The Freddie Gray Cop Trials: Mosby Grossly Overcharged, Is Getting Nada

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Six Maryland police officers may indeed have erred in their treatment of Freddie Gray after they arrested him. But so far they are all getting off, in large part because State Attorney Marilyn Mosby grossly overcharged them in order to score political points with her fellow Democrats and Black Lives Matter.

When the charges were announced on May 1 of last year, noted lawyer Alan Dershowitz declared that “This is a show trial. Today had nothing to do with justice. Today was crowd control. Everything today was motivated by a threat of riots and a desire to prevent riots.”

He rejected the charges. “There’s no plausible, hypothetical, conceivable case for murder under the facts as we now know them,” he said. “You might say that conceivably there’s a case for manslaughter. Plainly nobody wanted this guy to die. Nobody set out to kill him. Nobody intentionally murdered him.”

The Story

Gray, a 25-year-old black male with a lengthy criminal history, started running away when he saw Baltimore police officers. The six officers arrested him, which they said they were required to do in that high-crime area. They found a switchblade on him, and included that as an additional reason for the arrest. It is disputed whether the switchblade was illegal.

He was put in a police van and allegedly given a “rough ride” designed to bang him around the inside of the van. He was not put in a seatbelt as departmental policy requires. When the van arrived at the police station, Gray fell into a coma and later died of injuries to his spinal cord. Riots engulfed Baltimore for several days afterward.

There was reason to believe the charge. The Baltimore Sun reported that at least two people have won lawsuits against the city for rough rides, as a result of becoming paraplegics. A former Baltimore police officer testified during one of the paraplegics’ lawsuits that rough rides do occur. Charles J. Key said that police vans are deliberately “driven to cause ‘injury or pain’ to unbuckled, handcuffed detainees.” The practice was referred to as “bringing them up front,” he testified; the van driver would slam on the brakes to slam the detainee up against the cage behind the driver’s seat.

State Attorney Marilyn Mosby accused the police of racism and brought severe charges against all six officers — even though three, including the driver, are black. So far three, including the driver, have been acquitted. Judge Barry G. Williams stated that he did not find any concrete evidence Gray had been given a rough ride.

Investigators initially determined that Gray’s fatal injuries were caused by the van ride. There were reports he had pre-existing injuries due to prior back surgeries, but the evidence is conflicting.

The van made three stops on the way to the police station. After his arrest, Gray was handcuffed and put into the van. At the first stop, he was placed in leg irons — but still no seatbelt. At the third stop, he was discovered lying on the floor and asking for medical attention, but the officers merely placed him back on the seat, but did not belt him in.

The second prisoner officers picked up along the way has said Gray was intentionally trying to harm himself. Witnesses said he was rocking the van up until the second stop. If true, that could have been prevented had he been placed in a seat belt. But defense attorneys argued that the officers did not put him in a seatbelt because he was struggling with them and that attempting to put an unruly detainee in a seat belt can be dangerous.

Mosby’s Over-Charging

State’s attorney Marilyn Mosby charged the black van driver, Caesar Goodson, with second degree murder, “depraved-heart murder,” manslaughter by vehicle by means of gross negligence, manslaughter by vehicle by means of criminal negligence, and other offenses. She charged the other five officers Goodson was working with too. Sgt. Alicia White was charged with not just involuntary manslaughter but manslaughter. Mosby charged both Lt. Brian Rice and William Porter with involuntary manslaughter, as well as lesser offenses.

As a result of Mosby’s grossly unfair handling of the incident, prosecutors have been unable to get a single conviction yet on any of the officers. Two of the officers were acquitted in bench trials. A third case, Lt. Porter, resulted in a hung jury, so he will be retried. On Tuesday, Judge Williams threw out one of the charges against Lt. Rice. Closing arguments will be heard on Thursday. Officers Alicia White and Garrett Miller have yet to be tried, and have filed motions to dismiss along with Porter.

