Doubt Surfaces About ‘Suicide’ Claim of Clinton Investigator

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A Wall Street analyst who spoke to Peter Smith the day before he reportedly committed suicide told the Daily Caller News Foundation there were no indications the Chicago businessman and anti-Clinton political investigator was about to take his life.

“He may have been a fantastic actor but I certainly didn’t leave that phone call saying, ‘oh shit, the guy’s at the end of his rope,’” Charles Ortel, a Wall Street investment banker and market analyst, told The Daily Caller News Foundation’s (TheDCNF) Investigative Group.

“This does not seem like a settled story. It made perfect sense to me he might have died of natural causes, but little chance he would have killed himself,” Ortel said.

Ortel and Smith shared a common interest in the Clintons. Ortel has dug deeply into the financial operations of the Clinton Foundation. He first came to public attention in 2007 by exposing questionable accounting practices at General Electric. Ortel has similarly expressed doubts about the circumstances of Seth Rich’s murder — which police have concluded was a robbery gone wrong — commending those “who are trying to discover why so many people close to the last election have died along the way.”

The difference here is that Ortel knew Smith personally. (Read more from “Doubt Surfaces About ‘Suicide’ Claim of Clinton Investigator” HERE)

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The Troubling US Post-Prison Experiment to ‘Rehabilitate’ an ISIS Supporter

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When a young man from Minnesota’s Somali community who admitted trying to join ISIS appeared for sentencing in November, the judge made him an offer: avoid more prison time and participate in an experimental “terrorist rehabilitation.”

But two months ago Abdullahi Yusuf, 21, was back before the judge charged with violating the terms of his probation after watching a news documentary about western ISIS fighters in a halfway house where he is confined.

Critics say Yusuf’s troubles underscore the limits of trying to rehabilitate wanna-be terrorists in the U.S.

“Terrorist rehab is a joke and a total waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars,” said Col. James Williamson, who founded the group OPSEC that advocates for U.S. Special Forces. “All cases are different as are each of the individuals but as a rule, there is no such thing as rehabilitating a committed jihadist. They should be dealt with by military courts and, if not able to execute under the military courts martial, they should be locked up forever.”

This latest infraction was not Yusef’s first while undergoing de-radicalization in the halfway house. (Read more from “The Troubling US Post-Prison Experiment to ‘Rehabilitate’ an ISIS Supporter” HERE)

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Judge to Marine Foster Dad: Ditch Guns or We’ll Take Your Boy

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When the state of Michigan asked William and Jill Johnson, a retired Marine and his tackle shop-owning wife, to be foster parents, they readily agreed.

After all, the child was their grandson, and the alternative was for him to go into foster care.

But during the course of the necessary paperwork for the placement, a local judge stunned them with the warning that they no longer would have all of their constitutional rights.

The judge explained bluntly: “We know we are violating numerous constitutional rights here, but if you do not comply, we will remove the boy from your home,” according to a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

The case has been brought on behalf of the Johnsons as well as Brian and Naomi Mason, and the Second Amendment Foundation. (Read more from “Judge to Marine Foster Dad: Ditch Guns or We’ll Take Your Boy” HERE)

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Stunner: Killer Cop Mohamed Noor a ‘Diversity’ Hire

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Questions continue to mount about the strange shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond at the hands of a Minnesota cop.

The city has not released any information, but the officer who pulled the trigger has been identified as Mohamed Noor, a Somali-American who entered the country as a refugee and was the first Somali to be employed by the department’s 5th precinct . . .

WND has learned he was one of five Somalis on the entire force and that the city makes a special effort to recruit Somalis as part of its affirmative-action plan.

The city’s affirmative-action program requires it to give preferential treatment to minorities, not only those hired by the city but by all contractors awarded contracts of more than $100,000.

The city’s leaders bemoaned the fact that they could not come up with more blacks to staff 100 new positions that came open at the end of 2014. The Star-Tribune, in an Aug. 19, 2014, article headlined “Minneapolis police struggle to hire diverse force,” interviewed several activists who took the city to task for allowing the number of black officers to dwindle. (Read more from “Stunner: Killer Cop Mohamed Noor a ‘Diversity’ Hire” HERE)

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House Republicans Lay out Their Plan to Rein in the EPA

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House Republicans released their proposal to balance the federal budget in 10 years, which included their plans to rein in the regulatory power of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Republicans plan three broad reforms for the EPA: reduce its funding, cut global warming programs, and eliminate the agency’s policy office . . .

