Aug 30, 2018 By Catherine Herridge
Embattled Justice Department official Bruce Ohr had contact in 2016 with then-colleague Andrew Weissmann, who is now a top Robert Mueller deputy, as well as other senior FBI officials about the controversial anti-Trump dossier and the individuals behind it, two sources close to the matter told Fox News. The sources said Ohr's outreach about the dossier – as well as its author, ex-British spy Christopher Steele; the opposition research firm behind it, Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS; and his wife Nellie Ohr's work for Fusion – occurred before and after the FBI fired Steele as a source over his media contacts. Ohr's network of contacts on the dossier included: former FBI agent Peter Strzok; former FBI lawyer Lisa Page; former deputy director Andrew McCabe; Weissmann and at least one other DOJ official; and a current FBI agent who worked with Strzok on the Russia case. Weissmann was kept "in the loop" on the dossier, a source said, while he was chief of the criminal fraud division. He is now assigned to Special Counsel Mueller’s team. The list includes several figures who have since attracted the scorn of President Trump as he decries the Russia probe and those involved in its early stages. Trump has been particularly tough on Ohr, given his wife Nellie’s past work for Fusion GPS, as the president alleges bias against him inside the department. Just Thursday morning, Trump complained on Twitter about Nellie Ohr's Fusion work and exclaimed, "Bruce was a boss at the Department of Justice and is, unbelievably, still there!" Ohr's broad circle of contacts indicates members of FBI leadership knew about his backchannel activities regarding the dossier and Steele. Congressional Republicans are still trying to get to the bottom of Ohr's role in circulating the unverified dossier, which became a critical piece of evidence in obtaining a surveillance warrant for then-Trump campaign aide Carter Page in October 2016. Ohr was grilled by House committees behind closed doors for seven hours earlier this week. Video Gregg Jarrett: Mueller sabotaged his own investigationA Republican-authored House Intelligence Committee memo released in February said that Steele "maintained contact" with Ohr "before and after" the government fired the ex-British spy as a source. "Shortly after the election, the FBI began interviewing Ohr, documenting his communications with Steele," the memo said. "For example, in September 2016, Steele admitted to Ohr his feelings against then-candidate Trump when Steele said he 'was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president.'" In addition, Ohr's handwritten notes, reviewed by Fox News, showed that two weeks after the election, on Nov. 21, he made a list including Page, Strzok and the FBI agent – which may have been a reference to a meeting. "No [prosecution] yet. Push case ahead on M. May go back to Chris," he wrote. Congressional investigators told Fox News they believe the "M" likely refers to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who recently was convicted on tax and bank fraud charges in Virginia, and the "Chris" is Christopher Steele. That same month, Steele was fired by the FBI as a confidential source over his contact with the media about the dossier. According to court records, an FBI memo also states that Weissmann met as early as April 2017 with a group of reporters about Manafort. The timing appears significant, coming one month before FBI Director James Comey was fired and Mueller was appointed to lead the special counsel team. Republican lawmakers who questioned Ohr earlier this week say the connections between Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie, who did Russia research for the opposition research firm behind the dossier, were known. "When they went to court, the FBI knew three important things. And they did not disclose this to the court," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said. "They knew the Ohrs’ involvement in the production of the dossier. They knew that Chris Steele had this extreme bias against the president. And they knew who paid for the dossier. And they did not disclose these key facts to the court when they went there to get the warrant to spy on Carter Page and the Trump campaign." Fusion GPS and its co-founder have not responded to Fox News' questions for this story, or previous reports. While Fusion GPS financial records were the subject of a lawsuit, and are not public, sources told Fox News that Nellie Ohr received "multiple payments" in 2016 from Fusion GPS, and the amounts were "not small change." Fox News contacted lawyers for the current and former officials with whom Ohr was in contact, as well as Mueller's office, and they declined to comment or did not respond. House Democrats say the focus on Ohr, a career civil servant whose portfolio did not include Russia, is being mischaracterized by Republicans, and his outreach on behalf of Steele was not prohibited or unlawful. As part of a "fact check" provided to reporters, Reps. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., said, "In fall 2016, the FBI ended their formal relationship with Mr. Steele as a confidential human source due to his unauthorized disclosures to the press — not because of any factual issues with the 'dossier' or other information Mr. Steele had provided." The senior Democrats continued: "When Mr. Steele subsequently reached out to Mr. Ohr with additional information, Mr. Ohr appropriately handed it off to FBI investigators to assess its credibility and potentially corroborate with other evidence. At the time, Mr. Ohr was the Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and it was not his job to vet the accuracy of this information himself." Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/30/dojs-bruce-ohr-kept-mueller-deputy-in-loop-about-anti-trump-dossier-sources-say.html ----- OHR Kept Then Colleague Andrew Weissmann In-The-Loop About Dossier https://youtu.be/wAIn5-MZ_Gk
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VIDEO Trump Says Canadian PM Trudeau Is Seeking Trade Deal: ‘He Called Me, I Didn’t Call Him’8/29/2018 Aug 29, 2018 by Paul Crookston President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seeks to ink a trade deal with the United States, which has been negotiating a deal with Mexico to update the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). https://youtu.be/lPT-PuXtJlE Speaking in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Trump received a barrage of questions from reporters and chose to answer one about whether he had spoken to Trudeau. "Yes, I spoke to him yesterday; we had a very good talk," Trumps said. "I spoke to him a couple of times." The reporter also asked about what kind of deal they might have at the end of the week, the deadline Trump set for renegotiating NAFTA. Trump said "we’ll see" and indicated Trudeau had initiated the conversation. "Hey, he called me; I didn’t call him," Trump said. "He was very nice, couldn't have been nicer," Trump added. "We’ll see what happens." Trump announced Monday a preliminary trade deal with Mexico to replace NAFTA, which he has called "one of the worst deals anybody in history has ever entered into." Trudeau said Wednesday he may be able to reach a deal for Canada, and Trump was quick to say he loves the northern neighbor. "I love Canada, and you know what? I love Mexico too," Trump told reporters. "Which one do you love better?" a reporter asked. "I like them both the same," Trump said with a smile, and those in the room laughed. With such a large portion of Canadian exports going to the U.S., it’s a top priority for Trudeau to have a trade deal in place. Trump has said he wants to establish a deal with Canada that is "fair" to American interests, and his criticism of NAFTA has annoyed Trudeau as well as free-trade supporters in the U.S. "Right now we call it the U.S.-Mexico trade agreement, and we’ll see whether or not Canada gets into it," Trump also said Wednesday, in the Oval Office. "I think it’s probably not going to be good at all if they don’t." https://freebeacon.com/issues/trump-says-canadian-pm-trudeau-seeking-trade-deal-called-didnt-call/ Palestinian leader hopeful Democrats will seize control of Congress, stall Trump agenda
