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Leaked Fusion GPS Testimony: “Somebody’s Already Been Killed” Over Release Of Trump Dossier

An attorney for Glenn Simpson, co-founder of opposition research firm Fusion GPS, revealed during a leaked closed-door interview that “somebody’s already been killed” due to the publication of the Trump-Russia dossier by Buzzfeed on January 10, 2017.

Glenn Simpson, Fusion GPS Co-Founder

The statement was part of a 312 page transcript of testimony leaked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) following Fusion’s call for the transcripts to be released in a NYT op-ed published exactly one week ago, infuriating Committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Angry Chuck Grassley

In closed-door testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year, Congressional investigators asked Simpson if Fusion GPS made efforts to “assess the credibility” of sources used in the dossier commissioned by Fusion and assembled by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele.

“Yes, but I’m not going to get into sourcing information,” replied Simpson.

After declining a follow-up question, Simpson’s lawyer Joshua Levy said the Fusion co-founder “wants to be very careful to protect his sources,” adding “Somebody’s already been killed as a result of the publication of this dossier, and no harm should come to anybody related to this honest work.”

The Fusion / Steele dossier has come under intense scruitny after republicans began to question whether the document spurred the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign.

Feinstein said in a statement she released the transcript to combat misinformation about the inteview.

WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 6: Ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing

“The innuendo and misinformation circulating about the transcript are part of a deeply troubling effort to undermine the investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice,” Feinstein said in a statement. “The only way to set the record straight is to make the transcript public.”

A spokesman for Sen. Grassley said Feinstein’s release “undermines the integrity of the committee’s oversight work and jeopardizes its ability to secure candid voluntary testimony relating to the independent recollections of future witnesses,” adding “It’s totally confounding that Senator Feinstein would unilaterally release a transcript of a witness interview in the middle of an ongoing investigation – a witness that Feinstein herself subpoenaed last year for lack of cooperation.”

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Nvidia Spikes To All-Time Highs On Partnership With Uber

In a pre-CES news conference on Sunday, Nvidia Corp. announced a partnership with Uber to supply self-driving hardware for the largest U.S. ride-hailing company – sending shares to all time highs.

Nvidia ($NVDA) hit an intraday high of $225 and closed at $222, up $6.60 – resulting in a 12 month gain of 117%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq, meanwhile, were up 26.7% and 29.5% respectively over the last year.

Nvidia plans to start testing all-in-one “system on a chip” processors in cars this quarter, an effort for which Nvidia has plowed $2 billion into R&D. Uber is one of 25 customers lined up for the new hardware in their upcoming “robotaxis.”

Uber claims  its autonomous cars, mostly Volvos with Nvidia hardware, have traveled over 2 million miles – with over half of that occuring in the last quarter.

Meanwhile, Google subsidiary Waymo is directly competing with Nvidia, providing self-driving hardware to Uber competitor Lyft. Waymo sued Uber following Uber’s acquisition of self-driving trucking company, Otto.

Sunday’s announcement means that Nvidia will also hel[ guide Uber’s self-driving tractor-trailers, along with non-Volvo beta cars.

As MarketWatch reports:

“Nvidia has spent more than $8 billion on R&D since a 2012 student project showed that GPUs could accelerate machine learning, leading to a booming server business and an automotive business with plenty of potential that hasn’t showed the same type of growth so far. Chief Executive Jensen Huang spent two hours Sunday evening rounding up all of Nvidia’s advances in artificial intelligence, after a brief overview of some new advances in the industry that originally made Nvidia’s name, videogame technology.

Nvidia spent the rest of its time focusing on its breakthroughs in machine learning, in both important and more whimsical ways. The examples included a deep neural network built in partnership with Walt Disney Co. DIS, -1.43%  that was taught to compose music like the legendary John Williams, in honor of the new “Star Wars” movie.

