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(CNN)On Friday, the White House announced that communications adviser Bill Shine was leaving — shuttled off to Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign for an amorphous job that sources familiar with the move acknowledged was not part of any sort of broader, planned strategy related to the President’s reelection bid.

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    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/08/politics/bill-shine-donald-trump-2020/index.html

    President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump paid their respects to the 23 victims of deadly tornadoes that ripped through eastern Alabama this week, holding hands as they viewed the white crosses that had been erected in their memory.

    “We saw things you wouldn’t believe,” Trump said after viewing some of the damage and meeting some residents who’d lost loved ones and their homes.

    “What they went through is incredible. One woman lost 10 people in her family,” Trump said.

    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/president-trump-first-lady-tour-alabama-tornado-damage-n981266

    Illegitimate occupier of the Venezuelan presidency Nicolas Maduro likes to tweet almost as much as President Trump. But on Friday, Maduro’s Twitter feed went peak Maduro — which is to say, one tweet short of a full mental breakdown.

    Maduro’s particular gripe was the breakdown of his nation’s electricity network. The immediate cause of the collapse is a mechanical failure at a major hydroelectric plant which supplies Caracas. The ultimate cause of the power failure is the fact that, like any good socialist, Maduro’s idiotic government has spent the past 10 years blowing its oil wealth on corruption and Cuban intelligence officers, rather than investing in basic utilities. Now, Maduro is reaping the whirlwind.

    Of course, Maduro can’t admit that. To do so would be to prove his failing to the population in a way that might provoke a final uprising against him. Instead, Maduro has been declaring his brave resistance to the latest act of Yankee aggression: an “electric war.” First up, the mad Venezuelan leader declared that:

    Then came the call for continued loyalty in face of failure.

    It’s quite pathetic.

    Still, the real takeaway here is the binding of physical failure to psychological fear. In the darkness born of his misgovernance, Maduro knows the ides of March are beckoning. Aside from the usual suspects of Cuba, China, and Russia, and an appeasing Germany, Maduro is isolated and under escalating pressure.

    This darkness thus has two deeper meanings.

    For Venezuela’s people, it’s the old adage, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” For Maduro, it’s the motto of the 160th Nighstalkers: ” Death waits in the darkness.”

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/maduro-nearly-has-a-mental-breakdown-on-twitter

    While Judge TS Ellis read the sentence, there was no visible reaction from Paul Manafort or his wife, Kathleen, who was watching in the gallery.

    After the hearing ended, Manafort was wheeled out of the room. He looked directly at his wife. 

    Manafort’s eyes appeared bloodshot. 

    After the hearing ended, Manafort’s wife stayed in her seat for several minutes. Her friends huddled around her, with one man kneeling down beside her.

    She was the last person in the room to stand up out of her seat — including court staff, reporters, prosecutors, and members of the public. 

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/paul-manafort-sentencing/index.html

    CLOSE

    President Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, visited Beauregard, Alabama Friday to survey the damage left after a powerful tornado roared through the town last Sunday. While there, they visited a row of 23 crosses, one for each person killed. (March 8)
    AP

    BEAUREGARD, Ala. – President Donald Trump toured tornado-ravaged Alabama on Friday nearly a week after storms ripped through a small town there, killing 23 people.

    The president touched down Friday in Lee County near where a massive tornado spun winds as high as 170 mph on Sunday. Trump had signed a major disaster declaration for the county earlier this week, freeing federal assistance to the region. 

    “The people of Alabama, they got hit very hard by the tornadoes,” Trump said Friday.

    Trump and first lady Melania Trump viewed the damage caused by the storm as they flew aboard Marine One. The president was expected to meet victims in Opelika, Alabama, and receive a briefing from the Lee County Emergency Management Agency.

    As his motorcade wound through the county, Trump passed through entire neighborhoods that were destroyed, passing by empty lots with broken pieces of metal, wood and what appeared to be scattered clothing. 

    “I saw this. And it’s hard to believe,” Trump said. “You saw things that you wouldn’t believe.”

    Trump visited with the family of Sheila Creech and Marshall Lynn Grimes, who were killed in the storm. Trump hugged their survivors, and one member of the family showed him Grimes’s motorcycle vest and Bible.

    Earlier, Conner Moulton, 7, carefully crafted each marker stroke as he signed a short message and on a banner thanking the president for coming to Beauregard. 

    “I wrote the ‘Beauregard Strong’ and thank you for your help,” the second-grader said. “Then I put my first name and my last name. He’s helping the people who got affected and lost their homes in the tornado.”

    Lana Ledbetter, a Beauregard resident who did not have any home damage but knew several people who did, came to the high school to put her mark upon the banner. 

    “It’s just amazing that he’s showing his support for our little tiny community. We’re just very thankful for the funding and just for him taking his time to come and show that support for us.” 

    Trump was accompanied on his Air Force One flight to Georgia by members of the state’s congressional delegation, including Sen. Richard Shelby and Rep. Mike Rogers, both Republicans.

    Trump has made several trips to visit with the victims of natural disasters in recent months, including to California after last year’s wildfires and to the Carolinas following Hurricane Florence.

    Trump tweeted about the storms on Monday, vowing that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would provide “A plus treatment” to the state.

    Contributing: The Montgomery Advertiser

    More: As Trump visits tornado victims in Alabama, is he playing politics with disaster relief?

    More: Alabama tornado victims revealed; area braces for weekend storms – and possible severe weather

    More: 6-year-old boy is youngest victim of Alabama tornado that left 23 dead

     

     

     

     

    Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/08/alabama-tornado-president-trump-surveys-damage-deadly-storm/3081656002/

    That Michael Cohen is proudly declaring he doesn’t want a pardon from federal prison time doesn’t make him the hero he thinks it does.

    The only reason anyone would say that, as Cohen did during his embarrassing testimony in front of Congress last week, is that he knew a pardon from President Trump was never in the cards. And that’s what the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

    Cohen’s current attorney, Lanny Davis, confirmed to the Journal that after Cohen’s New York office was raided by the FBI last spring, he directed his then-lawyer Stephen Ryan to consult Trump’s attorneys about a possible pardon, should he face charges.

    The report contradicts Cohen’s congressional testimony, wherein he boasted that he “never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump.”

    It’s was a dramatic moment in American history only paralleled by George Washington as a child vowing that he could not tell a lie.