Aug 29, 2018 by Adam Kredo Palestinian leaders are betting their future on President Donald Trump being impeached by Democrats following the mid-term elections, according to Arabic language comments by a senior Palestinian government leader who praised Special Counsel Robert Mueller for targeting Trump and his top allies. Palestinian government leaders, under pressure from the Trump administration as it slashes U.S. taxpayer aid to the embattled government, say they are betting on a Democratic takeover in Congress that will stall the administration's agenda and put the still languishing peace process on the back burner. Muhammad Shtaya, a member of the Fatah government's Central Committee, said regional officials are counting on Democrats winning the midterms and seizing control of Congress, a scenario the Palestinians believe would work in their favor as the Trump administration pursues efforts to isolate regional governments for their support of terrorism. The comments come amid a new push in Congress and the Trump administration to slash U.S. taxpayer aid to the Palestinian government as a result of it spending this money to pay the salaries of terrorists and their families. Parallel efforts in the United States also seek to redefine how Palestinian refugees are classified, a move that would change the calculus on peace talks. Shtaya said in Arabic language comments that many are waiting with anticipation for Democrats to win the midterm elections. November "is the midterm elections for Congress and the Senate," Shtaya said, according to an independent translation of his remarks provided to the Washington Free Beacon. "If the Democrats seize the majority in Congress and the Senate, I believe we will arrive at two results: First, the first result, a total paralysis of the Trump administration, as he will not be able to pass any bills in Congress. And second, and he spoke about this the other day, and he is the first American president to say, if I'm impeached, the world markets will collapse and everyone will pay a price for it." The ongoing Mueller investigation also has provided a lifeline to Palestinian leaders who are hopeful it will erode Trump's presidency. "I believe that the investigator Mueller is proceeding with a bottom-up strategy, and he's gradually tightening the noose on him, because, in any case, the principal problem is that America's interests worldwide have become to be negatively affected, and the weight of the United States in the world has begun to diminish—it's not collapsing, but it's diminishing—and the adversarial camp to the U.S. is expanding," Shtaya said. "Because for us, the nations of the world who stood with us at the [United Nations] did not just stand with Palestine, but also with their own interests." Shtaya's remarks indicate the Palestinian government is feeling the pressure following the Trump administration's decision to cut some $200 million in aid to the Palestinians as part of an effort to tighten the noose on its terrorism funding against Israel. The administration also is contemplating pulling U.S. funding for the United Nations Relief Works Agency, or UNRWA, a refugee aid body long accused of harboring anti-Israel bias and of aiding Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip, where it operates schools and other facilities. "That money at this time is not in the best interests of the U.S. national interest and also at this time does not provide value to the U.S. taxpayer," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters on Tuesday, referring to the $200 million aid reduction. "The Palestinian Authority, the Palestinians and Hamas [are] the primary reason why the security situation and the situation in Gaza is so terrible, why electricity has become an issue, why clean water has become an issue, all of those things. And Hamas needs to take care of its people. It has refused to do so. Instead, it has spent money on other types of projects, and you know exactly what I'm talking about." Asked about plans to defund and possibly dismantle UNRWA, Nauert said that no final decision has been made by the administration. Meanwhile, leaders in Congress are pushing efforts to cut UNRWA's funding and retool the organization, according to officials in the office of Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas). "Senator Cruz has long called for cutting the counterproductive funding the United States provides to the Palestinians, including and especially UNRWA, which promotes anti-Semitic incitement and lashes out against America," a Cruz spokesperson told the Free Beacon. "He will continue to push for reducing such funding until it's in line with America's national interests." The anti-UNRWA push comes on the heels of a Free Beacon report disclosing the State Department continues to classify what insiders have described as a bombshell report busting the myth of Palestinian refugees. While UNRWA is awarded international aid dollars to care for some 5.3 million Palestinian refugees, the classified report puts the number at closer to 20,000. Lawmakers say the report has been inappropriately classified in order to obfuscate the findings and keep them from public view. https://freebeacon.com/national-security/palestinian-leaders-bet-future-trump-impeachment/ Marc Elias, former Clinton campaign lawyer, on board undertaking efforts in Michigan
Aug 29, 2018 by Joe Schoffstall The nonprofit arm of Priorities USA is undertaking a massive effort to collect voting data in Michigan by requesting copies of ballots cast in the 2016 elections across the state—but is doing so via an opaque limited liability company and not under the actual name of the group, whose super PAC counts George Soros as a top funder. Marc Elias, a partner at the D.C. office of the Perkins Coie law firm who acted as Hillary Clinton's top campaign lawyer, joined the board of Priorities USA last year to help spearhead voter-related efforts of its nonprofit arm, Priorities USA Foundation. Elias has led past efforts bankrolled by Soros that challenged voter ID laws. Priorities USA Foundation is now seeking the Michigan data under the name "United Impact Group LLC," which left local clerks "unnerved," the Detroit News reported. Priorities had contracted a third-party firm to help with the efforts and the city of Lansing alone said that it would take 275 hours for their staff to complete and cost $12,000. There is no information about United Impact Group online and lists its return address on the requests as a P.O Box in Astoria, N.Y. The requests were also signed by "Emily," with no last name provided. A search of New York state's corporation database shows that the LLC is not registered in that state. However, it does appear in Delaware registrations, a popular destination given the secrecy that comes with registering in the state. Its filings with the state of Delaware show that the LLC was incorporated on July 19 of this year. The efforts are not being done to contest 2016 election results but to "inform and bolster future voter right protections" and the information could be used for the likes of future lawsuits against voter identification laws, the Daily Beast noted. Efforts are focused on Midwestern states Trump narrowly carried and will include Wisconsin. Elias, who was just a few months removed as Clinton's top campaign lawyer when he joined Priorities USA's board, previously led legal challenges against voter identification laws before the 2016 elections. Elias conducted the challenges in his personal capacity as an attorney at Perkins Coie, although Clinton publicly backed the effort. Soros gave $9.5 million to Priorities USA's PAC throughout the 2016 elections while his son, Alex, added $1 million. Soros has provided an additional $5 million to the PAC this cycle. The Priorities USA Foundation was established last year and does not have to disclose its donors. Soros also has a personal goal of expanding the electorate by 10 million voters and put millions of dollars into Elias's voter ID efforts. Elias filed lawsuits in states including Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, and Ohio. The Ohio Organizing Collaborative, the initial group Elias had put on the lawsuit in Ohio, later found itself under investigation for submitting fraudulent voter registration forms, including registering dead people. A source close to Elias at the time told the Washington Free Beacon