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    Report: Man With Ties To Iran Charged In Assassination Plot

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    Police image via Pixabay free images

    A Pakistani man with ties to the Iranian government sought to carry out a political assassination in the United States targeting high-ranking officials including former President Donald Trump.

    Asif Merchant, 46, traveled to New York City and worked with a hit man to carry out the assassinations in late August or early September, federal prosecutors said in a court complaint.

    Fox News has more:

    “Fortunately, the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were undercover FBI Agents,” said Acting Assistant Director Christie Curtis of the FBI New York Field Office. “This case underscores the dedication and formidable efforts of our agents, analysts and prosecutors in New York, Houston, and Dallas. Their success in neutralizing this threat not only prevented a tragic outcome but also reaffirms the FBI’s commitment to protecting our nation and its citizens from both domestic and international threats.”

    “Working on behalf of others overseas, Merchant planned the murder of U.S. government officials on American soil,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace for the Eastern District of New York. “This prosecution demonstrates that this Office and the entire U.S. Department of Justice will take swift and decisive action to protect our nation’s security, our government officials and our citizens from foreign threats.”

    This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.

    Federal Appeals Court Leaves Trump Gag Order In Place

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    A Washington, D.C.-based appeals court has declined to rehear arguments concerning Donald Trump’s ability to speak about witnesses and courthouse staff in special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 trial.

    Trump’s only option if he wishes to further appeal is to go to the Supreme Court.

    Per CNN:

    Trump has unsuccessfully tried to challenge the gag order placed on him by Judge Tanya Chutkan late last year through appeals.

    The 11 judges from the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday declined to touch the case after a three-judge panel previously upheld the gag order against Trump. There were no statements or dissents made by any of the judges.

    This article was republished with permission from American Liberty News.

    White House Hopeful Pledges to Pardon Trump If Elected

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Vivek Ramaswamy speaking with attendees at the 2022 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona.

    Republicans, even his direct opponents, are still loyal to Donald Trump – despite the building legal woes.

    During a Tuesday press conference at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Miami, Florida Vivek Ramaswamy said if he is elected president, he will pardon Trump for his federal charges.

    While speaking to a crowd the Ohio businessman and tech mogul challenged his Republican counterparts to make the same pledge to pardon the former President if elected.

    “The use of police force by a sitting U.S. President against his chief political rival in the midst of a presidential election sets a dangerous precedent in our country,” Ramaswamy said in a press release.

    “No one is above the law: the U.S. President shouldn’t be able to use the federal police to arrest his opponents,” he continued.

    “No one should be below the law either, yet there are now two standards of justice depending on your political viewpoints,” Ramaswamy added. “That’s the single greatest threat to our constitutional republic today.”

    “If President Trump is prosecuted in a manner that effectively prevents him from running, this will permanently damage public trust in our electoral process and our justice system,” the letter reads.

    “Whoever among us is elected, our job of reuniting the nation will become daunting – if not impossible,” Ramaswamy wrote.

    Trump is set to be arraigned Tuesday after a federal grand jury indicted him last week on 37 charges related to his retention of sensitive documents. 

    In addition to pledging to pardon Trump, Ramaswamy also filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request this week seeking communication between the White House and the Justice Department concerning the second indictment of Trump. 

    Ramaswamy said he filed the request “to demand *exactly* what the White House Communicated to [Attorney General] Merrick Garland & [Special Counsel] Jack Smith about the unprecedented indictment of a former U.S. President & Biden’s disfavored opponent in this election.” 

    Other Republican candidates have yet to respond to Ramaswamy’s challenge but former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley signaled she’s “inclined” to sign on.”

    “I think we all need to let this trial play out. We need to see exactly what happens, when you look at a pardon, the issue is less about guilt and more about what’s good for the country. And I think it would be terrible for the country to have a former president in prison for years because of a documents case,” Haley said on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” when asked if she’d commit to pardoning Trump if elected.

