“He’s Going to Deliver. He’s Unraveling BIGGEST Political Scandal in US History” – KASH PATEL DROPS BOMBS – Durham Grand Jury Interviewed 24 People So Far

Kash Patel, the former chief of staff to the Acting United States Secretary of Defense, joined Greg Kelly on Monday night to discuss the explosive revelations released this past weekend that the Hillary camp and Democrats were spying on Donald Trump’s campaign and later the Trump White House.

According to Durham, tech expert Donald Joffe and his associates exploited internet data from “the Executive Office of the President of the United States” to further their own political agenda. Durham investigators uncovered evidence that shows Hillary Clinton’s team paid operatives to “infiltrate” the Trump Tower and then President Trump’s White House servers to link Trump to Russia.

Kash Patel worked with Rep. Devin where he helped to discredit the investigations into Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election.

On Monday night Kash Patel weighed in on the latest explosive revelations from the Durham investigation.

Kash Patel: This story is the biggest political scandal and criminal scandal in US history… John Durham has interviewed 24 people in the Grand Jury to include, CIA case officers, FBI agents and directors, leadership in the Clinton Campaign cycle, and they’ve indicted her lawyer. So this is just starting. It’s how you build a criminal conspiracy case. And they’re not going to be able to ignore indictments once they start coming in… Michael Sussman and Marc Elias were the lead attorneys for the Clinton Campaign. They were paid millions and millions of dollars to perpetuate the Steele Dossier fraud. And now we know they were paid millions of dollars to go out and buy false information from a tech executive… And here’s the worst part. They secured a “sensitive arrangement” with someone in government to gain access to White House servers. That means someone in government gave them permission and paid the contracting tech executive company’s firm to allow that work to happen. That could only have been done with the utilization of the intelligence community willingly. And that to me is the biggest criminal scandal that we have yet to talk about… (on John Durham) He’s going to deliver. This guy is unraveling the biggest criminal conspiracy against a sitting president in the United States history.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/going-deliver-unraveling-biggest-political-scandal-us-history-kash-patel-drops-bombs-durham-grand-jury-interviewed-24-people-far-video/

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/going-deliver-unraveling-biggest-political-scandal-us-history-kash-patel-drops-bombs-durham-grand-jury-interviewed-24-people-far-video/

Prince Andrew settles sex abuse lawsuit

The financial terms of the settlement between the British royal and his accuser Virginia Giuffre have not been revealed

Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has reached a settlement with Virginia Giuffre, who had accused the senior British royal of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager, according to a court filing in New York on Tuesday.

The 61-year-old Duke of York agreed to pay a confidential financial sum to Giuffre, both parties announced in a joint statement attached to the court document. Andrew will also make a "substantial donation" to a charity that supports "victims' rights."

The settlement comes weeks before Prince Andrew was set to be required to participate in a deposition under oath, during which he would have been questioned by Giuffre's lawyers about her accusations. The joint statement from Prince Andrew and Giuffre reportedly says that the British royal does not admit to any of the accusations against him.

The court documents also show the prince claiming that he "regrets his association" with convicted billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. "Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms Giuffre's character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks," the linked statement said, adding that the Briton "regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others."

“He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims,” the filing adds.

Andrew’s legal team had tried to get the lawsuit thrown out on a technicality by claiming a previous deal between Giuffre and Epstein meant that she was barred from pursuing a case against the royal. However, US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected this, allowing the case to proceed to trial. Following the court's refusal to dismiss the suit, Buckingham Palace announced that Prince Andrew had returned his "military affiliations and royal patronages" to Queen Elizabeth and would "continue not to undertake any public duties."

https://www.rt.com/news/549470-prince-andrew-giuffre-epstein-lawsuit/

Ukraine Banks & Defense Ministry Websites Down Amid Cyberattack Fears

Perhaps the expected "imminent" Russian invasion narrative the White House has been pushing will come merely in the form of a cyber-attack?

There are current unconfirmed reports that Ukraine government websites may be experiencing a hack or cybersecurity threat. According to Russia's TASS news agency, "Ukraine's cybersecurity center says websites of the Defense Ministry, Privatbank and Oshadbank are under DDOS attack".

Others attempting to log onto Ukraine's defense ministry website have said they received a notification saying, "The site is under maintenance".

Regional pundits are reporting that "Ukraine state-controlled Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security confirms DdoS attack against a Ukrainian bank, as well as the websites of the Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces." Some local sources are calling it a "significant" attack.

