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BOO HOO! Climate Activists Alarmed That Twitter Now Allows Dissenting Views on Global Warming

Twitter Files: GEC, New Knowledge, and State-Sponsored Blacklists. twitter Photo

 

By Bryan Jung for The Epoch Times

An organization that says it is a coalition of “climate and anti-disinformation organisations” says Twitter under CEO Elon Musk is allowing more dissenting views on climate change.

Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD), released a Jan. 19 study (pdf), accusing Musk of allowing misinformation about the climate crisis to spread on the social media platform.

The study accused Twitter of boosting the hashtag “#ClimateScam” to users when searching the word “climate,” as its top search result.

The hashtag has suddenly spiked on Twitter search results since July 2022, with its appearance increasing ever since, according to CAAD.

The report said that “in 2022, denialist content made a stark comeback on Twitter in particular.”

Twitter Search

CAAD alleged that at least 91,000 Twitter users reported the #ClimateScam hashtag more than 362,000 times by December.

“The source of its virality is entirely unclear, and re-emphasises the need for transparency on how and why platforms surface content to users,” said the study’s authors.

They said that term appeared to be trending despite “data that shows more activity and engagement on other hashtags such as #ClimateCrisis and #ClimateEmergency.”

The research team claimed that the rise of the term in search results could not be explained by user personalization, the volume of content, or popularity.

“A basic search for ‘climate’ on Facebook did not autofill with overtly sceptic or denialist terms; searching explicitly for #ClimateScam only showed 1.5k users mentioning the term, versus 72k for #ClimateEmergency and 160k for #ClimateCrisis.”

CAAD complained that the source of the #ClimateScam hashtag was unclear and that there was a need for transparency on how the search result came up. (Oh my! NOW they want “transparency!” –TPR)

“Equally, TikTok returned no search results for #ClimateScam, but instead suggested the phrase ‘may be associated with behaviour or content that violates our guidelines.’”

Interest Groups

The authors said that not enough of the content was labeled as misinformation by Twitter’s new management and claimed that it could not find a comparable trend or uptick in “#ClimateScam” on other platforms.

CAAD is partially funded by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a think tank, which is heavily funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The ISD said it is working with social media platforms to explore radicalization online, to minimize the impact of extremist recruitment by groups in Europe and North America.

Since buying Twitter in October, Elon Musk has reduced the social media team’s staff by 50 percent and cut down its content moderation team to protect freedom of expression.

Musk has been a critic of Twitter’s past relationship with federal authorities and the intelligence services, and has released several batches of the so-called “Twitter Files” since late last year.

So, how does it feel to lose your power, wackos?

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Environmental rules stoke anger as California lets precious storm-water wash out to sea

Dredging cranes rise over a section of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, in Isleton. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Environmental rules stoke anger as California lets precious stormwater wash out to sea.

Thanks LA Times

Back in 2014 voters approved 3 billion dollars to build more reservoirs. To this day not a penny has been spent. If done, they would have enough reservoirs to hold water for ten years.

Environmental rules designed to protect imperiled fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have ignited anger among a group of bipartisan lawmakers, who say too much of California’s storm-water is being washed out to sea instead of being pumped to reservoirs and aqueducts.

Since the beginning of January, a series of atmospheric rivers has disgorged trillions of gallons of much-needed moisture across drought-stricken California, but only a small fraction of that water has so far made it into storage. In the delta — the heart of the state’s vast water system — nearly 95% of incoming water has flowed into the Pacific Ocean, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

“With so much excess water in the system, there is no reason that exports south of the Delta cannot be increased,” read another letter that State Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) and Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains (D-Bakersfield) addressed to Newsom.

“We must make the most of the heavy precipitation we are receiving and use it to our advantage,” Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno) wrote in a letter to state and federal officials. He called for increased flexibility on the first flush rule.

 

 

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America’s Broken Immigration System: A Debate

Immigrants cross the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas on January 08, 2023 (John Moore via Getty Images)

 

America’s Broken Immigration System: A Debate
A restrictionist and a proponent of open borders walk into a bar . . .

By The Free Press

January 21, 2023

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In 2022, there were over 2.76 million illegal migrant crossings at the Southwest border. That’s roughly the population of Chicago, America’s third largest city. To address this unprecedented surge, President Biden recently announced tougher restrictions and made a show of visiting the border himself.

