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    DOJ Settles With Ex-FBI ‘Lovebirds’ Caught In Anti-Trump Text Scandal

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1

    Former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page have settled their yearslong case with the Justice Department (DOJ).

    The former FBI agents alleged the DOJ committed privacy rights violations after the release of their text messages leveraged by former President Trump to challenge the Russia investigation during his presidency. 

    According to Fox News, a tentative agreement was filed Tuesday resolving Page’s 5-year-old lawsuit against the FBI for releasing text messages with Strzok — with whom she had an affair — that disparaged the former president. Strzok’s lawsuit seeking backpay and reinstatement remains unsettled.

    In 2019, Strzok argued in a court filing in Washington, D.C., federal district court that his politically charged anti-Trump messages were protected by the First Amendment even though he sent them on bureau-issued phones while playing leading roles in the probes into both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

    Strzok, once the FBI’s head of counterintelligence, said he was entitled to “develop a full factual record through discovery,” and that it would be premature to dismiss the case at this early stage. He went on to argue that the DOJ’s position would “leave thousands of career federal government employees without protections from discipline over the content of their political speech.”

    Page also filed suit against the FBI and DOJ alleging the government’s publication of her text messages with Strzok amounted to a breach of the Federal Privacy Act.

    Page’s complaint also sought reimbursement for “the cost of childcare during and transportation to multiple investigative reviews and appearances before Congress,” the “cost of paying a data-privacy service to protect her personal information” and attorney’s fees.

    In a later filing, according to CNN, Strzok’s lawyers wrote that the defendants “should not be heard to complain about the notoriety and putative damage to the FBI’s reputation from Strzok’s speech when it was their own illegal disclosures, magnified and distorted by the false attacks made by the President and his allies, that placed a spotlight on Strzok’s opinions.”

    The two agents were connected to the FBI’s initial counterintelligence investigation into potential Russian meddling collusion with Trump’s 2016 campaign associates and later served on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

    Fox News noted that in 2020, the spotlight was on the lovers’ scandal during a live performance titled “FBI Lovebirds: UnderCovers” at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), which was based on the anti-Trump text messages shared between the former agents. Trump has called the couple the “FBI lovebirds” during his rallies. 

    Charlamagne Tha God Admits To Suffering From ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Radio host Charlamagne tha God said Tuesday that he suffers from “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a popular term related to disliking former President Donald Trump to a nearly excessive degree.

    “Let the record show, I totally agree with Robert De Niro,” Charlamagne said on Fox News’s Gutfeld! “I am one of those people that suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome. I think he is a threat to democracy. I think that he led an attempted coup of this country, you know. He said he wanted to suspend the Constitution to overthrow the results of an election. At the least, that’s just not a patriotic thing to say.”

    Charlamagne’s comment was referring to a Truth Social post that Trump made in December 2022 in which the former president reiterated his claim that the 2020 presidential election results were illegitimate and that this calls for the termination of all rules, “even those found in the Constitution.” Trump has denied calling for terminating the Constitution, calling it “more DISINFORMATION & LIES.” 

    Charlamagne also said he believes voters “deserve better from both parties.” The statement comes as the 2024 presidential election will likely end up being a rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden.

    Despite his vocal opposition to Trump the rapper has rejected pressure to endorse Biden, saying he wanted to focus on problems facing the country rather than on a specific candidate.

    Former Trump Official Wins Texas Primary Runoff

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2

    Trump knows winners…

    On Tuesday, former Trump official Katrina Pierson won her primary fight and will now represent a deep-red Texas House district.

    Republican Katrina Pierson, who served as the spokesperson for former President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, defeated incumbent state Rep. Justin Holland (R) in Tuesday’s primary runoff for Texas’ 33rd House District, according to Fox News. Pierson is the presumptive winner of November’s general election since no Democrat candidate is standing in the race.

    Holland, who was first elected in 2016, opposed key legislation supported by Abbott that would have paved the way for Texas parents to send their children to private or religious affiliated schools using public funding.

    Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott endorsed Pierson in the race to take down Holland.

    Holland has also faced scrutiny for a number of other positions he’s taken, including supporting legislation last year that would have raised the age to purchase “assault” style rifles from 18 to 21, and voting in favor of impeaching Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

    Republicans currently hold 86 of the 150 seats in the Texas state House, a majority of 11.

    Judge Rules On Classified Documents Gag Order Request

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request for a gag order against former President Donald Trump in the classified documents case has been rejected.

    On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued an an order that found Smith’s prosecutors failed to properly confer with Trump’s lawyers before filing the motion which violated court rules. Cannon said prosecutors did not give Trump’s team “sufficient time” to review their motion, which was filed Friday evening on Memorial Day weekend.

