Can Trump Pardon Himself?

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. . .The topic came up Sunday as Giuliani spoke with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” as the pair discussed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of possible collusion between Trump and Russia to impact the 2016 presidential race.

Stephanopoulos asked Giuliani if the president has the power to pardon himself, the former mayor of New York City responded that he “probably does.” . . .

Giuliani added, “I think the political ramifications of that would be tough. Pardoning other people is one thing. Pardoning yourself is another. Other presidents have pardoned people in circumstances like this, both in their administration and sometimes the next president even of a different party will come along and pardon.”

The matter about pardoning one’s self comes in the wake of a 20-page letter dated Jan. 29 from Trump’s attorneys to Mueller, outlining the legal strategy of the president concerning the Russia investigation. . .

The letter, first reported by the New York Times, states: “It remains our position that the President’s actions here, by virtue of his position as the chief law enforcement officer, could neither constitutionally nor legally constitute obstruction because that would amount to him obstructing himself, and that he could if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired.” (Read more from “Can Trump Pardon Himself?” HERE)

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Nessie Found? New Hunt for Loch Ness Monster’s DNA

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. . .Researchers in Scotland have been secretly sweeping the lake for DNA traces, suggesting that if the elusive “Nessie” is real, it will have DNA that has spread throughout the storied body of water.

Scientists can use this genetic material, known as eDNA, to track elusive beasts. And now researchers are turning that powerful method on Loch Ness to create the most comprehensive biodiversity catalog of its residents yet. . .

Researchers have used to the technique to help determine the presence of invasive bullfrogs in France and the movements of invasive Asian Carp in the Great Lakes. It’s even been used to monitor fish migrations around New York.

The Loch Ness researchers hope to create a similar catalogue while surveying the lake’s DNA. The researchers have been collecting samples since April, Michael Greshko writes for National Geographic and they’ll start extracting the DNA this month. But the team doesn’t expect to release its findings until January.

Meanwhile, video of what appears to be a similar “plesiosaur-type” creature in the deep, dark waters of Kanas Lake in China. See the eerie images of the 30-foot-long beast in Xinjiang province and decide for yourself. (Read more from “New Hunt for Loch Ness Monster’s DNA” HERE)

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New Browser Created That Can Hide All Your Personal Info

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. . .TraceFree Corp. has announced the creation of the “first web browser that makes it impossible for any site, including Google, to see or share a user’s personal data.” . . .

The company says the technology “leapfrogs, and will ultimately replace, a virtual private network by giving complete anonymity and security while also hiding browsing activity from the internet provider.”

The promotion explained the recent Facebook controversy and new government data regulations have forced companies to update their website privacy policies.

“However, there is still NO WAY a user can be sure their data does not continue to be shared or sold improperly. TraceFree eliminates this fear by NOT allowing a website to see, capture, share or track their personal data.” (Read more from “New Browser Created That Can Hide All Your Personal Info” HERE)

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Top Psychologist Admits: Demon Possession Is Real

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It is a phenomenon that is on the rise throughout the world: The number of cases of demonic possession – and demands for priests to carry out exorcisms – is, according to multiple sources, soaring.

Medical science remains sceptical. However, a Princeton-and-Yale-educated mainstream psychiatrist believes demonic possession is indeed very real – and claims that the majority of Americans agree with him.

With 25 years experience in a private psychiatric practice and as a professor at New York Medical College and Columbia University, Dr Richard Gallagher has a rare vantage point to observe human behavior. And then there is the inhuman.

He is also a sought-after psychiatrist for discernment, the initial step in determining the need for exorcism. Dr Gallagher has evaluated hundreds of cases of possible possession and, in a wide-ranging and rare interview with the Telegraph, explains why he believes the phenomenon is genuine. . .

In the US, the number of priest exorcists has increased from twelve to fifty over the past decade. While demand for exorcism continues to surge, Dr Gallagher’s medical assessment of whether a person is mentally ill or possessed by demons will determine whether some exorcisms are conducted. (Read more from “Top Psychologist Admits: Demon Possession Is Real” HERE)

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Busboy Who Held Dying Robert F. Kennedy Shares Senator’s Last Words

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By Fox News. Nearly 50 years after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, the busboy who held the dying senator detailed his last words in a Friday report.

