EXCLUSIVE: A top prosecutor on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team discouraged the FBI from pursuing an investigation into the Clinton Foundation in 2016 due to what he viewed as negligible evidence, despite multiple Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign transactions, Fox News Digital has learned.
Ray Hulser, the former chief of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section (PIN), who serves on Smith’s team currently prosecuting former President Trump, was identified as the official who "declined prosecution" of the Clinton Foundation in 2016 in Special Counsel John Durham’s report.
According to the Durham report, in January 2016, "three different FBI field offices, the New York Field Office, the Washington Field Office, and the Little Rock Field Office, opened investigations into possible criminal activity involving the Clinton Foundation."
The report reveals that the case was opened referring to an intelligence product and corroborating financial reporting that a particular commercial "industry likely engaged a federal public official in a flow of benefits scheme, namely, large monetary contributions were made to a non-profit, under both direct and indirect control of the federal public official, in exchange for favorable government action and/or influence."
The investigation out of Washington was opened as a "preliminary investigation, because the case agent wanted to determine if he could develop additional information to corroborate allegations in a recently-published book, 'Clinton Cash' by Peter Schweizer, before seeking to convert the matter to a full investigation," the report states.
But the New York and Little Rock investigations included predication "based on source reporting that identified foreign governments that had made, or offered to make, contributions to the Foundation in exchange for favorable or preferential treatment from Clinton."
The Durham report revealed that because three different FBI field offices opened investigations related to the Clinton Foundation, there was a "perceived need to conduct coordination meetings between the field offices, FBI Headquarters, and appropriate U.S. Attorney’s offices," as well as "components" from main Justice Department.
"These meetings likely were deemed especially important given that the investigations were occurring in an election year in which Clinton was a declared candidate for President," the report states, including details from those meetings.
One meeting detailed in the report took place on Feb. 1, 2016. Present for that meeting were several FBI officials, as well as Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell and Hulser, who, at the time, was Public Integrity Section chief.
Durham interviewed Hulser as part of his investigation. Hulser told Durham that the FBI briefing on the Clinton Foundation was "poorly presented and that there was insufficient predication for at least one of the investigations due to its reliance on allegations contained in a book."
"Hulser downplayed information provided by the New York Field Office CHS [confidential human source] and recalled that the amount involved in the financial reporting was ‘de minimis,’" the report states.
However, Durham’s team reviewed the financial reporting to better "understand the allegations."
"The reporting, which in itself is not proof of wrongdoing, was a narrative describing multiple funds transfers, some of which involved international bank accounts that were suspected of facilitating bribery or gratuity violations," the Durham report states in a footnote. "The transactions involved occurred between 2012 and 2014, and totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars."
The Durham report does not explicitly state the words "Suspicious Activity Report," however, the activity described is that which would normally be the subject of such reports.
A source familiar with the matter, however, told Fox News Digital that there were multiple SARs filed related to the Clinton Foundation during that time. In 2012, Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state.
Banks have a duty to file SARs, but it is up to the Justice Department to determine if there is any criminality.
Due to the Clinton name, the Clinton Foundation or Clinton-related accounts likely had a "PEP" designation within financial institutions. PEP is short for politically exposed person, meaning the individual, through their prominent position or relationships, could be more susceptible to being involved in bribery or corruption.
The Hunter Biden federal criminal investigation was predicated, in part, by SARs on funds from "China and other foreign nations." Those SARs have been reviewed as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden, led by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo.
Meanwhile, the Durham report states that during the February 2016 meeting, Hulser "declined prosecution" of the Clinton Foundation on behalf of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section.
Hulser told Durham during his interview, though, that he "made it clear" that "his decision was not binding on the various U.S. Attorneys’ Offices or FBI field divisions."
In interviewing another individual present for the meeting, Durham learned that the Justice Department’s reaction to the Clinton Foundation briefing was "hostile."
"There are mega indications that the Obama Justice Department slow-walked and discouraged the Clinton Foundation investigation, including discouraging the FBI from pursuing it," former federal prosecutor and Fox News contributor Andy McCarthy said.
With regard to Hulser, McCarthy told Fox News Digital that "it has been obvious from the beginning that the decision by the Biden Justice Department to appoint a special counsel was utterly political and done to create distance between the attorney general and the president from the decision to bring charges against Trump, that Smith has conducted it throughout with an eye on the election calendar."
