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Jose Gonzalez Carranza was baffled when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at his house on April 8, his attorney said. While he’d come to the U.S. illegally 15 years earlier, he’d been granted a reprieve from deportation after his wife, Army Pfc. Barbara Vieyra, was killed while serving in Afghanistan in 2010.

But Gonzalez, 30, suddenly found himself hauled away to Nogales, Mexico — and separated from his 12-year-old daughter, Evelyn Gonzalez Vieyra, who is a U.S. citizen.

“It didn’t make any sense,” said Ezequiel Hernandez, Gonzalez’s attorney, in an interview with The Washington Post. “If I was an ICE agent or a government attorney and I was told by my administration that I need to deport people, his would not be the first case to choose.”

By Monday evening, hours after the Arizona Republic first reported on his case, ICE abruptly reversed course and returned Gonzalez to Phoenix, Hernandez said. Gonzalez’s fate is now back in the hands of the immigration court, the attorney added.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The office of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) told the Republic that they were working with Hernandez and ICE to resolve the case.

Gonzalez illegally crossed into the U.S. from Veracruz, Mexico, in 2004, the Republic reported, and married Vieyra in 2007.

A first-generation American, Vieyra had dreamed of joining the U.S. armed forces since she was a girl helping her Mexican-born parents raise Jersey cows on a dairy farm outside Mesa, Ariz., according to the East Valley Tribune. One year after marrying Gonzalez, soon after Evelyn’s birth, she enlisted in the Army and became a military police officer, the Tribune reported. When she deployed to Afghanistan with the Fort Hood-based 720th Military Police Battalion, 89th Military Police Brigade, she told her sister the sacrifice of leaving Evelyn behind would be worthwhile.

“She always said, ‘I’ll be able to come back and it won’t be like I’ve missed her whole life. I’ll just have missed a part of her life but I’ll be able to give her a better life,’” Guadalupe, her sister, told the Republic at the time.

But she never returned. On Sept. 18, 2010, enemy fighters in the Konar province east of Kabul attacked her unit with rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devises, killing her. She was 22.

After her death, her husband was granted parole in place, an exemption under U.S. immigration law for “urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit” for the families of service members. Based on that ruling, Hernandez said, an immigration judge later canceled deportation proceedings against Gonzalez.

But in 2018, ICE refiled its deportation case for reasons that remain unclear, Hernandez said. A judge then ordered Gonzalez deported when he didn’t show up for a December hearing — but the orders to attend had been sent to the wrong address, the attorney said.

“We have evidence it went to the wrong address,” Hernandez said. “There were little errors throughout this case.”

When Hernandez learned about the deportation order, he filed a motion to reopen Gonzalez’s case, triggering an automatic stay until a judge could rule. The attorney said he provided evidence of the stay to ICE, which was holding Gonzalez in a correctional center outside Phoenix. But on Wednesday, ICE deported him to Nogales.

On Monday, the attorney alerted the Republic, which wrote a story that quickly churned up national outrage. “It’s the height of cruelty for ICE to deport the father of a child whose mother died while serving in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan,” Cecillia Wang, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Republic.

A few hours after the story posted online, Hernandez said an ICE official called asking to be put in touch with Gonzalez, who had been staying in a shelter for recently deported people in Nogales.

Soon after, he was brought across the border by Customs and Border Protection agents, taken to Tucson and then returned to Phoenix by around 7 p.m. on Monday, Hernandez said. The attorney said ICE did not explain to him their reason for bringing him back to the U.S.

Gonzalez hopes to see his daughter again soon, Hernandez said. “He’s back to his regular life, for now,” Hernandez said.

But an immigration judge will still have to rule on his petition to reopen his case. The attorney said he will argue that deporting Gonzalez would be unfair to a child who has already lost one parent.

“There is extreme and unusual hardship on this little girl,” he said. “Not every deportation includes a child whose mom was killed in Afghanistan.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/16/ice-deported-widow-soldier-killed-afghanistan-attorney-says/

People gather outside Nuss Truck & Equipment in Burnsville, Minn., on April 15 as President Trump arrives for an event to tout his 2017 tax law.

Susan Walsh/AP


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Susan Walsh/AP

People gather outside Nuss Truck & Equipment in Burnsville, Minn., on April 15 as President Trump arrives for an event to tout his 2017 tax law.

Susan Walsh/AP

When the vaunted Democratic blue wall stretching across the Upper Midwest crumbled in Republican Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential victory, Minnesota stood out on the map as a holdout.

Now President Trump sees the state as a personal challenge heading into the 2020 election, and his campaign is making it an early target.

No Republican presidential candidate has claimed the state’s 10 Electoral College votes since Richard Nixon in 1972 — the longest blue streak in the United States.

Trump acknowledged the Democratic hold on Minnesota during a quick stop there Monday to tout his signature tax law.

“This has been a very special state. It has been a rare victory for Republicans. And we almost won it,” Trump said during a visit to a trucking company in Burnsville, a suburb of Minneapolis. He said the result would have been different if he had come more often: “One more speech.”

Trump used the official White House event, which lasted just over an hour, to speak to local concerns. He addressed proposed mining and pipeline projects in the north, farmers’ anxieties in the vast agricultural parts of Minnesota and simmering tensions across the state over immigration. He told the friendly audience he would pursue a health care overhaul “after the election, assuming you elect Republicans.”

If the 2016 race is a baseline, Trump starts his effort to flip Minnesota in better shape than any Republican in memory.

Trump won 78 of the state’s 87 counties. But he still lost to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by just 1.5 percentage points. That’s in a state where considerably more third-party votes went to right-of-center alternatives — about 6 percent of the presidential votes cast — than those on the left.

Trump’s losing margin was closer than any presidential race in the state since 1984, when home-state Democratic nominee Walter Mondale edged Republican President Ronald Reagan by a few thousand votes. Minnesota and Washington, D.C., were the only places that kept Reagan from a clean sweep.

Minnesota Republican Party Chair Jennifer Carnahan said it all adds up to opportunity for Trump.

“We know that the president has strong support from across Minnesota. I think his support is even stronger today than when he ran in 2016,” she said. “The more times we can get him back here, the better.”

As the 2020 race ramps up, Minnesota is getting ready for its turn as a presidential battleground and all the candidate visits, ads and persuasion efforts that come with it.

Vince Beaudette, 72, lives in Carver County, which is south of the Twin Cities. He came to the president’s stop at Nuss Truck & Equipment and is all in for Trump — red Make America Great Again hat and all.

“The economy is going great. If Minnesotans understand the results that Trump has brought us. We’re all living a little better now. We’re all taking in more money, and many more of us are employed. Trump ought to win,” Beaudette said. “Can that message be delivered to Minnesotans? I’m not sure.”

Not only have GOP candidates fared poorly in Minnesota in recent presidential elections, but no Republican has won any statewide race for any Minnesota office since 2006.

So far there are no full-time Trump campaign staff members on the ground in Minnesota.

But Trump is showing he won’t wait until the closing days of the race to rally supporters in the state, as happened in 2016 when he stopped by just days ahead of the election.

He visited twice during the 2018 midterm campaign for raucous arena rallies. Two Republican congressional candidates whom he promoted — that and a super PAC aligned with Trump boosted with millions of dollars in spending — both won.

