Title :
link :
WWW.MOEISSUESOFTHEDAY.
BLOGSPOT.COM
Friday, Apr. 20, 2018
All Gave Some~Some Gave All
*****
They win again...1st place
Justice Department Watchdog Probes Comey Memos Over Classified Information
Former FBI director has said he considered the memos, which he gave to a friend to release to media, personal documents
The Justice Department inspector general is conducting an investigation into classification issues related to memos written by former FBI director James Comey. PHOTO: RALPH ALSWANG/ABC/ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON—At least two of the memos that former FBI Director James Comey gave to a friend outside of the government contained information that officials now consider classified, according to people familiar with the matter, prompting a review by the Justice Department’s internal watchdog.
Of those two memos, Mr. Comey himself redacted elements of one that he knew to be classified to protect secrets before he handed the documents over to his friend. He determined at the time that another memo contained no classified information, but after he left the Federal Bureau of Investigation, bureau officials upgraded it to “confidential,” the lowest level of classification.
The Justice Department inspector general is now conducting an investigation into classification issues related to the Comey memos, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Comey has said he considered the memos personal rather than government documents. He has told Congress that he wrote them and authorized their release to the media “as a private citizen.”
Mr. Comey gave four total memos to his friend Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor who is now a professor at Columbia Law School, people familiar with the matter said. Three were considered unclassified at the time and one was classified.
As FBI director, Mr. Comey had the legal authority to determine what bureau information was classified and what wasn’t. Once he left government, however, the determination fell to other officials.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Mr. Comey of mishandling classified information in a bid to discredit the former FBI director, who he fired last year. The public feud between the two men has intensified this week, as Mr. Comey has granted several interviews while promoting a memoir that is highly critical of Mr. Trump.
“James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter Friday.
In interviews, Mr. Comey has called Mr. Trump “morally unfit” to serve in the White House. He and Mr. Richman didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
“A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville, who talks about and treats women like they’re pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it, that person’s not fit to be president of the United States, on moral grounds,” Mr. Comey told ABC News this month.
The situation around Mr. Comey’s handling of his memos is analogous to the investigation the FBI under his leadership conducted of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. While serving as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton used a personal email server rather than a government account. After leaving government, thousands of her emails were determined to have contained classified information.
Mrs. Clinton’s defense was that they weren’t classified at the time she circulated them and were only upgraded to classified later. A small number of her emails were determined to have been classified at the time they were sent. Mr. Comey’s handling of the Clinton investigation drew criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
Republicans said Mrs. Clinton should have been charged, while Democrats said the investigation was without legal basis and was mishandled—particularly Mr. Comey’s decision to announce shortly before Election Day that he was reopening the probe. Mrs. Clinton lost the election to Mr. Trump.
No charges were ever filed against Mrs. Clinton or her aides and Mr. Comey said that his investigation found no evidence of intent to violate the laws governing the handling of classified information.
Mr. Comey’s memos were written contemporaneously to create a record of his interactions with Mr. Trump. He told Congress last year he hadn’t kept written records of his interactions with previous presidents but decided to do so with Mr. Trump because of the “nature of the person.”
Mr. Comey has said he intended to get the information to the public through the media by giving the memos to Mr. Richman—in part to prompt the appointment of a special prosecutor designed to continue the FBI’s investigation without political inference.
“My judgment was, I need to get that out into the public square,” Mr. Comey told Congress last year. “I asked a friend of mine to share the content of the memo with a reporter. Didn’t do it myself for a variety of reasons. I asked him to because I thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.”
Those memos formed the basis for Mr. Comey’s testimony in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee last year, in which he accused the president of trying to shut down an investigation into purported Russian interference in the 2016 election. The president has denied trying to thwart the probe.
Mr. Comey’s tactics were successful—special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed shortly after he was fired as FBI director. Mr. Comey’s memos are now part of the wide-ranging probe being conducted by Mr. Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well into whether Mr. Trump obstructed justice when he fired Mr. Comey last year, allegations that Mr. Trump denies. Russia has denied interfering in the election.
“I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting so I thought it important to document. That combination of things I had never experienced before, but had led me to believe I got to write it down and write it down in a very detailed way,” Mr. Comey told the committee.
The memos were given to Congress this week. They were reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets. Much of the material in the memos has been previously disclosed in congressional testimony and Mr. Comey’s book.
Write to Byron Tau at byron.tau@wsj.com and Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com
Trump blasts OPEC, says cartel is keeping oil prices 'artificially very high' and that 'will not be accepted'
-
"Looks like OPEC is at it again," Trump tweets. "Oil prices are artificially Very High!
-
WTI oil prices hit a three-year high above $69 a barrel this week.
-
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih responds that "Markets should determine price."
President Donald Trump blasted the oil-producing cartel OPEC on Twitter on Friday.
"Looks like OPEC is at it again," he wrote. "With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea, Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!"
Looks like OPEC is at it again. With record amounts of Oil all over the place, including the fully loaded ships at sea, Oil prices are artificially Very High! No good and will not be accepted!
