Sheriffs Group Urges Supreme Court to Strike Down New York City Gun Rules

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The National Sheriffs’ Association is leading a coalition of law enforcement and gun rights groups urging the Supreme Court to strike down New York City’s gun transportation regulations.

The coalition filed an amicus (or “friend of the court”) brief arguing that the city lacks a legitimate public safety rationale for the rule, which prohibits “premise license” holders from carrying their firearms beyond city lines or to any location besides an authorized gun club. The high court will hear a challenge to New York’s regulations on Dec. 2.

“The public safety interest alleged to support the rule is non-existent and unproven,” the brief reads. “There is no proof that premises licensees have ever posed a threat to public safety when transporting their handguns.”

“It is also highly implausible that premises licensees would engage in violence when transporting their handguns out of the city,” the brief adds. “Licensees undergo exceedingly searching inquiries during the application process, and licenses can be refused for even trivial reasons.”

To possess a handgun, New York residents must obtain a premises license. That license restricts possession to the address listed on the license itself. The holder may only transport a firearm to authorized shooting clubs within city limits. The plaintiffs in the Dec. 2 case are three city residents and a firearms advocacy group who wish to carry their guns to vacation homes and marksman competitions outside the five boroughs. (Read more from “Sheriffs Group Urges Supreme Court to Strike Down New York City Gun Rules” HERE)

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Uh-Oh: Bloomberg Hires Former Campaign Staffer for Kamala Harris

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Kamala Harris, who assured viewers at last week’s debate that she would be able to reunite the Obama coalition, continues to poll nationally in the low single digits. While much higher than the Native American percentage of Elizabeth Warrens’ DNA, it’s not quite enough to inspire hope and faith among your presidential campaign staff. As a result, the Harris campaign has been laying off staff members and relocating its focus to Iowa in hopes of pulling off a miracle there.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has officially entered the race. Bloomberg was flirting with the decision for weeks, leading many to speculate that he was waiting for the results of the election to come in before making a final decision.

This week, Bloomberg scooped up Kelly Mehlenbacker, a former operations campaign worker for Kamala Harris. It’s not a good look for your campaign staff to resign and go to work for the new competition. Mehlenbacker previously served as treasury manager in 2016 for the Hillary Clinton campaign, so she knows a thing or two about expensing payments for discredited dossiers the FBI can use to investigate the Trump campaign.

Billionaire Bloomberg can certainly pay Mehlenbacker a lot more money than Kamala Harris, too. Bloomberg literally owns the media. Bloomberg News editor-in-chief, whose name I would write but is too close to Mehlenbacker’s, recently sent a memo containing new rules for his reporters now that owner Michael Bloomberg has entered the race. The news agency will not investigate Michael Bloomberg or his foundation, so that hasn’t changed, but will immediately stop investigating the Democratic presidential candidates altogether in order to focus their resources on attacking President Trump. Sounds fair. Additionally, the editor-in-chief announced some of the members of Bloomberg News were leaving to work on the Bloomberg campaign. (Read more from “Uh-Oh: Bloomberg Hires Former Campaign Staffer for Kamala Harris” HERE)

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Fired Navy Secretary Confirms He’s Part of the Deep State

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Most insubordinate employees would quietly disappear after publicly humiliating themselves and being fired. Not former Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer. After President Trump canned Spencer for repeatedly working against the president’s wishes, Spencer penned an op-ed for The Washington Post titled, “Richard Spencer: I was fired as Navy secretary. Here’s what I’ve learned because of it.” In the op-ed, Spencer appears to have learned nothing from his termination and confirms everything Trump said about him and the deep state.

“It is highly irregular for a secretary to become deeply involved in most personnel matters,” Spencer acknowledges. The former Navy secretary then goes on to say how he inserted himself into the case of Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher in order to undermine the president’s wishes.

“Before the trial began, in March, I received two calls from the president asking me to lift Gallagher’s confinement in a Navy brig,” Spencer writes. “I pushed back twice, because the presiding judge, acting on information about the accused’s conduct, had decided that confinement was important.”

Isn’t the chain of command something they teach in the Navy? Spencer ignored the president of the United States twice because he thought some judge’s decision was more “important”? Trump must have been so used to the deep state and that’s the only reason he didn’t fire the insubordinate Navy secretary right then and there.

