It’s Not the Trump Administration Politicizing Flynn’s Case, It’s Judge Sullivan

Not quite two weeks ago, Judge Emmet Sullivan threw open the doors of his federal courtroom to the swamp when he invited third parties to pontificate on the propriety of the Department of Justice’s motion to dismiss the criminal charges against Michael Flynn. The next day Sullivan went further: He appointed a former federal judge, John Gleeson, as an amicus curiae, or friend of the court, to argue that the government’s motion to dismiss should be denied.

Judge Sullivan’s selection of Gleeson as amicus curiae gave away the game. The same day Sullivan named Gleeson as amicus curiae, an op-ed by Gleeson and two cohorts ran in the Washington Post declaring the government’s decision to dismiss the charge against Flynn “reeks of improper political influence.”

The Washington Post cloaked Gleeson and his co-authors, David O’Neil and Marshall Miller, with an aura of impartiality and authority by highlighting their past service in the Department of Justice: “John Gleeson served as a U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of New York and chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in that district. David O’Neil served as the acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. Marshall Miller served as the highest-ranking career official in the Criminal Division and as chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District.” . . .

Already the anti-Trump Protect Democracy Project has submitted an amicus curiae brief to Judge Sullivan. That brief rehashes many of the political talking points left-leaning pundits and politicians have been peddling since Trump took office, then argues that in seeking to dismiss the criminal charge against Flynn, Trump and Barr have “flouted” the principle that the DOJ’s investigatory and prosecutorial powers should “be exercised free from partisan consideration.”

The irony couldn’t be richer. The Obama administration targeted Flynn because the glow of Orange Man Bad reached the retired general’s orbit. But, according to Protect Democracy, it is the Trump administration’s DOJ that is playing politics with prosecutions! (Read more from “It’s Not the Trump Administration Politicizing Flynn’s Case, It’s Judge Sullivan” HERE)

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Ric Grenell Hits Senator Mark Warner With Sunlight Hammer as He Exits Role as DNI

Oh my, acting DNI Ric Grenell was/is buckets of brutally honest awesome.

In a departing letter to SSCI Vice-Chair Mark Warner, Grenell responds to a Warner inquiry demanding justification for his blitz of sunlight and naming of unmaskers.

Specifically pointing to the release of names that unmasked Trump administration officials Grenell notes “the decision to declassify the names of individuals who sough to unmask the identity of General Flynn poses absolutely no risk of compromise of either sources or methods.” Grenell also tells Warner, “cherry picking certain documents for release while attacking the release of others that don’t fit your political narrative is part of the problem the American people have with Washington DC politicians.”

The Daily Caller has compiled a partial list of Grenell’s accomplishments to include:

— Directed the IC to change the way they protect the identities of U.S. citizens contained within intelligence reporting

— Completed the IC review of 53 transcripts from the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election and made the transcripts publicly available

— Declassified previously redacted footnotes from the Justice Department Inspector General’s report into the origins of the Russian collusion investigation

— Declassified a list of government officials who requested the unmasking of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn

— Replaced FBI with ODNI as the primary group responsible for briefing presidential campaigns on information derived from national intelligence

— Declassified former national security adviser Susan Rice’s email to herself regarding a January 2016 Oval Office where progress on the Russia investigation was discussed

— Declassified additional transcripts in ODNI’s possession for potential public release by incoming DNI John Ratcliffe

(READ MORE)

And even that list doesn’t include the declassification of the Rosenstein/Mueller scope memos and several more important contributions during his tenure.

Grenell’s greatest contribution as DNI was personifying a belief that government, including the intelligence apparatus, works for the people; and as a direct result the intelligence apparatus has a responsibility to provide sunlight upon all aspects of their function that does not impede national security.

