Leaker of Michael Cohen’s Financial Records Makes Another Explosive Accusation

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New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow says that the person who leaked Michael Cohen’s financial records talked to him and explained why they did it – because they believe they discovered a cover up. . .

The law-enforcement official says “records of bigger, potentially more sensitive, swaths of suspicious transactions appeared to be missing from a government database,” explained Ronan Farrow.

According to the report, the official noticed that two “suspicious-activity reports” were missing from the record. Believing that the records were being “withheld” from law enforcement, he leaked them to the media.

The reports are required to be filed in a database by banks to flag activities that appear suspicious. The database is called FINCEN and can be accessed by law enforcement and other government personnel. They are not necessarily criminal activity but could be used as evidence. . .

The leaker says he knows the consequences of his actions, but that they could not ignore the potential corruption of the FINCEN system. “We’ve accepted this as normal, and this is not normal,” the official said. “Things that stand out as abnormal, like documents being removed from a system, are of grave concern to me.” (Read more from “Leaker of Michael Cohen’s Financial Records Makes Another Explosive Accusation” HERE)

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Obama’s Presidential Center Sued for Corrupt Scheme

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A public park advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing Obama Presidential Center organizers of pulling an “institutional bait and switch” by reneging on its original planned purpose of building an official presidential library in historic Jackson Park.

The Chicago City Council approved an ordinance in 2015 for the parkland to be leased to the Obama Foundation for the purpose of housing former President Barack Obama’s official presidential library, the Chicago Sun-Times reported on Tuesday.

But operations have since changed. Obama now plans to use the parkland to build a $500 million personal museum and monument dedicated to his person. The National Records and Archives Administration will operate his presidential library somewhere else.

The lawsuit, Protect Our Parks, Inc. filed against the city of Chicago and the Chicago Park District, argues public parkland is “prohibited by law” from being given to a private entity such as the Obama Foundation for private use. . .

The complaint accuses the City of Chicago of dealing with the Obama Foundation “in a classic Chicago political way, known as a short con shell game, a corrupt scheme to deceive and seemingly legitimize an illegal land grab, one that will endure for centuries to come, regardless of future changing public park needs and increasingly consequential environmental conditions.” (Read more from “Obama’s Presidential Center Sued for Corrupt Scheme” HERE)

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This Is CNN: The Only Thing More Absurd Than Trump in Green Sniper’s Scope Is the ‘Reason’ It Was Published

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CNN’s Chris Cillizza is under fire after tweeting an image of a sniper’s crosshairs over a picture of President Donald Trump.

The CNN editor-at-large tweeted then deleted the image of the green sniper’s scope over Trump’s face in a tweet captioned, “Donald Trump, pointing to heavens to commemorate police officers killed in the line of duty.”

. . .

“I’ve deleted a GIF about President Trump. We use @GifGrabber to make our GIFs and it defaults to the image below as a first frame. To clear up any unintended confusion, I’ve removed the tweet,” Cillizza explained.

(Read more from “This Is CNN: The Only Thing More Absurd Than Trump in Green Sniper’s Scope Is the ‘Reason’ It Was Published” HERE)

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Amazon Caves to Democrats’ Racial Diversity Demands

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After facing public backlash for initially defending its “complex” meritocratic system, Amazon said on Monday it’s implementing a racial diversity rule a left-wing, billion-dollar “activist” investment group pushed on the tech giant.

“The Amazon Board of Directors has adopted a policy that the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee include a slate of diverse candidates, including women and minorities, for all director openings,” Amazon said in its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

Amazon is now applying the “Rooney Rule” to its board of directors hiring process. It first required NFL teams to interview at least one racial minority for head coach and senior football operation positions but is now applied in other industries. . .

CtW Investment Group was described as “an activist shareholder group” by Stefanie Johnsonan, an associate professor at the University of Colorado’s Leeds School of Business, in the Harvard Business Review. . . .

Also in CtW’s “About Us” section is a disclaimer it “does not exercise or seek to exercise any discretionary authority or discretionary control regarding management of any plan, disposition of any plan assets, proxy voting decisions, appointment of plan trustees, or any other aspect of plan management or administration.” (Read more from “Amazon Caves to Democrats’ Racial Diversity Demands” HERE)

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FBI Releases Pro-2nd Amendment Statement, Cites ‘Preparation’ by Police and Citizens

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A report released by the FBI in April underlined the necessity of the Second Amendment, pointing out that nearly half of the incidents in which active shooters were confronted by citizens, the incident ended with an armed citizen successfully stopping the shooter.