But two of Minnesota’s Republican congressmen lost amid an anti-Trump mood in their suburban districts.

Democrats are on guard.

“Absolutely I think he can win Minnesota,” said Ken Martin, chairman of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. “Do I think he will? I don’t think he will win Minnesota. Because we’re not going to take it for granted, and we’re going to be just as organized, if not more.”

Martin said that his base is energized and that the Trump visits over the past year only add to the intensity.

Trump is on defense in places like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Martin said Minnesota is a must-win for his party if Democrats expect to defeat the president.

“The reality is that there is no map for Democrats winning the presidency that does not include Minnesota being blue,” he said.

Dana Koletar of Minneapolis showed up to protest Trump’s latest visit. She’s upset about the president’s anti-immigrant language and that Trump has gone after her congresswoman, Democrat Ilhan Omar.

“I’m just very disturbed by the backlash against her as a Muslim Somali-American woman,” Koletar said. “I do think that’s part of the reason she’s undergoing more scrutiny.”

To Koletar, all the early talk about Trump’s ability to flip Minnesota is overblown.

“If you look at our 2018 elections here in Minnesota, look who won the statewide races. It was the Democrats. There definitely is Democratic support. I think it’s just a matter of turning out those voters.”

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/04/16/713674276/trump-begins-effort-to-flip-minnesota-which-was-a-democratic-holdout-in-2016

”Bernie Sanders believes the most critical mission we have before us is to defeat Donald Trump,” said Faiz Shakir, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager. “Any and all decisions over the coming year will emanate from that key goal.”

Or, as former Senator Claire McCaskill put it: “One thing we have now that we didn’t in ’16 is the uniting force of Trump. There will be tremendous pressure on Bernie and his followers to fall in line because of what Trump represents.”

But Mr. Sanders is also taking steps that signal he is committed for the duration of the race — and will strike back aggressively when he’s attacked. On Saturday his campaign sent a blistering letter to the Center for American Progress, a Clinton-aligned liberal think tank, accusing them of abetting Mr. Trump’s attacks, of playing a “destructive” role in Democratic politics, and of being beholden to “the corporate money” they receive. The letter came days after a website aligned with the center aired a video highlighting Mr. Sanders’s status as a millionaire.

[Read more: The blowup between the Center for American Progress and Mr. Sanders’s campaign reflects ideological divisions among Democrats.]

With other mainline party leaders, he is offering more honey than vinegar.

Last month, for example, he used his first trip to Iowa as a 2020 candidate to quietly meet with Jeff Link, a veteran party strategist, and Patty Judge, the former state agriculture secretary, to discuss rural policy and politics, according to a Democrat familiar with the meeting. Mr. Sanders’s campaign also reached out to Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers and a top Clinton ally in 2016, to have her join them at what they dubbed an “Ohio workers town hall” on Sunday.

“If anybody thinks Bernie Sanders is incapable of doing politics, they haven’t seen him in Congress for 30 years,” said Tad Devine, Mr. Sanders’s longtime strategist, who is not working for his campaign this year. “The guy is trying to win this time.”

But such outreach matters little to many Democrats, especially donors and party officials, who are growing more alarmed about Mr. Sanders’s candidacy.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/us/politics/bernie-sanders-democratic-party.html


House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters said in a statement that the potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes was a “very serious concern.” | Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Financial Services

House Democrats on Monday issued a subpoena to the German lender Deutsche Bank seeking information on President Donald Trump’s finances, a major escalation of their investigation into his business dealings.

In addition to the Deutsche Bank subpoena, House Democrats subpoenaed other banks — including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup — seeking information on Russian money laundering. The issuance of the subpoenas was first reported by The New York Times.

Story Continued Below

The House Intelligence and Financial Services committees, which authorized the subpoenas, were expected to issue additional subpoenas targeting Trump’s finances soon, Democratic aides said.

Democrats are ratcheting up their coordinated investigations into Trump’s business dealings as the Justice Department prepares to release findings from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe on Thursday.

“As part of our oversight authority and authorized investigation into allegations of potential foreign influence on the U.S. political process, the House Intelligence Committee today issued subpoenas to multiple financial institutions in coordination with the House Financial Services Committee, including a friendly subpoena to Deutsche Bank, which has been cooperative with the Committees,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the House Intelligence chairman. “We look forward to their continued cooperation and compliance.”

The subpoenas are the latest example of House Democrats‘ crossing the “red line“ Trump has drawn when it comes to investigators looking into his finances and business transactions. Trump‘s attorneys have already started fighting back, warning the accounting firm Mazars USA that it should not comply with a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoena seeking the president‘s financial records.

Deutsche Bank has long been a top target for Democrats. The bank lent Trump hundreds of millions of dollars over the years for property development, and it has also been under scrutiny for its role in Russian money laundering. Democrats have said they want to know whether Russia has had financial leverage over the president via Deutsche Bank and other loans.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee, said in a statement Monday that the potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes was a “very serious concern.”

“The Financial Services Committee is exploring these matters, including as they may involve the President and his associates, as thoroughly as possible pursuant to its oversight authority, and will follow the facts wherever they may lead us,” she said.

Republicans — as expected — lashed out at the Democratic subpoenas, calling them part of “partisan fishing expeditions“ designed to hurt Trump and the GOP.

“My colleagues across the aisle continue to politicize the banking industry and set out on partisan fishing expeditions,“ said Rep. Patrick McHenry (N.C.), the top Republican on the Financial Services Committee. “All while ignoring the issues the American people need our committee to be focused on. Republicans have repeatedly expressed our desire to work in a bipartisan manner, but today‘s actions seem driven solely by a political agenda.“

Other financial institutions had been expecting Democrats to seek further information about their relationships with Deutsche Bank, a representative of another bank said.

Deutsche Bank in a statement said that it was “in a productive dialogue with the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees.”

“We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorized investigations in a manner consistent with our legal obligations,” the bank said.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/15/democrats-subpoena-deutsche-bank-1277199

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/investing/premarket-stocks-trading/index.html

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London (CNN Business)The billionaires behind many of France’s top luxury brands have pledged €300 million ($339 million) to help reconstruct Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral following a devastating fire.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/16/business/francois-henri-pinault-bernard-arnault-notre-dame-donation/index.html

    At a Tax Day roundtable in Minnesota, President Trump commented on the fire which broke out Monday afternoon at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

    PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I’ve been in communication with France. They’re having a terrible, terrible fire that you probably saw — some of you have heard, some of you have not because you’ve been here — but I will tell you the fire they’re having at the Notre Dame cathedral is something like few people have witnessed. When we left, we had a whole group of your great representatives, and when we left [Air Force One] it was burning at a level that you rarely see a fire burn.


    It is one of the great treasures of the world, the greatest arts in the world. If you think about it, it might be greater than almost any museum in the world and it is burning very badly. It looks like it is burning to the ground. So, so, that puts a damper on what we’re about to say, to be honest, because that is beyond countries, it is beyond anything. That is part of our growing up, it is a part of our culture, it is part of our lives. That is a truly great cathedral, and I’ve been there, and I’ve seen it, and there is no cathedral, I think, like it. It is a terrible scene.


