53percenter's Blog

MSNBC host Ali Velshi mocked Florida gun laws in the wake of the Jacksonville shooting, but the accused attacker used a gun that was purchased in Maryland.

In fact, Jacksonville Sheriff Michael Williams indicated the attacker was armed with two handguns, a .45 and 9mm, and the ATF made clear both were legally purchased in Maryland.

But this did not top Velshi from taking on Florida gun laws in a video he tweeted out Tuesday.

Velshi pointed out that Florida does not have a licensing requirement for gun purchasers, a “firearm registration” requirement, nor does the state require a permit to carry a rifle. He contrasted the last point with the fact that the state does require a permit to carry a handgun, and he never mentioned the practicality of carrying a handgun versus a rifle.

Velshi also pointed out that the state of Florida does not allow cities and municipalities to institute gun laws that are more strict than the laws in place at the state level. This is called preemption, and the NRA-ILA reports that the state of Maryland “generally” limits local gun control in the same way.

Here’s how ridiculously easy it is to get a gun in Floridahttps://t.co/T3HZiWisTl

— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) August 28, 2018

Nevertheless, the alleged Jacksonville attacker did not buy his gun in Florida. He bought it in Maryland where he did have to get a license in order to buy the firearm, and he had to register it too. But these things did not hinder him in the least.

A few more interesting facts from the NRA-ILA: Like Florida, Maryland requires no license for long gun purchases, has no registration for long gun purchases, and does not have a “permit to carry” for long guns.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

Jonathan Moffa, an FBI special agent, admitted to Congress his agency leaks stories to the news media, then uses the resulting stories to back up assertions in warrant applications, according to a series of reports Tuesday.

Moffa, who worked alongside fired anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok on the Hillary Clinton email and “Russia” investigations, testified last Friday at closed door sessions of the House Judiciary and House Oversight Committees. A source with knowledge of those proceedings was quoted by the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) late Monday, claiming Moffa had admitted to representatives that the FBI uses the controversial practice, long-suspected of playing a role in obtaining Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against one-time Trump aide Carter Page.

“He more or less admitted that the FBI/DOJ have previously leaked info to the press and then used stories from the press as justifications for FISA warrants,” the source told DCNF’s Chuck Ross.

The admission was then the subject of second report by Fox News, which quotes a source saying Moffa admitted the leak-and-reuse tactic at least “had been a practice in the past.”

It is not clear from either report if the DCNF and Fox News are relying on the same source.

According to Fox News, Moffa was a topic of more than one of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok’s now infamous texts during the waning days of the Obama administration.

House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) released a memo in February containing the bombshell revelation that the FBI had used a September 2016 Yahoo! News article as evidence to convince the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to allow them to wiretap and monitor Page. The FBI’s warrant application suggest’s Yahoo! writer Michael Isikoff’s article corroborates former British spy Christopher Steele’s infamous “dossier” on Trump and his associates, funded by Never Trump billionaire Paul Singer, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and the Democratic National Committee. The dossier contains not only allegations of ties between Trump’s circles and Russian intelligence, but graphic descriptions of deviant practices by Trump in a Russian hotel. Former FBI director James Comey famously labeled the dossier “salacious and unverified.”

But rather than the Yahoo! article providing verification, it became clear with the Nunes Memo that the article had exactly the same source as the dossier itself: Chrisopher Steele.

With Moffa’s reported admissions, it becomes increasingly unlikely the FBI was unaware of this circular sourcing and suggests the Bureau itself may have been involved in the attempt to make the contents of an unverified dossier funded by Donald Trump’s political opponents look like independently reported evidence.

These revelations intensify the political situation surrounding once-senior (now demoted) Justice Department official Bruce Ohr’s testimony before one of the same committees before which Moffa appeared last week. Ohr was scheduled to speak just hours after these reports dropped. His wife, Nellie Ohr, is a senior official at Fusion GPS, the same opposition research firm from which the Steele dossier originates.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) immediately seized on what he saw as a significant development on the eve of Ohr’s testimony on Fox News and on Twitter:

We’ve learned NEW information suggesting our suspicions are true: FBI/DOJ have previously leaked info to the press, and then used those same press stories as a separate source to justify FISA’s

Unreal. Tomorrow’s Bruce Ohr interview is even more critical. Did he ever do this?

— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) August 28, 2018

The now-fired Strzok’s testimony suggested Ohr was possibly the official who introduced his wife’s firm’s dossier to the FBI’s investigation. Ohr was demoted to a human resources position at DOJ from his role as associate deputy attorney general after the controversy over his involvement  began to be investigated last year. President Donald Trump has continued to call for his complete dismissal.

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who was Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election, has been excluded from his funeral.

Breitbart News has independently confirmed an earlier report in People magazine, which reported that Palin was not sent an invitation, and was told through intermediaries to stay away from the ceremony.

McCain fundraiser Carla Eudy confirmed to People that Palin had not been invited — possibly, People speculated, at the best of the McCain family.

The news comes on the tenth anniversary of the date in 2008 when Palin was announced as McCain’s pick for Vice President.