If Mosby had brought the proper charge of negligence for failing to put a seat belt on Gray against the officers, perhaps they would have been convicted. It means the only likely outcomes are that the officers will be over-punished or, as in this case so far, receive no punishment at all.

“There’s no question she acted irresponsibly,” Dershowitz told the Associated Press after the acquittal. “She acted politically. She acted too quickly, and the public ought to make her pay a price for seeking to distort justice.” (For more from the author of “The Freddie Gray Cop Trials: Mosby Grossly Overcharged, Is Getting Nada” please click HERE)

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WE’RE IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Obama Never Once Met With His Defense Intelligence Chief

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President Barack Obama twice appointed former Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn to key national security jobs in his administration, including as deputy director of national intelligence and later as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, yet he never once met with Flynn face to face.

The general, who spent 33 years in the intelligence field, told The Daily Caller News Foundation he was never called in for a face-to-face meeting with Obama to offer his assessment of ISIS as it rampaged through the Middle East, or during the political meltdown of Libya and Egypt, or on Iran’s efforts to build a nuclear bomb, or of the “Russian reset” that ended in shambles.

In four years, Flynn was never invited to brief the president on any kind of intelligence issue. Ever.

“Here is the crux of my relationship with Obama,” Flynn told TheDCNF in a wide ranging interview Tuesday. “Here I am, running one of the largest intelligence agencies in the world. He appoints me twice — one as the assistant director of national intelligence and one as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. I’m also his senior intelligence officer. And I had almost five years in combat.”

He paused, then said, “I never met with him once.”
“He’s a kind of a funny guy when it comes to relationships,” Flynn told TheDCNF. “He’s very aloof and very distant. I wasn’t on his screen at all. I wasn’t on his radar which is really sad. It’s amazing.”

Now in a turn of tables, Flynn is advising presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and is widely reported as being on the short list to run as Trump’s vice president.

Unlike Obama, Trump has not only met with Flynn but has also spent hours listening to Flynn’s views.

Flynn’s characteristic answers are candid and direct. On the possible choice as Trump’s vice presidential running mate: “This is an honor to be considered at this level and this mix of talent. The fact that my name is being bantered around in the small group of people for this very distinguished office is something I would give serious consideration to.”

He added that “I have said I want to continue to serve this country in any capacity.”

Like Trump, Flynn is an unconventional figure who abhors political correctness.

He has just published his first book after he was unceremoniously fired by Obama in 2014 for delivering a pessimistic assessment of ISIS before Congress. The presentation went directly against the president’s prediction that ISIS was irrelevant — a “JV team.”

Flynn could have written the typical Washington “Tell All” insider’s book about the Obama administration. Instead, he teamed up with Iran and Middle East expert Michael Ledeen in writing a serious book about the threat of Islamic terrorism titled, “The Field of Flight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies.”

Flynn says he is impressed with Trump. “I have met him. We sat down and talked in his offices in New York. The first time was quite a while ago. I’ve been in touch with him and his inner circle since last September,” he told TheDCNF.

“He is very, very serious about the future of this county. He is a great listener. I felt we had a great discussion about the world.”

At the first meeting, “he sort of threw out a couple of questions to me, which I felt were very telling of his insight and his knowledge.”

Then, Flynn said the two of them “walked around the world for about an hour and a half, sort of discussing back and forth.”

Flynn described Trump as “very refreshing.” The presidential candidate “really thought deeply about the issues of America and its relationships around the world. And also about America,” he said.

“My impression — and I have been around many good leaders in my career — and I found him to be a very strong, dynamic leader. And I think that’s why he is so attractive to so many people in this country right now.”

“Trump has a bigger, longer-term vision for this country than just sitting as a President for four years. He really does. And that’s what I was impressed by,” Flynn told TheDCNF.

Flynn is less charitable toward former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, one of his colleagues in the Obama administration.

“She is somebody that you get the impression that she’s got some other hidden agenda,” he said. “I always felt where there were interactions, there is some other hidden agenda there that doesn’t necessarily have the best interest of the country. Something else is going on.”