The global outage monitoring site NeBlocks is confirming large-scale outages:

There are further reports of the following:

Websites of the Defence Ministry and army are down due to Ddos-attacks.

State-owned Privatbank and Oschadbank are being attacked.

Disruptions in ATM and banking services.

In January of this year, many Ukrainian government websites were breached in an attack Western media widely blamed on Russian state actors. "The attack took over websites of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cabinet of ministers and security and defense council," reports previously detailed.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/possible-cyberattack-against-ukraines-defense-ministry-banks-progress

And Rice Makes 30… Democrat Rep. Kathleen Rice from New York’s 4th District Announces Retirement

US Representative Kathleen Rice (D-NY) announced on Tuesday she will not seek reelection this year for Congress.

According to Patch.com Rep. Rice won her first term in 2015. She is the second Long Island Representative to announce she will not seek reelection this year.

At least 30 Democrats will not seek reelection in the US House in the 2022 election.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/rice-makes-30-democrat-rep-kathleen-rice-new-yorks-4th-district-announces-retirement/

US has new Ukraine coup plot theory – media

Washington intelligence names former MP as potential leader of a Russian-backed Kiev government

American intelligence believes that former MP Oleg Tsaryov could be made leader of a Ukrainian puppet regime after a successful Russian invasion causes the Kiev government to fall, Britain’s Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Citing an anonymous source in a Western intelligence agency, the outlet suggested that Tsaryov, who served in Ukraine’s parliament until 2014, would be made head of the country.

Moscow “might position Oleg Tsaryov, and others, in leadership roles as part of this effort,” the source said, as quoted by FT.

According to the newspaper, his name appeared in US intelligence materials that were shared with Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand, all members of Five Eyes intelligence alliance.

Tsaryov, who served in Parliament for twelve years, is best known for standing as a pro-Russia candidate in the 2014 presidential election until he withdrew after attacks from Ukrainian nationalists.

He then defected to Donetsk, where he became the first speaker of the parliament of Novorossiya, a breakaway state in east Ukraine that lasted less than a year. He later moved to Crimea, where he now resides and runs a medical retreat.

Speaking to the FT, the former presidential candidate called the suggestion “funny,” noting that his current job description is “director of a sanatorium.”

Tsaryov is not the only former Ukrainian MP who has been accused of being a major actor in a Russian coup plot. Last month, the British Foreign Office alleged that Moscow was planning to bring a pro-Russian government to power in Ukraine, headed by Evgeniy Murayev, a former member of the Opposition Bloc party.

London offered no proof of the plan, which was later slammed by Moscow as “misinformation.”

Speaking to British newspaper The Observer, Murayev accused London of being “confused.”

“It isn’t very logical. I’m banned from Russia. Not only that, but money from my father’s firm there has been confiscated,” he said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/549419-us-ukraine-coup-plot-theory/

Trudeau’s State Media Labels 'Freedom' A "Far-Right" Concept

One day before Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked emergency powers to crack down on anti-vaccine mandate protesters, state media outlet CBC published material claiming that ‘freedom’ is now a “far right” concept.

A CBC article argues that freedom is now a “malleable term” and is “open to interpretation,” citing its use by the Canadian trucker convoy, which the piece suggests is a far right movement.

CBC quotes Barbara Perry, the director of the Centre on Hate, Bias and Extremism at Ontario Tech University, who claims freedom “is a term that has resonated…. You can define it and understand it and sort of manipulate it in a way that makes sense to you and is useful to you, depending on your perspective.”

Perry wheeled out the inevitable January 6th comparison, stating “I think it… maybe takes some inspiration from what we’ve been seeing in the U.S. over the last year and a half or so, leading up to the last election and events of Jan. 6.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trudeaus-state-media-labels-freedom-far-right-concept

Russia Withdraws Some Troops From Ukraine Border After Media Said Invasion Was Imminent

Shortly after media reports suggested a Russian invasion of Ukraine was imminent, Moscow announced that it was withdrawing troops from the border and then claimed “western propaganda” had failed.

Goaded by the Biden administration, major news outlets like the Sun reported that the invasion was set for tomorrow, with a “massive missile blitz” planned, along with 200,000 troops at the ready.

But within hours, it appeared the media had jumped the gun.

Major General Igor Konashenkov announced that all Russian troops would begin to be withdrawn from the border region.