Juan Romero, who was 17 at the time of the 1968 slaying in Los Angeles, was working on that early June night when the presidential hopeful made remarks at the Ambassador Hotel, he recalled in an interview with StoryCorps, according to NPR. . .

Romero, now 67, recalled Kennedy’s final words.

“Is everybody OK?” he asked, to which Romero said he replied, “Yes” before cushioning the senator’s head with his hands.

“I could feel a steady stream of blood coming through my fingers,” Romero reportedly said. “I remember I had a rosary in my shirt pocket and I took it out, thinking that he would need it a lot more than me. I wrapped it around his right hand and then they wheeled him away.” (Read more from “Busboy Who Held Dying Robert F. Kennedy Shares Senator’s Last Words” HERE)

Read about RFK’s son stating last week that he now doubts the official story on his father’s assassination HERE: https://joemiller.us/2018/06/busboy-held-dying-robert-f-kennedy-shares-senators-last-words/

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Kennedy Dynasty Faces a Reckoning as Controversial Film Hits Theaters

By Fox News. The Kennedy dynasty faced a reckoning Friday, when a film hit theaters resurrecting the shocking details surrounding a late-night deadly car crash at Chappaquiddick Island that has haunted America’s most powerful political family since 1969.

“Chappaquiddick” opened in movie theaters across the U.S., drawing all eyes to the Kennedy family as the film renews questions about the controversial incident at the island off Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in 1969.

After the assassinations of both his brothers, former Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., was slated to carry the family’s political aspirations, even mulling a run for president of the United States.

But the movie tells the story of the incident that stopped that potential campaign in its tracks—depicting the involvement of Kennedy, then 37, in the fatal July 19, 1969 car accident that claimed the life of a young campaign strategist, Mary Jo Kopechne.

At approximately 12:50 a.m., Kennedy and Kopechne, 28, were driving back from a party hosted by a cousin of Kennedy on Martha’s Vineyard following the Edgartown Regatta, in which Kennedy had sailed. Kennedy’s car plunged 10 feet off of a bridge and into a pond, killing Kopechne and giving Kennedy “a slight concussion.” (Read more from “Kennedy Dynasty Faces a Reckoning as Controversial Film Hits Theaters” HERE)

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Feds Piecing Together Cohen Docs Found in Shredder

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In legal theory, justice is blind. In the investigation into President Donald Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, it might be getting a little impatient, Judge Kimba Wood indicated Wednesday.

During a hearing in Manhattan’s U.S. District Court, Wood said she was unhappy with the pace at which documents recovered from a raid on Cohen’s office are being turned over to the federal government so that federal investigators can determined if any of Cohen’s actions have violated the law, NBC News reported.

“It is important for the court to balance the slow, deliberate needs of those who are asserting attorney-client privilege with the need for an investigation to go forward,” Wood said, according to The New York Times.

As a result, Wood set a deadline of June 15 for lawyers representing Trump, Cohen and the Trump Organization to sift through the massive mountain of records confiscated by the FBI to determine which were private or privileged and which could be given to the government. The records include both electric and physical files, as well as documents prosecutors are trying to piece together from a shredder in Cohen’s office.

Cohen’s attorneys had sought a July deadline for sifting through the records to ensure that no documents violating attorney-client privilege or privacy would be part of any ongoing investigation.

Wood added that if the pace does not pick up, she will order all the documents turned over to the government to let federal officials make the call.

Todd Harrison, representing Cohen, said the legal team was “moving heaven and earth” to process materials.

He said that Cohen’s lawyers have reviewed 1.3 million of the 3.7 million items given to them by federal officials.

Special Master Barbara Jones, who is reviewing the materials Cohen or Trump want kept private, said of that total, only 252 have been declared private privileged.

Prosecutors have turned over most of what the FBI confiscated to the attorneys representing Cohen so the lawyers can determine what is and is not privileged. However, they are still trying to access the contents of two BlackBerry devices and put back together what was found in the shredder. They believe it will take two or three additional weeks to reconstruct those shredded documents.

The basis for the action against Cohen is a reported $130,000 payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels that came shortly before the 2016 election. As noted by The Washington Post, the federal raids on Cohen were also linked to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged, and as yet unproven, collusion with Russia during the election.

Wednesday’s hearing was about more than procedure. Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Daniels who is not licensed to practice in New York State, sought to enter the case, a bid that was opposed by Stephen Ryan, representing Cohen.