“Eventually, the president ordered me to have him transferred to the equivalent of an enlisted barracks,” writes a defeated Spencer.

(Read more from “Fired Navy Secretary Confirms He’s Part of the Deep State” HERE)

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Impeachment Witness Accused of Sexual Misconduct and Retaliation Prior to Ambassadorship

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United States Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was accused of sexual misconduct and retaliation by three women. The allegations, which predate his time as an ambassador, were revealed publicly on Wednesday.

Sondland, who is at the center of the impeachment proceedings into President Trump, was accused by three women of unwanted advances. The allegations were first reported by ProPublica and the Portland Monthly.

In one case, Nicole Vogel alleged that she met Sondland in 2003 as she tried to obtain funding for a new magazine she wanted to launch — she now owns and runs Portland Monthly. While he initially liked her idea and agreed to put in at least $25,000, that offer was changed after she turned down his advances. Vogel claims that after their first meeting about the potential business venture, Sondland invited her to one of the hotels he runs and he tried kissing her.

“I remember seeing my hand drop from the door handle,” she said. “I turned around, and he’s standing right behind me, and he says, ‘Can I just have a hug first?’” She added, “As I pulled back, he grabs my face and goes to kiss me.”

She claims that during a second meeting weeks later, he kept his hand on her thigh for 10 minutes while they drove to a restaurant that was out of the way. He allegedly then changed the terms of her agreement, saying that he would donate $10,000 instead and would only do that if she raised an additional $100,000. (Read more from “Impeachment Witness Accused of Sexual Misconduct and Retaliation Prior to Ambassadorship” HERE)

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‘Not Going to Survive This’: Top Navy SEAL Under Threat After Trump’s Eddie Gallagher Intervention

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Following the firing of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer on Sunday, speculation now centers on how another Navy official will fare in the wake of the Eddie Gallagher case.

Rear Adm. Collin Green, who leads Navy Special Warfare Command, pursued actions against Gallagher after the SEAL was found not guilty of various war crimes. Against a tweeted countermand from President Trump, Green last week ordered a review against Gallagher for posing with other SEALs — who were not punished — alongside a dead enemy fighter.

Military lawyers told the Washington Examiner that Green would not have made such a controversial move without some kind of “top cover” from Navy leadership. Now, with top cover from Spencer gone, some observers are looking at what’s next for Green.

Brad Bailey, a former Navy SEAL and Gallagher supporter, told the Washington Examiner that Green’s review has caused serious backlash within the community. “Green is not going to survive this,” he said. “People are just tired of it. They’re tired of him dragging us through the mud.”

Bryan McGrath, a former Navy destroyer captain, believes Green will fall on his sword. “I suspect [Rear Adm.] Green may request to retire,” he said. “To call this unusual does injustice to the word. It is bizarre.” (Read more from “‘Not Going to Survive This’: Top Navy SEAL Under Threat After Trump’s Eddie Gallagher Intervention” HERE)

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ICE Arrests 90 Foreign Students at Fake University

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has arrested 90 additional foreign-born students in recent months in a sting operation at a fake Michigan university designed to draw in students who are trying to stay in the U.S. illegally, according to a new report.

The University of Farmington advertised a “dynamic business administration and STEM curriculum” program, but the students, mostly from India, “knew that they would not attend any actual classes, earn credits or make academic progress towards an actual degree,” according to a January indictment.

A total of about 250 students have been arrested since the school opened in January on immigration violations by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Immigration lawyers said in March — after 161 students were arrested — that the students did not know it was a fake university at the time. . .

The U.S. “trapped vulnerable people who just wanted to maintain (legal immigration) status,” Rahul Reddy, a Texas attorney who represented some of the students who were arrested, told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday.

Many of the arrested students have been deported, but some are contesting their removals. (Read more from “ICE Arrests 90 Foreign Students at Fake University” HERE)

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President Trump Blocks Impeachment Testimony

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President Trump on Tuesday defended blocking top officials from testifying as part of the House impeachment inquiry, arguing the decision was made to protect the office of the presidency and “future presidents” — even as he claimed he’d otherwise support the testimony. . .

He claimed that former national security adviser John Bolton, whom Democrats have sought for testimony due to his involvement in discussions central to the impeachment inquiry, could actually back his claims. While Democrats allege Trump delayed aid to Ukraine in order to seek the launch of politically advantageous investigations, Trump said Bolton “may know that I held back the money from Ukraine because it is considered a corrupt country, & I wanted to know why nearby European countries weren’t putting up money also” — an argument Trump allies have made. . .

