MEMOS: BIDEN WHITE HOUSE TRIGGERED RAID ON MAR-A-LAGO… JOHN SOLOMON: Biden White House facilitated DOJ’s criminal probe against Trump, scuttled privilege claims: memos
Long before it professed no prior knowledge of the raid on Donald Trump’s estate, the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to instigate the criminal probe into alleged mishandling of documents, allowing the FBI to review evidence retrieved from Mar-a-Lago this spring and eliminating the 45th president’s claims to executive privilege, according to contemporaneous government documents reviewed by Just the News.
The memos show then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su was engaged in conversations with the FBI, DOJ and National Archives as early as April, shortly after 15 boxes of classified and other materials were voluntarily returned to the federal historical agency from Trump’s Florida home.
By May, Su conveyed to the Archives that President Joe Biden would not object to waiving his predecessor’s claims to executive privilege, a decision that opened the door for DOJ to get a grand jury to issue a subpoena compelling Trump to turn over any remaining materials he possessed from his presidency.
NY TIMES CASTS RAID AS JUSTIFIED… NYT: Trump Had More Than 300 Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago
The initial batch of documents retrieved by the National Archives from former President Donald J. Trump in January included more than 150 marked as classified, a number that ignited intense concern at the Justice Department and helped trigger the criminal investigation that led F.B.I. agents to swoop into Mar-a-Lago this month seeking to recover more, multiple people briefed on the matter said.
In total, the government has recovered more than 300 documents with classified markings from Mr. Trump since he left office, the people said: that first batch of documents returned in January, another set provided by Mr. Trump’s aides to the Justice Department in June and the material seized by the F.B.I. in the search this month.
The previously unreported volume of the sensitive material found in the former president’s possession in January helps explain why the Justice Department moved so urgently to hunt down any further classified materials he might have.
TRUMP CHALLENGES FBI BEHAVIOR IN COURT… Trump Files Motion Asking For Appointment Of ‘Special Master’ In Wake Of FBI Raid
Former President Donald Trump filed a motion on Monday asking for a “special master” to be appointed to independently oversee the review of various materials taken from his Mar-a-Lago home.
Trump’s team asked the federal judge to suspend the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) search of “seized materials” until the “special master” is appointed in the filing. A “special master” is described by Cornell Law as an individual “appointed by a court to carry out some sort of action on its behalf.” The court filing is the first issued by the former president since the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. […]
“President Trump, like all citizens, is protected by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Property seized in violation of his constitutional rights must be returned forthwith,” the filing reads. “Law enforcement is a shield that protects Americans. It cannot be used as a weapon for political purposes. Therefore, we seek judicial assistance in the aftermath of an unprecedented and unnecessary raid on President Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida.”
“Short of returning the seized items to Movant, only a neutral review by a Special Master can protect the ‘great public interest’ in preserving ‘the confidentiality of conversations that take place in the President’s performance of his official duties’ because such confidentiality is necessary to protect ‘the effectiveness of the executive decision-making process,’” the filing continues.
Judge Calls Trump Raid ‘Unprecedented,’ Formally Rejects DOJ Plea To Keep Things Under Wraps
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart rejected the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) argument Monday to keep the Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit under wraps, saying the government has the burden of proof to show why parts of the affidavit must be sealed.
The FBI raided the Florida home of Former President Donald Trump on Aug. 8, sparking demands that the DOJ justify the unprecedented search.
Reinhart wrote the government can keep the search warrant affidavit, which would shed light on the reasoning behind the warrant, sealed so long as “there is a compelling governmental interest and the denial of access is ‘narrowly tailored to serve that interest.’”
[…]“unsealing the Affidavit would promote public understanding of historically significant events. This factor weighs in favor of disclosure.”
AS PRESIDENT, BIDEN HAS ALREADY MADE 49 TRIPS TO DELAWARE… 150 DAYS… ‘QUARTER OF HIS PRESIDENCY’… CNN: Biden’s summer vacation allows time for White House renovations
All presidents find living and working in the 222-year-old White House comes with challenges. Biden has been open about finding life in the White House restrictive and has spent more than a quarter of his presidency in Delaware, where he maintains two homes. […]
Biden has demonstrated a preference for leaving Washington on weekends, decamping to his homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. His plans often remain in flux until the last minute.
