Biden Backers Launch $60 Million Secret Money Dem ‘Strategy Center’ for 2020

Group will work with other liberal orgs, try to counter conservative media

A group of Democratic strategists that includes an individual who established a political action committee backing presidential candidate Joe Biden will lead a $60 million secret money "strategy center" for Democrats for the 2020 election cycle.

Future Majority, a Washington, D.C.-based strategy center that will work to "rebrand" the Democratic party, was launched with the intent of providing "strategic advice" to other liberal organizations, communications, and a "war room" to debunk "fake news" and "counter conservative social media," Politico reports. The group will focus on midwestern states for the 2020 presidential election including Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, according to Mark Riddle, the executive director of Future Majority.

"It's no great secret that the presidential race will be won or lost in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio—if we can win back the narrative that the word ‘Democrat’ equals people who are fighting for folks who work hard every day, we can continue to win elections," Riddle said of the effort. "If [Democrats] get defined as being about socialism and these other words people can hear about out of Washington, then I worry." Dan Sena, the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2018 elections, will act as an adviser for the group. Julianna Smoot, who was a deputy director on President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, will also advise the nonprofit. The group has enlisted Democratic megadonors Philip Munger, son of Charles Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and Dan Tierney, who served as managing director of KCG Holdings, a global financial services company that was sold in 2017. Future Majority will utilize PACs and is registered as a 501(c)(4) "dark money" nonprofit that does not have to disclose its donors. Actress Alyssa Milano was tapped by the group to help spread its content on social media sites, according to the report. Despite Future Majority just now going public on its upcoming efforts for the 2020 elections, the group was incorporated more than a year ago in January 2018, according to its filings with the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Matthew Tompkins, a Democratic fundraiser, is listed as the group's governor in its D.C. records. On April 24, Tompkins established a separate committee named Biden PAC despite PACs not being able to contain the name of candidates, Federal Election Commission filings show. The same day it was established, the PAC amended its statement of organization and changed its name to the G Street PAC while removing Tompkins as its treasurer. The PAC will work to gather tens of millions of dollars and seeks to create an activist network in all 50 states for the former vice president. It will eventually be named the For the People PAC, the Hill reported. Biden's campaign distanced itself from the efforts.

Future Majority's incorporator is marked as Cathedral Strategies LLC, which does not appear to have a website. However, Cathedral Strategies' own filings in D.C. show that the group was registered in 2013 by Brett Avery Seifried. The LLC's license is currently revoked, its filings show. Riddle, Future Majority's executive director, Tompkins, its listed governor, and Seifried, who is linked to the group's incorporating LLC, are all tied to the New Leaders Council, a group that dubs itself as a "hub for progressive Millennial thought leadership" that recruits and trains individuals.

Riddle is the president, Tompkins is the vice president, and Seifried is general counsel to the New Leaders Council. Future Majority did not provide a comment on its operations and the involved individuals by press time.

https://freebeacon.com/politics/biden-backers-launch-60-million-secret-money-dem-strategy-center-for-2020/

https://www.futuremajority.org/about

http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00704312/1328921/

http://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/forms/C00704312/1328924/

https://www.newleaderscouncil.org/about

ICE Sends More Agents to Combat Fake Families at Border

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced on Monday night it is reallocating resources to combat cases of fake families, who are using forged documents to enter the country and avoid detention. More agents from ICE's Homeland Security Investigations team have been deployed to the Southwest border to increase investigations into fraudulent family units seeking to enter the United States illegally. ICE reported that evidence of fraud was found in more than 25 family unit interviews in the month of April alone. Forged documents have included birth certificates and other documents to claim parentage. The agents also found adult illegal immigrants were using documents to claim they were minors under the age of 18.

"ICE Homeland Security Investigations is redirecting resources to the border in response to cases of fake families using forged documents to illegally enter our country and avoid detention," ICE acting director Matthew Albence said in a press statement. "Our highly-skilled teams are working to stop individuals, networks and organizations facilitating child smuggling and document fraud." Albence said that ICE and the Customs Border Patrol agency "remain committed to protecting children by ensuring they are not used as pawns by individuals attempting to gain entry to the U.S. through fraud."