The president’s tweet comes as the House is winding down its impeachment inquiry. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who was largely leading the inquiry, said Monday that the panel would be working on its report to transmit to the House Judiciary Committee, which could prepare potential articles of impeachment, after Thanksgiving.

Democrats have subpoenaed top administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney for records or testimony — but the administration has blocked them.

When asked Tuesday about the president’s tweet on testimony, Pompeo said cryptically, “When the time is right, all good things happen.” (Read more from “President Trump Blocks Impeachment Testimony” HERE)

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Illegal Alien Deported After Killing Four Children in 2008 School Bus Crash Is Caught Again in the U.S.

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An illegal immigrant from Guatemala was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Minneapolis more than ten years after she killed four children and was deported.

35-year-old Olga Franco del Cid caused a horrific school bus crash in 2008 that killed four children and injured 17 others. She ran a red light and hit the bus with her minivan, then crashed into a pickup truck. . .

She attempted to blame the crash on her boyfriend, lied to investigators about her identity and said she was from Puerto Rico. They determined that she was in fact an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.

She was convicted of 4 counts of criminal vehicular homicide, and 20 other charges in the crash. She was sentenced to more than twelve years in prison, but only served before being released and deported in 2016. (Read more from “Illegal Alien Deported After Killing Four Children in 2008 School Bus Crash Is Caught Again in the U.S.” HERE)

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Steele Accused Comey of ‘Treasonous’ Intervention in 2016 Election

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Former British spy Christopher Steele described FBI Director James Comey’s October 2016 letter to Congress about Hillary Clinton’s emails as “unconscionable. Treasonous, really,” according to a new book.

At the time, Steele, 55, a former MI6 officer, was working for opposition research company Fusion GPS to investigate connections between Donald Trump, then the 2016 GOP presidential nominee. At the same time, he was a confidential informant for the FBI. His fury over Comey’s intervention, which he believed damaged Clinton while concealing what the FBI knew about Trump, prompted him to push for what became known as the “Steele dossier” in the public domain.

Fusion GPS co-founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch recount in their new book Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump that they and Steele, founder of the Orbis Business Intelligence company, were livid that Comey wasn’t making public pronouncements about ithe FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. . .

Comey announced the FBI wasn’t recommending criminal charges related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server in July 2016, but criticized Clinton for “extremely careless” handling of classified information. The FBI investigation was reopened when, in late September 2016, thousands of emails belonging to Clinton aide Huma Abedin were found on the laptop belonging to her husband, disgraced former New York Rep. Anthony Weiner. Comey sent a letter to Congress on Oct. 28, 2016, saying the FBI uncovered emails possibly pertinent to the Clinton investigation.

According to the book: “Unconscionable,’ Steele said. ‘Treasonous, really.’ He was so fed up he didn’t bother to call [his FBI handler] in Rome to ask him what was going on.” (Read more from “Steele Accused Comey of ‘Treasonous’ Intervention in 2016 Election” HERE)

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President Trump Takes New Action Affirming Support for Hong Kong

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President Donald Trump signaled his support for the pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong on Wednesday as he signed the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019” into law.

“Today, I have signed into law S. 1838, the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019” (the “Act”),” Trump said in a statement. “The Act reaffirms and amends the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, specifies United States policy towards Hong Kong, and directs assessment of the political developments in Hong Kong.”

The law allows U.S. officials to impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials who are accused of committing human rights abuses in Hong Kong, Politico reported, adding that the law requires “the secretary of State to certify at least once a year whether Hong Kong continues to have enough control over its own affairs to warrant maintaining its special trade status under U.S. law.”

“Certain provisions of the Act would interfere with the exercise of the President’s constitutional authority to state the foreign policy of the United States,” Trump added. “My Administration will treat each of the provisions of the Act consistently with the President’s constitutional authorities with respect to foreign relations.”

“I signed these bills out of respect for President Xi, China, and the people of Hong Kong,” Trump said. “They are being enacted in the hope that Leaders and Representatives of China and Hong Kong will be able to amicably settle their differences leading to long term peace and prosperity for all.” (Read more from “President Trump Takes New Action Affirming Support for Hong Kong” HERE)

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