    Cohen could have stopped at the “I never asked for” and it would have been sufficient, if not truthful. But he had to go the extra mile and express his dedication to imprisonment.

    The Journal’s report says that lawyers for Trump all rebuffed Cohen’s initial overture for a pardon, though one of the lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, didn’t completely shut the door on the possibility of it in the future.

    Cohen wanted a pardon and when it wasn’t offered, he decided he’d say on national television that he didn’t want it anyway. Davis, his lawyer, said as far back as mid-December in an interview on CBS that Cohen “wouldn’t take a pardon from Donald Trump if it was handed to him.” Here are other things Cohen will under no circumstance accept from Donald Trump: $1 billion dollars, a chest of diamonds, and a hug.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/michael-cohen-cant-wait-for-prison-so-hes-rejecting-pardons-he-was-never-offered

    International Women’s Day has celebrated the economic, cultural, political and social achievements of women for more than 100 years. From Greta Thunberg becoming an international sensation with her campaign for climate change last year to Chloe Kim snowboarding loops around Olympic records at the PyeongChang Games in 2018, women across the globe have been challenging stereotypes and the status quo.

    The day isn’t simply a celebration — it’s a call to action for everyone to continue to push for complete gender equality.

    1. What is its history?

    The early 20th century was a time when women were becoming more active in their protests against oppression and gender inequality, leading marches and campaigns to demand equal rights. According to the official International Women’s Day website, during the International Conference of Working Women in 1910, Clara Zetkin of Germany’s Social Democratic Party proposed that a day be set aside every year across the world to celebrate women and reinforce their demands. The proposal was ultimately accepted and put into practice, starting in Germany and Europe and spreading across the globe over the years.

    42 years, 7 months and 16 days

    … the length of time between when a constitutional amendment granting a woman’s right to vote was introduced in the U.S. Congress (Jan. 10, 1878) and when it was finally ratified (Aug. 26, 1920).

    Feminist activist Gloria Steinem joins marchers before the International Women’s Day March in New York in 1975.Bettmann Archive via Getty Images file

    2. When is it observed?

    The first International Women’s Day was observed March 8, 1914. Even though International Women’s Day was decided upon in 1910, the tradition of celebrating it on March 8 took a few more years to decide upon.

    In 1975, the United Nations announced that International Women’s Day would be an official day of observance for all of its member countries. Years later, the world body also instituted annual themes to promote the celebration of the day, such as “Celebrating the Past, Planning for the Future” and “World Free of Violence Against Women.”

    47%

    … of the U.S. workforce is made up of women.

    3. What is the 2019 theme?

    This year’s theme is #BalanceforBetter, meant to promote a future in which both men and women are equal in professional status, media perception, the positions they hold in government and more. Whether it’s men supporting their female coworkers or women pushing into the STEM field, everyone has a part in promoting #BalanceforBetter. STEM programs stress education in science, technology, engineering and math.

    1/6

    … the ratio of active duty female U.S. military service members to their male counterparts.

    4. What about a color?

    Purple is the internationally recognized color to symbolize women while the combination of the colors green, purple and white is meant to represent women’s equality, according to the IWD website. Purple, or the combination of those colors, may be displayed to celebrate International Women’s Day.

    9.7%

    … of U.S. couples in which the wife earned at least $30,000 more than her husband.

    A demonstrator chants during a march for International Women’s Day in Madrid on March 8, 2018.Pablo Cuadra / Getty Images file

    5. How is it celebrated?

    Every country has its own special tradition for celebrating International Women’s Day. In Italy, for example, the day is celebrated by giving women a mimosa blossom. You can celebrate the day on social media by posting pictures of yourself with your hand out like a set of scales and using the hashtags #BalanceforBetter and #IWD2019. People also share posts of themselves celebrating the women in their lives and showing how they are actively working to support women.

    70%

    … women with children younger than 18 who participate in the U.S. labor force

    6. Why is it still observed?

    Women have come a long way since that conference in 1910, and many people believe that most of the battles have already been won for women. But according to the IWD website, women are still not getting equal pay, there are lower proportions of women to men in government positions, and women’s education is still being withheld across the world. Battles have been won, but the battles aren’t over yet.

    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/international-women-s-day-2019-history-theme-importance-n980626

    I have written many times about the normalization of anti-Semitism on the Left and specifically about the recent anti-Semitic statements from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and the disgusting excuses for her being pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and leading Democratic presidential candidates. This post is not intended to relitigate those issues but to reach out to Jewish Democrats who agree that Omar’s statements were anti-Semitic and who have been frustrated and hurt by the response of party leaders.

    I want you to know that it’s ultimately up to you to take a stand against the festering anti-Semitism in your own ranks. I can write, and likely will write, plenty of articles about the growing anti-Semitism problem within the Democratic Party. But I recognize that, given that I’m a conservative, much of what I write will be dismissed as coming in bad faith. Any change that’s going to happen is going to have to happen from within.

    I say this as somebody who is no stranger from feeling alienated from a political party. In 2016, faced with the rise of Donald Trump, I publicly de-registered from the Republican Party, and not just in vague terms. I actually went on Fox News during prime time and specifically said, “The Republican Party has chosen to embrace Donald Trump. That’s their prerogative. But this is where I get off the boat. … I think that he’s exploited and inflamed bigotry and sexism. That’s not the type of conservative message I abide by, which is about limited government, returning power to the states, and focusing on the Constitution.”

    I took a lot of heat for doing that and still do it to this day. And obviously I was unsuccessful in preventing the Trumpist takeover of the party. But I bring this up to demonstrate that I’m not expecting any Democrats to take any actions that I myself was not prepared to take.

    To be clear, I’m not even arguing that Jewish Democrats suddenly vote for Trump in 2020. I get that you’re in a tough spot. It isn’t as if the Trump GOP has been offering welcoming language to minority groups, however pro-Israel its stances have been. And given that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be entering her 90s in any theoretical Trump second term, the idea of flipping parties is unfathomable. (I could never bring myself to vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and ended up writing in “none of the above.”)

    All I’m arguing for is that you be more assertive in driving out anti-Semitism from your party. Speak up. Protest. Take a stand. Actually exercise some of the influence that the Jew haters are always claiming you have. Don’t let Democrats take your support for granted. Get over your fear that speaking out will give a cudgel to Trump Republicans, who you view as bigoted. Anti-Semitism needs to be driven out of polite society wherever it comes from. No side should be given a free pass.