Palin now joins President Donald Trump on the list of those barred from the funeral.

But unlike Trump, Palin never feuded with McCain and never criticized him.

When news broke on Saturday of McCain’s passing, Palin said: “Today we lost an American original. Sen. John McCain was a maverick and a fighter, never afraid to stand for his beliefs. John never took the easy path in life — and through sacrifice and suffering he inspired others to serve something greater than self.

“John McCain was my friend. I will remember the good times. My family and I send prayers for Cindy and the McCain family.”

Last year, when McCain was reported to have said that he regretted choosing Palin instead of Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-VT), Palin described the news as a “gut punch” but refused to blame McCain personally, telling the UK Daily Mail that she blamed his “ghostwriters” for such reports.

When McCain selected Palin as his running mate, the two had both built reputations as corruption-busting “maverick” leaders who were not afraid to buck their own parties.

After the 2008 election, they moved in separate political directions.

Palin became an inspirational figure for the Tea Party and for grassroots conservatives in general. McCain campaigned as a conservative border hawk in his 2010 re-election race, but became a harsh critic of the Tea Party, calling Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY) “wacko birds.”

Many in the Beltway blamed Palin for McCain’s loss in 2008 — even though Barack Obama had benefited from a sudden financial crisis and a biased press corps. That view seemed to have seeped into McCain’s own thinking.

Still, Palin never took offense, and always honored McCain. Even after being excluded from the funeral, she declined to criticize him.

People quoted a source close to the Palin family: “[O]ut of respect for Sen. McCain and his family we have nothing to add at this point. The Palin family will always cherish their friendship with the McCains and hold those memories dear.”

McCain will be laid to rest on Sunday in Annapolis, following several days of memorial events and ceremonies.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Russian computer hacking might have been the least of Hillary Clinton’s security breaches.

The former secretary of state’s email scandal is back in the headlines, and its impact on American national security might have been even worse than Americans knew.

And deadly for American intelligence sources in China.

According to a Daily Caller News Foundation report, the unauthorized, unsecured computer server Clinton used while serving as the United States top diplomat – privy to some of the deepest secrets in the national security community – was penetrated by a Chinese firm “involved in collecting intelligence for China.”

As the DCNF reported:

TRENDING: Real-Life ‘Fury’: Watch First Person Footage of Tank in Vicious Ambush

“The Chinese firm obtained Clinton’s emails in real time as she sent and received communications and documents through her personal server, according to the sources, who said the hacking was conducted as part of an intelligence operation.

“The Chinese wrote code that was embedded in the server, which was kept in Clinton’s residence in upstate New York. The code generated an instant ‘courtesy copy’ for nearly all of her emails and forwarded them to the Chinese company, according to the sources.”

In other words, an American secretary of state who felt entitled to work on her own amateurish computer system had exposed all of her correspondence to one of the country’s most powerful and dangerous rivals in world affairs.

And it’s very possible that at least 12 operatives serving United States intelligence agencies paid for Clinton’s security breach with their lives.

According to a New York Times report from May 2017, a successful Chinese counterintelligence operation that started in 2010 “systematically dismantled C.I.A. spying operations in the country starting in 2010, killing or imprisoning more than a dozen sources over two years and crippling intelligence gathering there for years afterward.”

“From the final weeks of 2010 through the end of 2012, according to former American officials, the Chinese killed at least a dozen of the C.I.A.’s sources,” The Times reported. “According to three of the officials, one was shot in front of his colleagues in the courtyard of a government building — a message to others who might have been working for the C.I.A.”

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but 2010 was Clinton’s first full year as secretary of state.

Naturally, she would not have been in on every detail of covert CIA operations, but it’s entirely possible that Chinese intelligence services reading her correspondence in real time would be able to glean enough information to identify where the United States might have intelligence assets within China.

After a year of getting such information, it’s not hard to imagine the Chinese intelligence services having enough to take drastic, deadly action against sources helping their American rivals.

RELATED: Chinese Had Live Stream of Hillary’s Emails, Report Says

At any rate, a report that Clinton’s server had been thoroughly and professionally hacked by Chinese intelligence is circulating now, more than a year after the Times reported a disastrous breach in American intelligence operations taking place in China at the same time that the Clinton breach occurred.

It’s not a big stretch to put those two items together.

Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state is infamous for many reasons, but her bungling of American diplomatic security that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, then lying shamelessly to the American people about what happened is one of the worst.

Having her government email being hacked by Chinese intelligence, in an operation that coincided with a roll-up of American intelligence operations in China – and the deaths of operatives working for American interests – is a disaster to rival that.

Russia, the United States’ other big rival on the world stage, has long been known to have been engaged in intelligence operations targeting the Democrat National Committee, and by extension, Hillary’s campaign.

But Russian hacking might have been the least of Clinton’s leaks.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Five New Mexico adults accused of running a strange jihadist training camp had apparently planned to strike a hospital in Atlanta and law enforcement, according to multiple reports.

Siraj Wahhaj, 40, and his partner, Jany Leveille, 35, are facing life in prison due to a abuse of a child resulting in death, CNN reports.