He noted that Avenatti has given more than 170 interviews on the case, including 74 to CNN.

“He is involved in ways that call attention to himself,” Ryan said. “This is about the aggrandizement of a single attorney and his client.”

Wood did not rule on Avenatti’s motion, but said he would have to stop what she called his “publicity tour.”

“This conduct is inimicable to giving Mr. Cohen eventually a fair trial,” she said. “You will not be permitted to use this court as a platform.”

Faced with what was clearly a choice between arguing before the court or the cameras, Avenatti later withdrew his motion to be formally attached the case, allowing him free reign to continue to comment outside of court. (For more from the author of “Feds Piecing Together Cohen Docs Found in Shredder” please click HERE)

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Report: John McCain’s Wife to Succeed Him in the Senate

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Cindy McCain, the wife of Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, will reportedly succeed her husband if he should die in office.

Veteran journalist John Gizzi reported that multiple sources in the Grand Canyon State have been almost unanimous in their view that Republican Gov. Doug Ducey will appoint Cindy McCain.

A former Republican senator who served with John McCain told Newsmax‘s Gizzi, “I don’t know if this (succession) has been formalized, but that’s what people who know John tell me.”

“One source close to the McCain family said supporters of the senator have quietly let Gov. Ducey know Cindy is the choice of ‘Team McCain,’” Gizzi wrote.

An Arizona Republican strategist told The Western Journal that choosing Cindy McCain, 64, would be a safe choice for Ducey and may help his re-election bid this fall.

“She would certainly be a feel-good pick now,” the strategist said. “Though some of the more conservative elements of the party would probably not be pleased that another McCain was taking the seat, I think since it would occur after the death of Sen. McCain, the feel-good nature of it would surpass any negative feelings, at least in the short term.”

The strategist added if Cindy McCain votes like a moderate once assuming office, it could hurt Ducey should he decide to run for the seat later down the road.

Wednesday, May 30 is considered a key date, as it will determine how long a Ducey appointee will hold the seat, The Washington Post reported.

Arizona law requires that if John McCain should die in office before the end of his term, a special election must be held on the date of the next general election.

May 30 is seen as the unofficial deadline for a special election to take place this year, because it marks the date by which candidates must file for a November run. If McCain should pass some time thereafter, the election to fill his seat would likely happen no earlier than 2020.

“If there was a vacancy today and we made a decision on ‘yes, call a special election’ or ‘no, (don’t) call a special election’ … there is a 99.9 percent chance that litigation would ensue,” Eric Spencer — election services director in the office of Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan — told The Post last week.

In other words, the result could have been the Republicans having to defend not only retiring Sen. Jeff Flake’s seat in November (which has been rated a toss-up race), but McCain’s as well.

After May 30 — at 5 p.m. to be precise — successful litigation by Democrats leading to a special election this year diminishes greatly.

The Republican strategist told The Western Journal that Cindy McCain appears to want the appointment in the eventuality that her husband — who is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer — dies before the end of his term in 2022.

“I definitely noticed an uptick in Cindy McCain’s social media over the last couple of months,” he said. “So it sure feels like she’s angling for the seat.”

Former Arizona state Sen. Lori Klein told The Western Journal, “Cindy McCain is probably a safe bet for (Ducey) in the sense that it’s highly unlikely that she’ll run” at the end of her appointed term.

“The problem is you’re going to keep the McCain tentacles that control this party and are destroying this party in place,” Klein added. “That is my problem with a Cindy McCain nomination.”

“I don’t think we want a dynasty here is Arizona, especially not a McCain dynasty.”

Other potential Ducey choices who have been mentioned include former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, former Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives and current top Ducey aide Kirk Adams, recently appointed state treasurer Eileen Klein (no relation to Lori) and businesswoman Karrin Taylor Robson, who serves on the State Board of Regents for Arizona’s public universities. (For more from the author of “Report: John McCain’s Wife to Succeed Him in the Senate” please click HERE)

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Bombshell Report: Obama Tried to ‘Take Over’ Russia Probe, FBI Spied Before Having Predicate

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Former president Barack Obama tried to “take over” the FBI investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign for political reasons. And the Obama FBI started illegally spying on Trump aides without having a legitimate reason to do so. . .

