In the Judiciary Committee releases, no smoking gun for Robert Mueller

There is no smoking gun for special counsel Robert Mueller in the Senate Judiciary Committee records released on Wednesday. Those records relate to the now-famous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between senior Trump campaign officials and a Russian-intelligence linked lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

Veselnitskaya attended that meeting as a senior cutout or intermediary for the Russian intelligence services (the Russians love to use cutouts), offering compromising material on Hillary Clinton that she failed to deliver, to the irritation of Trump's aides. Veselnitskaya's attendance was arranged by a U.S.-U.K. citizen, Rob Goldstone at the behest of Aras Agalarov, a close friend of and intermediary for Vladimir Putin.

There is no doubt that this was a directed Russian intelligence operation (and that Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. were stupid to attend it). But the committee's evidence doesn't give Mueller any smoking guns regarding any sort of illegal collusion. They speak to a seemingly pointless meeting in which Trump Jr. sought material but did not receive it (something that surely leads the Trump administration to breathe a major sigh of relief) and most of his other aides became irritated that their time was being wasted.

The absence of smoke might not matter to the special counsel; whose focus has been on financial activities and other as yet undisclosed interactions between the Trump campaign officials and Russian cutouts. Still, it is a small boost to Trump and his inner circle.

That's because, as Pat Buchanan has pointed out, the Trump administration is now trying to move the question of Russian collusion out of Mueller's legal domain and into the public forum of politics. In that sense, the Judiciary Committee's evidence gives Trump officials new means to push their narrative that they are being unfairly targeted.

This, they hope, will force Mueller to cease his investigation.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/in-the-judiciary-committee-releases-no-smoking-gun-for-robert-mueller

GOP huddles with Trump on immigration as lawmakers clamor for floor vote

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the GOP is taking another shot at working with President Trump on an immigration bill that secures the border and provides a solution for so-called Dreamers who came to the U.S. illegally as children.

Top House GOP leaders met with Trump on Tuesday at the White House to discuss a plan, which was prompted by a rogue effort from some lawmakers to force a vote on immigration reform.

“We want to advance something that has a chance of becoming law, that has the president’s support,” Ryan, R-Wis., said Wednesday.

Trump said he would back a bill that includes strong border security, limits to chain migration and reforms to the visa entry program. He also backs a pathway to citizenship for the Dreamers.

The meeting came just as a group of GOP lawmakers is working with Democrats to gather enough signatures to force the House to take up a group of immigration bills that range from conservative to moderate.

Ryan opposes the move because he said it would effectively give control of the floor to Democrats and risk the House passing the the Dream Act, a plan favored by most Democrats, which would legalize the Dreamers now participating in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program without any new border security.

Republicans are divided on which immigration plan to support.

“Members of our majority fall into different camps,” Ryan said. “They want a solution to DACA and on the border and on security issues. We want to accommodate all that. We are working on it.”

The new push on immigration comes weeks after the Senate failed to advance immigration reform legislation. Lawmakers have generally become less interested in tackling the thorny issue now that the courts have blocked Trump administration efforts to curtail the DACA program, which was never passed as legislation but was created unilaterally by President Obama.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/gop-huddles-with-trump-on-immigration-as-lawmakers-clamor-for-floor-vote

SEC unveils elaborate fake cryptocurrency site

The Securities and Exchange Commission, worried about people getting ripped off in the boom of public offerings of cryptocurrencies, unveiled an elaborate fake Initial Coin Offering site Wednesday meant to look like one of the real-world scams.

The site advertises a HoweyCoin, a cryptocurrency meant to be used as a medium of exchange in international travel. It even includes a nine-page white paper purporting to establish the value of the coin using business and technology jargon.

But all the links to buy HoweyCoins redirect to a SEC page that contains the bad news: “If you responded to an investment offer like this, you could have been scammed – HoweyCoins are completely fake!”

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said the Initial Coin Offering market “has provided fertile ground for bad actors to take advantage of our Main Street investors.”