    So far, unfortunately, the reaction from Jewish Democrats has been mostly disappointing. Though there was criticism of Omar coming from Jewish Democrats, they ultimately bailed out leadership. The Jewish Democratic Council of America said it was ” proud” of Democrats, attacked Trump, and claimed Democrats were “quick to rebuke” Omar. This is an appalling act of revisionist history.

    Pelosi could not get a resolution passed specifically addressing anti-Semitism and Omar’s comments, and instead was forced to issue a broad generic condemnation of all hate that minimized the specific issue of anti-Semitism. As Pelosi said, “We should be addressing these forms of hatred and not mention her name, because it’s not about her. It’s about these forms of hatred.” Okay, so if it wasn’t about her, then let’s not pretend the issue has been dealt with, let alone with any sort of haste.

    Jewish Democrat Josh Block of the Israel Project, who served in the Clinton administration and also as an AIPAC spokesman, provides a much better model for how Jewish Democrats can speak up. It starts with stating the truth of what happened.

    “I think it is deeply alarming to see that there’s been such difficult waters for the leadership to tread getting passed what is a very simple condemnation of very clear statements that are anti-Semitic,” Block said on i24 News. “The responses from some [Democratic] presidential candidates … are incredibly disingenuous, lying about the context in which these things took place, suggesting there was some policy content to Ilhan Omar’s remarks suggesting Jews are buying influence of America, that they’re warping the debate, that they’re demanding loyalty and fealty to other countries, that Jews in America are not loyal Americans. These aren’t about policy debates. They’re directly assaults on American Jews designed to make us feel less welcome, less participatory, and less safe, in our political spaces — whether it’s the Democratic Party or society at large. And the top Democratic leaders in America have a responsibility to take action — forceful action — to confront anti-Semitism now, or they risk breaking, by the way, on 60 years of relationships and trust that American Jews hold in our leaders that they’ll protect us unequivocally.”

    Block also made a similar case on PBS. More Jewish Democrats should follow his lead.

    Over in Britain, where the growing anti-Semitism on the Left was allowed to fester, the Labour Party is being torn apart. Recently, a Labour Party official ruled that this image of an alien stamped with a Jewish star covering the face of the Statue of Liberty that was posted by a party activist was merely an effort to criticize Israel.

    The Democratic Party isn’t quite there yet, but it’s naive to believe that it cannot end up there if current trends continue. No reading of history should lead one to conclude that the Democratic Party is immune to the oldest form of prejudice.

    It is not inevitable that the Democratic Party will get taken over by anti-Semitism, but the only way to prevent it from happening is for Jewish Democrats to take a firm stand. Now. The future of the Jewish community in America may depend on it.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/dear-jewish-democrats-its-up-to-you-to-fight-anti-semitism-within-your-party

    Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., is right about one thing: Former President Obama is a fraud.

    His promise of “hope and change” was just cleverly packaged pablum, the progressive congresswoman said in an interview with Politico.

    I agree! Obama certainly wasn’t the progressive savior he claimed to be when he first ran for president in 2008. Indeed, between his commitment to America’s “forever wars,” his cozy relationship with Big Tech, and his easily made peace with money in politics, Obama was as establishment as any other president in American history.

    But to hear a Democratic freshman congresswoman say it in slightly different terms is really something else.

    Politico reports:

    As the Somali population in her city continued to swell, so did the young activist’s discontent. By the time she ran for office in 2016, knocking off a 22-term incumbent to win a seat in the Minnesota statehouse, Omar was fed up—not so much with Trumpism, or with politics in general, as with the Democratic Party.

    As she saw it, the party ostensibly committed to progressive values had become complicit in perpetuating the status quo. Omar says the “hope and change” offered by Barack Obama was a mirage. Recalling the “caging of kids” at the U.S.-Mexico border and the “droning of countries around the world” on Obama’s watch, she argues that the Democratic president operated within the same fundamentally broken framework as his Republican successor.

    “We can’t be only upset with Trump. … His policies are bad, but many of the people who came before him also had really bad policies. They just were more polished than he was,” Omar says. “And that’s not what we should be looking for anymore. We don’t want anybody to get away with murder because they are polished. We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile.”

    As it turns out, a protracted, legally dubious drone war in Somalia might not sit well with a Somali immigrant to the U.S. Who knew?

    Omar also raises a good point about federal immigration policy during the Obama years. Namely, that there isn’t a lot of difference between what we have now and what we had then. Honestly, the most interesting thing about the congresswoman highlighting this point on immigration is the number of people who decry current policy without realizing many of the same practices they oppose are also holdovers from previous administrations.

    I always thought there would come a moment when Obama’s gutting of the Democratic Party during his two terms in office would eventually generate friendly fire. I also thought there would come a time when his record as an establishment president would come under serious left-wing scrutiny. I just didn’t think it would happen so soon after he left office.

    What’s interesting here is that the congresswoman’s remarks to Politico stand in stark contrast to her pre-election praise for Obama. I guess it’s easier to speak one’s mind after winning office. Omar is likely feeling even more empowered following the political victory she scored this week against her party leaders, having avoided any consequences for her open expressions of anti-Semitism. She’s on a roll because Democratic leaders are scared to death of her and her progressive fanbase.

    Keep an eye now on how Omar’s Democratic colleagues react to Politico interview. I suspect she is not alone in being disenchanted with Obama, even to the point of anger. I suspect there are more like her in the Democratic Party, and I suspect they will make themselves heard as they grow in numbers, confidence, and influence.

    This day was coming for the Obama wing of the Democratic Party. It was only a matter of time.

    If you promise your followers the moon and the stars, they’re going to be a little miffed when you fail to deliver. Worse yet, if you tell them you’re the messiah, they’re going to be awfully angry when they figure out you aren’t.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/rep-ilhan-omar-on-obama-hope-and-change-was-a-fraud

    Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning was jailed on Friday after refusing to answer questions from a federal grand jury in Virginia looking into the release of documents to WikiLeaks.

    U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton told Manning that she would remain in federal custody “until she purges or the end of the life of the grand jury” a statement from her representatives said.

    Earlier in the day, Manning told reporters that she was prepared to go to jail following the closed contempt hearing for her resistance to provide testimony because she doesn’t believe in the grand jury process.

    On Wednesday, Manning appeared before the same grand jury, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, but refused to answer any questions.

    “I responded to each question with the following statement: ‘I object to the question and refuse to answer on the grounds that the question is in violation of my First, Fourth, and Sixth Amendment, and other statutory rights,” Manning said in a statement.

