Justin Amash Attacks AG Barr: ‘Used His Position’ to Push Trump’s ‘False Narrative

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) on Tuesday once again attacked Attorney General William Barr’s handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on now-debunked collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia, claiming that the nation’s chief legal officer “deliberately misrepresented” its contents.

Amash rocketed into Resistance folk-hero status earlier this month after becoming the first congressional Republican to accuse President Trump of “impeachable” offenses based on Mueller’s report on social media. In the same Twitter thread, the libertarian-leaning lawmaker also accused Barr of misrepresenting the special counsel’s findings. Mueller found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia during the election, and further, Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein determined that the president did not obstruct justice based on the report. Amash aimed his critique directly at Barr shortly after noon Tuesday, one day after Memorial Day.

“Attorney General Barr has deliberately misrepresented key aspects of Mueller’s report and decisions in the investigation, which has helped further the president’s false narrative about the investigation,” Amash wrote on social media, then accused Barr of crafting a letter which “selectively quotes and summarizes points in Mueller’s report in misleading ways.” Amash later pointed out that Mueller sent a letter to Barr, stating that the attorney general’s summary of his findings “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of his report. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations,” Amash tweeted, citing Mueller’s letter sent March 27 to Barr.

The Michigan congressman then expanded on the purported “false narrative” that President Trump has attempted to disseminate regarding the Mueller report, claiming that Barr played a role in the findings’ misrepresentations. “Barr has so far successfully used his position to sell the president’s false narrative to the American people. This will continue if those who have read the report do not start pushing back on his misrepresentations and share the truth,” he concluded.

Tuesday’s tweetstorm comes as Amash continues to face fierce blowback from top Republicans over his remarks. Michigan State Rep. Jim Lower (R) recently announced that he will mount a primary challenge to the congressman, saying his remarks on impeachment “show how out of touch he is with the truth and how out of touch he is with people he represents.” President Trump responded to Amash’s statements, calling him a “loser” and a “total lightweight” in search of media attention.

The House Freedom Caucus has also voted to condemn Amash, one of the group’s founding members, for his statements. “It was every single person who totally disagrees with what he says,” House Oversight Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH) said of the vote. “What concerns me is Justin was viewed as a leader, right, on protecting privacy rights first to First Amendment rights.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/05/28/justin-amash-attacks-ag-barr-used-his-position-to-push-trumps-false-narrative/

Border Patrol Creating A New Position To Stymie The Immigration Crisis

The U.S. Border Patrol announced that it’s creating a new position specifically tailored to processing and caring for migrants who reach the southern border, allowing agents to refocus their work on enforcement. The “Border Patrol Processing Coordinator” will assume certain responsibilities that have consumed the agency’s time as it deals with a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press release on Tuesday. The new position is meant to bring relief to agents who have long complained that the humanitarian crisis has kept them from performing their main role at the border. Coordinators are to be tasked with feeding, cleaning, transporting and other general tasks for illegal immigrants in Border Patrol custody. Migrants in need of medical care will be transported to hospitals by coordinators, who will also be assigned to watch over migrants as they receive care.

“I am committed to providing the men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol the resources they need to accomplish their border security mission,” Carla Provost, Chief of the Border Patrol, said in a prepared statement on Tuesday. “Border Patrol Processing Coordinators will take on processing, transportation, and custody responsibilities, which will free up agents for critical law enforcement operations.” It’s not clear how many Border Patrol Processing coordinators the agency plans to bring on, but CBP indicated it is currently developing the position and plans to begin hiring by early fiscal year 2020.

The announcement comes as Border Patrol agents are becoming inundated with tens of thousands of illegal immigrants every month — many of them family units and unaccompanied children that require special care. The result of the crisis has forced 40% of agents at the Southwest border to focus on the menial tasks that come with caring for migrants — taking them away from their law enforcement role. The crisis has not only forced migrant detention centers to release thousands of families into the interior of the U.S., but has also meant a lack of narcotics enforcement. Officials within the Department of Homeland Security are warning that drug cartels in Mexico are taking advantage of the immigration emergency that’s consuming agents’ time. “Right now, we are babysitting,” an agent stated in January, decrying the nursing role they’ve been forced to take on. “We’re supposed to pay attention to medical conditions that we’re not trained for. We are not machines. We’re emotionally stressed.”