The way to keep politics out of intelligence matters is to keep as much of their activity as public as possible. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

I hope we see more of Ric Grenell in another capacity soon. (For more from the author of “Ric Grenell Hits Senator Mark Warner With Sunlight Hammer as He Exits Role as DNI” please click HERE)

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Shocking New Study: Lockdowns Destroy NEARLY TWICE as Many Years of Life as the Coronavirus

Will the New York Times begin publishing the names of those who died from the man-made lockdowns alongside those who died from the God-made plague of coronavirus? Will it publish a state-by-state and country-by-country dashboard and demographic breakdown of those who lose their lives thanks to these unprecedented political decisions?

Four professors with backgrounds ranging from medicine to economics attempted to quantify the number of lives lost from the devastation of the lockdown itself – something our government failed to simulate when it embarked on this novel policy. Using health and labor data as well as various actuarial tables, they projected 65,000 lives lost per month of lockdown in the U.S. – greater than the loss from the virus. That number was calculated by dividing the estimated $1.1 trillion lost from economic productivity per month of lockdown by $17 million because the best estimates predict one life lost from suicide, alcohol or drug abuse, or stress-induced illnesses per $17 million lost.

“These financial losses have been falsely portrayed as purely economic,” wrote the four professors in The Hill on Monday. “To the contrary … we calculate that these policies will cause devastating non-economic consequences that will total millions of accumulated years of life lost in the United States, far beyond what the virus itself has caused.”

The four authors were Scott Atlas of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, John Birge of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Ralph Keeney of Duke University, and Alexander Lipton of the Jerusalem Business School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The point the authors make, that lockdowns are destroying so many more cumulative years of life, is very poignant to the situation we find ourselves in. For every 1,000 lives lost to the virus, the corresponding 1,000 lives lost to the lockdown will destroy exponentially more “life years,” because the median age of those who die from the virus is 80, while the median age for deaths caused by the lockdown – those who die due to suicide, substance abuse, despair, and poverty – is much lower.

This point was accentuated by one commentator who compared the cumulative years of life lost to the virus from February 1 through May 13 to the years of life lost to fatalities from the flu and pneumonia over the same time.

As you can see, there were actually more life years lost due to flu and pneumonia, even though this was a mild flu season in most places and the time frame of reference here doesn’t include December and January, which include a large share of the annual flu deaths.

We have already seen that doctors in Northern California are reporting more than a year’s worth of suicides in just four weeks. Knox County, Tennessee, experienced nine suicides in just one 48-hour period in March. On the other hand, there have only been five COVID-19 deaths in Knox County over nine weeks! One can only imagine the number of suicides that will pile up if these draconian measures are continued indefinitely until there is a vaccine, as so many liberal politicians are advocating.

Also, the death toll of the economic consequences of the shutdown is just one piece of the pie. As the authors note, stroke patient evaluations are down 40 percent, nearly half of cancer patients have missed treatments, two-thirds to three-fourths of routine cancer screenings have been delayed, nearly 85 percent fewer living-donor transplants have occurred, and more than half of childhood vaccinations are not being performed. They estimate that the total years of lost life per month of shutdown from these missed treatments and diagnosis are 500,000! In total, they estimate that the lockdown, over its entire duration, has caused the loss of 1.5 million life years, as compared to 800,000 life years from the virus itself.

It is truly shocking that nobody in our government has even attempted to model the number of lives lost due to lockdown. The falsity behind the original virus models became apparent a few days into the lockdown. Any sane government would have weighed the collateral damage at that point and repudiated any severe lockdown absent clear evidence that it was necessary. European countries and the Israelis have realized this was a big mistake, but our politicians continue to double down on it.

Yoram Lass, former director-general of Israel’s Ministry of Health, said in an interview with online media outlet Spiked that nothing about this virus can “justify this destruction of people’s lives.”

“It is the first epidemic in history which is accompanied by another epidemic – the virus of the social networks,” said the Israeli scientist. “These new media have brainwashed entire populations. What you get is fear and anxiety, and an inability to look at real data. And therefore you have all the ingredients for monstrous hysteria.”

