In the wake of the tragic Covenant Christian Elementary School shooting there has been a renewed push to employ school safety officers throughout the country…
What do you think?
Watch Amanda explain the controversy below:
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
The Manhattan grand jury weighing an indictment against former President Donald Trump will reportedly not meet again until late April, delaying any potential charges.
A source close to the matter told POLITICO that the grand jury investigating the alleged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels isn’t expected to hear evidence in the case for the next month largely due to a previously scheduled hiatus.
However, District Attorney Alvin Bragg can adjust the schedule and ask the grand jury to reconvene if prosecutors want the panel to meet during previously planned breaks.
POLITICO reports:
The grand jury, which heard testimony in the Trump case on Monday, isn’t meeting Wednesday and is expected to examine evidence in a separate matter Thursday, the person said. The grand jury, which typically meets Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, is scheduled to consider another case next week on Monday and Wednesday, the person said, and isn’t expected to meet Thursday due to the Passover holiday.
The following two weeks are set to be a hiatus that was scheduled when the grand jury was first convened in January, the person said.
The unprecedented indictment hanging over Trump’s head stems from a $130,000 hush money payment he allegedly made to porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Prosecutors are expected to charge Trump with a felony by arguing that the alleged crime was committed to hide an illegal campaign contribution. The potential problem for Trump centers around how his company reimbursed former attorney Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to related charges and served time in prison.
The payment to Daniels was listed as a legal expense and Trump’s company cited a retainer agreement with Cohen. The retainer agreement did not exist and the reimbursement was not related to any legal services from Cohen, thus setting up a potential misdemeanor criminal charge of falsifying business records. A report by NBC News said that Trump personally signed several of the checks to Cohen while he was serving as president.
Prosecutors can elevate the misdemeanor to a felony if they can prove that Trump’s “‘intent to defraud’ included an intent to commit or conceal a second crime.”
Prosecutors argue that the second crime is that the $130,000 hush payment was an improper donation to the Trump campaign because the money was used to stop a story to benefit his presidential campaign.
ANALYSIS – The Musk ‘Twitter Files’ exposé showing links between the federal government, prominent Democrat politicians and unconstitutional censorship at Twitter, has been mostly ignored or dismissed by the establishment media.
However, the Twitter censorship collusion saga is being pursued on Capitol Hill. And apparently, the issue is getting a bit hot for the increasingly Nixonian Team Biden.
So hot that Joe Biden’s IRS reportedly sent an IRS agent to harass and intimidate the long-time Rolling Stones reporter who has been doggedly pursuing this scandal since Elon Musk gave him access to a boatload of internal Twitter documents.
An IRS agent suspiciously visited Matt Taibbi’s home the same day he was testifying before congress’ Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, according to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.
Why would Team Biden be worried?
Well, Taibbi found in the Twitter Files that Big Tech has turned “the internet into an instrument of censorship and social control. [And] Unfortunately, our own government appears to be playing a lead role.”
Plus, the timing of the IRS visit couldn’t be more sinister.
Michael Shellenberger tweeted:
[email protected] & I were testifying before Congress on the weaponization of the federal government, an IRS agent showed up at his house. What an amazing coincidence
Musk replied to the tweet, saying simply: “That’s very odd.”
However, as the Blaze reported:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) reckoned it was more than odd, tweeting, “This absolutely stinks to high heaven. The IRS has a troubling history of targeting the political enemies of Democrats. The IRS should NEVER be in the business of harassing the American people.”
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, responded, “Gangster government.”
Jordan is demanding an explanation over the suspiciously timed IRS visit.
It appears Team Biden is weaponizing the IRS to intimidate a witness testifying about how Team Biden is weaponizing the government.
The Blaze continued:
Jordan noted that this interpretation may be apt in light of the “IRS’s history as a tool of government abuse” — citing its hounding of conservatives during the Obama administration” — and the “hostile reaction to Mr. Taibbi’s reporting among left-wing activists.”
A federal agent appeared at Taibbi’s New Jersey home on March 9 and left a note, according to an editorial in The Wall Street Journal.
The note reportedly instructed Taibbi to call the IRS four days later.
When Taibbi did call, an agent told him his 2018 and 2021 tax returns had both been rejected due to identity theft concerns. Yet, Taibbi sees no reason for that visit, nor the alleged rejection which wasn’t communicated before to him or his accountant.
And since when does the IRS send an agent to your house to leave a note over a simple tax return issue?
Jordan called this an apparent executive branch “attempt to intimidate a witness before Congress.” On Monday he sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and the Department of Treasury on Monday demanding answers.