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/05/28/border-patrol-new-job/

>>6611803

That would be amazing to see!

Oklahoma accuses J&J of 'brainwashing campaign' in sale of opioids

May 28 (UPI) – Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said the opioid crisis is "devastating" his state Tuesday during opening remarks in a historic trial between the state and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, which he accused of facilitating the crisis and thousands of deaths. He accused the pharmaceutical company of a "multibillion dollar brainwashing campaign" in its effort to market and push sales of the drugs. "The pain, anguish and heartbreak … is almost impossible to comprehend. How did this happen? At the end of the day, your honor, I have a short, one-word answer – greed," Hunter said.

Hunter seeks to hold Johnson & Johnson accountable for overdoses of its narcotic painkillers. Other pharmaceutical companies were attached to the lawsuit, but Hunter dropped charges against most. Purdue Pharma settled for $270 million and Teva for $85 million to avoid trial, leaving Johnson & Johnson as the lone defendant. "We have looked at literally millions of documents, taken hundreds of depositions, and we are even more convinced that these companies are the proximate cause for the epidemic in our state and in our country," Hunter said. Some 4,653 people died from opioid-related causes in Oklahoma between 2007 and 2017, Hunter said during opening remarks. "Manufactures have in a consistent and … coldblooded fashion marketed these drugs in a way that has misrepresented their tendency to be addictive and the extent to which they can be deadly," the lawsuit said.

Defense lawyer Larry Ottaway said that in 2009, the Food and Drug Administration backed Johnson & Johnson's assertions that opioids are rarely addictive.

The state accuses the company of exaggerating the benefits of opioids, and using deceptive marketing that encouraged physicians to prescribe narcotic painkillers for ailments not approved by regulators. The precedent-setting Oklahoma bench trial is the first of its kind against an opioid manufacturer. Hundreds more nationwide are pending. A North Dakota judge dismissed all of that state's claims against Purdue, ruling that the company shouldn't be blamed for drug abuse when the product is legal. "Purdue cannot control how doctors prescribe its products and it certainly cannot control how individual patients use and respond to its products regardless of any warning or instruction Purdue might give," judge James Hill wrote in his ruling.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/05/28/Oklahoma-accuses-JJ-of-brainwashing-campaign-in-sale-of-opioids/8761559041589/

Bribes help criminals get away with murder in North Korea, report says

May 28 (UPI) – Murderers could be going unpunished in North Korea where bribes are greasing the wheels of informal commerce, according to a new report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The human rights report that includes descriptions of a "vicious cycle of deprivation, corruption and repression" in North Korea includes testimonies from defectors who say serious crimes are dismissed for suspects with sufficient capital.

People of means in the Kim Jong Un regime can "get away with anything, including murder," one defector said. The report includes interviews with 214 North Korean escapees. Many said bureaucrats are squeezing the population with demands for bribes. The North Koreans who are being extorted of their earnings are those who make a living in informal markets, according to the report. The defectors originate from different parts of the North, including Ryanggang and Hamgyong Provinces. They also lived in the border area facing China prior to defecting, Yonhap reported Tuesday. North Korean diplomats were quick to dismiss the report. The BBC reported Tuesday Pyongyang has rejected the testimonies as "politically motivated" statements made for "sinister purposes."

Michelle Bachelet, the U.N.'s high commissioner for human rights, said the issue is being overshadowed by military matters. "I am concerned that the constant focus on the nuclear issue continues to divert attention from the terrible state of human rights for many millions of North Koreans," she said. The U.N. has also said 4 out of 10 North Koreans suffer from chronic food shortages, which continue to occur because Pyongyang prioritizes the military before the food needs of ordinary people. North Koreans are turning to markets because naively following state instructions means starvation, according to one defector.

Bribes are emerging as a key feature of the informal economy at a time when the regime is seeking increased investments from abroad. South Korea's foreign ministry said Tuesday North Korea has increased the number promotional website urging outsiders to invest in the country. The ministry also said the most widely read paper in the North is the Rodong Sinmun, and news agency KCNA is perceived as "less accessible" for everyday people, according to Seoul Pyongyang News.

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2019/05/28/Bribes-help-criminals-get-away-with-murder-in-North-Korea-report-says/6621559059456/

North Korea: UN report says people 'trapped in cycle of corruption'

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48432690