Attorney General Bill Barr clashed with Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday over accusations that he is carrying out President Trump‘s political wishes, as he appeared for a long-awaited hearing where tensions also flared over protests and riots following George Floyd’s death in police custody.

The hearing, originally scheduled for 10 a.m. local time, was delayed after committee chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., was in a car accident. Nadler did not suffer any injuries.

Once the hearing began, which lasted until mid-afternoon, Nadler did not hesitate to express his scorn for Barr and his Justice Department.

NADLER INVOLVED IN CAR ACCIDENT BUT UNHURT; BARR HEARING DELAYED

“Thank you for being here, Mr. Barr,” Nadler said with a note of sarcasm, pointing out that this was the attorney general’s first time appearing before the committee.

The chairman went on to claim that Barr and his department have “downplayed the effects of systemic racism” in the wake of Floyd’s death and ongoing protests.

Addressing the department’s approach to cases related to the Russia probe, Nadler summed up the DOJ’s attitude by claiming that “the president’s enemies will be punished, his friends will be protected,” no matter the cost, and saying that the DOJ’s actions have caused “real damage to our democratic norms.”

“In your time at the department, you have aided and abetted the worst failings of the president,” Nadler said.

Ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, fired back in his opening that Democrats’ hostility toward Barr is based on one thing: “Spying.”

Jordan said that Democrats took exception to Barr accusing the Obama administration of spying on the Trump campaign, despite evidence that has come out revealing flaws in the FBI’s process in acquiring a warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.

Jordan also pointed to evidence that the FBI engaged in questionable tactics in investigating Michael Flynn, whose criminal case the DOJ requested be dismissed. At another point in the hearing, Barr affirmed earlier reporting that he has appointed U.S. Attorney John Bash of the Western District of Texas to investigate the practice of “unmasking” Americans who have had conversations with foreign officials.

Jordan then addressed the ongoing unrest in the U.S., showing a lengthy montage of media clips that began with reporters calling the incidents “peaceful protests” and then going into a string of clips of violence and fires in various parts of the country.

Barr, speaking next with his opening remarks, did not shy away from Democrats’ accusations against him. He insisted that he acts independently of the president and that his goal is to make sure that everyone is treated equally under the law.

He emphatically stated that Trump “has not attempted to interfere” in decisions regarding the handling of criminal matters.

DEM IMPEACHMENT LAWYER DINGS NADLER’S ‘INEFFECTIVE’ QUESTIONING OF BARR

“On the contrary, he has told me from the start that he expects me to exercise my independent judgment to make whatever call I think is right,” he continued. “That is precisely what I have done.”

Barr also addressed the racial tension following Floyd’s death. While acknowledging the tragedy, he defended the criminal justice system by arguing that in the past 50 years progress has been made and that any racism on the part of individual officers is not due to “some deep-seated racism generally infecting our police departments.” He noted that “[p]olice forces today are far more diverse than ever before.”

BARR SAYS LEADING CAUSE OF DEATH FOR YOUNG BLACK MALES IS HOMICIDE: ‘THOSE LIVES MATTER’

The attorney general responded by recent calls to defund police as “grossly irresponsible.”

Barr also spoke out against “violent rioters and anarchists” that he said have “hijacked legitimate protests,” specifically mentioning the ongoing unrest in Portland as an example.

The Trump administration has been blasted in the media for sending federal officers in to quell the unrest, but Barr defended the effort, arguing that these are not peaceful protests, but “an assault on the Government of the United States.” He described the weapons that some demonstrators have used and noted that a federal courthouse has been under siege.

The tension only escalated once the questioning began, with Nadler implying that Barr was using federal forces responding to unrest to provide material to aid Trump’s campaign.

When asked if he has discussed the campaign with Trump, Barr answered sharply, stating, “I’m a member of the Cabinet and there’s an election going on, obviously the topic comes up,” adding that “it shouldn’t be a surprise.”

Nadler later accused Barr of using federal forces to provide Trump with footage for campaign ads. When Barr tried to respond and say that he was not using federal law enforcement to help Trump’s campaign, Nadler spoke over him.

Later in the hearing, Barr got an opportunity to explain federal activities in Portland.