And he needs answers. As the Wall Street Journal noted:
Mr. Jordan is right to want to see documents and communications relating to the Taibbi visit. The fear of many Americans is that, flush with its new $80 billion in funding from Congress, the IRS will unleash its fearsome power against political opponents. Mr. Taibbi deserves to know why the agency decided to pursue him with a very strange house call.
This type of government harassment should worry all Americans, and its at the heart of why the GOP Congress has created the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
We all need answers.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
ANALYSIS – The communist regime in China raided a private U.S. investigations company’s office in Beijing on March 20.
This brazen, and likely unlawful, act against the New York-based due diligence firm, the Mintz Group, follows the FBI raid last fall of an illegal Chinese overseas ‘police station’ in New York City.
And some see it as a heavy-handed, and non-symmetrical retaliation.
But the raid in Beijing is also likely tied to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s draconian security crackdown on the information inside China.
“Red alerts should be going off in all boardrooms right now about risks in China,” said one source in the New York Post.
The same U.S. business person also said that the Mintz Group raid sent a “remarkable signal” that Beijing will suck up foreign money and technology but won’t accept credible U.S. firms conducting research and investigations on Chinese partners or the country’s business environment.
Reuters reported that the company confirmed that “Chinese authorities have detained the five staff in Mintz Group’s Beijing office, all of them Chinese nationals, and have closed our operations there.”
The detained employees are reportedly being held somewhere outside Beijing. The company has not been able to contact the employees since they were detained.
Unlike the official police status of the Chinese outposts raided in NYC, the Mintz Group is a purely private company.
The firm describes itself as “a corporate investigations firm that gathers information before hiring, before transactions, during litigation disputes and after frauds, all over the world.”
According to its website, the company has over 450 investigators in 18 offices worldwide, but its Beijing office is the only one in mainland China. It has a second office in Hong Kong.
It also does background checks, asset tracing, and fraud and corruption investigations for businesses planning acquisitions or other large investments.
This corporate mission will likely be used by Chinese authorities to accuse the company of being spies.
And it wouldn’t be the first time western due diligence companies have gotten into trouble with Chinese authorities.
British corporate investigator Peter Humphrey and his American wife Yu Yingzeng, who ran a risk advisory firm, ChinaWhys, were detained in 2013 for work they did for a giant British pharmaceutical firm.
They spent two years in jail.
But there is an added twist to this latest raid.
While there may not be a direct link, the New York Post reported that: “Randal Phillips, a partner at the firm [Mintz Group] who heads its Asia operations but is based outside of China, is listed on its website as the Central Intelligence Agency’s former chief representative in China. Phillips worked in Beijing for years after leaving the CIA.”
Even though the raid can be seen as a response to the FBI raid against Beijing’s illegal NYC police outpost, one of 100 stations around the world, the additional motive is also clear.
As the New York Times reports:
…the move [also] highlighted the risks that firms involved in due diligence face in China as Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader, has repeatedly called for a greater emphasis on security and has tightened the ruling Communist Party’s grip on information.
The firm stated that it “has not received any official legal notice regarding a case against the company and has requested that the authorities release its employees.”
Perhaps not coincidentally, reported the Wall Street Journal, the Mintz Group raid is putting foreign companies in China on alert just as the country hosts an international economic conclave called the ‘China Development Forum’ set for this weekend.
The high-profile event is expected to be attended by Apple CEO Tim Cook, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Ray Dalio, who founded the world’s biggest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, and other top executives.
According to a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, with increasing tensions between the U.S. and China, U.S. businesses already operating in China are increasingly pessimistic about their prospects.
Maybe this latest Chinese act will make more U.S. firms think twice about investing there.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
Former President Donald Trump has revealed a significant new hire to lead his efforts in New Hampshire in 2024.
Trump has hired Jeb Bush’s 2016 field coordinator, Trevor Naglieri, to serve as his campaign’s New Hampshire state coordinator, according to reports from The Daily Wire.
The move by the former president to hire a former Bush campaign hand comes after Trump has repeatedly claimed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is a part of the Republican Party establishment and sought to tie DeSantis to Bush and former House Speaker Paul Ryan.
The New Hampshire presidential primary, which takes place Feb. 13, 2024, is the nation’s first primary and the second party contest, after the Iowa caucuses. Although New Hampshire is a small state, its primary is seen as a critical chance for candidates to build momentum for their campaigns.
Trump handily won the New Hampshire primary in 2016, he lost the state in the general election in both 2016 and 2020.