Meanwhile, Nvidia and Volkswagen are working on their own self-driving partnership, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang showing off plans in a virtual reality pre-CES presentation.

Nvidia is demonstrating solid innovation and leadership in the self-driving car market by showcasing customers and partners like Uber and Volkswagen,” said Chris Wilder of Moor Insights. “For this industry to be successful, technology companies must address not just the safety, scalability and reliability challenges, but also the overall user experience inside and outside of the vehicle. Nvidia’s announcements at CES shows they are approaching the Autonomous Vehicle experience holistically which, in my opinion, will keep Nvidia as a leader in this burgeoning market.”

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Fired Google Engineer Files Class Action Suit On Behalf Of “Caucasian Men”

Five months after former Google engineer lost his job for posting a memo criticizing diversity policies that ignore differences between sexes, James Damore and another google engineer named David Gudeman are suing the tech giant in a class action lawsuit filed in Santa Clara Superior Court in Northern California.

The suit claims that Google unfairly discriminates against white, conservative men – and  aims to represent all employees of Google who’ve been discriminated against due to their “perceived conservative political views by Google,” due to “their male gender by Google” and “due to their Caucasian race by Google.”

Via TechCrunch

More specifically, it accuses Google of singling out, mistreating and systematically punishing and terminating employees who “expressed views deviating from the majority view at Google on political subjects raised in the workplace and relevant to Google’s employment policies and its business, such as ‘diversity’ hiring policies, ‘bias sensitivity’ or ‘social justice’…”

Damore isn’t holding back any punches here. According to his filing, Google employs “illegal hiring quotas to fill its desired percentages of women and favored minority candidates, and openly shames managers of business units who fail to meet their  quotas—in the process, openly denigrating male and Caucasian employees as less favored than others.”

The suit also claims that “Numerical presence of women celebrated at Google” was based “solely due to their gender,” while the “presence of Caucasians and males was mocked with ‘boos’ during companywide weekly meetings.”

The suit says Damore, Gudeman and “other class members” were “ostracized, belittled, and punished for their heterodox political views, and for the added sin of their birth circumstances of being Caucasians and/or males.”

Google said it fired Damore for violating its code of conduct and advancing “harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace,” while Damore likened being a conservative at Google to “being gay in the 1950s.”

You can view the suit here:

James Damore vs. Google: Class Action Lawsuit by TechCrunch on Scribd

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Two Of Apple’s Largest Shareholders Pen Letter Warning Of “iPhone Addition” In Kids, Cite Suicide And Health Risks

Two of Apple’s largest shareholders penned a letter over the weekend calling for the Cupertino, CA maker of iPhones to address what they view as a growing public-health crisis among children; iPhone addition.

Ordinary kids sitting with mobile devices in street

Activist hedge fund Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) – which control some $2 billion worth of Apple shares, urged the company to develop new software solutions to help parents control and limit phone use, as well as study the mental health impacts of overuse:

“As a company that prides itself on values like inclusiveness, quality education, environmental protection, and supplier responsibility, Apple would also once again be showcasing the innovative spirit that made you the most valuable public company in the world.  In fact, we believe that addressing this issue now will enhance long-term value for all shareholders, by creating more choices and options for your customers today and helping to protect the next generation of leaders, innovators, and customers tomorrow.”

Jana and CalSTRS go on to highlight a series of studies suggesting Apple products are literally killing the kids who use them, and can result in physical ailments and depression from lack of exercise…

A study conducted recently by the Center on Media and Child Health and the University of Alberta found that 67% of the over 2,300 teachers surveyed observed that the number of students who are negatively distracted by digital technologies in the classroom is growing and 75% say students’ ability to focus on educational tasks has decreased. In the past 3 to 5 years since personal technologies have entered the classroom, 90% stated that the number of students with emotional challenges has increased and 86% said the number with social challenges has increased.  One junior high teacher noted that, “I see youth who used to go outside at lunch break and engage in physical activity and socialization.  Today, many of our students sit all lunch hour and play on their personal devices.