PROTESTS FLARE UP IN TEMPE, ARIZ. AND AUSTIN, TEXAS – AS PORTLAND SEES 61ST CONSECUTIVE NIGHT OF UNREST

“Federal courts are under attack. Since when is it OK to burn down a federal court?” Barr said.

He said: “If someone went down the street to the Prettyman Court here, that beautiful courthouse we have right at the bottom of the hill and started breaking windows and firing industrial-grade fireworks in to start a fire, throw kerosene balloons in and start fires in the court, is that OK? Is that OK now? No, the U.S. Marshals have a duty to stop that and defend the courthouse, and that’s what we are doing in Portland. We are at the courthouse, defending the courthouse.”

“We are not out looking for trouble.”

At another point in the hearing, Barr lamented that only one political party seemed to be sticking up for federal property and condemning mobs.

“What makes me concerned for the country is this is the first time in my memory that the leaders of one of our two great political parties, the democratic party are not coming out and condemning mob violence and the attack on federal courts,” Barr said. “Why can’t we just say, you know, violence against federal courts has to stop? Could we hear something like that?”

Barr also had an opportunity to explain his positions in the Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases, and launched an impassioned defense against the accusations that he has treated the president’s friends with particular and improper favor and gone after his enemies.

“What enemies have I indicted?” Barr asked.

He then turned to the cases involving Trump’s associates.

“The cases that are cited, the Stone case and the Flynn case, are both cases where I determined that some intervention was necessary to rectify the rule of law, to make sure people are treated the same,” Barr said.

“Stone was prosecuted under me. And I said all along I thought that was a righteous prosecution, I thought he should go to jail, and I thought the judge’s sentence was correct,” he continued. “But the line prosecutors were trying to advocate for a sentence that was more than twice anyone in a similar position had ever served, and this was a 67-year-old man, first-time offender, no violence. And they were trying to put him in jail for seven to nine years. And I wasn’t going to advocate that, because that is not the rule of law.”

Barr said: “I agree the president’s friends don’t deserve special breaks but they also don’t deserve to be treated more harshly than other people and sometimes that’s a difficult decision to make, especially when you know you’re going to be castigated for it.”

AG BARR DECRIES ‘LAWLESS, EVIL ACTION’ AFTER SHOOTING ATTACK OF FEDERAL JUDGE’S SON, HUSBAND

Later in the hearing, Barr touched on the Flynn case, noting that the case against him warranted dismissal in light of exculpatory evidence surrounding his initial FBI interview, which had recently become public. This included notes that indicated that federal agents may have been trying to get Flynn to lie so that he could be prosecuted.

“The interview was untethered to any legitimate investigation,” Barr said.

Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., called into question Barr’s claim that there is no inherent racism in the American justice system, pointing to Barr’s own department as evidence to support his claim.

“The one thing that you have in common with your two predecessors, both Attorney General [Jeff] Sessions and [acting] Attorney General [Matt] Whitaker, is that when you all came here and brought your top staff, you brought no black people,” Richmond said. “That, sir, is systematic racism. That is exactly what John Lewis spent his life-fighting.”

Early in his opening statement, Barr paid his respects to Lewis, who was a champion of civil rights. Richmond did not appreciate the kind words.

“You really should keep the name of the Honorable John Lewis out of the Department of Justice’s mouth,” Richmond said.

Richmond also brought up an issue that Democrats have raised, regarding whether or not the president would leave office if he loses November’s election. Trump himself has refused to state whether he would accept the election results, claiming that the election would be rigged by a Democratic push for mail-in voting.

When asked if an election result could be contested, Barr pointed to 2000’s Gore v. Bush, in which the Supreme Court had to intervene before an outcome was finalized. When asked if the president could contest the election if the result is not close, Barr said, “Not that I’m aware of.”

Barr said that he has no reason to believe that the election will be rigged, although he did state that mail-in voting exposes the system to a high risk of fraud.

The hearing was also full of tension between Barr and Democratic lawmakers as they fought to speak over one another. The questioning from Reps. Lou Correa, D-Calif., and Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., became particularly heated as kept trying to respond to their comments.

