The U.S. Steel and Aluminum industry has been a key focus of President Trump in an effort to reestablish a critical industry for America. Part of the administration strategy was broad-based tariffs aimed at curbing China’s dumping of government subsidized product globally. The broad global application of the tariffs defeated the Chinese trans-shipment strategy to avoid them.
Despite opposition from Wall Street republicans and democrats purchased by K-Street lobbyists, the administration policy has been exceptionally successful at driving investment into the U.S. manufacturing base.  The multinationals are furious.

(U.S. Steel) United States Steel Corporation is investing more than $1 billion in the place where our reputation as a trusted industry leader was first forged more than a century ago: our Mon Valley Works near Pittsburgh.
The investment involves the construction of a cutting-edge, sustainable endless casting and rolling facility at Mon Valley’s Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pa., – the first of its kind in the United States – and a new cogeneration facility with state-of-the-art emissions control technology at the nearby Clairton Plant in Clairton, Pa. (link)

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Representative Doug Collins and Asst. Attorney General Stephen Boyd blast Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler for blatant politicization of the House Judiciary Committee.

Earlier today John Solomon wrote an article noting how congressional investigators were reviewing Nellie Ohr testimony against last month’s release of FOIA documents.  There are significant differences between Mrs. Ohr’s testimony about her communication and contacts with DOJ and FBI officials, and the scale of contact within the FOIA release.

According to an interview with Representative Jim Jordan, Rep Mark Meadows was considering a criminal referral.  This evening, John Solomon is following up and affirming Nellie Ohr has now been referred to the DOJ for criminal prosecution (pdf below).

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This doesn’t come as a surprise following the release of transcripts and the ability to contrast testimony from 2018 with recent discoveries and evidence.  As a point of fact, Ms. Ohr also lied in her testimony about the timing of her Ham Radio license and use.
Not coincidentally, Fusion-GPS owner Glenn Simpson is also being reviewed for lying to investigators about his contacts and activity in connection to the dossier.  Nellie Ohr worked for Fusion-GPS and it would appear Fusion was at the center of the effort to construct evidence to support the 2016 election operation against Donald Trump.
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This is disturbing: “This is the third case in less than a year in which a former US intelligence officer has pled or been found guilty of conspiring with Chinese intelligence services to pass them national defense information.”

VIA DOJ –  A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) case officer pleaded guilty today to conspiring to communicate, deliver and transmit national defense information to the People’s Republic of China. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Director for Counterintelligence John Brown of the FBI and Assistant Director in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the announcement after Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III accepted the plea.

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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler has created a circus atmosphere ahead of a scheduled appearance by Attorney General William Barr tomorrow.
After today’s hearing devolved into a hot mess; and after Nadler changed processes to block committee representatives from questioning the AG; it appears Attorney General William Barr has cancelled his scheduled appearance.

WASHINGTON DC – U.S. Attorney General William Barr will not testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday, a committee aide tells NBC News. The hearing is set to proceed as scheduled, starting at 9 a.m. EST.  (link)

Here’s a brief example of the hot mess earlier today:

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), asks Attorney General William Barr during the committee hearing about the content of the Mueller letter dated March 27, 2019 (provided below) which was leaked to the Washington Post and New York Times by Mueller officials.
Additionally, Whitehouse then goes on to debate the term “spy” with the Attorney General.

During a round of questioning with Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) AG William Barr was asked about scale and scope of the current IG investigation [04:22 prompted].  In response to the question AG Barr replies:

“I don’t want to be too specific; I talked to Mike Horowitz a few weeks ago about it, and its focused on the FISA, the basis for the FISA, and the handling of the FISA application. But by necessity it looks back a little bit earlier than that.  The people I have helping me with my review will be working very closely with Mr. Horowitz.”

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U.S. Attorney General William Barr testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the Mueller/Weissmann/Rosenstein report.  The hearing begins at 10:00am EDT.
UPDATE: VIDEO ADDED (Two Segments – Morning Session and Afternoon Session)
Morning Session:

At 10:00am EDT today U.S. Attorney General William Barr will deliver testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee following the publication of the special counsel report on the 2016 election.  There will be a separate discussion thread at 9:00am EDT which will include multiple options to the view the testimony live.
In the interim, the opening statement from the Attorney General has been released: (link to download statement here – pdf link here and embed below)
[scribd id=408259022 key=key-Zk9MDAegG1Sytnt4oC2k mode=scroll]
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This is something many anticipated in 2017; particularly with the Mid-East visit by President Trump; but it never happened.  However, according to the New York Times, President Trump has a renewed push toward designating The Muslim Brotherhood as an official terrorist group.
The Brotherhood is the political umbrella organization for a variety of extreme Islamist organizations; and was the primary driver of regional uprising during the Islamist Spring (Tunis, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen etc). Former President Obama looked warmly upon the Brotherhood and worked earnestly with them to fulfill their ideological goals.
The most visible effort of the political Brotherhood was in Egypt with the election of Mohammed Morsi; which led to widespread violence/chaos and the eventual call by the Egyptian people for General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to step-in.
The Brotherhood leadership was exiled from Egypt, and after a short time in Qatar -and confrontation by the Gulf Cooperation Council-  they were given safe harbor in Turkey by Recep Erdogan.  They likely remain in Turkey today.
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