...we began construction on the cabin.

It looks more like this today, but it's still a work in progress.

Pfizer’s former global Head for Respiratory Diseases, Dr Mike Yeadon gets Radical:

“No team I was ever part of would have picked the spike protein…I believe they did it on purpose. It was COLLUSION & MALFEASANCE” pic.twitter.com/NiyjlNZtT4 https://t.co/HLs6zMGJPP

— Maajid أبو عمّار (@MaajidNawaz) June 15, 2022

Aaron Kliegman, Just the News:  Jan. 6 panel's case against Trump: Doomed to become the latest debunked elite narrative?

With the credibility of the media and political establishment already reeling from a succession of Democrat-friendly narratives being debunked, Thursday night's prime-time spectacle — the first of what's expected to be a marathon of six total Jan. 6 public hearings over the next two weeks — added to a growing list of stories, widely accepted in elite circles, put out by bureaucrats, politicians, and the mainstream media that were later called into question due to new information.

The seven Democrats and two Republicans on the Jan. 6 select committee tried to show that Trump was at the center of a coordinated campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and that his efforts incited a mob to breach the Capitol in a bid to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

They used a combination of video, audio, and live testimony to make the case, outlining their view of what happened on that fateful day. But they failed to mention key details that paint a fuller picture of what led up to the breach of the Capitol.

Just the News reported Wednesday that the Pentagon first raised the possibility of sending National Guard troops to the Capitol four days before the Jan. 6 riot, citing government memos that validate former Trump administration officials' long-held claims about their efforts to provide extra security.

The Capitol Police rejected the offer of troops, according to the government documents. Soon after, however, then-Chief Steven Sund decided he wanted the troops after all but was turned down by the House and Senate sergeants at arms.

As speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) oversees the U.S. Capitol, including the House sergeant at arms.

Read the rest here.

John Solomon, Just the News:  Jan. 6 Bombshell: Schumer team received FBI intel about possible violence, frontline cops didn't

FBI intelligence warning that Jan. 6 protesters might violently storm the Capitol, target lawmakers and blockade Democrats in tunnels was never sent to frontline police commanders and officers, but was quietly emailed the night before to a top aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, according to documents that raise new concern that politics trumped security preparedness in the fateful hours before the riot.

Capitol Police Deputy Chief Sean Gallagher emailed top Schumer aide Kelly Fado, now the Senate's deputy sergeant of arms, at about 9:40 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021 saying he wanted to "provide you visibility" to new intelligence that an FBI threat analysis center had received from a website owner, according to documents obtained by Just the News.

Read the rest here.

RealClear Politics, President Biden Job Approval

The RealClear Politics average has Joe Biden, our mail-order president, at record low approval of 39.5%.  A well-earned number, indeed.

Paul Sperry, RealClearInvestigations:  FBI Chief Comey Misled Congress’s 'Gang of 8' Over Russiagate, Lisa Page Memo Reveals

The FBI deceived the House, Senate and the Justice Department about the substance and strength of evidence undergirding its counterintelligence investigation of President Trump, according to a recently declassified document and other material.

A seven-page internal FBI memo dated March 8, 2017, shows that "talking points" prepared for then-FBI Director James Comey for his meeting the next day with the congressional leadership were riddled with half-truths, outright falsehoods, and critical omissions. Both the Senate and the House opened investigations and held hearings based in part on the misrepresentations made in those FBI briefings, one of which was held in the Senate that morning and the other in the House later that afternoon. RealClearInvestigations reached out to every member of the leadership, sometimes known as the "Gang of Eight." Some declined to comment, while others did not respond to queries.

The talking points were prepared by Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer who later resigned from the bureau amid accusations of anti-Trump bias, and were used by Comey in his meeting with Hill leaders. They described reports the FBI received in 2016 from "a former FBI CHS," or confidential human source, about former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Carter Page (no relation to Lisa Page) allegedly conspiring with the Kremlin to hack the election.

Quoting from the reports, Comey told congressional leaders that the unidentified informant told the FBI that Manafort "initially 'managed' the relationship between Russian government officials and the Trump campaign, using Carter Page as an intermediary." He also told them that "Page was reported to have had 'secret meetings' in early July 2016 with a named individual in Russia's presidential administration during which they discussed Russia's release of damaging information on Hillary Clinton in exchange for alterations to the GOP platform regarding U.S. policy towards Ukraine."

But previous FBI interviews with Carter Page and other key sources indicated that none of that was true – and the FBI knew it at the time of the congressional briefings.