that he had not been involved with the group since it was replaced as plaintiff. A woman who worked for the Ohio Organizing Collaborative ultimately pled guilty to falsely registering people to vote and was sentenced to six months in prison. Elias did not return a request for comment on Priorities' current efforts in Michigan to collect the ballots. Following Trump's victory, Democrats quickly mobilized a large network to combat voter ID laws. In addition to Priorities tapping Elias to lead the voter efforts, which seeks to build a national database to be the "one-stop inventory of restrictive voting measures" that will be shared with other progressive groups, other liberal groups popped up with the same mission. Jason Kander, the former Democratic Missouri secretary of state who has been floated a potential 2020 presidential candidate, launched one such nonprofit called Let America Vote. Guy Cecil, chairman of Priorities USA, and Elias both sit on Let America Vote's advisory board. https://freebeacon.com/politics/soros-backed-priorities-usa-requests-2016-ballots-via-united-impact-group/ New poll: 85 percent of blue-collar workers say their lives are heading 'in the right direction' Aug 29, 2018 by Haris Alic Nearly two years into the Trump presidency, blue-collar workers are increasingly optimistic about their social and economic circumstances. A new survey, conducted by the Harris Poll, found that 85 percent of blue-collar workers said their lives are advancing in "the right direction." The survey, commissioned by Express Employment Professionals, took place between July 9 and July 23. Data were collected from 1,049 blue-collar workers from across the nation who are employed in professions requiring manual labor. Across the board, the results indicate America's blue-collar workforce is sanguine about the nation's current economic outlook and their own standing. Apart from the 85 percent of blue-collar Americans who said their lives are going in the right direction, 69 percent said their local communities are on the right path, and 58 percent view their states as being on a positive course. The poll found 51 percent of blue-collar workers believe the country is heading in the right direction, a figure 12-percentage points higher than the 39 percent recorded amongst all Americans in a similar July Harvard-Harris Poll. Overall, 55 percent of blue-collar Americans expressed they were better off today compared with five years ago. Not only are blue-collar workers bullish about their current economic situation, they are also upbeat about the future. The survey found that 80 percent of blue-collar workers are optimistic about the future, with over one-third stating they were "very optimistic." Among those with children, 88 percent of respondents indicated they believed their children were likely to attain a better future. This stands in stark contrast to data collected by the Pew Research Center in 2017, which showed only 37 percent of Americans believing their children would grow up to be better off financially. Bill Stoller, the CEO of Express Employment Professionals, said his organization commissioned the poll to ascertain the optimism of blue-collar Americans, especially since so much attention is being paid to the group ahead of the 2018 midterms. "There’s been a great deal of chatter about the future and frustrations of America's blue-collar workers," Stoller said. "Our survey reveals that blue collar workers are upbeat, optimistic, and proud of the work they do. While the news is often full of stories about economic anxieties, this survey shows workers who are exceptionally optimistic." In July 2018, the economy added 37,000 manufacturing jobs, boosting the total number created in the sector in the past 12 months to 327,000—the fastest rate of growth in 23 years. Likewise, the construction industry has added over 308,000 jobs in the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The soaring economy, buoyed by the president's tax cut package, has also translated into increased wages and bonuses for the American worker. Over two-thirds of blue-collar workers—68 percent—reported receiving a pay increase in the past year, according to the Harris Poll. Of those who received a pay increase, 39 percent of respondents stated their raise equaled more than 5 percent of their annual earnings. Despite the strong economic optimism found among blue-collar Americans, the group as a whole holds low opinions of elected officials and partisan politics. Approximately 70 percent of the poll's respondents expressed distrust in "elected government officials" and only 51 percent said the federal government advocates pro-business policies. On the topic of partisan affiliation, 39 percent said the Republican Party did a better job of helping blue-collar workers, compared with 36 percent who said the same of the Democratic Party. Almost one in four believed neither party did a sufficient job of helping blue-collar Americans. Such numbers don't bode well for the Democratic Party, which has long been identified as the home of blue-collar and working-class voters. A breakdown of voting patterns from the 2016 presidential election shows Trump did exceedingly better among this constituency than previous Republican contenders for the White House. Complicating matters further for the Democratic Party is the fact that voters belonging to labor unions, long a vital component of the party's base, are faring well under the economic policies of the Trump administration. The Harris Poll found skilled trade workers, those more likely to belong to labor unions, indicated greater optimism about their present circumstances than general labor workers, who are less likely to be union members. This was exhibited when the survey's respondents were asked if their jobs provided "a good living" with which to "financially support" their families. In total, 80 percent of blue-collar workers said their current jobs provided the means to support their families, compared with 85 percent of skilled trade workers and only 72 percent of general laborers. Furthermore, 61 percent of skilled trade workers expressed they were better off today than five years ago, compared with 45 percent of general labor workers. Mark Glyptis, the president of United Steelworkers Local 2911 in Weirton, W.Va., told the Washington Free Beacon there was no doubt about the economic resurgence being witnessed. "There aren’t any questions that the economy is much better today," Glyptis said. "There is a huge demand for workers and skilled workers. In many cases, the demand for skilled workers greatly exceeds the number available." Glyptis, who in the past has spoken favorably of the president and his trade policies, pointed to Trump's economic strategy and his commitment to American manufacturing as the root cause of blue-collar optimism. "Previous administrations, both Democratic and Republican, spent too much time worrying about foreign unemployment rates while neglecting our domestic economy," Glyptis said. "President Trump has made American manufacturing—especially steel—more competitive on the world stage by ensuring a level playing field. We didn't have that ability under previous presidents." "I have a big sense of optimism about the direction our country is headed," Glyptis added. https://freebeacon.com/issues/blue-collar-workers-increasingly-optimistic-under-trump/ President Donald Trump | Getty BY: Haris Alic President Donald Trump | Getty BY: Haris Alic August 29, 2018 Bruce Ohr Testifies To Closed-Door Joint Session of Congress (Oversight and Judiciary)… Posted on August 28, 2018 by sundance Today DOJ Official Bruce Ohr is testifying in a closed-door session to a joint House Oversight and Judiciary Committee. The republican representatives asking questions were selected by Chairman Bob Goodlatte. Democrats are relying on staff. According to Kyle Cheney (Politico) Bruce Ohr has four lawyers with him, personal lawyers and lawyers representing the interests of the DOJ. Initial indications are Ohr has provided testimony that directly conflicts with Fusion-GPS Glenn Simpson, and prior testimony from witness Lisa Page to the joint committee. https://youtu.be/4u29tyz3p7E https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/08/28/bruce-ohr-testifies-to-closed-door-joint-session-of-congress-oversight-and-judiciary/ -------- Witness: Fusion GPS, Trump Tower Participants Met with Clinton Associate Ed Lieberman Aug 28, 2018 by Aaron Klein