    “That’s something you’d see in a Third World country. I saw that at the United Nations, so I would be inclined in favor of a pardon. But I think it’s really pretty mature at this point when he’s not even been convicted of anything,” she added.

    Hunter Biden’s Attorney Files Ethics Complaint Against Marjorie Taylor Greene

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    10
    Marjorie Taylor Greene -Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, via Wikimedia Commons

    Hunter Biden’s legal team filed an ethics complaint against Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday after the Congresswoman displayed lewd images of the President’s son during a House Oversight and Accountability Committee earlier in the week.

    On Wednesday, a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing featured testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who allege that prosecutors slow-walked the investigation into Hunter Biden.

    During her time to question the witnesses, the Georgia Congresswoman held up posters that showed graphic sexual photos from the laptop hard drive that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden. The faces of other individuals involved in the sex acts were censored with black boxes, but Biden’s face was left visible.

    In a letter to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE), Biden’s attorney Abbe David Lowell slammed Greene’s actions.

    “Now more than ever, the House has a duty to make loud and clear that it does not endorse, condone, or agree with her outrageous, undignified conduct and brazen violations of the standards of official conduct that do not reflect creditably on the House of Representatives,” Lowell wrote.

    The OCE is a non-partisan, independent entity previously established by the House that reviews allegations of misconduct involving lawmakers, officers, and House staffers and, if warranted, refers matters to the Ethics Committee.

    Ilhan Omar Removed From Foreign Affairs Committee

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    12
    U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Cori Bush speak at the Mississippi River in Minneapolis asking for President Biden to stop Line 3 pipeline construction.

    The U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee in a Thursday afternoon vote.

    The vote came to the floor after Republican Reps. Ken Buck and Victoria Spartz reversed their decision to oppose the resolution to punish Omar for her history of antisemitic comments.

    The Washington Times has more:

    Ms. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and member of the far-left “Squad,” was kicked off the committee in a party-line 218-211 vote.

    Ms. Omar, who came to the U.S. as a Somali refugee and was one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, said she was being targeted by Republicans because she is an immigrant, a Black woman and a Muslim.

    “This debate today is about who is going to be an American,” Ms. Omar said in a floor speech before the vote. “There is an idea that you are suspect if you are an immigrant.”

    Ms. Omar has been vocal about her opposition to the Israeli government and its supporters, particularly on the issue of Palestinian rights, which led to the allegations of antisemitism.

    Omar’s rhetoric in the past has also offended some Democrats, who have on occasion spoken out against her.

    Every Democrat voted against today’s resolution.

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    Democrat Seeks To Censure Potential Trump VP Pick

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2
    Ted Eytan from Washington, DC, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

    Democrat Rep. Dan Goldman (Ny.) filed a formal censure against House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (Ny.) over her Jan. 6 comments.

    The censure power is a rare congressional punishment typically used only against members convicted of a crime or severe wrongdoing, according to The New York Times. 

    Earlier this month, Stefanik claimed during an interview on Meet The Press that she was concerned “about the treatment of the Jan. 6 hostages” as they remain imprisoned for trespassing and assaulting law enforcement. Former President Donald Trump has used similar language to defend the rioters.

    The Democrat lawmaker took issue with the Congresswoman’s decision to call the individuals “hostages.”

    “What it comes down to is whether the speech by a member of Congress — does it go over the line where it promotes violence, some form of discrimination or bring serious disrepute on the institution,” Goldman told the Times.

    “It directly relates to the safety and security of this body,” he added. “If you provide comfort to those people who have been charged and convicted of violent attempts to overthrow our government, you are supporting people who attacked the Capitol and attacked this body.”

    Per the NYT:

    Mr. Goldman’s measure also asserts that Ms. Stefanik has filed vindictive ethics complaints against a federal judge overseeing criminal cases involving the Jan. 6 insurrections and has falsely referred to the indictment of Mr. Trump by Jack Smith, the special counsel, as “attempts to criminalize the First Amendment.”

