RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
Aug. 4 to Aug. 10, 2019
BREAKING: JEFFREY EPSTEIN DEATH
FBI Probing Epstein Jail Death That Left Big Secrets Behind Daily Mail
'Smells Very Fishy': Skepticism on Epstein Death, Washington Examiner
Day Before Epstein Death, 'Teen Sex Slave' Details Made Public, Washington Post
Prince Andrew Etc.: Bombshells in Unsealed Filings on Epstein, Daily Beast
Suicide Watch Had Been Lifted; Attorney General Barr 'Appalled', Reuters
Featured Investigation:
Mueller Tied to Double Deception:
First in Court, Then Before Congress
Robert Mueller may have lied to Congress about his puzzling May 29 press conference – supposedly valedictory remarks that were evidently much more than that: a veiled effort at damage control to protect what a federal judge called his misleading prosecution of Russians.
Just the day before Mueller spoke to the press, the judge had threatened to hold the special counsel’s team in contempt of court for statements about Russian government interference in the 2016 election. His appearance – which left reporters scratching their heads because it seemed to make no news – was apparently meant to mollify the judge.
And, as Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations, Mueller compounded his trouble when he testified before Congress a few weeks later on July 24:
- Under oath, Mueller denied the judge’s action had anything to do with his holding the press conference. There is much evidence to the contrary -- and this is where Republicans believe Mueller perjured himself.
- At issue was a central part of the Mueller narrative that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win. In a closed hearing on May 28, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich said Mueller had overstated the evidence about two Russian internet “trolling” firms.
- Specifically, the judge ordered Mueller's team to set the record straight and stop to implying that the troll farms were controlled by the Russian government, expressing concern that Mueller’s words could prejudice the jury against the defendants.
- In his press conference the next day, Mueller took pains to note that “a private Russian entity engaged in a social media operation” and that “these indictments contain allegations, and we are not commenting on the guilt or innocence of any specific defendant.”
- Under questioning by Rep. Tom McClintock, Mueller denied any connection between the May 28 ruling and the press conference the next day.
Although Mueller may have perjured himself in that testimony, Republicans say it is unlikely the Democrat head of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, will look into the matter or refer it for prosecution.
Cops in a Beach-Blanket Town Hit Pentagon-Gear Bingo
RealClearInvestigations
It's a shame the 1960's teen-idol duo of Frankie and Annette can't star in Delaware's version of "Beach Blanket Bingo." Its plot has way better material than their skimpy bikini-and-brawn, surf-party clunkers. That's because, as Susan Katz Keating reports for RealClearInvestigations, the Dewey Beach police department really did hit something of a bingo jackpot when it acquired $2.8 million in surplus Pentagon armaments. The full-time force of eight – in a revenue-strapped town with a year-round population of 341 – turned the haul into a fly-by-night, sale-or-barter slush fund for purposes at once quasi-justifiable and very dubious:
- Under the Pentagon's military-surplus-to-cops program, Dewey Beach got Humvees, rifles, pistols, all-terrain vehicles, a grenade launcher, and 10 sets of pajamas – 2,000 items in all.
- But, finding the feds' hand-me-downs to be largely junk, the cops turned the inventory into essentially a combination Army-Navy store, patronage machine and hush-hush slush fund. It funded patrol-car purchases, swapped gear for favors, turned cops into local Cub Scout do-gooders and who knows what else.
- The town manager got suspicious in 2016 when he had to sign off on two cop cars with all the bells and whistles, an extravagance that the cops had already somehow raised the money for: $100,000.
- Just how tight a ship the cops were running came further into question after a police sergeant got his pistol belt stolen -- lock, stock, Taser, and gun barrel -- from his unlocked car, as he stopped off for the night at his girlfriend's place.
- An outside investigation was ordered.
- The investigation eventually turned up just where the sizable arsenal had been secreted: to a gated yard a couple of towns over, plus an employee's farm and an auto body shop.
The kicker is that the Pentagon says that, as far as it’s concerned, everything was on the up-and-up with Dewey Beach's cop shop. But critics will undoubtedly use the episode as ammo against the creeping militarization of police.
