Elijah Cummings addresses break-in, saying he yelled to scare off intruder

Rep. Elijah Cummings released a statement Friday saying he shouted at an intruder who had attempted to gain entry into his Baltimore home. The incident at the Maryland congressman’s home occurred early last Saturday, prior to the highly-public feuding between him and President Trump.

“An individual attempted to gain entry into my residence at approximately 3:40 AM on Saturday, July 27,” Cummings said. “I was notified of the intrusion by my security system, and I scared the intruder away by yelling before the person gained entry into the residential portion of the house. “I thank the Baltimore Police Department for their response and ask that all further inquiries be directed to them,” he added. The statement came just hours after Trump tweeted about the break-in, writing, “Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!”

Last weekend kicked off a round of attacks from Trump against the 68-year-old and the district he lives in and represents. In one tweet, Trump referred to Cummings, who is black, as “racist.” Trump also faced considerable criticism for calling Cummings’ Baltimore district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human would want to live.” Cummings is chairman of the House Oversight Committee and has made comments that are critical of Trump’s immigration policies. The president also criticized him for attempts by House Democrats to push the Russian collusion narrative and obstruction claims.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/elijah-cummings-addresses-break-in-saying-he-yelled-to-scare-off-intruder

Pompeo tells Southeast Asia ‘imperial’ China can only be countered with US trade

Southeast Asian nations should embrace U.S. investment and trade to protect their economies from a predatory China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo argued while traveling in Thailand. “Our investments don’t serve a government, and our investments here don’t serve a political party or, frankly, a country’s imperial ambitions,” Pompeo told the Siam Society in Bangkok Friday during a speech on American engagement with Asia. “The time is right to do more together, using the model that has stood the test of time, using the formula that’s made America a force for good in this region — permanently.”

Pompeo touted the U.S. private sector throughout the speech, but his economic talk had a clear geopolitical focus. He derided the idea that China is an economic juggernaut and defended President Trump’s trade war with Beijing while assuring local leaders that the United States will remain a powerful player in Southeast Asia. “Ask yourself this, ask yourself: Who really puts the people’s interests first, a trading power that respects your sovereignty or one that scoffs at it?” Pompeo said. “The United States today has the strongest economy in the world, and our consumers are driving demand for your products. In contrast, China’s economy is entering a new normal — a new normal of ever-slower growth.” Pompeo delivered his remarks one day after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, a regional diplomatic forum with global economic and strategic significance. The ASEAN countries stretch from Myanmar and Vietnam on the southern border of China to the Indonesian islands just north of Australia.

The 10-nation bloc is America's fourth-largest trading partner, according to the State Department, and the waterways that connect the countries are some of the most heavily trafficked shipping lanes in the world. The region has been a key target for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, an economic investment program that U.S. officials see as a tool for the Chinese Communist Party to gain control of ports and other infrastructure that its military could eventually use to threaten U.S. allies. “Private investors have exponentially more money than any one government could ever bestow on any other country to build bridges, or ports, or electricity grids,” Pompeo asserted.

Trump’s deepening trade war with China has rattled investors in Southeast Asia, but Pompeo argued that the neighboring powers should root for the United States in that competition. “China’s problems are homegrown, but President Trump’s confrontation of China’s unfair trade practices has helped shine a light on them,” he said. "All we want, all President Trump has ever asked for, is for China to compete on a level playing field with everyone, not just with the United States. This will benefit not only us but you and the global trading system as well.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/pompeo-tells-southeast-asia-imperial-china-can-only-be-countered-with-us-trade

Cory Booker gets four 'Pinocchios' in fact-check about Michigan voter suppression

The Washington Post fact-checker dinged Cory Booker with four "Pinocchios" for claiming that Republican and Russian suppression of black voters caused President Trump to win Michigan in 2016. “We lost the state of Michigan because everybody from Republicans to Russians were targeting the suppression of African American voters,” the New Jersey senator said during the Democratic presidential primary debate on Thursday. Trump won Michigan by less than 1%, receiving only around 10,700 more votes than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

The Post fact-checker found that while black voter turnout was down in 2016 compared to when Barack Obama was on the ballot, there is not evidence that Russian propaganda or other suppression efforts caused the lower turnout.

