Barr confronts Pelosi: 'Madam Speaker, did you bring handcuffs?'

Attorney General William Barr asked Speaker Nancy Pelosi whether she planned to arrest him when he appeared on the West Front to commemorate the National Peace Officers Memorial service on Wednesday.

Barr, who was on a platform with Congressional leaders as they awaited President Trump’s arrival, approached Speaker Pelosi and shook her hand, a bystander told the Washington Examiner. Apparently joking, he said loudly: "Madam Speaker, did you bring your handcuffs?" The bystander said: “The Speaker, not missing a beat, smiled and indicated to the Attorney General that the House Sergeant at Arms was present at the ceremony should an arrest be necessary. The Attorney General chuckled and walked away.”

The House Judiciary Committee cited Barr for contempt last week after he refused to turn over the unredacted Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Pelosi, D-Calif., has not scheduled a floor vote, but it will likely include a criminal and civil contempt citation against Barr. Few expect Barr’s Department of Justice to pursue the criminal contempt charge. Barr is prohibited from releasing the unredacted report because it contains classified and other sensitive material. But some Democrats have called for Barr to be jailed and Pelosi joked last week that the House basement houses a small jail. She continued to rib Barr about the matter during the ceremony, according to a witness.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/barr-confronts-pelosi-did-you-bring-handcuffs

Blame game pits John Brennan against James Comey over support for Steele dossier

A debate is heating up over whether it was former CIA Director John Brennan or former FBI Director James Comey who attempted to include the unverified Trump dossier in the high-profile Intelligence Community Assessment of January 2017 that focused on Russian interference. A report from Fox News on Wednesday offered competing claims, with some sources telling them that a yet-to-be-made-public email chain from late 2016 shows that “Comey told [FBI] subordinates that … Brennan insisted the dossier be included” in the assessment, while a former CIA official “put the blame squarely on Comey.” The dossier, put together by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, contained a litany of unverified claims about President Trump's ties to Russia and was used extensively in FISA applications before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to justify surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. The dossier was compiled through Fusion GPS and funded in part by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and its possible misuse is the subject of inquiries through the Department of Justice.

The Fox News report cites sources that discuss a late-2016 email chain in which Comey told subordinates that Brennan insisted the dossier be incuded in the intelligence community assessment. The report also says that the dossier is called “crown material” in the emails although the meaning behind that wasn’t immediately clear. A former CIA official countered this position, saying it was actually the CIA that pushed back against the FBI: “Former Director Brennan, along with former [Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper, are the ones who opposed James Comey’s recommendation that the Steele Dossier be included in the intelligence report … They opposed this because the dossier was in no way used to develop the ICA,” the unnamed source said. This individual said because the dossier was uncorroborated, “Brennan and Clapper prevented it from being added into the official assessment” and “Comey then decided on his own to brief Trump about the document.”

On Tuesday evening, former South Carolina congressman Trey Gowdy said that “who insisted that the dossier or the unverified material from Chris Steele be included” should be “a pretty easy thing to sort out.” Gowdy said that “the only thing [Brennan and Comey] seem to share is a hatred for Donald Trump" and that “it's going to be interesting if they begin to turn on one another." Gowdy additionally said that “Comey's got a better argument than Brennan based on what I have seen” but suggested it was possible that “sometimes when people are blaming each other, they are both right.”

The dossier was used in FISA filings beginning in October 2016 through June 2017, and Comey signed off on three of the four submissions to the Foreign Surveillance Court before he was fired in May 2017. Comey personally briefed Trump on some of the most salacious allegations in January 2017, and the dossier was subsequently released by BuzzFeed after CNN reported on that Trump-Comey meeting. This back-and-forth over whether it was the leadership of the CIA or FBI that was pushing for the inclusion of the dossier in the intelligence community assessment is just the latest in an ongoing saga shrouded by classified documents and anonymous sourcing. This back-and-forth over whether it was the leadership of the CIA or FBI that was pushing for the inclusion of the dossier in the intelligence community assessment is just the latest in an ongoing saga shrouded by classified documents and anonymous sourcing.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/blame-game-pits-john-brennan-against-james-comey-over-support-for-steele-dossier