Read the rest here.  There's a lot to take in.

Jp Cortez, Sound Money Defense League:  Gold-Backed Scholarship Returns for Seventh Year; Blue-Ribbon Judges Panel Announced

Charlotte, North Carolina (June 7, 2022) – For the seventh straight year, a national precious-metals dealer has teamed up with a sound money policy group to help students pay for the ever-increasing costs of college.

Money Metals Exchange has teamed up with the Sound Money Defense League to offer the Sound Money Scholarship -- the first gold-backed scholarship of the modern era. Starting in 2016, these organizations have set aside 100 ounces of physical gold (currently worth more than $180,000) to reward outstanding students who display a thorough understanding of economics, monetary policy, and sound money.

The Sound Money Scholarship is open to high school seniors, undergraduate, and graduate students with an interest in economics, specifically the free-market tradition. Applicants do not have to be economics majors to be eligible to receive this scholarship.

Money Metals Exchange and the Sound Money Defense League also announced this year’s blue-ribbon panel of judges:

Eric Brakey served two terms in the Maine Senate (2014-2018), passing Constitutional Carry, Right to Try, and pro-market reforms for medical cannabis. In 2012, Eric was the state director for the Ron Paul presidential campaign and led the Defense of Liberty PAC in Maine. Eric ran for U.S. Senate in 2018 as the Maine Republican nominee, and was nominated by legislative Republicans in 2020 for Maine Secretary of State. In recent years, Eric has worked with Young Americans for Liberty to elect liberty candidates to state legislatures and is now running to reclaim his former seat in the Maine Senate.

Keith Weiner is the founder, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of Monetary Metals, an investment firm that is unlocking the productivity of gold. Keith is an economist who is a leading authority in the areas of gold, money, and credit and has made important contributions to monetary theory. He is also a serial entrepreneur who specializes in businesses that solve hard problems.

Peter St. Onge is an economist at the Heritage Foundation, a fellow at the Mises Institute, and a contributor at Zerohedge. He holds a PhD in economics from George Mason University, is a former professor at Taiwan's Feng Chia University, and before academia was a marketing executive at two Fortune 500 companies.

Tho Bishop is the Associate Editor for the Mises Institute, and author of the animated series "What Has Government Done To Our Money?" He previously served as Deputy Communications Director for the House Financial Services Committee.

In prior years, the Sound Money Scholarship has received entries from students attending more than 150 different schools in more than 40 states, Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., six countries, and three continents.

The deadline to submit applications is October 31, 2022.

For more information, please visit moneymetals.com/scholarship or email scholarship@moneymetals.com.

 

"If you don't do something about this tonight, you're complicit." @DanaPerino on Merrick Garland and Joe Biden allowing protestors to terrorize Supreme Court justice's families -- even after one was arrested trying to murder Justice Kavanaugh's family pic.twitter.com/pvqTCjVkMu

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) June 8, 2022

Caroline Glick, Israel Today:  From Washington to Jerusalem, the Conspiracies Are Unraveling

One of the keys to understanding the Russiagate conspiracy is that it wasn’t only the FBI that operated as one with the Democratic Party. The media was also a full partner. It was a circular operation. Campaign operatives like Sussman farmed false allegations to the FBI to convince it to open investigations. Then they farmed the same fables to the Washington press corps and used the fact that the FBI was also looking into the allegations to convince the reporters to publish the allegations. They then used the media stories to persuade the FBI to keep investigating.

And again, the investigations went on and morphed into the Mueller probe and 24/7 media drumbeat of prejudicial leaks that paralyzed the Trump presidency. All along, all parties involved knew that the allegations against Trump and his advisers were false and originated from the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party.

[...]

The view from Israel

Looking at the Sussman trial from Israel, it is impossible not to draw parallels to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial. In both cases, a politicized legal fraternity colluded with the media to prevent the electoral victory of their political opponent. And in both cases, the media was a full partner in the scheme.

Netanyahu is standing trial for bribery and breach of trust. The “breach of trust” charge is a subjective catch-all concept that the prosecutors admit wouldn’t have sufficed on its own to bring Netanyahu to trial. The bribery charge was the key to Netanyahu’s political downfall.

[...]

But judging from their behavior, Israel’s legal fraternity was—and remains—rabidly political. They used every power they could conjure up to bring about Netanyahu’s downfall. They invented laws just for him. They defined politics and journalism as criminal enterprises to criminalize Netanyahu’s non-criminal actions—which, it turns out, he didn’t even take. They trampled the very notion of the rule of law in their “ends justify the mean” campaign to force Netanyahu from power.

