Trump Inauguration Spending Under Criminal Investigation by Feds

New York federal prosecutors are now investigating Trump’s inauguration spending.

Then-President elect Donald Trump received $107 million in donations to his inaugural committee and now the feds are launching a fishing expedition to see if the funds were misspent.

This new investigation stems from the April FBI raid of Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen’s home and office.

CNBC reported:

Manhattan-based federal prosecutors are investigating whether some of the $107 million in donations to then-President elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee were misspent, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said the investigation arose in part from the slew of materials seized in April raids on Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, by federal prosecutors.

The criminal probe is also looking into whether some of the committee’s top spenders traded money for access to the incoming Trump administration, as well as “policy concessions or to influence official administration positions,” sources told the Journal.

“Giving money in exchange for political favors could run afoul of federal corruption laws,” The newspaper explained. “Diverting funds from the organization, which was registered as a nonprofit, could also violate federal law.”

After New York prosecutors turned the screws on Michael Cohen, they shifted their focus to President Trump.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/breaking-trump-inauguration-spending-under-criminal-investigation-by-feds/

Senate Votes to End US Involvement in a War for the First Time Since Vietnam — Senator Rand Paul Applauds Historic Action

In a historic action, Senate has voted to end US involvement and support for the war in Yemen — the first time they have voted us out of war since Vietnam.

On Thursday, Senate voted 56-41 to pass S.J. Res. 54 and end support for Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen.

In a statement, Senator Rand Paul — a long time critic of US support for the war in Yemen — praised Senate’s action.

“Today, in an historic vote, the Senate sent a clear message to Saudi Arabia that we will not turn a blind eye to their abuse of human rights, killing of dissidents and innocent Yemenis, and fueling of a humanitarian crisis. Since entering the Senate, I have spoken out against Congress’ abdication of its constitutional responsibilities in foreign policy, and I have worked across the aisle to help build the bipartisan consensus that made its voice loudly heard today. I will continue working to ensure that today’s victory is just the beginning of a long-awaited change in how Congress operates,” Senator Paul said in a statement.

A press release from Senator Paul’s office noted that over the past five years, Dr. Paul has spoken out and led multiple bipartisan efforts against U.S. involvement in Yemen. “Most recently, in November, he forced a procedural vote on his resolution that would have blocked the sale of an estimated $300 million in high-explosive rocket artillery and associated training and support to Bahrain, a member of the Saudi-led coalition waging the war in Yemen.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/senate-votes-to-end-us-involvement-in-a-war-for-the-first-time-since-vietnam-senator-rand-paul-applauds-historic-action/

DOJ Destroyed Missing Strzok/Page Texts Before IG Could Review Them

The Department of Justice wiped text messages between former FBI employees Lisa Page and Peter Strozk from their cell phones before the Office of the Inspector General could review them, a new report from the DOJ watchdog reveals.

Page and Strozk’s involvement with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has been heavily scrutinized after it was revealed they had sent numerous anti-Trump text messages back and forth to one another. Mueller has been tasked with looking into whether or not Donald Trump and his campaign associates coordinated with Russian officials to steal the 2016 election away from Hillary Clinton.

The 11-page report reveals that almost a month after Strzok was removed from Mueller’s team, his government-issued iPhone was wiped clean and restored to factory settings by another individual working in Mueller’s office. The special counsel’s Record’s Officer told investigators that “she determined it did not contain records that needed to be retained.”

“She noted in her records log about Strzok’s phone: ‘No substantive texts, notes or reminders,'” the report states.

When the OIG obtained his old cell phone in January, it had been issued to another individual within the agency and investigators were unable to recover any text messages sent or received by Strozk on that device.

Two weeks after Page departed Mueller’s team on July 15, 2017, her government-issued iPhone was also wiped and restored to factory settings and had not been reissued to another person within the agency. No one within the special counsel’s office or the Justice Management Divisions of the agency had any records as to who cleared all the data from the iPhone.

The OIG was able to recover more than 19,000 texts between Strozk and Page on their old government-issued Samsung Galaxy S5 devices that had been lost due to the agency’s “collection tool failure.” The OIG did not include the content of these texts in the report.

Bre Payton is a staff writer at The Federalist. Follow her on Twitter.

http://12160.info/page/doj-destroyed-missi

https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2018/i-2018-003523.pdf

Police Arrest 34 In Budapest As Violent Anti-Orban Protesters Storm Parliament

Violence exploded outside the Hungarian Parliament in Budapest on Wednesday, prompting police to make 34 arrests as five officers were injured, as demonstrators stormed the building to protest a series of laws passed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban's ruling Fidesz Party - one of which put the country's Minister of Justice in charge of picking judges for newly created federal courts, per Bloomberg.