Professor Twenge’s research shows that U.S. teenagers who spend 3 hours a day or more on electronic devices are 35% more likely, and those who spend 5 hours or more are 71% more likely, to have a risk factor for suicide than those who spend less than 1 hour.

This research also shows that 8th graders who are heavy users of social media have a 27% higher risk of depression, while those who exceed the average time spent playing sports, hanging out with friends in person, or doing homework have a significantly lower risk.  Experiencing depression as a teenager significantly increases the risk of becoming depressed again later in life.

Also, teens who spend 5 or more hours a day (versus less than 1) on electronic devices are 51% more likely to get less than 7 hours of sleep (versus the recommended 9).  Sleep deprivation is linked to long-term issues like weight gain and high blood pressure.

According to an American Psychological Association (APA) survey of over 3,500 U.S. parents, 58% say they worry about the influence of social media on their child’s physical and mental health, 48% say that regulating their child’s screen time is a “constant battle,” and 58% say they feel like their child is “attached” to their phone or tablet.

Facebook Exec Comes To Jesus

The Apple activists aren’t the only ones concerned over the kids… A few weeks ago, a Facebook executive whose job it was to metaphorically hook the world on “internet crack,” called on people to take a “hard break” from Facebook, which he believes is ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.

Billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya joined Facebook in 2007 and rose to its VP for user growth. He says he feels “tremendous guilt” for his role in building the social media giant, warning people “if you feed the beast, that beast will destroy you).”

“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works.  No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem — this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.”

Watch here (23:40 relevant portion)

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Man Behind “Nazi Pug” Video Accused Of “Toxic Distillation” In Ongoing Trial

A Scottish man who recorded his girlfriend’s pug giving Nazi salutes and responding to the phrases “gas the Jews” and “Sieg Heil” should be convicted of committing a hate crime, a court heard this week.

Mark Meechan and girlfriend Suzanne Kelly

In a viral video viewed over 3 million times, Mark Meechan, 30, of Coatbridge, Lankshire, trained his girlfriend’s pug Buddha to respond to Nazi phrases before releasing a several-minute compilation of edited video clips, described by prosecutors as a “toxic distillation” of a phrase which “contains a clear threat of incitement to carry out a seriously violent act.”

“Any reasonable person would suffer fear or alarm having heard that awful phrase uttered over and over and over again.”

“Nazi Dog” Buddha

Meechan says the video was a joke of the “most vile thing” he could think of, which was only intended to be seen by a small group of friends on his YouTube account. At the beginning of the video, Meechan says:

My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute and adorable her wee dog is,” says Meechan at the beginning of the video, continuing “And so I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing I could think of, which is a Nazi.”

Meechan then asked the dog the same question over and over; “Buddha, do you want to gas the Jews?

He might just as well have said ‘murder the Jews,’ that is the effect of the toxic phrase ‘gas the Jews,” prosecutors argued, who asked Sheriff Derek O’Carroll to convict Meechan over the video which “contains footage of the accused stating 23 times in total the words ‘gas the Jews’ in a comparatively short period of time.”

‘This is not some two and a half hour production with many shards every half hour, this is a toxic distillation of what he may call the best bits of his video.’

Meechan also faces a charge of posting a video on social media and YouTube considered “grossly offensive because it was anti-semitic and racist in nature,” with the prosecution branding it an “odious criminal act,” according to The Sun. Meechan told reporters he faces a year in prison if found guilty.

During a September, 2017 hearing, prosecutors placed 66-year-old Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) on the stand, who told the court how he lost members of his family to the Nazis, said “It is grossly offensive, it stuns me that anyone should think it is a joke.”

“My immediate reaction is that there is a clear distinction to be made between an off-hand remark and the amount of effort that is required to train a dog like that, I actually feel sorry for the dog.

