Video Shows Police Push Protester Off A Balcony At DC Capitol; Police Chief Admits 3 More Deaths In Addition to Ashli Babbitt

Washington, DC police were filmed shoving a pro-Trump protester off a high-up balcony at the Capitol building on Wednesday.

The video was shared by the Nationalist Review early Thursday.

Independent journalist Ford Fischer reported on Wednesday that a man was injured after having fallen "about 50 feet," with witnesses claiming he was pushed by police.

We now know from DC's police chief that four people died.

One by gunshot, but no details on other three.

Earlier, I reported on a man who fell about 50 feet. I initially believed he must have survived, else the government would have told us.

Now, I don't know. https://t.co/WdA6I5ZvVZ pic.twitter.com/S3kwS8YR4q

— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) January 7, 2021

The Nationalist Review is reporting this was the same incident. The man appears to have the same black shirt and green camouflage pants.

It's not clear how large the fall actually was but the man did not appear to be moving.

DC police chief Robert J. Contee III admitting during a bizarre press conference that there were "three additional medical deaths" on top of Capitol police shooting Ashli Babbitt at point-blank – but refused to say how the three additional people died.

The way this press conference was conducted was not acceptable.

Chief mid-way mentions "three additional medical deaths" at Capitol and moves on.

When pressed, says he can't answer.

It's ok to say what can't be released yet, but 4 died today, and that shouldn't be a side-note. https://t.co/SdZsnw5gIE

— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) January 7, 2021

Was this man one of many killed at the hands of DC police?

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=61991

James Comey Says Trump Should Not Be Prosecuted When He Leaves Office

Former FBI Director James Comey writes in a new book that even if there is overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing by Donald Trump while president, the new attorney general in the Biden administration should not pursue a prosecution.

Comey said the Justice Department should not initiate an investigation of the former president, “no matter how compelling the roadmap left” of crimes he may have committed.

“Although those cases might be righteous in a vacuum,” he wrote, “the mission of the next attorney general must be fostering the trust of the American people.”

The Hill:

The stance is surprising coming from the former FBI director, whose abrupt firing in May 2017 served as the catalyst behind the Mueller investigation into Russian election interference and possible Trump campaign contacts with Russia.

Mueller said he did not reach a conclusion on whether Trump committed obstruction of justice, though Attorney General William Barr later said he and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein reviewed evidence laid out in the report and found it insufficient to accuse the president of obstructing the probe.

There are other, far more practical reasons not to prosecute Trump. First, they’d have to find a crime he’s committed. It’s not criminal to disagree politically with Democrats, even though they’d dearly love for that to be true. But finding some specific act that Trump has committed that violated any U.S. statutes to where a prosecutor would have a slam-dunk case is not going to be easy.

Local prosecutors in New York have been investigating Trump for years and have probably found some of Trump’s business and financial dealings suspect. Trump was heavily invested in New York real estate and prosecutors could dig up something on the former president relating to any number of creative transactions. But indictments aren’t going to be handed down the minute he leaves the White House and finding something that would justify indicting a former president without making it appear to be politically motivated will be nearly impossible.

Also, he could never receive a fair trial. They would have to find 12 people without an opinion of Donald Trump. They’d be in jury selection for two years looking for them.

Comey doesn’t think Trump will pardon himself or that Biden would pardon him either.

“By pardoning a resigned president, Ford had held [Nixon] accountable in a way that Trump would not be, even where he to be pardoned after losing re-election. That might not be enough accountability in Trump’s case. Or it may be, especially if local prosecutors in New York charge Trump for a legacy of financial fraud.”

Trump’s pardon power applies only to federal crimes, not state crimes. The president is still facing an investigation from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Biden probably figures that Trump is going to be the center of attention when he leaves office and doesn’t want him to suck any more oxygen out of the room than necessary. A trial of Trump would be the trial of the millennium. It would be a circus, a freak show, a major embarrassment to the United States and its government.

It will be interesting to see if Biden leans on the prosecutors in New York pursuing the threads of Trump’s business dealings to forgo prosecuting the former president. Unless it’s a case with overwhelming evidence of Trump’s guilt, Trump is likely to be left alone to plan his comeback.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2021/01/07/james-comey-says-trump-should-not-be-prosecuted-when-he-leaves-office-n1312323

Multiple Trump admin officials resign following D.C. riot

Several White House staffers have resigned after violent protests broke out in Washington D.C. Wednesday.