“As the forces complete their military exercises, they will, as always, complete a multimodal march back to their permanent bases,” Konashenkov stated. “The divisions of the South and West Military Districts have finished their tasks and have already begun loading the rail and automobile transport, and today will begin moving back to their military garrisons.”

Russia also released video clips showing armor being loaded onto railway carriages on its way back home.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/russia-withdraws-troops-ukraine-border-after-media-said-invasion-was-imminent

President Trump Was a Victim of Espionage, Both Foreign and Domestic

The recent Durham revelations that people working for Hillary Clinton spied on Donald Trump, his campaign and his administration is only part of the story. It is a very important part but should not obscure the role that foreign intelligence, the Brits in particular, reportedly played in trying to dig up dirt on Donald Trump.

In March 2017 I appeared on RT (i.e., Russia Today) to comment on Donald Trump’s now proven claim that he and his campaign had been spied on. Here is what I said on Sunday, March 5, 2017:

Pay close attention. After I gave this interview there was ZERO reaction/response from the media in the United States. They ignored it. It did not create a ripple on social media. Hell, even the Trump folks ignored it.

This is an important point. Three members of the US Intelligence Community–the CIA, the FBI and NSA–insisted that Russia was interfering in the US election using platforms like RT. But a minuscule number of Americans watched RT. The non-reaction to my interview illustrates that.

Two weeks later Judge Andrew Napolitano made the following claim on air:

that former US President Barack Obama asked British intelligence agency GCHQ to monitor President Donald Trump. . . .

Andrew Napolitano, a political commentator and former New Jersey judge, said on Tuesday Obama used GCHQ in order to “make sure there were no American fingerprints.”

“Three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command – he didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI and he didn’t use the Department of Justice,” said Napolitano. “He used GCHQ.”

Fox executives and the Brits went absolutely bonkers. GCHQ came as close to having a full blown aneurysm as any bureaucratic entity can. And Fox suspended Napolitano.

“We’ve made clear to the administration that these claims are ridiculous and they should be ignored and we’ve received assurances that these allegations will not be repeated,” a Downing Street spokesman told reporters.

One of Judge Napolitano’s sources apparently was Larry Johnson. However, according to Johnson, the Judge did not accurately report what Johnson had said. According to Mr. Johnson, President Obama did not order anything. Instead, information collected by GCHQ was passed to people in the U.S. intelligence community and then distributed in an unauthorized manner. To deny that GCHQ did not do anything in response to a request from President Obama, but that does not mean that GCHQ (aka General Communication’s Headquarters) was passive and doing nothing.

In the wake of Judge Napolitano’s suspension from his Fox duties I was invited to appear on Brian Stelter’s CNN Show–the hilariously, ironically named “Reliable Sources.”

https://youtu.be/OhkcU1Ls0fs

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/02/president-trump-victim-espionage-foreign-domestic/

Freedom Convoy Organizers Say They Notified Police After Being Told "Nefarious Elements" Plan To Discredit Protest

Organizers of the Freedom Convoy in the Canadian capital say they have notified police after being told that “nefarious elements” are planning to plant weapons at the Ottawa COVID-19 mandate demonstrations as a “pretext to forcibly remove peaceful protestors.”

In a video posted on social media on Feb. 14, Daniel Bulford, a former RCMP officer who is helping the protest organizers with security, said they have received information from sources they consider to be “reliable” that the weapons may be planted.

The information, Bulford said, correlates with the more than 2,000 firearms that were stolen in Peterborough, Ont., on the morning of Feb. 13.

Peterborough Police Service officers had said they are investigating the incident regarding the stolen firearms, which were taken from a trucking yard in the city in the early hours of the morning.

The truck and trailer were carrying more than 2,000 firearms with magazines. Officials said no ammunition was taken.

“Today on Feb. 14, we received information from multiple believed, reliable sources that firearms may be planted in Ottawa specifically around the Freedom Convey to discredit the protest and to use as a pretext to forcibly remove peaceful protestors,” said Bulford, who says he was a sniper supervisor with the RCMP regularly tasked with protecting the prime minister. He left the force since he didn’t want to have COVID-19 vaccination.

“Due to the nature of this information, we felt it prudent to notify the public in the interest of their safety. This private intelligence correlates with the approximately 2,000 firearms stolen in Peterborough Ontario on Sunday morning, February 13.

