Tuesday, April 4, 2023
A Spring of Leaks
Judge Aileen Cannon knew the Justice Department’s recent history of bad behavior related to all things Donald Trump would repeat itself. How right she was.
Judge Aileen Cannon was right.
In her controversial order authorizing the appointment of a neutral third-party to review the classification status of documents seized during the FBI’s pillage of Mar-A-Lago last summer, Cannon cited as a main concern the Justice Department’s chronic habit of leaking to the news media. Leaks hinting at what FBI investigators allegedly found, including perhaps nuclear secrets, were reported by reliable media apparatchiks just a few days after the FBI’s unprecedented raid of a former president’s home.
Clearly aware that federal prosecutors already were collaborating with the media to spin the raid as legitimate amid a public outcry, Cannon granted Trump’s request for a special master to “ensur[e] the integrity of an orderly process amidst swirling allegations of bias and media leaks,” she wrote in her September 5 ruling. A proper investigation, she continued, “does not demand unquestioning trust in the determinations of the Department of Justice.”
Cannon, a Trump-appointed district court judge in Florida, at one point confronted prosecutors about the illicit leaks. “Government’s counsel stated that he had no knowledge of any leaks stemming from his team but candidly acknowledged the unfortunate existence of leaks to the press.”
A pile-on ensued against Cannon; the Justice Department appealed her order and prevailed in the appellate court. But Cannon foresaw exactly what has unfolded in the press over the past seven months. And as Trump prepares to fight his very first indictment handed down by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, leaks are springing up all over the corporate media to bolster the appearance of Trump’s criminality.
A lengthy piece in the Washington Post over the weekend gave a detailed account of the obstruction side of the classified documents investigation now led by Jack Smith, the special prosecutor appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland last year to give the false impression of investigative impartiality. If the Post’s reporting is accurate, the obstruction inquiry seems as weak as the original case; recall of the 13,000 items of evidence stolen by FBI agents during the lengthy raid, the government later claimed only about 100 papers contained classified markings.
“The additional evidence comes as investigators have used emails and text messages from a former Trump aide to help understand key moments last year, said the people, who like others interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation,” Post reporters Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, and Perry Stein wrote.
The reporters specifically named Molly Michael, a former White House assistant who followed Trump to Florida after his term ended, as the aide whose communications are under scrutiny. Investigators also have “witness statements, security camera footage, and other documentary evidence” that purportedly proves Trump was involved in inspecting boxes of materials after receiving a subpoena last May to produce more classified records, the Post further disclosed.
It is highly unlikely those specifics were leaked to the Post by Team Trump—particularly since the carefully timed leak worked in the government’s favor.
The usual suspects quickly surmised that this really must be the end for Trump. Disgraced former FBI agent Peter Strzok concluded on Twitter that Trump’s actions based on the Post report “Feels obstruction-y.” Disgraced former Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann insisted the obstruction case “could be a rock crusher game over,” perhaps the thousandth time Weissmann made such an unrealized prediction. (Weissmann, by the way, was an outspoken critic of...
The IRS Went Down to Georgia to Steal an Election
The Democrats were in a bind, falling behind and looking to make a steal.
An estimated 3.5 million people voted in the Georgia Senate runoff election. State Voices, a leftist nonprofit, claimed that it had made 3 million voter contacts for the runoff.
ProGeorgia, the local partner for State Voices, bragged of having conducted “31,000 face-to-face conversations, 10 million texts, and 133,000 phone conversations” and of registering “tens of thousands for the midterm election” so that “voters of color turned out in early voting at higher levels than their white counterparts”. Such an outcome was inherently partisan and could and only did benefit one particular party: the Democrats.
While such claims are commonplace among party activists, State Voices and Pro-Georgia are both 501(c)(3) nonprofits. That means that they’re funded by tax-deductible contributions and are not supposed to be involved in elections. But they’re also typical of a massive network of political nonprofits which not only advocate for the Left but help Democrats win races.
The Black Lives Matter Fund has a 501(c)(4) that focuses on recruiting voters and a 501(c)(3) which engages in “capacity building assistance for community based organization” which can accept tax-deductible contributions. This is likely where ProGeorgia partnered with BVM.
“Georgia voters practically handed victories to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris with a historic election outcome,” BVM head LaTosha Brown boasted. “Georgia owes tremendous gratitude to its Black voters, who turned out and voted in record numbers.”
BVM benefited from a $100 million voter outreach and engagement war chest from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC is also a 501(c)(3), but so are many of the Democrat organizations which are swinging elections using tax-deductible funds to bring in voters.
State Voices, through its various partners, claims similarly massive results across the country with “over 140 million voter contacts”, “1.9 million calls, 34.5 million texts”, “90 million emails” and 1 million door knocks. Parker Thayer at the Capital Research Center pointed out that these numbers trumped the 50 million voter contacts that the RNC had described as a new record.
While State Voices claims to be nonpartisan to retain its 501(c)(3) status, its partners are universally leftist groups including extremely partisan organizations like MoveOn and Color of Change. The IRS has ignored the close integration between C3s and C4s, whether it’s BVM or the ACLU balancing dual C3 and C4 arms or C3s like State Voices and ProGeorgia working closely on political goals with C4s. Either way the distinction between groups that are allowed to take in tax-deductible donations and those that are not has become a minor technicality.
And it could not have happened without the complicity of the IRS.
State Voices recently released a survey in three states on what people think “are problems and messages they may be most responsive to on issues” while emphasizing that it “encourages affiliates and partners to apply the guidance found in this research towards year round 501(c)(3) civic engagement activity” for “relevant legislative action and civic education work” but cautions about applying it to “voter registration or nonpartisan voter engagement activity without consulting counsel.” The legal firewall between polling voters about their views on abortion and then using it for “civic education”, but not “nonpartisan voter engagement”, or partisan voting engagement is equally thin.
Ever since the days of the NAACP, identity politics has been a convenient hook for setting up voter engagement organizations that appeal to particular demographics on particular issues. Nonprofits claim to be conducting “civic education” when they engage voters on the pet causes of the Democrats. But what’s the line between “civic education”, “nonpartisan voter engagement” and campaign activities? The IRS has made those lines meaningless.
And as a result, billions of dollars in tax-deductible funds have been used to finance Democrat campaign activities. This money passes through a series of ‘Russian nesting doll’ organizations as money from leftist megadonors like George Soros and foundations like the Ford Foundation is fed through smaller, but still huge middlemen like...
The 90 Miles Mystery Video: Nyctophilia Edition #1346
Before You Click On The "Read More" Link,
Please Only Do So If You Are Over 21 Years Old.
If You are Easily Upset, Triggered Or Offended, This Is Not The Place For You.
Please Leave Silently Into The Night......
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #2041
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
Monday, April 3, 2023
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