But unlike a decade or two ago, when the immigration debate was mostly about economics, today it’s an issue that’s subsumed by the culture wars and our polarized discourse. Republican governors bus migrants to sanctuary cities and they’re called “xenophobic” and “cruel” by the left. But what happens when a Democratic governor does much the same thing, bussing migrants from Colorado to New York City and Chicago? Is it still a heartless political stunt? Or is all of this just an inevitable consequence of our broken immigration system?

So this week: a debate moderated by guest host Kmele Foster between Alex Nowrasteh and Jessica Vaughan. Are current levels of immigration helping or hurting America? How do we balance humanitarian concerns with America’s economic and security needs? Should we be trying to enforce more or less restrictions at the border? And what exactly should we do to fix our immigration policies?

Alex is the director of Economic and Social Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Jessica is the director of Policy Studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that describes themselves as “pro-immigrant but low immigration.”

While Alex and Jessica couldn’t be more opposite in their approach—Alex favors free immigration, while Jessica argues for restrictionist policies—in this episode of Honestly we look for common ground, debate the facts, and search for solutions.

 

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Probe Biden Admin over Plan to Hide Classified Docs Scandal

Investigating the President and the DOJ. AP Photo/Alex Brandon, AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
Probe Biden Admin over Plan to Hide Classified Docs Scandal.

Is it time for another special prosecutor? Thursday the WP ran a article where the DOJ and the WH were not going to go public with the information about the missing top secret papers found at the Penn Center or Biden’s home. All documents Biden had no right to have. Documents that were Top Secret.

According to the Washington Post on Thursday, the White House and Justice Department not only agreed to obscure the scandal from public view, but they also refused to divulge that the second trove of classified documents was already unearthed at Biden’s home in Wilmington when CBS News first contacted the White House about the initial leak of classified documents illegally stored at the Biden Penn Center.

“CBS News was the first news organization to learn of the matter, contacting the White House on Jan. 6 to ask about the Penn Biden Center documents,” the report continued. “White House officials confirmed the scoop, but since the investigation was ongoing, they decided not to offer any additional details — including the critical information that a second batch of documents had been discovered at Biden’s home.”

And a third. Who knows if more will be found?

 

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DeSantis Proposes Sunshine State Bans on Mask and Vax Mandates

Ban the masks and mandates. GettyImages

Thanks to Hannity.

This week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) released a policy proposal to ban mask and vaccine mandates in the Sunshine State; no passports, no forced masking in schools, and he wants to prohibit businesses from requiring masks and prevent “employers from hiring or firing based on mRNA jabs.”

This week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) released a policy proposal to ban mask and vaccine mandates in the Sunshine State; no passports, no forced masking in schools, and he wants to prohibit businesses from requiring masks and prevent “employers from hiring or firing based on mRNA jabs.”

“When the world lost its mind, Florida was a refuge of sanity, serving strongly as freedom’s linchpin,” the governor said in a press release. “These measures will ensure Florida remains this way and will provide landmark protections for free speech for medical practitioners.”

“As a health sciences researcher and physician, I have personally witnessed accomplished scientists receive threats due to their unorthodox positions,” said State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo. “However, many of these positions have proven to be correct, as we’ve all seen over the past few years. All medical professionals should be encouraged to engage in scientific discourse without fearing for their livelihoods or their careers.”

From the DeSantis Press Release:

In 2021, Governor DeSantis signed legislation to protect Florida jobs and parents’ rights to make health care decisions for their students, banning private employer vaccine mandates and mask mandates across the state. Governor DeSantis continues to safeguard Floridians’ freedoms and ensure no one is discriminated against based on their COVID-19 vaccine status or is subject to a two-tiered test and mask discrimination policy from employers.

The proposal includes the permanent prohibition of mandates that are continuously proven ineffective, including:

  • Permanently prohibiting COVID-19 vaccine passports in Florida;
  • Permanently prohibiting COVID-19 vaccine and mask requirements in all Florida schools;
  • Permanently prohibiting COVID-19 masking requirements at businesses; and
  • Permanently prohibiting employers from hiring or firing based on mRNA jabs.

Included in Governor DeSantis’ proposal are first amendment rights guarantees for medical professionals, ensuring no one loses their job or medical license for voicing their professional opinions in Florida. The legislation will safeguard medical professionals from discrimination based on their personal religious views.