"Nobody should be surprised if people on Smith's staff have been involved in situations that make it politically conflicting for them to be involved in this," McCarthy said.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges stemming from Smith's investigation related to both Jan. 6 and 2020 election interference, as well as his case related to classified records.
Special Counsel Jack Smith's office declined to comment on this story.
As for the Clinton Foundation probes, in another meeting in February 2016, then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe "initially directed the field offices to close their cases, but following objections, agreed to reconsider the final disposition of the cases."
According to current Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate’s interview with Durham’s team, he recalled McCabe stating that the DOJ said "there’s nothing here" and "why are we even doing this?"
At the end of the meeting, it was announced that for "any overt investigative steps to be taken," McCabe’s approval "would be required."
Meanwhile, by May 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey directed the FBI’s New York Field Office to "cease and desist" from the Clinton Foundation investigation due to "some undisclosed counterintelligence concern."
Durham was "not able to determine what the counterintelligence issue raised by Comey was."
By August 2016, a meeting was held to direct that the Washington and Little Rock investigations "be closed and consolidated" into the New York investigation. But during the meeting, U.S. attorneys’ offices "declined to issue subpoenas."
Durham included this information in his report to show "the contrast" between how the FBI handled Clinton matters in comparison to the Trump-Russia probe, known internally as "Crossfire Hurricane."
"As an initial matter, the NYFO and WFO investigations appear to have been opened as preliminary investigations due to the political sensitivity and their reliance on unvetted hearsay information (the Clinton Cash book) and [confidential human source reporting]," the report states. "By contrast, the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was immediately opened as a full investigation despite the fact that it was similarly predicated on hearsay information."
Durham added that while the DOJ appeared to have had "legitimate concerns" about the Clinton Foundation investigation occurring so close to the presidential election, "it does not appear that similar concerns were expressed by the Department or FBI regarding the Crossfire Hurricane investigation."
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's nearly two-year investigation yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential election.
Durham found that the FBI "failed to act" on a "clear warning sign" that the bureau was the "target" of a Hillary Clinton-led effort to "manipulate or influence the law enforcement process for political purposes" against Trump ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Hulser was the top prosecutor for the government's 2015 corruption case against New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez – which was dismissed after a hung jury failed to reach a verdict. He also was involved in the Justice Department's prosecution of former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the January 6 committee.
House Democrats are accusing former President Donald Trump of taking in more than $7.8 million from foreign governments via payments to the Trump Organization while he was in the White House.
A majority of that came from the Chinese government and state-owned entities, Democrats said, while the rest came from 19 other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Minority staff on the House Oversight Committee released a 156-page report on Thursday detailing claims that the former president repeatedly violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution, which states that federal officials may not accept gifts or cash from foreign state actors without Congressional approval.
"After promising ‘the greatest infomercial in political history,’ former President Donald Trump repeatedly and willfully violated the U.S. Constitution by failing to divest from his business empire and allowing his businesses to accept millions of dollars in payments from some of the most corrupt nations on earth," the top Democrat on the committee Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said.
JACK SMITH DISPUTES TRUMP'S PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY CLAIM IN APPEALS COURT
"The limited records that the Committee obtained show that while Donald Trump was in office, he received more than $5.5 million from the Chinese government and Chinese state-owned enterprises, as well as millions more from 19 other foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia through just four of the more than 500 entities he owned."
Along with the report, Oversight Democrats also produced more than 400 pages, some redacted, of documents from Mazars USA LLC — Trump’s former accounting firm.
They accused the former president of allowing his businesses to profit off of foreign cash while suggesting he provided benefits to those countries in return.
SUPREME COURT DECLINES TO ISSUE EXPEDITED RULING ON TRUMP IMMUNITY CASE
Much of the investigation appears to have focused on the Trump Organization’s hotels in Las Vegas, New York, and Washington, D.C., as well as Trump Tower in Manhattan.
Some of the payments appear to be linked to short-term hotel stays while Trump was in office, like room and dining fees.
Other cashflows are for longer-term arrangements. The report said that Trump received more than $615,000 from Saudi Arabia while in office, both through its lease of the 45th floor of Trump Tower and through stays at Trump International Hotel in DC.