First lady Melania Trump’s Chief of Staff Stephanie Grisham was the first to submit her resignation Wednesday, effective immediately.

Grisham joined the presidential campaign in 2015 as a press liaison and most recently served as White House communications director and Melania Trump’s spokeswoman.

Grisham quit her position after a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday. Her job was set to end in two weeks, when President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.

“It has been an honor to serve the country in the White House. I am very proud to have been a part of Mrs. Trump’s mission to help children everywhere, and proud of the many accomplishments of this Administration,” Grisham said in a statement Wednesday.

Following Grisham’s resignation, White House social secretary Rickie Niceta and deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews, also resigned.

“As someone who worked in the halls of Congress, I was deeply disturbed by what I saw today. I’ll be stepping down from my role effective immediately. Our nation needs a peaceful transfer of power,” Matthews said in a statement Wednesday.

Thursday morning, former Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney resigned from his Trump Administration post as envoy to Northern Ireland.

“I called Mike Pompeo last night to let him know I was resigning from that. I can’t do it. I can’t stay … We didn’t sign up for what you saw last night,” Mulvaney told CNBC Thursday.

Mulvaney was critical of how President Trump handled the demonstration, saying his tweet was “not enough.”

The President's tweet is not enough. He can stop this now and needs to do exactly that. Tell these folks to go home.

— Mick Mulvaney (@MickMulvaney) January 6, 2021

Additionally, deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger, European and Russian Affairs Senior Director Ryan Tully and Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Security John Costello also resigned, according to Fox News.

Mulvaney warned that other staffers may submit their resignations in the coming days.

National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, Deputy Chief of Staff Chris Liddell and Transportation Secretary Eliane Chao are also considering resigning, the New York Post has reported.

https://saraacarter.com/multiple-trump-admin-officials-resign-following-d-c-riot/

President No Longer: EU, Lima Group, Canada Stop Referring To Juan Guaido As Venezuela’s Leader

On January 6th, the EU, the Lima group of Latin American countries, and Canada “implicitly” gave up support of US-Proclaimed Venezuelan President Juan Guaido.

The EU, apparently, views Guaido and the opposition-led “outgoing” National Assembly as just one of the political actors in Venezuela, based on a statement issued by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

Still, the EU said it doesn’t recognize the elections as valid, but it clearly also doesn’t recognize Guaido as an elected official or leader of the country.

“The European Union considers that the elections failed to comply with the international standards for a credible process and to mobilise the Venezuelan people to participate. The lack of political pluralism and the way the elections were planned and executed, including the disqualification of opposition leaders, do not allow the EU to recognise this electoral process as credible, inclusive or transparent, nor do they allow its outcome to be considered as representative of the democratic will of the Venezuelan people. The EU deeply regrets that the National Assembly assumed its mandate on 5 January on the basis of these non-democratic elections.”

In the statement it is said that a solution is needed and that all political and civil actors should take part in it, “including in particular Juan Guaidó and other representatives of the outgoing National Assembly elected in 2015, which was the last free expression of Venezuelans in an electoral process.”

The statement effectively rejects the Guaido-led assembly’s inauguration of a one-year extension of its five-year term, starting on January 5th, that would run parallel to the pro-government assembly elected under the allegedly disputed conditions on December 6th, 2020.

In a separate statement signed by Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru and nominally by Venezuela represented by Guaido’s opposition, the Lima Group similarly said it would not recognize the new pro-government National Assembly either.

Rather the group said it “recognizes the existence of a Delegated Commission headed by its legitimate board of directors, established by the National Assembly, presided by Juan Guaido.”

No mention of Guaido being the country’s president, or with any special, additional authority.

Anticipating the downgrading of international recognition, Guaido and his top associates are now referring to themselves as the “Board of Directors” of a “recently constituted Delegated Commission” of the “legitimate National Assembly”.

Guaidó’s office said the Lima Group “continued to keep their support for President Guaidó” and pointed to its support for the delegate commission.

But what other choice have they got?

The EU had never formally recognised Mr Guaidó as interim president because of objections from Italy and Cyprus, but had treated him as such de facto, a position supported by a majority of member states.