At an event on Tuesday, DeSantis said that legislators “will pass it this year,” adding, “I’ve already talked to the leadership.”

More over at The Daily Mail:

 

 

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You make the call. Atlanta: Protesters call for ‘violence’ against police after shooting leaves 1 dead, officer injured

State troopers stand with a DeKalb, Georgia, police officers on Constitution and International Park in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

We want to thank the folks over at FOX.

Protesters in Atlanta, are calling for violence against police officers and law enforcement entities following a police-involved shooting on Wednesday that left a state trooper wounded and one man dead.

The Twitter account Scenes from the Atlanta Forest calls for a “Night of Rage” on Friday to enact “reciprocal violence to be done to the police and their allies,” according to the Scenes from the Atlanta Forest Twitter account.

“Consider this a call for reciprocal violence to be done to the police and their allies. On Friday, January 20th, wherever you are, you are invited to participate in a night of rage in order to honor the memory of our fallen comrade,” the group wrote on Twitter, in an apparent violation of the platform’s terms and conditions.

The account claims to be a part of Defend the Atlanta Forest, one of the multiple groups protesting in an area where the city is set to construct the new Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.

GEORGIA STATE TROOPER SHOT BY PROTESTER AT ‘COP CITY’ NEAR ATLANTA

State troopers stand with a DeKalb, Georgia, police officers on Constitution and International Park in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023.

State troopers stand with a DeKalb, Georgia, police officers on Constitution and International Park in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

The Defenders of the Forest said in a statement to Fox News Digital that it is “a broad, diverse, decentralized movement to defend the Atlanta forest.”  They went on to say they are only a “news aggregator for the movement” and “not affiliated” with Scenes from the Atlanta Forest.

In another tweet, posted several hours later, the group added: “The police will kill you if given the chance. Now is the time for bravery. Take care of each other. Be dangerous together.”

The group appeared to acknowledge the post was against Twitter’s rule not to incite violence as it said in yet another tweet that its account “is not long for this world.”

The upcoming event comes after a Georgia State Patrol trooper, wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot in the abdomen Wednesday morning. It happened as police tried to clear an encampment near the site where the $90 million Atlanta Police Department (APD) facility will be constructed.

Police at the scene where a Georgia state trooper was shot on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023.

Police at the scene where a Georgia state trooper was shot on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (Fox 5 Atlanta)

The sweep was conducted as “an operation to identify people who are trespassing and committing other crimes on the property,” the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) said.

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“At about 9:00 a.m. today, as law enforcement was moving through the property, officers located a man inside a tent in the woods. Officers gave verbal commands to the man who did not comply and shot a Georgia State Patrol Trooper,” GBI said in a statement. “Other law enforcement officers returned fire, hitting the man.”

“Law enforcement evacuated the Trooper to a safe area. The man died on scene,” it added.

The bureau continued: “The injured Georgia State Patrol Trooper was taken to a local hospital where he underwent surgery. A handgun and shell casings were located at the scene. The GBI is working the officer-involved shooting and the investigation is still active and ongoing.”

The identities of the officer and the deceased have not yet been released. The officer was hospitalized and is in stable condition.

DeKalb, Georgia, and Atlanta SWAT members are pictured leaving the Gresham Park command post in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023.

DeKalb, Georgia, and Atlanta SWAT members are pictured leaving the Gresham Park command post in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

"The individual who fired upon law enforcement and shot the trooper was killed in the exchange of gunfire," GBI director Michael Register said.

“The individual who fired upon law enforcement and shot the trooper was killed in the exchange of gunfire,” GBI director Michael Register said. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

During a press conference, GBI director Michael Register confirmed that the shooting was in self-defense after the now-deceased individual opened fire “without warning” on the trooper.

“An individual, without warning, shot a Georgia State Patrol trooper,” Register told reporters. “Other law enforcement personnel returned fire in self-defense and evacuated the trooper to a safe area. The individual who fired upon law enforcement and shot the trooper was killed in the exchange of gunfire.”

Four others were arrested at the scene and taken to the DeKalb County Jail. Charges are pending.

“They’re endangering the community and the citizens around this area,” Register said of the encampment and the protesters, FOX 5 Atlanta reported.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp also commented on the shooting and said he and his family were praying for law enforcement officers.