The Indian government spent at least $282,764 on Trump properties during his administration, including the cost of two units of Trump Tower.
It’s not immediately clear whether all of the contracts or agreements on the Trump Tower payments were made before the former president took office or started his 2016 campaign. The report noted that Mazars only handed over information for Trump Tower for the year 2018.
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization pointed out that Beijing-backed bank ICBC "was a tenant who signed a 20 year office lease in a Trump Tower in 2008, almost a decade before President Trump entered office."
The spokesperson also said "foreign profits were donated in full to the United States Treasury for patronage at our properties while President Trump was in office."
"The house democrats are desperate to save face for Hunter Biden but there there is a large difference between someone who leases commercial office space to a foreign company a decade ago (in 2008 to be exact) versus the son and family members of the Vice President extracting money from China, Ukraine and Romania and others while providing no apparent or tangible goods and services. It would be dishonest to not clearly distinguish between the two," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
"We do not have the ability or viability to stop someone from booking through third parties — Expedia etc — hence the voluntary donation of profits on an annual basis which has been covered ad nauseam."
The report conceded that the overall findings were based on just a fraction of Trump’s accounting records — and Raskin blamed Republicans for their inability to get the rest.
"While the figures and constitutional violations in this report are shocking, we still don’t know the extent of the foreign payments that Donald Trump received—or even the total number of countries that paid him and his businesses while he was President—because Committee Chairman James Comer and House Republicans buried any further evidence of the Trump family’s staggering corruption," Raskin said.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., responded to Fox News Digital: "It’s beyond parody that Democrats continue their obsession with former President Trump. Former President Trump has legitimate businesses but the Bidens do not."
"The Bidens and their associates made over $24 million by cashing in on the Biden name in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Romania. No goods or services were provided, other than access to Joe Biden and the Biden network," Comer said.
He’s one of three committee chairs currently leading an impeachment inquiry of President Biden, specifically looking into whether he and his family profited off of foreign business deals while he was vice president.
In addition to the payments listed above, Democrats accused Trump of taking in $465,744 from Qatar for Trump Tower, $303,372 from Kuwait toward Trump Tower and Trump’s D.C. hotel and $248,962 from Malaysia spent at the D.C. hotel.
A left-wing watchdog group has accused the presidential campaign of Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., of illegally coordinating with a super PAC.
Campaign for Accountability on Wednesday announced that it has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), demanding an investigation into Phillips' campaign, the super PAC Pass the Torch USA Inc. and former Republican strategist Steve Schmidt for alleged violations of federal election law.
The complaint alleges that Schmidt flouted election regulations when he formed Pass the Torch USA Inc. just two weeks after leaving an advisory role with the campaign. The non-profit organization asserts evidence "strongly suggests" that he made $450,000 in coordinated communications with the campaign.
Campaign for Accountability claims the PAC falsely reported the communications as an independent expenditure and "failed to disclose as in-kind contributions."
DEMOCRAT DEAN PHILLIPS ATTACKS BIDEN FOR TRYING TO UPEND TRADITIONAL PRIMARY ELECTION PROCESS
"Candidates and their committees cannot coordinate strategy with super PACs. When the architect of the Phillip’s campaign suddenly moves over to lead a super PAC supporting Phillip’s candidacy the moment the ink on the blueprint is dry, the coordination is clear," said Michelle Kuppersmith, Campaign for Accountability executive director.
The FEC complaint was first reported by Axios.
In a statement, the Phillips campaign called the allegations "baseless."
DEAN PHILLIPS CALLS BIDEN POSSIBLY ‘UNELECTABLE’ IN 2024 AFTER GOP IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
"The complaint is baseless and does not allege a single specific example of coordination," a campaign spokesman told Fox News Digital. "All it takes is one look at our paid TV ads to see how different the strategies of these two entities are. Regardless, we can say without question that the campaign has at all times complied with the law and has not engaged in any coordination with Pass the Torch, Steve Schmidt or any other party."
Campaign for Accountability noted that Pass the Torch ran an ad campaign that echoed themes from Phillips' campaign, including the message "It's time to pass the torch to a new generation of American leaders." The group said this message was developed by Schmidt for Phillips, who is challenging President Biden for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination.