    And they think it was caused by — at this moment, they don’t know. But they think it was caused by renovation, and I hope that’s the reason. Renovation, what’s that all about?


    It is a terrible sight to behold.

    Source Article from https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2019/04/15/trump_on_notre_dame_one_of_the_greatest_treasures_in_the_world_is_burning_to_the_ground.html

    Several other banks also received subpoenas on Monday seeking records related to business the banks did with people and organizations in Russia and Eastern Europe. The identities of those individuals were not clear.

    The Deutsche Bank subpoena had been in the works for months, with congressional investigators negotiating the specific demands with the bank’s lawyers. Deutsche Bank had pushed for the subpoena’s scope to be narrowed, arguing that doing so would make it easier and faster for the bank to produce the documents, three of the people said.

    An investigation into Mr. Trump’s finances has been one of the highest priorities of Democrats since they gained control of the House of Representatives last fall. Another Democrat-controlled committee, the powerful Ways and Means Committee, has requested the personal and corporate tax returns of Mr. Trump, who did not release those documents during the 2016 campaign, breaking with a long tradition among presidential candidates.

    Mr. Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank has drawn the attention of Ms. Waters and Mr. Schiff, two California Democrats. The committees have hired experienced former federal prosecutors and Capitol Hill investigators to help with the investigation, and some committee aides have pushed to further expand the teams, arguing that they lack the resources to conduct a thorough but swift investigation.

    While Deutsche Bank has been cooperative, its lawyers have warned that they will have to notify the White House about their plans to hand over Trump-related materials, according to people familiar with the discussions. Investigators have braced for a court fight if the White House or the Trump Organization seek to block the bank’s cooperation.

    The congressional panels are not alone in investigating the relationship between Deutsche Bank and Mr. Trump. The New York attorney general, Letitia James, issued a subpoena to the German bank, and one other lender, last month seeking information about loans to Mr. Trump.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/15/business/deutsche-bank-trump-finances-congress.html

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    Updated 1:00 AM ET, Tue April 16, 2019

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    (CNN)The world watched on Monday as a fire engulfed the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, causing the collapse of the cathedral’s iconic spire and the destruction of its roof structure, which dated back to the 13th century.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/15/world/notre-dame-memories-trnd/index.html

      Bernie Sanders took the stage at a fiery Fox News town hall in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania on Monday, and sparks flew almost immediately, as Sanders defiantly refused to explain why he would not voluntarily pay the massive new 52-percent “wealth tax” that he advocated imposing on the nation’s richest individuals.

      “We’ll get through this together,” Sanders said at one point, as tensions flared.

      Sanders later admitted outright that “you’re going to pay more in taxes” if he became president. Just minutes before the town hall began, Sanders released ten years of his tax returns, which he acknowledged showed that he had been “fortunate” even as he pushed for a more progressive tax system.

      According to the returns, Sanders and his wife paid a 26 percent effective tax rate on $561,293 in income, and made more than $1 million in both 2016 and 2017.

      But pressed by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as to why he was holding onto his wealth rather than refusing deductions or writing a check to the Treasury Department, Sanders began laughing dismissively and, in an apparent non sequitur, asked why MacCallum didn’t donate her salary. (“I didn’t suggest a wealth tax,” MacCallum responded.)

      “Pfft, come on. I paid the taxes that I owe,” Sanders shot back. “And by the way, why don’t you get Donald Trump up here and ask him how much he pays in taxes? President Trump watches your network a little bit, right? Hey President Trump, my wife and I just released 10 years. Please do the same.”

      Asked whether Sanders’ success — and subsequent decision to hold onto his cash — wasn’t an implicit endorsement of the capitalist system he has repeatedly called dysfunctonal, Sanders rejected the notion out of hand.

      “When you wrote the book and made the money, isn’t that the definition of capitalism and the American dream?” Baier asked, referring to Sanders’ bestselling 2016 memoir “Our Revolution.”

      “No,” Sanders replied flatly, after a pregnant pause. “What we want is a country in which everyone has an opportunity. … A lot of people don’t have a college degree. A lot of people are not United States senators.”

      BERNIE LIGHTS INTO DEM THINKTANK HE SAYS IS ‘SMEARING’ PROGRESSIVES

      Sanders doubled down on his previous defenses of his wealth, which even some progressives have called hypocritical.

      “This year, we had $560,000 in income,” Sanders said. “In my and my wife’s case, I wrote a pretty good book. It was a bestseller, sold all over the world, and we made money. If anyone thinks I should apologize for writing a bestselling book, I’m sorry, I’m not gonna do it.”

      Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders addressing a rally in North Charleston, S.C., in March. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard, File)

      On whether he supported abortions that occur up to the moment of birth, Sanders retorted, “I think that happens very, very rarely, and I think this is being made into a political issue. At the end of the day, I thnk the decision over abortion belongs to a woman and her physcian, and not the government.”

      Sanders also said felons, including rapists and murderers, should be able to vote from prison. But he insisted he was not simply courting more potential Democrat voters.

      VIRGINIA DEM GOVERNOR SEEMINGLY ENDORSES INFANTICIDE; DEMS BLOCK ‘BORN ALIVE’ BILL TO PROTECT INFANTS THAT SURVIVE ABORTIONS

      The Tax Day town hall took place as Sanders emerged as the fundraising front-runner among Democrats, and sought to further distinguish himself from a crowded field of liberal candidates who have largely embraced his progressive proposals, from a sweeping ‘Medicare for All’ overhaul to a higher minimum wage and free public college education.

      “I think Trump is a dangerous president, but if all we do is focus on him, we lose,” Sanders said at the town hall.

      Separately, Sanders acknowledged that his proposed Medicare for All health care overhaul — which has also been embraced by other 2020 Democrat hopefuls, including Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren — would mean that many Americans would “pay more in taxes.”

      Some estimates put the total costs for the plan over 10 years at more than $32 trillion, and say it would necessitate historic tax hikes.

      Sanders began by deflecting when asked by Baier whether he was concerned about the rising national debt, saying it was “ironic” that Republicans weren’t instead attacking the president.

      “You’re talking to the wrong guy,” Sanders said. “We pay for what we’re proposing, unlike the President of the United States.”

      Sanders more substantively discussed a plan to impose a “speculaton tax” on Wall Street.

      “I am concerned about the debt. That’s a legitimate concern,” Sanders said. “But we pay for what we are proposing. In terms of Medicare for All, we are paying for that by eliminating as I said before, deductibles and premiums. We are going to save the average American family money.”

      When Baier polled the audience at the town hall — which was clearly supportive of Sanders throughout — most indicated they would support Sanders’ health care plan, despite currently having private insurance they would lose.

      Sanders also warned that climate change poses an existential threat, citing a recent United Nations report claiming that only 12 years remain to make significant changes in global carbon emissions to avert a climate catastrophe. The United Nations made the same prediction in 1989, falsely warning that the world then faced a 10-year deadline that has come and gone.

      On immigration, Sanders said we “don’t need to demonize immigrants” and proposed “building proper facilities right on the border” and enacting “comprehensive immigration reform.” But he said it was “not a real question” when MacCallum asked about the merits of Trump’s proposal to send illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities.