Embattled Tlaib will preside over House floor Wednesday, making history amid intense criticism

Embattled Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who drew backlash this week over comments about the creation of Israel, will become the first Muslim American woman to preside over the House floor this afternoon. Tlaib, a freshman, is scheduled to wield the gavel at 3:30 p.m. when the House votes on a tribal lands bill that Trump last week urged lawmakers to block. Tlaib, D-Mich., has been under intense criticism, particularly from House Republicans, over her remarks during a podcast suggesting Palestinians are responsible for creating a safe haven for Jews.

"There's kind of a calming feeling I always tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors, Palestinians, who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some people's passports," Tlaib said on the Yahoo News podcast, "Skullduggery.” The Institute for Middle East Understanding, a pro-Palestinian nonprofit group, said in a statement Tlaib’s time with the gavel comes on “Nakba Day, when Palestinians commemorate the expulsion of approximately 750,000 Palestinians during the establishment of Israel in 1948.”

House Republicans and President Trump have condemned Tlaib’s remarks. Republicans say they reflect a pattern of anti-Semitic tweets and statements from House Democrats, in particular Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Omar and Tlaib are the first Muslim American women to serve in Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., have called on the GOP and President Trump to apologize to Tlaib.

The fight between Tlaib and Republicans escalated yesterday when Tlaib said those who misinterpreted what she said are “racist idiots,” that required her to speak at a fourth-grade level. Omar, who has fielded significant criticism over her own comments and tweets about Jews, told MSNBC the GOP criticism is “designed to silence, sideline, and sort of almost eliminate the public voice of Muslims from the public discourse.” Pelosi ultimately controls the floor and who can preside over the chamber. But Tlaib’s turn with the gavel was decided by House freshmen, who set the schedule for their group, a Pelosi aide said.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/embattled-tlaib-will-preside-over-house-floor-wednesday-making-history-amid-intense-criticism

Actor Isaac Kappy Posted Cryptic Apology to Trump and QAnon before Jumping Off Bridge

An actor who died after police said he “forced himself off a bridge” posted a rambling apology to President Donald Trump and the QAnon movement before his death. Isaac Kappy, 42, died on May 13 in Bellmont, Arizona, reported TMZ.

The Arizona Department of Public Safety confirmed his death as an apparent suicide. Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesperson Bart Graves wrote in a statement cited by PEOPLE that the actor had “forced himself off the Transwestern Rd. bridge onto Interstate 40.” After falling onto the I-40, Kappy was reportedly hit by a Ford truck. “We don’t know why Mr. Kappy took his own life,” Graves wrote in an email cited by TMZ. Several people tried to restrain him from jumping but failed. No one else was injured in the incident. Before his death, Kappy left a cryptic Instagram post: “Beware the man has nothing to lose, for he has nothing to protect.”

“See the light in others … This lesson has come too late for me, but perhaps it can inspire you. I will be using the remainder of my time on earth to atone for my transgressions, and to seek the light within, in others and myself,” he wrote.

The troubled actor also apologized to Trump and included numerous references to the QAnon movement, writing, “While I supposedly wanted to make America great, I have not put much work AT ALL into making MYSELF great … To the Q movement, I am so sorry I have brought shame upon the greatest military operation of all time … Q says they give people enough rope to hang themselves, and I have hung myself. I have told people in the Trump administration that I am willing to admit to my many crimes in a public setting, and committed to execution, in a public setting.” Kappy also apologized to Jesus, saying, “you offered so much, and instead of reveling in your wisdom, I used my attention on darkness.” Kappy appeared in “Terminator Salvation,” “Thor,” and “Beerfest.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/actor-isaac-kappy-posted-cryptic-apology-to-trump-and-qanon-before-jumping-off-bridge_2924806.html