    “Because the filing of the Special Counsel’s motion did not adhere to these basic requirements, it is due to be denied without prejudice,” the judge said. 

    On Friday evening, Smith’s team reportedly filed a motion to Cannon, who is presiding over the classified documents case, requesting that she prohibit Trump from making statements that “pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents participating in the investigation and prosecution of this case.”

    Trump’s attorneys responded Tuesday calling Smith’s request “an extraordinary, unprecedented and unconstitutional censorship application” that “unjustly targets President Trump’s campaign speech while he is the leading candidate for the presidency.” 

    In the filing, Trump’s attorneys asked the Florida federal judge to sanction and fine prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith’s office.

    Trump-ResponseDownload

    Trump is facing federal charges for allegedly keeping classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after he left the White House in 2021, and then obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them. FBI agents seized 33 boxes of documents in the raid.

    Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.

    Biden’s Poor Re-election Performance Sends Dems Into ‘Freakout’

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Democrats are reeling…

    According to a new Politico report citing multiple prominent Democrat strategists, advisers, and donors the Biden campaign is on the brink of a meltdown. The report described Democrats close to Joe Biden as being in “freakout” mode five months before Election Day, experiencing “a pervasive sense of fear,” where “anxiety has morphed into palpable trepidation”

    “You don’t want to be that guy who is on the record saying we’re doomed, or the campaign’s bad or Biden’s making mistakes. Nobody wants to be that guy,” said a Democratic operative in close touch with the White House and granted anonymity to speak freely.

    But Biden’s stubbornly poor polling and the stakes of the election “are creating the freakout,” he said.

    Politico noted that Trump’s April fundraising haul is also a major concern for Biden’s inner circle. April marked the first month Trump out-raised the President as Biden continues to struggle in the polls.

    One adviser to major Democratic Party donors provided a running list that has been shared with funders of nearly two dozen reasons why Biden could lose, ranging from immigration and high inflation to the president’s age, the unpopularity of Vice President Kamala Harris and the presence of third-party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    The adviser added, “The list of why we ‘could’ win is so small I don’t even need to keep the list on my phone.”

    However, despite concerns echoing among many Democrats, Biden spokesperson Kevin Munoz offered a more optimistic tone for the Biden campaign telling Politico that “Trump’s photo-ops and PR stunts may get under the skin of some very serious D.C. people as compelling campaigning, but they will do nothing to win over the voters that will decide this election.” He also cited the hot-button issue of abortion rights as a major determining factor for voters.

    Biden To Deliver Public Remarks After Trump Hush-Money Verdict

    By
    admin
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    4
    President Joe Biden delivers remarks in National Statuary Hall on the one-year anniversary of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Thursday, January 6, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith)

    So far, President Joe Biden has stayed quiet during Donald Trump’s hush money trial, but that might not last long.

    According to Politico, Biden plans to address the nation after the verdict is announced, no matter the outcome:

    Biden intends to initially address the verdict in a White House setting — not a campaign one — to show his statement isn’t political, according to the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

    If the jury convicts Trump, Biden’s team will then argue that the result shows Trump is ill-suited for office and that it demonstrates the extremes to which the former president would go to win again. The campaign’s social media team is considering leveraging the line of attack further, with discussions underway about referring to the ex-president online as “Convicted Felon Donald Trump.”

    His team is also preparing for a barrage of Republican and Trump attacks if the former president’s acquitted or if there’s a hung jury.

    Closing arguments are set for Tuesday and the jury could reach its decision as early as next week. And Biden will speak at some point after that — a definitive decision on timing and setting has not yet been made — no matter the outcome, whether it be a conviction, acquittal or hung jury. The message will be different for specific rulings, but the fundamental point will remain the same: That America’s legal system worked and that the process should be respected.

    The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush-money scheme to prevent porn star Stormy Daniels from speaking out about her alleged extramarital affair before the 2016 presidential election.

    Before Trump, no sitting or former president ever faced criminal charges.

    Article Published With The Permission of American Liberty News.

    Fox News Reporter Dismantles Trump Assassination Hoax

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    5
    Gage Skidmore Flickr

    Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich dumped cold water on former President Trump’s recent claims Joe Biden sought to assassinate the Republican during the unprecedented raid of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

    The basis for the claim is standard language in the raid’s operation order that said agents “may use deadly force only when necessary, that is, when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”

    Trump is now reportedly fundraising on the debunked scenario.

    On Wednesday night, Heinrich broke the news that the same guidance on deadly force that appeared in the Trump operations order was also in the orders for the raids on President Biden’s homes:

    NEWS: FBI SEARCHES AT PRESIDENT BIDEN’S HOMES ALSO INCLUDED DEADLY FORCE POLICY (which is standard)

    A person familiar with the Hur investigation confirms that the standard Department of Justice policy statement regarding the use of deadly force was also included in the operations order for the searches at President Biden’s residences in Delaware.