“In many ways, the bit I found most offensive was the repetition of ‘gas the Jews’ rather than the dog itself. –Ephraim Borowski

Meechan’s girlfriend of three years, Suzanne Kelly, 29, previously told the court that her boyfriend turned her “cute” dog into a Nazi, though she insisted he did not mean any harm by it.

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Author Of Trump Book Admits No Clue What’s True; Journalists Urge Caution, Bannon Fingered As Point Of Access

The author of a polarizing new book about the Trump White House admits that he has no idea whether certain portions of his book are true, while stating that in other instances, he has “settled on a version of events I believe to be true.”

Michael Wolff, whose recently released book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” makes several fatuous claims, such as rumors that Trump eats McDonald’s so he’s not poisoned, forbids staff from touching his toothbrush, and that Trump actually didn’t want to win the election – instead planning on launching a TV network because he would be “the most famous man in the world.”

Wolff also conveyed hyperbolic statements from Steve Bannon describing Don Jr’s Trump Tower meeting with Russians as ‘treasonous and unpatriotic’ and thinks he will ‘crack like an egg’ under the pressure of the Russia investigation.

Wolff’s giant hedge over the veracity of his claims can be read below:

“Many of the accounts of what has happened in the Trump White House are in conflict with one another; many, in Trumpian fashion, are baldly untrue. These conflicts, and that looseness with the truth, if not with reality itself, are an elemental thread of the book.

Sometimes I have let the players offer their versions, in turn allowing the reader to judge them. In other instances I have, through a consistency in the accounts and through sources I have come to trust, settled on a version of events I believe to be true.”

As Business Insider reports after reading the book, there are several questionable aspects to Wolff’s reporting – such as lengthy, private conversations which are reported verbatim, along with knowledge of “what somebody was thinking or how the person felt.”

Wolff says he conducted “more than two hundred interviews” for his book with people including Trump and “most members of his senior staff,” and has dozens of hours of tapes to back up his reporting, according to Axios.

Questions over accuracy

Wolff’s journalistic integrity has been questioned in the past. As Business Insider reported Friday, there have been several instances from the mid-2000s in which the author was accused of inaccurate reporting:

Splinter’s David Uberti pointed out that press critics repeatedly questioned the specifics in Wolff’s 1998 book “Burn Rate,” and that in his scathing review of Wolff’s book about media mogul Rupert Murdoch, former New York Times media columnist David Carr said Wolff “never distinguished himself as a reporter” and was “far less circumspect” than other journalists. –Business Insider

Critics of “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” have been quick to point out several seemingly unlikely claims, such as Trump not remembering who former House Speaker John Boehner was, and that some of the conversations appeared to be recreations.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times said “Thin but readable. Well written. Several things are true and several that are not. Light in fact-checking and copy-editing.

NBC’s Katy Tur urged caution, tweeting a statement saying “From the Author’s Note it sounds like they are recreations. How can he be sure the characters said what they said? Where the conversations recorded and played back to him? Did he cross confirm quotes with both parties or with others in the room?” 

Tur also notes: “his access pretty much ended when Kelly came in and Bannon was kicked out.” 

Conservative radio host Laura Inghram unleashed on Wolff, tweeting “this is TOTALLY FALSE” in regards to a claim that she “struggled to parse support for Trumpism” as she and Rush Limbaugh “distanced themselves from Trump himself.”

The UK’s Tony Blair called the book a “complete fabrication,” batting down claims that he warned then-candidate Trump he may have been spied on by British agents during the 2016 election, and that he shared a “juicy rumor” with Jared Kushner that the Trump campaign had been under surveillence.

“I mean literally from beginning to end. I’ve never had such conversation in the White House, outside of the White House, with Jared Kushner, with anybody else,” Mr Blair said.

President Trump attempted to block publication of the book last week to no avail, after which he tweeted that it was “full of lies,” telling people to “Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!”