“Marty, the girls, and I are praying for this brave Trooper and public safety officers across all law enforcement agencies today,” he tweeted Wednesday morning. “As our thoughts remain with him and his family, our resolve also remains steadfast and strong to see criminals brought to justice.”

FBI RELEASES NEW DETAILS ON POLICE USE OF FORCE AS PUBLIC GRAPPLES WITH DISTRUST

The joint task force formed to combat ongoing criminal activity at the APD site includes the GBI, Atlanta Police Department, Georgia Attorney General’s Office, DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office, Georgia State Patrol, FBI, DeKalb County Police Department, Department of Natural Resources, and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA).

Georgia state troopers stand along Key Road in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023.

Georgia state troopers stand along Key Road in Atlanta on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023. (John Spink/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Defend the Atlanta Forest held a vigil Wednesday evening at the Little Five Points Square to “memorialize the forest defender” that was “murdered by the police,” it announced on Twitter.

“Today the police shot and killed a forest defender below the canopy of our beloved forest,” the group said. “No one can bring our friend back to us. An innocent life has been taken and the machines continue.”

“We will not go quietly into this dark night,” it added.

ATLANTA POLICE SEEK SUSPECT IN FATAL CHRISTMAS EVE SHOOTING

“Police killed a forest defender today, someone who loved the forest, someone who fought to protect the earth & its inhabitants,” the group continued in a tweet.

And: “This is why we organize to stop Cop City. And we will. In honor of their life, and the lives of everyone killed and imprisoned by the police.”

The group also announced another event on Jan. 21, where members are encouraged to “wear black in mourning” for the dead member.

These events come amid heightened tension between protesters and the police, involving several arrests over several months over the APD construction.

“The Atlanta Police Department seeks to turn 300 acres of forest into a tactical training compound featuring a mock city. This project was announced to the shock of community members who had been given no opportunity to weigh in on the proposal. The entire process has been shadier than the forest itself,” Defend the Atlanta Forest’s website reads.

According to the group, they are explicitly protesting the new “Cop City” as it will “hyper-militarize law enforcement” and “will serve as a national model of police militarization and budgetary bloat.”

The group names the 2020 death of George Floyd and others as its motivation to protest police violence.

A man holds up his hands while marching following the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia.

A man holds up his hands while marching following the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images)

People march following the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021, in Atlanta.

People march following the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021, in Atlanta. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images)

The group also claims it does not advocate for violence and that “no one has been harmed by participants in this movement.”

Last week, anarchists in Atlanta also targeted Brasfield & Gorrie, the general contractor of the police facility, and spray-painted graffiti on its buildings.

“B&G stop cop city,” the graffiti read, according to photos. “We have the numbers,” another spray-painted message read.

Also, last month, police arrested five people at the APD site location. They were also charged with domestic terrorism.

 

On Dec. 14, the GBI wrote: “Yesterday, December 13, 2022, our agents assisted APD and other local, state, and task force members in an operation to remove barricades blocking some of the entrances to the training center.”

“Prior to yesterday’s operation, APD and other agencies had made several arrests over the past few months for the ongoing criminal activity at the site location. Some of the criminal activities include carjacking, various crimes against persons, destruction of property, arson, and attacks against public safety officials. Law enforcement continues to address the criminal acts committed by the individuals that continue to occupy the area of the proposed training site,” it said.

Atlanta's authorities arrested Francis Carroll, age 22, of Maine, Nicholas Olson, age 25, of Nebraska, Serena Hertel, age 25, of California, Leonardo Vioselle, age 20, of Macon, Georgia, and Arieon Robinson, age 22, of Wisconsin, on Dec. 13, 2022.

Atlanta’s authorities arrested Francis Carroll, age 22, of Maine, Nicholas Olson, age 25, of Nebraska, Serena Hertel, age 25, of California, Leonardo Vioselle, age 20, of Macon, Georgia, and Arieon Robinson, age 22, of Wisconsin, on Dec. 13, 2022. (DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office/Georgia Bureau of Investigation)

The arrested individuals included Francis Carroll, age 22, of Maine, Nicholas Olson, age 25, of Nebraska, Serena Hertel, age 25, of California, Leonardo Vioselle, age 20, of Macon, GA, and Arieon Robinson, age 22, of Wisconsin.

