Criminal justice overhaul passes U.S. House, heads to Trump for signature

The U.S. House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a sweeping overhaul of the federal prison system, a measure that sailed through the U.S. Senate earlier in the week by a similarly large consensus.

The so-called "First Step Act" — long championed by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas — passed the House with a 358-36 vote with most members from Texas supporting the legislation. It will now head to President Donald Trump's desk, where he is expected to sign the bill into law.

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/12/20/criminal-justice-overhaul-passes-us-house-heads-trump-signature/

Russians communicated with Treasury officials through secret email back channel during 2016 campaign

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/russians-communicated-with-treasury-officials-through-secret-email-back-channel-during-2016-campaign

Local DA stalls probe into deadly upstate NY limo crash

A federal probe into the upstate limo crash that killed 20 people has stalled because local investigators won’t yield the vehicle to inspectors, according to reports.

Schoharie County District Attorney Susan Mallery is refusing to hand over the smashed-up stretch Ford Excursion to the National Transportation Safety Board.

“…[W]e are gravely concerned that your lack of responsiveness to our requests has seriously impeded our abilities to carry out our congressionally-mandated duties to properly complete this safety investigation and potentially prevent similar accidents in the future,” NTSB attorney Kathleen Silbaugh wrote to Mallery in a scratching Dec. 14 letter obtained by WGRB-TV.

Malley said she won’t let the feds into the driver’s seat until state police have finished their own investigation into the crash.

https://nypost.com/2018/12/20/local-da-stalls-probe-into-deadly-upstate-ny-limo-crash/

WHAT????

Sacha Baron Cohen: We Stumbled Upon Possible Pedophile Ring During 'Who Is America' Taping, Notified FBI

"We immediately turned over the footage to the FBI because we thought, perhaps there's a pedophile ring in Las Vegas that's operating for these very wealthy men."

Sacha Baron Cohen attends the European Premiere of 'Alice Through The Looking Glass' at Odeon Leicester Square on May 10, 2016 in London, England. Photo by Ben Pruchnie/WireImage

ByAMANDA PRESTIGIACOMO

@AMANDAPRESTO

December 20, 2018

90.8k views

Showtime host Sacha Baron Cohen revealed Wednesday that he stumbled upon what he thought could be a possible pedophile ring while taping his controversial summer series "Who is America?"

During a classic Baron Cohen-style fake interview, the comedian plays a character named Gio who eventually asks a Las Vegas concierge to get him an underaged boy as a "date." After this concierge offered to put "Gio" in touch with a person who apparently procures such boys, Baron Cohen turned the troubling footage over to the FBI.

"We were shooting some of this at the time of Harvey Weinstein. We wanted to investigate how does someone like Harvey Weinstein gets away with doing what … get away with criminality, essentially. And the network that surrounds him. We decided that Gio would interview a concierge in Las Vegas," Baron Cohen explained to Deadline.

"During the interview, I revealed that basically Gio has molested an eight-year-old boy," he continued. "Now, mind you, this is extreme comedy and we thought that the guy would leave the room. Instead, this concierge stays in the room and I go, listen, you’ve got to help me get rid of the problem. And this guy starts advising Gio how to get rid of this issue. We even at one point talk about murdering the boy, and the concierge is just saying, 'well, listen, I'm really sorry. In this country, we can't just drown the boy. This is America we don’t do that.' And then, in the end, he puts me in touch with a lawyer who can silence the boy."

Baron Cohen then asked the concierge about getting him an underage boy as a "date":

"And then at the end of the interview I say, listen, I want to go out and celebrate now. Can you get me a date for tonight? He says, ‘what do you mean, a date?’

I go, you know, like a young man. He says, ‘well, what kind of age?’ I say, lower than Bar Mitzvah but older than eight. And he says, ‘yeah, I can put you in touch with somebody who can get you some boys like that.’

The footage was immediately handed over to the FBI by Baron Cohen's team "because we thought, perhaps there's a pedophile ring in Las Vegas that's operating for these very wealthy men," he told Deadline. "And this concierge had said that he’d worked for politicians and various billionaires."

In the end, said Baron Cohen, "the FBI decided not to pursue it."

https://www.dailywire.com/news/39553/sacha-baron-cohen-stumbled-upon-possible-pedophile-amanda-prestigiacomo