Attorney Edward Lieberman, whose late wife Evelyn previously served as Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff when she was First Lady, was present at one and possibly two dinner meetings between the controversial Fusion GPS firm and key participants in the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, according to witness testimony reviewed by Breitbart News.One of those meetings with Fusion GPS took place just days after the Trump Tower meeting, the testimony reveals. Also, Edward Lieberman met with one Russian participant the same day of the Trump Tower meeting, according to separate testimony. Besides working for Hillary Clinton, Lieberman’s late wife, Evelyn, also served as Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, and famously transferred Monica Lewinsky out of the White House to the Defense Department. Edward Lieberman himself has been described as working within the orbit of the Clintons. He previously served as legal counsel and advisor to the Albright Group LLC, which was founded by Madeleine K. Albright, who served as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of State and who would later serve as a surrogate for Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. Lieberman’s expertise, listed on his former Albright Group bio, includes “multi-billion dollar privatizations of oil and gas assets in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Russia.” The Russia collusion conspiracy was sparked by the dossier produced by Fusion GPS, which was paid for its anti-Trump work by Trump’s primary political opponents, namely Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via the Perkins Coie law firm. In previous testimony, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson described having several dinners with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who countered the Magnitsky Act which sanctions Russian officials accused of involvement in the death of a Russian tax accountant. All participants at the Trump Tower meeting generally agree the confab, in which Veselnitskaya did most of the talking, focused largely on the Magnitsky Act as well as talk about a Russian tax evasion scheme and alleged connections to the Democratic National Committee. Donald Trump Jr. previously explained that he took the meeting thinking it was about “opposition research” on Hillary Clinton and was disappointed that it wasn’t. Simpson and Fusion GPS were hired by BakerHostetler, which represented the Russian firm Prevezon, to do opposition work targeting British financier Bill Browder. It was Browder who did extensive investment work in Russia and who successfully lobbied Congress to pass the Magnitsky Act, the very topic of the Trump Tower meeting. Veselnitskaya was the attorney for Prevezon. The Russian-linked Prevezon Holdings Ltd. had settled a case in the U.S. involving the purchase of real estate with allegedly laundered money, accusations that centered around the Magnitsky Act. In Senate testimony, Simpson previously revealed that he had dinner with Veselnitskaya on June 8, 2016, in New York and two days later in Washington, DC. The Trump Tower meeting took place on June 9, 2016. Simpson also recalled having a dinner with Veselnitskaya in “probably 2015.” Simpson further testified that he saw Veselnitskaya the same day as the Trump Tower meeting while attending a court hearing in New York. Although he says he saw the Russian attorney the day before the Trump Tower meeting, the same day as the meeting and the day after, he claimed that the two did not discuss the Trump Tower get together on any of those occasions. This even though Simpson’s Fusion GPS was assembling a controversial dossier about unsubstantiated ties between Russia and the very campaign with whom Russian attorney Veselnitskaya held the Trump Tower meeting. In her own written response to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Veselnitskaya denied meeting Simpson on June 8 or June 10. She also denied informing Simpson of the Trump Tower meeting. Now it has emerged that Anatoli Samochornov, a Russian translator who was present at the Trump Tower meeting, testified that he was present at several meetings between Simpson and Veselnitskaya, including around the date of the Trump Tower meeting. Samochornov also places Lieberman at one and likely two of those meetings. Samochornov described those present at “the first meeting”—ostensibly referring to an initial meeting in October 2015. From the context of his testimony, he also could have been referring to the “first meeting” in June 2016. He described those present at the “first meeting” as including himself, Simpson, Veselnitskaya, Russian-born Washington lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin ad Lieberman. Akhmetshin came to the Trump Tower meeting, as well. Samochornov described another meeting with Fusion GPS after the Trump Tower confab, which he says took place in Washington, DC likely on the “12th or the 13th” of June, stressing he could not recall the exact date. Simpson said that the meeting in question took place on June 10. “I also believe Mr. Lieberman” was present at that meeting, Samochornov testified, referring to the meeting after the Trump Tower episode. This possibly places Lieberman at another meeting between Fusion GPS and Trump Tower participants. Later in the testimony, Samochornov was to clarify whether Lieberman was present at the Washington, DC, meeting following the Trump Tower presentation. Samochornov replied, “I think so. Yes.” Efforts to reach Lieberman for comment were not successful. Lieberman’s alleged association with the Trump Tower fiasco was previously spotlighted in testimony by Akhmetshin, as first reported by Breitbart News. Akhmetshin describes meeting with Lieberman two times the same day as the Trump Tower meeting. The New York Times previously reported that Lieberman in 1998 arranged for Akhmitshin’s position at “an organization pushing what he described as a pro-democracy agenda for Kazakhstan.” Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh says he met Akhmetshin through Lieberman. In his Senate testimony, Akhmetshin described taking an Acela train to New York the day of the Trump Tower meeting and says that Lieberman “may” have been with him on the train. Akhmetshin says his dealings with Lieberman in New York that day were “personal” and centered on a scholarship program that he claims Lieberman started. “And he was in New York that day to discuss arrangements with Metropolitan Museum with kind of taking care of that scholarship award,” Akhmetshin stated. Akhmetshin says that while he was in New York, he had lunch with Veselnitskaya, who told him about the scheduled meeting that day at Trump Tower, but she didn’t say anything about him attending. He claims that after he had lunch with Veselnitskaya, she called him and asked him to attend the Trump Tower meeting, but she didn’t suggest any role he would play at the meeting or why he should attend. After the meeting at Trump Tower, Akhmetshin says he went to dinner and a play with Lieberman, and the subject of the meeting that same day did not come up in his conversations with Lieberman at dinner or during the play. Akhmetshin also stated in the testimony that he was not asked to keep the meeting confidential. In other words, Akhmetshin is claiming that he attended a meeting at the campaign headquarters of Clinton’s presidential challenger with that challenger’s son and other top Trump staffers, and that same night Akhmetshin did not even mention the meeting to his friend Lieberman, a Clinton associate. He also said he had drinks that same night with another “friend,” but could not remember who that friend was. Later in the testimony, when Akhmetshin described disclosing another matter to journalist friends, he was questioned about his claim that he didn’t tell Lieberman that same night about the Trump Jr. meeting, yet he seemingly evidenced a lack of discretion with reporters. During further questioning in Senate testimony, Akhmetshin admitted to possibly telling Lieberman about the Trump Tower meeting, but says he may have told him on another day and not the same day as the meeting. Akhmetshin detailed knowing Hillary Clinton since the late 1990s and last seeing her at Evelyn Lieberman’s 2015 funeral. In the same testimony, Akhmetshin says he “knew” some of the people who worked on Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Samochornov, the translator, also has links to Clinton. Samochornov testified that he was previously an interpreter for Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Barack Obama. Samochornov also said that he held a “public trust” clearance from the U.S. government. The clearance provides a level of screening for individuals who do government work described as sensitive, but whose positions do not require a security clearance. He also said that he translated meetings with Fusion GPS. Meanwhile, aside from Akhmetshin’s links to Lieberman, the Russian lobbyist, like Samochornov and Veselnitskaya, is also reportedly tied to Fusion GPS and the controversial firm’s co-founder, Glenn Simpson. Akhmetshin’s November 14, 2017 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee contained numerous sections that detail his past relationship with Fusion GPS and Simpson. Some of that relationship, which also involved Veselnitskaya, spanned the period just prior to the meeting with Trump Jr. Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook. Joshua Klein contributed research to this article. https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/08/28/witness-fusion-gps-trump-tower-participants-met-clinton-associate-ed-lieberman/ ------ Bruce Ohr Testifies on the Hill--KEY BACKGROUND on Fusion GPS/DOJ Collusion to Target Trump https://youtu.be/iJT4dd4gNR4 ------ Related https://www.breitbart.com/video/2018/08/28/meadows-people-at-fbi-doj-used-their-own-press-leaks-to-further-investigations/ https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/08/28/spygate-bruce-ohr-fisa-rod-rosenstein/ http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/08/28/gregg-jarrett-scheme-from-bruce-ohr-and-comeys-confederates-to-clear-clinton-damage-trump.html June 7, 2008 By SHARON CHURCHER, MAIL ON SUNDAY CHIEF AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT Now that Hillary Clinton has at last formally withdrawn from the race for the White House, the eyes of America and the world will focus on Barack Obama and his Republican rival Senator John McCain. While Obama will surely press his credentials as the embodiment of the American dream – a handsome, charismatic young black man who was raised on food stamps by a single mother and who represents his country’s future – McCain will present himself as a selfless, principled war hero whose campaign represents not so much a battle for the presidency of the United States, but a crusade to rescue the nation’s tarnished reputation. Forgotten woman: But despite all her problems Carol McCain says she still adores he ex-husband McCain likes to illustrate his moral fibre by referring to his five years as a prisoner-of-war in Vietnam. And to demonstrate his commitment to family values, the 71-year-old former US Navy pilot pays warm tribute to his beautiful blonde wife, Cindy, with whom he has four children. But there is another Mrs McCain who casts a ghostly shadow over the Senator’s presidential campaign. She is seldom seen and rarely written about, despite being mother to McCain’s three eldest children. And yet, had events turned out differently, it would be she, rather than Cindy, who would be vying to be First Lady. She is McCain’s first wife, Carol, who was a famous beauty and a successful swimwear model when they married in 1965. She was the woman McCain dreamed of during his long incarceration and torture in Vietnam’s infamous ‘Hanoi Hilton’ prison and the woman who faithfully stayed at home looking after the children and waiting anxiously for news. But when McCain returned to America in 1973 to a fanfare of publicity and a handshake from Richard Nixon, he discovered his wife had been disfigured in a terrible car crash three years earlier. Her car had skidded on icy roads into a telegraph pole on Christmas Eve, 1969. Her pelvis and one arm were shattered by the impact and she suffered massive internal injuries. When Carol was discharged from hospital after six months of life-saving surgery, the prognosis was bleak. In order to save her legs, surgeons had been forced to cut away huge sections of shattered bone, taking with it her tall, willowy figure. She was confined to a wheelchair and was forced to use a catheter. Through sheer hard work, Carol learned to walk again. But when John McCain came home from Vietnam, she had gained a lot of weight and bore little resemblance to her old self. Today, she stands at just 5ft4in and still walks awkwardly, with a pronounced limp. Her body is held together by screws and metal plates and, at 70, her face is worn by wrinkles that speak of decades of silent suffering. For nearly 30 years, Carol has maintained a dignified silence about the accident, McCain and their divorce. But last week at the bungalow where she now lives at Virginia Beach, a faded seaside resort 200 miles south of Washington, she told The Mail on Sunday how McCain divorced her in 1980 and married Cindy, 18 years his junior and the heir to an Arizona brewing fortune, just one month later. >>>Who do you want to see as the next US president? Leave your views below... Carol insists she remains on good terms with her ex-husband, who agreed as part of their divorce settlement to pay her medical costs for life. ‘I have no bitterness,’ she says. ‘My accident is well recorded. I had 23 operations, I am five inches shorter than I used to be and I was in hospital for six months. It was just awful, but it wasn’t the reason for my divorce. ‘My marriage ended because John McCain didn’t want to be 40, he wanted to be 25. You know that happens...it just does.’ Some of McCain’s acquaintances are less forgiving, however. They portray the politician as a self-centred womaniser who effectively abandoned his crippled wife to ‘play the field’. They accuse him of finally settling on Cindy, a former rodeo beauty queen, for financial reasons. McCain was then earning little more than £25,000 a year as a naval officer, while his new father-in-law, Jim Hensley, was a multi-millionaire who had impeccable political connections. He first met Carol in the Fifties while he was at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. He was a privileged, but rebellious scion of one of America’s most distinguished military dynasties – his father and grandfather were both admirals. But setting out to have a good time, the young McCain hung out with a group of young officers who called themselves the ‘Bad Bunch’. His primary interest was women and his conquests ranged from a knife-wielding floozy nicknamed ‘Marie, the Flame of Florida’ to a tobacco heiress. Carol fell into his fast-living world by accident. She escaped a poor upbringing in Philadelphia to become a successful model, married an Annapolis classmate of McCain’s and had two children – Douglas and Andrew – before renewing what one acquaintance calls ‘an old flirtation’ with McCain. It seems clear she was bowled over by McCain’s attention at a time when he was becoming bored with his playboy lifestyle. ‘He was 28 and ready to settle down and he loved Carol’s children,’ recalled another Annapolis graduate, Robert Timberg, who wrote The Nightingale’s Song, a bestselling biography of McCain and four other graduates of the academy. The couple married and McCain adopted Carol’s sons. Their daughter, Sidney, was born a year later, but domesticity was clearly beginning to bore McCain – the couple were regarded as ‘fixtures on the party circuit’ before McCain requested combat duty in Vietnam at the end of 1966. He was assigned as a bomber pilot on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin. What follows is the stuff of the McCain legend. He was shot down over Hanoi in October 1967 on his 23rd mission over North Vietnam and was badly beaten by an angry mob when he was pulled, half-drowned from a lake. War hero: McCain with Carol as he arrives back in the US in 1973 after his five years as a PoW in North Vietnam Over the next five-and-a-half years in the notorious Hoa Loa Prison he was regularly tortured and mistreated. It was in 1969 that Carol went to spend the Christmas holiday – her third without McCain – at her parents’ home. After dinner, she left to drop off some presents at a friend’s house. It wasn’t until some hours later that she was discovered, alone and in terrible pain, next to the wreckage of her car. She had been hurled through the windscreen. After her first series of life-saving operations, Carol was told she may never walk again, but when doctors said they would try to get word to McCain about her injuries, she refused, insisting: ‘He’s got enough problems, I don’t want to tell him.’ H. Ross Perot, a billionaire Texas businessman, future presidential candidate and advocate of prisoners of war, paid for her medical care. When McCain – his hair turned prematurely white and his body reduced to little more than a skeleton – was released in March 1973, he told reporters he was overjoyed to see Carol again. But friends say privately he was ‘appalled’ by the change in her appearance. At first, though, he was kind, assuring her: ‘I don’t look so good myself. It’s fine.’ He bought her a bungalow near the sea in Florida and another former PoW helped him to build a railing so she could pull herself over the dunes to the water. ‘I thought, of course, we would live happily ever after,’ says Carol. But as a war hero, McCain was moving in ever-more elevated circles. Through Ross Perot, he met Ronald Reagan, then Governor of California. A sympathetic Nancy Reagan took Carol under her wing. But already the McCains’ marriage had begun to fray. ‘John started carousing and running around with women,’ said Robert Timberg. McCain has acknowledged that he had girlfriends during this time, without going into details. Some friends blame his dissatisfaction with Carol, but others give some credence to her theory of a mid-life crisis. He was also fiercely ambitious, but it was clear he would never become an admiral like his illustrious father and grandfather and his thoughts were turning to politics. In 1979 – while still married to Carol – he met Cindy at a cocktail party in Hawaii. Over the next six months he pursued her, flying around the country to see her. Then he began to push to end his marriage. Carol and her children were devastated. ‘It was a complete surprise,’ says Nancy Reynolds, a former Reagan aide. ‘They never displayed any difficulties between themselves. I know the Reagans were quite shocked because they loved and respected both Carol and John.’ Another friend added: ‘Carol didn’t fight him. She felt her infirmity made her an impediment to him. She justified his actions because of all he had gone through. She used to say, “He just wants to make up for lost time.”’ Indeed, to many in their circle the saddest part of the break-up was Carol’s decision to resign herself to losing a man she says she still adores. Friends confirm she has remained friends with McCain and backed him in all his campaigns. ‘He was very generous to her in the divorce but of course he could afford to be, since he was marrying Cindy,’ one observed. McCain transferred the Florida beach house to Carol and gave her the right to live in their jointly-owned townhouse in the Washington suburb of Alexandria. He also agreed to pay her alimony and child support. A former neighbour says she subsequently sold up in Florida and Washington and moved in 2003 to Virginia Beach. He said: ‘My impression was that she found the new place easier to manage as she still has some difficulties walking.’ Meanwhile McCain moved to Arizona with his new bride immediately after their 1980 marriage. There, his new father-in-law gave him a job and introduced him to local businessmen and political powerbrokers who would smooth his passage to Washington via the House of Representatives and Senate. And yet despite his popularity as a politician, there are those who won’t forget his treatment of his first wife. Ted Sampley, who fought with US Special Forces in Vietnam and is now a leading campaigner for veterans’ rights, said: ‘I have been following John McCain’s career for nearly 20 years. I know him personally. There is something wrong with this guy and let me tell you what it is – deceit. ‘When he came home and saw that Carol was not the beauty he left behind, he started running around on her almost right away. Everybody around him knew it. ‘Eventually he met Cindy and she was young and beautiful and very wealthy. At that point McCain just dumped Carol for something he thought was better. ‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’ One old friend of the McCains said: ‘Carol always insists she is not bitter, but I think that’s a defence mechanism. She also feels deeply in his debt because in return for her agreement to a divorce, he promised to pay for her medical care for the rest of her life.’ Carol remained resolutely loyal as McCain’s political star rose. She says she agreed to talk to The Mail on Sunday only because she wanted to publicise her support for the man who abandoned her. Indeed, the old Mercedes that she uses to run errands displays both a disabled badge and a sticker encouraging people to vote for her ex-husband. ‘He’s a good guy,’ she assured us. ‘We are still good friends. He is the best man for president.’ But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics. ‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said. ‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html ------ Todd Starnes: CNN & MSNBC are using Sen. McCain’s passing for political reasons Aug 27, 2018 The official placard marking the office of Arizona Sen. John McCain is seen in the Russell building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Aug. 27, 2018. McCain, a Vietnam War hero, two-time Republican presidential contender and towering figure in Congress known for his bipartisan deal-making during six terms as an Arizona senator, died Saturday at age 81 of brain cancer. The nation will honor John McCain who died Saturday after a yearlong battle with cancer, with days of mourning. Two former presidents are expected to speak at a memorial service for the Arizona Senator who will lie in state in both the nation's capital and Arizona as part of a cross-country funeral procession ending with his burial at the U.S. Naval Academy. Tributes are pouring in from both Democrats and Republicans, as well as from the mainstream media. Todd Starnes began a recent program by criticizing those in the mainstream media and others for using Sen. McCain's passing for their own political gain. "The folks at CNN and MSNBC, they are using a war hero's death to score cheap political points. And by the way there are some on the far-right that are piling on too. It's inappropriate, because at the end of the day, he called Trump supporters a bunch of crazies, but in the end, none of that really matters. The only thing that really matters is your family," Starnes said. Listen to the whole segment here: https://radio.foxnews.com/2018/08/27/todd-starnes-cnn-msnbc-are-using-sen-mccains-passing-for-political-reasons/ ------ Related https://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/mccain-and-his-first-wife/ https://heavy.com/news/2017/07/carol-shepp-mccain-john-mccain-first-ex-wife-children-kids-family-divorced/ https://people.com/politics/john-mccain-daughter-sidney-first-wife-discuss-divorce/ BY GARNET92 on AUGUST 27, 2018 From: amgreatness.com, by Conrad Black, on Aug 24, 2018 Only the final descent of the Trump assassination squads to the supreme self-humiliation of the Michael Cohen-Stormy Daniels nothing-burger could drag me from my sublime writing holiday to inflict myself on whatever readers there may be in August. Amid the hydrogen bomb of decrials of moral turpitude and perceived high crimes, there is no one else audible who sees the Cohen rollover as the supreme victory for the president that it is. The Mueller investigation that started out with such a trumpet-blast of portentous Wagnerian prophecy of impending revelations of treason, has fallen to the asininity of getting a sleazy lawyer who has pleaded guilty to a smorgasbord of criminal frauds to declare that candidate Trump told him to pay hush money to a woman he had allegedly had a sexual encounter with 10 years before the election, and that this was an illegal campaign contribution and attempt corruptly to influence the outcome of the presidential election. There had never been any hint of impropriety by Trump in the matter—no coercion, no payment on the night, and the best that