However, the House’s plan for the EPA would cut the agency’s budget 80 percent less than what the White house recommended in its May budget proposal.

A House appropriations bill introduced days ago gives the EPA a $7.5 billion budget in fiscal year 2018, or $528 million less than the agency’s 2017 budget. The bill also ignored many Trump administration requests to cut dozens of EPA programs. That bill is still making its way through committee.

The House appropriations bill would give $31.4 billion to federal environmental programs at the EPA, Department of the Interior, and other agencies. That’s $824 million below 2017 levels, but $4.3 billion less than the White House’s request. (Read more from “House Republicans Lay out Their Plan to Rein in the EPA” HERE)

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White House Panel on Voter Fraud Begins Work

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A presidential commission to examine voter fraud and the soundness of election systems across the country has a big job ahead as it convenes Wednesday for the first time.

Not only is the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity charged with investigating what to do about voter fraud cases and establishing best practices, it must do so despite meeting with resistance from some state election officials.

The initial meeting, set for 11 a.m. in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, will be livestreamed on WhiteHouse.gov.

One tool at the commission’s disposal is a database from The Heritage Foundation that compiles 1,071 cases of proven instances of voter fraud across the United States, the bulk of them prosecuted since 2000.

Most of those cases, 938, ended in a criminal conviction. Another 43 ended in civil penalties. A judge directed the defendant into a pretrial diversion program in 74 cases, and 16 ended in judicial or official findings.

The cases of proven fraud took place in 47 states, according to the database.

“A big advantage of the database is that it shows all the different ways that fraud can be committed,” commission member Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Signal. “It demonstrates, for example, you don’t only have to worry about vote-buying. A lot of cases involved that, but you also have to worry about what are the rules governing absentee ballots, since there are a lot of cases in the database of people casting absentee ballots.”

The Daily Signal is Heritage’s multimedia news organization.

President Donald Trump created the bipartisan commission through an executive order in May. He named Vice President Mike Pence as chairman and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, also a Republican, as co-chairman.

The 12-member commission includes three current or former Democratic officeholders: New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner, Maine Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap, and former Arkansas state Rep. David Dunn.

The agenda for the first meeting appears broad, not focused on specific issues of ensuring clean elections.

Trump has complained of 3 million to 5 million fraudulent votes in the 2016 presidential election that lifted Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s vote tally. Critics of the commission, including California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat who oversees elections in that state, have said the panel is only trying to prove Trump actually won the popular vote as well as the Electoral College.

But von Spakovsky says that is not the goal.

“The whole purpose of the commission is to take a look at the entire American election process, from the voter registration system, to the casting of ballots, to counting of ballots, to the security—including cybersecurity—that surrounds all of this,” said von Spakovsky, previously both a Justice Department lawyer and member of the Federal Election Commission. “We’re not only trying to look at what problems exist, but also [determine] have people taken advantage of those problems.”

Despite resistance from some states in providing information to the commission, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said he believes most state election data will be obtainable—and without buying it, as political campaigns and private companies do.

“Most of this information is available,” Spicer told The Daily Signal. “All that those companies are doing is buying it from the states. So I don’t think there would be any reason to go to a private vendor. I think we should be able to do this utilizing official resources that exist within a state. “

He added:

Again, I think there’s been some miscommunication on what they’re seeking. The commission has asked that each state provide that information that is public, that they share. And because that varies from state to state, what they’re willing to give out, the commission was illustrative in its letter [to state election officials] in trying to describe what it was looking for. But I think we’re going to move forward very well.

Liberal groups such as the Brennan Center for Justice and the League of Women Voters, which have opposed voter ID laws and other voter integrity measures, sued Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson, a Republican commission member, because she’s providing the information.

Voter ID laws require voters to first show photo identification, such as a driver’s license or a special voter ID card, to demonstrate they are who they say they are and live where they say they do.

“The commission cannot bypass state rules designed to protect sensitive voter information,” said Myrna Pérez, deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, in a public statement. “Lawson might be a member of this panel, but her first duty is to the Hoosiers who trusted her with personal information so that they could participate in fair and free elections in the state. She must proceed carefully and with legally mandated procedures before sharing voter data.”