“This is a hearing,” Barr said. “I thought I was the one who was supposed to be heard?”

Jordan came to Barr’s defense when he questioned Nadler on why he was permitting Democratic lawmakers to interrupt the attorney general and not let him respond to questions.

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“For months you’ve tried to get the attorney to come,” Jordan told Nadler. “He’s here. Why don’t you let him speak? Why don’t you let him answer the questions?”

Jordan continued: “If you want the attorney general to come at least let him answer the accusations made against him…Time after time you refuse to let the attorney general answer the questions posed to him.”

Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/barr-testifies-before-house-judiciary-committee-maintains-independence-from-trump

The post Barr spars with Dems on Trump ties, riots at fiery House hearing first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The White House announced Friday that President Trump signed an Executive Grant of Clemency commuting the “unjust sentence” of Roger Stone, just days before the longtime political operative was slated to report to prison to serve more than three years for charges stemming from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

In a lengthy statement released late Friday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president had made the decision to commute Stone’s sentence “in light of the egregious facts and circumstances surrounding his unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial.”

“Roger Stone is a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency,” McEnany said in a statement Friday night. “There was never any collusion between the Trump Campaign, or the Trump Administration, with Russia.  Such collusion was never anything other than a fantasy of partisans unable to accept the result of the 2016 election.  The collusion delusion spawned endless and farcical investigations, conducted at great taxpayer expense, looking for evidence that did not exist.”

McEnany added that Mueller’s office “resorted to process-based charges leveled at high-profile people in an attempt to manufacture the false impression of criminality lurking below the surface.”

“These charges were the product of recklessness borne of frustration and malice,” she said.

McEnany touted Stone’s career in politics, noting that he worked for nearly 50 years as a consultant for high-profile Republican politicians, including former President Ronald Reagan, Sen. Bob Dole and others, while noting that Stone is also known for “his outspoken support for President Donald J. Trump and opposition to Hillary Clinton.”

McEnany went on to blast Mueller’s prosecutors for the fashion in which they arrested Stone, noting he is a “67-year-old man with numerous medical conditions, who had never been convicted of another crime, and that they used “dozens of FBI agents with automatic weapons and tactical equipment, armored vehicles, and an amphibious unit to execute a pre-dawn raid of his home, where he was with his wife of many years.”

McEnany went on to add that Stone would “be put at serious medical risk in prison.”

Stone was set to report to prison on July 14 to serve 40 months. He was sentenced in February to more than three years in prison after being convicted in November 2019 on seven counts of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress. Stone, however, has appealed his conviction and continues to deny any wrongdoing.

“He has appealed his conviction and is seeking a new trial. He maintains his innocence and has stated that he expects to be fully exonerated by the justice system,” McEnany said. “Mr. Stone, like every American, deserves a fair trial and every opportunity to vindicate himself before the courts.”

She added:  “The President does not wish to interfere with his efforts to do so. At this time, however, and particularly in light of the egregious facts and circumstances surrounding his unfair prosecution, arrest, and trial, the President has determined to commute his sentence.”

“Roger Stone has already suffered greatly,” she added. “He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!”

In a statement to Fox News, Stone’s attorney Grant Smith said: “Mr. Stone is incredibly honored that President Trump used his awesome and unique power under the Constitution of the United States for this act of mercy.”

Smith added: “Mr. and Mrs. Stone appreciate all the consideration the President gave to this matter.”

Earlier Friday, an appeals court denied Stone’s request to delay reporting for his sentence, saying he must report for prison on Tuesday.

“In sum, Stone is not legally eligible for further postponement of his reporting date under 18 U.S.C. § 3145(c), which is the only basis on which he seeks relief from this court. We, therefore, deny his motion,” the court wrote in its order.

EXCLUSIVE: ROGER STONE SAYS HE IS ‘PRAYING’ FOR CLEMENCY FROM TRUMP, DAYS BEFORE HE IS SET TO REPORT TO PRISON

The president’s commutation, though, nullifies that order.

Trump, for weeks, has signaled he could be open to granting Stone clemency — tweeting last month that Stone was “a victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt, one which will go down as the greatest political crime in history. He can sleep well at night!”