“Our sources have notified us that these weapons may be planted by nefarious elements and at this point, we have no further knowledge about who is behind this act of sabotage.

“As soon as we received this information, we notified the appropriate authorities with whom we are collaborating, including the Ottawa Police Service, the Ontario Provincial Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Parliamentary Protective Service.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to law enforcement for comment.

Bulford urged demonstrators to inform the police immediately if they witness any suspicious activities.

He also asked the police not to “act discriminately” towards demonstrators.

“We expressly affirm the principle that change can only occur within the democratic process. We have never, nor do we ever, intend to step outside of this democratic process. Public and police safety remains our paramount concern,” he said.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/freedom-convoy-organizers-say-they-notified-police-after-being-told-nefarious-elements-plan-to-discredit-protest_4278599.html?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=ZeroHedge

Canadian pastor arrested again; prosecutor claims Artur Pawlowski influenced truckers to keep protesting after they agreed to stop: 'Overt threat to violence'

Canadian pastor Artur Pawlowski — who's made numerous headlines for nearly a year over his opposition to COVID-19 restrictions — was arrested yet again last week after giving an "impassioned" speech to truckers that a prosecutor said influenced them to continue protesting after they had reached an agreement to stop and also incited violence, CBC News reported.

Protesters on Feb. 3 made a deal to leave the border crossing at Coutts in Alberta and go to Edmonton, the network said.

But that day Pawlowski gave what prosecutor Steven Johnston called an "impassioned" 20-minute speech to protesters, telling them to not give up and that there weren't enough police to deal with them, CBC News added.

"Less than two hours after reaching a deal to end the blockade and take it to Edmonton, truckers changed their minds," Johnston said in his argument that Pawlowski should be denied bail, the network noted.

During his speech inside Smugglers Saloon in Coutts, Pawlowski implored the truckers to stay and "hold the line." And while he did say "if this is our Alamo, then so be it," the pastor more than once said the truckers should protest peacefully and that their sheer numbers and trucks are enough.

"You have the power now," he also said, noting that he and others in the province "just want to be left alone."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/canadian-pastor-arrested-again-prosecutor-claims-artur-pawlowski-influenced-truckers

Texas AG Sues Meta for Unauthorized Biometric Data Collection

Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas filed a suit against the Facebook parent company Meta Platforms on Monday, claiming that the social media giant was in violation of state law for its collection of biometric data of users through facial recognition technology.

“Facebook will no longer take advantage of people and their children with the intent to turn a profit at the expense of one’s safety and well-being,” Paxton said in a statement. “This is yet another example of Big Tech’s deceitful business practices and it must stop. I will continue to fight for Texans’ privacy and security.”

The basis of the suit is a now-discontinued use of facial recognition technology, which allowed Facebook to recognize faces from user uploads and auto-suggest tags of one’s friends when uploading a photo. While it facilitates the smooth sharing of photos and tagging of friends, the ethicality and legality of the system has been challenged on numerous occasions.

Paxton claims that this practice has resulted in “tens of millions of violations” of the Texas Capture or Use of Biometric Identifier Act.

“Facebook has been secretly harvesting Texans’ most personal information—photos and videos—for its own corporate profit,” said Paxton. “Texas law has prohibited such harvesting without informed consent for over 20 years. While ordinary Texans have been using Facebook to innocently share photos of loved ones with friends and family, we now know that Facebook has been brazenly ignoring Texas law for the last decade.”

The new suit is the latest in the attorney general’s efforts against Big Tech. Last month, Paxton announced a lawsuit against Google for allegedly misleading users into allowing location tracking, in violation of Texas’ Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

https://www.ntd.com/texas-ag-sues-meta-for-unauthorized-biometric-data-collection_740428.html

Do You Like Freedom? Mainstream Press Warns This Likely Makes You Part of ‘Far-Right Groups’

According to Meriam-Webster, the word freedom is defined as the quality or state of being free: such as the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action and the liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another. It is the antithesis of control, authoritarianism, and tyranny and its desired ends are paramount to the fostering a more peaceful and just society.

The desire to be free is the very fabric on which societies have constructed and fought for their independence for centuries. While it should seem obvious that the goal of freedom and justice for all is the epitome of what a free society should entail, the idea of freedom has long been a polarizing issue.

Many folks believe that safety is more important than freedom and therefore, they feel that society’s freedom should be limited in exchange for a promise of safety from a governing body. Oddly enough, despite governments failing to achieve this goal — ever — people still willfully relinquish their personal freedoms to the state only to watch that promise of security be broken, almost immediately, every, single, time.

