Gun Battle near Border Leaves at Least 21 Dead

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Four police officers were among nearly two dozen people killed after security forces engaged in an hour-long gun battle with suspected cartel members Saturday in a Mexican town near the U.S. border, days after President Trump said he was moving to designate Mexican drug cartels as terror organizations.

The shootout happened around noon in the small town of Villa Union, a town in Coahuila state located about an hour’s drive southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas.

Coahuila state Gov. Miguel Angel Riquelme told local media that four of the dead were police officers killed in the initial confrontation and that several municipal workers were missing. On Sunday, the Coahuila state government said that security forces killed seven additional members of the gang, bringing the death toll to at least 21.

The armed group of suspected cartel members stormed the town of 3,000 residents in a convoy of trucks, attacking local government offices and prompting state and federal forces to intervene. Ten alleged members of the Cartel of the Northeast were initially killed in the response.

Riquelme told reporters the state had acted “decisively” to take back the town, as videos of the shootout posted on social media showed burned-out vehicles and the facade of Villa Union’s municipal office riddled with bullets. (Read more from “Gun Battle near Border Leaves at Least 21 Dead” HERE)

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SEE IT: Newly Uncovered Photos Show Prince Andrew with Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell; FIVE MORE Women Want Prince Andrew to Testify

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By Daily Wire. Newly-unearthed photographs show convicted pedophile and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell in June 2000 at Ascot racecourse in the United Kingdom.

“Epstein, dressed in a top hat and morning suit, has a grin across his face as he walks with Miss Maxwell and the Duke of York through the heart of the British establishment,” The Daily Mail reported. “It was during this time that Miss Maxwell and Epstein were to attend Windsor Castle, just a few miles from the racecourse, as guests of the prince for his birthday.” . . .

A second photograph from a slightly different angle and moment in time shows Maxwell next to Prince Andrew.

Last month, Prince Andrew gave an interview to the BBC that ended up being disastrous for him, according to a poll conducted by Sky News.

“People were asked what they thought of an interview the duke did with BBC Newsnight, during which he denied having sex with a 17-year-old girl at the home of the disgraced billionaire’s ex-girlfriend in London in 2001,” Sky News reported. “Just 6% of people polled said they believed the explanations he gave in the interview, with 51% saying they did not believe him and 43% saying they were unsure.” (Read more from “Newly Uncovered Photos Show Prince Andrew with Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell” HERE)

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Now Five More Women Want Prince Andrew to Testify: Accusers Say Duke Saw Jeffrey Epstein Abusing Them and Must Speak to the FBI

By Daily Mail. Five of Jeffrey Epstein’s accusers want Prince Andrew to give evidence in US courts and say the duke must talk about what he witnessed to the FBI.

Their lawyer claims the Duke of York witnessed men being given massages at the financier’s homes, the BBC’s Panorama programme revealed on Monday night.

Pre-trial witness subpoenas have been prepared for the five cases and could be served on the prince if he was ever to set foot in the United States again.

Prince Andrew has said he never saw anything untoward at Epstein’s properties in New York, Florida or the Caribbean. (Read more from “Now Five More Women Want Prince Andrew to Testify: Accusers Say Duke Saw Jeffrey Epstein Abusing Them and Must Speak to the FBI” HERE)

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Supreme Court Hears First Big Second Amendment Case in a Decade

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The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media’s Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:

On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York — the most significant Second Amendment case the high court has taken up in years.

The cases asks whether New York City laws about transporting a licensed, unloaded, and locked firearm to a residence or shooting range outside the five boroughs are consistent with the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms. A Federalist Society blog post explains that, under the regulations in question, “a New Yorker whom the City itself has licensed to possess a handgun cannot transport her handgun to a weekend second home (even to exercise the core constitutional purpose of self-defense), to an upstate county to participate in a shooting competition, or even across the bridge to a neighboring city for target practice.”

New York City authorities, however, have said that the controversy is now moot because they relaxed those travel and transport restrictions earlier this year, but the court told them to try again at oral arguments.