"If the communications by Pass the Torch had been created, produced or distributed after substantial discussions between Schmidt and Phillips, it would constitute a prohibited coordinated communication," the group said.
The complaint suggests that alleged improper coordination between Pass the Torch and the Phillips campaign may have violated FEC rules against accepting prohibited contributions and reporting requirements for in-kind contributions.
"The FEC should immediately investigate whether Schmidt, Pass the Torch, and Dean 24 violated the law and, if so, seek appropriate sanctions," Kuppersmith said.
Phillips launched his long-shot bid to challenge Biden in October but so far has not gained much traction in the polls against the incumbent president.
FIRST ON FOX: Conservative former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials are backing Speaker Mike Johnson’s aggressive stance on border security when it comes to ongoing negotiations over a supplemental spending agreement -- calling on Republicans to have "clear resolve" about the crisis.
In a statement first obtained by Fox News Digital, former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Tom Homan, former acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan and former acting deputy Homeland Security Chief of Staff Lora Ries, say that "weaponized mass illegal immigration" is fueling the destruction of the economy, national security and public safety.
"While the Biden administration and Left-wing lawmakers continue to purposefully drive chaos and carnage at our southern border, House conservatives have taken critical steps to end it, notably through passage of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act—which continues to collect dust in the Senate," they say.
JOHNSON CALLS MIGRANT CRISIS ‘TRULY UNCONSCIONABLE’ DURING VISIT TO BESIEGED SOUTHERN BORDER
Homan and Morgan are visiting fellows at the Heritage Foundation, while Ries is the director of the organization’s Border Security and Immigration Center. They are part of a coalition that has said that H.R. 2 must be part of any supplemental spending deal currently being negotiated in Congress.
Their statement comes as talks are still ongoing between lawmakers in the Senate and the administration. The administration has requested $14 billion for border funding as part of the $100 billion-plus package, which includes money for Ukraine and Israel. That funding request includes more staffing at the border, aid to communities accepting arrivals and removal flights.
But Republicans in both chambers say they want stricter limits on asylum and the use of humanitarian parole by the administration to stop releases. Senate Republicans have issued their own proposals, while many in the House have said that H.R. 2 in its entirety must be included.
Johnson, leading a congressional delegation to the southern border on Wednesday, said that H.R. 2 -- which includes limits on asylum and releases as well as the restarting of wall construction among other provisions -- is the "necessary ingredient."
"Because it has provisions that fix each of these problems and these things work together," he said.
If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it'd better begin by defending America’s national security," he said.
BIDEN ADMIN EYES MORE DEPORTATION FLIGHTS TO VENEZUELA AS MIGRANT NUMBERS SHATTER RECORDS
The former officials say that uniting behind H.R. 2, as well as a separate move by the House Homeland Security Committee to begin impeachment hearings of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, are "imperatives demanded by Americans across the country."
"H.R. 2 is the only effective and immediate solution to the madness that most of the conference has now witnessed firsthand. And Secretary Mayorkas is undoubtedly guilty of violating his oath and knowingly endangering the citizens he is supposed to serve," they say.
"We commend Speaker Johnson’s commitment to H.R. 2 and hope every lawmaker returns to Washington armed with the reality they experienced in Eagle Pass and a clear resolve in upcoming spending negotiations," they say.
Democrats in the Senate have ruled out H.R. 2 and similar proposals as a non-starter. Even some reported concessions by the Biden administration, including the establishment of a Title 42-style removal authority, have been met with anger from some liberal Democrats.
HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE SETS FIRST MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT HEARING
The Biden administration, meanwhile, sought to pin some of the blame on Republicans for failing to agree to the funding request as it is.
"Speaker Johnson is continuing to block President Biden’s proposed funding to hire thousands of new Border Patrol agents, hire more asylum officers and immigration judges, provide local communities hosting migrants additional grant funding, and invest in cutting-edge technology that is critical to stopping deadly fentanyl from entering our country," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Wednesday
"We have House Republicans that are literally blocking the president's effort to do something. That's what they're doing. They're playing political games. They're doing political stunts," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday.
The administration has also said negotiations are moving forward.
