DEEP STATE HYPOCRISY: Top FBI Official Who Investigated Trump’s Ties to Russia Just Arrested for Taking Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars From Russians

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By Washington Times. A former top FBI counterintelligence official who was involved in the Trump-Russia collusion investigation was arrested and charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Russia, federal prosecutors announced Monday.

Charles McGonigal, who had been the special agent in charge of the FBI‘s counterintelligence division in New York, is accused of taking secret payments from Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska in exchange for investigating a rival oligarch, according to court documents.

Mr. McGonigal, 54, is one of the highest-ranking FBI officials ever charged with a crime. He faces one count of violating U.S. sanctions, one count of money laundering and two conspiracy counts.

Each of the four counts, which were filed in a New York federal court, carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Corey Lewandowski, former Trump campaign manager, said the indictment underscores the duplicity of the FBI.

“The depth of the corruption inside the FBI knows no bounds. They quite literally had the fox guarding the hen house as it relates to Donald J. Trump,” he told The Washington Times. “The chief ‘investigator’ of alleged ties between Trump and Russia turns out to have his own illegal ties to Russia. Nothing shocks me anymore.” (Read more from “DEEP STATE HYPOCRISY: Top FBI Official Who Investigated Trump’s Ties to Russia Just Arrested for Taking Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars From Russians” HERE)

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Ex-FBI Official Involved in Trump-Russia Probe Indicted for Working on Behalf of Sanctioned Russian Oligarch

By National Review. Charles McGonigal, a former FBI official involved in the investigation of Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, has been charged with violating sanctions and collaborating with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

According to federal prosecutors, McGonigal received “concealed payments” from a Russian intelligence officer in exchange for his help in having sanctions targeting Deripaska lifted. McGonigal is being charged by the Federal District in Manhattan with additional counts relating to money laundering and conspiracy.

“Charles McGonigal, a former high-level FBI official, and Sergey Shestakov, a Court interpreter, violated U.S. sanctions by agreeing to provide services to Oleg Deripaska, a sanctioned Russian oligarch. They both previously worked with Deripaska to attempt to have his sanctions removed, and, as public servants, they should have known better,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams wrote in a statement released Monday.

As chief of counterintelligence in the bureau’s New York City field office, McGonigal was among the first FBI officials to learn of the fateful conversation between a senior Trump campaign adviser and a foreign diplomat over the topic of Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Washington Free Beacon noted. Knowledge of that interaction proved crucial to the federal agency opening an investigation into the matter, which ultimately found there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. (Read more from “Ex-FBI Official Involved in Trump-Russia Probe Indicted for Working on Behalf of Sanctioned Russian Oligarch” HERE)

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Maryland Refused to Give Back a Virginia Runaway Because Her Parents ‘Misgendered’ Her. Then She Was Sex Trafficked; Legislation Proposed to Fix This Insanity

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By Daily Wire. A 14-year-old transgender runaway from Virginia endured a six-month nightmare that saw her twice fall into the hands of sex traffickers, the second time after Baltimore bureaucrats refused to return her to her home state because they accused her adoptive parents of “misgendering” her, according to records reviewed by The Daily Wire.

The child, identified in legal documents as Sage, was adopted by her biological grandmother, Michele Blair, after the death of her father. Long troubled, Sage began identifying as a male named “Draco” and ran away from their rural home in late August of 2021, only to end up on the mean streets of Baltimore, where authorities rescued her from a convicted sex offender, according to records. But instead of returning the child to her grandmother, Maryland officials put her in an inner-city group home. The reason: They thought her adoptive, blood-relative parents didn’t seem to sufficiently recognize her transgender identity.

“It is not possible to return the child to that home,” Judge Robert B. Kershaw wrote on Sept. 3, 2021, after an impassioned plea from Baltimore Assistant Public Defender Aneesa Khan.

Instead, the judge turned Sage over to the Baltimore City Department of Juvenile Services “for placement in a hardware secure therapeutic facility which makes reasonable accommodation for Respondent’s expressed male gender and desire to live as a trans male.” That meant housing the girl just rescued from a sex offender with some of Baltimore’s most troubled biological males.

“[Sage] has committed no juvenile offense in Maryland, is not a Maryland resident, and has no connections to Maryland… If he is located in another State there is no legal authority to return him to Maryland, much less for Maryland to assert legal custody over him.”

(Read more from “Maryland Refused to Give Back a Virginia Runaway Because Her Parents ‘Misgendered’ Her. Then She Was Sex Trafficked; Legislation Proposed to Fix This Insanity” HERE)

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Del. Dave LaRock Files “Sage’s Law,” HB 2432, to Protect Parental Rights and At-Risk Children in Virginia

By Royal Examiner. Sage’s Law seeks to address several failures of the government that were experienced first-hand by a Virginia teenager and her parents over the past year. Michele Blair, the mother of the bill’s namesake, shared her story of being intentionally kept in the dark about her daughter’s gender struggles while at school by both teachers and counselors, which led to Sage being bullied, assaulted, sex-trafficked, and then kept from returning to her parents after she was rescued because of unfounded claims of child abuse. Sage’s story is heartbreaking and compelling.