Meanwhile, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhannah Wahhaj and Lucas Morten also face charges.

WSB-TV in Atlanta reported that 11 children rescued from the New Mexico compound detailed the plans to hit at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, which they arrested adults saw as a “corrupt” institution.

The children say that Wahhaj and Leveille wanted to “confront corrupt institutions or individuals,” and that included the hospital, the station reported.

TRENDING: South African Radical Admits Trump Is Right: They’re Coming for White People’s Land

Leveille was angry “with Grady Hospital due to the treatment her mother received there,” according to court papers.

The children also said that they had received “advanced firearms handling and had been instructed to shoot law enforcement personnel when the time came and that they would be instructed in the future to attack specific targets such as teachers, schools, banks and other ‘corrupt institutions,’” CNN reported.

A document called “Phases of a Terrorist Attack” was also recovered from the compound, according to CNN..

The 10-page, andwritten manual, according to a court filing, included “instructions for ‘The one-time terrorist,’ instructions on the use of a ‘choke point,’ a location ‘called the ideal attack site,’ the ‘ability to defend the safe haven,’ the ‘ability to escape-perimeter rings,’ and ‘sniper position detection procedure.’”

The children also said that Morten “stated he wished to die in Jihad, as a martyr.”

“At times, Jany Leveille would laugh and joke about dying in Jihad as would Subhanna Wahhaj,” court documents say.

And then there was a letter from Morten giving encouragemnent to Siraj Wahhaj’s brother to follow Allah “until he makes you die a martyr as you wanted and the only way is by joining the righteous.”

This whole squalid case began on Aug. 3, when police raided the New Mexico compound in search of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, a 3-year-old who had been taken from Georgia and was suffering medical problems. His remains were later found on the property,

Meanwhile, 11 other children were found living on the squalid compound. The training they received was extensive, and it wasn’t as if it wasn’t going to amount to anything.

RELATED: Judge: NM Authorities Unfairly Discriminated Against Muslims Training for Jihad

“The court document also revealed Siraj Wahhaj had instructed the group to defend the compound with weapons in the event of a nighttime police raid,” CNN reported.

“Authorities have said the property included a makeshift shooting range. Police said they recovered an AR-15 rifle, loaded 30-round magazines, four loaded pistols and many rounds of ammunition.”

“The children told investigators in recent interviews that a tunnel on the property was to be used as an ‘escape route’ if police arrived as Siraj Wahhaj and Morten ‘stayed behind and battled with police,’ according to Friday’s court filing.”

“The guns located at the exit of the tunnel were stored there … so that as the group exited the tunnel, the group could arm themselves with weapons and ammunition,” court documents said.

Meanwhile, as The Associated Press reported, bail was set at $20,000 for the defendants and little  mention of a jihadist sect seemed to make its way into the media. I guess we were all too busy with Omarosa.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Loopholes are a good thing. We always want the law to defer to less government, not more.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement found that loopholes can even make it possible to enforce the law in sanctuary states. The arrest of Yovanny Ontiveros-Cebreros by ICE agents happened at the Sacramento Superior Court in the sanctuary state of California.

Ontiveros-Cebreros’ lawyer, Charles Pecheco, was furious.

“The judge was weak — he had no control of his courtroom, and allowed the federal government to come into his court. He just wanted to neutralize the situation, so he could figure out what was going on, and then he felt that it was justified that the (ICE) guy said there was a warrant for illegal re-entry,” Pecheco said.

But Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown was not about to have the rule of law challenged in his courtroom.

TRENDING: DOJ SOP: Indict Pro-Trump Office Holders After Primary, Before General Election

In response to the lawyer, Judge Brown said “the court was mindful of the concerns raised by counsel about a chilling effect on undocumented persons coming to court – one articulated far more thoughtfully by the Chief Justice of California – but such concerns could not impede enforcing a lawfully-issued warrant at the moment.”

Ouch.

Allowing law enforcement to do their jobs has had an amazing effect.

President Donald Trump unleashed ICE along our southern border, and illegal crossings hit a 46-year low less than halfway through his first term. However, not everyone is as excited about effective law enforcement as heartland America.

State Supreme Court chief justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is one of the critics.

In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and then-Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly, she wrote: “enforcement policies that include stalking courthouses and arresting undocumented immigrants, the vast majority of whom pose no risk to public safety, are neither safe nor fair.”

The response letter from Kelly and Sessions doubles down on their support of ICE agents.

“As ICE undertakes the necessary enforcement of our country’s immigration laws, its officers and agents will continually improve their operations to meet the challenges to effective enforcement, including state and local policies that hinder their efforts,” the letter reads.

“Such policies threaten public safety, rather than enhance it. As a result, ICE officers and agents are required to locate and arrest these aliens in public places, rather than in secure jail facilities where the risk of injury to the public, the alien, and the officer is significantly increased because the alien can more readily access a weapon, resist arrest, or flee.”

RELATED: Media Says Sessions, Trump Are Feuding, New Report Says Otherwise

The letter is straightforward and the message is clear. If you want a safer country, let law enforcement do their job.

What a novel concept.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.