He pointed to Clinton’s “Russian reset” as one of her biggest failures. The reset was an initiative from Clinton in an effort to restore positive relations with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin.

“The Russian reset was a complete failure. That was her sort of baby. She lacked the understanding of how Russia deals on the global stage and how Russia deals with people, personalities and also on nation-on nation, and the way they see us,” Flynn said.

“She went into it with a level of arrogance and a lack of understanding.”

Unlike some skeptics in Washington, though, Flynn thought at the time that a Russian “reset” could work. “That Russian reset actually could have turned into something that resulted in some sort of mutual respect. But in fact under her leadership, it completely collapsed.”

He also is blunt about corruption and the Clinton Foundation: “The public corruption between the Clinton Foundation and the State Department may never be discovered. Or it may be discovered well past the election. But it’s a very real issue.”

Flynn challenged the foundation’s acceptance of $100 million in contributions from Persian Gulf Sheiks.

“The fact she takes one dollar from Saudi Arabia as any kind of a donation is a disgrace,” Flynn said. “Any of these countries destroys women’s rights. And then she stands there and claims that she’s for women.”

Hillary Clinton “should give back every red penny that she gets from those guys,” Flynn said. “Then she can talk about women’s rights.” (For more from the author of “WE’RE IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Obama Never Once Met With His Defense Intelligence Chief” please click HERE)

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GOP Adopts Reaganesque Stance on Religious Liberty

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Rights of conscience are under assault not only in the United States, but all over the globe. The draft of the 2016 Republican platform, as adopted Tuesday evening, doesn’t mince words about what party’s position on the issue.

The platform language also takes a strong stance on global human rights, especially the right of conscience (religion, speech, association, etc), which are under ever-increasing assault worldwide. 2015 Pew polling found that 77 percent of the world’s population lives in a country with either “high” or “very high overall level restrictions on religion.”

At one point, an amendment was proposed striking language condemning the Castro regime and Obama administration’s policy of opening the door to Havana, arguing that the best way to improve the regime is through trade and open dialogue. This was promptly shut down by others on the committee, who remember the failure of improving the Chinese regime through trade.

In particular, the original language states that “China’s behavior has negated the optimistic language” of the 2012 platform.

“The liberalizing policies of recent decades have been reversed” under Xi Jinping it reads, with “dissent brutally crushed, religious persecution heightened and the cult of Mao revived.”

The committee added additional language on “International Religious Freedom” in the draft, which condemns both religious oppression in the sorts of regimes mentioned above and the Obama administration’s neglect of the role of the United States Committee on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan watchdog group championed by GOP congressmen in the late 1990s. Additionally, the GOP platform promises to restore religious freedom advocacy to a prominent place in diplomatic negotiations.

USCIRF “has been neglected by the current Administration at a time when its voice more than ever needs to be heard,” according to the original draft of the language obtained by CR. “A Republican Administration will return the advocacy of religious liberty to a central place in its diplomacy.”

Finally, the document directly addresses the plight of Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities in the Middle East, who have suffered genocide at the hands of ISIS since the Jihadist insurgency’s rise to power in the summer of 2014. The adopted language formally acknowledges ISIS’ actions as genocide and even supports the creation of a safe haven for religious minorities in Northern Iraq.

This language comes at a time when the rights of conscience are under assault not only in America, but around the world. Prisoners of conscience still languish in prisons and face arbitrary arrests in communist regimes like China, Cuba, and Vietnam, Russia is cracking down on religious expression, and ISIS has been committing genocide against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria for two years now.

Furthermore, these trends have shown no reversal whatsoever under President Obama, whose administration has cut deals with totalitarian regimes, effectively shrugged at China’s human rights record, brazenly opened the door to Cuba, and whose Middle East policies have given rise to an international Jihadist insurgency under ISIS.

