Dark Money Group Founded By Bernie Sanders Is Violating The Law, Watchdog Group Says

A dark money group boosting Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential bid is violating campaign finance laws, the watchdog group Common Cause said in a Federal Election Commission Complaint filed Wednesday.

Sanders founded Our Revolution in 2016. The group can raise unlimited sums of money without having to disclose the identities of its donors.

Our Revolution’s affiliation with Sanders triggers the federal “soft money” ban, Common Cause attorney Paul S. Ryan said.

Sanders told Our Revolution during a conference call in September 2019 that they’re “doing some of the most important work that can be done in our country.”

A dark money group founded by Sen. Bernie Sanders is violating federal campaign finance law, according to a Federal Election Commission complaint filed Wednesday.

The political nonprofit group Our Revolution, which Sanders founded in 2016, has been violating the federal “soft money” ban by boosting his presidential campaign since its launch in February 2019, the complaint from the watchdog group Common Cause states.

Campaign finance laws state that groups “directly or indirectly established” by federal officeholders such as Sanders can’t “solicit, receive, direct, transfer, or spend funds” for federal electoral activity that exceeds the limitations of the law, which in Our Revolution’s case would be $5,000 per election.

“Because Sanders set up Our Revolution and they have raised and spent money in candidate elections, Our Revolution is required to comply with contribution limits, register with the FEC and discloses its donors — but it hasn’t,” Common Cause attorney Paul S. Ryan told The Associated Press. “It’s his establishment of the group that triggers these laws. That means a $5,000 limit, full donor disclosure and no contributions from prohibited sources.”

“The facts surrounding Our Revolution, including its founding by Sen. Sanders, its receipt of six-figure contributions, its failure to disclose donors to the FEC, and its political spending in Iowa and elsewhere, point to a clear violation of the federal soft money ban,” Ryan added in a separate statement Wednesday.

Our Revolution is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit group that can accept unlimited contributions without disclosing the identities of its donors. The group has received $9.5 million in contributions starting in 2016 through 2018. In 2018, Our Revolution reported that it received contributions of $218,309 and $195,000, but didn’t disclose in its tax filing the individual or group behind those donations.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/01/22/bernie-sanders-our-revolution-fec-complaint/

Rand Paul: 45 Republicans Prepared to Dismiss Charges Against President

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said on Wednesday that 45 GOP senators are prepared to dismiss the charges against President Trump and effectively end the Senate impeachment trial.

The Kentucky senator told the Washington Post on day two of the Senate impeachment trial that 45 Republicans are ready to dismiss the charges against Trump. (Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber.) He estimated that “five to eight” want to “hear a little more.”

“There are 45, with about five to eight wanting to hear a little more,” Paul told the Post. “I still would like to dismiss it, but there aren’t the votes to do it just yet.”

However, Paul said he is not pushing the point just yet.

“I will push it at some point,” he told the paper, adding, “The more Adam Schiff speaks, the more we become unified.”

Paul has openly rejected the Democrats’ calls for additional witnesses and has issued a political threat to his GOP colleagues, in the event they side with Democrats.

“If you vote against Hunter Biden, you’re voting to lose your election, basically. Seriously. That’s what it is,” Paul said, according to Politico. He continued:

If you don’t want to vote and you think you’re going to have to vote against Hunter Biden, you should just vote against witnesses, period. My first preference would be to be done with it as soon as possible and not to have any witnesses.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters on Wednesday that a witness trade is “off the table,” but Paul affirmed that he does not believe the Senate should call former national security adviser John Bolton as a witness, referring to him as “a disgruntled employee with an ax to grind.”

“It’s unknown. Some people who have talked to him think he has an ax to grind, that he’s angry he was publicly fired by the president,” Paul told the Post. He went on:

But he also has a history of believing in unlimited powers for the president. Which is the guiding light for John Bolton at this point? Axe to grind and books to sell? Or, be a player and say ‘even if I’m gone, he’s doing what I want on Iran and other things?’

Nevertheless, Paul previously outlined his contingency plan, telling Politico that he will insist they call on another witness in the event of a Bolton subpoena.

“If they insist on having people like Bolton coming forward, my insistence will be not just one witness. But that the president should be able to call any witnesses that he deems necessary to his defense,” he said.

More via the Post:

Paul’s comments come as Trump’s lawyers resist filing a motion to dismiss the charges, according to an individual close to the president’s team. That decision allows House managers to proceed with their presentation when senators reconvene Wednesday afternoon.

McConnell stressed last week that there is “little or no sentiment” among GOP lawmakers to dismiss the charges before hearing both sides of the opening arguments.

“There is little or no sentiment in the Republican conference for a motion to dismiss,” the majority leader told reporters, noting that the lawmakers feel “an obligation to listen to the arguments.”

“And we’ve laid out, in this resolution, an opportunity for everybody to sit there … to listen carefully to the arguments by both the prosecution and the defense, to follow that up with written questions, submitted through the chief justice,” he continued.

“And that means listening to the case, not dismissing the case,” he added.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/01/22/rand-paul-45-republicans-prepared-to-dismiss-charges-against-president/

Macron is first French leader in over 20 years to visit Western Wall

The Western Wall, one of Judaism’s most holy sites after the Temple Mount, is politically significant because it is located in east Jerusalem.

French President Emmanuel Macron stood before the ancient stones of Jerusalem’s Western Wall on Wednesday, marking the first such high-level visit since former French president Jacques Chirac’s tense trip to the Old City in 1996.

The Western Wall is part of Judaism’s most holy site, the Temple Mount, and is the only remaining part of the Jewish Temple compound that stood there before it was destroyed 2,000 years ago.

But its location in eastern Jerusalem, abutting Islam’s third-most holy site, al-Haram al-Sharif, also makes it the most politically sensitive site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Visits there by heads of state are rare because they were seen as tacit recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the site. Such visits, however, have become more acceptable since US President Donald Trump went to the Western Wall in 2017, becoming the first American president to do so while in office.

Still, it is unusual for a Western European head of state to go to the Western Wall. Macron’s visit was particularly striking because he has been highly critical of Israeli sovereignty in east Jerusalem and its military control of Area C of the West Bank.

On Wednesday, however, he braved the rain and winds to place his hands on the Wall’s ancient crevices.

“I feel the holiness and the history here,” Macron said.

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, who is in charge of the site, thanked Macron for coming and told him it conveyed appreciation for the Jewish nation’s history and heritage, of which France is a part. According to a press release put out by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Rabinowitz explained the power of the site for every Jew around the world, explaining that synagogues, including in France, face Jerusalem and the Western Wall.

Macron also visited al-Haram ash-Sharif compound on the Temple Mount, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Crusader-era Church of St. Anne, which was gifted by the Ottomans to French Emperor Napoleon III in 1856. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian officials were with him at the Western Wall or on the Temple Mount.

The St. Anne visit was a symbolic stop underscoring France’s historic influence in the region, in which Paris still considers itself to be an important player.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/French-President-Macron-visit-Western-Wall-for-the-first-time-614997

Department of Justice Joins Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers for Human Trafficking Roundtable

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-joins-federal-law-enforcement-training-centers-human-trafficking

PRAY FOR EACH OTHER

>>7881349

Pence is there too