During an exclusive interview with Fox News this week, Stone said he was “praying” for Trump to intervene.

When asked whether he’d prefer a pardon or a commutation of his sentence, Stone said “either one obviously would have an effect, in my opinion, of saving my life.”

A presidential pardon completely absolves an individual of the crime he or she is found to have committed. A commutation lessens the punishment or eliminates jail time, but leaves the conviction standing.

“I have deep concerns about going to a prison where there absolutely is COVID virus, and, therefore, either one would have an effect of saving my life,” Stone said.

He added: “If I should be fortunate enough to get a commutation, I would continue to fight for vindication.”

As of Thursday evening, Stone said he had not received any formal communication from the White House on a potential pardon or commutation of his sentence.

“I think I’ll be the last person to know,” Stone told Fox News. “He hates leaks, and he hates to be told what to do. I have instructed my lawyers not to contact the lawyers at the White House.

“The president, who I’ve known for 40 years, has an incredible sense of fairness. He is aware that the people trying to destroy Michael Flynn, now trying to destroy me, are the people trying to destroy him,” Stone said.

He added: “I certainly think it could happen. I’m not going to second-guess the president.”

STONE SENTENCED TO MORE THAN 3 YEARS IN PRISON FOR LYING TO CONGRESS, WITNESS TAMPERING

Stone was not charged with any underlying crime of coordinating with Russia during the 2016 presidential election, though Mueller’s team investigated Stone over tweets claiming to have information about WikiLeaks document dumps prior to their release.

When asked whether Stone felt WikiLeaks influenced the 2016 election, he said: “Yes. All of it.”

“My whole purpose in hyping Wikileaks on Twitter was to make sure the media didn’t sweep it under the rug, only because I was told it was politically significant,” Stone said of his tweets in 2016, which he said were “not specific,” and simply flagged that a WikiLeaks document dump “would be big” and was coming.

“I never discussed it with Trump. I have no idea what he thought about it, we never discussed it,” Stone said. “You have to understand something about Donald Trump—when you talk to him on the phone, he talks and you listen. That’s kind of the way it works.”

When asked whether Stone had any regrets over his involvement in 2016, he said no.

“I engaged in legitimate, perfectly legal political activity which Mueller’s corrupt investigation chose to criminalize,” Stone said. “I thought the results of the 2016 election were crucial.”

Meanwhile, earlier this week, Facebook announced it had removed a network of accounts on the platform and on Instagram allegedly linked to Stone. The company said the accounts were allegedly involved in “coordinated inauthentic behavior in the United States.” The networks, according to Facebook, were focused on domestic audiences.

Facebook said it “identified the full scope” of the networks “following the recent public release of search warrants pertaining to the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in response to a joint petition from The New York Times, CNN, the Associated Press, The Washington Post, and Politico.”

FACEBOOK SAYS IT TOOK DOWN NETWORK AFFILIATED WITH ROGER STONE THAT INCLUDED FAKE ACCOUNTS

“Our investigation linked this network to Roger Stone and his associates,” Facebook said Wednesday.

Stone, however, denied being linked to the accounts, calling Facebook’s accusations “defamatory,” and said he did not think it was “coincidental” that they made the announcement this week.

“They’ll have a chance to prove it. Words on a press release are assertions and accusations. It is false,” Stone said. “It is put up or shut up time very soon. They’ll get a chance to show me the illegitimate sites. They don’t exist. I don’t own hundreds of Facebook pages and I never have.”

Stone claimed that Facebook’s actions were “attempted character assassination to derail clemency.”

Stone told Fox News he plans to file a lawsuit against the social media giant.

“My lawsuit against Facebook will be a defamation suit,” he said. “They have accused me of doing something that they imply is illegal and violated their rules.”

He added: “It’s not true. I can prove it’s not true.”

Fox News’ David Spunt and Bill Mears contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/president-trump-expected-commute-roger-stone-sentence

The post Trump commutes Roger Stone’s sentence, days before prison term set to begin first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Is it time for Trump to declassify materials on campaign spying? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Attorney General William Barr arrives to testify before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on April 10, 2019.Andrew Harnik / AP

Speaking about his efforts to obtain the full, un-redacted version of the Mueller report and all of the supporting documents and evidence, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said on Tuesday, “If we don’t get everything, we will issue the subpoena and go to court.”