could be done for titillation was when Stormy, a generally engaging and peppy businesswoman, though she found nothing exceptionable in the future president’s conduct, or in “his junk,” claimed to have lightly spanked him with a copy of Time that had his picture on the cover. As S&M goes, this is pretty thin gruel. Succumbing to the Madness It has come to this. Robert Mueller, former director of the FBI, before it became the dirty tricks division of the Democratic National Committee, could have exonerated a lot of people who were defamed with imputations of treason in “colluding” with Russia. He could have had some members of his investigative team who were not rabid Democrats. He could have investigated all the Democratic Party’s skulduggery with Russia, starting with the infamous Steele dossier, the false FISA warrants, the lies under oath to Congress and the FBI. He could have adopted the view that he should find out if crimes were committed, and if not, to say so, as normal prosecutors do. But he just kept spiraling down like a deep-diving sewer rat. He succumbed terminally to the Archibald Cox-Lawrence Walsh-Ken Starr madness that his duty was to destroy the chief target, no matter what level of professional degradation he reached trying to do so, the facts be damned. There is no believable evidence that Trump authorized an illegal payment. Cohen is just the latest example of the utter corruption of the plea bargain system: a light sentence for possibly real offenses in exchange for extorted, false, supposedly inculpatory evidence that Mueller can serve to the demented Adam Schiff-Eric Swalwell Democratic congressional school of preemptive Trump-lynching as grounds for impeachment. Trump engaged Cohen to spare him Stormy’s threats of raw meat publicity for the impartial press, (where the New York Times formally had announced their partiality in news stories in the national interest), in the last week of the election campaign. Cohen did so, invoiced Trump, and the client paid the invoice. It is not clear how specific Trump’s instructions were. Cohen leaked a recording of a conversation a few weeks ago to incite the fear that he might have taped some indiscretion of Trump, (totally unethical for a lawyer to do that with a client). This cannot seriously be construed as a campaign contribution, as was found in the John Edwards case, where there had been an extensive affair and a child resulted while Edwards was running for vice president. And it certainly is nowhere near the “high crime or misdemeanor” the Constitution requires to remove someone from federal office. The Democrats will achieve new depths of misplaced righteousness as they carry forward the icons of their past leaders in uxorial fidelity, the hall of fame of upholders of connubial values: Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and William Jefferson Clinton, like Infants of Prague (the city Michael Cohen never visited). This ghastly charade, which began as the vengeance of the Democrats on the impudence of the country for electing the Republican candidate, as well as Hillary Clinton’s excuse for her astounding loss of a won election, is finally entering its last chapter. Give the People What They Need to Decide The following events should now occur, and I believe most of them will. In this last gasp of Mueller’s warlock-hunt, the president in keeping with the energetic midterm campaign he promised, should finally order the release of all the material the Justice Department is withholding which congressional committees have demanded, and he should reduce at once by two years the sentences of all federal prisoners who are nonviolent first offenders. This would assure the immediate release of tens of thousands of people. American prisons are stuffed with innocent and grossly over-sentenced victims of the criminal sausage factory who were railroaded by the crooked prosecutorial system, of which fired FBI director James Comey, his egregious lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald, fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, and Mueller are shining exemplars. Apart from being a just measure, it would accelerate the tidal drift of African-American voters from the Democrats who have done nothing but strengthen their welfare dependency since Lyndon Johnson, to President Trump, who has shown his determination to reform the fascistic American criminal justice system with its North Korean conviction levels and stark racial imbalances. Trump should campaign on these points: You, the people, are the jury. If you want to decriminalize policy differences and avoid impeachment trials for inoffensive acts such as authorizing a lawyer to facilitate discretion by someone over a decade-old uncontroversial one evening encounter, vote Republican. If you want to keep your tax cuts and relative regulatory liberty, vote Republican. If you do not want open borders where millions of unscreened people, a significant number of them violent and dangerous, will enter illegally, clog our welfare rolls, and be encouraged to vote (Democratic) regardless of their illegal status, vote Republican. If the Democrats win control of the House of Representatives by more than a few members, they will probably try to impeach the president but will have no chance of removing him in a Senate trial on this nonsense. If the Republicans retain the House and add to their majority in the Senate, minus feckless members such as Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), and even Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the president will put the rest of his program through, as the Democrats begin the agonizing reappraisal that awaits them. That party has come to a dead end, as former intelligence chiefs James Clapper and John Brennan publicly fall out over Brennan’s charge against Trump of “treason.” They hung all their hopes on Mueller, who has shot his pathetic bolt. Their face is the cheery countenance of their 28-year old nitwit socialist Bronx congressional candidate, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Their voice is the Cuomo brothers: Andrew says America was never great and Chris says the country should support the Antifa thugs in their ninja suits. This is the inspiration of the Democrats: the wit of the Cuomos; a wit composed of the reflections of two halfwits. Whatever the results on election night, the president should fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions, his deputy Rod Rosenstein, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller as soon as the polls have closed—there’s nothing impeachable about firing incompetent people, some of whom are behaving unconstitutionally. You would never guess it from the fatuous ululations of triumph of his enemies, but Trump has won already. Photo Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images ~~~~~~~~~~ I liked this article by Mr. Black, particularly his style. I thought that his suggestion for reducing the sentences of federal nonviolent first offenders was worth investigating. It’s probably a good idea anyway and could help sway a goodly number of those released to vote for Trump. That’s taking a page out of the democrat’s playbook on how to buy earn votes. Notwithstanding the loudmouths who populate the newsprint and television channels, a large portion of America’s citizenry has seen through the Mueller/Russian witch hunt, have witnessed the vast improvement in the economy, and have decided that we’ll side with President Trump. We don’t want him impeached. We want him to continue to bring prosperity to the country; we remember the previous eight years of Obama and want no more of that awful experience. We’re willing to accept a few eccentric foibles in exchange for a booming economy and a positive outlook for the future. We also want to see the criminal actions of those Deep State actors recognized for what they are/were – political sedition, and we want to see each of them pay for their criminal activities – and that includes Hillary Clinton. In short, we’re tired of make-believe justice, we’re ready for the real thing. Garnet92. https://arlinreport.com/2018/08/28/trump-has-already-won-on-impeachment-pesky-truth/ https://peskytruth.wordpress.com/2018/08/27/trump-has-already-won-on-impeachment/ Aug 27, 2018 by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.