Naglieri marks the second high-profile hire for the Trump campaign in New Hampshire. Two months ago, POLITICO first reported that former state GOP Chair Steve Stepanek, a longtime ally, would serve as a senior adviser to the former president in the first-in-the-nation primary state. The two join Alex Latcham, one of Trump’s Iowa hires, who’s overseeing all early state operations.
His opponents have yet to take similar steps on the staffing front however Vivek Ramaswamy is launching a six-figure advertising blitz in Iowa and New Hampshire, marking the first time his campaign has gone on the air since he announced his candidacy last month.
“We’re in the middle of a national identity crisis,” Ramaswamy says in the ad. “Faith, patriotism and hard work have disappeared. Wokeness, gender ideology and the climate cult have taken their place.”
“We spend so much time celebrating our diversity that we forget the values that bind us together,” he adds. “I believe deep in my bones those values still exist.”
Have you seen the results of this poll? Are you concerned?
Watch Amanda explain the situation below:
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
The FBI released nearly 200 pages of “secret” documents relating to a counterintelligence inquiry into former President Donald Trump’s late ex-wife, Ivana Trump on Tuesday.
Based on what a confidential source provided in 1989, the FBI recommended “a preliminary inquiry be opened on Ivana Trump,” according to a 190-page document released by a law enforcement agency as part of a Freedom of Information Act suit from Bloomberg.
The motive behind the FBI’s investigation into Ivana Trump is unknown but involved the bureau’s counterintelligence division and spanned at least two years. The document includes a passage stating that “it is unknown if the allegations stem from jealousies of her wealth and fame. Investigation continuing,” though the rest of that inquiry is redacted.
There is no text in the filing accusing her of wrongdoing. The FBI redacted several portions of the large filing, citing national security concerns, personal privacy, and law enforcement techniques and procedures.
FBI agents also took interest in a “highly confidential and reliable source” who advised that Ivana Trump was in Czechoslovakia on June 4, 1990, when the country’s last president gave her an autographed book.
The Bloomberg report noted the Prague Daily Monitor published a story after Donald Trump was elected president surrounding Ivana Trump not aiding dissidents or exiles during the communist regime, writing, “That may explain the FBI’s interest in her visit to the country.”
Ivana was born in Czechoslovakia but left the country by marrying an Austrian ski instructor, who she divorced soon after gaining Austrian citizenship in 1972. She then traveled to the U.S. and ended up in New York City, where she met would-be president Donald Trump. The couple shares three children: Donald Jr., Ivanka, and Eric.
Ivana and Trump married in April 1977, and the couple would remain together until their highly public divorce in the late 1980s.
Florida Democrat chair Nikki Fried has filed an ethics complaint against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), accusing him of violating state law by accepting gifts from his political committee.
The complaint centers primarily on a three-day retreat at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach, Fla., where DeSantis met with donors and Republican lawmakers.
According to The Hill, the complaint cites several other expenditures by the committee, including $142,000 at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami for a meeting expense and nearly $12,000 for food and beverages at Dirty French Steakhouse in Miami.
“This is yet another example of Ron DeSantis arrogantly thinking he is above the law. No one is above the law,” Fried said in a statement. “While Floridians face some of the highest property insurance and mortgage rates in the state’s history, DeSantis is hobnobbing with special interest donors and lining his pockets with freebies. Floridians deserve answers, and DeSantis needs to be held accountable.”
DeSantis’s office brushed off that complaint as “politically motivated,” and dismissed Fried’s complaint on Monday with a similar remark.
“Just like the one from two weeks ago, we’ll just add this to the list of frivolous & politically motivated attacks,” Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’s communications director, tweeted. “Louder for the Dems in the back: It’s inappropriate to use ethics complaints for partisan purposes.”
Fried’s complaint is the second filed against DeSantis in less than two weeks.
Make America Great Again Inc., the main super PAC aligned with former President Trump, filed a complaint earlier this month accusing the Florida governor of violating state and federal law by running a “shadow presidential campaign.” (RELATED: Ron DeSantis Hit With Ethics Complaint From Trump Super PAC)
NBC News first reported the complaint alleges that DeSantis has already checked all the boxes for someone considering a run for the White House, including making stops in early primary states; writing a book; raising tens of millions of dollars to go into a state-level committee that could be transferred to a federal super PAC; and watching a constellation of supporter-led super PACs and an outside nonprofit group pop up, some with the stated intention of getting DeSantis to run for president.