"Our negotiations with the Senate continued over the holidays, and we continue to be encouraged by the progress being made. And while we are not there yet, we believe we are moving in the right direction," a senior administration official told reporters on Tuesday.
But the former officials dismissed those negotiations in their statement.
"While Biden’s appointees and allies continue to ‘negotiate’ in the Senate, lawmakers on the Left have proven they have no real intention of ending the record tide of illegal immigration," they say. "If conservatives are united behind H.R. 2, the decision between the safety of a secure border and the chaos of unlimited illegal immigration lies solely with White House and their friends in the Senate. The American people are watching."
Former President Donald Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million "from foreign states and their leaders" during his time in office, according to a new report by House Democrats.
The findings come from a years-long investigation from Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
“By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous Commander-in-Chief,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in the report.
Democrats used records obtained from Trump’s longtime accounting firm, worked out as part of a lengthy court battle, plus publicly available information to track payments from at least 20 countries, according to the report. And in addition to the report, Democrats released hundreds of pages of documents detailing payments they found.
A bulk of those payments came from the Chinese government and state-owned business. But they cautioned that their figures were a “conservative” estimate and likely incomplete after Republicans dropped the investigation after taking over the majority last year, ending additional document production.
The release of the report comes as Republicans are nearing a decision point in their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, which has focused on the business deals of his family members. Republicans voted to formalize that inquiry last month, even as several said they hadn’t yet seen a direct link between actions taken by the president and the financial arrangements.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), in a statement responding to the report, said, "It’s beyond parody that Democrats continue their obsession with former President Trump."
Democrats and some ethics officials have argued for years that Trump violated the Foreign Emoluments Clause, which forbids a president from profiting from foreign governments, after he didn’t divest himself from his real estate empire and other business holdings. And while Trump faced lawsuits over the issue, the Supreme Court declared two of the lawsuits moot shortly after he left office.
Democrats are expected to release a separate report on potential domestic spending violations, noting that documents they received raised “significant potential conflicts of interest and potential violations of the Constitution’s Domestic Emoluments Clause.”
And they are vowing to propose legislation to make reforms, though those bills could be stuck in limbo given Republicans’ narrow majority in the House. That legislative package is expected to include, among provisions, a requirement that the president and other senior executive officials disclose to Congress any foreign emoluments they received and set up a procedure to seek congressional authorization for receiving and keeping them.
“We will develop a package of proposed legislative reforms to ensure that all occupants of the Oval Office abide by the Constitution’s unequivocal language commanding loyalty to the interests of the American people,” Raskin wrote.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond when asked for comment.
We begin today with the now former president of Harvard, Claudine Gay, writing for The New York Times that it’s the forces which led to her resignation have a much bigger agenda.
As I depart, I must offer a few words of warning. The campaign against me was about more than one university and one leader. This was merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society. Campaigns of this kind often start with attacks on education and expertise, because these are the tools that best equip communities to see through propaganda. But such campaigns don’t end there. Trusted institutions of all types — from public health agencies to news organizations — will continue to fall victim to coordinated attempts to undermine their legitimacy and ruin their leaders’ credibility. For the opportunists driving cynicism about our institutions, no single victory or toppled leader exhausts their zeal.
Yes, I made mistakes. In my initial response to the atrocities of Oct. 7, I should have stated more forcefully what all people of good conscience know: Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks to eradicate the Jewish state. And at a congressional hearing last month, I fell into a well-laid trap. I neglected to clearly articulate that calls for the genocide of Jewish people are abhorrent and unacceptable and that I would use every tool at my disposal to protect students from that kind of hate. [...]
Never did I imagine needing to defend decades-old and broadly respected research, but the past several weeks have laid waste to truth. Those who had relentlessly campaigned to oust me since the fall often trafficked in lies and ad hominem insults, not reasoned argument. They recycled tired racial stereotypes about Black talent and temperament. They pushed a false narrative of indifference and incompetence.
Kimberly Atkins Stohr of The Boston Globe says that yes, of course, Black women took note of what happened to Claudine Gay and why it happened.
Whatever your views about Claudine Gay, the plagiarism accusations against her, or her handling of antisemitism on campus, the mode of her downfall should ring alarm bells for everyone in academia. The voices of deep-pocketed donors with even deeper animosity for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts drowned out those of the members of Harvard University’s own governing board, which supported Gay until they didn’t. If some folks missed that piece of context in this controversy, Black women surely did not.