    CONTEXT: yesterday, former President Trump suggested that the Biden administration wanted to kill him during a search of his Mar-a-Lago estate. A fundraising email read, “Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out”.

    The FBI said standard protocol was followed, no additional steps were taken and there was no departure from the norm.
    This news about the deadly force policy also being in place for the FBI searches at Biden’s homes underscores that point.

    Trump Motions To Dismiss Classified Docs Case

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Marine One lifts-off after returning President Donald J. Trump to Mar-a-Lago Friday, March 29, 2019, following his visit to the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike near Canal Point, Fla., that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. The visit was part of an infrastructure inspection of the dike, which is part of the Kissimmee-Okeechobee Everglades system, and reduces impacts of flooding for areas of south Florida. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian) [Photo Credit: The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons]

    On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump’s legal team filed a motion to dismiss the classified documents case.

    Trump’s lawyers asserted that prosecutors in the classified documents case violated his constitutional rights on several occasions, including the “unconstitutional” raid on Mar-a-Lago.

    In their filing on the raid, Trump’s attorneys argued the warrant, which they said was “executed in an egregious fashion and in bad faith,” lacked “the particularity required by the Fourth Amendment.”

    The warrant did not establish a basis for “rummaging through the majority” of the rooms at Mar-a-Lago, including “the private bedrooms of the First Lady and President Trump’s youngest son,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. They asked that evidence gathered from the raid, along with through a “subsequent unlawful violation of President Trump’s attorney-client privilege,” be suppressed.

    “What was unthinkable with respect to President Clinton’s recordings, and deemed unwarranted with respect to Hillary Clinton’s destruction of evidence, was determined to be appropriate by the Biden Administration for President Biden’s chief political rival,” his attorneys wrote. “Personally authorized by Attorney General Garland, and supported over FBI objections by DOJ leadership who did not ‘give a damn about the optics’ of these unprecedented steps, the raid of Mar-a-Lago was unconstitutional.”

    In the other motion to dismiss, Trump’s attorneys argued that “NARA, the Biden Administration, and DOJ ‘collude[d] in bad faith’ to deprive President Trump of his constitutional rights by using civil authorities to collect evidence for use in a criminal prosecution.”

    “Politically biased NARA officials violated the agency’s regulations, and broke custom and practice dating back to the enactment of the [Presidential Records Act], by colluding with the Biden Administration to initiate a criminal investigation of President Trump rather than simply collecting the records that President Trump had designated as Presidential Record,” they wrote.

    “As a result of this misconduct, under the guise of NARA’s civil and administrative authorities, the prosecution team collected evidence—including the 15 Boxes and statements by President Trump’s PRA representatives—that they used to further the criminal investigation in an unfairly prejudicial and unlawful fashion,” Trump’s attorneys continued.

    The government wrote in response to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago filing that it “adopted a measured, graduated approach” since the start of the case. Prosecutors also argued that Trump’s “bad-faith collusion” narrative is “baseless.”

    Giuliani Enters Plea In Arizona Election Interference Case

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    On Tuesday, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and others pleaded not guilty to nine charges he is facing in Arizona in relation to a case focused on efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

    The Hill has more:

    Giuliani entered his not guilty plea remotely at an arraignment held in a courtroom in Phoenix. Numerous other individuals charged in the case, including former Arizona GOP Chair Kelly Ward, also entered not guilty pleas at their arraignments on Tuesday.

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

    Report: Trump Opts Not To Testify In Hush Money Trial

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Gavel via Wikimedia Commons Image

    Former President Donald Trump will not take the stand after all in the weekslong criminal hush money trial.

    “We’ll be resting pretty quickly — resting meaning resting the case. I won’t be resting,” Trump said outside the courtroom Tuesday morning. “I don’t rest. I’d like to rest sometimes, but I don’t get to rest.”

    The decision to keep Trump off the stand comes after weeks of uncertainty. The former president hinted to reporters he could testify, a risky move legal experts warmed Trump against. However, Trump would often flip-flop on the matter and at other times ignoring persistent questions on the issue. 

    Last week, Trump’s own attorneys signaled they were unsure whether their client would take the stand, just days before the Manhattan district attorney’s office was expected to rest its case-in-chief.  

    “That’s another decision that we need to think through,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche told the judge on Thursday.  

    The former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment Cohen made to porn actress Stormy Daniels in the lead-up to the 2016 election to stay quiet about her alleged affair with Trump, which he denies.  

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

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