One would think that, with Israel’s low death rates, Israeli scientists would want to play up the success of the lockdown. But they realize what so many of us do, which is that the lockdowns were completely unnecessary and caused much more collateral damage. A prominent epidemiologist at Hebrew University concluded that once it was clear Israel’s health care system was not going to be overrun, there was no justification for the lockdown and that the damage it did to the country, which now faces 25 percent unemployment, outweighed any other consideration.

“We are not trying to minimize the number of people infected – the price of the lockdown is too catastrophic,” said Professor David Gershon, one of the Hebrew University researchers involved in their study. “The price of more than one million people unemployed is so crazy that to say we want to minimize the number of infected people is ridiculous.”

The sooner our government realizes that, the fewer lives we will continue to bleed. (For more from the author of “New Study: Lockdowns Destroy Nearly Twice as Many Years of Life as the Coronavirus” please click HERE)

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Wikipedia Neutral? Not Hardly, Says Co-Founder; Leftist Bias Dominates

Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, published a blog post this month declaring that the online encyclopedia’s “neutral point of view” policy is “dead” due to the rampant left-wing bias of the site. Noting the article on President Donald Trump, Sanger contrasted its extensive coverage of presidential scandals with the largely scandal-free article on former President Barack Obama.

Sanger also criticized Wikipedia’s coverage of religion and other controversial topics. After Fox News reported on his blog post, many Wikipedians ignored the bias Sanger identified and instead responded by attacking the conservative outlet as well as Sanger.

On May 14, Sanger published a blog piece titled “Wikipedia Is Badly Biased” and started by declaring Wikipedia’s “Neutral Point of View” policy dead. Having founded the online encyclopedia with Jimmy Wales and having been involved in the original drafting of the policy, Sanger offered particular insight into its development and its practice in recent years. On the current policy’s rejection of providing “equal validity” to different views, Sanger stated this went directly against the original policy’s intent and that “as journalists turn to opinion and activism, Wikipedia now touts controversial points of view on politics, religion, and science.”

Providing examples, Sanger noted former President Obama’s article excludes most notable scandals during his Administration, such as the bungled ATF Fast and Furious operation that armed Mexican cartels who killed a U.S. border agent or the targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS. By contrast, Sanger pointed to Trump’s article containing overwhelmingly negative sections on the President regarding his “public profile” as well as investigations and impeachment. The sections critical of Trump and his presidency are nearly as long as those dealing with his presidency overall. He further criticized Wikipedia repeatedly saying Trump makes false statements rather than attributing such characterizations to sources.

Wikipedia’s coverage of other contentious political topics such as abortion were also criticized with Sanger singling out Wikipedia claiming abortion is “one of the safest procedures in medicine.” He pointed out how articles on legalization of drugs and gay adoption were focused on positives with little to no mention of criticisms. In the latter case, Sanger noted the section on “debate” about gay adoption only included arguments in favor rather than any against it. Sanger also criticized Wikipedia’s coverage of religion describing the article on Jesus as “a ‘liberal’ academic discussion” focused “on assorted difficulties and controversies” without explaining “traditional or orthodox views of those issues.” (Read more from “Wikipedia Neutral?” HERE)

“Fundamentally Dishonest” China Deploys Two Aircraft Carriers to Threaten Taiwan, Other Countries; Xi Tells Military to Get Ready for “Worst Case”; A Chinese Attack on India Would be Beyond Stupid

By Ryan Morgan. Two Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) aircraft carriers are preparing to conduct a set of provocative war games in the contested South China Sea, near the Taiwan-claimed Pratas Islands, also known as the Dongsha Islands.

The Chinese aircraft carriers Liaoning and Shandong were finishing up combat readiness training in the Bohai Bay of the Yellow Sea ahead of a planned deployment near the Taiwanese territorial claims, The Daily Mail reported. The Pratas or Dongsha Islands are a series of three atolls off the coast of China and lying to the southwest of Taiwan.

The reports of China’s planned aggressive moves near Taiwan come shortly after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi claimed, “political forces in the US are taking China-US relations hostage and pushing our two countries to the brink of a new Cold War.”