A total of 50 active shooter incidents occurred in the United States in 2016 and 2017; of those 50, 10 involved the shooters being confronted by citizens. Of those ten, four were stopped by an armed citizen who stopped the shooter. The FBI report states, “Armed and unarmed citizens engaged the shooter in 10 incidents. They safely and successfully ended the shootings in eight of those incidents. Their selfless actions likely saved many lives. The enhanced threat posed by active shooters and the swiftness with which active shooter incidents unfold support the importance of preparation by law enforcement officers and citizens alike.” (Read more from “FBI Releases Pro-2nd Amendment Statement, Cites ‘Preparation’ by Police and Citizens” HERE)

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Bombshell: FBI Used Secret Program to Gather Information on Trump Campaign, No Judge Needed

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By The Intercept. The FBI routinely uses secret orders known as national security letters to demand information that recipients might not actually have to give up, internal documents indicate. The letters are among the FBI’s most potent instruments, because they function like subpoenas without requiring the approval of a judge. Internal guidelines suggest that the bureau has been using them to pursue sensitive electronic data and phone records — despite the fact that such attempts overstep the bureau’s legal authority.

The Intercept obtained the FBI’s rules for national security letters as they are spelled out in two different guides: a document detailing current guidelines for agents using the letters and an uncensored 2011 version of the FBI’s main operating manual, the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, or DIOG. Both documents are marked “unclassified” or “for official use only.” The first document has not been previously released. The DIOG has been made public only in heavily redacted form.

The FBI issues thousands of NSLs each year. They are controversial in part because they carry the force of law but are created entirely outside the judicial system: To issue one, an FBI official just needs to attest that the information sought is relevant to a national security investigation. The letters have also been criticized because they are shrouded in secrecy. Companies that receive them are for the most part forbidden from notifying their customers or the public. The government has fought to keep even basic rules governing them secret. (Read more from “Bombshell: FBI Used Secret Program to Gather Information on Trump Campaign, No Judge Needed” HERE)

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Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation

By The New York Times. Within hours of opening an investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia in the summer of 2016, the F.B.I. dispatched a pair of agents to London on a mission so secretive that all but a handful of officials were kept in the dark.

Their assignment, which has not been previously reported, was to meet the Australian ambassador, who had evidence that one of Donald J. Trump’s advisers knew in advance about Russian election meddling. After tense deliberations between Washington and Canberra, top Australian officials broke with diplomatic protocol and allowed the ambassador, Alexander Downer, to sit for an F.B.I. interview to describe his meeting with the campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos.

The agents summarized their highly unusual interview and sent word to Washington on Aug. 2, 2016, two days after the investigation was opened. Their report helped provide the foundation for a case that, a year ago Thursday, became the special counsel investigation. But at the time, a small group of F.B.I. officials knew it by its code name: Crossfire Hurricane. (Read more from “Code Name Crossfire Hurricane: The Secret Origins of the Trump Investigation” HERE)

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Debbie Wasserman Schultz: NRA Is a Terrorist Organization

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Even though the tactic doesn’t seem to be working for Democrats, Senator Debbie Wasserman Schultz today doubled down on earlier rhetoric calling the National Rifle Association “just shy” of a terrorist organization.

According to her recent interview with the Huffington Post, Wasserman Schultz is no fan of the gun rights organization, and she’s not afraid to show it.

“The NRA is kind of just shy of a terrorist organization,” Schultz told the magazine. “They have done everything they can to perpetuate the culture of violence that we have in our country with the spread of assault weapons across the nation.”

She then attacked recently-appointed NRA President Oliver North’s recent comments that gun rights are facing the strongest opposition to a civil right since the Jim Crow era by suggesting the NRA is actually responsible for mass murder.

“The Jim Crow laws actually resulted in the deaths of people standing up for their rights,” Wasserman Schultz said. “People that are dying as a result of the infection that is the spread of assault weapons thanks to the NRA are being murdered in cold blood without any cessation or interest on the part of the NRA to do anything about it.” (Read more from “Debbie Wasserman Schultz: NRA Is a Terrorist Organization” HERE)

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After Cancelling, North Korea Drops Another Damaging Statement About Trump Meeting

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By The Blaze. The North Korean regime released a second statement Tuesday evening after pulling out of a meeting with South Korea and threatening to pull the plug on the historic meeting planned with President Trump . . .