The US is continuing to recognise Guaido as Venezuela’s president, though it remains unclear whether the incoming Biden administration will continue with this particular Trump-era policy when it takes office later in January.

“President Guaidó and the National Assembly are the only democratic representatives of the Venezuelan people as recognised by the international community”, Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state, said in a statement.

Guaido is also being accused of corruption, and funneling approximately $40 million.

https://southfront.org/president-no-longer-eu-lima-group-canada-stop-referring-to-juan-guaido-as-venezuelas-leader/

Macy’s Store Closings 2021: More Locations To Shutter As Retailer Whittles Down Footprint

Macy’s (M) will trim its brick-and-mortar store count further in 2021 as part of its previously announced reduction plan as it looks to better compete in the changing retail environment.

The department store retailer will close 45 locations by the middle of this year and has already notified employees of the closures, CNBC reported.

Macy’s announced its plans to shutter 125 stores by 2023 early last year as it underwent a restructuring plan to realign its retail strategy. Macy’s plan was to concentrate on smaller-format stores. At the time, the company said that it would not only close locations but that it would lay off 2,000 workers to streamline its operations in a three-year plan.

The retailer closed about 30 stores in 2020.

A company spokeswoman told CNBC on Tuesday, “As previously announced, Macy’s is committed to rightsizing our store fleet by concentrating our existing retail locations in desirable and well-trafficked A and B malls.

To that end, we announced several store closures today that align to the guidance we provided in February 2020. These closures bring us closer to achieving the right mix of mall-based stores.”

Analysis from commercial real estate services firm Green Street shows A++ malls bring about $1,000 in sales per square foot for retailers compared to a C+ mall that does about $320 in sales per square foot.

Macy's reported a sales decrease of more than 20% for the third quarter of 2020, which ended in November as consumers stayed away from malls during the coronavirus pandemic. Macy’s did see a 27% increase in digital sales, but it was not enough to offset its in-store losses for the quarter.

The retailer has 544 namesake locations as well as 34 Bloomingdale’s stores, and 166 Bluemercury stores, its website said. Liquidations sales have already begun at some of the locations that are set to close, with the rest scheduled to start later this month.

The news that Macy’s is closing more stores comes as many retailers struggle to gain a foothold amid the pandemic. They temporarily closed their doors in March as nonessential businesses were required to shutter.

https://www.ibtimes.com/macys-store-closings-2021-more-locations-shutter-retailer-whittles-down-footprint-3115692

Ex-Pentagon Chief Mattis Says Trump Will ‘Be Left a Man Without a Country’ for Capitol Violence

James Mattis resigned from his post as secretary of defence in late 2018 after disagreeing with Trump’s Syria withdrawal plans. In late 2020, the president called Mattis the “world’s most overrated general” and said he “should have fired him sooner” after the former Marine Corps general urged Joe Biden to abandon Trump’s “America First” strategy.

Former Pentagon chief James “Mad Dog” Mattis has issued a scathing attack against President Donald Trump, blaming him for Wednesday’s violence at the US Capitol, which saw protesters storming the compound and seizing the Senate chamber as Congress moved to formally certify the Electoral College results confirming Biden’s victory.

“Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, an effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice,” Mattis said in a press statement late on Wednesday.

“Our Constitution and our Republic will overcome this stain and We the People will come together again in our never-ending effort to form a more perfect Union, while Mr. Trump will deservedly be left a man without a country,” the retired general suggested.

Mattis’ remarks were echoed by former Trump Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Joseph Dunford, who blamed the president for "setting the conditions" for Wednesday’s violence by “undermin[ing] a peaceful transition in accordance with our Constitution” and called the events at the Capitol “an outrageous assault on our democracy.”

Mark Esper, another former Trump secretary of defence, who was fired in November amid disagreements on the president’s Iraq and Afghanistan withdrawal plans, called Wednesday’s events “appalling and un-American” and added that he hoped the US military would “stay out of politics, and remain true to its sworn oath to support and defend the Constitution and the American people.”

Vice President Mike Pence presides over a Joint session of Congress to certify the 2020 Electoral College results after supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol earlier in the day, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. January 6, 2021. Erin Schaff/Pool via REUTERS

© REUTERS / POOL

Pence, Not Trump, Made Call to Deploy National Guard Against Mob Storming Capitol, Media Claims

On Sunday, Esper, Mattis, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and others penned an op-ed in the Washington Post urging acting Defence Secretary Christopher Miller and his subordinates to refrain from “any political actions that undermine the results of the election or hinder the success of the new team.”