In an age of global persecution, Americans need a policy on global human rights reminiscent of the kind Reagan enacted on behalf of dissidents in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. These sections of the Republican platform offer an example of what that might look like in the 21st century. (For more from the author of “GOP Adopts Reaganesque Stance on Religious Liberty” please click HERE)

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Obama Refuses Request to Honor Dallas’ Fallen Heroes

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Policemag.com reports that following the Dallas shooting Thursday night that left five police officers dead, a request was made to illuminate the White House in blue to honor those officers killed in the attack.

Jon Adler, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said in a statement that the group appreciated the president’s order that flags to be flown at half-staff; however, he asked President Obama to show his full respect for those who made the ultimate sacrifice by displaying law enforcement’s “Thin Blue Line” at the White House. Adler said this act would go further to show Obama’s commitment to law enforcement than his “scripted words.”

Although the White House has been illuminated for occasions such as Breast Cancer Awareness (pink) and the Supreme Court’s legalization of same-sex marriages (rainbow), Obama refused Adler’s request.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Governor’s Mansion in Austin to be illuminated in honor of the slain officers.

Adler said that the law enforcement community was unable to receive comfort from the scripted comments from people such as House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Referring to Ryan’s remark that this is “a time for healing,” Adler pointed out that another officer had been shot in Missouri. “We can’t heal while law enforcement officers continue to bleed,” he said.

As for Pelosi, who quoted the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Adler stated that she needed to exhibit Dr. King’s leadership ability rather than quoting his statements.

Adler’s statement also urged officials to eliminate their scripted speeches and feel the pain that people across the country are feeling from this attack. He suggested they light a blue candle and say a prayer in lieu of insulting members of law enforcement with “perishable scripted gibberish.”

Adler said the illumination of the White House would be a tribute to the service of five fallen heroes, ending the statement by saying, “May all our fallen heroes rest in honor, and blessed eternal peace.” (For more the author of “Obama Refuses Request to Honor Dallas’ Fallen Heroes” please click HERE)

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Dallas Police Chief Reveals Something Terrible Happened Right After Shootings

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Dallas Police Chief David Brown, who on Sunday noted the willingness of his officers to show “no greater love” than laying down their lives for the rights of others, revealed Monday that he has been targeted with death threats.

“We’re taking them all as credible, whether they can be confirmed or not,” Brown said at a Monday press conference. Brown said threats against him began “almost immediately after” Thursday night’s deadly ambush.

Brown said the threats are being taken “very seriously … for the sake of our families.”

The police chief said he was “running on fumes.” “I hope you understand my brain is fried. … I’m a person of faith. I believe that I’m able to stand here and discuss this with you is a testament to God’s grace and His sweet tender mercies,” Brown said.

He then spoke about the burdens dumped upon police departments.

“We’re asking cops to do too much in this country. We are. We’re just asking us to do too much,” he said. “Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding. Let the cop handle it. Not enough drug addiction funding. Let’s give it to the cops.”

“Here in Dallas, we’ve got a loose dog problem,” Brown added. “Let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. You know, schools fail. Give it to the cops. Seventy percent of the African-American community is being raised by single women. Let’s give it to the cops to solve that, as well. That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all of those problems.”

On Sunday, Brown sought to speak directly to protesters during in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper.

“We’re sworn to protect you and your right to protest, and we’ll give our lives for it,” Brown said.

“And it’s sort of like being in a relationship where you love that person, but that person can’t express or show you love back,” he said.

He then explained his philosophy to Tapper.

“I don’t know if you’ve been in a relationship like that before, Jake, but that’s a tough relationship to be in, where we show our love — because there’s no greater love than to give your life for someone, and that’s what we’re continuing to be willing to do.”

Brown said the fact that the police allow protesters to exercise their First Amendment rights is too rarely noticed.

“And we just need to hear from the protesters back to us, ‘We appreciate the work you do for us in our right to protest,’” Brown said. “That should be fairly easy.” (For more from the author of “Dallas Police Chief Reveals Something Terrible Happened Right After Shootings” please click HERE)

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Pence, Gingrich Make the Final Cut in Trump’s VP Search, sources Say

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As anticipation builds for Donald Trump to name his vice presidential pick, two hopefuls — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — appear to be the front-runners, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.

