WATCH LIVE: House considers legislation for Ukraine 'lend-lease' program to send aid to that country
nancy up now
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/durham-prosecutors-detail-criminal-probe-into-tech-executive-who-worked-on-trump-russia-back-channel-claims/ar-AAWG1rv?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fdea20b0c5ce40518c549d7da2d852f7
Special counsel John Durham has an active and ongoing criminal probe into a tech executive who worked with a Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign lawyer to share claims of a cyber back channel between Donald Trump and Russia, prosecutors said in court Wednesday.
Prosecutors said the Durham team is still "looking closely" into whether Rodney Joffe, a tech executive and leading cybersecurity expert, defrauded the US government by misusing internet data from government contracts to search for derogatory information about Trump and Russia.
"We have not, to this point, charged a crime … but we are not able to say that a crime was not committed," prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis told a judge Wednesday, adding that the statute of limitations for Joffe's potential conduct has not expired and the probe is still underway.
These comments at a hearing about the upcoming trial of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann were the first time Durham's team publicly detailed their investigation into Joffe. It means prosecutors are considering new defendants and additional charges as part of their sprawling investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, now in its fourth year.
Joffe worked on the Trump-Russia material with Sussmann, the Clinton campaign lawyer who was charged in September with lying to the FBI during a 2016 meeting where he passed along the data. Prosecutors claim Sussmann falsely told the FBI he shared the data as a concerned citizen, but he was really there on behalf of his clients: the Clinton campaign and Joffe.
The trial against Sussmann is scheduled to take place next month in DC federal court. He pleaded not guilty and says he never had any reason to doubt the data that came from Joffe and his researchers. The FBI looked into Sussmann's tip about a potential server back channel between Trump and the Moscow-based Alfa Bank but did not find any improper cyber links.
Joffe's lawyers blast Durham
Responding to Wednesday's hearing, a spokesperson for Joffe said the latest comments from prosecutors were "baseless and reckless" and accused Durham of pushing an "unfounded political narrative through false innuendo" to connect Joffe to a supposed anti-Trump plot.
"Mr. Joffe did not defraud or mislead any branch of the US Government," the spokesperson said in a statement. "Furthermore, the data at issue did not belong to the Government and did not contain private or personal information about any individual, nor was it manipulated in any way."
Lawyers for Sussmann say Joffe is a key part of their defense and will offer testimony that helps exonerate Sussmann. Sean Berkowitz, a Sussmann attorney, accused the prosecutors of making a "tactical decision" by holding the criminal probe over Joffe's head as a way of blocking him from testifying at trial. Because of the potential criminal exposure, Joffe intends to plead the Fifth, according to his lawyers.
"They've been looking at this forever," Berkowitz said. "They ought to be able to make a (charging) decision."
Berkowitz has asked federal Judge Christopher Cooper to dismiss the case if prosecutors don't give Joffe immunity to testify. Cooper said Wednesday that he'll try to issue a ruling soon.
Lawyers representing Joffe previously told CNN that Durham is pushing a cherry-picked narrative to make it look like Joffe fudged the data to harm Trump and help Clinton get elected. Instead, they said it "was his patriotic duty to share" the data with the FBI. He and Sussmann maintain that they funneled the data to the US government out of national security concerns.
It has been known for a while that Sussmann shared the data from Joffe and his researchers with the FBI and later with the CIA after Trump was inaugurated in January 2017. Prosecutors said Wednesday for the first time that the material had been later shared with Congress as well.
Prosecutors have previously said that Joffe's associates at Georgia Tech had access to the internet data ahead of a pending contract with DARPA, a Pentagon research agency. The contract was intended to hunt for cyber intrusions by hostile countries. Durham has said Joffe and his associates "exploited" their access to domain name system information to find dirt on Trump.
Some of the internet data also pertained to Russian-made Yota phones that were allegedly pinpointed near the Trump campaign headquarters and the White House offices. Past Durham filings about the Yota phones stirred a frenzy in right-wing media about supposed spying on Trump, which led to a rebuke from the judge and a partial walk-back from prosecutors.