And just as in the case of Russiagate, the prosecutors and the police could never have conducted their legal coup d’etat without the media’s full cooperation. Just as was the case with Trump and the US media, so in Netanyahu’s case the Israeli media was a full partner in the plot to overthrow him. Throughout the two-year investigation, the media received a constant stream of illegal, and grossly distorted information from police interrogations which carefully selected reporters breathlessly reported daily on the evening news.

Read the rest here.

John Solomon, Just the News:  Internal Capitol Police review found sweeping intelligence, security failures on Pelosi's watch

Capitol Police compiled a secret after-action review months after the Jan. 6 riots that identified sweeping blunders by the department ranging from delayed deployment of specialized civil disturbance units to the fateful dismantling of an intelligence unit that monitored social media for threats.

Identifying 53 areas of failure needing corrective action, the June 4, 2021 report, obtained by Just the News, produces a far more stark portrait of leadership failures than those offered by Democrat-led investigations, making abundantly clear that the Capitol Police under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were ill-equipped to defend one of America's most symbolic and high-value institutions two decades after the Sept. 11 attacks.

[...]

Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill, the ranking member of the House Administration Committee, told Just the News on Tuesday night the report raises grave concerns that Democrats who control Congress seem disinterested to pursue.

“The recently revealed After-Action report confirms what I’ve been saying for years, that Speaker Pelosi and Congressional Democrats are not focused on the serious security failures that occurred under their watch," Davis said. "Not only did the United States Capitol Police admit that their open source intelligence capabilities were essentially dismantled under a change in leadership within the Intelligence Division prior to 1/6, but the report clearly shows they had knowledge of the potential for violence yet failed to take the necessary steps to protect the Capitol.

"The Democratic Majority’s incompetence and unwillingness to fix long-standing issues was a main contributor to the security failure on January 6th. There must be immediate accountability and reform," he said.

Read the rest here.

Has anyone heard from Chuck? Has @chuckschumer apologized for his dangerous rhetoric that nearly got a Supreme Court Justice killed? Surely he will at least come out with the same fervor and zeal he exhibited that sent the assassin to Kavanaugh's home, right? @ComfortablySmug pic.twitter.com/gkqfKUQB2R

— I Am Donna (@Crypsis12) June 8, 2022

Danielle Wallace, David Spunt, Bill Mears, Fox News:  Armed suspect arrested near Justice Kavanaugh home identified

The armed California man arrested near the Maryland home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh Wednesday morning has been identified as Nicholas John Roske, law enforcement sources tell Fox News. 

Roske of Simi Valley, California, was carrying a gun, knife and pepper spray when arrested and had made violent threats against Kavanaugh, sources said. Roske was picked up on a nearby street after calling police on 911 to report himself. 

A criminal complaint obtained by Fox News shows that Roske is being charged with attempting to murder a United States Supreme Court Justice. He is scheduled to have a first appearance in federal court in Maryland Wednesday afternoon.

He told officers that he wanted "to give his life purpose" and purchased the gun and other items for the purpose of breaking into Kavanaugh’s home and killing the justice and then himself. Roske admitted in a second interview with the FBI of his intent to kill Kavanaugh and himself, according to an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint. 

Roske told detectives that "he was upset about the leak of a recent Supreme Court draft decision regarding the right to an abortion as well as the recent school shooting in Uvalde, Texas," and believed Kavanaugh "would side with Second Amendment decisions that would loosen gun control laws," according to the affidavit. 

[..]

In March 2020, when the high court heard oral arguments in a case over Louisiana’s abortion clinic access restrictions, there was a rally outside the court from abortion rights supporters. Among the speakers, then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Schumer said, "I want to tell you, [Justice] Gorsuch, I want to tell you, [Justice] Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price, You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."

Read the rest here.

Late edition: Last week's selection from PowerLine.

See the rest here.

The United States Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Pennsylvania

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                       Monday, June 6, 2022

Former U.S. Congressman and Philadelphia Political Operative Pleads Guilty to Election Fraud Charges

PHILADELPHIA – United States Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams announced today that former U.S. Congressman Michael “Ozzie” Myers, 79, of Philadelphia, PA, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to deprive voters of civil rights, bribery, obstruction of justice, falsification of voting records, and conspiring to illegally vote in a federal election for orchestrating schemes to fraudulently stuff the ballot boxes for specific Democratic candidates in the 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 Pennsylvania elections.