Also still in the mix: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Trump will likely make the announcement on Friday, the source said.

Pence introduced Trump at a rally Tuesday in Indiana that served as an audition of sorts as the presumptive Republican nominee closes in on a decision. The Indiana governor happily played the role of attack dog by slamming Hillary Clinton and saying she “must never become president of the United States.” (Read more from “Pence, Gingrich Make the Final Cut in Trump’s VP Search, sources Say” HERE)

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U.S. Post-Recession Economic Growth at 70-Year Low

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President Barack Obama has spent much of 2016 making sure his legacy on immigration, health care, LGBT priorities and the economy will be remembered. The first three history will remember, though possibly not for the reasons he hopes. But his legacy on the economy may not be quite what he was hoping it would be.

According to an analysis from the Congressional Research Service (CRS), America’s economy is growing at the slowest post-recession rate since just after World War II. Congress’ research arm noted that “Although this expansion is already the fourth longest since the 1850s (34 quarters to date), the slow pace of economic growth means the overall gains have been relatively small. … Real GDP has grown at an average pace of 2.0% per year during the current recovery, compared with an average rate of 4.3% during the previous 10 expansions.”

The Slow-Growing Economy

CRS compared economic growth under Obama to that which happened under President Ronald Reagan, both who came into office under tough economic conditions. “[T]he recession beginning in 1980 was also particularly long and severe and the economy grew very quickly after entering its recovery.” After the same amount of time, real GDP has grown by only 10%, while it grew over 30% under Reagan.

Where blame lies for the slow-growing economy is less clear, according to CRS. The non-partisan research arm of Congress pointed to several popular theories. Among them:

Financial-caused recessions may lead to slower recoveries than other recessions

The Great Recession’s high unemployment and high rates of long periods of unemployment may have atrophied the skills of workers

The Federal Reserve’s extremely low interest rates have discouraged investment

America’s recoveries may be slowing, overall — each of the last four economic growth periods has been smaller than the one before it. Blame under this theory has been laid at the feet of “an aging population, a slowdown in educational attainment, increased inequality, and a high debt to GDP ratio,” says CRS

Hedge fund manager and Euro Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff believes Federal Reserve policy bears responsibility for the slow growth, reports The Washington Free Beacon. “This ‘recovery,’ if you want to call it that, is far weaker than prior recoveries because it is wholly artificial,” Schiff said. “It has been manufactured by Federal Reserve stimulus in the form of quantitative easing and zero percent interest rates.”

“I expect that we will have very low growth, or even negative growth as long as the Fed continues to ‘stimulate’ the economy,” he continued. “Frankly, I do not believe we have achieved even 2 percent growth over the last five or six years. The only reason we can even get GDP at that level is because the Fed has used extremely low inflation estimates, far below 1 percent. If they admitted inflation was higher, growth would have been reported even lower.”

Obama’s Victory Lap, And Bad News

For his part, Obama took a victory lap in Elkhart, Indiana, in late spring, praising the policies of his administration for economic improvements since 2009 in the local and national economies. However, economist Veronique de Rugy says blame for slow growth falls on some of those same policies.

“[T]he last eight years have been really awful for the labor market, whether it’s through Obamacare, the increase in the minimum wage, uncertainty in the market,” said de Rugy. “Uncertainty means paralysis. Making the cost of low-income labor more expensive isn’t helping.”

The CRS report is just the latest bad economic news in recent months. In June, Federal Reserve Chairperson Janet Yellen told Congress that the unemployment is artificially low because people are not looking for work.

“The unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent in May, but that decline mainly occurred because fewer people reported that they were actively seeking work,” Yellen told Senators on the Banking, House, and Urban Affairs Committee. “A broader measure of labor market slack that includes workers marginally attached to the workforce and those working part-time who would prefer full-time work was unchanged in May and remains above its level prior to the recession.”