WTI oil prices hit a three-year high above $69 a barrel this week and were still trading above $68 on Friday. The international benchmark, Brent crude, was above $73 on Friday after also hitting its highest level since November 2014 this week.
The president is likely referring to OPEC's production level agreement with Russia and other producers put in place last year and set to expire at the end of 2018.
There have also been reports lately that Saudi Arabia, the key member of the cartel, wants oil at $80 to $100 a barrel in order to boost the eventual initial public offering of its state oil company, Saudi Aramco.
When asked to comment on Trump's tweet, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told CNBC, "Markets should determine price."
As president, Trump controls the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the largest supply of emergency crude in the world, according to the Energy Department's website. The SPR was last released in 2011 to offset a supply disruption related to unrest in Libya.
Oil prices retreated from their highs following Trump's tweets: WTI crude was down 0.5 percent and Brent was 0.6 percent lower.
— CNBC's Steve Sedgwick contributed to this report. John Melloy Senior Editor, InvestingDonald Trump: Unfair that ‘Shadey’ James Comey Can ‘Leak and Lie,’ While Michael Flynn’s Life Is Destroyed
by CHARLIE SPIERING
AP
President Donald Trump commented on former FBI Director James Comey’s new book, comparing his fate to that of former National Security Director Michael Flynn.
“So General Michael Flynn’s life can be totally destroyed while Shadey James Comey can Leak and Lie and make lots of money from a third-rate book (that should never have been written),” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Is that really the way life in America is supposed to work? I don’t think so!”
Flynn was fired by the president after it was clear he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI about communications with the Russians after the election. Flynn ultimately pleaded guilty in December 2017 and cooperated with the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Comey is currently on a media tour promoting his book and warning Americans that Trump is morally unfit for the presidency.
Trump also commented on Comey’s memos of their conversations after they were released to the public on Thursday. He claimed there was proof that the former FBI director leaked classified information.
“James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION,” he wrote. “Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?”
Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrumpSo General Michael Flynn’s life can be totally destroyed while Shadey James Comey can Leak and Lie and make lots of money from a third rate book (that should never have been written). Is that really the way life in America is supposed to work? I don’t think so!
James Comey Memos just out and show clearly that there was NO COLLUSION and NO OBSTRUCTION. Also, he leaked classified information. WOW! Will the Witch Hunt continue?
Swedish Schools Increase Security, Hire Guards After Rising Violence Towards Teachers
by CHRIS TOMLINSON
PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty
Schools across Sweden have increased security, including hiring security guards, after a rise in violence towards teachers.
According to a new survey, 70 per cent of Swedish municipalities have installed security cameras and hired security guards as teachers are finding themselves increasingly threatened by both their students as well as parents, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
Sabina Bellanius, a teacher at a school in the heavily migrant populated city of Malmö and the city’s Ombudsman’s Teachers’ Association head, said: “It’s abusive discrimination, psychological and physical violence. I have a colleague that tried to separate a brawl but got his knee knocked out and today lives on cortisone injections.”
A survey of 700 teachers in Malmö showed that 13 per cent had been threatened and nine per cent had been on the receiving end of some form of physical violence.
“It’s terrible. There are teachers who do not want to come back and teachers who have to continue to teach these children, though they have been exposed to threats and violence,” Bellanius said.
Sweden Govt Report Blows Lid On Violent ‘Diverse’ School Where Kids Beat Teachers, Riot http://bit.ly/1UdrJI5
Ulrika Wirgin, who previously worked as a teacher in Malmö for 17 years, said: “Parents simply need to take more responsibility for the behaviour of their children.”
Swedish schools are not the only ones facing a rising tide of violence directed at teachers.
In Germany, several schools have reported an increase in threats and violence including the Schoeneberg Spreewald Elementary School in Berlin, whose student population overwhelmingly come from migrant backgrounds, which recently hired security guards.
The security issues in Swedish schools follow a recent report showing that more than half of students in some of the country’s more troubled migrant-heavy suburbs are failing academically to the point where they are not even qualified to enter high school.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com
American Federation of Teachers Cuts Ties with Wells Fargo for Not Abandoning NRA
by AWR HAWKINS
Mario Tama / Getty
The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) cut ties with Wells Fargo Thursday over the bank’s refusal to end its relationship with the NRA.
AFT began this week by calling on school pension fund managers to divest of holdings in manufacturers who make “assault weapons” and they are ending it by suggesting Wells Fargo is either for teachers or against them.
In a letter obtained by Breitbart News, AFT makes clear they are chiefly distancing themselves from Wells Fargo because of the bank’s refusal to cease doing business with the NRA.
AFT president President Randi Weingarten said:
Gun violence is an epidemic, but [Wells Fargo CEO] Tim Sloan won’t even engage in a conversation about mitigating it, much less take any real steps. We took him up on his offer to meet with us, then he went radio silent. So if Wells Fargo won’t value children and teachers above guns, we won’t do business with Wells Fargo. It can be the bank for America’s teachers, or it can be the bank for the NRA and gun manufacturers.
Weingarten suggested other companies have “engaged in meaningful conversations about what responsible relationships with gun companies look like, but Wells Fargo won’t.”