Pence is the former governor of Indiana, which he also represented in the U.S. House.

The panel likely will push best practices among states, such as voter ID and updating voter registration rolls, said Jason Snead, a legal policy analyst with The Heritage Foundation, who studies voter fraud and helps maintain the think tank’s database on voter fraud.

Snead noted a Pew Research Center study that found 1.8 million dead people were listed as voters, 12 million records with incorrect data, and 2.75 million persons registered in more than one state. (For more from the author of “White House Panel on Voter Fraud Begins Work” please click HERE)

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American Autos Built in Mexico Have Surprise in Trunk

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If you recently bought a new car manufactured in a Mexican auto plant, you might want to perform a routine examination of your vehicle, like checking the spare tire – especially if it’s a Ford Fusion.

While law-enforcement authorities in Ohio and at the Drug Enforcement Agency announced this week the discovery of more than $1 million of marijuana hidden within bogus spare tires of new cars transported by rail, a WND investigation suggests the incident may be just the tip of the iceberg.

More than 400 pounds of marijuana was found packed inside of new Ford cars that were made in Mexico and shipped to Northeast Ohio.

The discovery was made when a service employee for a Ford dealership in Portage County, Ohio, noticed a suspicious package in the trunk of a brand new Ford Fusion during a routine inspection. The car had just been taken off the transport carrier. The package was pressed marijuana, placed in the vehicle to look like a spare tire.

Authorities found the car had been shipped by train from Mexico to the rail yard in Ohio. At the rail yard they found five more loads of marijuana in five other new Ford Fusions. Later, they found nine more packages in new Fusions already shipped to other Ohio locations and one in Pennsylvania. (Read more from “American Autos Built in Mexico Have Surprise in Trunk” HERE)

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Mattis Directly Intervened to Save Transgender Surgeries for Military Personnel

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On July 13, as the House debated an amendment to the 2018 Pentagon budget bill that would have barred the military from funding servicemembers’ gender reassignment surgeries, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis privately intervened, calling the amendment’s Republican sponsor and asking her to withdraw it from consideration, CNN reports . . .

Of the 200 amendments to the $696 billion National Defense Authorization Act that were being debated in the House, the transgender amendment — offered by conservative Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri — was one of the more contentious, CNN notes.

Hartzler had offered and withdrawn a more expansive amendment in June, one that would have reversed an Obama-era policy allowing transgender service members to serve openly. Hartzler told CNN she withdrew the original amendment to defer action until Mattis had established his stance on transgender troops. But this month, after Mattis gave the military another six months to study the issue, Hartzler filed the new amendment.

“I can confirm that Secretary Mattis spoke with Rep. Hartzler yesterday,” Department of Defense spokesperson Johnny Michael told Task & Purpose in a statement. “However, the Secretary regularly engages with members of Congress to discuss issues of importance to the department and I cannot speak to the specific contents of their conversation.” (Read more from “Mattis Directly Intervened to Save Transgender Surgeries for Military Personnel” HERE)

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Trump, McConnell, Pence Call for Full, Clean Obamacare Repeal

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President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called for the full, clean repeal of Obamacare in late-night statements Monday.

The statements were released after four Republican senators backed away from the repeal-and-replace bill, leaving McConnell unable to reach the 60 votes required to bring the bill to the floor.

“Regretfully, it is not apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure Obamacare will not be successful,” McConnell followed in a statement 31 minutes later, at 11:48 p.m.

“So,” he continued, “in the coming days, the Senate will vote to take up the House bill with the first amendment in order being what a majority of the Senate already supported in 2015 and that was vetoed by then-President Obama: a repeal of Obamacare with a two-year delay to provide for a state transition period to a patient-centered health care system that gives Americans access to quality, affordable care.”

(Read more from “Trump, McConnell, Pence Call for Full, Clean Obamacare Repeal” HERE)

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Trump’s Son in Less Legal Jeopardy Than Son-In-Law Over Russia Meeting, FBI Veteran Says

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Even if Donald Trump Jr. helped set up a meeting last year with a Russian lawyer in hopes of learning dirt on Hillary Clinton, the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and another official Trump campaign operative could face greater legal problems, a former FBI official says.