Additionally, an analysis of economic data from the federal Bureau of Labor & Statistics (BLS) found that U.S. productivity growth is at its lowest five-year rate since 1947. (For more from the author of “U.S. Post-Recession Economic Growth at 70-Year Low” please click HERE)

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BRILLIANT: IRS “Security” Program Unable to Stop $3.1 Billion Fraud

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While it’s absorbed persecuting law-abiding conservative groups the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can’t seem to stop crooks from scamming it to the tune of several billion dollars in one year alone via bogus tax refunds. It’s the latest of many transgressions at the agency that’s doubled as an Obama administration tool to crack down on political adversaries.

A special IRS security feature called Taxpayer Protection Program (TPP) couldn’t prevent criminals from scamming the agency out of an eye-popping $3.1 billion in one year, according to a federal audit.

TPP was implemented to curb an epidemic of identity theft that allows criminals to fraudulently get tax refunds. Supposedly, identity theft fraud is reduced through a verification process but the federal probe, conducted by the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), found serious loopholes. “TPP uses single-factor authentication procedures that incorporate one of the following authentication elements: ‘something you know,’ ‘something you have,’ or ‘something you are,’” the GAO report states. “TPP’s single-factor authentication procedures are at risk of exploitation because some fraudsters obtain the PII (personally identifiable information) necessary to pass the questions asked during authentication.”

As a result thousands of bogus filers get refunds from the IRS annually, possibly more, the GAO probe found. In fact, investigators determined that the IRS may have doled out an undetermined amount of money to an unknown number of fraudsters so the true figure will never be known. This has been going on for years and the IRS has spent a chunk of change trying to combat it to no avail. In fiscal year 2015 the agency dedicated more than 4,000 full-time employees and spent about $470 million to combat refund fraud and identity theft, the GAO reports. The Obama administration requested an additional $90 million and 491 full-time employees for fiscal year 2017 to reduce improper payments as if throwing more money at the problem will solve it. The reality is that this is part of a much broader security issue at the tax agency. Earlier this year the IRS Inspector General confirmed that hackers gained unauthorized access to 724,000 taxpayer accounts, illustrating that its system is incredibly vulnerable.

The latest GAO audit exposes just one of a multitude of problems at the feared tax agency. Judicial Watch has reported extensively on IRS scandals over the years and has been a leader in uncovering the sordid details of the agency’s witch hunt of conservative groups. Judicial Watch has obtained damaging government records that show the IRS illegally colluded with another federal agency to crack down on conservative nonprofit groups during the 2012 election cycle. The IRS director at the center of the scheme, Lois Lerner, not only broke agency rules—as well as the law—to target conservative organizations, she also lied to Congress in an effort to cover up the wrongdoing.

Judicial Watch has also been a leader in reporting other IRS wrongdoing that’s been largely ignored by the mainstream media. This includes allowing prison inmates to fraudulently receive tens of millions of dollars in tax refunds and illegal immigrants billions by letting them improperly claim tax credits they don’t qualify for. Last summer an embarrassing federal audit exposed the IRS for awarding dozens of tax-delinquent companies with millions of dollars in government contracts. During a two-year period the IRS awarded 57 contracts worth nearly $19 million to 17 corporations that owed federal taxes during that period. This actually violated a 2012 federal law called the Consolidated Appropriations Act prohibiting government agencies from using appropriated funds to enter into a contract with a company that has certain federal tax debt or felony convictions.

As if this weren’t bad enough, IRS employees have been charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in government benefits, including food stamps, welfare and housing vouchers. IRS employees have also been singled out in various government probes as the federal workers with the highest number of tax delinquents that received bonus pay. A few years ago a federal audit revealed that at the IRS alone, staff members with violations received close to $3 million in awards on top of their regular government salary. Some got the extra cash despite being cited for using drugs, making violent threats, fraudulently claiming unemployment benefits and misusing government credit cards. (For more from the author of “BRILLIANT: IRS “Security” Program Unable to Stop $3.1 Billion Fraud” please click HERE)

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Rumors of a GOP Senate Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

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“Extremely careless.” That phrase from FBI Director James Comey about the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee’s mishandling of classified information was immediately seen as a millstone around the necks of Secretary Hillary Clinton and Democrats up and down the ballot.

