U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appears on FOX Business to discuss the U.S-China ‘phase-one’ trade agreement, the benefits, enforcement mechanisms and retention of tariffs and particular sanctions until compliance can be reviewed.
Phase-1 establishes the baselines; resets the ability of U.S. companies to enter China; establishes rules for market entry; and sets the parameters for enforcement. Any future phase is contingent upon evaluation of phase-one enforcement mechanisms.
Yesterday’s ridiculous, albeit proactive, New York Times narrative about Russians hacking Burismanow makes sense. Today the Lawfare team (Mary McCord et al) within Adam Schiff’s impeachment crew send additional files of evidence (pdf below) to be included in the impeachment articles constructed by HJC Chairman Jerry Nadler. It is all coordinated. The “new evidence” relates to information turned over by Lev Parnas, an SDNY indicted former associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. The Lawfare purpose is to bolster their premise that President Trump was trying to force Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s corrupt activity around the Ukrainian company Burisma.
The Lawfare crew behind Schiff waited until the last minute to push the new “evidence” because they didn’t want republicans to deconstruct it during the impeachment evidence gathering phase. Aditionally, the Lawfare crew anticipate a Trump impeachment defense surrounding actual evidence of the Biden corruption, which makes the Trump request to Zelensky valid.
So the proactive democrat strategy was/is to use the New York Times presentation of Russia hacking Burisma to negate the provenance of the evidence against the Bidens. In essence, to cast doubt upon any documents that would show Joe and Hunter Biden participating in an actual influence and money-laundering scheme. (more…)
Tonight President Trump heads to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for another massive Keep America Great rally at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. President Trump is expected to speak at 8:00pm EST. RSBN Livestream Link – Donald J Trump Livestream – Fox News Livestream
Earlier today the White House confirmed the impeachment defense team led by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. Joining Cipollone is President Trump’s personal attorney Jay Sekulow and White House Deputy Attorneys Michael Purpura and Patrick Philbin.
Additionally, constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz may also work in an advisory capacity with the four member legal team. (more…)
When we see that justice is measured, not by due process, but by compulsion; when we see that in order to invoke our right to due process, we need to obtain permission from those who rebuke the constitution; when we see that justice is determined by those who leverage, not in law, but in politics; when we see that representatives get power over individual liberty by graft and by scheme, and our representatives don’t protect us against them, but protect them against us; when we see corruption holding influence and individual liberty so easily dispatched and nullified; we may well know that our freedom too is soon to perish….
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CTH is often criticized for being too accurate outlining the schemes, and not putting enough emphasis on what actions can be done -by ordinary Americans- to counteract the duplicity and corruption amid DC politicians. Well, last year we outlined exactly what YOU can do when we wrote “STAND“.
It is the responsibility of each of us to stand, defiantly if needed, and support a President who is waging a battle against multiple adversaries on our behalf. “Stand” means be visible. “Stand” means let your voice be heard. “Stand” means telling your republican representatives what your expectations are. They represent us; WE are the people.
Why is this important?
Well, we cannot, we must not, count on Republican senators to do the right thing. If there is one lesson we have all learned through the years it is that our representatives will only do the right thing if We The People demand it… loudly. With impeachment moving to the Senate, the republican members must hear our voices loudest.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is a smart, serious and deliberate professional on a very specific and important mission for the United States. In my opinion Lighthizer is the most under-appreciated member of an exceptionally good economic team. Everything about Lighthizer’s approach is based on enforcement.
Ambassador Lighthizer has been consistent over multiple years, on his intention to create enforceable trade reform between the U.S. and China, or, if needed, decouple the two economies if China fails to accept the necessary structural reforms.
Tonight, as the Chinese delegation arrives, Lighthizer discusses the U.S-China ‘phase-one’ agreement with Lou Dobbs. WATCH:
As you review this story keep in the back of your mind that U.S. DC Attorney Jessie Liu has been recently moved to head the Financial Crimes Division of the Treasury Department.
CTH noted last year when John Fry, an intelligence analyst with the IRS’s law enforcement arm, was arrested that something more was happening in the background of his case and the DOJ case against Natalie Sours-Edwards. Today Ms. Sours-Edwards pleads guilty to downloading & distributing the financial records of people connected to the Trump orbit.
You might remember back in May 2018 when sketchy porn lawyer Michael Avenetti was releasing U.S. Treasury notifications on Michael Cohen received from an unknown source within the Treasury Department [See Here]. You might also remember when New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow wrote a sympathetic article after talking to the leaking treasury official [See Here]. As a result the Treasury Inspector General began an investigation.
(VIA DOJ) Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards Illegally Repeatedly Transmitted SARs and Other Sensitive Government Information To A Reporter Resulting In Approximately 12 News Articles Over 1-Year Period.
Ms. Sours-Edwards, a former senior adviser at the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), pled guilty today to conspiring to unlawfully disclose Suspicious Activity Reports (“SARs”).
Beginning in approximately October 2017, and lasting until her arrest in October 2018, EDWARDS agreed to and did unlawfully disclose numerous SARs to a reporter (“Reporter-1”), the substance of which were published over the course of approximately 12 articles by a news organization for which Reporter-1 worked (“News Organization-1”).
The transparency of specific media injecting themselves into political races has been obvious for years; the latest example comes from CNN publishing an insider hit piece against Bernie Sanders on behalf of the gender woke community & Elizabeth Warren.
On the eve of another democrat presidential debate; and with diminished support for her presidential ambitions; team Warren plays the gender card as her campaign, together with woke advocate CNN, claim Bernie Sanders said a woman can never be president.
Using the backdrop of a “private meeting” between the two candidates CNN uses four anonymous sources to frame the gender narrative:
(Via CNN) [Warren and Sanders] discussed how to best take on President Donald Trump, and Warren laid out two main reasons she believed she would be a strong candidate: She could make a robust argument about the economy and earn broad support from female voters. Sanders responded that he did not believe a woman could win.
New Jersey Senator Corey Booker has announced he is dropping his presidential ambitions and will exit the democrat primary race. Booker is broke and did not qualify for Tuesday’s debate in Iowa; it would have been the second straight debate he’s missed.
IOWA – Sen. Cory Booker announced Monday he is dropping out of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
In an email to his supporters, Booker cited a number of reasons: most notably, a lack of money to continue.
In the second half of Devin Nunes interview with Maria Bartiromo today he was asked his thoughts about the FISA Court selecting David Kris as an FBI surveillance and compliance monitor. The issue is quite important because the FBI FISA reforms and promises are essentially meaningless without some form of structural review process.
However, the new 2020 FISC Presiding Judge James Boasberg selecting David Kris has been noted by several people as a rather weak effort on behalf of the court.
As an outcome of our former FISA-702 reviews CTH has an entirely different reason for questioning the selection of Kris; there’s much more substantive reasons to be alarmed about it; but first here’s the general consensus opposition:
WASHINGTON – The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has stunned court-watchers by selecting David Kris — a former Obama administration lawyer who has appeared on “The Rachel Maddow Show” and written extensively in support of the FBI’s surveillance practices on the left-wing blog Lawfare — to oversee the FBI’s implementation of reforms in the wake of a damning Department of Justice inspector general report last year.
[…] “Of all the people in the swamp … this is the guy that you come up with?” Nunes asked. “The guy that was accusing me of federal crimes? The guy that was defending the dirty cops at the FBI? … The court must be trying to abolish itself. There is long-term damage.”