Public schools in Florida must now display the motto, “In God We Trust,” per provisions of a state law passed in March and now brought to full effect with the opening of the new academic year. Title XLVIII, Chapter 1003 of the state law has been amended to read: “Each district school board shall adopt rules to require, in all of the schools of the district and in each building used by the district school board, the display of the state motto, “In God We Trust” … in a conspicuous place.” Local media reports that the state government has in at least a few cases e-mailed signs with the motto printed on them for use by the school districts in their schools and other district buildings. Other school districts around the state report having been given signs bearing the legally required motto. Florida’s enactment of such a statute has drawn more media attention to the act than other states who’ve passed similar laws, such as Tennessee and Arkansas. The heightened scrutiny of the motto’s placement in school buildings in Florida is likely attributable to the global coverage of the deadly assault carried out by a gunman at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, earlier this year. As would be expected in this day of intolerance, there are opponents of the law and its mandated mounting of the state motto (“In God We Trust” was made the official state motto in 2006). In a statement regarding the recently enacted law, the Freedom From Religion Foundation called the Constitution as a witness for its claims: “These godly postings exclude and alienate the one-in-five students in our public schools who do not believe in god. And they’re meant to,” the foundation’s statement reads. “These laws are not about patriotism, they’re about turning believers into insiders, and nonbelievers into outsiders. There’s nothing patriotic in undermining our nation’s secular Constitution.” I’ll let go by the comment — historically untenable in the extreme — that our country’s constitution is “secular,” but the idea that because there are “nonbelievers,” all “believers” must confine their worship to their homes is typical of the intolerance displayed by those claiming to be victims of discrimination by Christians. There is one question that would seem to clear up the controversy without relying on anyone to abandon his beliefs, or lack of belief. If one does not believe in the Christian God or in Jesus Christ as a resurrected being, wouldn’t that person be about as threatened by a plaque declaring trust in God as he would if a similar sign promised faith in Zeus or Odin? Finally, most of the opposition to posting the motto in public-school buildings has invoked the First Amendment, specifically that amendment’s provision prohibiting the establishment of religion. With all respect due to the folks at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the Constitution — specifically the First Amendment — most certainly does not prohibit the state of Florida from requiring schools to post a plaque reading “In God We Trust.” The First Amendment reads, in relevant part: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.” While the last three words of that clause are well-worn, the first five words are either ignored or re-interpreted according to the opinion of this or that Supreme Court majority. Read closely, that phrase not only prohibits the federal legislature from establishing a religion, but it forbids it from making any law “respecting” such an establishment. This language not only keeps Congress out of the business of establishing a national religion, but it places a wall of separation, if you will, between the states and their establishment of religion and the interference of the federal government. As noted law professor and constitutional scholar Akhil Reed Amar explains, Congress is prohibited by the Establishment Clause from “trying to disestablish churches established by state and local governments.” (Emphasis in original.) Joseph Story, in his Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, agrees, declaring plainly, “Thus, the whole power over the subject of religion is left exclusively to the state governments, to be acted upon according to their own sense of justice, and the state constitutions.” Amar points out that were the Establishment Clause to be applied to the states (a practice known as “incorporation” and seemingly required by the 14th Amendment), this would “eliminate its [the state’s] right to choose whether to establish a religion — a right explicitly confirmed by the Establishment Clause itself!” The states, in forming the federal government for the purpose of administering an enumeration of “few and defined” powers, reserved for themselves the full panoply of “numerous and indefinite” powers that lay beyond those boundaries. One of these powers is most certainly the power to establish a state religion. The Constitution, by specifically setting this prerogative outside the fence of federal authority, protects the power of the states to legislate as its people and their representatives deem fit for themselves. Admittedly, this analysis will seem strange to most Americans who for generations have been indoctrinated to believe that the application of the First Amendment to the states, particularly when it comes to protecting the practice or non-practice of religious faith, is according to the dictates of one’s own conscience. Regarding the distinct constitutional limits on the establishment of religion, Thomas Jefferson, as president, offered the following explanation of how he was able to defend his refusal to declare a national day of religious thanksgiving as president and his declaration of just such a celebration while serving as the governor of Virginia. In 1808, Jefferson wrote to the Reverend Samuel Miller: “I am aware that the practice of my [presidential] predecessors may be quoted. But I have ever believed that the example of state executives led to the assumption of that authority by the general government, without due examination, which would have discovered that what might be a right in a state government, was a violation of that right when assumed by another.” The subject could not be clearer. Considering Jefferson’s familiarity with and devotion to the history of ancient Greece, one is reminded of the following observation of Thucydides, regarding the lack of “due examination” suggested by Jefferson. “The way that most men deal with traditions, even traditions of their own country, is to receive them all alike as they are delivered, without applying any critical test whatever,” he wrote, condemning the failure of the people to study the history of their own country. James Madison, Jefferson’s constant collaborator and fast friend, placed the establishment of religion beyond the bailiwick of the general government (that which we call the “federal government”), but safely inside the bounds of state sovereignty. During debate on the national bank, on February 2, 1791, Madison remarked, as recorded in the annals of Congress: “The defense against the charge founded on the want of a bill of rights presupposed, he said, that the powers not given were retained; and those not given were not to be extended by remote implications. On any other supposition, the power of Congress to abridge the freedom of the press, or the rights of conscience, etc., could not have been disproved.” With this recitation of history and constitutional construction in mind, perhaps the members of the Freedom from Religion Foundation and those who share their angst over a plaque may come to see that their ado makes it seem that they likely care less for the defense of religious liberty than for its denial to those who dare worship God and choose to put their trust in Him. Image: WilliamSherman via iStock / Getty Images Plus https://mylegalhelpusa.wordpress.com/2018/08/27/new-florida-law-in-god-we-trust-must-be-placed-in-all-public-schools/ |
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