“Virginia law needs to be absolutely clear that affirming a child’s biological sex does not justify taking a child away from their family. Subjective determinations of whether a family’s beliefs are “abuse and neglect” are unacceptable. Teachers, school counselors, social service workers, and courts must respect the parent’s fundamental rights in the parent-child relationship by involving parents immediately when a child is experiencing serious challenges. The horrific treatment of Sage Blair has shown the need to provide protections for parents and children in Virginia.,” said Delegate Dave LaRock. (Read more from “Del. Dave LaRock Files “Sage’s Law,” HB 2432, to Protect Parental Rights and At-Risk Children in Virginia” HERE)

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Sage’s Law

By PJ Media. Back in the summer of 2021, Virginia’s Appomattox County High School decided to hide the fact that a teenage girl named Sage identified as a boy from her parents. According to a piece on The Federalist, that decision resulted in a chain of horrific events that not only sent Sage through a terrible ride through the state’s juvenile justice system but left her at the hands of sexual predators two times.

The Federalist recounts how Sage was adopted by her grandmother Michele after Michele’s son, Sage’s father, died. Sage struggled with problems from the loss of her father. She received medical and mental health treatments, and the schools had always informed Michele if there were any issues.

When Sage began coping with gender dysphoria, she began wearing boys’ clothes and identified as a boy while at school using a male name and pronouns. She was lonely and bullied and wanted to find a place to fit in. No one informed her parents, and a school counselor told her that she could use the boys’ bathroom. The boys in the school followed her around, touching and threatening her with a knife and rape. At one point she was slammed up against a wall. The school had concerns and contacted Michele without disclosing Sage’s gender dysphoria. Sage ran away and was located nine days later in Maryland, having been sexually assaulted. She had been kidnapped and taken there. Transgender children are often the target of predators, and some sites that were recommended to her by a school counselor led to pornography and older men.

Michele traveled to Maryland, where her daughter was being held in juvenile detention. They saw Sage via video screen and the pair told each other they loved one another. Despite this, Sage’s court-appointed attorney, Aneesa Khan, told the court that Sage did not want to come home because Michele and her husband Roger had abused her due to her new gender. Sage said that Khan told her to say that her parents hit and starved her so that Khan could win the case and Sage could be placed in a foster home that would affirm her gender.

Judge Robert Kershaw moved Sage from solitary confinement to a children’s home, where she was housed with the boys and frequently assaulted. During this time, Sage continued to see Kershaw for hearings and Khan had school counselors testify against Michele and Roger. Khan even told Sage the lie that her parents did not want her anymore because she was transgender. Sage never received any of the cards and letters that her mother sent her. Sage skipped school while at the home and smoked marijuana. Khan said that she didn’t care if Sage did drugs, so long as she won the case. Khan also contacted one of Sage’s Maryland school friends to help her contact Sage, and Sage’s case became known in her school. (Read more from “Sage’s Law” HERE)

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Pressure Grows on Germany to Authorize Tank Shipment to Break Ukraine War Stalemate

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Germany found itself under intense and growing pressure Sunday as the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz weighed whether to authorize the shipment of its coveted Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

U.S., Ukrainian and European officials urged Berlin to act after a summit Friday at the American military base in Ramstein, Germany, failed to nail down an agreement.

Ukraine says it needs some 300 Western tanks to bolster its forces against dug-in Russian troops in the eastern and southern parts of the country in the 11-month-old war. Both sides are preparing for further offensives when the weather allows.

An intelligence assessment of the fighting over the weekend from the British Defense Ministry described an increasingly deadlocked struggle in Ukraine’s Donbas region, with new Russian overall commander Sergei Shoigu reorganizing forces and apparently settling in for a long, grinding war of attrition.

Germany has balked at supplying Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine or authorizing other European countries such as Poland to transfer their own Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, in part because of divisions within Mr. Scholz’s coalition government and in part for fear that the move would prove too provocative to the Kremlin. (Read more from “Pressure Grows on Germany to Authorize Tank Shipment to Break Ukraine War Stalemate” HERE)

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TAPES: We Investigated a Suburban LGBTQ Pedophile Ring. Here’s What We Found.

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. . .A months-long Townhall investigation reveals disturbing new details about the affluent LGBTQ-activist couple accused of sodomizing their young adopted sons—now ages 9 and 11—and distributing “homemade” child pornography of the sexual abuse. Half a year after the shocking story made national news, Townhall is the only outlet following up on the criminal case in Georgia that has since seen zero headlines written about it. We’ve found that it’s far, far worse than what was first reported.