He concluded, “We’re ending this relationship [with Wells Fargo] because we have a responsibility to our members and their students, who face potential gun violence every day. Gun violence is a public health epidemic, and in order to help stop it, we’ll stop the flow of resources to the companies that manufacture these weapons that have caused so much civilian carnage and death.”
On April 15, 2018, Breitbart News reported that Well Fargo stemmed the tide of corporate gun control by refusing to place news restrictions and/or regulations on customers who work in the gun industry. This immediately set Wells Fargo apart from Citibank and Bank of America, both of which adopted gun control policies for their customers involved with firearms.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
Ed note - We have done virtually all our banking at Bank of America for more years than we can count. Our banking practice may change... Wells Fargo here we come… Moe and Helen
Ryan Tries to Block Pre-Election GOP Leadership Changes
by NEIL MUNRO
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
House Speaker Paul Ryan is rejecting the growing inside pressure for him to allow a new leadership team who can guide the GOP’s House caucus through the difficult 2018 elections.
In a Thursday interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Ryan showed that he does not want to quit the leadership post soon, even though he has announced he will resign after the election. Instead of leaving, Ryan said he plans to “run through the tape” while pushing his 2016 priorities — not President Donald Trump’s election-winning 2016 priorities:
That’s what I mean [by] ‘Running through the tape’ – finishing the agenda we ran on in ’16. We’ve done the rebuild of the military. We’ve done the tax reform. We’ve done enormous amounts of regulatory relief. We’ve done a lot of our poverty work with enterprise zones and the rest. So finish the job on regulatory relief and go work on workforce development, getting people off of welfare, into the workforce, in a good career, vocational or technical education, and let the states be flexible and experiment …
I’m focused on keeping our majority. I’m focused on campaigning with our members. And I’m focusing on finishing this agenda.
But that establishment agenda won’t help the GOP in November, argues Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
“What Ryan is saying is that he is going to run on an establishment Marco Rubio/Jeb Bush agenda when the whole lesson of the 2016 primaries and the general election is that Republican voters don’t want the standard agenda,” he said, adding:
Repeating the same establishment pieties is not going to excite Republican voters to counter the certain increase in turnout by the left … They’re energized and in effect, will try to vote for Hillary [Clinton]. The only way to counteract that is by energizing Republican Party voters and entitlement reform will not do that.
Immigration is one thing that will do that. Obviously, issues like border security and the migration caravan do get attention, but they are not pocketbook issues, whereas issues such as ever-more H-1Bs and H-2B do hit people’s pocketbooks. You need a coherent immigration message which puts emphasis on security and enforcement together with jobs and wages.
House GOP sources say a post-Ryan leadership team may combine Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who is now Majority Leader, Rep. Steve Scalise, now the House whip, Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, and Ohio’s Rep. Jim Jordan, a leading conservative.
Ryan, however, is resisting the pressure to exit. On April 12, for example, he reportedly leaned on Rep. Tom Graves who is pushing for a quick transition. According to the Washington Post:
Ryan reiterated Friday that any leadership election would wait until after the November elections, and his endorsement [of McCarthy] came hours after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a prominent and polarizing conservative, acknowledged that he is considering a challenge to McCarthy — sending an emphatic signal that the Californian will not have a cakewalk.
“There is no speaker’s race right now. Paul Ryan is the speaker,” Jordan said Friday. “If and when there is, I’ve been urged by colleagues to consider that, and I am definitely open to that. Right now, though, the focus has got to be on the next six months, us keeping the majority.”
…
Several Republican lawmakers said Friday that, barring an unlikely deal between McCarthy and the conservative bloc, Jordan’s run all but ensures that the leadership elections will be put off until November. Ryan has personally interceded to tamp down an effort to accelerate his departure and hold earlier elections, meeting Thursday with Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.), a McCarthy ally who had been pushing colleagues for a swift transition.
“As long as Ryan is Speaker of the House, the Republican Party is not likely to put together an employee-oriented agenda that includes tightening up on immigration,” said Krikorian. He continued:
“Ther’s nothing wrong with employers, but they got a big tax cut and they are getting regulations reduced. I’m all for that, but cutting back unskilled immigration and the visa[-worker] categories is a necessary balance because it likely to benefit ordinary employees rather than business …
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
Why would House Republicans want to be led into mid-terms by a man (@SpeakerRyan) who has zero personal stake in whether they retain their majority or not? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG1ES1zW2Go
7:42 AM - Apr 19, 2018
Note...Please keep in mind Ryan was the hand picked stooge of Mitt Romney for Veep. We won’t miss him. Any of the following would be acceptable to the non-establishment backbone of the GOP. Kevin McCarthy, who is now Majority Leader, Rep. Steve Scalise, now the House whip, Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, and Ohio’s Rep. Jim Jordan. ...ml
Ciao…….Helen and Moe Lauzier
Thus Article
That's an article
This time, hopefully can give benefits to all of you. well, see you in posting other articles.
You are now reading the article with the link address https://capitalstories.blogspot.com/2018/04/www_20.html
0 Response to " "
Post a Comment