As Joy Gaston Gayles, a professor and a former president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, told me, Black women in academia feel disposable.
“It’s no secret that if you are a Black woman, in order to rise to certain levels of leadership — especially at a place like Harvard — you’ve got to do 10 times more than people who are privileged and who don’t share your identities have to do,” said Gayles, who heads the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development at North Carolina State University but clarified that she was expressing her personal views. [...]
Even among Black women who succeed in academia, the toll can be great. The deaths of two Black female college presidents last year — JoAnne A. Epps of Temple University and Orinthia Montague of Vol State — led some Black academics to speculate if their deaths were hastened by the stress Black women feel on the job. Given the medical data supporting the fact that racism shortens Black people’s lives by weathering our bodies, I can understand the suggestion.
Charles Blow had a few words to say about the resignation of Claudine Gay on TikTok.
You can read Blow’s column in The New York Times (on the same topic) here.
David Roberts of the “Volts” Substack went on a tweetstorm about the ease with which center-left pundits allow themselves to be used to peddle the right-wing framing of news topics.
The center-left pundit approach to these things is simply to accept the frame that the right has established and dutifully make judgments within it. In this case, they focus tightly on the question of whether particular instances qualify as plagiarism as described in the rules. [...]Why are we talking about this? Is there any reasonable political or journalistic justification for *this* being the center of US discourse for weeks on end? Who has pushed this to the fore, and why, and what are they trying to achieve? [...]There are a lot of important things going on right now. Why are we talking about this and not any of those?We know why: the right is expert at ginning up these artificial controversies and manipulating media. Again, they brag about it publicly! [...]My one, futile plea to everyone is simply: before you jump in with an opinion on the discourse of the day, ask yourself *why* it is the discourse of the day and whose interests the discourse is serving
Note: I understand and even agree, somewhat, with people who would rather not see embedded posts from Twitter/X. However, some relevant material is only available on Twitter/X.
Author Ishmael Reed describes how America’s so-called “media elite” are Trump’s willing Barnumesque “suckers” for El País in English.
Playwright Wajahat Ali, the fastest and most prepared mind on television panels, was discontinued at CNN because he talked about white racism too much. Because whites buy their products, TV reporters and pundits are instructed to refrain from calling the Trump followers racists or anti-Semites, so they give tepid reasoning for why whites are attracted to a man charged with 91 felonies. Though they might spend 24/7 criticizing the former president, they assist him by making excuses for those who support him, millions of deplorables, and thousands who are deranged like the man who attacked Representative Pelosi’s husband.
On Dec. 26, both media elite members, Chris Matthews, and Tim Miller, appearing on MSNBC, said that Trump followers are rural people who vote for him because the Eastern elites insult and ridicule them. Are they suggesting that if the Eastern elite hadn’t mocked them, the insurgency of Jan. 6 would never have happened? Maybe bought them a beer? [...]
Trump has to be one of the greatest showmen in history. He believes with circus entrepreneur P.T. Barnum that there’s a sucker born every minute. Not only is the media Trump’s sucker, but the sucker earns money by being taken. Trump knows that if he says outrageous things, it would make round-the-clock news. So the media reacts to his every tweet. He called political opponents “vermin,” which became a subject in TV panels for days to come, or his desire that President Biden “rot in hell.” Instead of covering the world like the BBC and Al Jazeera, American media owners involve all-day panels in answering Trump’s tweets, something that’s entertaining and inexpensive.
Well, Trump no longer “tweets,” technically. Members of the “media elite” screenshot his every post on TruthSocial and tweet his message for him.
Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post says that an amicus brief filed by never-Trump Republicans in support of Tanya Chutkan’s ruling that presidents do not have any sort of “privileged immunity” reflects “true conservatism.”
First and foremost, the amicus brief demonstrates fidelity to the clear meaning of the Constitution. When its writers argue that the Constitution’s text omits any reference to presidential immunity and that the Framers could have put one in had they intended to shield the office from prosecution (as they did for members of Congress in the speech or debate clause), the writers are deploying honest originalism. Because the text lacks an immunity provision, the courts have no power to invent such a protection. They likewise find no basis in the Constitution for Trump’s argument that prosecution must be preceded by impeachment and conviction. In deploying an originalist analysis, the amicus brief returns to a principle that the current right-wing majority on the Supreme Court has kicked to the curb: judicial restraint.