For many observers, the big question is how the court’s two newest members will rule on the matter. Justice Neil Gorsuch has some fairly big shoes to fill on the issue, having replaced Antonin Scalia, who authored the landmark opinion in the 2008 D.C. v. Heller case. Meanwhile, Brett Kavanaugh has taken the place of infamous swing vote Anthony Kennedy, who joined in the Heller decision but reportedly insisted upon language limiting its scope. (For more from the author of “Supreme Court Hears First Big Second Amendment Case in a Decade” please click HERE)

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Biden Acknowledges Claims That Obama Says He ‘Doesn’t Really Have It’

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Joe Biden admitted that he doesn’t have the intimate connection to voters that former President Barack Obama had on the campaign trail.

Obama, 58, claimed that his former running mate, Biden, 77, could struggle on the campaign trail because he lacks a connection with voters, according to a report from Politico. Obama criticized some of the 2020 Democratic candidates about their connection to voters, saying, “And you know who really doesn’t have it? Joe Biden.”

Biden responded to Obama’s comments, telling Politico, “He may have said that. And if it’s true, and he said it, there’s truth to it.”

The former vice president credited Obama’s statement and acknowledged that he had mostly dropped in and campaigned for other people in states such as Iowa rather than running campaigns for himself.

“I mostly campaigned for other people in the time I’ve been here,” said Biden. “And I’ve never been in a position seeking the nomination where I have had the money and the organization to be able to get open headquarters all over the state.” (Read more from “Biden Acknowledges Claims That Obama Says He ‘Doesn’t Really Have It’” HERE)

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Impeachment Witness List Loaded with Trump Critics

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House Democrats announced a list of four constitutional law experts who will testify at a Dec. 4 public impeachment hearing, and the panel will include pundits who have criticized the Trump administration and defended the impeachment proceedings. It also includes a witness who has criticized the impeachment investigation.

The Democrats have summoned Noah Feldman, a Harvard Law School professor, to testify in Wednesday’s hearing on the constitutional grounds for impeaching the president. Feldman was among the first people to suggest Trump was trying to bribe Ukrainian government officials into investigating his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. Democrats have adopted the term, which Feldman in September said constitutes an impeachable offense.

“What makes Trump’s alleged conduct so terrible is not that he froze aid to Ukraine for a policy purpose. What makes Trump’s alleged conduct outrageous is the appearance that he was doing it for his own personal benefit,” Feldman wrote for Bloomberg Opinion.

Feldman has called for a new special counsel to investigate Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr, and he also called on Democrats to make the often secretive impeachment proceedings more accessible to the public.

Stanford Law professor Pamela Karlan, a former Obama administration Justice Department official, is also a witness, Democrats announced Monday. (Read more from “Impeachment Witness List Loaded with Trump Critics” HERE)

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ICE Blasts New York Authorities for Releasing Illegal Alien Accused of Manslaughter

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents apprehended an illegal alien accused of manslaughter and other crimes after local police, refusing cooperation with federal immigration authorities, released him back into the public, the agency revealed Monday.

Feliciano Perez-Bautista, an Mexican national living illegally in the U.S., was arrested by the Yonkers Police Department (YPD) on July 8 for gang assault in the first degree, according to a press release from ICE. However, after Perez-Baustina’s victim succumbed to his injuries, he was additionally charged with manslaughter of the first degree.

ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations lodged a detainer request with the YPD on July 12 and lodged a request with the Westchester Department of Corrections on July 30. However, neither detainer was honored, and Perez-Bautista was ultimately released back into the community without the local officials notifying ICE. . .

A spokesperson for the agency blasted local law enforcement for refusing to honor their immigration detainer and allowing Perez-Bautista to be released, allowing him to potentially harm others.

“When law enforcement agencies decide to not honor ICE detainers and release violent criminals back onto the streets, they are putting their city at serious risk,” ICE New York Field Office Director Thomas Decker said in a statement released Monday. “We want nothing more than to cooperate and work together with local law enforcement authorities in order to protect our communities and keep this nation secure.” (Read more from “ICE Blasts New York Authorities for Releasing Illegal Alien Accused of Manslaughter” HERE)

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Republicans Blast Impeachment Evidence in New Report

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In a new report put together by House Republican staff on the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight and Reform Committees, which was reviewed by Townhall, they blast evidence presented during the hearings because nothing provided proved any of the Democrats’ allegations against President Trump in their impeachment inquiry.

