Trump signs memo to fight counterfeit products online

April 3 (UPI) – President Donald Trump signed a memorandum Wednesday to curtail the sale of counterfeit and pirated products online – a move to make third-party vendors more accountable for those purchases, officials said. White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told reporters in a conference call the administration plans to collect more information about how widespread counterfeiting is online, who's behind it and refer them to the Homeland Security, Justice and Commerce departments. From there, he said, officials will make recommendations on potential regulatory or legislative changes.

"These third-party, online marketplaces – Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, others – together with the ecosystem that supports them … they have essentially zero liability when it comes to the trafficking of these counterfeit goods," Navarro said. "That simply has to stop." Navarro said the greatest challenge will be obtaining necessary data.

"We don't know with any certainty how much counterfeiting is going on," he said. "We believe it's a lot. We don't know how much there is, where it's coming from, how it's coming." The memo said counterfeiting is a serious problem that "impairs economic competitiveness by harming United States intellectual property rights holders and diminishing the reputations and trustworthiness of online markets." It also says phony products cheat consumers and pose risks to health, safety – and potentially national security if they get into the Department of Defense supply chain. The administration cited a Government Accountability Office report that says up to 40 percent of items sold online are counterfeit. "Our goal is to rightfully shift the burden of counterfeit trafficking to the supply chain and online third-party and intermediaries who are just blanketing this country with dangerous products that cheat consumers out of billions of dollars a year," Navarro said.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/04/03/Trump-signs-memo-to-fight-counterfeit-products-online/7681554305512/

Memo:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/memorandum-combating-trafficking-counterfeit-pirated-goods/

Campaign Authentic Pencil Neck Tee

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Counterfeit Pencil Neck Tee Amazon

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Within a few days of the Trump campaign's original tee being advertised…Amazon shows up with a copycat one, both are depicted here.

Lori Loughlin and Husband Surrender Passports, Waive Right to Preliminary Hearing

“Full House” actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli surrendered their passports in a federal courtroom in Boston on April 3. Loughlin and Giannulli have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud in the nationwide college bribery scheme.

The couple paid William “Rick” Singer $500,000 in fraudulent donations to his nonprofit, The Key Worldwide, in exchange for him getting their two daughters designated as athletic recruits, according to federal prosecutors. The alleged bribe worked: both Olivia Jade, 19, and Isabella, 20, got into the University of Southern California as crew recruits despite not rowing at a competitive level. After Judge Mary Page Kelley made sure the power couple understood their rights, Loughlin told her she did. She also informed Kelley that her passport had been turned over to her pretrial supervisor in Los Angeles, reported Jonathan Hall of WHDH-TV. NBC Boston reporter Caroline Connolly said that Giannulli also surrendered his passport. Giannulli also said he understood his rights and the charges and both said they were waiving their right to a preliminary hearing. They then left the courtroom, Connolly reported. The pair were inside for about 45 minutes.

Fellow actress Felicity Huffman, who also appeared in the courtroom on Wednesday, was accused of paying Singer $15,000 to have one of his associates falsify answers on her daughter’s SAT test in order to boost the score. In all, 33 parents were charged in the scheme. Huffman was next in court right after Loughlin and Giannulli and told the judge she understood the charge and the maximum penalty, which is 20 years in prison, reported Connolly. The “Desperate Housewives” star then left the courtroom after also waiving her right to a preliminary hearing. Huffman was reportedly at the court for several hours. The defendants were told they were not allowed to travel internationally, reported Louisa Moller of WBZ.

Singer pleaded guilty to a slew of charges on March 12 and will be sentenced in June. Singer’s associate Mark Riddell, a 36-year-old administrator at IMG Academy, admitted to helping fake some students’ SAT and ACT exams, in some cases taking tests for the students or changing answers. The court appearances came after a report indicated neither actress would likely get a plea deal without prison time. Federal law enforcement sources told TMZ that any plea deal would come with a recommendation by prosecutors for jail time. “You can’t have people being treated differently because they have money. That’s how we got to this place. Every defendant will be treated the same,” one unnamed official said. While prosecutors don’t have the final decision in terms of plea deals, judges take their recommendations into account.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/lori-loughlin-and-husband-surrender-passports-waive-right-to-preliminary-hearing_2865874.html

FISA Motion Allowed FBI To Share US Citizens’ Info With Foreign Agencies. Here’s How That May Have Played Into The Russia Probe

A 2012 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court motion contained a little-noticed provision expanding the FBI’s ability to share information with foreign officials, which could have laid the groundwork for abuses against U.S. citizens, Rep. Louie Gohmert said. “This motion and order would allow the FBI to collude with foreign governments about U.S. citizens,” Gohmert, a Texas Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. The potential for the U.S. government to spy on citizens — including for potentially political purposes — by partnering with foreign governments has come under renewed scrutiny following a pattern of Trump campaign associates being seemingly targeted abroad or by using their contacts with foreigners. Republicans who believed the Russia probe improperly targeted a political opponent urged President Donald Trump to declassify documents related to the investigation months ago. But Trump ultimately declined, with two foreign countries adamantly opposed to the release.

In a 70-page motion to the court dated April 23, 2012, the Obama administration asked to modify “Section IV.C (Dissemination of Foreign Intelligence Information Concerning United States Persons To Foreign Governments).” “The following underlined text will be inserted into the first sentence: ‘The FBI may disseminate FISA-acquired information concerning United States persons, which reasonably appears to be foreign intelligence information, is necessary to understand foreign intelligence information or assess its importance, or is evidence of a crime being disseminated for a law enforcement purpose, to foreign governments as follows,'” it says (emphasis theirs).

Gohmert told TheDCNF: “‘Reasonably necessary to understand foreign intelligence or assess its importance?’ That’s pretty vague.” “There’s nothing they could obtain on American citizens that John Brennan or James Clapper couldn’t say ‘it helped me understand other intelligence,'” he continued, referring to the former directors of the CIA and of national intelligence, respectively.

Sidney Powell, a former federal prosecutor, told TheDCNF “this language is very concerning.” “There is ever-mounting evidence that our ‘allies’ in the ‘Five-Eyes’ world were part of the conspiracy to destroy President Trump,” she said, referring to the intelligence alliance between the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. “This amendment only exacerbates the likelihood of abuses.”

In September 2018, Trump ordered the “immediate declassification” of key documents that would illuminate the Russia probe — which ultimately found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia — but reversed himself days later. He said two unnamed countries, described as “very good allies,”called to express concern. The New York Times reported that the British government expressed “grave concern.”

Foreign governments do not have the same restrictions on monitoring U.S. citizens as the Department of Justice does, since foreign governments are not beholden to the U.S. Constitution. Allowing a two-way exchange of information significantly expands the ability of the U.S. to work with other governments on topics dealing with Americans. The 2012 motion, which was mostly declassified in 2015, also requested additional powers to share intelligence with foreign governments that are still unknown because the relevant portion was redacted. “In addition, the following underlined text is inserted into Section IV.C.2: [redacted],” it said. “To facilitate the dissemination of evidence of a crime to foreign governments, the amendments permit FBI to [redacted].” Gohmert railed against the document on the House floor on March 28, saying the secret nature of the years-old motion meant Congress didn’t know what it voted to reauthorize. “I don’t know anyone that did know back in 2012 that our Obama Justice Department was throwing the door open with this vague and ambiguous language,” he said.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/04/03/fbi-fisa-motion-trump-russia/

70 page Motion for Amendments to Stand

https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/0315/Motion%20for%20Amendments%20to%20Standard%20Minimization%20Procedures%20April%2023%202012.pdf