Texas To Fully End Taxpayer Funding Of Planned Parenthood By Feb. 3

January 24, 20211 2 minutes read

By Bethany Blankley | The Center Square

Beginning Feb. 3, Texas Planned Parenthood facilities will no longer be allowed to receive Medicaid funds, according to a letter sent from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission.

After years of lengthy court battles, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state of Texas in November, which sought to ban taxpayer funding of the abortion provider after videos were released by the Center for Medical Progress alleging the group was engaged in the sale or donation of aborted baby parts.

The testimony in the video, Paxton said, amounted to “morally bankrupt and unlawful conduct” and that Planned Parenthood was not a “‘qualified’ provider.”

The state was sued, and a lower court blocked the state from removing Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding in 2017.

Texas appealed and won. The state gave Planned Parenthood 30 days notice and rejected its request to continue using Medicaid dollars.

According to Texas Right to Life, “Medicaid providers in Texas are required to follow Texas Medicaid policies and federal and state law. The Texas Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found Planned Parenthood violated federal regulations by altering abortion procedures to harvest baby body parts. Thus, the OIG terminated Planned Parenthood’s provider contract.”

Planned Parenthood provides services to roughly 8,000 Medicaid patients in Texas, the Texas Tribune reports.

“The people who rely on Medicaid are the most vulnerable Texans and likely experiencing some of the worst economic effects of the pandemic,” Jeffrey Hons, president of Planned Parenthood South Texas, said. “Forcing people – many of whom are struggling to make ends meet and care for their families in a global pandemic – to scramble for basic health care is terrible policy, certainly uncharitable, indeed un-American.”

In 2019, the Texas Legislature also passed a law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, that prohibits government agencies from contracting with groups that provide or promote abortions.

Attorney General Ken Paxton explained that the law “prohibits the State Employee Charitable Campaign and its Policy Committee from entering into a taxpayer resource transaction with an abortion provider or an affiliate of an abortion provider.” He said the program “constitutes a taxpayer resource transaction.”

Nationally, according to its most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood received $616.8 million in federal funding, of which roughly 90 percent came from Medicaid.

https://smcorridornews.com/texas-to-fully-end-taxpayer-funding-of-planned-parenthood-by-feb-3/

Sarah Huckabee is running for governor

https://www.sarahforgovernor.com/

Supreme Court ends Trump emoluments lawsuits

22 minutes ago

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, in Washington. Trump is en route to his Mar-a-Lago Florida Resort. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON (AP) —

The Supreme Court on Monday brought an end to lawsuits over whether Donald Trump illegally profited off his presidency.

The justices threw out Trump’s challenge to lower court rulings that had allowed lawsuits to go forward alleging that he violated the Constitution’s emoluments clause by accepting payments from foreign and domestic officials who stay at the Trump International Hotel.

The high court also ordered the lower court rulings thrown out as well and directed appeals courts in New York and Richmond, Virginia, to dismiss the suits as moot now that Trump is no longer in office.

https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-lawsuits-us-supreme-court-courts-df42ef0eec5fa57edf3e294234051d88

Trump Declassified Memos Prove FBI Gave Clinton Campaign Pass on Foreign Donors

Agents were thwarted by their own bureau

Jarrett Staff by Jarrett Staff January 25, 2021 Reading Time: 2min read

Memos declassified by President Trump Tuesday night before his departure from office unearth new information regarding Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Newly released memos, obtained by Just the News, show “FBI agents opened an investigation in late 2014 into a foreign power’s effort to curry influence with Hillary Clinton’s prospective presidential campaign through donations.”

However, agents were thwarted by their own bureau. “The bureau’s leadership slow-walked a surveillance warrant and instead arranged for the candidate to get a defensive briefing” reported Just the News. Memos show “FBI agents became so frustrated that they were being stonewalled from securing a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to investigate the foreign money plot that they even escalated to then-FBI Director James Comey.”

On April 14, 2015, an FBI employee expressed concern that he may be “overstepping” his chain of command by writing Comey an email expressing their concerns. “The FISA application has remained in limbo for the last four months, even though subsequent investigative activity by [redacted] provided additional probable cause for the FISA application” the email stated.

The email went on to say that the FBI field office leading the probe was “still uncertain as to why the application has not been sent to DOJ for final approval although several reasons have been put forth by CD [criminal division], most recently that the decision to put the application on hold originated ‘on the seventh floor.”