      The 77-year-old self-proclaimed ‘democratic socialist’ — the longest-serving Independent member of Congress in history — has also faced criticisms that he mght be too old to serve as president.

      SANDERS RELEASES TAX RETURNS — WHAT DO THEY SHOW?

      At the town hall, Sanders acknowledged it was a “fair question,” but said to applause there is “too much focus on individuals and not enough focus on the American people and what their needs are.”

      Over the weekend, Sanders sparred with progressive activist groups that pointed out that he has since largely dropped his criticisms of “millionaires and billionaires,” opting instead to single out “billionaires” only.

      Earlier Monday afternoon, Sanders previewed some of his messaging by asserting that President Trump’s “tax policies” will “raise taxes on millions of people.”

      In an article entitled “Face it: You (Probably) Got a Tax Cut,” the New York Times credited liberal messaging with confusing large swaths of the electorate into thinking that their taxes went up, when in fact most saw significant tax savings under Trump’s 2017 tax law.

      The town hall marked the Vermont senator’s first appearance on Fox News Channel since he agreed to be a guest on Baier’s show in December 2018. He also participated in a Fox News Channel town hall back in 2016 alongside his then-competitor Hillary Clinton.

      Sanders ended the town hall by thanking Fox News for providing him the opportunity.

      DNC Chair Tom Perez in April 2017. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images, File)

      “Not everybody thought I should come on this show,” Sanders said at one point. “Your network does not have a great deal of respect in my world, but I thought it was important to be here.”

      HOW BERNIE WENT FROM SOCIALIST GADFLY TO FRONTRUNNER

      Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Tom Perez has excluded Fox News from hosting a Democrat primary debate. Some congressional Democrats have called that decision inappropriate and unhelpful, and DNC leadership later said it had no objection to Sanders appearing at a Fox News town hall.

      Asked whether he felt that the DNC would seek to tip the scales against Sanders — as leaked emails showed it did in 2016 — Sanders was optimistic.

      “I think we have come a long way since then. We speak to the DNC every week,” Sanders told Baier and MacCallum. “And I think the process will be fair.”

      Since announcing his presidential bid in February, Sanders has hauled in a whopping $18.2 million in the first 41 days of his campaign. But, although Sanders had a fundraising edge over his rivals, Democrats generally haven’t raised as much cash as they’d hoped by this point. Many donors have been sitting on the sidelines to see how the contest unfolds, signaling a drawn-out primary battle ahead.

      The campaign among Democrats has come into greater focus as declared White House hopefuls reported their first-quarter fundraising totals. Early glimpses provided by nine of the declared candidates showed that Democrats were raising less money than they had in previous cycles and were coming up short against the campaign bank account Trump has been building.

      CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

      Democrats collectively raised about $68 million since January, according to the candidates who have already released their fundraising totals. That’s less than the $81 million Democrats raised during the same period in 2007, the last time the party had an open primary, according to data from the Federal Election Commission. And, it paled in comparison with the $30 million Trump raised during the first quarter.

      “There is no question that the numbers are not at the level that they were with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in 2008 by a long shot,” said Tom Nides, a Clinton adviser and longtime fundraiser. “Am I worried? No, I’m not worried. But I’m a little bit concerned.”

      Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

      Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bernie-sanders-takes-stage-at-fox-news-town-hall-after-emerging-as-apparent-dem-frontrunner

      President Trump escalated his attacks on a Muslim member of Congress and “Radical Left Democrats” on Monday ahead of a reelection campaign that is quickly taking shape around divisive messages centered on immigration and patriotism. 

      Speaking Monday at an event billed as a tax and economy roundtable, Trump told a suburban Minneapolis audience “how unfairly you’ve been treated as a state” when it comes to immigration, and he rattled off a litany of grudges against the current system: The loopholes are “horrible and foolish,” the visa lottery is “insane,” and the concept of asylum is “ridiculous.”

      “People come in, they read a line from a lawyer that a lawyer hands them out online,” Trump said at the event as he mimicked an asylum seeker reading from a piece of paper. “It’s a big con job. That’s what it is.”

      The afternoon remarks came hours after he took a direct shot at one of the state’s members of Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D) — whom Trump called “out of control” — as Omar continued to come under criticism for comments that critics view as dismissive of the tragedy of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

      The dueling Trumps on Tax Day highlighted a parallel dynamic at play ahead of his reelection bid: While the broader GOP apparatus is attempting to focus on the economy, the campaigner in chief is seizing on more confrontational messages that may appeal to the base but potentially turn off swing voters.

      “If they’re focused on expanding his popularity and the party’s popularity, they should be talking about the economy, and they should be talking about tax cuts,” said Tony Fratto, a former White House and Treasury Department spokesman during the George W. Bush administration. “Every time they choose to double down and talk about immigration, they lose an opportunity.” 

      The Trump campaign, the White House and the Republican National Committee were all following the same playbook Monday, the first Tax Day to reflect the full impact of the GOP’s 2017 tax cuts, with a messaging effort reminding voters that the law had saved most Americans money. 

      “American Workers Are Thriving Thanks To President Donald J. Trump’s Middle Class Tax Cuts,” the White House said in a news release Monday morning. That statement came about 30 minutes after another release titled “Secretary Mnuchin: ‘The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Is Working,’ ” which linked to a CNN opinion piece by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

      Meanwhile, officials at the National Republican Senatorial Committee released a colorful video set to peppy music that touted the benefits of the GOP tax law, while the group’s chairman, Sen. Todd C. Young (R-Ind.), co-wrote an op-ed that celebrated “higher wages, record economic optimism, record low unemployment” thanks to Republican policies. 

      Trump, on the other hand, fired off several morning tweets that veered far off topic.

      He began his day with a 6:29 a.m. tweet advising Boeing to “REBRAND” its troubled 737 Max planes, then followed that with a stream of tweets that included attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a demand for Congress to return to Washington to “FIX THE IMMIGRATION LAWS!” and a call to “INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS!” behind special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s report. 

      In one tweet, Trump accused Omar of making “anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements.” In another, he complained: “The Radical Left Democrats will never be satisfied with anything we give them. They will always Resist and Obstruct!”

      At one point, Trump posted a tweet saying he agreed with the singer Cher, who had said she didn’t support Los Angeles taking in thousands of Central American migrants while the city faced poverty and homelessness. 

      Later in Burnsville, Minn., Trump spent the better part of an hour promoting the economic gains prompted by the tax cuts while listening to several small-business owners tell him how the 2017 law had improved their paychecks and their bottom lines. 

      But then the president returned to one of his favorite topics. 

      “Congress has to get smart” on immigration, he said. “And honestly, when I say Congress, I can’t blame the Republicans. The Republicans want to do it. But you need the votes of the Democrats.” 

      The president added: “We can retake the House, I think, over this issue . . . As soon as we do, we’re going to get this straightened out.” 

      A number of GOP veterans of House campaigns disagreed that Trump could carry House Republicans to victory next fall on a hard-line immigration message.

      “As we saw in 2018, immigration will inflame both sides. Those folks will never be moved,” said Matt Gorman, who served as communications director for the House GOP campaign arm in the 2018 cycle. “However, in swing districts in Texas, Florida and California, that debate hurt us.” 

