Gotcha Out of Context
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FOGHORN KENNEDY
GRASSLEY?
// TESTIMONY OPPOS RES?
BONDI BIGTIME 1025 KICKASS HOFFMAN
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AN 1 26
President Donald Trump is deploying old-school tactics against some of his enemies: using FBI files to target them.
*The New York Times* reported Sunday morning that FBI Director Kash Patel is helping Trump target his foes using the information it has collected.
Now, the report said, "the bureau has added payback to its portfolio."
While Trump spent years alleging the “weaponization” of law enforcement against political foes, the new administration is “using federal law enforcement to carry out a partisan opposition research operation.”
The report said that Patel has been poring over files, trying to uncover documents that can “expose and discredit federal law enforcement officials who investigated Mr. Trump and his allies.”
The Times noted that it is currently unknown how “wide-ranging” Patel’s coordination with political appointees and Republican allies has been. The official overseeing the operation was Patel’s deputy, Dan Bongino, who recently left the FBI after a tumultuous year in the post. Internally, they referred to Bongino’s unit as the “director’s advisory team.”
Most of the focus has been on the investigation into the 2020 efforts to overturn the election and stage an attack on the U.S. Capitol. Former special counsel Jack Smith spoke to the House late last year about the findings of the probe and said he had "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" that what Trump did was unlawful.
During Trump’s last administration, the IRS was used to go after former FBI Director James Comey and his deputy, Andrew McCabe.
While President Joe Biden’s administration refused to turn over documents tied to the ongoing investigation, Patel is now claiming that Smith broke the law. Speaking to the House, Smith said that all of the information he gathered was approved by a federal judge, which will make it difficult to argue that he went rogue or violated the law with his probes.
J. Edgar Hoover ran his own operations while overseeing the FBI. Recently released information detailed the way in which the FBI was surveilling civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences detailed, the counterintelligence campaign against MLK involved "illegal wiretaps on his phone and bugging hotel rooms when he traveled."
The FBI also spread misinformation about King being an "immoral communist."
The Times reported that the FBI now claims it is the “most transparent in history,” even as it refuses to release the legally required files on the investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The bureau has strategically released batches of anti-Smith material right before he testified behind closed doors.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who once cast himself as a champion of whistleblowers, is now helping funnel FBI leaks through his office. An unnamed FBI whistleblower, for example, alleged that one member of Jack Smith’s team was not “impartial.”
That agent, who no longer works at the FBI, is Walter Giardina, whom Trump has personally attacked for supposedly having “animosity” toward him. “Mr. Giardina vehemently denied those allegations in a meeting with bureau officials last July, two days after the funeral of his wife, who died of adrenal cancer at 49,” the report continued.
Lawyers representing FBI agents who have been fired under the Trump administration’s weaponization effort are calling out the double standard of using the government to attack someone for their politics while accusing others of doing the same. Those making the accusations are granted anonymity, allowing them to hide behind their own partisan protectors.
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AN 11 25
CNN anchor Pamela Brown had a difficult time keeping Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on track and answering questions on a Thursday interview with “The Situation Room.”
One point of contention was whether the Trump administration could indeed move federal money to fund SNAP food for low-income and impoverished families for a year, as ordered by a Rhode Island judge.
“I’m just reading through the court filings, the judge also said … that there was money available in another funding pots like the one that was used for $750 million transferred to WIC,” Brown told Rollins. “… This judge said you didn't do that. You didn't use that. You could have to fully fund SNAP, and you fought it all the way to the Supreme Court.”
“Okay, let's talk about that,” said Rollins. “That judge in Rhode Island is the largest Democrat donor—”
Brown attempted to pull her back to the question but Rollins insisted “Well, it's important.”
“This was a radical left judge who decided that we could take money — listen, there was a ‘No Kings’ rally, but then, all of a sudden, a radical left judge in Rhode Island, of all places, says, ‘oh no, but please make yourself king and find that money out of the clear blue sky and redirect it into the SNAP program.'"
“But there was $23 billion in Section 32 for the child nutrition program. And so this judge says that $4 billion could have been moved from that Section 32 fund to fully fund SNAP. Is that accurate facts?”
“No, that is not facts,” said Rollins. “That money is congressionally authorized. If we had used that money, it would have taken food out of the mouths of school children that came from an entirely different pot of money, non-congressionally authorized.”
“I just want to go back on this because in reading through the court cases ... the government did admit to the judge, and this was, I believe, the judge in Boston, that, yes, it could have dipped into this child nutrition fund that was an available option. This fund, again, had $23 billion in it, right? And even if you took out $4 billion to fully fund SNAP, that pot of money would still feed children through next year," Brown explained.
“Are we serious right now?” demanded Rollins. “Are we really talking about moving billions of dollars from one pot to another to feed children through next year, when the Democrats 15 different times voted not to?”
“I understand you want to keep it on Democrats, but what about the children that are hungry now because they didn't get the full SNAP?” Brown asked.
“Well, they should understand that the Democrats are the ones that are keeping — they even admitted it. ‘This is our greatest leverage point. If planes fall out of the sky, that may be what it takes.’ It was one thing after another, Pamela … I mean, for you to try to put this back on ‘this court said that and this left-leaning judge said that, and you guys, you guys should move this.’ It's completely a false narrative.”
“That's why I'm asking you,” said Brown. “These are just the facts. These are in court cases. This is what the USDA has previously said from the 2019 shutdown.”
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DDSB
Biden 'doubling down' in the face of 'absurdity' with latest climate push, expert says
Fox Business
Climate Depot executive editor Marc Morano reacts to comments from a Senate hearing on climate concerns and sounds off on the Biden ...
nyt ben keys
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an 12 24
Retired Major General Randy Manner pushed back on Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) after he complained about President-elect Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters being called fascists.
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Trump's mass deportation plans on Tuesday, Kennedy accused Manner of wanting "open borders."
"It makes you angry that most Americans don't believe in open borders, doesn't it?" the senator asked.
"Not in the slightest, sir," Manner replied.
Kennedy took issue with a statement Manner made to CNN on Oct. 14.
"President Trump is not like any sane leader. I'm very proud of General Milley for saying that President Trump is a total fascist," Kennedy recalled Manner saying. "The challenge is because most MAGA Republicans, they don't understand what fascism is. The reality is that they are, in fact, fascists themselves."
"Did I read that accurately?" the senator pressed.
"Senator, I am happy to discuss my personal perspectives with you separately at any time," the general said. "That's not the purpose of the hearing today."
"You think you're smarter than the American people, don't you?" Kennedy wondered.
"Absolutely not, senator," Manner stated. "I am here to discuss the use of the military as part of this mass deportation."
ALSO READ:Agenda 47: Alarm sounded about Trump’s dystopian plans for his second term
"You think you're more virtuous than the American people, don't you, general?" Kennedy remarked.
"Senator, I am insulted by your comment," Manner insisted. "Senator, for 35 years, I served my country with absolute honor and distinction, and I will continue to do so."
Watch the video below from the Senate Judiciary Committee.
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