“There is certainly credibility to the idea that Russians targeted African Americans to suppress their vote … It is also true that Republican legislatures and election officials in some states have passed laws and enacted procedures that appear aimed at making it harder for likely Democrats to vote, and African Americans are the most reliable Democratic voters,” Richard L. Hasen, professor of law and political science at the University of California at Irvine, told the Washington Post. “But I have seen no evidence that the extent of these activities in the state of Michigan were responsible for the depression of turnout in the African American community such that it swung the vote in Michigan to Trump,” Hasen said.

On the fact-check rating scale, the maximum of four Pinocchios indicates that the falsehood is a "whopper." Booker's campaign team criticized the fact-check. "Give. Me. A. Break," said Booker campaign manager Addisu Demissie. He pointed out portions of the article that noted Russian efforts to target African American voters. Booker communications manager Jenna Lowenstein tweeted a sarcastic summary of the fact-check. "In this essay I’m going to outline all the ways Russians and Republicans tried to get African American voters to 'boycott' the election and then conclude that didn’t impact an state decided by 10,700 votes out of 4.8M…" she said.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/cory-booker-gets-four-pinocchios-in-fact-check-about-michigan-voter-suppression

https://twitter.com/ASDem/status/1157257776122478592

https://twitter.com/just_jenna/status/1157259658006093826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1157259658006093826&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonexaminer.com%2Fnews%2Fcory-booker-gets-four-pinocchios-in-fact-check-about-michigan-voter-suppression

DOJ To Release Bruce Ohr Documents ‘Imminently’

The Justice Department will release FBI documents early next week that are related to Bruce Ohr, the Justice Department official who met with dossier author Christopher Steele. In a court filing submitted last Thursday, Justice Department lawyers said the agency will provide FBI notes of interviews conducted with Ohr to Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group that sued for the records last year.

Justice Department lawyers said the agency had initially determined that the Ohr transcripts, known as 302s, should be withheld in full. But “after further review in conjunction with DOJ’s preparation of its motion for summary judgment, DOJ has decided to release the requested records in part to Plaintiff,” the lawyers said. “DOJ will make this release to Plaintiff by August 5, 2019.” It is not clear what documents will be released and which might be withheld. Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton announced Thursday night that the documents would be released “imminently.”

Judicial Watch sued on Sept. 10 for a dozen 302s the FBI compiled between Nov. 22, 2016, and May 15, 2017. FBI agents interviewed Ohr after meetings and conversations with Steele, a former British spy who investigated the Trump campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee. FBI investigators had tasked Ohr to serve as an unofficial backchannel to Steele as part of the bureau’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia. The FBI cut ties with Steele on Nov. 1, 2016, after learning that he had unauthorized contacts with the media about his work as an FBI informant. Steele and Fusion GPS, the firm that hired him, provided information from the dossier to numerous reporters during the 2016 campaign.

Congressional Republicans had pushed President Trump to declassify and release the Ohr 302s along with other documents related to the Russia probe. Trump said for months that he would declassify the documents, but on May 23, he outsourced declassification authority to Attorney General William Barr. Republicans have hinted that the 302s contain information that could undercut Steele’s credibility, as well as the dossier’s. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz is investigating whether the FBI misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court in applications for spy warrants on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The bureau relied heavily on Steele’s reporting to obtain the wiretaps.

Ohr, whose wife worked as a contractor for Fusion GPS, has told Congress that Steele said to him during one meeting that he was desperate to see Trump lose the 2016 election. Republicans say that the FBI did not disclose that fact in applications to wiretap Page. The FBI also did not disclose that the Clinton campaign and DNC had funded Steele’s dossier. Ohr and Steele had known each other for years before the began meeting to discuss the Trump investigation. They first met on that topic on July 30, 2016, in Washington, D.C. After the meeting, Ohr briefed then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about Steele’s work.

Steele met on Aug. 22, 2016, with Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS. Republican investigators have wondered why Steele and Simpson passed information to Ohr, when Steele already had a contact at the FBI. Steele gave some of his early dossier memos to FBI agent Michael Gaeta during a meeting in Rome on July 5, 2016.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/08/02/doj-bruce-ohr-judicial-watch-302s/

Justice Department decision on Bruce Ohr 302s

https://www.scribd.com/document/420530583/Justice-Department-decision-on-Bruce-Ohr-302s#from_embed