A spokesman for Joffe previously said he is "an apolitical internet security expert with decades of service to the U.S. Government" and that his dealings with the data were perfectly legal. In court filings, Joffe's lawyers said he has received harassing and threatening messages in the wake of the Sussmann indictment, in which he was repeatedly referred to as "Tech Executive 1."
Correction: This story has been updated to correctly reflect which cyber researchers had access to the internet data and the timing of the DARPA contract.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/disinformation-head-nina-jankowicz-addresses-hunter-biden-laptop-remarks/ar-AAWGM7G?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fdea20b0c5ce40518c549d7da2d852f7
President Joe Biden's choice to lead the Department of Homeland Security's new Disinformation Governance Board has addressed a previous statement she made about the Hunter Biden laptop controversy.
Nina Jankowicz, who was a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center, had cast doubt on The New York Post's reporting about the laptop believed to have belonged to President Biden's son.
Conservative news outlets including The Washington Examiner pointed to Jankowicz's comments about the laptop story and suggested she had spread disinformation.
Jankowicz tweeted during the presidential debate between Biden and former President Donald Trump that took place on October 22, 2020 and referenced the laptop.
"Back on the 'laptop from hell,' apparently—Biden notes 50 former natsec officials and 5 former CIA heads that believe the laptop is a Russian influence op," Jankowicz said.
"Trump says 'Russia, Russia, Russia,'" she said.
On Wednesday, Jankowicz retweeted that 2020 tweet, apparently in response to criticism, and said: "For those who believe this tweet is a key to all my views, it is simply a direct quote from both candidates during the final presidential debate. If you look at my timeline, you will see I was livetweeting that evening."
Biden had been referring to a Politico article about a letter signed by dozens of intelligence officials who said the Hunter Biden story appeared to be a Russian disinformation operation.
Jankowicz also shared a link to ballotpedia.org about the debate. That page contained a link to a transcript and a YouTube video of the debate.
Jankowicz had spoken to the Associated Press for an article published on October 15, 2020 and reportedly said there were questions about whether the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden.
"We should view it as a Trump campaign product," Jankowicz said at the time, pointing to the involvement of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Trump associate Steve Bannon.
On October 22, 2020, Jankowicz shared an article on Twitter that she described as "casting yet more doubt on the provenance of the NY Post's Hunter Biden story" and said in another tweet that day: "The emails don't need to be altered to be part of an influence campaign. Voters deserve that context, not a [fairy] tale about a laptop repair shop."
On March 16, 2021, Jankowicz shared a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and wrote in a Twitter thread the intelligence community "has a high degree of confidence that the Kremlin used proxies to push influence narratives, including misleading or unsubstantiated claims about President Biden."
However, that report did not specifically reference the laptop.
Newsweek has asked the White House for comment.
There was significant controversy about the laptop story during the 2020 presidential election and questions about the authenticity of emails reportedly found on the computer.
Some Republicans had suggested the laptop pointed to evidence of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden in his foreign business dealings that may also have implicated Joe Biden, while some Democrats dismissed it as a possible disinformation operation by Russia.
Twitter and Facebook temporarily limited sharing of stories about the laptop in late 2020 amid concerns that the emails were the product of hacking.
The laptop was one of three dropped off at a Delaware repair shop run by John Paul Mac Isaac in 2019 but never picked up from the store. Mac Isaac, reportedly a Trump supporter, looked at the contents of the laptop and believed some of it to be scandalous.
He contacted the authorities but also provided a hard drive containing the laptop's contents to Robert Costello, a lawyer for Rudy Giuliani, who shared it with The New York Post as well other Trump supporters, including Steve Bannon.
The New York Times and The Washington Post were later able to verify some of the emails but not all of them, while no evidence has emerged that the laptop was part of a Russian operation and controversy has continued over the matter.
dindu nuffin
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rand-paul-demands-sba-explain-why-ppp-money-was-wrongfully-given-to-planned-parenthood/ar-AAWH50X?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fdea20b0c5ce40518c549d7da2d852f7
Agroup of Republicans led by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., sent a letter to Small Businesses Administrator Isabel Guzman demanding to know why the agency has continued to provide Paycheck Protection Program loans to Planned Parenthood affiliates despite them being ineligible for the funds.