“The efforts to begin targeting and reaching out to Trump campaign officials to gain intelligence on Russia that would ultimately justify the investigation began weeks and months before the FBI had a formal predicate,” [investigative journalist John] Solomon said. “That’s very important. The rules say you can’t use sources until you have a predicated investigation.”

It’s illegal for the government to spy on private U.S. citizens for no reason. Solomon says the Obama FBI opened an investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign and started spying on Trump aides first, and then retroactively tried to find reasons to justify the bogus investigation.

That’s like randomly charging a person with a crime, and then retroactively looking for evidence to back up the fake charges. And then when you can’t find evidence of wrongdoing, you look for some other reason to charge him.

He continued: “The second part is, as the investigation was just starting to ramp up, there are internal FBI documents showing the FBI talking about the White House ‘taking over’ the investigation and fears the Justice Department was going to leak.” (Read more from “Bombshell Report: Obama Tried to ‘Take Over’ Russia Probe, FBI Spied Before Having Predicate” HERE)

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Southern Baptist Leader Covered up Sexual Abuse Allegations

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By The Daily Caller. The former head of two prominent Southern Baptist seminaries sought a one-on-one meeting in 2015 with an alleged rape victim in order to “break her down,” seemingly so that she would not go public with her allegations.

Dr. Paige Patterson, the former president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, made the comment in an email to the chief of campus security, a trustee at the school told The Daily Caller News Foundation Friday.

Patterson was fired on Wednesday as president of SWBTS and stripped of benefits after it was revealed that he mishandled multiple sexual abuse allegations at SWBTS and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), two of the top Southern Baptist schools in the U.S.

The Washington Post published an article on May 22 which quoted a former SEBTS student who claimed that in 2003, Patterson asked her not to go to police with allegations that she was raped by a man she was dating at the time. (Read more from “Southern Baptist Leader Covered up Sexual Abuse Allegations” HERE)

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Southern Baptist Leader Encouraged a Woman Not to Report Alleged Rape to Police and Told Her to Forgive Assailant, She Says

By The Washington Post. A prominent Southern Baptist leader at the center of controversy this spring over comments he has made about abused women allegedly encouraged a woman who said she had been raped not to report it to the police and told her to forgive her alleged assailant, the woman has told The Washington Post.

The woman said that she was raped in 2003 when she was pursuing a master of divinity degree in women’s studies from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., where Paige Patterson was president at the time.

“I had bottled it up,” said the woman, who works in public relations in North Carolina. “My husband didn’t know about it until last week. … I told him ‘I need to do something.’ ”

A man who a seminary official confirmed was the alleged assailant’s roommate at the time of the incident said that the woman told him about the assault shortly after it allegedly happened. The woman also provided an email to The Washington Post from the seminary’s dean of students at the time referencing the alleged incident. (Read more from “Southern Baptist Leader Encouraged a Woman Not to Report Alleged Rape to Police and Told Her to Forgive Assailant, She Says” HERE)

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New York Wants to Create Double Jeopardy Crisis for Citizens in Order to Attack Trump

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By The Daily Caller. New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood responded to President Donald Trump’s decision to pardon Dinesh D’Souza by calling for an end to “New York’s double jeopardy loophole.”

Underwood released a statement on Thursday, asking New York legislators to pass a bill that was initially proposed by disgraced former AG Eric Schneiderman. That bill would open the door to prosecute under state law people who had received presidential pardons for “parallel federal crimes.”

(Read more from “New York Wants to Create Double Jeopardy Crisis for Citizens in Order to Attack Trump” HERE)

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Trump’s Latest Pardon Has NYS AG Calling for End of Double Jeopardy Law in New York

By The NY Daily News. In the wake of President Trump’s pardon of conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza, new state Attorney General Barbara Underwood renewed her office’s call to end New York’s double jeopardy law.

Doing so would allow the state to continue prosecuting individuals even if they were pardoned for their federal crimes . . .

D’Souza four years ago pleaded guilty to using illegal straw donors to contribute to Wendy Long, a Republican who was running for U.S. Senate in New York.

Under current New York law, the state cannot try someone for offenses if they have already been prosecuted for the same act or criminal transactions by the federal government or another state, unless an exemption applies. (Read more from “Trump’s Latest Pardon Has NYS AG Calling for End of Double Jeopardy Law in New York” HERE)

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