Trump gave Miller Esper’s job after expressing frustration with the Pentagon’s stonewalling of his attempts to reduce US troop numbers overseas. In November, then outgoing US special representative for Syria Jim Jeffrey openly boasted about lying to Trump about the real troop numbers in Syria.

As for Mattis, Trump had quarrelled with the former defence secretary in November over an op-ed in Foreign Affairs magazine in which the retired general expressed hope that Biden would bin Trump’s "America First" policy, suggesting that “in practice, ‘America first’ has meant ‘America alone’.” Trump responded to the criticism by saying he should have fired Mattis long before he did.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202101071081696333-ex-pentagon-chief-mattis-says-trump-will-be-left-a-man-without-a-country-for-capitol-violence/

Washington Police Arrested 68 Involved in US Capitol Unrest, Searches for More Suspects

Washington, DC police made 68 arrests in connection with the unrest at the US Capitol and is working to identify additional suspects involved in violence and property destruction, Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee told reporters on Thursday.

"There were 68 arrested yesterday evening into the early morning hours of January 7. Of the 68 arrests, 60 were adult males and eight were adult females. Forty-one of those arrests occurred on US Capitol grounds and, to my knowledge, only one of the arrestees is from the District of Columbia," Contee said during a press briefing.

Contee vowed to identify and hold "each and every one of the violent mob" accountable for their actions and asked the public for assistance.

"We still have a significant amount of work ahead of us… We have collected numerous images of interest that we are asking the community to help us identify," he said.

Contee added that 56 police officers were injured in clashes with supporters of President Donald Trump who broke into Congress in an attempt to disrupt the certification of results of 2020 election winner Joe Biden.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202101071081695970-washington-police-arrested-68-involved-in-us-capitol-unrest-searches-for-more-suspects/

Big Tech And Big Pharma Merge: Oracle Takes Over Vaccine Data World

As pandemic countermeasures obliterate the middle class and civil rights, Silicon Valley’s billionaire robber barons are cashing in on the global economic collapse and the rise of the surveillance state.

Now, one of these tech titans — a man with deep ties to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) — has claimed the golden ring: the key contract to manage all the personal, health and financial data that will allow government and industry to keep us in line as they build their New World Order.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison will curate the vast datasets that house our medical, financial and personal information enabling Big Brother to track and trace our movements, our purchases, our preferences and our vulnerabilities, and use that information to control civil populations, suppress dissent and punish disobedience.

Ellison, whose estimated net worth of $87.7 billion makes him the seventh-richest individual in the world, has just achieved a long-sought milestone. On Dec.15, Oracle, the tech company Ellison founded in 1977 with help from the CIA, issued a press release announcing it “will serve as the CDC’s [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] central data repository for all vaccination data in the U.S. This ‘national clearing house’ system will receive data from all U.S. jurisdictions administering vaccinations.”

Almost 20 years since Ellison, in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack, offered the government a proposal for a national security database “that collected everything possible to identify someone,” the mogul appears to finally be sitting on cloud nine.

Oracle’s National Electronic Health Records Cloud dates back to the beginnings of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, a couple of weeks after letting President Trump use his estate near Palm Springs for a $100,000-a-plate golfing fundraiser, Ellison placed a call to the White House. According to a Forbes cover story on Ellison, he “asked Trump if a clearinghouse existed for real-time data about treatment efficacies and outcomes.”

Within a week after the president asked “how much?” and Ellison said, “for free,” the tech titan had brought together a team of Oracle engineers “to build a database and website registering coronavirus cases” and work with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies.

The first public acknowledgment of Oracle’s progress came on July 3, 2020, when the NIH’s National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), overseen by Dr. Anthony Fauci, launched the COVID-19 Prevention Trials Network (COVPN), aimed at enrolling thousands of volunteers in large-scale trials for a variety of investigational vaccines and monoclonal antibodies.