Not only did the married men allegedly rape the two boys who were adopted through a Christian special-needs adoption agency, they were pimping out their children to nearby pedophiles in Atlanta-area suburbs, Townhall’s follow-up investigation discovered.

Zachary Zulock’s mugshot taken upon transfer | Barrow County Sheriff’s Office

Recorded jailhouse calls, a trove of never-before-seen court documents, and testimony from a family member who spoke exclusively with Townhall uncover the extent of the physical and emotional trauma the two elementary school-aged brothers endured as well as the red flags that the state overlooked during the same-sex couple’s “faster than expected” adoption process. . .

An updated criminal affidavit says the child sexual abuse was filmed by William’s husband Zachary, “with whom he routinely engaged in sexually abusive acts” on the boy. Zachary, the household’s breadwinner, confessed to being the cameraman, and authorities allegedly found a folder on his cell phone—labeled “US”—that contained videos of William sexually abusing the child.

The indictment also charges the Zulock co-defendants with soliciting two other men, through the use of popular social media platforms, in the Greater Atlanta metropolitan region to “perform an act of prostitution” with their child that suffered physical injuries from being brutally raped. Townhall is the first to publicly identify these two alleged members of a pedophile ring in the heart of the Peach State: 27-year-old Hunter Clay Lawless and 25-year-old Luis Armando Vizcarro-Sanchez, both of Loganville. . .

Lawless, who snitched on the Zulocks, told local law enforcement he received “numerous” messages via Snapchat from Zachary about “f*cking [his] son tonight” and to “be prepared” to receive images as well as videos of the father raping his adopted child. (Read more from “TAPES: We Investigated a Suburban LGBTQ Pedophile Ring. Here’s What We Found.” HERE)

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Massive Liberal Charities Steered Millions to Chinese Groups Tied to Its Government

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Two of the largest liberal charities in the United States handed millions of dollars in grants to entities in China linked to the Chinese Communist Party, documents show.

The Bill and Melinda Gates and Ford foundations, two highly influential nonprofit groups influencing left-leaning causes, combined in 2021 to give over $39 million to China, according to their latest tax forms. Some of these funds were directed to Chinese universities and government agencies involved in military research to further the CCP’s global influence, filings reveal.

“If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that we need to heavily scrutinize every American dollar that goes to CCP-affiliated entities,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) told the Washington Free Beacon. . .

The bulk of the $39 million steered to China came from the Gates Foundation, which Microsoft founder Bill Gates launched in 2000 with his then-wife, Melinda Gates. The foundation sent roughly $30 million to Chinese entities, according to tax forms. (Read more from “Massive Liberal Charities Steered Millions to Chinese Groups Tied to Its Government” HERE)

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‘Woke’ M&Ms Marketing Paused After Tucker Carlson Slams Candy Campaign (VIDEO)

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M&Ms’ candy mascots have been put on pause after the revamped characters drew attacks from conservatives like Tucker Carlson, who publicly slammed the candy campaign for being “woke.”

M&Ms launched limited edition packaging that featured slogans like “Supporting Women” and images of the brown, green and newly added purple female spokescandies taking feminist stances. A portion of sales profits went to feminist charities.

The green candy — “Miss Green” — used to be presented as a sexy and feminine, but the new rebranding of her image to make her more “inclusive” involved toning down her eyelashes, removing references to her gender and putting her in tennis shoes.

Fox News personality Carlson attacked the alleged sexuality and weight of the candy mascots in a segment dedicated to slamming the brand’s new image. “The woke M&M’s are back,” Carlson said in early January. “The green M&M is now a lesbian maybe,” he said, adding that “there is also a plus-sized, obese purple M&M.”

He previously mocked the new marketing campaign in Jan. 2022. At the time, Mars Wrigley, the company behind M&Ms, explained that the changes were designed to demonstrate their “Global commitment to creating a world where everyone feels they belong and society is inclusive.”

(Read more from “‘Woke’ M&Ms Marketing Paused After Tucker Carlson Slams Candy Campaign” HERE)

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Prince Andrew Reportedly Makes Big Move After Ghislaine Maxwell Casts Doubt on Sex Abuse Claims

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Prince Andrew is reportedly assembling a $12 million war chest to launch a legal case against sexual abuse accuser Virginia Giuffre in a bid to force her to retract the allegations — and possibly apologize — in court.

In a civil lawsuit filed in 2020, Giuffre accused the Duke of York of raping and abusing her on three occasions in 2001 when she was just 17.

Though Prince Andrew has refuted any wrongdoing, he agreed to an out-of-court settlement paid to Giuffre in February 2022 amid pressure from Buckingham Palace that damaging headlines were distracting from Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. . .