The war games near the Pratas Islands also come amid Chinese calls to reunify with Taiwan, raising concerns among some observers that the war games are a ploy to capture the islands.

The Japan-based Kyodo News reported on May 12, that the PLA is also planning to hold massive beach landing drills on the Chinese island province of Hainan in August, which could be used to simulate a beach landing on Taiwan’s Pratas Islands. (Read more about China’s attempt to threaten Taiwan HERE)

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Xi Tells Military: Prepare for Worst-Case Scenarios

Edited by Divyanshu Dutta Roy. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday ordered the military to scale up the battle preparedness, visualising the worst-case scenarios and asked them to resolutely defend the country’s sovereignty. Though he did no mention any specific threat, his comments came amid a face-off between soldiers of India and China at the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Xi, 66 who is also the General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) and head of the two-million-strong military with prospects of lifelong tenure in power, made the remarks while attending a plenary meeting of the delegation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and People’s Armed Police Force during the current parliament session being held in Beijing.

Xi ordered the military to think about worst-case scenarios, scale up training and battle preparedness, promptly and effectively deal with all sorts of complex situations and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security and development interests, state-run Xinhua news agency reported, without mentioning any specific issues that posed a threat to the country. (Read more about China’s efforts to threaten Taiwan, India and other nations HERE)

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If Xi Attacks India, it May be His Last Mistake

By Michael Rubin. There have been at least four ‘incidents’ across the India-China line-of-control in recent weeks. While there were nearly 500 incidents in eastern Ladakh in 2019, the recent incidents are larger scale and better coordinated than what occurred in 2019 and before. The People’s Liberation Army has reinforced its positions in the Galwan Valley and Demochok in Ladakh. Lieutenant General (retired) Deependra Singh Hooda, India’s former Northern Army commander, wrote on May 24, 2020 that the decision and direction of China’s most recent aggressions appear originate in Beijing rather than with local commanders. China appears angered that India is developing its roads and logistical capabilities in the region. An analysis in India’s Economic Times theorizes that Chinese authorities seem to be repeating their 1962 playbook, not recognizing how much India has changed.

India is today ascendant. It does not face the same demographic nightmare that China now confronts due to decades of Beijing’s previous one-child policy. India’s conventional military has advanced substantially over the last half-century and it has, since 1974, also been a nuclear power. Despite all of India’s internal inefficiencies, bloated bureaucracy, and protectionism, its economy is in far greater shape than it was a half-century ago. The world has also changed. When China initially invaded Indian territory, President John F. Kennedy offered some arms, but it was too little too late, and his official neutrality likely encouraged Indian leaders to tilt even more toward the Soviet Union. Today, however, belief in a strong U.S.-India partnership is one of the few topics which still unites Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill and across administrations. It is not the stuff of hushed backroom diplomatic negotiations, but openly embraced.

China may believe intimidation and the sort of ‘salami-slicing’ in which it engages in the South China Sea will enable it to act without consequence against India, but India is not the Philippines, willing to roll over for a few yuan.

Or consider another analogy: When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, the world wrung its hands and issued harsh condemnations, but did little more. When Russian leader Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces into Ukraine, however, he found himself mired in a conflict which still continues both to send Russian soldiers and ‘contractors’ home in body bags and to drain Russian finances, both propping up annexed territories and proxy states, and subsidizing their war efforts. Xi may believe he can digest Hong Kong and crush its freedom spirit, but he will be wrong to believe that India is weak or that the United States—even under the Trump administration—would simply ignore his aggression. Instead, the United States would likely open the floodgates to provide any intelligence and weaponry which India would need to defend itself and bog down China in a morass of Xi’s own making. (Read more about the implications of China’s efforts to threaten Taiwan, India and other nations HERE)

Small Towns are Being Destroyed by the Unnecessary Lockdowns

The United States Conference of Mayors has a growing database of fiscal impacts in 170 cities. Santa Monica, California, for example, is eliminating 337 staff positions, and Oakland Park, Florida, has announced that all city employees, including first responders, must take one day off every two weeks without pay.