Additional HSI teams are supporting CBP in El Paso, Texas, Las Cruces, N.M., Eagle Pass and Harlingen, Texas, Yuma, Ariz., and El Centro and San Diego, Calif. The teams have human smuggling and trafficking expertise and include criminal analysts, interpreters, document analysts, and forensic interview and victim assistance specialists, according to ICE. In one fake family case in April, HSI agents identified two suspect family units, alleging to be two fathers and their two sons. The sons were pretending to be minors and were discovered to be 23-years-old. Another case involved an adult Honduran man, who presented a fake birth certificate for an unrelated 7-year-old with whom he was traveling. The child was turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement as an unaccompanied minor. Approximately 330 deportation officers have also been temporarily shifted to areas most impacted by the border crisis.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/ice-sends-more-agents-to-combat-fake-families-at-border/

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-shifts-resources-address-crisis-southwest-border

Trump Moves To Designate Muslim Brotherhood As Terror Group

President Trump moved to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror group following a visit from the president of Egypt earlier this month. The designation would impose severe travel and economic sanctions on those who associate with the group, which has millions of members across the Middle East. Trump has asked his administration to figure out a way to make the designation happen, The New York Times reports. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the news, which the New York Times reports has sparked internal debate in the administration. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security advisor John Bolton support the move, while others at the Pentagon are opposed and are working to propose a more moderate action.

“The president has consulted with his national security team and leaders in the region who share his concern, and this designation is working its way through the internal process,” she told The New York Times.

The group is politically opposed to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Sisi asked Trump to join his country in designating them a terror group when the two talked in an April 9 meeting at the White House. Trump reacted positively to the idea, saying it would make sense for the U.S. to make the designation, and some of his aides reportedly interpreted his response as a commitment.

The move would be complicated because of the Muslim Brotherhood’s size and reach, including into the United States. Some political parties associate loosely with the group, but disavow its violent extremism. The designation could also strain already tense relations with Turkey, whose president is an avid supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood. Americans would likely be caught up in the move as well, and American humanitarian organizations affiliated with the group.

Seven countries, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, have made the designation. The sanctions imposed would punish those who fund the group or provide banking services, and ban members or those with ties to the group from entering the United States.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/04/30/trump-muslim-brotherhood-terror-group/

Egypt hands life sentences to senior Muslim Brotherhood figure and son

CAIRO (Reuters) - An Egyptian court handed life sentences to Hassan Malik, a leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, as well as his son Hamza and five others on Tuesday after convicting them of terrorism offences. The charges included leading a terrorist organization, supporting it financially and taking actions aimed at hurting the economy, based in part on a search of Malik’s home in which Muslim Brotherhood documents were found that allegedly outlined plots against the state, a judicial source told Reuters. The source said the documents outlined plans to damage Egypt’s economy by manipulating the value of the Egyptian pound against the dollar. They also said the documents described plans to attack armed forces, police and tourists and that they incited the use of violence to overthrow the government. The Brotherhood, Egypt’s main Islamist movement for almost a century, denies allegations of terrorism, saying it seeks political change solely by peaceful means.

Malik, a businessman, was in court for the trial, dressed in white prison garb, while his son Hamza and five other Brotherhood defendants were tried in absentia. Malik earlier denied the charges in court. Tuesday’s ruling can be appealed within two months.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government declared the Brotherhood a terrorist organization in 2014, a year after the military, then commanded by Sisi, toppled Mohamed Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected president and a senior Brotherhood figure, following mass protests against his rule. Rights activists say Sisi has overseen a relentless clampdown on dissent in Egypt since his 2014 election. The crackdown at first targeted Islamists, including Brotherhood members, but spread to encompass political dissidents, human rights lawyers, journalists and others, says Human Rights Watch. At least 60,000 people have been jailed on political grounds, according to an HRW estimate.

Tuesday’s verdict came as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, a security ally of Sisi, was moving to designate the Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization, which would bring sanctions against the veteran Islamist movement. Sisi has denied holding political prisoners and his backers say the security measures have been necessary to stabilize Egypt after its 2011 popular uprising. In a separate case, 34 people were sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday on charges including planning Islamist militant attacks in Giza and Alexandria.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-court/egypt-hands-life-sentences-to-senior-muslim-brotherhood-figure-and-son-idUSKCN1S61UO?il=0