      But Trump aides say the president has a knack for driving key messages in unorthodox ways.

      Tim Murtaugh, the campaign’s communication director, said that “Trump’s political and communications instincts are always sharp, and the campaign follows his lead.” 

      “As the president shows, it is entirely possible to carry more than one message at a time. Immigration issues will always be key, as will be the booming economy,” he said. “The Russia hoax is also a frequent topic for the campaign, as we remind Americans that they were lied to for two years.

      Murtaugh added, “Like millions of Americans, the president found Rep. Omar’s comments on Jews and remarks belittling the 9/11 attacks to be offensive.”

      Other Republicans rationalized Trump’s use of 9/11 imagery by saying that Omar’s remarks from a March speech — in which she emphasized the discrimination that Muslims in the United States faced after the 2001 attacks, when “some people did something” — were deeply offensive. On Friday, Trump had tweeted a video that included footage of the burning twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, mixed with clips from Omar’s speech before the Council on American-Islamic Relations — which triggered an outcry from Democrats that he was politicizing the terrorist attacks.

      “I think what she did was absolutely disgraceful,” Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) said Monday. Though King said he himself tries to avoid using images of the attacks in political conversations, he added, “I think the president’s trying to make a point . . . in this case, I would allow it.” 

      Many Republicans have been frustrated by Trump’s unwillingness to drive a consistent message promoting the GOP tax cuts, both while the legislation was being written and after it was enacted into law. The legislation is still largely unpopular with the public, and only 17 percent of voters believed they got a tax cut, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released last week. 

      That runs counter to independent analyses, such as one from the conservative Tax Foundation, which found that more than 65 percent of taxpayers will have their tax liabilities reduced by at least $100. Just 5.5 percent of taxpayers will see a tax increase this year, according to the think tank, which used a report on the tax law produced by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. 

      Trump’s inability to focus on a single message — last year during a tax event, he threw his prepared remarks in the air, calling them “boring” — is a key reason some of his accomplishments haven’t gained traction with the public, said Chris Whipple, author of “The Gatekeepers,” a history of White House chiefs of staff. 

      “He can’t even focus on the few things that he’s accomplished,” Whipple said. “He goes for the jugular, he throws raw meat to the base. That’s his comfort zone. It’s not talking about accomplishments.”

      Still, some Republican allies said Trump’s willingness to depart from political orthodoxy keeps his 2020 Democratic opponents off-kilter and forces them to spend time responding to him rather than defining themselves. Many Democratic presidential candidates spent much of the past weekend figuring out how to respond to an earlier Trump tweet attacking Omar. 

      Sarah Dolan, executive director of the conservative super PAC America Rising, said Democratic presidential candidates will struggle to present a positive message as long as Trump is influencing the primary.

      “The other benefit for us is that each of them is trying to roll out positive policy initiatives or introduce themselves to voters, and instead they are having to deal with negative stories about them or negative stories about other candidates in the field and react,” said Dolan, whose group compiles opposition research on Democrats. “All of those things are helpful for us because that becomes the only thing that voters associate with them.”

      Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-focuses-on-divisive-messages-as-2020-reelection-bid-takes-shape/2019/04/15/423d9aa0-5f91-11e9-9ff2-abc984dc9eec_story.html

      President Donald Trump tweeted advice to Boeing on Monday about its 737 Max aircraft following two deadly crashes that has prompted airlines to ground the plane: “I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name.”

      Mr. Trump added, “No product has suffered like this one. But again, what the hell do I know?”

      Mr. Trump, who owned the Trump Shuttle airline from 1989 to 1992, has previously aired his views on the airline industry and Boeing’s woes via Twitter. Last month, he bemoaned the complexity of modern airplane technology after the second deadly crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8, which occurred five months after another plane of the same make crashed and left no survivors. 

      “Airplanes are becoming far too complex to fly,” the president tweeted in March. “Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT. I see it all the time in many products.”

      In the case of Monday’s tweet, Mr. Trump tried to downplay his marketing knowledge, writing, “What do I know about branding, maybe nothing (but I did become President!)”

      On Sunday, American Airlines said it will continue canceling all flights with Boeing 737 Max planes through Aug. 19. The airline said about 115 flights per day would be canceled. American had previously said it would suspend flights of 737 Max aircraft through June 5.

      Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-boeing-737-advice-rebrand-the-plane/

      House Democrats rallied behind Rep. Ilhan OmarIlhan OmarOmar says she has faced increase in death threats since Trump tweet Fox’s Wallace not ‘comfortable’ playing full 9/11 video tweeted by Trump Yemeni bodega owners call for New York Post boycott over Omar cover MORE (D-Minn.) on Monday as President TrumpDonald John TrumpOmar says she has faced increase in death threats since Trump tweet Trump rips into Pelosi after ‘puff piece’ ’60 Minutes’ interview Trump revived attacks on sanctuary cities to distract from Mueller report release: report MORE escalated his attacks suggesting the freshman lawmaker downplayed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

      It’s a change from past controversies involving Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. Fellow Democrats who rebuked her in recent weeks for comments viewed as anti-Semitic are now rushing to her defense.

      “There have been occasions when she’s made comments that she’s apologized for that were inartful or that were taken as anti-Semitic. This was certainly not one of them,” Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairwoman Karen BassKaren Ruth BassCongressional Black Caucus chairwoman commemorates Nipsey Hussle on House floor Forest Whitaker joins lawmakers to roll out new peace initiative The Hill’s 12:30 Report — Presented by Kidney Care Partners — Trump spars with NY Times over Mueller reporting MORE (D-Calif.) said Monday on a call with reporters.

      Rep. Marcia FudgeMarcia Louise FudgeCongressional Black Caucus faces tough decision on Harris, Booker Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee to step down as CBC Foundation chair amid lawsuit Reporter says to expect Capitol Hill to take action on North Carolina’s 9th District MORE (D-Ohio) also backed Omar, a fellow CBC member: “What she said was true: that after the attack on 9/11, Muslims were treated horribly in this country.”

      House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie ThompsonBennie Gordon ThompsonTop Dem: Trump’s 9/11 tweet a ‘simplistic’ attack Homeland Security chairman sees no way Trump’s idea to transfer migrants to sanctuary cities is legal Watchdog: Custodial staff alleged sexual harassment in lawmakers’ offices MORE (D-Miss.) said he has ordered a review of security in place for Omar in Washington and in her Minneapolis district. Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy Patricia D’Alesandro PelosiOmar says she has faced increase in death threats since Trump tweet Trump rips into Pelosi after ‘puff piece’ ’60 Minutes’ interview Trump, Pelosi to meet on bipartisan infrastructure deal MORE (D-Calif.) announced a day earlier that she spoke with the sergeant-at-arms to ensure U.S. Capitol Police are conducting a security assessment to protect Omar, her family and her staff.

      “He is really putting the congresswoman’s life at risk,” Thompson said of Trump.

      The CBC members’ remarks came after Trump blasted Pelosi in a tweet Monday morning for defending Omar, whom he characterized as “out of control.”