A list of the Daily Mail’s top-20 “Jaw-Dropping” claims from the book can be read here, just in time for Trump’s “Fake News” awards on Monday…

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Black Unemployment Rate Hits All Time Low

The unemployment rate among black Americans dropped to 6.8% on December, the lowest rate ever seen since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started keeping records in 1972, according to statistics released Friday by the Department of Labor.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has tracked the unemployment rate for black Americans at age 16 or older for the past 45 years and the rate has never fallen below 7% during that time period, however black unemployment is still significantly higher than other racial groups: whites had a 3.7 percent unemployment rate, while Asian American unemployment rate came in at 2.5 percent. Hispanic Americans had an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent.

In August, 2017 the unemployment rate among Black Americans had fallen one percent over the previous year from 8.4% to 7.4%, while the participation rate for black Americans rose one percent.

Black Americans were one of the hardest hit groups during the Great Recession and throughout much of former President Barack Obama’s two-terms in office. The unemployment rate for this group was 13.7 when Obama took office in 2009, reaching a height of 16.8 in March 2010,” according to the Daily Caller.

That said, unemployment statistics are often misleading, as the official rate, “U3”, does not include; discouraged workers, marginally attached workers, or part-time employees for purely economic reasons. As of December, 2017 the broadest measure of unemployment, “U6” for all Americans was at 8.10%.

Due to the misleading statistics, lower unemployment can be attributed to fewer Americans looking for work (unemployed people who aren’t actively seeking a job are not counted as unemployed), while young Americans are also staying in school before entering the workforce.

Fox News provides a handy Q&A on black unemployment:

Q. Given the record-low unemployment rates, is this the best job market ever for blacks?

A. Not necessarily. As with nearly all demographic groups, a smaller proportion of blacks have jobs now than before the Great Recession, in part because of retirements, more people staying in school and discouraged would-be workers.

The best job market for African-Americans might actually have been in 2000, when 61.4 percent of black adults were employed, the highest proportion ever. That figure fell below 52 percent in the depths of the recession, and is now 57.9 percent.

The same pattern occurred for other groups. Two-thirds of Latinos were employed in 2000; now, only 62.5 percent are. About 65 percent of whites were working in 2000, far higher than the current 60.4 percent. (The data for Asians goes back only to 2003.)

___

Q. Why is the African-American unemployment rate higher than the rate for whites?

A. The main reason is discrimination, according to most research. Valerie Wilson, director of the Economic Policy Institute’s program on race, ethnicity and the economy, notes that even when African-Americans have similar levels of education or experience, their chances of being unemployed are higher.

“That’s what begs the question of what else could be the major reason,” Wilson said.

Nancy DiTomaso, a business professor at Rutgers University, says her research has found that whites likely benefit from networks of family and friends that don’t intentionally exclude blacks or other minorities. Yet, nevertheless, their networks have the effect of helping whites get jobs more readily than blacks.

___

Q. What about other ethnic and racial groups?

A. Everyone is benefiting from the healthy job market. The unemployment rate for Latinos was 4.9 percent in December, just above the record low of 4.8 percent reached in June.

And the jobless rate for Asians was 2.5 percent in December, just above the record low of 2.4 percent set in 2006.

___

Q. What factors have helped lower unemployment for African-Americans?

A. One major reason, Wilson says, is that many more black Americans are college graduates than in the past. That doesn’t completely offset the effects of discrimination. But among all groups, college graduates have lower unemployment rates than those with less education.

Another driver is economic: When the national unemployment rate falls to ultra-low levels, employers typically cast wider nets to find the workers they need. As they do so, they typically start pulling in more people from historically disadvantaged groups. These include job-seekers with less education as well as racial minorities.

With the current U.S. unemployment rate at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent, that appears to be what’s happening.

Some economists want the Federal Reserve to hold off on raising the short-term interest rate it controls for exactly this reason: Raising that rate could slow growth just as the benefits of the economy’s expansion are spreading to disadvantaged groups.