That list is far from complete. It doesn’t include Midland, Michigan, where 28% of city workers were furloughed or faced reduced work hours last month. Midland is now the epicenter of a massive flood that forced 10,000 people to evacuate after heavy rainfall and two collapsed dams sent the Tittabawassee River to record levels.

Noah Ponte, an out-of-work hotel manager in Detroit who grew up in Midland, drove into town last Tuesday night to help with volunteer efforts. He and other volunteers created Google forms to match people offering housing, food and clothing assistance with evacuees who need it. “We really can’t catch a break right now,” Ponte said.

The storm is consistent with climate models that predict increasing rainfall for the Midwest. It’s an example of the cascading catastrophes experts have warned about, as weather and climate-related disasters pile on top of the coronavirus.

Communities face a “three-front war: it’s the pandemic, other natural disasters, and the revenue,” said Colin Wellenkamp, executive director of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative, which represents 96 communities along the river. (Read more from “Unnecessary Lockdowns” HERE)

European Politicians Blaming Each Other for Insane Lockdown Idea

As American politicians double down on locking down our lives, not only are European countries moving away from lockdowns, but some of their political leaders are engaging in a blame game over who thought of such a maniacal idea to begin with.

The Danish Jyllands-Posten newspaper reported on Friday that contrary to the assertion of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen that it was the “authorities” and “the government’s recommendation that we shut down all unnecessary activity,” it appears that the National Board of Health never advised a lockdown. The controversy in Danish media stems from her use of the Danish word “myndighederne,” which means “authorities,” during the March 11 press conference announcing the lockdown.

But the Jyllands-Posten charges that no such authority gave consent to or recommended these measures. “As late as the day before the March 11 press conference, the board drew up a list of ‘possible actions’ against covid-19.”

“There were no shutdowns and forced interventions here. In addition, on February 28, Søren Brostrøm [director of National Board of Health] signed a recommendation which, according to jurists, meant that general encroachments on Danes’ freedom were excluded — e.g. forced treatment and barring of areas. Only in certain ‘specific situations’ did Brostrøm give green light for intervention. Kjeld Møller Pedersen, professor of health policy at SDU, states that ‘the government has abused health-care advice.’” (Translated from Danish by Google translate.)

It’s fascinating to watch politicians and the mainstream media in Europe trade barbs about who was responsible for the lockdown, as if it were the plague itself, while American politicians and media figures continue to embrace it. This comes on the heels of a blockbuster BBC report lacing into U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson for ordering the lockdown and ignoring science. There is now anticipation of major reprisal against him for going along with the lockdown.

The European media is now going after those who induced the panic as well. Yesterday, BILD, the widest circulated newspaper in Europe, ran a headline: “Drosten study on infectious children grossly wrong.” On April 29, German virologist Christian Drosten published a paper claiming, contrary to nearly every other study, that children can transmit COVID-19 just as much as adults. In turns out that, instead, his own data show that children carry an 86 percent lower mean viral load than adults. Imagine media in the U.S. going back to all of the assertions made by the purveyors of panic in recent weeks and debunking them.

Denmark has seen nothing but declines in its infection rates after opening schools and malls several weeks ago. Given that Denmark has enjoyed the lowest death rate per capita of any continental European country among the Western countries, one would expect it to champion the lockdown strategy rather than repudiate it. However, as the Danes dig through the colossal damage done by the lockdown and realize that the models and premises undergirding the lockdown to begin with were wrong, they are rightly asking questions and pointing fingers.

Belgium had the opposite experience from Denmark’s and suffered the most deaths per capita of any country in Europe. One would think Belgium’s leadership would be traumatized by the virus and strongly push the lockdown narrative as well, just like the politicians in New York. Instead, Interior Minister Pieter De Crem said on Sunday that Belgium’s hospitals were never in danger of being overrun as in Italy and Spain and implied that the lockdown was unnecessary. “If there was a second wave, then I think we will find ourselves in a different situation, namely with testing and tracing. But I think we can rule out that we will have to go back to the tough measures,” De Crem said.