The pro-Trump super PAC says the combination of those steps violates a handful of Florida laws about officeholders’ accepting illegal gifts.
“This letter provides ample evidence to support a finding of probable cause by the Florida Commission on Ethics that Governor DeSantis, in concert with certain associated political committees, political consultants and a 501(c)(4) organization, has solicited and received millions of dollars’ worth of illegal gifts in violation of Florida State ethics laws and the Florida Constitution,” the draft complaint reads.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie suggested to an audience on Monday that he may enter the 2024 presidential race to target former President Donald Trump.
Christie hinted at potentially joining the race while delivering remarks at St. Anselm’s College in New Hampshire.
“You better have somebody on that stage who can do to him what I did to Marco because that’s the only thing that’s gonna defeat Donald Trump,” Christie said in reference to him going hard after Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) during the debates. “And that means you gotta have the skill to do it and that means you have to be fearless because he will come back and right at you.”
Christie said that “it’s not gonna end nicely” and Trump’s “end will not be a calm and quiet conclusion.”
Christie campaigned in New Hampshire more than any other GOP candidate in 2016 but received lackluster results, leading him to suspend his campaign.
“And so, if I run again, I can’t imagine that I would continue to do it the same way,” he added. “But this time if I run, I would just hope that you come to a better conclusion than you did the last time.”
The former president and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis currently sit at the top of the polls for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Christie told Fox News that he wanted to go to New Hampshire to talk to people “who I know are the best-informed voters in the country about things that I think are important in the world and in our country right now — and to see how they react to that, and see that what they think about things that I think are important.”
ANALYSIS – In the latest evidence that the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was not exactly as it was portrayed by partisan Democrats and the establishment media, a sealed video shows D.C. undercover Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers acting as provocateurs.
And a federal prosecutor has admitted they did so but is still fighting in court to keep the video evidence sealed or ‘masked.’
Videos from Jan. 6, still hidden under court seal, have become an increasingly hot topic, especially as we learn more about the involvement of multiple FBI informants in the riot.
One of the Jan. 6 defendants, William Pope of Topeka, Kansas, filed a motion on Feb. 21 to remove the court seal on one video.
The undercover video, part of which was posted on Rumble, shows three members of the MPD’s Electronic Surveillance Unit (ESU) approach the Capitol’s northwest steps.
The Epoch Times (ET) reports:
Nearly 30 members of the Electronic Surveillance Unit were assigned to duty on Jan. 6, some of whom were gathering evidence on crowd activity. Members wore special bands on their left wrists to identify themselves as part of the Electronic Surveillance Unit, according to the MPD’s 96-page Jan. 6 action plan.
ET quotes undercover MPD ESU officers chanting or yelling terms of encouragement and incitement at protesters. These included:
Officer 1 repeatedly joined in chants of “Drain the swamp!” and “Our house! Our house! Our house!”
“This is amazing,” Officer 2 said. Officer 1, who was shooting the GoPro video, replied, “Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Officer 1 encouraged the crowd to move up the stairs with repeated shouts, “Keep going! Keep going!” and “Keep going, keep going, come on!”
“This video clearly evidences undercover law enforcement officers urging the crowds to advance up the stairs and scaffolding towards the Capitol on January 6,” Pope wrote in an earlier case filing.
“The officer clearly incited that area, and we still don’t have video from all other undercover MPD,” said Pope.
“And,” Pope added to ET, “as the numerous informants in the Proud Boys trial demonstrates, we are only just beginning to scratch the surface on FBI involvement.”
In a March 24 filing before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, however, prosecutors asked the court to keep video footage shot by the officers under court seal.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Moran argued against unsealing closed-circuit television (CCTV) security video, saying it could put officers at risk.
“There are very specific and highly worrisome risks associated with the specific videos the defendant seeks to share en masse,” she wrote.
Moran also accused Pope of attempting “to try his case in the media rather than in a court of law …”
But trying the Jan. 6 rioters in the media has been the government’s goal all along. And now it’s time to finally see the other side of the story.
And this side could be very damaging to those blindly pushing the ‘insurrection’ narrative.
At one point in the video, one of the undercover officers stated, “Someone’s going to get shot.”
Another video reportedly shows Officer 2 and Officer 3 walking behind the late Ashli Babbitt on the northwest steps of the Capitol.
An hour later, Babbitt, a former Air Force Security Forces officer who was unarmed and peaceful, was shot and died at the entry of the Speaker’s Lobby by a Capitol Police Lieutenant.
Babbitt was the only person directly killed in the violence at the Capitol.
Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.