However, weeks before Comey’s press conference, the June NBC/WSJ poll, which provides apples-to-apples comparisons going back to the 1990s, poured data-driven cold water on the down-ballot wipeout that has been the stuff of Democrats’ dreams for months.

Polling data is one of several stubborn realities undermining the conventional wisdom that the Republican majority is in more trouble than it would be in any competitive election year.

First, Republicans are better positioned in June 2016 than they were at the same point in the past three election cycles.

According to the NBC/WSJ data, the Republican generic presidential ballot was stronger in June 2016 (D +3) than it was in June 2008 (D +16), ahead of the last open election. More germane to the senate map, the generic congressional ballot is the strongest it has been in any of the last four election cycles, with the parties tied at 46 percent. In June 2014, the GOP lagged by two points, one point in June 2012, and nine points in June 2008.

Second, Clinton and Trump are polling neck-and-neck in key senate states.

Elections come down to a handful of key states, and many marquee senate races are being fought in states where the top of the ticket is close. Secretary Clinton’s vulnerabilities among Rust Belt voters are a major liability in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and in must-win New Hampshire, a recent Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll had Clinton and Trump tied in the state where she lost to an avowed socialist by 22 points.

The Real Clear Politics polling average has the top of the ticket race within the margin of error in the four presidential battleground states with competitive senate races: Florida (Clinton +3.4), Pennsylvania (Clinton +2.5), Ohio (Clinton +3), New Hampshire (Clinton +2.7).

Clinton coattails are clearly non-existent – hence the resounding silence from most Democratic senate candidates following Comey’s blistering criticism – and her deep unpopularity could even prompt ticket-splitting among reluctant Clinton voters eager to put a check on her potential power.

Third, the Democratic party remains deeply divided.

A recent Bloomberg poll showed a staggering 55 percent of Bernie Sanders supporters saying they would not vote for Clinton in the general election. While that number will certainly decrease before Election Day, Sanders’ expected endorsement of Clinton is reluctant in the extreme, and according to the New York Post, up to one million left-wing protesters are preparing to disrupt the Democratic convention.

In 2010 and 2012, Republicans suffered from a spate of contentious primaries, resulting in unelectable candidates emerging from the fray. That narrative has played out on the other side of the aisle in 2016, with candidates like Ohio’s Ted Strickland and Illinois’ Tammy Duckworth forced to the left on tough general election issues like gun control and energy by liberal primary challengers that cost them time and money to dispatch.

Finally, candidates matter.

Never have supposed star recruits so utterly failed to live up to the hype as the Democrats’ sought-after senate candidates in Florida and Pennsylvania. Establishment groups spent nearly $5 million to drag Katie McGinty, a bureaucrat with a revolving door problem, through another contentious primary, only to have her claim to be the first in her family to attend college immediately exposed as a lie. Another DSCC primary pick, Florida’s Patrick Murphy, has had his inflated resume methodically torn apart by a series of investigative reports, to the point where Salon called him a “disaster candidate.”

Politico recently described the Democrats’ senate-winning strategy as “be boring,” which explains why candidates like Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire and Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada are running dull campaigns that have been criticized for relying on canned talking points. Aside from completely abandoning the “hope and change” mantra, the strategy is an odd one for a field of challengers, as voters looking for a safe or predictable candidate tend to favor incumbents.

Republicans, on the other hand, have a strong slate of candidates built primarily of standouts from the class of 2010 with a record of tangible successes to run on, like passing a five-year highway bill, reforming Medicare’s payment system so seniors can keep their doctors, and combatting the opioid epidemic ravaging rural communities.