The head of Norway’s Institute of Public Health also believes the lockdown was unnecessary.

Beaches are set to open even in Italy, while Spain, which has the second-highest COVID-19 deaths per capita rate in Europe, plans to open its soccer league on June 8. Meanwhile, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio is still keeping the beaches closed with no science to back up his assertion that there is any danger in the open air and sunlight. Meanwhile, though France, which is not a country known for valuing religious liberty, is opening up all religious services, numerous states and cities in the U.S. are still banning church services.

Sadly, in the land of the free and the home of the brave, only a handful of states have learned their lesson from the disastrous lockdowns and the flat-earth science undergirding them. According to an analysis by the University of Maryland, states that reopened their economies two weeks ago or earlier have seen, on average, day-to-day declines in new cases of -0.4%. Contrast that to states that have not yet opened their economies or that opened them much later, where daily cases are nearly unchanged. Georgia and Florida have especially enjoyed successful results despite predictions of rampant death and disease.

On Friday, Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, expressed her surprise that lockdown cities like Chicago, D.C., and Los Angeles were not experiencing the same steady decline as some other areas, including the freer states and cities. Maybe she ought to ask the Europeans to solve her riddle with science and freedom. They seem to value truth and liberty a lot more than American government officials. Who would have thunk it?! (For more from the author of “European Politicians Blaming Each Other for Insane Lockdown Idea” please click HERE)

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WATCH: Video of Resurfaced Biden Sparks Serious Health Concerns

. . .Creepy Joe left his Delaware basement for the first time in over two months on Monday.

. . .A video of 77-year-old Biden looking very frail sparked concerns over his health.

Biden shuffled his feet and gripped his wife’s hand as he walked over to his car as he was leaving the veterans memorial in Delaware.

(Read more from “Video of Resurfaced Biden Sparks Serious Health Concerns” HERE)

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Obama, Clinton 9th Circuit Judges Suspend Bill of Rights: California Ban on Church Services Can Stand

They said it. I didn’t.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday ruled that Democratic California Gavin Newsom’s ban on in-person church services during the coronavirus pandemic can stand.

The lawsuit, filed by South Bay United Pentecostal Church in San Diego, prevents that church from reopening, according to the Los Angeles Times

The ruling came from Judges Jacqueline Nguyen and Barry Silverman, Nguyen is an Obama appointee and Silverman, a Clinton appointee. The 9th Circuit has a longstanding terrible reputation, but this is a new low. . .

Perhaps these two lefty scholars can point us to where the First Amendment states, “except in an emergency”. (Read more from “Obama, Clinton 9th Circuit Judges Suspend Bill of Rights” HERE)

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USPS Mail Carrier Charged with Fraud After Allegedly Tampering with Vote-by-Mail Requests

Federal and state prosecutors in West Virginia announced Tuesday that it they had charged a U.S. Postal Service mail carrier with attempted fraud for allegedly tampering with requests for vote-by-mail absentee ballots.

A joint statement by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, U.S. Attorney Bill Powell, and Secretary of State Mac Warner said:

Thomas Cooper, 47, of Dry Fork, stands charged with attempting to defraud the residents of West Virginia of a fair election. An affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint states Cooper fraudulently altered eight absentee ballot requests in Pendleton County, of which the complaint states he fraudulently changed the party affiliation on five from Democrat to Republican.

“Manipulating one’s absentee ballot or application is not a laughing matter – it’s a federal offense,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “We must protect the integrity of the ballot box, and this demonstrates the aggressive action we will take to do so. It is more important now than ever for voters to watch for unexplained or suspicious marks and/or any other irregularity with their ballot. If something looks suspicious, let us know right away.”

(Read more from “USPS Mail Carrier Charged with Fraud After Allegedly Tampering with Vote-by-Mail Requests” HERE)

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