A senior North Korean official said that the regime was not interested in “unilaterally” denuclearizing, according to Yonhap News Agency, the largest South Korean news organization.

An English translation of Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan’s statement was released Tuesday.

The statement lauded North Korea’s efforts to seek peace, but added, “prior to the DPRK-U.S. summit, unbridled remarks provoking the other side of dialogue are recklessly made in the U.S. and I am totally disappointed as these constitute extremely unjust behavior.”

“High-ranking officials of the White House and the Department of State including Bolton,” the statement continued, “White House national security adviser, are letting loose the assertions of so-called Libya mode of nuclear abandonment, ‘complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization,’ ‘total decommissioning of nuclear weapons, missiles, biochemical weapons.’ etc., while talking about formula of ‘abandoning nuclear weapons first, compensating afterwards.’” (Read more from “After Cancelling, North Korea Drops Another Damaging Statement About Trump Meeting” HERE)

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North Korea Cancels Historic Meeting – Here’s What They Say Set Them off

By The Blaze. After weeks of historic acts of amelioration, North Korea suspended a meeting with South Korean officials planned for Wednesday, and threatened to cut off the meeting with President Trump . . .

According to the North Korean state news agency KCNA, officials were angered by joint military drills between the United States and South Korea.

The summit between North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and President Trump was scheduled for June 12 in Singapore. They were to discuss the possibility of North Korea denuclearizing.

“We are aware of the South Korean media report. The United States will look at what North Korea has said independently, and continue to coordinate closely with our allies,” said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders about the report.

“We have not heard anything from that government or the government of South Korea to indicate that we would not continue conducting these exercises,” said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, “or that we would not continue planning for our meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un next month.” (Read more from “North Korea Cancels Historic Meeting – Here’s What They Say Set Them off” HERE)

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Michael Avenatti Threatens Daily Caller Reporter for Publishing Public Records on Him

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. . .The Daily Caller article seems fairly straightforward and is mostly a fact-based review of public records. The article does, however, cast Avenatti in a bad light because it recounts some of his past failures. It should not surprise you for a minute that someone like Avenatti does not want to be called out for his lack of success.

In response to the article, Avenatti fired off an email to one of its authors this morning. It’s a combination of hilarity and stupid mistakes. The subject line of the email is “Cut It Out.” Mistake number one. (Also, that’s just so silly.)

Aveantti opens the email by saying it was “Off The Record,” but that’s not a unilateral request, and clearly has no impact when sending a blistering, threatening email to a reporter. That’s mistake number two.

He threatens to sue for defamation, but doesn’t specify what he believes was defamatory in the article. He also threatens to seek damages against the reporters personally, and essentially orders the reporter to relay the message to President Trump: “I would tell Mr. Trump to find someone else to fabricate things about me.” (I laughed.)

He then clearly launches a threat when he writes: “If you think I’m kidding, you really don’t know anything about me. This is the last warning.” Mistake number three. (Read more from “Michael Avenatti Threatens Daily Caller Reporter for Publishing Public Records on Him” HERE)

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Report Finds Cases of STDs Reach All-Time High in California

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The number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases in California reached a record high last year and officials are particularly concerned by a spike in stillbirths due to congenital syphilis, state health authorities said Monday.

More than 300,000 cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported in 2017, a 45 percent increase from five years ago, according to data released by the California Department of Public Health.

Chlamydia and gonorrhea are most common among people under 30, the report said. Rates of chlamydia are highest among young women, while men account for the majority of syphilis and gonorrhea cases . . .

The figure that caused the greatest alarm for researchers and administrators was 30 stillbirths resulting from congenital syphilis statewide — the highest number reported since 1995, the CDPH said. Los Angeles County alone saw congenital syphilis cases jump from eight in 2013 to 47 last year.

“For California to have a steady increase in congenital syphilis is shameful,” said Dr. Jeffrey Klausner, a professor of medicine at University of California, Los Angeles. He pointed to nations such as Cuba, Thailand and Belarus that have nearly eliminated the life-threatening infection seen in infants. (Read more from “Report Finds Cases of Stds Reach All-Time High in California” HERE)

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