    House Democrats have tried to keep their members aligned in opposing Republican efforts to censure members of their caucus for their speech, arguing that doing so erodes a basic tenant of democracy. And they have generally been successful in keeping Democrats mostly united against the Republican-led censures — with the exception of the official condemnation of Ms. Tlaib, which some pro-Israel Democrats broke with their leaders to support.

    The Republicans will unlikely schedule a floor vote on Goldman’s censure resolution targeting the majority’s senior members. A top aide of Stefaniks told the Times that Goldman’s move was “corrupt” and “radical.”

    House Republican Accuses Treasury Dept. of Stalling Investigation into Biden Family

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Are the Bidens getting desperate to cover their tracks?

    House Oversight Committee James Comer (R-KY) accused the Biden administration of obstructing his committee’s investigation into the Biden family’s finances.

    In a letter to the Treasury Department, the Congressman called out the department for its “suspiciously slow” responses to the committee regarding matters related to Suspicious Activity Reports filed over deals members of President Joe Biden’s family made with foreign businessmen.

    “During the Committee’s dialogue with Treasury, you have made several excuses for Treasury’s delay regarding this production,” Comer wrote. “Given the amount of time that has passed since our initial request and Treasury’s inability to provide a projected timeframe when the [Suspicious Activity Reports] will be produced, the Committee believes Treasury may be delaying its production to hinder our investigation and operating in bad faith.”

    Last week, Isabella More, the deputy assistant secretary for oversight at the Treasury, told congressional investigators that the department must still meet with “law enforcement partners” because of the sensitivity of the documents requested by the committee. “[T]his entire process takes considerable time to complete,” More said, according to Comer’s letter.

    “Treasury’s excused and delay tactics are unavailing given you have known about our requests since last year and previously produced relevant [Suspicious Activity Reports] to others,” Comer wrote.

    Rep. Comer invited the Treasury official to testify in front of the committee before March 10th.

    The House Oversight Committee has been specifically focused on two of Biden’s direct relatives: his son Hunter and brother James, both of whom were involved in overseas business deals in countries such as China, Turkey, and Ukraine. Comer is seeking to uncover the extent to which President Biden knew about and was involved in any of those deals.

    Biden has repeatedly denied having any knowledge or involvement in his family’s foreign business deals, however, some evidence discovered on Hunter’s laptop suggests otherwise.

    According to The Daily Wire, a voicemail the president left his son in 2018 showed that Biden knew something of his son’s dealings; he left a message for Hunter about a New York Times story on one of Hunter’s former business partners, Chinese businessman Ye Jianming.

    Arizona Rejects Biden’s Demand To Remove Shipping Container Border Wall

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Image via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is rejecting President Biden’s demand to remove shipping containers that are being used to block a portion of the state’s border with Mexico.

    On Wednesday, Gov. Ducey said, “Arizonans cannot — and will not — wait for federal bureaucrats to do their job and secure the border. We’re taking action now.”

    Governor Ducey’s refusal comes after Biden’s Department of Interior said in a letter last week that Arizona was violating federal law by placing the containers on federal land and on the land of Cocopah Indian Tribe’s West Reservation, according to The Daily Wire.

    reclamationlettertoduceyDownload

    “The unauthorized placement of those containers constitutes a violation of federal law and is a trespass against the United States,” the letter read. “That trespass is harming federal lands and resources and impeding Reclamation’s ability to perform its mission.”

    A spokesperson for Ducey responded to the letter stating the governor will not entertain any proposals that directly endanger Arizonians’ safety.

    “The suggestion by any federal bureaucracy, that we take action to make the border easier to cross, is completely unacceptable. Gov. Ducey takes the responsibility to protect Arizona very seriously — that’s why we put up these containers,” Ducey’s communications director, C.J. Karamargin, said in a call with the outlet. “What they’re suggesting, that we take them down and make Arizona less safe, is a nonstarter.”