Hungarian police arrested 34 people when protesters tried to storm the parliament building late on Tuesday after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s lawmakers passed a series of bills that strengthen his grip on power.

Five law enforcement officials were injured during scuffles as police used tear gas to repel demonstrators, Gergely Gulyas, the minister in charge of the prime minister’s office, told a briefing on Wednesday.

According to Local News 8, hundreds of protesters marched through Budapest and gathered at the parliament building Wednesday night after Orban's party passed a law allowing employers to ask their workers to take on up to 400 hours' overtime per year - something its critics have dubbed "the slave law." But the final straw for demonstrators was the passage of another law allowing the Justice Minister to appoint judges to new courts designed to handle cases concerning "government business" like tax and elections.

Opposition lawmakers decried the law as an authoritarian power grab. After it was passed, pandemonium broke out in parliament.

Hungary's parliament was thrown into scenes of turmoil following the vote on the new legislation, with opposition lawmakers sounding air horns and angrily confronting the Prime Minister.

One member of parliament, Tordai Bence, filmed himself demanding answers from an awkward-looking Orban over the new overtime laws.

Shortly after the vote, around 2,000 people marched through Budapest - some waving EU flags - and converged on the steps of the parliament. Some protesters hurled objects at police, who responded with pepper spray, Reuters reported.

Notably, the demonstrations followed the retreat of billionaire George Soros and his "Open Society" foundation, which left Hungary earlier this year under scrutiny from lawmakers. More recently, the Soros-backed University of Central Europe was forced out of the country under laws intended to curb foreign influence in Hungarian politics. Soros has played a major role in organizing the opposition to Orban's Fidesz party, which won a sweeping landslide victory during Parliamentary elections earlier this year and enjoys overwhelming popular support (particularly in the countryside) largely thanks to its immigration policies.

Soros isn't the only antagonist trying to punish Orban and his government. The European Parliament earlier this year authorized an unprecedented Article 7 proceeding to punish Orban's government for not caving to pressure to institute "open door" policies like those that have been rejected by voters in Germany and Italy.

But as the billionaire investor continues to pursue his vendetta against his former protege (Soros financed Orban's education and was an early benefactor) expect more unrest in the streets of the capital.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-13/police-arrest-34-budapest-violent-anti-orban-protests-rock-hungarian-capital

New Brazil government to pull out of UN Migration Pact as “It doesn’t serve national interests”

President-elect Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil announced Monday that when his right-wing administration comes to power in January they will withdraw from the U.N. Migration pact.

“Immigration is welcome, but it should not be indiscriminate,” Ernesto Araujo, who will be the new foreign minister, tweeted, adding: “It must serve the national interests and cohesion of each society.” The UN pact is an “inappropriate instrument” for the “problem” of migration.

Brazil, Chile and the Dominican Republic are other Latin American countries to withdraw. The US and 14 other countries have pulled out or expressed concerns over national sovereignty with the pact.

The pact legalises migration as a human right thereby deprecating the term ‘illegal migrants’, and criminalises any criticism of migration as hate speech.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/new-brazil-government-to-pull-out-of-un-migration-pact-as-it-doesnt-serve-national-interests/

While 81% don’t want more migration, European leaders shamefully ignored the will of the people by signing the UN Pact

New research indicates people want less migration, not more – 81% want the opposite of the UN Pact signed Monday

At about the same time that Merkel and other globalist leaders were celebrating the controversial UN Migration Compact in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Monday, Pew Research Center published its new findings on how citizens feel about the impact of immigration in 27 different countries around the world.

The results confirm what true democratic leaders did by rejecting the Marrakesh deal: countries like America, Hungary, Italy, and almost a dozen others chose to listen to its people’s desire for LESS migration instead of more.

Pew Research states in its paper that “as the number of international migrants reaches new highs, people around the world show little appetite for more migration.”

In fact the median of 27 such disparate countries as Argentina, Indonesia, India and Israel that want less immigration was 45%. A further 36% of interviewees said that current immigration rates are enough whilst only 14% wanted more immigration.

So while the UN is pushing hard for millions more to immigrate globally, a full 81% of citizens interviewed in these countries say they do not want more, and most of them want fewer immigrants.

A recent Gallup poll indicated that up to 750 million people – one tenth of the planet’s population – want to migrate permanently to another country, which would cause untold havoc on Western countries’ welfare systems and societies.

So whilst unelected bureaucrats keep driving the narrative that Western countries need more immigrants to “survive”, it is becoming clear that people everywhere are diametrically opposed to this view.

