In the wake of the past week’s memo scandal, all eyes have been on former FBI Director James Comey and special counsel Robert Mueller.

There are growing questions about anti-Trump bias and possible illegal activity within the bureau… but lost in the shuffle is another player who may be far from innocent: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Rosenstein is one of the officials who gave his word to Congress that there was no widespread bias within the Department of Justice. As that claim seems increasingly untrue, however, the top justice official may be the one facing serious questions next.

For now, Donald Trump was the one fielding questions on Friday. After the scathing memo alleging negligence and bias within the FBI was released, reporters naturally asked the president to comment.

“Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump described the findings ‘a disgrace,’ adding, ‘People should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that,’” reported the Independent Journal Review.

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Then the media asked the president if he still had confidence in Deputy AG Rosenstein. Trump threw out a scathing response.

“You figure that one out,” he shot back, with a look and tone that was clearly frustrated.

That answer is Trump Speak for “of course not, why did you even ask that?” It’s a good point: After all that we now know about bias and the memo, why would Trump still have confidence in a figure at the center of the scandal?

Trump isn’t the only one who is exasperated with excuses coming out of the Department of Justice, particularly from Rosenstein. In December, Trey Gowdy unloaded on Rosenstein during a congressional session.

“What in the hell is going on with the Department of Justice and the FBI?” Gowdy bluntly asked Rosenstein.

“Those who are supposed to make sure there are no conflicts of interest seem to have a few of their own!” Gowdy continued, before listing off examples of bias within the FBI… and that was even before the scathing memo came out.

At the time, Rosenstein offered weak assurances that the country should just trust him.

“What I recommend you tell your constituents is that Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, and Chris Ray are accountable, and that we will ensure no bias is reflected,” the deputy attorney general responded.

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If the now famous House Intelligence Committee memo is correct, however, Rosenstein was significantly biased the whole time… and his fingerprints are all over the FBI wiretapping and dossier scandal.

The memo states that Rosenstein was one of the key officials who signed off on FISA warrant applications on behalf of the DOJ.

That means that even while knowing that the so-called Russian dossier was flimsy or even fabricated — and knowing full well that it came from a biased anti-Trump source — the deputy attorney general still endorsed a wiretap against American citizens at Trump Tower.

Rosenstein may try to pretend that America has his word, but it doesn’t seem to be worth much anymore. The nation deserves answers, and Comey, Mueller, and Rosenstein need to start explaining their actions.

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Is Rosenstein just as culpable as Mueller and Comey? Scroll down to comment below!

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has “quietly” put an end to most work at the Office for Access to Justice (ATJ), one of the lesser initiatives of the Eric Holder era, according to a Thursday New York Times report.

The tiny ATJ was founded in 2010 under then-Attorney General Eric Holder. Its last published organization chart, from 2015, shows only three appointees and their support staff. ATJ distributed grants and drafted “statements of interest” aimed at supporting the right to competent legal representation for the poor and indigent secured by the U.S. Constitution and the Supreme Court’s famous 1963 decision in Gideon v. Wainwright.

In 2014, however, ATJ also provided $1.8 million to left-wing open-borders groups like the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, the George Soros-funded Equal Justice Works, and the New York Immigration Coalition to provide lawyers for so-called “unaccompanied children” who surged across the southern border that year in their immigration hearings. This week, even the notoriously liberal U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected the idea that the Constitution requires the government to pay for lawyers for these child aliens.

The Civil Rights Division leaders of the Obama administration are dejected at the news ATJ was being all but shut down. “Sessions’ shutting down the Access to Justice Initiative sadly speaks for itself,” Vanita Gupta, President Barack Obama’s Civil Rights Division chief, told the Times.