    “All of the substantive questions pertained to my disclosures of information to the public in 2010 — answers I provided in extensive testimony, during my court-martial in 2013,” the statement said.

    Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking a trove of military intelligence records to the anti-secrecy website Wikileaks. Her sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2017 after seven years behind bars.

    A day earlier, a judge in the Eastern District of Virginia denied a motion filed by Manning’s attorneys challenging a subpoena calling her to testify, according to her lawyers.

    Manning told The Associated Press Tuesday that she didn’t know what case she was being called to testify about.

    “I just know there were an awful lot of government lawyers there,” she said after the hearing in which her motion was denied.

    “Grand juries are terrible, to say the least,” Manning, 31, added.

    Manning’s support committee, Chelsea Resists!, called the grand jury system “dangerous and undemocratic.”

    “Grand juries operate in secret, allowing the government to retaliate against activists and dissidents behind closed doors,” said a statement from the committee released by Manning’s lawyers.

    “Donald Trump and his administration have publicly declared their disdain for Chelsea, and for President Obama’s decision to commute her sentence,” the Chelsea Resists! statement said. “Chelsea has stood by the testimony from her 2013 court-martial, and this subpoena serves no legitimate purpose. It is a punitive effort to reverse Obama’s legacy, exposing Chelsea to legal hardship and possible imprisonment.”

    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chelsea-manning-jailed-refusing-testify-grand-jury-virginia-n980016

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    Washington (CNN)White House deputy chief of staff and de facto communications director Bill Shine has stepped down to join the Trump campaign, press secretary Sarah Sanders announced in a statement Friday.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/08/politics/bill-shine-white-house-communications/index.html

    With the release of the “Mueller Report” reportedly just around the corner, the sentencing Thursday of one-time Trump presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison offers a timely reminder that the whole Russia collusion narrative was never more than a fantasy of the Democrats and the mainstream media.

    As numerous investigations and witness testimonies have already demonstrated, there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to elect Donald Trump as president. The entire justification for the Mueller probe was a farce, invented by former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign manager Robby Mook and the rest of the Clinton brain trust to justify their humiliating defeat in the 2016 presidential election.

    Even U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III acknowledged that Manafort’s convictions were completely unrelated to the Russia collusion, about which the judge had previously expressed skepticism in open court.

    PAUL MANAFORT SENTENCED TO 47 MONTHS IN PRISON ON BANK AND TAX FRAUD CHARGES

    “He is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government,” Ellis said in court.

    It’s near-universally assumed by now that Mueller’s final report, however much of it the public eventually sees, will fail to show any evidence of collusion. So the same talking heads who’ve spent nearly two years whipping half the country into a frenzy about Russian collusion have to cling to what they do have: Manafort.

    Manafort, plain and simple, is going to prison for things completely outside the original scope of Mueller’s investigation. All of his convictions stem from the shady lobbying businesses he ran with his associate Rick Gates long before joining the Trump campaign in 2016.

    The problem for them is that Manafort’s convictions illustrate just how empty Mueller’s net has come up after more than 21 months in this putrid fishing hole.

    Paul Manafort was found guilty of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report a foreign bank account. In addition to the 47-month prison sentence that Ellis gave him Thursday, Manafort will serve even longer because the judge in his other criminal trial threw out his guilty plea after determining he lied to Mueller’s investigators.

    This is all very serious — and all very irrelevant to Russian election interference.

    Manafort, plain and simple, is going to prison for things completely outside the original scope of Mueller’s investigation. All of his convictions stem from the shady lobbying businesses he ran with his associate Rick Gates long before joining the Trump campaign in 2016.

    The same could be said about any of the myriad other indictments Mueller has brought against Americans who were unfortunate enough to have ties to the Trump campaign. The only illegal conduct Mueller uncovered either predates the Trump campaign or involves “process crimes” directly linked to Mueller’s investigation, such as those of George Papadopoulos, the former Trump aide who got a whopping 14 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

    The fact is that after nearly two years of work, we still have no indication that the Mueller probe found so much as a single instance of actual Trump-Russia collusion. Cases such as Manafort’s are typically relegated to no more than a moment’s mention on the nightly news, but not this time.

    The fake collusion narrative is simply too important to the media. They’ve invested too much of their capital and credibility, so they have no choice but to present Manafort’s crimes as evidence not only of Donald Trump’s supposed culpability but of Mueller’s efficacy.

    For their part, the president’s detractors on Capitol Hill, particularly Democratic committee chairmen Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff, need the artificial stench of the Manafort sentencing to hang in the air as long as possible so that they can prepare to launch the second wave of their vile, politically motivated attack.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    With the Mueller probe’s long reign as “The Resistance’s” best hope for overturning the 2016 presidential election quickly coming to a close, the Democrats hope to simply transition to their own witch hunts.

    As Manafort’s sentencing on charges unrelated to the 2016 election reminds us, the coming congressional investigations will fare no better than Mueller did in the hunt for evidence of the collusion that never was.

    CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY MIKE HUCKABEE

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/mike-huckabee-manafort-sentencing-has-zero-zilch-nada-nothing-to-do-with-russian-collusion

    U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was apparently unmoved Thursday by Meghan McCain’s tearful remarks about her on “The View.”

    McCain had become emotional during the ABC talk show, discussing Omar’s recent criticisms of Israel and its supporters. She said Omar’s remarks were hurtful to many of her Jewish friends.

    “It is very dangerous, very dangerous,” McCain added, “and I think we collectively as Americans on both sides, what Ilhan Omar is saying is very scary to me. It’s very scary to a lot of people and I don’t think you have to be Jewish to recognize that.”

    OMAR, ANTI-SEMITISM DEBATE IN THE HOUSE ENDS WITH A LAUNDRY LIST RESOLUTION — WHAT A SHAME

    But instead of responding directly to McCain, Omar retweeted a post that criticized McCain for “faux outrage” and referred to past statements attributed to McCain’s late father, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who died last August at age 81.

    “Meghan’s late father literally sang ‘bomb bomb bomb Iran’ and insisted on referring to his Vietnamese captors as ‘g–ks’,” read the post by Medhi Hasan, an “Intercept” columnist and Al Jazeera host. “He also, lest we forget, gave the world Sarah Palin. So a little less faux outrage over a former-refugee-turned-freshman-representative pls.”

    GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Omar’s retweet was praised by many of her followers as a sign that the freshman congresswoman was “standing up to the establishment.” But the retweet also attracted more negative attention to the Somali-born lawmaker, just hours after the U.S. House voted in favor of an anti-hate resolution that was initially inspired by the Minnesota Democrat.

    Omar has resisted calls for her to apologize for blasting those who pledge “allegiance to a foreign country,” referring to Israel, in what has been decried as an anti-Semitic trope.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report 

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/omar-retweets-post-critical-of-late-senator-john-mccain-in-an-apparent-response-to-his-daughter

    President Trump is on Air Force One on his way to Alabama to survey tornado damage, but at the moment his mind is somewhere else.

    In a tweet, Trump claimed that his former lawyer Michael Cohen “directly asked” him for a pardon and therefore lied under oath when testifying before Congress last week. 

     “He lied! Additionally, he directly asked me for a pardon. I said NO. He lied again! He also badly wanted to work at the White House. He lied!” Trump tweeted.

     

    What this is all about: Cohen said in his open testimony before the House that he “never” asked for a pardon.

    “I have never asked for it, nor would I accept a pardon from President Trump,” Cohen said before the House Intelligence Committee.

    The prospect of a pardon for Cohen was raised more than once between Cohen’s lawyer and attorneys representing the President, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The depth of those discussions — including whether a pardon was truly on the table in exchange for Cohen’s cooperation — is being disputed publicly among the different factions.

    Cohen told Congress over the past week that his former attorney spoke separately with two attorneys for the President, Rudy Giuilani and Jay Sekulow, about the prospect of a pardon, the sources said. Cohen also testified to Congress that he spoke directly to Sekulow about pardons, according to the sources, which Sekulow denies.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-alabama-tornadoes/index.html

    That Michael Cohen is proudly declaring he doesn’t want a pardon from federal prison time doesn’t make him the hero he thinks it does.

    The only reason anyone would say that, as Cohen did during his embarrassing testimony in front of Congress last week, is that he knew a pardon from President Trump was never in the cards. And that’s what the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

    Cohen’s current attorney, Lanny Davis, confirmed to the Journal that after Cohen’s New York office was raided by the FBI last spring, he directed his then-lawyer Stephen Ryan to consult Trump’s attorneys about a possible pardon, should he face charges.

    The report contradicts Cohen’s congressional testimony, wherein he boasted that he “never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump.”

    It’s was a dramatic moment in American history only paralleled by George Washington as a child vowing that he could not tell a lie.

    Cohen could have stopped at the “I never asked for” and it would have been sufficient, if not truthful. But he had to go the extra mile and express his dedication to imprisonment.

    The Journal’s report says that lawyers for Trump all rebuffed Cohen’s initial overture for a pardon, though one of the lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, didn’t completely shut the door on the possibility of it in the future.

    Cohen wanted a pardon and when it wasn’t offered, he decided he’d say on national television that he didn’t want it anyway. Davis, his lawyer, said as far back as mid-December in an interview on CBS that Cohen “wouldn’t take a pardon from Donald Trump if it was handed to him.” Here are other things Cohen will under no circumstance accept from Donald Trump: $1 billion dollars, a chest of diamonds, and a hug.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/michael-cohen-cant-wait-for-prison-so-hes-rejecting-pardons-he-was-never-offered

    EL PASO, Texas (Reuters) – Huddled against a border fence on a bitterly cold morning in El Paso, Texas, a group of 60 Guatemalan migrants, around half toddlers and children, shouted for help: “We’re cold, we’re hungry, we need shelter.”

    The group was trying to surrender to U.S. Border Patrol agents and claim asylum, but the agents were too busy herding other groups along the fence that stands about 100 yards (91 m) inside U.S. territory.

    The 18-foot-high (5.5 meters) steel barrier is meant to deter illegal immigration. But its position inside the border has turned it into a destination for human smugglers trafficking large groups of asylum seekers fleeing poverty and violence.

    The smugglers in recent weeks have shifted routes to El Paso from the remote Antelope Wells area of New Mexico, Border Patrol supervisory agent Joe Romero said.

    Once undocumented migrants are on U.S. soil, the Border Patrol is obliged to arrest them for entering illegally. But migrants can claim fear of returning to their countries, allowing them to remain in the United States legally until an asylum hearing, which can take months or years.

    The smugglers’ strategy exploits a weakness in the very border wall President Donald Trump has touted as a means to protect the United States from undocumented immigrants and illicit drugs.

    The crowds in El Paso illustrate changing immigration patterns. As recently as 2015, the majority of undocumented border crossers were adult men from Mexico looking to disappear into the country and find work. Now the Border Patrol says about 85 percent of migrants arriving in the El Paso sector are Central American families and children seeking asylum.

    Gaspar Isom, 38, who was with his 16-year-old son Sebastian, said he chose El Paso for the relative safety of its sister Mexican border city, Ciudad Juarez.

    “We were told other places were more dangerous to cross, they were controlled by the Zetas,” Isom said, referring to the Mexican cartel.

    The pair were among close to 1,000 mostly Central American migrants who crossed into El Paso on Wednesday in the kind of surge the U.S. border has not seen in over a decade, Border Patrol data show.

    El Paso is not alone in seeing an uptick. Over 268,000 undocumented migrants were arrested at the Southwest border from October through February, a near doubling over the same period a year earlier, to a 12-year high, according to government data released this week. Annual apprehensions remain well below the peak of 1.6 million in 2000.

    Slideshow (20 Images)

    Border Patrol officials say the El Paso fence, one of multiple sections of barrier built inside the border due to quirks of local topography, is successful in stopping migrants from scattering into El Paso.

    But they acknowledge having a hard time keeping up with the numbers. El Paso sector Border Patrol stations reached capacity on Wednesday, and the group of 60 was finally picked up at 5 a.m. Thursday, after spending two nights sleeping by the fence, according to Dylan Corbett, who helps run a migrant shelter operated by El Paso’s Roman Catholic diocese.

    Romero said the agency ran out of space to safely and securely transport migrants: “We have manpower shortages, our facilities are at capacity if not more.”

    Reporting by Andrew Hay, Lucy Nicholson and Jane Ross; Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler

    Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-asylum/on-us-border-fence-meant-as-barrier-becomes-lure-for-migrants-idUSKCN1QP197

    That Michael Cohen is proudly declaring he doesn’t want a pardon from federal prison time doesn’t make him the hero he thinks it does.