___

Q. Where might the unemployment rate for African-Americans go from here?

A. It depends on the economy. Most economists expect healthy growth this year, fueled in part by the Trump administration’s tax cuts for individuals and companies. That should lower unemployment for all Americans.

Typically, the African-American unemployment rate is about twice the rate for whites and is more volatile. Wilson calculates that for each percentage-point change in the rate for whites, up or down, the rate for African-Americans will swing by about 1.6 points.

 

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Peter Thiel Planning Conservative News Outlet With Mercers After Bannon “One-Two Gut Punch”

Billionaire investor Peter Thiel is reportedly considering launching a conservative news outlet backed by the powerful Mercer family, along with a “cast of Fox News celebrities,” according to Michael Wolff book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” and a report from BuzzFeed news.

According to Wolff, Fox News chairman Roger Ailes Peter Thiel were set to discuss the idea of a conservative news outlet last May – however Ailes slipped and fell two days before the meeting, hitting his head and dying before the discussion could occur. 

Word of Thiel’s potential new venture with the Mercers is of particular interest in light of revelations about “backstabbing” Steve Bannon – executive chairman of Breitbart News, with whom the billionaire family has reportedly split following explosive comments made about the Trump family in Wolff’s new book.

On Thursday, the Mercers and other Breitbart News Network LLC board members were reportedly debating whether to oust Mr. Bannon as chairman, while the news organization has been cast into disarray.

Staffers at Breitbart, which Mr. Bannon has called his “killing machine,” described a “chaotic” day at the company, with writers—many personally recruited by Mr. Bannon—wondering whether he would last the day. –Wall Street Journal

Asked Thursday whether Breitbart should oust Mr. Bannon, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders replied “I certainly think that it’s something they should look at and consider.”

The Mercers had been longtime supporters of Breitbart and Steve Bannon – investing a reported $10 million in the news outlet – while Robert Mercer was perhaps the most influential backer of Donald Trump’s run for the White House. The billionaire, who has been contributing to conservative PACs since at least 1998, recently sold his stake in Breitbart News to his daughters after stepping down from Renaissance Technologies, where he was co-chief executive officer.

Robert Mercer’s daughter Rebekah reportedly pushed Trump to bring Bannon on board, according to Newsweek.

It appears that Rebekah has changed her tune…

Bloomberg White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs reports that “Steve Bannon’s main financial backer, conservative donor Rebekah Mercer, spoke with Trump Today, I’m told,” adding “She then issued a statement distancing herself from Bannon. A “one-two gut punch” for Bannon as one WH official told me.”

With Bannon on the outs and the Mercers reportedly in discussions with Peter Thiel over a conservative news network, one wonders how much longer Breitbart will remain relevant while their Chairman is slinging arrows at the heart of the Trump family.

Originally published at ZeroHedge

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Every Leaked Comey Memo Was Classified, Says FBI Chief FOIA Officer

Whoops! Looks like every single memo leaked by former FBI Director James Comey was deemed classified by the FBI’s Chief FOIA officer – according to a sworn declaration obtained by Judicial Watch.

In an appearance on Fox Business with Lou Dobbs, Judicial Watch director of investigations, Chris Farrell, says that Mr. David Hardy – the FBI’s Chief FOIA officer, declared all of Comey’s memos “all of them, were classified at the time they were written, and they remain classified.

Recall that Comey initially told congressional investigators he tried to “write it in such a way that I don’t include anything that would trigger a classification.” That notion was blown out of the water this week when Sen. Chuck Grassley said that four out of the seven Comey memos he reviewed were “marked classified” at the “Secret” or “Confidential” level. Well – it looks like it was more than four…

We have a sworn declaration from David Hardy who is the chief FOIA officer of the FBI that we obtained just in the last few days, and in that sworn declaration, Mr. Hardy says that all of Comey’s memos – all of them, were classified at the time they were written, and they remain classified. Chris Farrell, Judicial Watch

Therefore, Farrell points out, Comey mishandled national defense information when he “knowingly and willfully” leaked them to his friend at Columbia University.