      “Before Nancy, who has lost all control of Congress and is getting nothing done, decides to defend her leader, Rep. Omar, she should look at the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements Omar has made. She is out of control, except for her control of Nancy!” Trump tweeted.

      Notably, however, Trump didn’t mention Omar during a roundtable discussion on the economy in Minnesota, just south of Omar’s district, later Monday.

      Omar, who fled violence in her native Somalia as a child and spent four years in a Kenyan refugee camp, sparked controversy late last week over March comments she delivered to the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, circulated across conservative media. Omar condemned people who blamed all Muslims for the 9/11 attacks based on the actions of a few extremists.

      “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” she said.

      Trump drew more attention to the issue on Friday with a tweet highlighting parts of her comments along with video depicting the 9/11 attacks. Omar said in a statement on Sunday that she’s faced a spike in death threats, including many directly referencing the video posted by Trump.

      By contrast, previous controversies involving Omar drew bipartisan backlash.

      In February, Democratic leaders urged Omar to apologize after she suggested that U.S. lawmakers defending Israel were motivated by money. And last month, the House adopted a resolution broadly condemning hate after Omar questioned “the political influence in this country that says it is OK to push for allegiance to a foreign country” in reference to the pro-Israel lobby.

      House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold NadlerJerrold (Jerry) Lewis NadlerNadler wants ‘the boss of everybody’ Stephen Miller to testify before Congress Giuliani slams Nadler for ‘diarrhea of the mouth,’ ‘lack of judiciousness’ Grand jury material becomes key battle-line in Mueller report fight MORE (D-N.Y.) has been among the most outspoken Jewish Democrats to publicly call out Omar for her criticism of Israel. But Nadler, who represents the part of Manhattan where the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers occurred, notably defended Omar this time.

      “She was talking about discrimination against Muslim Americans. And she just said that, after that happened, it was used as an excuse for lots of discrimination and for withdrawal of civil liberties,” Nadler said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I have had some problems with some of her other remarks, but not with that one.”

      While Democrats have overwhelmingly rallied behind Omar, some of her closest allies have complained that Democratic leaders were slow to respond. Immediately following Trump’s tweet on Friday, Rep. Rashida TlaibRashida Harbi TlaibOmar says she has faced increase in death threats since Trump tweet Yemeni bodega owners call for New York Post boycott over Omar cover Trump escalates Omar controversy MORE (D-Mich.), another Muslim freshman, urged all Democrats to condemn the president’s message.

      “No more silence, with NY Post and now Trump taking Ilhan’s words out of context to incite violence toward her, it’s time for more Dems to speak up,” she tweeted.

      “They put us in photos when they want to show our party is diverse. However, when we ask to be at the table, or speak up about issues that impact who we are, what we fight for & why we ran in the first place, we are ignored. To truly honor our diversity is to never silence us,” Tlaib wrote in another tweet on Saturday.

      Pelosi, who was traveling in Europe over the weekend, initially released a statement on Saturday condemning the president’s 9/11 tweet without mentioning Omar by name, saying that “it is wrong for the President, as Commander-in-Chief, to fan the flames to make anyone less safe.”

      Pelosi went further on Sunday and said, “The president’s words weigh a ton, and his hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger.”

      Within a Democratic Party racing to Omar’s defense, Sen. Kirsten GillibrandKirsten Elizabeth GillibrandDemocratic proposals to overhaul health care: A 2020 primer Gillibrand campaign links low fundraising to Al Franken backlash: memo Trump escalates Omar controversy MORE was a notable outlier. While the New York Democrat, who’s running for the White House in 2020, characterized Trump’s attacks on Omar as “dangerous” and “disgusting,” she also seemed to suggest Omar had minimized the 9/11 attacks.

      “As a Senator who represents 9/11 victims, I can’t accept any minimizing of that pain,” Gillibrand tweeted on Saturday.

      Other Democrats, however, were quick to reject the notion that the party is divided in its response to the latest Omar controversy.

      “There may be one or two that aren’t standing with us, but don’t make it seem as though we are a house divided,” said Fudge, a former CBC chairwoman. “We are standing with her.”

      Fudge, who mulled challenging Pelosi for Speaker late last year, also dismissed the idea that Democratic leaders haven’t been forceful enough.

      “I think that the Speaker has been strong,” she said.

      Democrats have repeatedly accused Trump of inciting racial divisions across the country, particularly on hot-button issues related to immigration and refugee policies. In rushing to Omar’s defense this week, they’re amplifying the importance of sticking together to combat the president’s hard-line rhetoric.

      “Since Ilhan came to national attention, and throughout her tenure in Congress, she has been the target of these right-wing … extremists. And she continues to stand up for her beliefs everyday — for people of color, for refugees, for her constituents, for Muslims,” Rep. André Carson (D-Ind.) said. “And that’s why we’re standing up for her.”

      Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/house/439004-dems-rally-behind-omar-as-trump-escalates-attacks

      A federal judge on Monday ordered the release of previously sealed documents filed in the case against Julian Assange, offering up new details about the U.S. government’s allegations against the WikiLeaks founder.

      The original affidavit and criminal complaint were made public in a Virginia federal court for the first time since they were filed in 2017, and they include chat logs between Assange and former U.S. intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

      Assange was arrested last week in London at the request of U.S. authorities, after the Ecuadorian government decided to stop allowing Assange to remain in their U.K. embassy. The Justice Department later unsealed its indictment against the WikiLeaks founder.

      The U.S. is alleging that Assange sought to help Manning crack a password in order to access a Defense Department network where classified information was stored. They point to chat logs allegedly documenting communication between the two individuals as evidence of the conspiracy.

      The affidavit released Monday states that U.S. authorities were able to identify Assange as the person Manning was communicating with through hints he dropped during the chats.

      For example, the individual wrote in March 2010 that he enjoyed debates and “[j]ust finished one on the IMMI, and crushed some wretch from the journalists union.”

      IMMI referred to the Icelandic Modem Media Initiative, a legislative proposal under consideration in Iceland at the time. Assange at that time had recently participated in an event at the University of Iceland that included discussion of the IMMI, according to the court filing.

      The affidavit also states the the individual “appeared to have extensive knowledge of WikiLeaks’ day-to-day operations, including knowledge of submissions of information to the organization, as well as of financial matters.”

      And the person Manning was communicating with said in late March 2010 that they would be traveling to Norway for an investigative journalism conference; Assange spoke at such an event in Norway at that time, according to the filing.

      The affidavit states that Manning also believed she was communicating with Assange, but that “it took me four months to confirm that the person i was communicating was in fact assange.”

      The document also details WikiLeaks’s release of secret documents obtained by Manning, with the two discussing how to crack a password.

      But it notes that “it remains unknown whether Manning and Assange were successful in cracking the password,” related to the conspiracy charge Assange is currently facing.

      “Investigators have not recovered a response by Manning to Assange’s question, and there is no other evidence as to what Assange did, if anything, with respect to the password,” the document states.

      Manning was convicted in 2013 on multiple counts, including violations of the Espionage Act and copying and disseminating classified military field reports. She allegedly downloaded four almost complete databases from different U.S. agencies that included sensitive information about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and Guantánamo Bay operations, as well as other State Department cables.

      Manning served nearly seven years in prison before former President Obama commuted her sentence.