    The only reason anyone would say that, as Cohen did during his embarrassing testimony in front of Congress last week, is that he knew a pardon from President Trump was never in the cards. And that’s what the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

    Cohen’s current attorney, Lanny Davis, confirmed to the Journal that after Cohen’s New York office was raided by the FBI last spring, he directed his then-lawyer Stephen Ryan to consult Trump’s attorneys about a possible pardon, should he face charges.

    The report contradicts Cohen’s congressional testimony, wherein he boasted that he “never asked for, nor would I accept, a pardon from Mr. Trump.”

    It’s was a dramatic moment in American history only paralleled by George Washington as a child vowing that he could not tell a lie.

    Cohen could have stopped at the “I never asked for” and it would have been sufficient, if not truthful. But he had to go the extra mile and express his dedication to imprisonment.

    The Journal’s report says that lawyers for Trump all rebuffed Cohen’s initial overture for a pardon, though one of the lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, didn’t completely shut the door on the possibility of it in the future.

    Cohen wanted a pardon and when it wasn’t offered, he decided he’d say on national television that he didn’t want it anyway. Davis, his lawyer, said as far back as mid-December in an interview on CBS that Cohen “wouldn’t take a pardon from Donald Trump if it was handed to him.” Here are other things Cohen will under no circumstance accept from Donald Trump: $1 billion dollars, a chest of diamonds, and a hug.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/michael-cohen-cant-wait-for-prison-so-hes-rejecting-pardons-he-was-never-offered

    With the release of the “Mueller Report” reportedly just around the corner, the sentencing Thursday of one-time Trump presidential campaign manager Paul Manafort to 47 months in prison offers a timely reminder that the whole Russia collusion narrative was never more than a fantasy of the Democrats and the mainstream media.

    As numerous investigations and witness testimonies have already demonstrated, there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to elect Donald Trump as president. The entire justification for the Mueller probe was a farce, invented by former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign manager Robby Mook and the rest of the Clinton brain trust to justify their humiliating defeat in the 2016 presidential election.

    Even U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III acknowledged that Manafort’s convictions were completely unrelated to the Russia collusion, about which the judge had previously expressed skepticism in open court.

    PAUL MANAFORT SENTENCED TO 47 MONTHS IN PRISON ON BANK AND TAX FRAUD CHARGES

    “He is not before the court for anything having to do with colluding with the Russian government,” Ellis said in court.

    It’s near-universally assumed by now that Mueller’s final report, however much of it the public eventually sees, will fail to show any evidence of collusion. So the same talking heads who’ve spent nearly two years whipping half the country into a frenzy about Russian collusion have to cling to what they do have: Manafort.

    Manafort, plain and simple, is going to prison for things completely outside the original scope of Mueller’s investigation. All of his convictions stem from the shady lobbying businesses he ran with his associate Rick Gates long before joining the Trump campaign in 2016.

    The problem for them is that Manafort’s convictions illustrate just how empty Mueller’s net has come up after more than 21 months in this putrid fishing hole.

    Paul Manafort was found guilty of tax fraud, bank fraud, and failure to report a foreign bank account. In addition to the 47-month prison sentence that Ellis gave him Thursday, Manafort will serve even longer because the judge in his other criminal trial threw out his guilty plea after determining he lied to Mueller’s investigators.

    This is all very serious — and all very irrelevant to Russian election interference.

    Manafort, plain and simple, is going to prison for things completely outside the original scope of Mueller’s investigation. All of his convictions stem from the shady lobbying businesses he ran with his associate Rick Gates long before joining the Trump campaign in 2016.

    The same could be said about any of the myriad other indictments Mueller has brought against Americans who were unfortunate enough to have ties to the Trump campaign. The only illegal conduct Mueller uncovered either predates the Trump campaign or involves “process crimes” directly linked to Mueller’s investigation, such as those of George Papadopoulos, the former Trump aide who got a whopping 14 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

    The fact is that after nearly two years of work, we still have no indication that the Mueller probe found so much as a single instance of actual Trump-Russia collusion. Cases such as Manafort’s are typically relegated to no more than a moment’s mention on the nightly news, but not this time.

    The fake collusion narrative is simply too important to the media. They’ve invested too much of their capital and credibility, so they have no choice but to present Manafort’s crimes as evidence not only of Donald Trump’s supposed culpability but of Mueller’s efficacy.

    For their part, the president’s detractors on Capitol Hill, particularly Democratic committee chairmen Jerry Nadler and Adam Schiff, need the artificial stench of the Manafort sentencing to hang in the air as long as possible so that they can prepare to launch the second wave of their vile, politically motivated attack.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    With the Mueller probe’s long reign as “The Resistance’s” best hope for overturning the 2016 presidential election quickly coming to a close, the Democrats hope to simply transition to their own witch hunts.

    As Manafort’s sentencing on charges unrelated to the 2016 election reminds us, the coming congressional investigations will fare no better than Mueller did in the hunt for evidence of the collusion that never was.

    CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY MIKE HUCKABEE

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/mike-huckabee-manafort-sentencing-has-zero-zilch-nada-nothing-to-do-with-russian-collusion

    A political crisis is brewing inside the halls of Congress. A few freshman Democrats have drawn the ire from both sides about their position on the U.S.’s relationship with Israel.

    In the lead up to the 2018 midterm election, then-congressional candidates Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., — the first Muslim women to be elected to Congress — were criticized for a series of troubling remarks about Israel that were rooted in anti-Semitism. It all began with an escalation of violence in November 2012 initially provoked by Hamas militants. Omar, who was then active in Minnesota politics, tweeted, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”

    That tweet came back to haunt Omar during her 2018 congressional run, as it dredges out an old anti-Semitic trope that Jews are somehow conspiring to take over the world.

    As members of Congress, both Tlaib and Omar have faced criticism for rolling out another anti-Semitic trope, the suggestion that Jewish Americans have dual loyalties. In January 2019, Tlaib, responding to a Senate bill that would combat the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel, tweeted, “They forgot what country they represent.”

    In February 2019, Omar came under heavy criticism from her Democratic colleagues that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (better known as AIPAC) was paying members of Congress for their support of Jewish state, even tweeting, “It’s All About the Benjamins.” During an event later that month, Omar said, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

    Supporters of Omar have argued that the congresswoman has been singled out for bringing up this point about American allegiance to Israel, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and a number of Democrats are debating a resolution to condemn anti-Semitism. But the progressive wing of the party, led by Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has been quite vocal in its opposition.