Nadler’s comments came on the same day that Attorney General William Barr appeared before the House Appropriations Committee and announced that he would release a redacted version of the Mueller report “within a week.” Barr then appeared before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee meeting on Wednesday, where he told lawmakers: “I’m landing the plane right now and I’ve been willing to discuss my letters and the process going forward, and the report is going to be out next week and I’m not going to go into the details until the plane is on the ground.”

Whenever the plane does land, it’s likely Barr’s redactions will do little to satisfy Democrats. Any hope that the attorney general would be impartial was erased when he released a four-page document that President Donald Trump has since used as a vehicle to falsely claim a “total exoneration” of all wrongdoing. Even more disturbing was Barr’s refusal to clearly answer questions about potential White House involvement in the crafting of that document.

Indeed, Barr even refused to push back on the president’s accusation that the special counsel’s investigation was nothing but a “witch hunt.” Asked by senators whether he agreed with this characterization, Barr remarked that it “really depends on where you’re sitting.” It was answer sure to make his boss in the Oval Office happy, if not Congress.

Bizarrely, Barr is now claiming that the four-page letter he released was “not a summary” of the Mueller report. Never mind the fact that in his own words, Barr literally wrote, “I believe that it is in the public interest to describe the report and to summarize the principal conclusions reached by the Special Counsel and the results of his investigation.”

Once again, a member of the Trump administration is lying. It is painfully clear that the attorney general cannot and should not be the arbiter of what Congress, and ultimately the American people, can see when it comes to the Mueller report. Someone who is not comfortable, at the very least, of respecting the efforts of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is clearly far too partisan to be trusted with such an important moment in U.S. history.

Barr’s reticence is not super surprising given the White House’s statements. In recent days, Trump has telegraphed that he does not want the full report to be released publicly. On Monday, Trump tweeted: “The Democrats will never be satisfied, not matter what they get, how much they get, or how many pages they get. It will never end, but that’s the way life goes!”

The post The legal battle between Democrats and AG Barr over the Mueller report has begun first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Roger Stone reveals secret plot to install Hillary Clinton as President first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Jerome Corsi, seen during an interview in New York on Nov. 27, repeats in the suit his contention that he never had any direct knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans to leak information about emails stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta.Shannon Stapleton / Reuters

The conservative writer and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi filed a lawsuit on Sunday accusing special counsel Robert Mueller of blackmailing him to lie about President Donald Trump in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The suit, which seeks $350 million in actual and punitive damages in U.S. District Court in Washington, was filed six days after Corsi entered a formal complaint with the Justice Department alleging prosecutorial misconduct by Mueller.

Corsi, 72, the former Washington bureau chief of the conspiracy website InfoWars, accuses Mueller’s office of having illegally leaked secret information from the grand jury investigating Russian election interference.

The suit also accuses the special counsel’s office of having threatened him with prison unless he agreed to testify falsely that he served as a liaison between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the Republican political strategist Roger Stone, who was an adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign.

NBC News reported last month that Corsi sent an email alerting Stone that WikiLeaks planned to release damaging information about emails stolen from John Podesta, who was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign — two months before WikiLeaks actually did so.

And it accuses the FBI, the CIA and the National Security Agency — all of whom are named as co-respondents — of having placed Corsi under illegal surveillance “at the direction of Mueller and his partisan Democrat, leftist, and ethically and legally conflicted prosecutorial staff.”

The goal, the suit alleges, was to bring about a “‘legal coup d’etat,’ negating the will of the American voters who elected Donald J. Trump on November 6, 2016.”

The suit repeats Corsi’s contention that he never had any direct knowledge of WikiLeaks’ plans, arguing that he simply deduced the coming email dump using his talents as a journalist.

Stone has said he had no communication with Corsi about Podesta’s emails until after WikiLeaks published them.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/roger-stone-associate-jerome-corsi-sues-mueller-justice-cia-fbi-n945846

The post Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi sues Mueller, Justice, CIA, FBI, NSA for $350 million first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.