“After police cleared the area of concern, which included makeshift treehouses, they found explosive devices, gasoline, and road flares,” the GBI said in its statement on Jan. 14.

 

DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said those who were arrested had attacked firefighters and police officers with rocks and weapons as the officers removed barricades blocking some entrances to the site, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.

The investigation into the activities at the APD site is active and ongoing. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact local law enforcement or the GBI at 1-800-597-TIPS.

Fox News’ Paul Best contributed to this report.

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DOJ tells FBI to stand down. Justice Department Considered but Rejected Role in Biden Documents Search

President Joe Biden’s Justice Department reportedly permitted the president’s personal attorneys to search for classified documents in separate locations without security clearances or the FBI present.

President Joe Biden’s Justice Department reportedly permitted the president’s personal attorneys to search for classified documents in separate locations without security clearances or the FBI present. I wonder if they realize that the DOJ folks who made this decision will be called to testify, and Biden will have to hire outside lawyers if this goes to a trial. Maybe a sitting President can’t be charged, but Biden’s lawyers can be charged. Tampering with Evidence.

We want to thank the WSJ and Breitbart for this.

WASHINGTON—The Justice Department considered having FBI agents monitor a search by President Biden’s lawyers for classified documents at his homes but decided against it, both to avoid complicating later stages of the investigation and because Mr. Biden’s attorneys had quickly turned over a first batch and were cooperating, according to people familiar with the matter.

After Mr. Biden’s lawyers discovered documents marked as classified dating from his term as vice president at an office he used at a Washington-based think tank on Nov. 2, the Justice Department opened an inquiry into why and how they got there. Mr. Biden’s legal team prepared to search his other properties for any similar documents, and discussed with the Justice Department the prospect of having FBI agents present while Mr. Biden’s lawyers conducted the additional searches.

Instead, the two sides agreed that Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys would inspect the homes, notify the Justice Department as soon as they identified any other potentially classified records, and arrange for law-enforcement authorities to take them.

Those deliberations, which haven’t previously been reported, shed new light on how the Biden team’s efforts to cooperate with investigators have thus far helped it avoid more aggressive actions by law enforcement.

In the week since news reports first surfaced about the documents, the incident has drawn parallels to the discovery of a much larger number of documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, which federal agents obtained a warrant to search in August after more than a year of negotiations between Mr. Trump’s lawyers, the National Archives and the Justice Department and after Mr. Trump’s lawyers said all documents had been returned.

Mr. Trump’s supporters have accused the Justice Department of a double standard in treatment; Mr. Biden’s supporters have pointed to the president’s legal team’s cooperation and swift moves to inform the Justice Department of the documents’ discovery as a key difference. Mr. Biden has said he doesn’t know what the documents are or how they wound up at his office at the Penn Biden Center or his Delaware home. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was director of the Washington think tank from 2017 to 2019, told reporters on Tuesday that he was unaware that government documents had been stored there.

Biden ‘Cooperating Fully’ With DOJ as Garland Appoints Special Counsel

Biden ‘Cooperating Fully’ With DOJ as Garland Appoints Special CounselPlay video: Biden ‘Cooperating Fully’ With DOJ as Garland Appoints Special Counsel
President Biden said Thursday a “small number” of classified documents from his time as vice president were found at his home and in his personal library. Attorney General Merrick Garland outlined the decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The discussions and the Justice Department’s willingness to let the Biden lawyers do the searches unsupervised also suggest federal investigators are girding for a monthslong inquiry that could stretch well into Mr. Biden’s third year in office.

One reason not to involve the FBI at an early stage: That way the Justice Department would preserve the ability to take a tougher line, including executing a future search warrant, if negotiations ever turned hostile, current and former law-enforcement officials said.

Representatives of the FBI and Justice Department declined to comment. In a call to reporters about the investigation, White House spokesman Ian Sams said the president and his team were cooperating fully with the special counsel review “so that it can proceed swiftly and thoroughly.”

The White House revealed on two separate days last week that documents had been located at the president’s Delaware residence, as well as those found at a garage there in December. Part of the reason the new documents were revealed separately is that Mr. Biden’s personal attorneys don’t have security clearances to handle classified documents and had to set aside any material that could qualify as such. Richard Sauber, special counsel to Mr. Biden, who has that clearance, accompanied Justice Department personnel to retrieve documents, when they discovered additional pages with classification markings.