39th Ward, 36th Division

Specifically, Myers admitted in court to bribing the Judge of Elections for the 39th Ward, 36th Division in South Philadelphia, Domenick J. Demuro, in a fraudulent scheme over several years. Demuro, who was charged separately and pleaded guilty in May 2020, was responsible for overseeing the entire election process and all voter activities of his Division in accord with federal and state election laws.

The voting machines at each polling station, including in the 39th Ward, 36th Division, generate records in the form of a printed receipt documenting the use of each voting machine. This printed receipt, also known as the “results receipt,” shows the vote totals, and the Judge of Elections and other Election Board Officials at each polling place attest to the accuracy of machine results.

Myers admitted to bribing Demuro to illegally add votes for certain candidates of their mutual political party in primary elections. Some of these candidates were individuals running for judicial office whose campaigns had hired Myers, and others were candidates for various federal, state, and local elective offices that Myers favored for a variety of reasons. Myers would solicit payments from his clients in the form of cash or checks as “consulting fees,” and then use portions of these funds to pay Demuro and others to tamper with election results.

After receiving payments ranging from between $300 to $5,000 per election from Myers, Demuro would add fraudulent votes on the voting machine – also known as “ringing up” votes – for Myers’ clients and preferred candidates, thereby diluting the value of ballots cast by actual voters. At Myers’ direction, Demuro would add these fraudulent votes to the totals during Election Day, and then would later falsely certify that the voting machine results were accurate. Myers is also accused of directing Demuro to lie to investigators about the circumstances of the bribes and the ballot-stuffing scheme.

Read the rest here.

Alice Giordano, Epoch Times:  Doctors Suing Food and Drug Administration Over Ivermectin

A Washington law firm has filed a federal lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for interfering with the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.

The lawsuit was filed by Boyden Gray & Associates on behalf of three doctors who were disciplined for prescribing human-grade ivermectin to patients.

The firm’s founder, attorney Boyden Gray, is a former legal adviser to the Reagan and Bush administrations.

Gray told The Epoch Times that the FDA had violated well-established law that allows doctors to prescribe an FDA-approved drug as an off-label treatment.

Ivermectin was no different, he said. It was approved by the FDA in 1966.

“Congress recognized the importance of letting doctors be doctors and expressly prohibited the FDA from interfering with the practice of medicine,” Gray said.

“That is exactly what the FDA has done time and time again throughout this pandemic, assuming authority it doesn’t have and trying to insert itself in the medical decisions of Americans everywhere.”

The three plaintiffs in the case are Dr. Paul Marik of Virginia, Dr. Mary Bowden of Texas, and Dr. Robert Apter of Arizona.

Marik is a founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care 21 Alliance (FLCCC), a national nonprofit that promotes alternative COVID-19 treatments to the government-touted vaccine.

“The FDA has made public statements on ivermectin that have been misleading and have raised unwarranted concern over a critical drug in preventing and treating COVID-19,” Marik told The Epoch Times. “To do this is to ignore both statutory limits on the FDA’s authority and the significant body of scientific evidence from peer-reviewed research.”

According to Marik, more than 80 medical trials conducted since the outbreak of COVID-19 show that ivermectin is a safe and effective treatment for the virus.

Read the rest here.

Katabella Roberts, Epoch Times:  Cancer Trial Using Monoclonal Antibody Finds Remission in Every Patient: Report

A cancer trial has reportedly become the first in the world to completely remove the disease in every patient, according to a study published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study, titled “PD-1 Blockade in Mismatch Repair—Deficient, Locally Advanced Rectal Cancer” was conducted among 12 rectal cancer patients, all of which had a “clinical complete response,” according to the authors, led by Dr. Andrea Cercek of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City.

Doctors have been unable to see any evidence of tumors among the patients when using magnetic resonance imaging, fludeoxyglucose F 18 injections, physical examinations, or via endoscopic evaluations, according to researchers.

Furthermore, the patients continued to show no signs of cancer during follow-ups ranging from 6 to 25 months and have not had to undergo surgery or receive radiation and chemotherapy.

“No adverse events of grade 3 or higher have been reported,” the authors noted.

Specifically, the rectal cancer patients were given dostarlimab, a monoclonal antibody, every 3 weeks for 6 months. The patients had mismatch repair-deficient stage two or three rectal adenocarcinomas, a type of cancer.