Second, these true conservatives embrace the concept of limited government. Citing Federalist Paper No. 69, they note that the president should not be regarded as a king but rather as something akin to the governor of New York (hence, subject to prosecution). To back up their argument that the president has never been regarded as beyond the reach of criminal laws, they cite, among other things, the pardon for Richard M. Nixon (unnecessary if he was immune) and Trump’s own arguments in the second impeachment trial.
Trump’s notion that Article II means he can do whatever he wants is a repudiation of our constitutional system that rejected a monarchy. In an era in which the GOP attempts to intrude into every corner of life — from banning abortion and books to micromanaging health care for LGBTQ+ youths — it’s helpful to remember that limited government used to be a fundamental principle for conservatives. Presidents are not kings; government is not all-powerful. Such ideas are now an anathema to Trump’s MAGA party.
Phyllis Cha of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that some abortion rights advocates and LGBTQ+ groups are already gearing up to protest at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Abortion rights advocates want to send delegates a message when they come to Chicago for the Democratic National Convention in August: They’re tired of what they say is “lip service” from the Democratic Party when it comes to reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, and they’re demanding action. [...]
In addition to CFAR, Bodies Outside of Unjust Laws: Coalition for Reproductive Justice and LGBTQ+ Liberation includes members of local abortion rights and LGBTQ+ advocate groups Stop-Trans Genocide, Chicago Abortion Fund, Reproductive Transparency Now and the Gay Liberation Network.
The Chicago Department of Transportation has 10 days to make a decision on the permit and notify the applicant. Permits are reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis, a CDOT spokesperson said, and are reviewed by multiple city departments. Approval of the permit depends on whether the event can be held safely.
CDOT hasn’t received any other applications for the time period when the convention is in town, the spokesperson said, but more applications are expected as convention dates approach.
Patrick Wintour of the Guardian analyzes South Africa’s request before the International Court seeking an Interim measure in order to prevent Israel from carrying out the intent of genocide.
Crack legal teams are being assembled, countries are issuing statements in support of South Africa, and Israel has said it will defend itself in court, reversing a decades-old policy of boycotting the UN’s top court and its 15 elected judges.
The first hearing in The Hague is set for 11 and 12 January. If precedent is any guide, it is possible the ICJ will issue a provisional ruling within weeks, and certainly while the Israeli attacks on Gaza are likely to be still under way.The wheels of global justice – at least interim justice – do not always grind slowly.
South Africa’s request for a provisional ruling is in line with a broader trend at the ICJ for such rulings. Parties have been seeking – and obtaining – provisional measures with increasing frequency: in the last decade the court has indicated provisional measures in 11 cases, compared with 10 in the first 50 years of the court’s existence (1945-1995).
Finally today, Kyle Orland of Ars Technia writes about the 13-year old kid that killed Tetris.
For decades after its 1989 release, each of the hundreds of millions of standard NES Tetris games ended the same way: A block reaches the top of the screen and triggers a "game over" message. That 34-year streak was finally broken on December 21, 2023, when 13-year-old phenom BlueScuti became the first human to reach the game's "kill screen" after a 40-minute, 1,511-line performance, crashing the game by reaching its functional limits.
What makes BlueScuti's achievement even more incredible (as noted in some excellent YouTube summaries of the scene) is that, until just a few years ago, the Tetris community at large assumed it was functionally impossible for a human to get much past 290 lines. The road to the first NES Tetris kill screen highlights the surprisingly robust competitive scene that still surrounds the classic game and just how much that competitive community has been able to collectively improve in a relatively short time.
And yes, I do play Tetris on my smartphone.
Everyone try to have the best possible day.
The Justice Department on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Texas over a state law allowing authorities to arrest illegal immigrants, pitting Republican Gov. Greg Abbott against the Biden administration as both remain at odds over how to handle the escalating crisis at the southern border.