The offerings have allowed for ventures to take investments via cryptocurrencies rather than through securities offerings, which are regulated by the SEC. As cryptocurrencies have penetrated the public consciousness, more scammy offerings have taken place, including ones advertised by celebrities such as Steven Seagal and Floyd Mayweather.

Clayton and other SEC officials have warned investors that they’re at risk of being defrauded,and warned potential coin offerers that regulators are watching them skeptically.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/sec-unveils-elaborate-fake-cryptocurrency-site

Mark Zuckerberg agrees to brief European Parliament on Facebook's privacy policy

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has accepted the European Parliament's request to testify in Brussels to discuss his company's handling of users personal data.

"The founder and CEO of Facebook has accepted our invitation and will be in Brussels as soon as possible, hopefully already next week," European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said in a statement, according to multiple reports.

“I welcome Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to appear in person before the representatives of 500 million Europeans. It is a step in the right direction towards restoring confidence,” Tajani added.

Zuckerberg, 34, could visit Brussels as soon as next week. The Silicon Valley resident will be in Paris early next week for a "Tech for Good" summit organized by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Zuckerberg had previously turned down a request to brief the European Parliament following revelations that British consulting firm Cambridge Analytica — which was employed by President Trump's campaign in 2016 — accessed information from the accounts of 87 million Facebook users.

The Facebook chief appeared before Congress for two days in April to answer lawmakers questions about its data policies.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/mark-zuckerberg-agrees-to-brief-european-parliament-on-facebooks-privacy-policy

Reporters fail to vet teacher’s $53 per day story

Newsrooms have been quick to report that a certain teacher in North Carolina earns just $53 per day to educate his students.

Unfortunately, most reporters didn’t bother to check the numbers. If they did, they would’ve found as PolitiFact did that there is a slight discrepancy in the math.

The North Stokes High School teacher, Nicholas Brandes, gained media attention this month after he claimed on Facebook that his “take home pay” last month was just $1,715. That’s after he had deducted insurance, childcare, and taxes.

“I am roughly being paid $53 a day to educate your child,” the teacher from western North Carolina wrote on Facebook.

His claim was repeated almost immediately by surprisingly credulous newsrooms.

“‘I'm paid $53 a day to educate your child,’” read one headline published by a CBS News affiliate. “NC teacher posts copy of paycheck [—] A North Carolina teacher showed his paycheck in a Facebook post and shared some raw emotions about what teachers in NC are paid.”

An NBC News affiliate went with this headline, “NC teacher posts paycheck on Facebook to draw attention to low pay.”

But the numbers aren’t quite accurate based on Brandes' estimated pre-tax salary of $44,472, according to PolitiFact.

“To arrive at the $53-per-day figure for April, Brandes would’ve had to divide $1,715 by 32 days. However, there were 30 days in April,” the report notes. “More importantly… Brandes worked approximately 21.5 days in April. So his check for that month — $1,715 — divided by 21.5 equals $79.76 per day."

It adds, “That difference of $26.76 per day doesn’t sound like much. But extrapolated over 21.5 days, there’s a $575 difference between what readers might think Brandes earned in April versus what he actually made. Apply the same math ($575 times 12) over a year and there’s a difference of $6,906 between what Brandes could be taking home annually compared with what could be derived from Facebook and in the media.”

Though it feels like it’s a bit draconian to flunk Brandes’ claim all because of small math error, PolitiFact isn’t wrong.

“The difference between what the teacher claimed and what the records show is about $26.76. In other words, his daily pay in April was about 50 percent higher than he claimed it was,” the group notes. “What teachers make is an important debate — one that should be won or lost on solid numbers. There are many ways of illustrating a correct number, but the $53/day is not the poster child it was made out to be.”

Brandes can be forgiven for the discrepancy. The journalists who parroted his claim uncritically, on the other hand, shouldn't be let off so easily. It’s literally their job to check out these sort of things.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/reporters-fail-to-vet-teachers-53-per-day-story

>>1432712

My thoughts exactly! The reporter is no better either. kek