As of this week, he’d made 49 trips and spent all or part of 150 days of his presidency in Delaware, according to Mark Knoller, a former White House correspondent for CBS News who documents presidential travel.
At the same point in his presidency, Trump had spent 132 days either at his South Florida estate or New Jersey golf club. Obama had spent 38 days on vacation in Hawaii or Martha’s Vineyard. And George W. Bush had spent 100 days at his Texas ranch, making a total of 14 separate visits.
‘HALF DEAD’ … ‘SENILE’ … UGLY NY PRIMARY ENDS TODAY… CNN: Redistricting pitted Maloney and Nadler against each other. Now, the hostile NY primary will reach its conclusion
In Washington, Democratic Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerry Nadler are two powerful committee chairs: Oversight and Judiciary. Back home in New York, they’re two politicians in their mid-70s trying to avoid much attention as they try not to be the one forced to leave Congress. […]
Maloney has told people privately that Nadler is “half dead” and insinuated he won’t be healthy enough to finish another term if he wins, and people associated with her campaign have suggested that Nadler secretly briefly lost consciousness at a campaign stop last week. (His campaign has said that rather than losing consciousness, he tripped on a subway grate.)
She’s also urged voters to read a New York Post editorial that called Nadler “senile” and questioned his grip on reality. A Maloney spokesperson declined comment about her various remarks other than to argue she was just quoting the Post editorial rather than using the words herself. […]
[Nadler]’s developed some trouble walking over the years due to arthritis, and he’s been spotted appearing to fall asleep. Commentators noted his lethargic performance at one of the candidate debates. […]
“It’s obviously not true that I’m half dead, it’s obviously not true that I’m senile,” Nadler told CNN in a phone interview. “But I’m not going to comment on other campaigns. Let them flail away.”
ANOTHER DAILY CALLER EXCLUSIVE: Top Jerry Nadler Staffer Has Been ‘Violating’ Federal Law For Years, Complaint Alleges
A top staffer for Democratic New York Rep. Jerry Nadler has been violating federal law by providing legal services to the congressman’s campaign and leadership PAC, a watchdog alleged in an ethics complaint Monday obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Robert Gottheim is the district director for Nadler’s office and between 2019 and 2021 he received hundreds of thousands in pay to qualify as a “senior staffer.” However, the fact that Gottheim has also been paid for legal services by Nadler’s campaign and PAC is illegal since senior staff are barred from being paid through a role involving a “fiduciary relationship, including the practice of law,” Americans for Public Trust, a watchdog group, alleged in a complaint to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE).
“House ethics rules make this simple prohibition abundantly clear: senior staffers cannot be paid to be campaign attorneys,” Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, told the DCNF. “But Nadler’s team has done exactly that.”
FLORIDA DEMS PICK THEIR SACRIFICE… HILL: Can Florida Democrats take down DeSantis?
The party’s voters on Tuesday are set to choose between Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), a former Republican governor who’s making his second attempt at reclaiming his old office, and state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the lone statewide elected Democrat, in the primary to challenge DeSantis this fall.
But while few Republicans ignite the same kind of outrage among Democrats as DeSantis does, it’s unclear whether the party has the candidates — or the firepower — to oust a governor whose political rise among conservatives appears, at times, unstoppable.
FAUCI ANNOUNCES PLANS TO RELINQUISH POWER… Fauci Stepping Down As Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor, NIAID Director
Dr. Anthony Fauci announced Monday that he plans to step down from various government roles in December.
Fauci has made comments about leaving his posts in recent months, telling Politico in July that he planned to retire by the end of President Joe Biden’s term. The 81-year-old made the speculation official on Monday, issuing a press release noting his plans to step down from his current roles as Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Chief of the NIAID Laboratory of Immunoregulation and Biden’s Chief Medical Advisor.
“I will be leaving these positions in December of this year to pursue the next chapter of my career,” Fauci said in a press release.
Fauci noted that he is “not retiring” in December, but rather plans “to pursue the next phase of my career.” He did not provide specific plans regarding his future, but noted he will “continue to put my full effort, passion and commitment into my current responsibilities” until his departure.