    Ocasio-Cortez has attempted to defend Omar by making a broader statement that nothing is done when other communities are supposedly slandered for dual loyalties saying, “One of the things that is hurtful about the extent to which reprimand is sought of Ilhan is that no one seeks this level of reprimand when members make statements about Latinx + other communities.”

    However Democrats choose to respond to anti-Semitism going forward will say a lot about the direction of the party and where it’s heading. And if this issue persists in the national conversation, it could mean that Pelosi’s influence over her caucus is waning.

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/heres-whats-going-on-in-the-war-between-ilhan-omar-and-nancy-pelosi

    Image copyright
    Reuters

    Image caption

    Mr Sipila announced his government’s resignation in Helsinki on Friday

    Finland’s entire government has resigned over its failure to achieve a key policy goal on social welfare and healthcare reform.

    Prime Minister Juha Sipila said he was “hugely disappointed” in the outcome.

    Finland’s extensive welfare systems are under financial pressure as the nation’s population ages, yet reform plans remain politically controversial.

    Mr Sipila’s government is expected to stay on in a caretaker capacity until a planned election in April.

    Some political opponents questioned the need for the high-profile resignation of the Centre Party government with just weeks to go until the election.

    But Antti Kaikkonen, chair of the Centre Party, defended the decision, which was taken after it became clear the party could not achieve its goals.

    “If anyone asks what political responsibility means, then I would say that this is an example,” he tweeted.

    Mr Sipila, a former IT entrepreneur who made millions before entering politics, had previously said he would consider resigning if his primary reform policy failed.

    The government had hoped its planned reforms would save up to €3bn (£2.6bn) over the next decade.

    What is Finland‘s healthcare problem?

    Like many developed nations, Finland has an ageing population that is putting financial pressure on its social welfare systems.

    As an increasing number of people live longer in retirement, the cost of providing pension and healthcare benefits can rise. Those increased costs are paid for by taxes collected from of the working-age population – who make up a smaller percentage of the population than in decades past.

    In 2018, those aged 65 or over made up 21.4% of Finland’s population, the fourth highest after Germany, Portugal, Greece, and Italy, according to Eurostat.

    Finland’s welfare system is also generous in its provisions, making it relatively expensive. Attempts at reform have plagued Finnish governments for years.

    Mr Sipila’s proposed solutions included creating regional authorities for health and welfare services, rather than the local municipalities that currently manage the system, and offering including private companies in the healthcare system to a greater extent to offer “freedom of choice”.

    Mr Sipila’s government also famously experimented with a guaranteed minimum income scheme – giving €560 (£480) a month to 2,000 unemployed people as a basic income with no conditions attached.

    Initial results suggested the pilot scheme left people happier, but still unemployed.

    Mr Sipila’s Centre Party has been in a centre-right coalition government since 2015. Since a 2017 re-negotiation, the government has been formed of the Centre Party, the National Coalition, and Blue Reform.

    The opposition Social Democrats have taken the lead in recent polls by several percentage points.

    Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47496326

    CLOSE

    SportsPulse: Trysta Krick explains why we should be thanking Robert Kraft following his alleged involvement in the solicitation of prostitution.
    USA TODAY

    STUART, Fla. – As families shopped around them, a steady stream of men wandered in and out of the Bridge Day Spa, a massage parlor in a strip mall anchored by a Publix Supermarket and a Sherwin-Williams Paint Store. Police say the men engaged in illicit sexual activity with Chinese masseuses in private massage rooms inside the spa, with two or three women reportedly exchanging sexual acts with up to 10 men a day. 

    Eleven miles away at the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, detectives huddled inside a conference room turned high-tech surveillance hub and followed the activity on color flat-screen monitors. Often, they radioed a team perched outside the spa, who would follow the unsuspecting johns and try to identify them, gathering IDs that would number in the hundreds.

    Start your day smarter: Get USA TODAY’s Daily Briefing in your inbox

    That complex and painstaking – and, to some, controversial – teamwork was at the center of a four-county, seven-month sex trafficking investigation of massage parlors that included hidden cameras, billionaire johns, semen-stained napkins and a $20 million suspected network that stretched from China to New York to Florida. 

    The investigation, which ensnared nearly 300 suspected johns, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, has sparked a national conversation about human trafficking and renewed calls to strengthen anti-trafficking laws. Police say some of the female spa employees were locked inside the parlors for weeks at a time and made to engage in sexual acts with clients – some as many as 16 times a day.

    Overall, hundreds of work hours and more than $400,000 worth of detective work went into the effort police hope will bring down the suspected underground network – and could be replicated in counties across the USA. 

    “This was a lot more widespread than any of us thought,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said. “I don’t think most police agencies or sheriffs know how widespread this is.”

    More than 10 people connected to the spas have been charged with offenses ranging from racketeering and money laundering to profiting from prostitution. Only one woman, Lanyun Ma, 49, of Orlando, who ran the East Spa in downtown Vero Beach, has been accused by police of human trafficking, but prosecutors have not formally filed that charge and it’s unclear whether it will proceed.

    Through a spokesman, Kraft, 77, who police say visited an illicit massage parlor in Jupiter in January, has denied engaging in any illegal activity. His attorney said Thursday that Kraft will not attend a court arraignment set for March 28, despite a court notice requiring him to appear in person. 

    Interviews and court documents show the investigation stretched across four Florida counties – Orange, Indian River, Martin and Palm Beach – and netted more than $2 million in seized assets. They also reveal the complexities and challenges of investigating sex trafficking rings, where victims and suspects are often one and the same.

    Paul Petruzzi, a Miami-based attorney representing one of the arrested spa managers, said some of the police tactics – such as secretly installing surveillance cameras in private massage rooms – could face legal scrutiny later.

    “It’s a very rare and unusual law enforcement tactic to be used,” he said, “and very rare for courts to authorize such a tactic.”

    The investigation began on July 6 with a phone call to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office from Karen Herzog, a Florida Department of Health inspector. On a routine inspection of the Bridge Day Spa in Stuart, she noticed suitcases, slept-in massage tables and provocatively dressed masseuses in the strip mall parlor, according to court documents.