Recently, this was the case with covid-19. The virus is extremely dangerous to a certain population, especially those with comorbidities like obesity. However, early on in the pandemic it was apparent that most healthy people under 65 were largely spared from harsh complications. Even though we had this data, young healthy people demanded that the government take away our freedoms in exchange for the illusion of safety. And an illusion it was.

As we witnessed over December and January, no amount of tyranny, authoritarianism, or surrendered freedom were able to contain the Omicron variant as it ripped through highly vaccinated covid tyrannies in spite of state action. We were told that to stop the virus, we only needed to surrender a little bit of our freedom. This was the noble gesture to which many people agreed with early on.

But as days turned into months and months into years, even the most pro-lockdown folks began to question what they’ve been doing. Australia locked people in camps, Austria arrested people for being unjabbed, New York police beat and arrested people for not wearing masks, and governments world wide forced their citizens to show their papers to be able to go out in public.

Despite all of this surrendering of freedom, covid returned — with a vengeance even — in the despotic states like Australia. Once the people realized that giving up their freedoms didn’t stop the virus, more and more of them became angry and demanded those freedoms back. Contrary to what your television tells you, these folks are from all walks of life and political affiliations.

Tens of millions of people have protested worldwide against their governments and most recently, a massive convoy of truckers travelled to Canada’s capitol in Ottawa to demand the state return their freedom. This has morphed into a rallying cry for the world and the Canadian government has taken exceedingly authoritarian steps to quash it.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/do-you-like-freedom-mainstream-press-warns-this-likely-makes-you-part-of-far-right-groups/

Plane With 8 Aboard Crashes Off North Carolina; 1 Body Found

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C.—A small plane carrying eight people crashed into the ocean off North Carolina’s Outer Banks and left behind multiple debris fields where crews searched for the missing passengers, the Coast Guard said.

One body has so far been recovered and identified, Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck told reporters Monday afternoon. He declined to release that person’s name or details about the other people who were on board, including their ages, “out of respect for the families.”

“We have no indication that anyone survived the crash,” the sheriff said.

Search crews are still looking for the main body of the plane but have identified three debris fields, which had been moving farther off shore into the Atlantic Ocean, Buck said.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Matthew J. Baer told reporters that multiple vessels from various agencies are continuing the search. In a tweet Monday night, the Coast Guard said a cutter would remain on the scene overnight.

“We’ve got an all-hands-on-deck event going on here,” Baer said. “And we want the citizens of Carteret County and eastern North Carolina to know that your Coast Guard is out there doing our absolute best alongside our partners.”

Most of the family members of the plane’s passengers live in Carteret, a coastal county of nearly 70,000 people, Buck said. The county includes communities such as Emerald Isle and Atlantic Beach as well as the Cape Lookout National Seashore and its iconic Outer Banks lighthouse, which has a black-and-white diamond pattern.

“We’ve been in very close contact with the family members,” the sheriff said.

The Coast Guard said in a news release that it received a report of a possible downed aircraft about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) east of Drum Inlet from a Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point air traffic controller Sunday. The air traffic controller reported that the aircraft was behaving erratically on radar, then disappeared from the screen.

The single-engine Pilatus PC-12/47 crashed into the water approximately 18 miles (29 kilometers) northeast of Michael J. Smith Field in Beaufort, North Carolina, about 2 p.m. local time Sunday, according to an email from the Federal Aviation Administration. A preliminary accident notification on the FAA’s website noted that the aircraft “crashed into water under unknown circumstances.”

FlightAware listed a departure for that plane from Hyde County Airport at 1:35 p.m. Sunday and noted it was last seen near Beaufort at 2:01 p.m.

https://www.ntd.com/plane-with-8-aboard-crashes-off-north-carolina-1-body-found_740380.html

=Sandy Hook families reach $73M settlement with Remington over school massacre

Families of Sandy Hook victims reached a $73 million settlement Tuesday in their lawsuit against Remington Arms, manufacturer of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used to kill 20 kids and six staff members in the 2012 massacre.

The nine families brought a class-action suit in 2014 against Remington Arms, which made the weapon used in the mass shooting, claiming the gun-maker sought to sell the military-grade weapon to the mentally ill.

Remington had offered the families a $33 million settlement in July 2021, about $3.7 million per family, less than half of what ultimately will be doled out.