The seventh floor of the FBI headquarters refers to the location of offices for the FBI director and his team. Comey responded, “Don’t know anything about this but will get smarter.” Memos did not offer any evidence that a FISA warrant was ever approved. “Instead, they show that FBI leadership ultimately decided to give Clinton’s team a defensive briefing in October 2015 as her presidential campaign geared up.”

Nothing more was done than simply telling the Clinton lawyers that “the campaign should increase its vigilance of contributions related to any of the matters discussed above” and that “the FBI was providing them with this briefing for awareness and so Ms. Clinton could take appropriate action to protect herself.”

Source: JustTheNews.com

https://thegreggjarrett.com/trump-declassified-memos-prove-fbi-gave-clinton-campaign-pass-on-foreign-donors/

Washington Post Smears Michael Flynn’s Brother For Things He Didn’t Do

Margot ClevelandBy Margot Cleveland

JANUARY 25, 2021

On Wednesday, the Washington Post ran an innuendo-filled article that relied on a bevy of anonymous sources to invent a new “scandal” for the Flynn family.

“The Army falsely denied for days that Lt. Gen. Charles A. Flynn, the brother of disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, was involved in a key meeting during its heavily scrutinized response to the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol,” the Post opened.

An independent investigation led by former Missouri U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen exonerated Flynn of the legal charges brought against him to foil his service in the Trump administration. The Post’s pejorative description of Michael Flynn early in this article served as a clear tell that a hit piece would follow.

And follow it did: Over the course of 1,400-plus words, the Post implied there was something questionable about Charles Flynn’s services as the deputy chief of staff of the Army during the D.C. riots—something so nefarious that the Army would lie about it, the Post’s coverage implied.

The telephone meeting at the heart of the article occurred on Jan. 6, 2021, after riots had broken out during a demonstration over election irregularities. During the telephone calls, district officials and the Capitol Police asked the Pentagon to dispatch the National Guard to help quell the riots.

While acknowledging that “it makes sense that Flynn, as the Army’s deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and training, would have been involved in the Pentagon response” to the riots, the Post still went on to sell readers a cover-up scandal.

“The Army’s initial denial of Flynn’s participation in the critical Jan. 6 meeting, despite multiple inquiries on the matter, comes as lawmakers demand transparency from the Defense Department in the aftermath of one of Washington’s gravest national security failures,” the outlet wrote.

However, a close reading of the article reveals that the Army never claimed Flynn had not attended the meeting—rather “anonymous sources” in the military had. Then, citing another unnamed source, the Post took the narrative further.

“One official directly familiar with the situation said there was concern in both the Army and National Guard about possible political fallout if it was discovered that Flynn was involved in the Army’s deliberations,” the Post article says. The Post then pushed this “political fallout” theme, opining:

The episode highlights the challenge for the Army in having an influential senior officer whose brother has become a central figure in QAnon, the extreme ideology that alleges Trump was waging a battle with Satan-worshiping Democrats who traffic children. Michael Flynn, who previously ran the Defense Intelligence Agency and left the Army as a three-star general, has espoused QAnon messages, and QAnon adherents are among those who have been charged in connection with the attempted insurrection.

(continued…)

https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/25/washington-post-smears-michael-flynns-brother-for-things-he-didnt-do/

>>12707952

(continued…)

Washington Post Smears Michael Flynn’s Brother For Things He Didn’t Do

Margot ClevelandBy Margot Cleveland

JANUARY 25, 2021

As you see, the Post attempts to smear Charles Flynn with his brother’s actions, a completely unfair personal attack. Charles Flynn cannot fairly be held responsible for the actions of Michael Flynn, but the Post baselessly connects them in a patent attempt at tarnishing Charles Flynn’s reputation. This episode merely again highlights the hackery of the Washington Post and other corporate media outlets.

There is no story here, or rather the only story here is that the integrity-challenged “journalists” at the Post, who brought America the Russia collusion hoax, have no problem attempting to ruin Charles Flynn’s career by tying it without any evidence to the choices of his brother, Michael.

Michael Flynn, who stressed that he cannot speak for his brother, was outraged that the media, relying on unnamed sources, would attempt to tarnish their reputations earned through years of difficult public service.