Gupta is a self-described “critical race” theorist, who once wrote that “the rule of law,” “colorblindness,” “equal justice for all,” and “equal protection,” are merely “code words” for a legal system “contingent upon … racial power” and that treating criminal defendants as individuals without respect to race “is how we have managed to rationalize racism.” She has been broadly critical of the direction Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken DOJ, criticizing him, for example, for his “unwillingness to recognize the history of this country is rooted in immigration.”

Another of Obama’s civil rights attorneys, Sharon McGowan, told the NYT, “Ever since he became attorney general, Sessions has advanced positions that are irreconcilable with where we are as a country.”

McGowan now works for Lambda Legal, the left-wing law firm now leading the charge to force states to allow men who “identify” as women into ladies’ restrooms and vice versa after the DOJ pulled out of these lawsuits when Sessions took office.

The office was never a major recipient of DOJ resources but appears to have been sidelined to the point of irrelevance in the Sessions era. The New York Times notes that Maha Jweied, ATJ’s acting director, resigned this month and has not been replaced. No major ATJ project or accomplishment has been posted to the office’s website since President Donald Trump took office last year.

The Department of Justice did not respond to Breitbart News’s request for comment on ATJ’s future.

President Donald Trump shared the text of a Wall Street Journal editorial sounding the alarm about the information revealed in the memo declassified by the House Intelligence Committee.

The editorial accused the FBI of using the FISA court and the phony opposition dossier funded by Hillary Clinton to influence the election.

It read:

We don’t know the political motives of the FBI and Justice officials, but the facts are damaging enough. The FBI in essence let itself and the FISA court be used to promote a major theme of the Clinton campaign. Mr. Steele and Fusion then leaked the fact of the investigation to friendly reporters to try to defeat Mr. Trump before the election. And afterward they continued to leak all this to the press to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Mr. Trump’s victory.

No matter its motives, the FBI became a tool of anti-Trump political actors. This is unacceptable in a democracy and ought to alarm anyone who wants the FBI to be a nonpartisan enforcer of the law.

The Journal’s editorial called for the declassification of more documents and praised House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes for releasing the memo.

“[E]xposing abuses is the essence of accountability in a democracy,” the editorial read.

The paper was not entirely supportive of the president, recommending that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation continue.

“Mr. Trump would do well to knock off the tweets lambasting the Mueller probe, and let House and Senate Republicans focus public attention on these FISA abuses,” it read.

On Saturday evening, Trump posted several truncated excerpts of the editorial on Twitter:

“The four page memo released Friday reports the disturbing fact about how the FBI and FISA appear to have been used to influence the 2016 election and its aftermath….The FBI failed to inform the FISA court that the Clinton campaign had funded the dossier….the FBI became….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2018

…a tool of anti-Trump political actors. This is unacceptable in a democracy and ought to alarm anyone who wants the FBI to be a nonpartisan enforcer of the law….The FBI wasn’t straight with Congress, as it hid most of these facts from investigators.” Wall Street Journal

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2018

Since last summer the number of migrants crossing from Libya greatly declined, but new figures show that the number is rising once again as Libya becomes increasingly unstable.

According to newly released statistics, 3,580 migrants made the voyage from Libya to Italy in the first three weeks of January, with 850 being picked up by naval authorities in one weekend alone, German broadcaster NTV reports.

The number of migrants is higher than the same time period last year fueling speculation that it could rise even further.

According to an Italian journalist who spoke to the German broadcaster, the situation in Libya has changed as a rogue general named Khalifa Haftar is vying for power with UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez Mustafa al-Sarraj.

Last year, it was claimed that Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti had met with local leaders, including the notorious warlord and former people smuggler “al Ammu”, or “the uncle”, to pay them to stop the flow of migrants.

An unnamed Italian journalist alleged that internal conflicts have stripped the power from many of those who made the deal with the Italian minister to stop the migrant boats leaving.

“Many of the militia leaders Minniti negotiated with have now been pushed away by others, many of whom do not even know the name of the leader,” the Italian said.