    The shipping container border barrier was created after the Governor signed an August order that authorized the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to begin emergency construction to fill in a 1,000-foot-long gap in the border wall in the Yuma sector.

    “Arizona has had enough,” Ducey said. “We can’t wait any longer. The Biden administration’s lack of urgency on border security is a dereliction of duty. For the last two years, Arizona has made every attempt to work with Washington to address the crisis on our border. Time and time again we’ve stepped in to clean up their mess. Arizonans can’t wait any longer for the federal government to deliver on their delayed promises.”

    Arizona has experienced a massive influx of migrants since President Biden signed an executive order on his first day in office that stopped the construction of the border wall authorized by Trump. The nearly two-year crisis has caused multiple Arizona border towns to declare a state of emergency.

    Arkansas Governor Bans Woke Term During First Day on the Job

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    New Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is hitting the ground running.

    One of Gov. Sanders’s first moves was taking on the woke mob directly by signing an executive order banning the use of “Latinx” in government documents because it is “culturally insensitive” to the Latino community, according to The Daily Wire.

    “Ethnically insensitive and pejorative language has no place in official government documents or government employee titles,” Sanders’ executive order stated. “The government has a responsibility to respect its citizens and use ethnically appropriate language, particularly when referring to ethnic minorities.”

    The executive order noted that polling from the Pew Research Center has found that roughly only 2-3% of Latinos even use the word “Latinx” to describe themselves and that the Real Academia Española, a Madrid-based institution that serves as a guide for the Spanish language, has officially rejected the use of “x” as an alternative to “o” and “a” in Spanish.

    “All state offices, departments, and agencies, unless granted an exemption by the Governor, shall review official documents of their respective entities regarding the use of the term ‘Latinx,’ ‘latinx,’ ‘Latinxs,’ or ‘latinxs’ in official state documents,” the order said.

    Sanders, who made history by becoming the country’s youngest governor, is also taking a direct hands-on approach to the controversial Critical Race Theory.

    Sanders also signed an executive order Critical Race Theory, which the order described as “antithetical to the traditional American values of neutrality, equality, and fairness.”

    “It emphasizes skin color as a person’s primary characteristic, thereby resurrecting segregationist values, which America has fought so hard to reject,” the order said. “It is the policy of this administration that CRT, discrimination, and indoctrination have no place in Arkansas classrooms.”

    Sanders was the White House Press Secretary under former President Trump from 2017 to 2019. She is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who served from 1996 to 2007 and was the state’s lieutenant governor from 1993 to 1996.

    Sanders handily defeated Democrat Chris Jones and libertarian candidate Ricky Dale Harrington.

    Poll Shows New Trump Advantage In New Hampshire

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    More good news for Trump…

    A new poll conducted by St. Anselm College in New Hampshire indicates Biden’s poor debate performance is resonating with voters.

    According to the poll, Trump now holds a two-point lead (44%-42%) over Biden. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is mounting an independent bid for the presidency after initially running in the Democratic primary, earned the support of just 4% of voters.

    Neil Levesque, the director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm, declared that the poll shows “that New Hampshire is really a competitive state in the presidential election.”

    “Events like a presidential debate like we saw last week are pivot points in politics, and at this point, with the amount of change we’ve seen with the presidential contest, certainly the debate had an effect,” he added.

    Among voters who were aware of the debate, 54% said Trump won, while just 6% said Biden won and 39% said there was no winner. The poll showed that 81% of those who watched the debate said it won’t affect their vote in November, so the trend might have started before the end of last week.

    “I think people are very partisan,” Levesque said. “So, they’re in their camps and they say, ‘Well, I watched the debate, but it doesn’t affect how I’m going to vote.’ But certainly, events like a presidential debate like we saw last week are pivot points in politics, and at this point, with the amount of change we’ve seen with the presidential contest, certainly the debate had an effect.”

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