“Today is not about honoring our son Benjamin. Today is about how and why Ben died,” said Francine Wheeler, mother to 6-year-old Ben, who was killed in the massacre. “It is about what is right and what is wrong. Our legal system has given us some justice today, but David and I will never have true justice. True justice would be our fifteen-year-old healthy and here with us.”

Josh Koskoff, a lawyer for victims, said Tuesday that the suit was just as much about greed as it was guns.

The lawyer said the settlement “should serve as a wake-up call not only to the gun industry, but also the insurance and banking companies that prop it up.”

“For the gun industry, it’s time to stop recklessly marketing all guns to all people for all uses and instead ask how marketing can lower risk rather than court it,” Koskoff said.

Remington declared bankruptcy for the second time in 2020 and has maintained that gunman Adam Lanza was solely responsible for the horrific tragedy. The company was apparently drowning in debt from legal fees.

Lawyers representing the families lambasted Remington in court filings last year for playing dirty in the drawn-out suit, saying the company flooded them with a mass of pretrial data that contained tens of thousands of “random” images — including bizarre cartoons based on the “Despicable Me” franchise.

“Having repeatedly represented to the (families) and this court that it was devoting extensive resources to making what it described as ‘substantial’ document productions … Remington has instead made the plaintiffs wait years to receive cartoon images, gender reveal videos, and duplicate copies of catalogues,” a complaint filed by the plaintiffs in Connecticut Superior Court said.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/15/sandy-hook-families-settle-with-remington-over-school-massacre/

No surprise who the (((lawyers))) are

Meta agrees to $90 million settlement in privacy lawsuit

Facebook’s parent company has agreed to a $90 million payment to settle a lawsuit filed 10 years ago alleging that the social network violated users’ privacy through a browser plug-in that let it track them even after they logged off its website.

The settlement between Meta and the plaintiffs, which was submitted on Monday in San Francisco federal court, is subject to a judge’s approval.

As part of the settlement, Facebook agreed to delete all data collected to track users’ visits to third-party sites between 2010 and 2011.

The lawsuit was filed after users alleged that Facebook continued tracking them even after logging out of the social network using a propriety plug-in on a web browser.

As the case wounds its way through the federal court system, Facebook prevailed three times at trial.

In 2020, the verdict was appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which found that Facebook inflicted “economic harm” by collecting user data and monetizing it even if the value of the data in the plaintiff’s hands does not diminish as a result.

Facebook logo

Some of the lower federal courts were divided as to the question of Facebook’s liability. Specifically, judges sought answers as to whether Facebook’s use of the data led its value to diminish.

The Ninth Circuit ruled that Facebook needed to get users’ consent before collecting their personal data.

Facebook appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case, allowing the judgment to stand.

“We are grateful to the Ninth Circuit for its watershed ruling, and to Facebook for negotiating this resolution in good faith,” David Straite, an attorney who represents the plaintiffs said in a statement.

“This settlement not only repairs harm done to Facebook users but sets a precedent for the future disposition of such matters.”

https://nypost.com/2022/02/15/meta-agrees-to-90-million-settlement-in-privacy-lawsuit/

Ex-Goldman banker Tim Leissner a ‘double bigamist,’ lawyer claims

Former Goldman Sachs executive Tim Leissner is a “double bigamist” who was “married to two different women at the same time, twice,” according to the defense lawyer for his subordinate who is on trial for his part in a multi-billion dollar embezzlement scheme.

Leissner, the estranged husband of fashion model and reality television star Kimora Lee Simmons, is the federal government’s key witness in its case against Roger Ng, the banker who led Goldman’s Malaysia division.

The federal government alleges that Ng pocketed $35 million in kickbacks as part of a “brazen” scam. Ng worked with Leissner and Malaysian financier Jho Low to divert $4.5 billion from the 1MDB fund – some of which Goldman helped to raise through bond sales – to fund a lavish lifestyle, prosecutors allege.

“Tim Leissner uses people,” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo told jurors on Monday in his opening statement in Brooklyn federal court, which was reported by Bloomberg.

Agnifilo alleged that Leissner also had an “illicit” relationship with Jasmine Loo, who was general counsel at 1MDB. Loo fled Malaysia and is wanted by authorities there for her role in the scheme.