INTERPOL: 50 Islamic State Jihadis from Tunisia Have Entered Italy Among Boat Migrants, May Be on Way to Rest of Europe https://t.co/V2yrDSUgun

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 1, 2018

People trafficking accounts for nearly 40 per cent of the Libyan economy and slave markets have also made a comeback, according to recent reports.

Last year, the Italian government was able to largely stop the activities of migrant transporting NGOs operating off the Libyan coast, which were labelled migrant “taxi services” by critics.

Next month, Italians will go to the voting booth to vote for a new national government, and populist Lega leader Matteo Salvini has been the most outspoken critic of mass migration.

Earlier this month, Salvini said that he would deport 500,000 illegal migrants, claimed that the rise of Islam endangered the Italian people, and said he would secure the country’s northern and southern borders.

In current polls, Salvini and his coalition partner, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, have a solid lead ahead of the current centre-left coalition.

 Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com 

A student at the University of Central Florida started an online campaign to expel one of her peers for taking photos of her “Try a Hijab” campus event.

On Thursday, University of Central Florida student Kathy Zhu posted photos of a “Try a Hijab” event taking place on her campus. “There’s a “try a hijab on” booth at my college campus,” she wrote. So you’re telling me that it’s now just a fashion accessory and not a religious thing? Or are you just trying to get women used to being oppressed under Islam?”

The event took place under a tent that adorned the “Office of Student Involvement” logo. Organizers set up tables and invited their peers to try on hijabs. One of the posters attached to the table provided a URL where students could purchase hijabs if they were interested.

pic.twitter.com/P5Rd50xGhb

— Kathy Zhu (@PoliticalKathy) February 1, 2018

One of the students behind the “hijab” event responded to Zhu on Twitter. “I’m in the back of the first pic (w/o my consent lol) and I invited you to try one on and you said ‘no thank you.’ You didn’t take the time to even ask questions or try to understand what Hijab is,” the student wrote. “That’s ignorant of you. You literally sprinted after taking the photos. Pathetic.”

The student then provided an email for the University of Central Florida Office of Student Conduct and encouraged her followers to contact the office to request Zhu’s expulsion.

“TWITTER DO YOUR THING,” she wrote. “Let’s get this girl expelled. Email st_condu@ucf.edu (UCF OFFICE OF STUDENT CONDUCT) and send them Kathy’s tweet, including the photos in her thread. Ignorance will not be tolerated on my campus.”

The tweet calling for Zhu’s expulsion received over 750 likes and 230 retweets before the student made her account private.

“You want a girl expelled for that? I guess tolerance is for everybody else,” one user responded.

“Sorry but when you participate in a public event in a public space, there is no expectation of privacy. Hence, your consent is not needed to be photographed or recorded. This is bullying,” journalist Andy C. Ngo response in a tweet.

Zhu quickly fired back at the student, explaining that she was permitted to take photos of anything on the public campus.

1) UCF is a public campus, meaning I can take pictures of anything, especially a public RSO group.
2) I took three pictures, you asked me if I want to wear this scarf of oppression, I politely declined, said thank you, and headed to class.
3) trying to get me expelled for what?

— Kathy Zhu (@PoliticalKathy) February 2, 2018

 

 

Many political scandals acquire the “–gate” appellation simply because they are scandals.

They bear little similarity to the circumstances of the actual Watergate scandal itself. But the House Intelligence Committee memorandum on the abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) by the Obama FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) sheds light on a scandal that is strikingly similar to Watergate. Only it is far more sinister.

Both scandals occurred in the middle of a heated presidential campaign. In Watergate, President Richard Nixon was seeking re-election against Sen. George McGovern (D-SD). In FISA-gate, Hillary Clinton was seeking to retain Democrat control of the White House against Donald Trump.

Both scandals involved the illegal collection of information from the opposing campaign. In Watergate, five men hired by the Nixon re-election campaign were arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex. In FISA-gate, the Obama FBI and DOJ relied on a fictitious dossier paid for the DNC to obtain a FISA warrant and conduct surveillance on a member of the Trump campaign (Carter Page).