“My brother Charlie and I have fought in every major conflict for the last 40 years. And we served in three of those conflicts at the exact same time. My life, my brother’s life, our families’ lives have been defined by service to our country,” Flynn told The Federalist, also noting “we both have sons who currently serve and who have also served in combat tours.”

None of the Qanon conspiracy smear has anything to do with Charles Flynn, whom former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy described to the Post as “an officer of an incredibly high integrity,” and as someone who served “multiple combat tours” and “has buried a lot of people.”

While the Post reported McCarthy’s comments, that is not enough to excuse the “journalist” hit executed on Charles Flynn. Whether this article will prove a one-off or will instead lay a foundation for a more sprawling narrative as Congress investigates the D.C. riots is yet to be seen.

But one thing the last five years has proven is that the press has perfected the anatomy of a smear and that no one—no matter his service or his sacrifice to this country—will be spared if it furthers a leftist political purpose.

(end)

https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/25/washington-post-smears-michael-flynns-brother-for-things-he-didnt-do/

Judge Keeps ‘Zip-Tie Guy’ Under Lock & Key

January 25, 2021DANIEL JACKSONFacebookTwitterEmail

Federal prosecutors say Eric Munchel should not be released on bail, citing the possibility that he committed an assault after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

(CN) — A federal judge in Washington blocked the release of the man who was photographed carrying plastic handcuffs in the U.S. Senate chamber during this month’s insurrectionist attack on the Capitol.

In a pair of 1-page orders issued Sunday, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Beryl Howell stayed release orders that would have freed Munchel as of 11 a.m. Monday morning.

Munchel is charged Washington with violent entry on Capitol grounds, a felony, as well as the misdemeanor crime of entering a restricted building. Since he was arrested on Jan. 10 in Tennessee, however, the 30-year-old defendant made his initial appearance and a subsequent detention hearing in U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffery Frensley agreed Friday evening to release the Nashville man under house arrest until the criminal proceedings against him resolved, saying he did not find Munchel a danger to the community.

Earning the nickname “zip-tie guy” in the media, Munchel is said to be the masked man pictured in a photograph from the Jan. 6 riot in the Capitol carrying a stun gun and wearing a tactical vest while he climbed over a railing in the Senate chamber. The photograph has become one of the most memorable images from that day and was included along with several others in a 20-page appeal and emergency stay request prosecutors filed Sunday.

“(It) is difficult to fathom a more serious danger to the community — to the District of Columbia, to the country, or to the fabric of American democracy — than the one posed by armed insurrectionists, including the defendant, who joined in the occupation of the United States Capitol,” the prosecutors wrote.

Howell stayed Munchel’s release so the court can review the detention decision. The judge also directed that the U.S. Marshals Service move Munchel to Washington.

The appeal cites new evidence not presented at last week’s detention hearing that Munchel was identified as the person who assaulted a man he claimed was “antifa” at a hotel the evening after the events at the Capitol.

“According to the Anti-Defamation league, antifa is a loosely organized anti-fascist protest movement that, in some instances, has engaged in violent confrontations,” prosecutors wrote in a footnote of the motion.

Bloomberg reporter William Turton tweeted about the hotel altercation with Trump extremists, and that exchange also appears in the government’s motion, quoting Munchel “put his hands on me and screamed at me,” demanding that Turton delete video footage he was taking of the hotel lobby.

Arguing for Munchel’s detention, prosecutors wrote, “The defendant appears to have assaulted a person whom he, for no reason, associated with a rival extremist group.”

At some point that same evening, police in Washington confiscated a black and yellow stun gun Munchel was carrying.

Furthermore, the prosecutors argued the 15 firearms that law enforcement discovered when they searched Munchel’s Nashville residence — despite being legal to own in that state — demonstrate he continues to have the “continued capacity to carry out the sort or (sic) fear and intimidation campaign in which he partook on January 6.”

The public defender who represented Munchel at the detention hearing in Nashville, Caryll Alpert, did not immediately return a request for comment.

Munchel faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Munchel allegedly entered the Capitol with his mother, Lisa Eisenhart. Her detention hearing in Nashville is scheduled for Monday afternoon before Judge Frensley.

https://www.courthousenews.com/judge-keeps-zip-tie-guy-under-lock-key/