Attorney General Merrick Garland last week assigned a former top prosecutor in the Trump administration, Robert Hur, to serve as special counsel investigating the discovery of the documents in the locales associated with Mr. Biden. Justice Department officials were concerned that an FBI presence as the Biden team hunted for documents could complicate investigators’ ability to execute search warrants or subpoena documents as the investigation proceeds, some of the people said, in a sign that investigators are considering the possibility of a grand jury investigation into the matter.

Mr. Hur is expected to begin his job as special counsel by the end of the month, after he winds down his work as a defense lawyer at the law firm Gibson Dunn, people familiar with his appointment said.

Robert Hur has been appointed special counsel in the Biden documents investigation.PHOTO: MICHAEL MCCOY/REUTERS

Soon after the initial discovery in November, Mr. Garland tasked the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Chicago, John Lausch, with reviewing the documents, with an eye toward determining whether a special counsel should be appointed.

Mr. Lausch told Mr. Garland on Jan. 5 that he thought a special counsel was warranted given the many unanswered questions about the documents, and Mr. Garland quickly agreed, the people said.

Mr. Hur is expected to grapple with legally and politically thorny considerations that could be reminiscent of those from the last special counsel related to a sitting president, potentially including whether to pursue in-person testimony from Mr. Biden. During the 2017-19 special counsel inquiry led by Robert Mueller into Russia’s interference in the 2016 campaign and any links between that effort and the Trump campaign, investigators tried for more than a year to interview then-President Trump before ultimately settling for written testimony.

Mr. Sams declined to say whether Mr. Biden would sit for an interview with the special counsel if asked.

Legal experts said an open-book strategy could help shorten Mr. Hur’s inquiry and keep it from dragging out over Mr. Biden’s presidency.

“My goal would be to get everybody interviewed by Robert Hur as quickly as possible—not throw up roadblocks, not assert privileges, and get this thing over with,” said Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel in the Obama administration.

The Justice Department investigation into the Biden documents comes as another special counsel is already deep into a parallel inquiry into the classified documents at Mr. Trump’s Florida home.

Former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida was searched by FBI agents last year.PHOTO: MARCO BELLO/REUTERS

The FBI in August executed a search warrant at the property, believing more such documents remained there based on witness interviews and security-camera footage. They removed dozens of boxes containing additional documents, many of which were mixed in with clothing and news clippings. Prosecutors later disclosed they were investigating whether anyone sought to obstruct their inquiry, in addition to whether anyone should be prosecuted for mishandling the documents. Mr. Trump has called the Justice Department’s moves a witch hunt and said he did nothing wrong.

The Justice Department has sought to keep the two inquiries separate by assigning them to different teams, according to people familiar with the matter. The Biden White House has highlighted differences between the two inquiries, stressing in particular how their cooperative stance compares to the Trump team’s resistance to turn over records to the National Archives after repeated requests. Mr. Trump’s legal team later clashed with the Justice Department over the appointment of an outside arbiter, known as a special master, to review documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.

Yet the Biden team’s bumpy rollout of its discoveries—it only confirmed the document discoveries after news reports and has offered few new details—complicates its attempt to draw a hard distinction between Mr. Biden’s actions and those of Mr. Trump, said John Fishwick, who served as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia during the Obama administration.

“He is the sitting president, there’s no reason for him to hold back anything about this,” Mr. Fishwick said. “It makes it harder to say it’s apples and oranges, and it undercuts the argument that you were different.”

—Sabrina Siddiqui contributed to this article.

Write to Aruna Viswanatha at aruna.viswanatha@wsj.com, Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com and C. Ryan Barber at ryan.barber@wsj.com

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Fauci remains on US payroll and has taxpayer-funded security despite ‘retiring’ at end of 2022

Dr. Anthony Fauci, pictured May 17 during a Senate subcommittee hearing, became a hated figure on the right in part because of what he represented—the arrogant, corrupt, and often incompetent bureaucratic managerial class that believes it has a right to make decisions for our society. (Photo: Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)

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Fauci will be the 2023 commencement speaker at Yale’s School of medicine

By Jordan Schachtel

We’ve been bamboozled.