And both scandals led to a cover-up. In Watergate, the Nixon White House tried unsuccessfully to cover up and impede the investigation of the break-in and the ties of the burglars to the Nixon campaign. In FISA-gate, the Obama FBI and DOJ concealed from the FISA court that the warrant application relied on unreliable information driven by the DNC; and more recently, former FBI director James Comey and current FBI director Chris Wray (along with Democrats in Congress) resisted the disclosure of the memorandum to the public.

That’s where the similarities end. In terms of magnitude and threat to the Republic, the current scandal makes Watergate pale in comparison. The surveillance of the Trump campaign wasn’t something perpetrated merely by private citizens associated with the opposing political campaign, like Watergate was. It occurred with the blessing and direction of the oh-so-self-righteous Director of the FBI, James Comey, who personally signed three of the four FISA warrant applications. It also occurred at the behest of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who signed one of the applications. Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (who still holds the post), and Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente signed the FISA warrant applications on behalf of the DOJ.

In other words, high ranking government officials holding positions of public trust were the principal actors not just in the cover-up, but in the underlying scandal itself. These high-ranking officials were persuaded to take action against one side in a presidential race using sketchy information paid for by the other side. It would be as if the FBI itself broke into the DNC headquarters at Watergate, not five bumbling burglars hired by the Nixon campaign.

Where is the outrage in the mainstream media? Where are the Democrats who claim to be concerned about the abuse of power? Crickets.

Kris W. Kobach is the elected secretary of state of Kansas. An expert in immigration law and policy, he coauthored the Arizona SB-1070 immigration law and represented in federal court the ten ICE agents who sued to stop President Obama’s 2012 DACA amnesty. During 2001-03, he was Attorney General John Ashcroft’s chief adviser on immigration law at the Department of Justice. He is also a 2018 candidate for the office of governor of Kansas. His website is kriskobach.com.

Rep. Trey Gowdy is hitting back at liberals who claim the House Intelligence Committee should not have released the controversial memo that suggests President Barack Obama’s FBI abused its powers to investigate associates of the Donald Trump campaign.

According to The Washington Examiner, the FBI used the anti-Trump dossier paid for in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign to obtain a warrant from a federal court under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Of course, liberals are losing their minds, claiming the memo is unimportant and false.

The Democrat House Intelligence Committee released a statement blasting the decision to release the memo.

“Chairman Nunes’ decision, supported by House Speaker Ryan and Republican Members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to publicly release misleading allegations against the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation is a shameful effort to discredit these institutions,” the statement read.

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It further stated that the memo was only released to “undermine the Special Counsel’s ongoing investigation, and undercut congressional probes.”

South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy hit back — and hit back hard.

A former federal prosecutor, Gowdy explained why it is crucial for the American people to know the contents of the memo.

It is important for the American public to know if the dossier was paid for by another candidate, used in court pleadings, vetted before it was used, vetted after it was used, and whether all relevant facts were shared with the tribunal approving of the FISA application.

— Trey Gowdy (@TGowdySC) February 2, 2018

“It is important for the American public to know if the dossier was paid for by another candidate, used in court pleadings, vetted before it was used, vetted after it was used, and whether all relevant facts were shared with the tribunal approving of the FISA application,” Gowdy tweeted.

Gowdy went on to say: “While this memo raises serious concerns with the FISA process, I have been and remain confident in the overwhelming majority of the men and women serving at the FBI and DOJ.”

It is absolutely disgusting that liberals would go so far as to call the memo “misleading” and “shameful.”

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Someone needs to put these people in their place.

In the meantime, the House Intelligence Committee continues to gather additional information that could be even more damaging to liberals.

Good for Rep. Gowdy for having some common sense and not giving into the liberals’ sensational and emotional false arguments.

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