The letter outlines how the Small Business Administration notified 38 Planned Parenthood affiliates in 2020 that they had wrongfully applied for 38 PPP loans worth more than $80 million, ruling that the affiliates were ineligible for the loans due to the size of Planned Parenthood's overall organization.
RAND PAUL RELEASES REPORT ON RISING INFLATION: 'IT'S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE'
"Despite this determination, the SBA approved 17 new PPP loans to Planned Parenthood affiliates totaling nearly $40 million in 2021," the letter reads. "Moreover, under your leadership, SBA has forgiven at least 34 Planned Parenthood PP loans to date."
The letter, which was also signed by Sens. Rick Scott, Ron Johnson, James Lankford, Josh Hawley and Mitt Romney, demands the SBA hand over records relating to the agency's decisions, guidance, policies, communications and notes related to the loans and forgiveness of loans to Planned Parenthood affiliates.
The letter is not the first time Paul has challenged the SBA over its loans to Planned Parenthood affiliates, questioning Guzman over the same issue at a hearing last year.
"During today’s Small Business Committee hearing I questioned SBA Administrator Guzman on the Biden administration’s decision to allow small business loans to go to Planned Parenthoods and fund abortions across America, which is a reversal of the Trump administration’s determination that these loans were illegal," Paul said at the time. "I have repeatedly asked for more information that she has not yet provided. Today she again refused to give us that information, even though she clearly knows the answers."
Paul said Guzman pledged to look into the issue during confirmation hearings but has so far failed to follow through, a trend that has led the senator to again ask for answers.
"This raises serious questions about the SBA's management of the PPP program, which was intended to provide relief to small businesses," the letter reads.
the SBA approved 17 new PPP loans to Planned Parenthood
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-s-judicial-nominee-could-become-first-latina-openly-lgbtq-person-to-serve-on-d-c-district-court/ar-AAWI0mt?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=fdea20b0c5ce40518c549d7da2d852f7
New York Daily News
Biden’s judicial nominee could become first Latina, openly LGBTQ person to serve on D.C. district court
Muri Assunção - 41m ago
Alawyer who immigrated from Uruguay as a child could soon make history in the U.S. by becoming the first Hispanic and openly LGBTQ person to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Ana Reyes was among five federal judicial nominees announced Wednesday by President Joe Biden on his 17th round of nominations, “all of whom are extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution,” the White House said in a news release.
Biden has announced 95 federal judicial nominees so far in his presidency. The five names announced this week continue to fulfill an early promise to ensure that U.S. courts “reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country — both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.”
Reyes is currently a partner at Williams & Connolly a private law firm based in Washington, D.C., where she focuses on cross-border litigation and international arbitration.
Ana Reyes
For over a decade, she has worked pro bono representing asylum seekers and refugee organizations, according to a bio on the firm’s website.
The Uruguayan-born lawyer grew up in Louisville, Ky. and now lives in D.C. Before joining Williams & Connolly, she served as a law clerk for Judge Amalya Kearse on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 2000 to 2001.
She received her law degree from Harvard Law School in 2000 and her master’s in international public policy from the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies, according to the White House.
“Ana Reyes has the intelligence, temperament, and integrity to be an excellent federal judge,” Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat representing D.C., said Wednesday in a statement.
“She will also bring much-needed diversity to the federal bench. I look forward to her Senate confirmation and service on the bench,” added Norton, who recommended Reyes to the president.
Two other district court nominees were also announced this week: Judge Elizabeth Hanes for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Anna M. Nardacci for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.
Judge Sarah A. L. Merriam was nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, while Lara E. Montecalvo was nominated for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
“President Biden has spent decades committed to strengthening the federal bench, which is why he continues to move rapidly to fill judicial vacancies,” according to the White House. “And he has won confirmation of the most lower court judges for the first year of a presidency since the Kennedy Administration.”