Despite claiming to have retired at the end of last year, Dr. Anthony Fauci remains on staff in the Government Health bureaucracy at the NIH and maintains his status as the highest-paid bureaucrat in the federal government. Additionally, Fauci has secured an indefinite taxpayer-funded security detail, The Dossier has confirmed.

Fauci remains on staff at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) so that he maintains eligibility for a taxpayer-funded U.S. Marshals detail, which involves more than half a dozen agents on a full-time detail.

In August of 2022, Fauci wrote that he would be “stepping down” from his position in December in order to “pursue the next chapter of my career.” It remains unclear what Fauci’s new role is at the NIH. All we know is that he no longer leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). That position is now held by Hugh Auchincloss, Fauci’s longtime deputy. Auchincloss is a walking conflict of interest. His daughter is a Big Pharma executive, and his son is a U.S. congressman.

In a recent “exit interview” with the corporate press, Fauci claimed to have received endless “death threats,” thereby justifying his around-the-clock taxpayer-funded security detail. However, this privilege is unique to Fauci, as it is not even afforded to most cabinet secretaries.

Fauci’s newfound status was first reported by Dr Marty Makary at Johns Hopkins University.

Makary writes, citing sources at the NIH:

Once source close to the matter told me that the White House made the decision to keep Dr. Fauci employed by the government in order to keep his security detail of U.S. Marshals. The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has received death threats, including one that was believed to be an intercepted plot to harm him.

He continues:

Some staff at NIH are simply frustrated by the idea that the 82-year-old former NIAID director is part of an inside network of legacy government players that are ‘taken care of’ by each other. If Dr. Fauci is still “on the books” it would be in line with a pattern of older NIH scientists being shuffled around government at the end of their career.

When reached by The Dossier, both the U.S. Marshals and the NIH refused to confirm or deny the fact that Fauci remains on the government payroll. However, The Dossier has independently confirmed that Fauci receives a security detail at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer, which confirms that he remains on the NIH roster. Though his duties are unclear, Fauci remains classified as an “employee” in the NIH directory.

A full time protective detail is billed at over $1 million per month, according to previous reporting on U.S. Marshals security costs. A large team of U.S. Marshals special agents have been detailed to Fauci for almost three years, meaning that he has incurred tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded security costs.

It’s not as if Dr Fauci can’t afford private security from time to time. He has become a very wealthy man over the course of his time in government.

The government bureaucrat’s net worth soared especially during the Covid hysteria era. Via Open The Books, he disclosed a net worth increase from $7.6 million on January 1, 2019, to over $12.6 million on December 31, 2021.

In his post, Dr Makary explains that Fauci’s situation is not an aberration, but the norm, as the NIH acts as a good ol’ boys network for recently “retired” officials, setting up longtime officials with no-show jobs:

NIAID’s most recent chief of viral diseases, 85-year-old Dr. Bernard Moss, who just stepped down from his leadership role, still works at the agency. And Dr. John E. Bennett, who will turn 90 this year, also still works at NIAID as an infectious disease scientist.

Last year, Dr. Francis Collins (age 72) stepped down from his role as NIH director and soon after was named co-head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Collins is also still working in a lab at the NIH after serving as director of the agency for 12 years.

To quote Arte Johnson:

play-sharp-fill

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Corruption Emotional abuse How sick is this? Reprints from others.

Crackhead Hunter Biden sinks even lower than before — not a surprise.

He Takes Action Against His 4-Year-Old Daughter

 

Hunter Biden is a lot of things, but it looks like we can add “deadbeat father” to that list.

Not only is the president’s son fighting tooth and nail in the court system to lower the amount of child support he will have to remit to Lunden Roberts, a former Washington D.C.-based exotic dancer with whom Hunter Biden had a child, but he’s also exhausting all possible legal maneuver to prevent the child from bearing the family surname.

According to the New York Post, Hunter Biden told an Arkansas court that his 4-year-old daughter, Navy Joan Roberts, would be robbed of “peaceful existence” if she were to take the Biden family name. That’s an interesting angle. It’s almost as if he’s admitting that the Biden name brings trouble.

He’s never even met his daughter.

But as a December New York Post report noted, Hunter Biden hasn’t even met his young daughter yet, and it was only in 2020 that he was finally forced to admit that he fathered the girl after DNA tests confirmed it. President Joe Biden, the young girl’s grandfather, also remains estranged.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys doubled down, arguing that the girl should have the power to make that decision on her own once “the disparagement of the Biden name is not at its height.”