What is also clear is that there is a growing populist movement, mostly right wing, which has finally started listening to its citizens – thus Democracy, one where votes actually matter, may be seeing a comeback.

https://voiceofeurope.com/2018/12/while-81-dont-want-more-migration-european-leaders-shamefully-ignored-the-will-of-the-people-by-signing-the-un-pact/

Tom Luongo: People Fed Up W Globalist Takeover

“Have they learned nothing?” The end of France as we know it.

Protests like this [yellow vests] and even bigger ones like Catalonian independence are invariably betrayed by the European political establishment. They become an excuse to move towards tighter control — more cops, more surveillance, crackdowns on free speech, etc.

So, sometimes it’s hard to separate the manufactured reality show from the spontaneous uprising of human frustration.

A return of national sovereignty across Europe is no longer coming. I think it’s here. This can no longer be stage-managed as a relief valve of the massive discontent at neoliberal policies rammed down Europeans’ throats as it has in the past.

Something far more significant is here. They can’t cordon off this movement in France and use it to demonize the leadership and, by extension, the people.

It’s jumped borders. It’s part of the zeitgeist now.

No matter how many times rags like The Guardian, Der Spiegel and Politico call these people ‘far-right’ or ‘alt-right’ and link them to Nazism it doesn’t stop them because the protestors don’t see themselves that way.

These people are sick of the corruption and demand results, not words. Not campaign speeches, but results.

Macron was sold as the outsider, the reformer, who wasn’t in office a week before he began betraying the people who voted for him. And now he’s stuck.

The media turned against him quickly because they know he is done. Their job now will be to prep the narrative to puff up his replacement.

Kicking the can down the road means replacing the old boss with a new boss who is also just another globalist, neoliberal shill.

It’s what’s happening in Germany as Angela Merkel passes the torch of the CDU to a woman even more on board with Merkel’s [globalist neoliberal] agenda than Merkel was.

http://www.investmentwatchblog.com/tom-luongo-people-fed-up-w-globalist-takeover/

>>4298718

EU fighting back

Trump Lawyer Rudy Giuliani Exposes Holes in Mueller Investigation

President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani spoke about the ongoing Mueller investigation and what Trump’s legal team is doing.

Giuliani and the rest of Trump’s legal team are focused on getting Mueller to wrap up the probe. Giuliani called Yahoo News on Dec. 12, to express his views on the situation.

“Our strategy is … to do everything we can to try to convince Mueller to wrap the damn thing up, and if he’s got anything, show us,” Giuliani told Yahoo. “If he doesn’t have anything, you know, write your report, tell us what you have, and we’ll deal with it. He can’t prosecute him [Trump]. All he can do is write a report about him, so write the goddamned thing and get it over with now.”

Giuliani also expressed dissatisfaction with Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison on Dec. 12.

“Cohen is a completely dishonorable person. … I’ve never heard of a lawyer that tape-recorded their client without the client’s permission, and I’ve known some pretty scummy lawyers,” Giuliani told Yahoo. “You don’t exist very long in the legal profession if you go around taping your client.”

Cohen’s sentence was reduced because of his guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the probe.

Giuliani also told Yahoo that Mueller’s investigation shifted focus from Russian collusion to campaign finance law violations because there was nothing to uncover about collusion.

“How do they all of a sudden become campaign finance prosecutors? You need a special prosecutor for campaign finance? I mean, they started with collusion. … After two years and two investigations … they have nothing on collusion,” Giuliani told Yahoo. “Then, they started squeaking about obstruction. They’ve got nothing on obstruction, and Article II prevents them from doing anything about obstruction. Now they’re doing campaign finance.”

Giuliani saw questions Mueller submitted to the president on the collusion issue. He also wasn’t impressed.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/trump-lawyer-rudy-giuliani-exposes-holes-in-mueller-investigation_2738680.html

>>4298740

Fear is the enemy Anon. Fear not as they feed on it if you are afraid

Strasbourg Christmas market shooter killed in shootout with police

French police have killed the main suspect in the Strasbourg Christmas market shooting, Cherif Chekat, following a dramatic, helicopter-assisted police raid in a city-center district, the country’s Interior Minister confirmed.

The French police mounted a massive operation in Strasbourg on Thursday, involving armed officers from the elite RAID police unit and the helicopter. Interior Minister, Christophe Castaner, has confirmed that the suspect was “neutralized” in the raid.