    Working on Herzog’s tip, Snyder deployed lead detective Michael Felton to look into the spa. For more than two weeks, Felton observed a steady stream of customers, most of them male coming in and out of the parlor, questioned some johns leaving the spa and recovered physical evidence, such as semen-stained napkins from outside trash bins, according to Snyder and court documents.  

    Felton reported his findings to Snyder and top commanders in the department’s Criminal Investigations Division: There was prostitution and likely human trafficking occurring at the spa, he told them. Snyder said he then made a decision: Instead of raiding and shutting down the spa, as most law enforcement agencies would do given such evidence, he would launch a protracted investigation to try to root out any organized criminal rings operating there.

    “We would actually see how far we could go in making a case for human trafficking or racketeering,” said Snyder, a former Republican state lawmaker who co-wrote one of the state’s human trafficking laws. “My sense was: These women don’t do this on their own.”

    The department assigned up to 10 detectives to the case. They soon noticed that the women, who were all Asian, were often shuttled in expensive cars to other spas: the Cove Day and Florida Therapy spas in Stuart and the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter, 17 miles south. Some would enter the spas and not emerge for weeks, he said. Others were driven north to spas in Orange County. 

    Snyder called the Jupiter Police Department. “I told them, ‘You got a racketeering case going on in your massage parlor,” he said. Police there jumped on the case, mirroring many of the tactics Martin County Sheriff detectives were using. Their focus: the Orchids of Asia Day Spa, a storefront spa in a strip mall in northeast Jupiter featuring a Publix supermarket and several pizzerias.

    Snyder also sought help from Homeland Security Investigations, which provided Mandarin interpreters, money and other resources, he said. HSI agents began showing up regularly at the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

    Anthony Salisbury, special agent in charge of the Miami office of HSI, which helped in the case, said one of the challenges in expanding a case from prostitution to sex trafficking is getting the female employees to cooperate. Many suspects in cases he oversees who are alleged sex traffickers end up being charged with prostitution or money laundering instead, he said. 

    Even more challenging are cases involving Asian women, who tend to have a bigger language barrier and deeper distrust of law enforcement, Salisbury said.

    “That is one of the communities that seems to be reluctant to come forward,” he said. 

    In September, Martin County Sheriff detectives obtained court approval – known as a “break-order warrant” – to install surveillance cameras inside area spas, Snyder said. Officials converted a conference room in the department’s headquarters into a high-tech surveillance hub. Four flat-screen monitors showed the inner workings of the spas, in color. 

    Three detectives – one of which was always a female officer – constantly monitored the screens during the spas’ business hours, from 9 a.m. to about 11 p.m., he said. They clicked off the monitors if a female client entered the massage rooms, focusing solely on male clients, who are more likely to engage in prostitution, Snyder said.

    After an illicit act, the detectives would radio an undercover team perched outside the parlor and describe the male suspect as he left the spa. The undercover team would then follow and try to identify the unsuspecting john.

    The detectives weren’t able to collar every suspected john, Snyder said. Some slipped away while the pursuit team was busy with another client. For every one suspect they identified, another five got away, he said. 

    “There’s hundreds of men in this county that go to massage parlors where sex trafficking – or at least prostitution – goes on,” Snyder said.

    Meanwhile, investigators pored over bank and property records of the spa owners, untangling a web of ownership and money that stretched to China. More than $20 million was flowing between China and the Florida spas, Snyder said. The case was growing. 

    As police in Martin and Palm Beach counties gathered evidence in their case, Vero Beach Police were sending undercover agents into the East Spa in downtown Vero Beach in a separate – and coincidentally concurrent – investigation.

    The Vero Beach query began in August after several tips flowed into the department, including an anonymous letter mailed to Chief David Currey detailing how men were streaming in and out of the East Spa, Currey said. 

    As in the Martin County investigation – and unbeknownst to detectives there – Currey sent undercover agents to monitor the spa, got a break-order warrant to install surveillance cameras inside and set up a room in the Vero Police Department to monitor activity inside massage rooms. 

    As women were tracked to other nearby spas, detectives from neighboring Sebastian Police Department and the Indian County Sheriff’s Office opened their own investigations, Currey said.

    For six months, Vero Beach Police dedicated two investigators, five general crime officers, two supervisors and other personnel to the case, racking up more than $100,000 worth of detective work, Currey said. 

    “I’ve been here almost 30 years, and we haven’t had an investigation like this in our city in our memory,” he said. 

    Vero Beach Police Detective Sgt. Phil Huddy would later enter one of the Vero Beach massage parlors. There were beds constructed from 2-by-4 planks and mattresses thrown atop, a refrigerator stuffed with food, a break room with a microwave where meals were prepared, and a makeshift shower or spigot coming out of a wall where the women apparently took showers.

    “That’s the conditions these ladies were living in,” Huddy said.

    Investigators in Martin and Indian River counties learned they were working on similar sex trafficking cases through county prosecutors on the cases, Currey said. They began coordinating efforts. 

    By February, investigators were ready to move in. On Feb. 19, they launched coordinated raids on the spas and held news conferences announcing the findings.

    A major challenge remains getting some of the arrested women to cooperate with investigators.

    That challenge came into sharp focus in the wake of the arrests. Snyder watched as one of the women, Lixia Zhu, 48, dissolved into sobs as she told detectives how she came from China to work at a nail salon in Chicago then was forced into sex trafficking. Her passports were locked up and her relatives in China were threatened, Snyder said.

    Then, midway through the interview, a Mandarin-speaking attorney from New York showed up. He spoke to Zhu, who immediately stopped cooperating.

    “It threw a chill over the entire investigative division,” Snyder said.

    Still, there are signs of hope. One woman recounted how she has been shuttled to seven or eight other U.S cities to perform similar acts in massage parlors, showing the reach of the suspected ring, Snyder said. Vero Beach police said they have one cooperating witness who can help prosecutors present a trafficking case. 

    About a week after the arrests, Martin County Sheriff deputies also received some encouraging intel from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office: U-Haul trucks had been backed up to two massage parlors in their jurisdiction. They were packing up and leaving town. 

    Snyder said he hopes other law enforcement officials take note and replicate what he has started on the Treasure Coast.

    “We found a way to do this,” he said. “If I had my way, we’d bring this methodology to a massage parlor near you.”

    Contributing: TCPalm reporters Melissa Holsman, Will Greenlee and Mary Helen Moore.

    Follow Jervis on Twitter: @MrRJervis.

     

    Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/08/how-massage-parlors-sex-trafficking-case-florida-solved/3048361002/