The Trump Investigations: Top Articles
FBI Files Show Steele's Bias Known Before Spy Writs, Fox News
Soros Tried Hedge vs. Trump at Obama State Dept., Files Show, The Hill
14 FBI Officials Leaked to Media; Just 4 Were Fired, Judicial Watch
Peter Strzok Sues Over Firing, Claims His Texts Were Free Speech, Daily Caller
Mass Shootings: Top Articles
Ohio Gunman a Satanist, Lefty Contrast to El Paso Shooter, Washington Times
El Paso Shooting Suspect Probed as Domestic Terrorist, Washington Post
The Secret Investigator Stopping Mass Shootings, Cosmopolitan
Nat'l Counterterrorism Center Going After Domestic Terrorism, Daily Beast
How Hate Speech Imperils This Legal Shield for Websites, New York Times
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
7 Days Inside a Pro-Life Summer Camp for Activists
Vice
In June, 24 Texas college students spent a week of their summer break at a hotel in downtown Houston, learning how to become anti-abortion activists. The group is just one of many that are training students; anti-abortion summits, conferences, and camps similar to this one, run by both national and state-level groups, dot the country. Although many of attendees were Christian, they practiced using secular, biology-based arguments to convince skeptics that life begins at conception. They listened to lectures that traded on the terminology and tenets of social justice causes. In short, they learned how to harness their enemies’ weapons of choice, including feminism.
Ferguson Five Years After the Killing of Michael Brown
The Verge
The shooting five years ago of an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown, by a white police officer drew national attention to Ferguson, Missouri. After a Department of Justice probe found that city policies persecuted poor African-American residents, Ferguson began curtailing predatory fees and fines and systemic, racial discrimination, slashing “driving while black” fines and hiring a diverse police department. The movement led to the election of a reform-minded St. Louis County prosecutor named Wesley Bel as Mayor. Even with all that and more, life is not better for low-income and black Ferguson residents five years after Brown’s death. In fact, by a number of measures — including murder rate, black poverty rate, and small business revenue — it’s worse.
Navy Minesweepers Too Broken to Combat Iranian Mines
ProPublica
As tensions rise with Iran, America’s minesweepers in the Persian Gulf may become essential to keeping the seas clear for global trade. But, this article reports, the four minesweepers based in the Gulf are so unreliable that they may not be ready for action. Officers complain that the aging vessels routinely need repairs and spare parts are no longer available. A sailor said the sonar on one ship was so imprecise that in training exercises it flagged dishwashers, crab traps and cars on the ocean floor as potential bombs. The Avenger-class ships were built in the late 1980s and early ’90s and slated for retirement years ago. But their retirement date has been continually delayed because the service still doesn’t have a working replacement.
Tainted Pork, Ill Consumers and an Investigation Thwarted
New York Times
The surge in drug-resistant infections is one of the world’s most ominous health threats, and public health authorities say one of the biggest causes is farmers who dose millions of pigs, cows and chickens with antibiotics to keep them healthy — sometimes in crowded conditions before slaughter. But public health investigators at times have been unable to obtain even the most basic information about practices on farms. Livestock industry executives sit on federal Agriculture Department advisory committees, pour money into political campaigns and have had a seat at the table in drafting regulations for the industry, helping to ensure that access to farms is generally at the owners’ discretion.
Feds Probe AOC Chief of Staff Who Abruptly Quit
New York Post
The feds are looking into possible campaign-finance misdeeds by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff and lead rainmaker, who suddenly resigned. The inquiry centers on two political action committees founded by Saikat Chakrabarti - Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats, which were set up by Chakrabarti to support progressive candidates across the country. But they allegedly funneled more than $1 million in political donations into two private companies that Chakrabarti also incorporated and controlled, according to Federal Election Commission filings and a complaint filed in March with the regulatory agency.
De Blasio Told Cops to Help Daughter Move
New York Daily News
Bill de Blasio has his own moving company - the NYPD. New York City’s mayor ordered members of his troubled security detail to move his daughter out of an apartment in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, to Gracie Mansion, multiple sources told the Daily News. The NYPD cops loaded Chiara de Blasio’s belongings into two unmarked Sprinter vans frequently parked at City Hall. First Lady Chirlane McCray personally oversaw the move; City Hall did not deny McCray’s involvement.
Rats Here, Rats There, Rats Everywhere
Renthop
If nothing else, President Trump’s recent feud with Rep. Elijah Cummings has united Americans in opposition to a common enemy: rats. Those lovers of garbage and carriers of disease (see Plague, Black) are thriving once again. This article reports Chicago continues to hold the title of “rat capital,” with 40,057 rodent complaints filed in 2018. Even accounting for its larger population, that is far more than Cummings’ home town of Baltimore, which had 4,476 rat complaints in 2018; and the nation’s capital, which logged 5,715 complaints last year. Some may be surprised, and others not, that Manhattan has the most rat complaints of all New York City’s boroughs – though no one knows how they can afford the rent.
