of weapons and military gear?
Incidentally, we had our resident incendiary loud mouth Rush Limbaugh, whose sole purpose to fame is spewing venomous rhetoric daily from the safe perch behind his radio microphone--say that this latest Batman movie was aimed at hurting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney because one of the vallainous character was named Bain.
Bain is suppose to be taken from Bain Capital, the venture capitalist company Romney headed and is now causing a mounting of trouble for him on the campaign trail.
Is there a connection? There is daily conservative poison irresponsibly pandered for million dollar contracts and partisan politics on talk radio and television shows with unstable anarchists, white supremacists and other crazies listening-- and this can be a dangerous, explosive mix.
Another controversy re-ignited from this tragedy is the control of assault weapons flooding our communities. Any amendment to the Second Amendment is vehemently opposed by pro-NRA, 2nd Amendment supporters who say they rights are not to be tampered with.
Those in favor of some gun control say the madness and violence needs immediate attention from Washington legislators and a degree of change at the federal level.
Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg speaking on Friday, both called for immediate action in curbing the onslaught of weapons they say were meant for combat only. Any gun capable of firing numerous rounds in rapid succession, is a danger to society.
Holmes acquired those assault rifles legally which begs the question: would some form of gun control, prevent these kinds of mass massacre from happening?
Investigators carried out Saturday a "controlled detonation" inside the booby-trapped apartment of movie theater shooting suspect James E. Holmes, the latest move in a three-step effort to enter the apartment.
The blast came after a policeman yelled, "Fire in the hole!" three times.
Fire officials were on standby, but there was no immediate indication of a fire.
Earlier, a trip wire and an incendiary device were both dealt with, Public Information Officer Sgt. Cassidee Carlson told reporters.
"This trip wire was set up to clearly detonate when somebody entered the apartment, and it was set up to kill that person," she said. "That could have been a police officer executing a search warrant. This is some serious stuff our team is dealing with."
Investigators were planning to use a robot to disarm trip wires linked to explosives, and then use that same robot to remotely remove improvised explosive devices, a law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the operation told CNN.
It was also possible one of the bomb experts on site would put on protective gear and go inside the apartment, the official added.
Carlson did not say whether that occurred.
It was not clear where all the explosives were located, though many have been seen in the living area with circuitry reaching into the kitchen, the official said.
One of the incendiary devices appears to be improvised napalm and others appear to be mixtures that, if combined with other materials, could cause an explosion, the official said.
Approximately 30 aerial shells are in the 850 square foot apartment, Carlson said. They will be placed on sand trucks and taken to a disposal site for controlled detonation, she said.
"During any of these phases, and as this day goes on, again, there may be controlled detonations," she said, adding that reverse 911 calls would alert the general public prior to any blasts.
Asked what timeline authorities were expecting to follow, she said, "There is no timeline. I can't give you an endtime. We're hoping to get in there within the next hour."
But, she added, "We have no idea how long any of this is going to take." Officials had been hoping to avoid detonations to limit any loss of evidence, she said.
"Jars of black powder" and what appear to be "liquid accelerants" attached to the explosive devices are also inside Apartment 10, another law enforcement official said. "He placed other chemicals to enhance fire/thermal effect of IEDs," the official added about Holmes' apartment.
"He has a level of expertise, not crude," the official said.
About 100 officials were called in to oversee the entrance into Apartment 10 at 1690 Paris Street.
Federal personnel flown here from out of state include bomb technicians from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Explosive Ordinance & Disposal specialists.
Police evacuated five buildings Friday, including the one where Holmes lived, after he told them he had rigged his apartment with explosives.
Shortly after police apprehended Holmes in the rear parking lot of the Century Aurora 16 movie complex, where dozens of people had been shot, he told them that he had rigged his apartment, Police Chief Daniel Oates said Friday.
After the shootings, police arrived at Holmes' apartment to find "techno-music" blaring from the bedroom, according to a law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The music was on a timer and apparently started once he left for the movie theater, said the source, who was not authorized to release details of the investigation to the media.
Oates said Friday that it could take days to work through the apartment safely. While authorities did not say how many residents were evacuated from nearby buildings, the number is estimated to be in the hundreds.
Authorities began Friday night to allow families in four of the five evacuated buildings to return to their residences to retrieve personal items, such as medication, identification cards and clothing.
A shelter was set up at Aurora Central High School for those forced from their apartments.
Bomb technicians executed a controlled detonation of a triggering device in the apartment of the suspect in Friday's mass shooting at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater.
The bomb crews were faced with deactivating an explosives-laden booby trap that had been set up in the home of James Holmes. Examination of the explosives by bomb experts from the FBI Lab in Quantico, Va., revealed that a trip wire (possibly fishing line) was set up to trigger a liquid container to mix with another, setting off the main charge of the device, which may be additional flammable liquids.
Also in the apartment were about 30 aerial shells (or fireworks) the size of softballs, black in color and made of mostly rubber. They are believed to be filled with smokeless powder. Depending on how the powder was packed, the devices could either detonate or just burn.
Police said the apartment was rigged to detonate on a presumed police entry when the suspect set up loud music to be playing, while he was on his way to the movie theater. First responders would then be sent to the apartment, on the opposite side of town where the gunman planned to wage his assault.
Having evacuated the apartment complex, police this morning were seen towing vehicles away to clear the immediate area. Bomb technicians on a fire truck's crane were seen maneuvering a triggering device through the broken window of the apartment.
Shortly afterwards, a sire sounded, and a muffled boom was heard.
If the explosive devices can be safely removed, they will be put into dump trucks filled with sand and transported to a remote area where they will be countercharged or burned.
If the apartment is rendered safe, the Denver FBI's Evidence Response Team will then carry out a search of Holmes' home.
Rendering the apartment safe for entry is an enormously dangerous mission. About 100 personnel are on the scene, including firefighters, ATF and FBI bomb technicians, and chemists to assess the risks of potential accelerants seen inside.
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