Ng’s defense attorney told the jury that Leissner and Loo developed a “dark trust because of their illicit, intimate romantic relationship.” Leissner “uses women, he uses false intimacy, and now he’s trying to use my client to get him to do his jail time,” according to Agnifilo.

Leissner, who pleaded guilty and forfeited $43 million, is testifying against Ng in order to get a reduced sentence.

Ng faces decades in prison if he is convicted of money laundering and bribery. He and Leissner were both arrested and charged for their role in the 1MDB scandal.

Agnifilo urged jurors to question Leissner’s credibility when he takes the witness stand, alleging that he secretly recorded co-conspirators involved in the scheme but was never able to find anything incriminating against Ng.

“There’s no recording of Roger,” Agnifilo told the jury. “Not one.”

Brent Wible, the federal prosecutor who is seeking to put Ng in prison, alleged Ng secretly agreed with Leissner and Malaysian businessman Jho Low to help take hundreds of millions of dollars raised for three bond deals tied to 1MDB that were originally intended for development projects in Malaysia, according to Bloomberg.

“This was a scheme to steal $1 billion,” Brent Wible told the jury in his opening statement. “The defendant Roger Ng saw an opportunity to get rich by cheating.”

But Agnifilo countered that the partnership prompted Leissner to pursue a high-flying life of luxury like Low and to seek out money to buy private planes, yachts and homes in Beverly Hills, just like the Malaysian financier, Agnifilo said.

Leissner bought homes “for all the women in his life” and became a “mini version of Low,” he said.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/15/ex-goldman-banker-tim-leissner-a-double-bigamist-lawyer/

‘Unhelpful,’ ‘Unnecessary’: Canada’s Provinces Reject Trudeau’s Emergency Powers

Several Canadian provincial executives resisted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invocation of emergency powers on Monday to shut down the Freedom Convoy protests against vaccine mandates.

“I am concerned that there’s a certain kind of person who will hear if the federal government proceeds with this, who will be further enflamed, and that could lead to a prolongation of some of these protests,” Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said on Monday.

“The view I have, which I conveyed to the prime minister during the forum of first ministers this morning, is that this is not necessary, at least for an Alberta context,” Kenney told reporters.

Kenney stressed that he believes provincial officials already have the powers needed to handle protesters who break the law. He mused several times during press conferences on Monday that unnecessary federal overreach could compromise the authority of provincial governments and further inflame public tensions.

“I think at this point, for the federal government to reach in over top of us, without offering anything in particular, would frankly be unhelpful. I think we need to find ways to effectively enforce without escalating the situation,” he said.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe also said his administration “does not support the Trudeau government invoking the Emergencies Act.”

“The illegal blockades must end, but police already have sufficient tools to enforce the law and clear the blockades, as they did over the weekend in Windsor,” Moe said, making an argument similar to Kenney’s.

“If the federal government does proceed with this measure, I would hope it would only be invoked in provinces that request it, as the legislation allows,” Moe added.

Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson described Trudeau’s move as “unnecessary” and provocative. She refused to “escalate” the situation by following Trudeau’s lead.

“The use of the Emergencies Act is very, very serious, and needs to be considered very seriously before enacting something like that,” Stefanson said after a minister’s meeting with Trudeau on Monday.

“I think it’s important that Manitobans and Canadians know and understand that it’s not necessary, and we need to think very carefully and clearly before going in that direction,” she said.

Stefanson praised law enforcement agencies for “doing very good work” during the protests, and said, they should be left to “do their jobs.”

“At some point, these protests will end one way or another. We just encourage those protesters, we’ve heard you loud and clear,” she said.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/02/15/unhelpful-unnecessary-canadas-provinces-reject-trudeaus-emergency-powers/

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern to Skip Lockdown for Harvard Address

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will fly to Boston and personally address Harvard graduates in May – a full two months before her hermit kingdom reopens its borders to the rest of the world.

The left-wing NZ Labour Party leader and former president of the International Union of Socialist Youth will travel 9,100 miles from the capital of Wellington to appear before the prestigious 369th Commencement in the U.S. on May 26.

Meanwhile Americans and other tourists remain barred from her island nation until July – at the earliest.

Harvard President Larry Bacow said he was delighted she had accepted the invitation:

Prime Minister Ardern is one of the most respected leaders on the world stage and we are delighted she will join us in May to celebrate the Class of 2022.

From climate change and gender equality to COVID-19, she has modeled compassionate leadership that has brought together empathy and science-based solutions to address the most challenging issues of our time. I very much look forward to her address.