       

      Assange Complaint by M Mali on Scribd

       

      Assange Affidavit by M Mali on Scribd

      Source Article from https://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity/438983-unsealed-docs-reveal-new-details-in-case-against-assange

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      Washington (CNN)The Interior Department’s Inspector General has opened an investigation into Secretary David Bernhardt’s potential conflicts of interest, just four days after the Senate confirmed him to the job.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/15/politics/bernhardt-interior-ig-investigation/index.html

      France is a great nation and the French a glorious people. Notre Dame Cathedral speaks to that: Even while burning, it represents France’s majestic culture and history. It was mostly completed just two years after the Mongol annihilation of Baghdad and 545 years before Napoleon’s great victory of Austerlitz.

      When rebuilt, Notre Dame will once again represent abundant French pride and resilience. America should play a part in that rebuilding. It will likely be expensive, perhaps reaching into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Still, France is our oldest ally. It is the ally that made George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams our nation’s fathers, rather than traitors who died on the gallows at the hands of British rulers.

      Now, France and Notre Dame deserve our help.

      [Related: Trump says Notre Dame Cathedral fire a ‘terrible sight to behold’]

      In service of our shared history and deep friendship, President Trump should consult with French President Emmanuel Macron. He should then ask Congress to authorize a grant to France worth 17.83% of Notre Dame’s total reconstruction costs. That funding would serve two purposes: offering tangible solidarity to France and making that solidarity a partner to our continuing history. (1783 was the year the Treaty of Paris was signed and Great Britain recognized the independence of the United States.)

      This isn’t only about symbolism, however.

      Mutual interest demands that France and America face the rest of the 21st century together as allies. Helping France return Notre Dame to glory will represent something special but simple: America’s clear intent that no hardship or fire will ever destroy our “fraternité.”

      That symbol would mean something crucial for the U.S. and France: Together, our best days continue to lie ahead.

      Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/the-us-should-pay-17-83-percent-of-notre-dames-reconstruction-costs

      When Attorney General Bill Barr testified last week that, yes, “spying did occur” in the government’s Trump-Russia investigation and that spying on a political campaign is a “big deal,” the Democrats were apoplectic. How could he dare say such a thing? The saintly James Comey went even further. He told an audience that he didn’t even know what spying meant. No, siree, he had no idea.

      Barr’s candor is what Michael Kinsley famously called a “Washington gaffe,” where the naked truth somehow slips out. Naturally, it set off a firestorm.

      Democrats demanded an immediate retraction but got only an anodyne rewording. Use a synonym and call it “surveillance.” The real question, Barr explained, was not whether there was spying—there obviously was—but whether it was legally justified. That is precisely what he intends to find out, he told Congress. He will also find out if the spymasters lied to Congress, about which he has now received criminal referrals.

      The Democrats’ ferocious pushback confirms the gravity of the issue. Their fears are well-founded. The Obama administration politicized the Department of Justice, FBI, and intelligence agencies, and a serious investigation is very likely to find criminal wrong-doing. The response of top Democrats is to smear Barr as a partisan hack.

      The mainstream media, predictably, adopted the Democratic perspective, even in their “hard news” coverage. Take the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, which used a slick verb and quotation marks to signal its skepticism. Its headline: “Barr Aligns with Trump on ‘Spying.’” CNN went further: “Barr obliterates honest broker persona with ‘spying’ comment.” Those sentiments are similar to Nancy Pelosi’s: “I don’t trust Barr.” Later, she added, “How very, very dismaying and disappointing that the chief law enforcement officer of our country is going off the rails.”

      Republicans, by contrast, were delighted by Barr’s comments. They were even more pleased that he intends to investigate what happened, who authorized it, and on what basis. He and Inspector General Michael Horowitz also want to know who leaked information about these on-going investigations, a felony in its own right.

      For Republicans, the attorney general’s testimony merely confirmed the obvious, what Trump himself has said for two years and what subsequent testimony and leaks make clear. For them, it was beyond dispute that the FBI, DoJ, and intelligence agencies had conducted a multi-pronged effort to spy on the Trump campaign and the newly elected president. Their questions have always been:

      When did the investigations start, and on what basis?

      Did U.S. intelligence agencies use their resources to try and entrap people associated with the Trump campaign? Did they or the FBI try to plant “human sources” inside the campaign itself?

      Were warrants to spy on an American citizen obtained honestly?

      How, exactly, did a counter-intelligence operation morph into a criminal investigation?

      If law enforcement and intelligence agencies believed the Russians were trying to infiltrate the Trump campaign, why did they choose not to brief Trump himself, so he could work with them to stop it?

      How high up in Loretta Lynch’s DoJ and the Obama White House did knowledge of these surveillance operations go? Did the White House ultimately control these operations?

      Republicans have related questions about the slapdash investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails, which they see as a whitewash. In fact, they see the Clinton and Trump investigations as evil twins, one to clear the candidate they liked, the other to destroy the candidate they loathed. In short, they see Dirty Cops and Dirty Spymasters, who stepped across a bright line to interfere in our country’s domestic politics. That is a constitutional abomination.

      What is so striking is not just the starkly different partisan views of Barr’s testimony and, worse, his integrity. After all, that chasm is now the defining characteristic of American political life. What is striking—and truly disturbing—is how each side thinks the other’s views are so obviously wrong that they must be corrupt and dishonest, explicable only by “bad faith” and malevolent intentions.

      We saw just such a division during the O.J. Simpson trial, where the fault line was race. When O.J. was tried for double homicide in the mid-1990s, only 22 percent of African Americans thought he was guilty, according to Washington Post-ABC News surveys. The number for whites was three times higher. When the verdict was announced, there was open celebration in black communities, open disbelief in white ones. Far more blacks were convinced O.J. was the victim of dirty cops and a biased justice system, something they understood from personal experience.

      Over time, though, views changed. Immediately after the trial, four out of five whites became convinced of Simpson’s guilt, less than one in five blacks. Since then, numbers among whites have remained roughly the same, but black opinions have changed dramatically. By 1997, 31 percent of blacks said he was guilty; by 2007, that number had risen to 45 percent. By 2015, 57 percent of black respondents said O.J. Simpson was guilty. That number is fairly close to white responses during the trial itself and vastly different from black responses at the time. Opinions can change when the heat is turned off.

      In today’s Washington, however, the burners are turned on full blast. Republicans believe James Comey’s FBI and Loretta Lynch’s DoJ were led by dirty cops. The Democrats think the same thing about Donald Trump and his political appointees, including the attorney general. Several leading Democrats are going on TV and proclaiming Trump conspired with the Russians to win the White House.

      Evidence? We don’t need no stinkin’ evidence. They must not, since Mueller’s intensive investigation did not indict a single American, much less a member of the Trump campaign, for colluding with the Russians. Mueller’s bottom line, as quoted by Barr, is that the Russians did meddle in the 2016 election but there was no collusion, cooperation, or coordination with the Trump campaign.

      These partisan divisions will only harden as the presidential race heats up. They may fade in years to come, as they did after the O.J. trial, but they rend our democracy now.