The median age of the patients enrolled was 54 years and 62 percent were women.

Typically, such cancer patients would have needed to undergo often debilitating treatments like chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery and in extreme cases, be fitted with colostomy bags.

However, after taking dostarlimab, which is sold under the brand name Jemperli, no cases of progression or recurrence were reported in the patients who underwent the study.

Read the rest here.

Mark Wauck, Meaning in History:  After Ukraine: Will Russia Downsize NATO?

Russia has made it clear that their goals in Ukraine are non-negotiable. Russia is in this conflict to win, because they see the US led war on Russia, ongoing since the Clinton years, as an existential threat. At this point it’s a given that Russia will achieve its goals in Ukraine, but what comes after that?

As it happens, Russia has been forthright at pretty much step of the process that has led to war—certainly since the Dubya years when, in response to Putin’s aid with regard to Afghanistan, morons like Dubya and McCain spit in his face, calling for NATO expansion into Georgia and Ukraine and stepping up an aggressive naval presence in the Black Sea. Any illusions Putin may have had about co-existence with NATO were smashed, as he made clear in his famous speech at the Munich Security Conference in 2007. Putin had no choice but to prepare for eventual war, although he and his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, worked the diplomatic circuits overtime in the ensuing years—to no avail, as Russia was methodically excluded from community with the West and treated as an outcast. Thus, events in the succeeding years did nothing but strengthen Putin’s resolve, especially when the US overthrew the elected government of Ukraine and installed a puppet regime.

Read the rest here.

Jp Cortez, Sound Money Defense League:  Sound Money Movement Scores 2022 Wins

As state legislatures clear out and head home for the summer, one reality has emerged: Sound money is a winning issue in the states.

At a time of record-high inflation and geopolitical uncertainty across the globe, states are wisely taking steps to better enable citizens to acquire, sell, and/or use gold and silver.

Last year, Arkansas and Ohio repealed sales taxes on gold and silver coins, bars, and rounds. And Ohio invested almost $1 billion worth of physical gold in its Ohio Police and Fire Pension fund.

This year brought three new legislative victories in Tennessee, Virginia, and Alabama, thanks largely to efforts by Money Metals Exchange, its customers, and its Sound Money Defense League project.

All told, sound money allies introduced bills in 11 states to remove sales and income taxation on the monetary metals, create state depositories, and/or protect state pensions and reserves with an allocation to physical gold.

Here’s a full rundown…

Eleven States Considered Sound Money Bills This Year

Virginia had exempted sales taxes on most purchases of precious metals back in 2015, but purchases under $1,000 were still taxed and the whole exemption was scheduled to sunset this year.

Mobilizing grassroots support, the Sound Money Defense League worked with Delegate Amanda Batten’s office on House Bill 936 and secured a five-year extension of the existing exemption, while also securing its expansion to cover ALL transaction sizes.

Before the ink could dry on Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s signature, Alabama finalized sound money legislation of its own.

In addition to prompting in-state supporters to make literally thousands of calls and emails to members of the Alabama House and Senate, Money Metals’ public policy team worked closely with legislative allies to extend Alabama’s precious metals sales tax exemption and also clarify that the exemption covers ALL common forms of bullion.

The successful Alabama bill also removed some burdensome reporting requirements.

During a house committee hearing on Alabama’s Senate Bill 13, the committee chairman proclaimed the precious metals bill was “the most popular bill of the session.” Governor Kay Ivey’s signed SB 13 into law in April.

Meanwhile, a groundswell of Volunteer State citizens prompted the Tennessee legislature to secure its place as the 42nd state to remove sales taxes from gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins, bars, and rounds.

During the Senate floor vote, Sen. Janice Bowling commented, "I just want to thank the senator for bringing forward this bill along with half of the state of Tennessee that contacted all of us!"

Meanwhile, sound money bills in other states fell short of passage, but efforts laid the groundwork for victories in 2023 and beyond.

Kentucky House Bill 272 aimed to remove sales taxes on gold, silver, platinum, and palladium coins and bars, but the measure did not receive a hearing this year.

In Mississippi, the Sound Money Defense League worked with Rep. Jill Ford, the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, and in-state supporters to advance House Bill 426, another sales tax exemption effort.

HB 426 passed the Mississippi House by a vote of 121-1 but died in Sen. Briggs Hopson’s Senate Appropriations Committee without a hearing.