Ardern will be the first in-person Commencement speaker in two years, taking her leave from a home country that has enforced some of the harshest coronavirus lockdown restrictions in the world.

She will be the 17th sitting world leader to deliver a Harvard Commencement address. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel served as the school’s last in-person Commencement speaker in 2019.

https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2022/02/15/new-zealand-pm-jacinda-ardern-to-skip-lockdown-for-harvard-address/

70 Unaccompanied Migrant Minors Found near Border in Arizona

Tucson Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 70 unaccompanied migrant minors who illegally crossed from Mexico to Arizona over the weekend. The children were part of a large group of 112 overall.

Tucson Sector Chief Patrol Agent John R. Modlin tweeted a photo showing a large group of 112 migrants who illegally crossed the border near San Miguel, Arizona. The group included at least 70 unaccompanied alien children. The chief did not disclose any additional demographic information.

Also over the weekend, Nogales Station agents had to extract a human smuggler and six migrants from a van involved in a rollover crash. “Smugglers use reckless tactics to avoid apprehension, putting migrants in extreme danger,” Chief Modlin tweeted.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2022/02/14/70-unaccompanied-migrant-minors-found-near-border-in-arizona/

Report: China's Olympic hockey team has 17 players from US and Canada. When asked about citizenship, one US-born player said, 'I don't think we're supposed to comment on that.'

How China was able to assemble a men's hockey team of mostly foreign nationals despite strict rules preventing athletes from competing for countries they are not citizens of remains "one of the most closely guarded secrets" of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

What are the details?

Team China looks more like an international minor-league squad than a national team made up of patriotic Chinese citizens. According to the Journal, the 25-member roster boasts 17 players who were either born or grew up in North America and one from Russia.

"It’s a team made up mostly of Americans and Canadians," the outlet reported. "They play professional hockey in Russia. They are coached by an Italian. They conduct their practices in English. Yet this week, they are representing China in the men’s hockey tournament at the Beijing Olympics."

There's certainly nothing wrong with citizens from various ethnicities and heritages competing together under their home country's flag. As the global melting pot, the U.S. has done as much for decades. But this situation is starkly different.

The Journal said one of the most recognizable players on the team, Jake Chelios — the son of NHL legend Chris Chelios — confirmed that he and several other Team China teammates still have their American passports. That seems to stand in contradiction to an International Olympic Committee rule that requires competitors to be citizens of the country they compete for at the Games.

When asked by the outlet if he had renounced his U.S. citizenship and been naturalized as a Chinese citizen, Chelios, who plays under the name "Jieke Kailaoisi" in China, reportedly remarked, "I don't think we're supposed to comment on that."

The 28-year-old's father added that his son is an "American and very proud of it." But he told the Journal that when the opportunity presented itself to compete in the Olympics for China, he took it: "He wanted to play bad and I supported 100%."

What else?

The situation appears to be the result of a China taking advantage of confusion over an arcane rule in the International Ice Hockey Federation's Handbook that states a player who changes his citizenship must "prove that he has participated for at least two consecutive hockey seasons … in the national competitions of his new country after his 10th birthday," the Journal claimed.

On top of that, there was likely some help by way of overlooking from Olympic organizers.

Chelios and many of his Western teammates — including Michigan-born goalie Jeremy Smith who is going by "Shimisi Jieruimi" in the Olympics — have played for the Beijing-based Kunlun Red Star, the sole Chinese outpost in Russia's KHL, since 2019.

Had the Westerners completed their contracts with the Red Star, they would have, under an extremely loose interpretation of the rule, qualified for China's Olympic team. However, the Journal noted, the coronavirus pandemic further complicated the situation. When China implemented strict health guidelines at the start of the pandemic, the Red Star relocated to a small town near Moscow, where the players trained and played home games until the 2022 Olympics began.

That technicality, which should've counted against the players' qualification, was apparently overlooked by the governing authorities.

According to the Journal, neither the Chinese Olympic Committee, the IIHF, nor the IOC have returned requests for comment.

Anything else?

Questions regarding the citizenship of U.S.-born athletes competing for China in the Games have been plenty this year. Like Chelios, popular skier Eileen Gu, a California native competing for Team China, has refused to answer whether she has renounced her U.S. citizenship.

http://www.stationgossip.com/2022/02/report-chinas-olympic-hockey-team-has.html