Fauci achieved this by merging four existing networks, all researching HIV/AIDS, something they would continue to do. “The network is expected to operate more than 100 clinical trial sites across the United States and internationally,” according to the NIAID press release which also stated “the COVPN website features a customized data collection platform, which Oracle (Redwood Shores, CA) built and donated, to securely identify potential trial participants.”

https://www.naturalblaze.com/2021/01/big-tech-and-big-pharma-merge-oracle-takes-over-vaccine-data-world.html

Officer Who Shot & Killed Veteran During Capitol Chaos Placed On Leave, Faces Internal Probe

Nearly 24 hours have passed since yesterday's chaos on Capitol Hill, which left one individual dead from a gunshot wound, and three others dead from unrelated medical emergencies on the Capitol grounds, and finally the Capitol Police have published a statement.

In it, Chief of Police Steven Sund denounced the thousands of demonstrators who later participated in the storming of the Capitol as criminals, condemning their "criminally riotous behavior."

Though the demonstrators were determined to cause “great damage,” Sund said, the officer - who was not named - responsible for shooting and killing a demonstrator named Ashli Babbitt has been placed on administrative leave. Their police powers have been suspended "pending the outcome of a joint Metropolitan Police and USCP investigation."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/officer-who-shot-killed-veteran-during-capitol-chaos-placed-leave-faces-internal-probe

Salvadoran Court: Ex-President and Wife Guilty of Illicit Enrichment

A court in El Salvador found Ex-President Elias Antonio Saca and his wife, Ana Ligia de Saca, guilty of illicit enrichment on Tuesday and ordered them to pay back the US$4.4 million they diverted from state funds to their personal and business accounts.

Antonio SacaEl Salvador's ex-president, Antonio Saca, during his visit to Mexico in 2007. (Photo: Presidential Office archive)The Public Prosecutor had indicted the former president and the former first lady after the two failed to explain the origin of more than $5 million on their accounts.

The court’s ruling, which is still appealable, ordered Saca to return $3,832,698 to the state and banned him from running for public office for ten years, according to the media in El Salvador. His wife will have to repay $589,608.

“(The fact) that officials and presidents of the past stole is known to all,” said El Salvador’s general attorney, Raul Melara, on Twitter after the court’s decision. “We are working so that they pay for their crimes and the money is used for the benefit of Salvadorans.”

Saca, who ruled the Central American country between 2004 and 2009, is already serving a ten-year prison sentence. He was arrested in 2016 for his alleged part in a corruption scheme that involved other government officials, including his former private secretary, Elmer Charlevoix.

In 2018 Saca confessed to having been responsible for $260 million out of the $300 million the group was accused of having diverted from state funds to themselves and became the first Salvadoran ex-president to be convicted of corruption. He was ordered to return the $260 million to the state.

However, Saca is not the only Salvadoran ruler who was found guilty of corruption or illicit enrichment.

In November 2017, his presidential successor Mauricio Funes (2009-2014) was convicted in absentia of illegal enrichment and ordered to pay, along with his son, nearly $420,000 in restitution to the government after they failed to prove the origin of the sum.

Funes sought asylum in Nicaragua in 2016, claiming he had suffered political persecution.

Francisco Flores, who ruled El Salvador before Saca, was indicted for diverting $15 million in aid money from Taiwan after two earthquakes devastated the country in 2001, but died before the matter was resolved.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/13586-salvadoran-court-ex-president-and-wife-guilty-of-illicit-enrichment

Workers install 7-foot fence around Capitol after siege

A 7-foot-tall fence is being erected around the Capitol following the mayhem unleashed by supporters of President Trump and will remain for the next month, the secretary of the Army said Thursday.

During a press conference with Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser addressing the district’s response to the storming of the Capitol, Ryan McCarthy said a fence will be built and additional National Guard troops will arrive in the coming days to bolster law enforcement.

“This morning we began erecting a 7-foot non-scalable fence,” McCarthy said. “These personnel and these security measures will be in place for no less than the next 30 days.”

He said the barrier would stretch from Constitution Avenue to Independence Avenue to First Street near the pond.

Mobs of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon as congressional members met in a joint session to certify the Electoral College results.

After overrunning security forces, the crowd of protesters entered the Capitol and made their way to the Senate floor, vandalizing congressional offices and sending lawmakers scurrying for safety.

Order was eventually restored, Congress reconvened and the House and Senate voted to certify the results, giving President-elect Joe Biden 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.

https://nypost.com/2021/01/07/workers-install-7-foot-fence-around-capitol-after-siege/