‘THIS IS A POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT’ … ‘Sociopathic Liar And Political Hack’: America Reacts To Fauci’s Retirement Announcement
“This is a positive development. Especially for NIAID and the NIH. But also for the country,” Dr. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, told the Daily Caller. “The resignation of the serially malfeasant, serially perjurious, NIAID Director will lift a burden from, and remove threat to, operations of NIAID and the NIH. In addition, it will remove the official who has done more than any other over two decades to enable, expand, and excuse high-risk gain-of-function research and to oppose and obstruct strengthened federal oversight of biosafety, biosecurity, and biorisk management.”
Ebright previously accused Fauci, who has directed the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for nearly 40 years, of lying when he denied funding gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
“Dr. Fauci’s retirement after 38 years as director of the NIAID leaves behind a mixed legacy. Under his leadership, the agency has supported the work of many brilliant scientists who have made discoveries that directly benefit the lives of countless patients,” said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor of medicine. “At the same time, Dr. Fauci’s leadership during the COVID pandemic has been divisive, rigid, and flawed.”
“His advice on lockdowns, school closures, and other restrictions, in particular, ignored the tremendous harm done to children and other vulnerable people by the policies themselves while failing to protect the elderly from COVID,” Dr. Bhattacharya continued. “He deployed his allies in the press to destroy the reputations of scientists who disagreed with his pandemic management, rather than seeking good faith discussions as all scientists should.”
IN MADDOW INTERVIEW, FAUCI GOES ALL-IN ON DEFENDING COVID LAW… CRITICS ARE ‘CONSPIRACY THEORISTS’ WHO CARE MORE ABOUT FREEDOM THAN HUMAN LIVES… TOM ELLIOTT: Fauci: My critics believe “conspiracy theories” & are “pushing back on sound public health measures, making it look like trying to save lives is encroaching on people’s freedom. That’s a big difference from the AIDS activists, who had a good foundation for their objections” (VIDEO)
DAVID DORN’S WIDOW RIPS SOROS & HARRIS AS ‘SUPERVILLAINS’ … FOX: My husband Capt. David Dorn was murdered in 2020 riots. His killer had help dividing America.
Last month, the Black Lives Matter rioter who murdered my husband over two years ago was finally convicted in court. My husband was retired St. Louis Police Captain David Dorn. He was Black. His life mattered. […]
David became a cop because when he was a little boy he wanted to be a superhero. And he was a superhero. But if real life superheroes exist, so do supervillains. Those supervillains are people like the man who killed my husband. They are people like billionaire George Soros, who use their power and influence to promote extremist politics and fan the flames of division. They are people like Vice President Kamala Harris, who raised money for the rioters’ bail funds, and the CEOs of prominent companies who blindly gave their support and money to this. If a foreign organization were tied to nationwide rioting in the U.S., we’d probably call it a terrorist organization.
David didn’t agree with or support Black Lives Matter. He never understood Black Lives Matter, because it never actually did anything to help Black lives. The same year David was killed, over a dozen children were shot in St. Louis, and never once did Black Lives Matter show up. Their lives mattered. Fifty-five businesses were looted or destroyed the night David was murdered, many of them Black-owned. Their livelihoods mattered. My husband was a Black man who selflessly served his community for over 40 years. His life mattered.
AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS TRIES TO HIDE SUPPORT FOR CHILD GENITAL MUTILATION… Major Medical Org Distances Itself From Child Sex Change Treatments
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published a letter in The Wall Street Journal Sunday disputing claims that it had promoted cross-sex medical interventions for children who identify as transgender following a wave of public blowback.
The letter, written by AAP President Moira Szilagyi, claimed the “gender-affirming” approach the organization has promoted doesn’t actually push minors toward surgeries or other medical treatments and suggested the model actually discourages it. But the AAP endorsed the gender-affirming approach in a 2018 paper which promoted the integration of medical and mental health services for transgender youths and referred to any efforts to dissuade children from identifying as transgender as “conversion therapy,” noting efforts to make it illegal in various states.
“Gender-affirming care” is often used as a euphemism for sex changes, and can include treatments ranging from social transition (using a new name and preferred pronouns to reflect one’s gender identity) to biomedical interventions to help someone present as the opposite sex.
“Gender-affirming care can be lifesaving. It doesn’t push medical treatments or surgery; for the vast majority of children, it recommends the opposite,” Szilagyi wrote. “This care is nonjudgmental, includes families and allows questions and concerns to be raised in a supportive environment. This is what it means to ‘affirm’ a child or teen; it means destigmatizing gender variance and promoting a child’s self-worth.”