It’s also mishandling of national defense information, which is a crime. So it’s clear that Mr. Comey not only authored those documents, but then knowingly and willfully leaked them to persons unauthorized, which is in and of itself a national security crime. Mr. Comey should have been read his rights back on June 8th when he testified before the Senate.

Watch

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Trump Dubs Bannon “Sloppy Steve” – Says To Watch What Happens To Him And Author Of “Phony” Book

You knew there would be a Trump tweet like this…

In response to the new book by author Michael Wolff – who was served with a cease-and-desist letter along with former Trump strategist Steve Bannon – who was warned that legal action is imminentPresident Trump dropped a very Trumpian tweet Thursday night, calling the book “phony,” and telling people to look into the author’s past and then “watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve.” 

SLOPPY STEVE ladies and gentlemen! 

Fearing a legal injunction, the publisher has accelerated the book’s release – with turtle-necked liberals lining up to buy their own copies:

Meanwhile, here’s the Daily Mail’s list of the top 20 “jaw-dropping” claims from the book:

  1. Steve Bannon described Don Jr’s Trump Tower meeting with Russians as ‘treasonous and unpatriotic’ and thinks he will ‘crack like an egg’ under the pressure of the Russia investigation
  2. Bannon said there’s ‘zero’ chance Donald Trump didn’t know about the meeting and said Don Jr likely ‘walked them to his father’s office’
  3. First Lady Melania Trump openly wept on the night her husband won the election – and the tears ‘were not of joy’
  4. The whole campaign from the top down thought Trump would lose and everyone had planned for defeat, with Trump himself planning a TV network because he would be ‘the most famous man in the world’
  5. Trump and Melania sleep in separate bedrooms and he demanded a lock on his bedroom door against the wishes of the Secret Service
  6. Trump orders McDonald’s so he’s not poisoned, told staff not to touch his toothbrush and strips his own bedsheets
  7. Trump regularly sits in bed eating a cheeseburger at 6.30pm while calling his friends and watching three TVs
  8. Rupert Murdoch called Trump a ‘f***ing idiot’ after a phone call and billionaire backer Tom Barrack said ‘he’s not only crazy, he’s stupid’
  9. Trump’s aides say he doesn’t read and ‘for all practical purposes is no more than semi-literate’
  10. Trump would try to bed his friends’ wives by goading their husbands to cheat while the wife listened in on speakerphone
  11. White House Communications Director Hope Hicks dated married Corey Lewandowski and Trump later told her: ‘You’re the best piece of tail he’ll ever have.’
  12. The president called acting attorney general Sally Yates a ‘c***’ after she refused to enforce his immigration ban
  13. Sean Spicer, then press secretary, said ‘you can’t make this s*** up’ after his first briefing and went on adopt the phrase as his personal mantra
  14. Trump tells the same stories three times in ten minutes and forgot a succession of old friends’ names at a Mar-a-Lago party
  15. He called Jared Kushner a ‘suck-up’ and said he should never have let Ivanka and her husband move to Washington
  16. Among his verdicts on his staff: Bannon ‘looked like s***’, Reince Priebus was a midget and Kellyanne Conway was a crybaby
  17. Among his staff’s verdicts on him: ‘dope’, ‘dumb as s***’, ‘hopeless idiot’, ‘just a f***ing fool’, ‘lost his mind’, ‘incapable of functioning in his job’
  18. Trump wondered what a ‘golden shower’ was after reading reports about the notorious Russian dossier
  19. Trump offered to marry Morning Joe’s Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough – and mocked Jared Kushner for saying he’d do it
  20. Ivanka Trump jokes with friends about her father’s hair secrets: He had a scalp reduction, combs over from the sides, and uses Just for Men badly

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