      These accusations of bad faith raise another troubling question: In this hyper-partisan environment, will both parties accept the evidence Barr and Horowitz find? If they do not, if Democrats continue to say everything is the malign work of partisan hacks, then, Lord help us, we’re in for another special counsel.

      Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he is founding director of PIPES, the Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security. He can be reached at charles.lipson@gmail.com.

      Source Article from https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/04/15/bill_barr_dirty_cops_and_the_oj_simpson_trial_140053.html

      April 15 at 1:26 PM

      The president of Ecuador has accused Julian Assange of using its embassy in London as a “center for spying.”

      In an interview with the Guardian, Lenín Moreno expressed frustration with the WikiLeaks founder, who had been provided asylum by Ecuador since 2012. On Thursday, the country revoked that asylum, leading to Assange’s arrest by British police on a U.S. hacking charge. This follows Moreno’s initial public address the same day, which explained that Assange was being kicked out for his behavior and for violating the terms of his asylum.

      “We cannot allow our house, the house that opened its doors, to become a center for spying,” Moreno told the Guardian. “This activity violates asylum conditions. Our decision is not arbitrary but is based on international law.”

      The allegations appear to stem in part from a batch of leaked personal photos of Moreno and his family that appeared last month on an anonymous website, while the president was in the midst of a political battle at home. Moreno blamed WikiLeaks for the release of the photos, the New York Times reported.

      Moreno also cited WikiLeaks’ dump of a tranche of Vatican documents in January.

      A set of anonymous documents known as the INA Papers also was released this year, the Daily Beast reports, and alleged that Moreno benefited from a corrupt deal with a Chinese firm. WikiLeaks has denied involvement with the anonymous site or the hacking, but the anti-secrecy group did direct its followers to the documents in a March 25 tweet that said a corruption investigation had been opened into Moreno’s conduct.

      “Any attempt to destabilize is a reprehensible act for Ecuador, because we are a sovereign nation and respectful of the politics of each country,” he told the Guardian. Before evicting Assange, Moreno said he sought assurances from Britain that Assange would not “suffer torture, ill treatment or the death penalty” were he to be taken into custody or extradited to another country.

      He also claimed that Assange had taxed his hosts’ patience. Moreno said he “mistreated our officials in the Ecuadoran embassy in London” and that his “improper hygienic behavior” affected the climate at the diplomatic outpost.

      Assange’s attorney, Jennifer Robinson, said in an interview on Sky News that Moreno’s claims were “not true.”

      “Ecuador has been making some pretty outrageous allegations over the past few days to justify what was an unlawful and extraordinary act in allowing British police to come inside an embassy,” she said.

      Robinson had previously called her client’s arrest “a dangerous precedent for all news media.”

      Moreno’s predecessor, Rafael Correa, called the decision to release Assange to authorities a “crime that humanity will never forget.” Correa had granted Assange asylum in 2012.

      Assange has been charged by U.S. prosecutors on suspicion of conspiring with Chelsea Manning to obtain secret military and diplomatic documents, The Washington Post reported last week. However, Assange’s extradition to the United States could take years.

      It’s the latest chapter in a nearly decade-long legal saga for Assange. He brought himself and WikiLeaks to prominence in 2010, when the organization published leaks from Manning, who was convicted in 2013 for the leaks.

      But that same year, Swedish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Assange over two allegations of sexual assault, which he has always denied (Swedish authorities later dropped the investigations). Assange traveled to Britain, where a court ruled in 2012 to extradite him to Sweden. But he jumped bail and entered the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, where he was granted asylum later that year.

      He had been confined to the embassy until his arrest last week.

      Read more:

      The mystery of Julian Assange’s cat: Where will it go? What does it know?

      Will Julian Assange be extradited to the United States?

      Julian Assange has been charged, prosecutors reveal inadvertently in court filing

      Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/04/15/ecuadors-president-alleges-assange-used-london-embassy-center-spying/

      The Chinese woman accused of lying to briefly gain admission into President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club last month was denied bail Monday by a federal judge, who says there is an “extreme risk of flight” if she were to be set free.

      Yujing Zhang, appearing in a West Palm Beach court dressed in a blue jumpsuit with both her wrists and ankles shackled, also pleaded not guilty to federal charges of lying to federal agents and illegal entering.

      Federal Magistrate Judge William Matthewman ultimately refused to set bail for the 33-year-old, saying there is an “extreme risk of flight” if she were released. The U.S. doesn’t have an extradition treaty with China.

      Matthewman remarked that “it appears to the court that Ms. Zhang was up to something nefarious” — a reference to the various electronics she was found to be carrying and that she left in her hotel room. Zhang, however, has not been charged with espionage.

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      Zhang was arrested March 30 after Secret Service agents say she gained admission to Mar-a-Lago by falsely telling a checkpoint guard she was a member.

      The agents say she told a clerk inside she was there for a nonexistent Chinese American event.

      The Associated Press contributed to this report.

      Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/chinese-woman-arrested-at-mar-a-lago-is-denied-bail

      Former Massachusetts Gov. William “Bill” Weld announced Monday he is running against President Trump for the Republican nomination for president.

      Weld revealed that he formed a presidential exploratory committee back in February, but Monday’s announcement makes his intra-party challenge official.

      “In these times of great political strife, when both major parties are entrenched in their ‘win at all cost’ battles, the voices of the American people are being ignored and our nation is suffering,” Weld said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner. “ … It is time to return to the principles of Lincoln – equality, dignity, and opportunity for all.”

      He added: “There is no greater cause on earth than to preserve what truly makes America great.”

      Weld, 73, is the first major Republican challenger to Trump’s presidency. He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve as a U.S. attorney and served in that role from 1981 to 1986. Weld served for the following two years as the U.S. assistant attorney general for the criminal division under Reagan.

      Weld was later elected to two terms as the Republican governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1991 to 1997. He was reelected by the largest margin in the state’s history in the 1994 election.

      His 2020 campaign highlighted how when he was governor, Weld was fiscally conservative, cutting taxes 21 times, and was an early proponent of LGBT rights.

      This is not Weld’s first foray into national politics. He was former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson’s running mate on the Libertarian ticket during the 2016 presidential election.

      As it became clear that Johnson was not likely to make much of a dent in the race between Trump and Democratic competitor Hillary Clinton, Weld began to draw comparisons between the two major candidates, and despite not technically endorsing Clinton, spoke in favor of her over Trump.

      The Johnson-Weld ticket ended up taking in 3.8% of the national vote — the largest share of votes the Libertarian Party has ever received in a presidential election.

      Weld changed his political affiliation back to the Republican Party in February, around the time he decided to start a presidential exploratory committee. Weld will face an uphill battle to unseat Trump, who holds a high approval rating among his Republican base.

      Despite the odds, Republicans like former Florida governor and 2016 Trump competitor Jeb Bush have urged a Republican primary challenge against Trump in 2020. There has also been speculation that former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a moderate Republican, could run.

      Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s name has also been tossed around as a potential primary challenge.

      Along with Monday’s announcement, Weld’s campaign released a launch video lauding his accomplishments as governor and contrasting his tenure with controversial remarks the president has made, including a recording of the 2006 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump said he could grab women “by the pussy.”

      Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/bill-weld-joins-2020-race-as-gop-challenger-to-trump