Roberts, however, had a contrasting view of the Biden surname.

In late December, Roberts argued to Circuit Court Judge Holly Meyer that her daughter should be afforded the right to carry the prestigious last name, saying it would benefit the young girl because the last name is “now synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute and politically powerful.”

Why doesn’t Hunter Biden want to let the child have his last name, given that he’s the father? Anyone even remotely familiar with political optics can answer that question quickly. It’s an elitist PR issue, plain and simple.

The Biden family, as corrupt and shady as they come across, presumably can’t fathom the thought of a child born out of wedlock to a former D.C. stripper sharing the same last name.

Hunter Biden’s excuses to the court as to why he doesn’t believe the child deserves to carry the family name are weak, at best, and sound more like a sneaky way of complying with the wishes of others in his family who won’t tolerate young Navy Joan taking the Biden name, as it would ultimately draw negative media attention that the Biden’s can’t afford at the moment.

But the strategy seems to have backfired spectacularly because now the headlines read as though Hunter Biden is a candidate for “worst father of the decade.”

Among many others, Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law at George Washington University Jonathan Turley tore into Hunter Biden’s attempts to block his daughter from taking his name.

“It is awful to think of this child learning that her father fought recognition of paternity, fought child support, and then fought her using his name. Fortunately, she has the law on her side and, despite her father’s disgraceful efforts, she is a Biden,” Turley tweeted.

Many others agreed with Turley’s assessment.

“What a thoroughly rotten thing to do to a child. Just consider that Hunter had all the privileges of life. He wants to deny all of those privileges to his own child and fought to avoid his responsibility every step of the way,” one Twitter user wrote.

If Hunter Biden wants to avoid further scandal and negative press, this is one issue he should probably let go of as soon as possible. Not attempting to weasel out of child support payments would also be an excellent first step.

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CNN’s Andrew McCabe Says DOJ Should NOT Cooperate With GOP Biden Classified Docs Probe: ‘Take A Very Hard Line Against That’

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CNN’s Andrew McCabe Says DOJ Should NOT Cooperate With GOP Biden Classified Docs Probe: ‘Take A Very Hard Line Against That’

Former FBI Deputy Director and CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Andrew McCabe said the Justice Department should not cooperate with the House GOP’s investigation into President Joe Biden’s classified documents case.

Friday afternoon, Ohio Republican Congressman and Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan announced an investigation into  President Joe Biden’s classified documents issue with a letter that also offered a defense of ex-President Donald Trump. and attacked the Justice Department’s conduct in Trump’s case.

On Friday night’s edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, anchor Anderson Cooper asked McCabe what impact Jordan’s probe would have and McCabe emphatically urged the DoJ not to cooperate with it:

 

COOPER: Chairman Jim Jordan announced this House Judiciary Committee investigation, into the DOJ actions, related to the President’s handling of the classified documents, today. How much does that impact the DOJ ongoing investigation?

MCCABE: Well, I think that DOJ will likely – I certainly would advise them, if they were willing to listen to my advice, I would advise them to take a very hard line against that.

There is a clear precedent here of not sharing information, from an ongoing criminal investigation, with Congress. And I think the DOJ is in a very strong position, to resist, on those grounds.

Who knows what comes of that resistance? Maybe DOJ leadership starts getting subpoenaed. And ultimately, that fight will end up in the courts. And that could drag things out. That’s going to be an additional distraction to DOJ. But it shouldn’t disrupt the actual conduct of the investigation. So, that’s a – it’ll be a separate but related set of stressors that DOJ has to deal with.

COOPER: And, right now, I mean, you have a sitting President, you have a former President, who has already declared a candidacy, both under investigation, by separate Special Counsels, appointed by the Attorney General. This seems pretty unprecedented, no?

MCCABE: It’s absolutely unprecedented. I can’t think of another situation, even remotely like it.

I think it was a very astute move, by the Attorney General, to appoint a Special Counsel, in the Biden inquiry. I think it’s essential that these inquiries are treated exactly the same, at their inception, given the same sort of resources, and attention, and priority and, of course, special counsels.

But, at this point, Anderson, they become entirely different, and totally independent. The facts are very different. The way their respective teams are treating their interactions, with DOJ, will be very different. And they could come to very different results.

Watch above via CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360.