“For today, and this could change tomorrow, but today I would say that Donald Jr. was not a member of government and does not have a legal obligation,” Ron Hosko, a former assistant FBI director who was assigned to the agency’s Criminal Investigative Division, told The Daily Signal.

“If it is proven that Donald Trump Jr. was gleefully willing to go to a meeting with a Russian agent, the question is still: What is his legal obligation?”

President Donald Trump’s eldest son last week released an email chain from June 2016 concerning his interest in attending a meeting that turned out to be with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and others.

Trump Jr. expressed that interest after an entertainment promoter who was a business acquaintance told him that someone connected with the Russian government wanted to share negative information about Clinton, who was about to become Democrats’ nominee for president.

Veselnitskaya provided no such information and wanted to talk about adoption policy, Trump Jr. said.

Trump also had yet to win the Republican nomination. But critics and political opponents say the meeting proves a willingness by the president’s son to “collude” with someone he thought was associated with the Russian government.

Trump Jr., now executive director of the Trump Organization, had no formal role in his father’s presidential campaign. But two others who attended the same meeting last summer did: Paul Manafort, then campaign manager, and Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who worked in a variety of campaign roles.

The legal situation could be entirely different for Manafort and Kushner, said Hosko, now president of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, which provides legal advice and covers some legal fees in duty-related cases.

“Now that is different.,” Hosko said of Manafort and Kushner. “They are more directly affiliated with the campaign, and one is serving in government.”

“That will be up to Bob Mueller to prove [Trump Jr.’s] affiliation with the campaign,” he said.

If the meeting was illegal, Hosko said, “after-the-fact conspiracy” to cover it up could be a crime, even if the three didn’t realize the meeting was illegal at the time.

“If Donald Trump Jr. was not a member of the campaign, did he aid and abet in the conspiracy?” Hosko said. “He could wiggle out from … being a part of the campaign or government, but he could still be part of a conspiracy.”

Liberal government watchdog groups last week filed a complaint with the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission accusing Trump Jr., Manafort, and Kushner of illegally soliciting a campaign contribution from a foreign national. Their argument: Opposition research was something of value potentially offered by a Russian national with alleged ties to the Kremlin.

Manafort previously disclosed the meeting to House and Senate intelligence committees.

Kushner amended his Standard Form 86, required for a security clearance as a senior adviser to the president, to account for various meetings. The president’s son-in-law did not initially disclose this one, but last week included it on a supplemental form.

Details on the meeting with the Russian lawyer emerged weeks after the Justice Department named former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential race, including any evidence of collusion with the Trump campaign. Congressional committees also are investigating.

The president said on Twitter that his son did what anyone would do during a campaign:

During the White House briefing Monday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer again characterized the meeting as having been thought to be part of opposition research that happens in most political campaigns.

In “the heat of a campaign,” Spicer said, people “quite often” ask about outside offers to provide negative information on an opponent.

“That’s what he simply did,” Spicer said of Trump Jr.

As it turned out, and as the president “has made clear through his tweet,” the White House press secretary added, the meeting proved to be about nothing “other than adoption.”

Kushner reportedly left the meeting early, while Manafort was preoccupied with his smartphone.

Asked about a hypothetical situation, Trump’s nominee as FBI director, Christopher Wray, said during a Senate hearing last week that he would advise those involved with a campaign to “consult with some good legal advisers” before having a meeting with a foreign national related to opposition research.

“To the members of this committee: Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation-state or nonstate actor is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know,” Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The progressive groups Common Cause, the Campaign Legal Center, and Democracy 21 filed the complaint with the Justice Department and the Federal Election Commission.

“The emails released by Donald Trump Jr. reveal, in no uncertain terms, his choice to place his blind support for his father’s candidacy before any allegiance to the nation’s security,” Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, said in a prepared statement, adding:

Democracy is not a real estate deal or a New York solid waste pickup contract, but that is how these three Trump campaign officials treated it in agreeing to meet to accept opposition research they believed came from the Russian government. These revelations require prompt and thorough investigation by the DOJ and FEC for the good of the nation.

(For more from the author of “Trump’s Son in Less Legal Jeopardy Than Son-In-Law Over Russia Meeting, FBI Veteran Says” please click HERE)

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