The Mirror reported that one of Prince Andrew’s top lawyers told him he can “forget it,” advising the Duke of York against going after Giuffre and that he should “just feel grateful that he is not in jail.” . . .

In her first post-conviction interview from behind bars set to air on TalkTV Monday, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida federal prison for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade, claimed that the infamous photo depicting Prince Andrew and Giuffre at her London home in 2001 is a “fake.” (Read more from “Prince Andrew Reportedly Makes Big Move After Ghislaine Maxwell Casts Doubt on Sex Abuse Claims” HERE)

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Christian Faces Potential Jail Time, Fine After Speaking About Leaving LGBT Lifestyle

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A Christian charity worker in Malta could face jail time after he claimed that his faith enabled him to turn away from a homosexual lifestyle he no longer wanted.

Matthew Grech, 33, faces potential fines and imprisonment for allegedly falling afoul of his country’s ban on “conversion practices” when he explained to a local media outlet last year how he left homosexuality behind because he came to believe it was wrong. . .

anyone to attend therapy to change their sexual orientation or gender identity, though he was critical of the Maltese law and explained how he came to believe that homosexuality is a not an identity, but rather a practice that was incompatible with his Christian faith.

“They knew my stance around homosexuality and sexuality in general, so they wanted to hear a little bit more about it because many shun the other side of the story,” Grech said. “But these guys wanted to explore it because they’re for freedom of speech, and they don’t like it when viewpoints are shut down simply because they are unpopular.”

Grech said after LGBT activists with ties to the Maltese government and the Malta Gay Rights Movement (MGRM) reported him to police for the interview, he now faces up to €5,000 in fines or up to five months in prison if convicted of violating Article 3, Section 3 of Malta’s Affirmation of Sexual Orientation, Gender and Gender Expression Act, which makes it “unlawful for any person” to “advertise conversion practices.” The journalists who interviewed him also have upcoming court dates and face potential criminal sanctions for their part in conducting the interview. (Read more from “Christian Faces Potential Jail Time, Fine After Speaking About Leaving LGBT Lifestyle” HERE)

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DOD Awards New Seven-Figure Grant to Group That Funded Wuhan Lab Research

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The Department of Defense (DOD) in December awarded a seven-figure grant to EcoHealth Alliance Inc., the nonprofit organization that funneled millions in taxpayer funds to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) for dangerous bat virus research.

The DOD awarded a grant of $3 million to EcoHealth beginning Dec. 12 for the purpose of combatting pandemic threats emanating from the Philippines, according to USASpending.gov. The grant was awarded as part of a DOD program aimed at countering weapons of mass destruction.

Specifically, the grant is meant for “reducing the threat of viral spillover from wildlife in the Philippines.” EcoHealth has defended much of its work as being essential to detecting and preventing future pandemics that may begin in the wild, although it is unclear what real-world benefits that work has had up to this point.

Over the course of roughly a decade, EcoHealth Alliance funneled millions of dollars in U.S. government grants to the WIV as it conducted gain-of-function (GoF) research on bat-based coronaviruses. EcoHealth founder Peter Daszak was initially part of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of COVID-19 in China, which critics panned as a blatant conflict of interest. (Read more from “DOD Awards New Seven-Figure Grant to Group That Funded Wuhan Lab Research” HERE)

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Democrats Propose Overturning the First Amendment

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Adam Schiff and a group of Democrats have introduced a proposed constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision, one of the greatest free-speech victories in history.

It’s just a political stunt, of course, as Schiff doesn’t have the votes. But it does reflect the authoritarian outlook of the contemporary left on free expression. From the day the decision came down, 13 years ago this week, Citizens United was a rallying cry for those threatened by unregulated discourse. President Barack Obama infamously, and inaccurately, rebuked the justices during his State of the Union for upholding the First Amendment. Since then, Democrats have regularly blamed the decision for the alleged corrosion of “democracy.”

Recall, however, that Citizens United decision revolved around the federal government’s banning of a documentary critical of 2008 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton before the Democratic primary elections. At the time, McCain-Feingold made it illegal for corporations (groups of freely associating citizens) and unions (ditto) to engage in “electioneering” a month before a primary or two months before a general election. It was outright censorship. In oral arguments, then-Solicitor General of the United States, now-Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan initially contended that the federal government had the right to censor books that “express advocacy.”

Also recall that “campaign finance” laws — speech codes, in reality — were written by politicians and defended by a media encumbered by any limitations on their own free expression. These detestable laws prohibited groups of citizens from assembling and pooling their resources to engage more effectively in what is the most important kind of political expression at the most vital time, right before an election. (Read more from “Democrats Propose Overturning the First Amendment” HERE)

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