Three or four gunshots shots were fired in the city’s La Meinau district. The suspect, earlier identified as 29-year-old Cherif Chekat, was first to shoot at the officers and was killed by return fire.

https://www.rt.com/news/446409-police-operation-strasbourg-shooting/

US Senate passes resolution blaming Saudi Prince MBS for Jamal Khashoggi murder

The US Senate has unanimously passed a resolution calling Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi who was brutally killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

The resolution demands that Riyadh “ensure appropriate accountability” in this case. The move came just minutes after the senators passed a separate motion calling on the US to stop any aid to the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen.

The Senate called the situation in the war-ravaged country a “humanitarian crisis” and demanded all parties seek an immediate ceasefire. It is yet unclear whether the House would vote on any of the motions after they had passed the Senate.

The move came a week after CIA Director Gina Haspel appeared on Capitol Hill to tell about a dozen senators about intelligence her agency had on Khashoggi’s death. The briefing apparently solidified the belief, at least among some of them, that the Saudi crown prince was indeed behind the murder.

The two resolutions are adding to the mounting pressure on President Donald Trump to officially place the blame for the Washington Post columnist’s murder on MBS – something he has so far been reluctant to do.

Riyadh has denied that the crown prince had any prior knowledge of the killing. However, some Saudi high-ranking officials, including MBS’s former communications chief, Saud al-Qahtani, have been fired following the murder. Five members of the hit squad that allegedly executed the murder are facing the death sentence in Saudi Arabia.

https://www.rt.com/usa/446410-senate-resolution-mbs-murder-khashoggi/

End Of Yemeni War? Warring Sides Reach Initial Agreement On Al-Hudaydah And Taiz

In a first major breakthrough since the beginning of the Yemeni peace talks in Sweden earlier in December, the country’s warring sides reached a ceasefire agreement that covers the strategic provinces of Taiz and al-Hudaydah.

On December 13, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the agreement and thanked the Yemeni sides and described the agreement as “an important step” towards “future talks to end the conflict.”

“The war in Yemen has gone on for four years. Four devastating years of suffering for the Yemeni people … Thank you for coming here to discuss a better future for Yemen. And what you achieved is an important step,” the al-Jazeera quoted Guterres as saying.

Saudi Arabia ambassador to Yemen Mohamad Al Jaber, who is attending the peace talks in the Swedish city of Rimbo, revealed that the Houthis will withdraw from the city and port of al-Hudaydah and from their remaining positions in Tazi under the agreement.

“Thousands of captives and prisoners will be also released,” Al Jaber added on Twitter.

Guterres said that the the U.N. will play a key role in the port of al-Hudaydah and will facilitate humanitarian efforts all over Yemen. This indicates that the Saudi-led coalition will not be allowed to enter the key western city.

Head of the Houthis delegation to Sweden Mohamad Abd al-Salam praised the agreement and said that next week will likely witness a similar understanding on the Yemeni capital Saana and its airport.

“We have made very large concessions on al-Hudaydah in order to save the Yemeni People,” Abd al-Salam said during a press conference following the announcement of the initial agreement, according to the al-Mayadeen TV.

Last month, the U.S. stepped up its pressure on Saudi Arabia to push forward with negotiations on the conflict in Yemen in the wake of the murder of Saudi journalist and critic Jamal Khashoggi. Lebanese Hezbollah’s leader had also advised the kingdom to end its war on Yemen in order to find a way out of its current troubles.

From the its own side, the Saudi military has not been able to deliver a devastating blow the to Houthis by military means only. Considering a complicated military and diplomatic situation in which the kingdom’d found itself by the end of 2018, the Saudi leadership may have decided to ease tensions on the southern border of the country.

https://southfront.org/end-of-yemeni-war-warring-sides-reach-initial-agreement-on-al-hudaydah-and-taiz/

EU summit prolongs economic sanctions against Russia for six months

BRUSSELS, December 13. /TASS/. The heads of states and governments of the European Union made a political decision at the EU summit in Brussels to extend for six months the economic sanctions against Russia, which expire on January 31, head of the European Council Donald Tusk announced on Thursday.

"The EU unanimously prolongs economic sanctions against Russia given zero progress in implementation of Minsk agreements," Tusk said.

"As usual, the sanctions are extended by half a year. This is a political decision. Ahead there is a formal procedure that will be done in the coming weeks," a source in the margins of the summit told TASS.

The source added that after the completion of the formal procedure, the decision will be published in the Official Journal of the EU and will enter into force.

The economic sanctions against Russia were imposed in July 2014, after the Malaysian Boeing operating the flight MH17 crashed in Donbass (east of Ukraine). Since then, the sanctions were renewed every six months. In March 2015, the EU summit decided that sanctions could be lifted only after the implementation of the Minsk agreements.

However, the EU countries completely ignore Kiev's sabotage of their obligations under these agreements and do not consider any responsibility for this.

http://tass.com/economy/1035956