“The sum of the substance of the Democrats’ case for impeachment is that President Trump abused his authority to pressure Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden…for President Trump’s benefit in the 2020 election,” the report states. “Democrats say this pressure campaign encompassed leveraging a White House meeting and the release of U.S. security assistance to force the Ukrainian President to succumb to President Trump’s political wishes.”

“The evidence presented does not prove any of these Democrat allegations, and none of the Democrats’ witnesses testified to having evidence of bribery, extortion, or any high crime or misdemeanor,” the report adds.

The GOP report asserts the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shows no quid pro quo, bribery, extortion, or abuse of power.

“The evidence shows that President Trump holds a deep-seated, genuine, and reasonable skepticism of the U.S. foreign aid and the need for European allies to shoulder more of the financial burden for regional defense,” the report continues. (Read more from “Republicans Blast Impeachment Evidence in New Report” HERE)

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White House Refuses to Participate in Jerry Nadler’s Impeachment Inquiry

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White House Counsel Pat Cipollone wrote a five-page letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) on Sunday, rejecting participation in what Cipollone called a “baseless and highly partisan” impeachment inquiry.

Nadler had given the president and his lawyers until 6:00 p.m. EST to respond to a request to participate in the opening hearing of the Judiciary Committee’ inquiry on Wednesday, focusing on constitutional and legal issues. Democrats had prepared four witnesses, unnamed as of Sunday: three were reportedly in favor of impeachment. Separately, Nadler gave the White House a deadline of Friday, Dec. 6, to participate in the broader inquiry.

In his letter (via Politico), Cipollone said that the Democrats’ process “violates all past historical precedent, basic due process rights, and fundamental fairness.” He accused Democrats of deliberately scheduling the opening hearing during the president’s upcoming trip to the NATO Leaders Summit in London this week.

Cipollone further pointed out that the opening hearing would “include no fact witnesses at all,” and that neither the first nor subsequent hearings were clear about what witnesses would be called, or about what rights the president would be provided. (He reserved the right to respond to Nadler’s broader invitation by the Friday deadline.) . . .

He added, further, that Nadler’s threat to take action if the White House continued to resist providing witnesses and documents — even on constitutional grounds — amounted to a total denial of procedural rights to the president. (Read more from “White House Refuses to Participate in Jerry Nadler’s Impeachment Inquiry” HERE)

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Sanctuary State Freed Illegal Alien Accused of Attempted Murder

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An illegal alien in the sanctuary state of Colorado has been re-arrested for attempted murder less than a month after he was freed from prison.

Osmani Garces-Ortiz, a 37-year-old illegal alien from Cuba, was released by the sanctuary jurisdiction of Arapahoe County, Colorado, on October 28, despite the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency requesting he be held so they could take over custody.

Garces-Ortiz had originally been arrested for drug crimes and trespassing. Less than a month later, on November 21, the illegal alien was arrested in Arapahoe County for attempted murder — an incident that would have never occurred had he be turned over to ICE, federal officials said.

“As ICE has repeatedly made clear, when local jurisdictions refuse to support immigration enforcement, they betray their duty to protect public safety,” an ICE spokesperson told the Sentinel.

Garces-Ortiz is being held on a $202,000 bond and ICE has once again placed a detainer on him, requesting that should he be released at any time that he be turned over to their custody. (Read more from “Sanctuary State Freed Illegal Alien Accused of Attempted Murder” HERE)

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10 Injured in New Orleans Shooting

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10 people were shot on Canal Street early Sunday morning leaving two in critical condition, according to NOPD Chief Shaun Ferguson. . .

Five victims were taken to University Medical Center and the other five were taken to Tulane Medical Center.

At least one victim was shot in the chest and another was shot to the torso. The conditions of the other victims was not known.

As of 7 p.m. Sunday, officials say four of the five victims who were transported to Tulane Hospital have been treated and released. One victim remains at the hospital in stable condition.

Ferguson said officers were in the 700 block of Canal Street when they heard to the shots and believed they were being fired upon.

(Read more from “10 Injured in New Orleans Shooting” HERE)

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