The lawsuit, filed in an Austin federal court, came after Abbott signed into law last month a measure challenging the federal government's authority over immigration matters. In addition to Biden, several blue cities like New York and Chicago have pushed back against Abbott for having thousands of migrants bussed from his state to their jurisdictions.
"The United States brings this action to preserve its exclusive authority under federal law to regulate the entry and removal of noncitizens," the lawsuit states. "Texas cannot run its own immigration system. "Its efforts, through SB 4, intrude on the federal government’s exclusive authority to regulate the entry and removal of noncitizens, frustrate the United States’ immigration operations and proceedings, and interfere with U.S. foreign relations."
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Texas is also fighting a separate court battle over the installation of razor wire on the Rio Grande and a floating barrier, which has angered Mexican leaders as well.
Under the Texas law, migrants could either agree to a judge's order to leave the U.S. or be prosecuted on misdemeanor charges of illegal entry. Those who don't leave could face serious felony charges if arrested again.
Those ordered to leave would be sent to ports of entry along the border with Mexico, even if they are not Mexican citizens. The law can be enforced anywhere in Texas but some places are off-limits, including schools and churches.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Abbott's office.
Last week, the Justice Department sent Abbott a letter threatening legal action unless Texas reversed course. In response, Abbott posted on X that the Biden administration "not only refuses to enforce current U.S. immigration laws, they now want to stop Texas from enforcing laws against illegal immigration."
The governor has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of failing to address issues at the border amid record numbers of migrants crossing into the United States. The bussing program has angered Democrats in blue cities, who say their jurisdictions lack sufficient resources to care for migrants they've received.
Illegal crossings along the southern U.S. border topped 10,000 on several days in December, a number that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Troy Miller called "unprecedented." U.S. authorities closed cargo rail crossings in Eagle Pass and El Paso for five days last month, calling it a response to many migrants riding freight trains through Mexico to the border.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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In a bizarre micro-scandal that some have dubbed “GrubGate,” a former GOP congresswoman who is running for her old seat in South Texas is being accused of routinely stealing photos of Mexican food from other social media accounts and passing them off as her own cooking.
Earlier this week, Mayra Flores, the first Mexican-born woman to serve in Congress, posted a photo on social media that she described as “gorditas de masa" with the caption, “the Ranch life with family is the best.”
Soon after, a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, pointed out that that the image was previously posted on a Facebook page, “Visit Guyana,” in March 2022. Others said that the food in the photo was not gorditas de masa. That prompted the conservative website Current Revolt to dig further into Flores’ social media accounts, where they found numerous other posts in which Flores used others’ photos of campfire cooking or homemade tortillas to illustrate her own idyllic life on a ranch.
“As a proud Latina who knows how to cook, homemade Mexican food tastes better from a gas stove,” she wrote alongside one photo of eggs and tortillas on what appears to be a wood-burning stove. The photo was initially posted on Facebook in 2021 by a Spanish-language magazine.
The Tribune separately reviewed Flores’ Instagram and found at least two such instances in the last year, including one post from July in which she shared a photo of meat and tortillas on a grill with the caption, “Joe Biden is not invited to the carne asada” in both English and Spanish. A reverse image search found that the exact photo was posted a year prior by a Facebook page for tourism in Tamaulipas — the state in Mexico where Flores was born.
In another post, she praised the “simple things in life” like a “good breakfast” alongside a photo that was first published two years ago by a Mexican food photographer.
In a text message on Wednesday, Flores said it wasn’t her “intention to mislead.”
“The photo simply reminded me of my upbringing in Mexico and childhood,” she said. “I deleted the tweet to clear up any confusion. I actually spend my Christmas at ranch with my In-Laws. Happy New Year!”
Asked to specify which of the photos she was referring to, Flores suggested that the Tribune focus on “the border crisis.”
She also changed her handle on X amid the criticism and has been blocking people on social media throughout Tuesday and Wednesday who have accused her of falsely passing the photos of cooking off as her own.
“The George Santos of the [Rio Grande Valley],” wrote the campaign for U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, who Flores is currently challenging.
Flores is running to retake the South Texas seat that she initially won in a June 2022 special election. Her win was seen by the GOP as a sign of momentum among heavily Hispanic voters there. But redistricting made the seat more favorable for Democrats in the November election, and Flores lost to Gonzalez.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune.
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