Szilagyi claimed the AAP used an evidence-based approach and condemned state-level legislation restricting “gender-affirming” treatments for minors. She did not clarify what procedures the AAP does and does not support for minors or when those would be appropriate.
‘DESPICABLE’ … ‘Psychologically Abusive’: Some Back-To-School Programs Dividing Students By ‘Gender, Culture And Identity’
A back-to-school curriculum focused on social-emotional learning (SEL) lays the foundation for Critical Race Theory (CRT) by dividing children through the creation of identity charts, “getting to know you” questionnaires and classroom contracts, experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A curriculum created by Facing History and Ourselves, a group that partners with more than 100,000 teachers to provide education resources to combat “racism, antisemitism and prejudice at pivotal moments in history,” has a five day back-to-school lesson plan that teaches kids about gender, culture and identity. The curriculum is based in SEL, which focuses on teaching students social skills for their emotional well-being but has been criticized for laying the groundwork for CRT in the classroom, as similar lesson plans based in SEL are growing in popularity across the country, experts told the DCNF.
“Separating children by their group identities and having them judge others or self-judge because of their group identity is psychologically abusive, not to mention despicable, in a modern society,” Wai Wah Chin, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told the DCNF. “Promoting SEL in schools puts powerful control and assessment tools into the hands of educators. Educators are failing in their job to educate academics, but want instead to divert from their failures to matters of mind control and manipulation.”
The curriculum suggests students read a passage called “Orientation Day,” a story about Jennifer Wang, a 17-year-old Chinese American girl, who struggles to do a “get to know you” activity. Wang wonders how to tell her classmates, “I am a girl who wandered the aisles of Toys ‘R’ Us for two hours, hunting in vain for a doll with a yellowish skin tone.”
ANOTHER BIG TECH WHISTLEBLOWER EMERGES… (PUSHING FOR MORE CENSORSHIP?) … CLAIMS TWITTER IS VULNERABLE TO FOREIGN INTEL ATTACKS, UNEXPLORED BOT PROBLEMS… CNN: Ex-Twitter exec blows the whistle, alleging reckless and negligent cybersecurity policies
The whistleblower, who has agreed to be publicly identified, is Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, who was previously the company’s head of security, reporting directly to the CEO. Zatko further alleges that Twitter’s leadership has misled its own board and government regulators about its security vulnerabilities, including some that could allegedly open the door to foreign spying or manipulation, hacking and disinformation campaigns. The whistleblower also alleges Twitter does not reliably delete users’ data after they cancel their accounts, in some cases because the company has lost track of the information, and that it has misled regulators about whether it deletes the data as it is required to do. The whistleblower also says Twitter executives don’t have the resources to fully understand the true number of bots on the platform, and were not motivated to. Bots have recently become central to Elon Musk’s attempts to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the company (although Twitter denies Musk’s claims).
Zatko was fired by Twitter (TWTR) in January for what the company claims was poor performance. According to Zatko, his public whistleblowing comes after he attempted to flag the security lapses to Twitter (TWTR)’s board and to help Twitter (TWTR) fix years of technical shortcomings and alleged non-compliance with an earlier privacy agreement with the Federal Trade Commission. Zatko is being represented by Whistleblower Aid, the same group that represented Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
STELTER GONE… CNN’S MORNING SHOW COULD BE NEXT… REPORT: It Might Be A ‘New Day’ For These CNN Anchors Reportedly On The Chopping Block
The CNN program, “New Day,” could potentially be on the chopping block as President Chris Licht aims to reform the network’s morning programming.
Licht has aimed for a bipartisan approach in the network’s coverage, which led to the cancellation of Brian Stelter’s Sunday show “Reliable Sources.” Newly-released reports indicate that several prominent hosts are slated to be cut, too. […]
A source reportedly told Radar Monday that “New Day” will be replaced with a roundtable-type setting similar to MSNBC’s early program “Morning Joe.”
“Chris comes from the same breeding ground as Zucker: morning television,” the source told Radar. “He wants to establish a popular morning show that sets the agenda for the network each day. He doesn’t want to change anchors frequently. He wants strength and stability — and believes it all starts in the all-important morning time slot.”
“Expect to see either one main anchor, like Joe, or three like Gayle King has on CBS,” the source reportedly said. “They’ll be joined by a roster of ‘friends’ who can add to the morning dialogue — beat reporters, commentators, and people in the know.”