No matter how you slice it, the battle for the senate will be extremely competitive. But by all means, Democrats should continue to believe they have it in the bag. (For more from the author of “Rumors of a GOP Senate Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated” please click HERE)

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RNC Strikes Back Against Delegates Unbound

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A key confidant of GOP Chairman Reince Priebus today fired a shot directly at the #FreetheDelegates and #DelegatesUnbound movements. Priebus’ hand-picked general counsel for the Republican National Committee, John Ryder, forcefully came out against the notion that delegates could be unbound. His remarks constitute legal advice to the RNC Standing Committee on Rules. It was the strongest language to date by an official of the RNC against the effort to deny Donald Trump the nomination here in Cleveland next week.

The key question is will it matter either way?

Earlier today I met with Delegates Unbound cofounder Dane Waters. In a Facebook Live interview, Waters acknowledged that the battle his group is waging is a tough and uphill fight. They fully expected the RNC to align with the Trump campaign to try and stop any attempt to open the convention and stop Donald Trump.

Today’s opinion by Ryder, who also serves as the National Committeeman from Tennessee, confirms that the RNC is gearing up to quash any movement against Trump.

Ryder opened his legal advice by saying, “the Rules of the Republican Party both permit and require the binding of delegates.” Ryder went on to say that the new Rule 16 of the Republican National Committee, as adopted by the 2012 convention, requires that delegates are bound if there is a primary in their state. He further stated that it is his opinion that the decision in Correll v. Heller, issued yesterday, confirmed that rule 16 is in effect.

Conservative Review obtained a statement emailed to all RNC members after the committee meeting. In the statement, Ryder’s office said:

We are pleased that the court correctly found that Rule 16 of The Rules of the Republican Party is in effect and that delegates remain bound in accordance with their states’ presidential preference votes. The court recognized long-standing precedent that gives primacy to national party rules in the selection of delegates to the national convention. This ruling also makes clear that the rules of the Republican Party of Virginia are in conformity with The Rules of the Republican Party regarding binding and allocation. In light of the court’s decision, all party rules regarding binding and all state laws consistent with those rules are in effect.

Ryder’s remarks were pointedly aimed at Curly Haugland, the Republican National Committeeman from North Dakota. Ryder countered Haugland’s assertion that the delegates are unbound due to the longstanding history of the party. He countered that early Twentieth Century language supplanted language from the late 1800s that instituted a so-called “conscience clause.”

Haugland forcefully fired back. Haugland reminded the counsel that there are no current rules for the convention until the delegates adopt them on Monday, an assertion with which Ryder disagreed. Haugland then undercut Ryder’s argument that Rule 16 and Rule 37 were synergistic, meaning that Rule 16 required delegates to be bound through the nominating vote. Haugland recanted a point of order that he brought up during the 2012 Rules Committee debate regarding the two sections.

Haulgland said, “I raised the question of order saying that 16 conflicts with 37 He [2012 Convention Rules Committee Chairman John Sununu] said, ‘are you suggesting 16 conflicts with 37, is that your point of order?’ I said yes. He said, ‘there’s no conflict, rule 16 deals with delegate selection, and rule 37 deals with voting.’ We can only vote in one place, we either vote in the primaries or we vote in the convention. I submit we vote in the convention.”

The reality of what happened today is that it will be tough for the forces who want to both unseat Donald Trump as the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party and replace him at convention. It has been a tough fight for that side from the beginning. Today’s legal advice, offered by a close Reince Priebus confidant shows that the party apparatus is taking the side of Donald Trump in that fight.

It will be a tough floor fight to try and enforce the view that all delegates are unbound and can vote their conscience. Free the Delegates, and Delegates Unbound have a strong floor strategy with 38 state whips, and a robust delegate communication method for the days of the convention. Waters, of Delegates Unbound, also claims they have identified a majority of delegates who do not want to see Trump as the nominee. Will those delegates have the desire to translate that dislike of Trump into action?

That’s the question on everybody’s mind, and today’s proceedings showed that the Trump camp has come to Cleveland ready to take on that fight. (For more from the author of “RNC Strikes Back Against Delegates Unbound” please click HERE)

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