In Hawaii, Rep. Val Okimoto led the way in pushing sound money legislation (House Bill 1184) out of the House Finance Committee. It passed overwhelmingly out of the full House but failed to receive a hearing before Hawaii’s Senate Finance Ways and Means Committee.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Alaska held two hearings on House Bill 167, a measure to declare gold and silver “specie legal tender” as well as prevent boroughs and cities from slapping sales taxes on purchases of the monetary metals.

In the Garden State, Assemblyman Ronald Dancer introduced A3007 to end New Jersey’s sales taxes on precious metals. A companion bill was introduced in the New Jersey Senate while other cosponsors joined the effort.

New Jersey’s legislature is still in session, so there’s still an outside chance of progress there this year.

Meanwhile, Oklahomans appear eager to build on the Sooner State’s existing sound money policies. Proponents introduced bills to eliminate capital gains tax on the sale of precious metals, establish an in-state gold depository, and protect taxpayer reserve funds with gold and silver. These bills enjoyed grassroots support, but they did not pass out of any committees.

West Virginia and Washington legislatures introduced measures to eliminate various tax liabilities on precious metals, but these bills didn’t receive hearings in 2022.

The Idaho House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would permit the state treasurer to hold gold as a hedge against the state’s massive pile of negative yielding debt paper, but the senate failed to act on the bill.

In the end, the big news for 2022 is the newly minted sales tax exemption in Tennessee – followed by more incremental wins in Virginia and Alabama.

Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, and Wisconsin remain as the only states that still charge full sales taxes on precious metals, without any exceptions.

Leading the Sound Money Push

As the de facto public policy leaders for the entire precious metals industry, Money Metals Exchange and the Sound Money Defense League are preparing to redouble efforts in the remaining eight sales tax states and continue pushing ahead on other policy fronts.

As inflation rages on, the folly of endless currency printing becomes more undeniable.

Thankfully, individuals, states, and even countries are increasingly considering the role of gold and silver in protecting against the twin threats of Federal Reserve Note devaluation and weaponization.

Jp Cortez is the Policy Director for the Sound Money Defense League, a non-partisan, national public policy group working to restore sound money at the state and federal level and publisher of the Sound Money Index.

Ivan Pentchoukov, Epoch Times:  Obama Approved Accusing Russia of DNC Hack Before FBI Received DNC Server Images

President Barack Obama approved a statement by the U.S. intelligence community in October 2016 accusing Russia of stealing emails from the Democratic National Committee (DNC), despite the U.S. government not having obtained the DNC server images crucial to ascertaining whether Moscow was involved in the theft.

FBI emails recently made public during the trial against now-acquitted DNC attorney Michael Sussmann show the bureau was still in the process of requesting images of the DNC servers on Oct. 13, 2016. The server images, which are equivalent to a virtual copy of the alleged crime scene, were taken by private cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike.

On Oct. 7, six days before CrowdStrike agreed to mail the server images to the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a statement accusing Russia of hacking U.S. political organizations and disseminating emails allegedly stolen through the hack. The statement was approved and encouraged by Obama, according to then-DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson.

[...]

On Aug. 31, 2016, CrowdStrike provided a report on the DNC hack to the FBI. The FBI special agent who reviewed the report called it “heavily redacted,” according to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the Russia investigation. FBI Assistant Director James Trainor was so frustrated with the redactions that “he doubted its completeness because he knew that outside counsel had reviewed it.”

The “outside counsel” Trainor referred to is all but certainly Michael Sussmann, who served as the DNC’s point of contact for all intrusion-related matters. Sussmann was acquitted last month of one charge of lying to the FBI about whether he was representing the DNC when he took a white paper to the FBI that alleged a connection between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russia. The FBI agents who reviewed the paper found the claims in it unfounded within 24 hours.

Read the rest here.

Mike Allen, Axios:  Scoop: Jan. 6 committee's secret adviser

The House's Jan. 6 committee has turned to a renowned former network news executive to hone a mountain of explosive material into a captivating multimedia presentation for a prime-time hearing Thursday.

• James Goldston — former president of ABC News, and a master documentary storyteller who ran "Good Morning America" and "Nightline" — has joined the committee as an unannounced adviser, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: I'm told Goldston is busily producing Thursday's 8 p.m. ET hearing as if it were a blockbuster investigative special.

[...]

The other side: Republicans will argue that the 1/6 committee — which consists of seven Democrats plus Republicans Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — is just out to get former President Trump.

Read the rest here.