GOP Leaders Took Selfies With Coronavirus Patient At CPAC

The unidentified Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) attendee who tested positive for coronavirus reportedly took “selfie” photos with GOP leaders and lawmakers some of whom are now in self-quarantine.

“Several members of congress / other GOP leaders have selfies with the person attended CPAC and later testified positive for coronavirus,” Axios reporter Alayna Treene tweeted Monday. “Ben Goldey, spokesman for Dr Paul Gosar who is under self-quarantine, told me he ‘can confirm that the individual [infected at CPAC] and Congressman Gosar took several pictures together. We know this because we have several of the photos in our possession as well.'” “He added that while he can’t comment on specific members, ‘it is my understanding that he does have photos with other Members / VIP’s.’ Rep. Doug Collins just said he ‘was notified by CPAC that they discovered a photo of myself and the patient who has tested positive.'”

The revelations comes as Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz announced Monday he would self-quarantine after coming in contact with the attendee who tested positive for COVID-19. According to LA Times reporter Eli Stokols, Gaetz was seen on Airforce One with President Donald Trump an hour before announcing he would be quarantined.

Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is also among the current list of GOP lawmakers under self-quarantine along with Republican Georgia Rep. Doug Collins. The American Conservative Union said in a statement Saturday that the attendee who tested positive for the virus is currently recovering in New Jersey under the care of medical professionals. Neither the American Conservative Union nor its chairman, Matt Schlapp, have not responded to a request for comment from the Daily Caller at the time of publishing.

https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/09/gop-leaders-took-selfie-coronavirus-patient-cpac/

DC News Outlets Ask Reporters Who Covered CPAC to Self-Quarantine Due to Coronavirus Concerns

Politico, the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, and Mother Jones have asked reporters who covered CPAC to self-quarantine and work remotely due to concerns that they may have been exposed to the novel coronavirus. Both the Post and Politico say they’ve taken measures to clean and sanitize public areas. The Post has asked employees who were at CPAC to self-quarantine for seven days. All newsrooms tell Washingtonian they’ve taken such measures out of an abundance of caution. “We understand that this news may be jarring, but it’s important to recognize that this was a large conference and that the risk of transmission for employees who were not in close contact with the infected individual is extraordinarily low,” Politico’s memo says. The Post has already canceled nonessential travel for employees. It has also canceled all WP Live events for March and has canceled office tours.

Someone who’d attended the annual conservative gathering at National Harbor last month has tested positive for the virus. Matt Schlapp, the head of the American Conservative Union, which puts on CPAC, has said he shook this person’s hand. Schlapp shook President Trump‘s hand after interacting with the infected person. The White House says the President never interacted with the infected person and shows no symptoms of the virus. US Senator Ted Cruz and US Representative Paul A. Gosar have also self-quarantined because they interacted with the infected person. In a statement late Sunday, the American Conservative Union says the Maryland Department of Health has “screened thousands” of employees at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center in National Harbor, and that no one, including CPAC staff, hotel employees, or attendees has shown any sign of being infected.

CPAC is traditionally well-covered by DC media outlets. Washingtonian has asked many outlets whether they plan any similar precautionary measures. (If you didn’t hear from me, please email me and let me know.) Fox News didn’t tell me about any specific CPAC-related measures, but it, too, has banned nonessential travel. It’s also canceled its upfront, upped its cleaning and sanitizing, and installed Purell stands and made lots of Clorox wipes available. Right Wing Watch tells Washingtonian it, too, has decided to self-quarantine.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/03/09/politico-reporters-who-covered-cpac-have-self-quarantined-due-to-coronavirus-fears/

World's biggest porn site under fire over rape and abuse videos

Petition highlighting failure of Pornhub to protect rape and revenge porn victims has attracted over 350,000 signatures

An online petition accusing Pornhub, the UK’s biggest open access porn site, from profiting from videos of rape and sexual abuse has reached over 350,000 signatures. Pornhub is the world’s biggest porn site and was visited 42bn times last year. It is free to access, with no age restrictions, and raises revenue through advertising and paid-for promotions by porn producers. The serious allegations levied against Pornhub owner Mindgeek centre on the perceived insufficiency of the company’s safeguarding checks on the 6m videos a year that are posted on the site, many by amateur producers. Over the past year the company has faced multiple accusations that rape and abuse videos were widely posted on the site.

The petition was started by a group called Exodus Cry in the US but is being supported by activists in the UK, where Mindgeek also has offices. “This is a company that is generating millions in advertising and membership revenue and yet they do not have an effective system in place to verify reliably the age or consent of those featured in the pornographic content it hosts,” said Exodus Cry founder Laila Mickelwait .

Mindgeek – based legally in Luxembourg but with offices in Montreal, London, Nicosia and Los Angeles – denies the allegations made in the petition, insisting that it does have thorough procedures for removing illegal content. In a statement to the Guardian, Mindgeek said: “Pornhub has a steadfast commitment to eradicating and fighting non-consensual content and under-age material. Any suggestion otherwise is categorically and factually inaccurate.” But other campaign groups insist that the criticisms of Pornhub are based on evidence of poor practice. Some of the videos on Pornhub – as on other free to view sites – show extremely hardcore and violent pornography. Campaigners say that this fact, coupled with the high prevalence of videos promoting sex with young teenagers – “teen” is one of the most popular categories on the site – means there is an urgent need to know for certain that videos are made consensually. In October last year, a 15-year-old girl who who went missing in Florida was found after videos of her allegedly being raped were uploaded to Pornhub, among other sites. Pornhub removed the video once it was reported to and a man accused of statutory rape in connection with the case is currently awaiting trial.

The site was also criticised for continuing to host videos by the amateur porn specialists GirlsDoPorn – a company that offered girls being featured in porn “for the first and only time” – even as a court in San Diego heard evidence that the videos were made using dishonesty and abuse. The official GirlsDoPorn page was not removed from Pornhub until October, although the court began hearing evidence in August. Their videos were still being found on Pornhub months later. The men who ran GirlsDoPorn were found liable in a civil case. Two are currently in custody and are now facing criminal charges of sex trafficking while a third has fled the country and is considered a fugitive. Last month the BBC reported the story of a woman who was raped at 14, with the video of her abuse ending up on Pornhub. She said she then faced a long struggle to have the video removed from the site. Pornhub insist that they have robust procedures to stop illegal content being posted and defend the material posted as legitimate fantasies protected by freedom of speech.

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/09/worlds-biggest-porn-site-under-fire-over-videos-pornhub

Sites referenced in this article:

Petition site

https://www.change.org/p/shut-down-pornhub-and-hold-its-executives-accountable-for-aiding-trafficking

Become an Abolitionist

https://exoduscry.com/

Split Verdict Given for CIA Programmer Charged in Massive Leak

''Jury finds Joshua Schulte guilty of false statements and contempt of court but deadlocks on whether he actually gave information to WikiLeaks''

A federal jury couldn’t reach a verdict on whether a former software engineer for the Central Intelligence Agency was responsible for leaking a trove of classified documents to WikiLeaks, convicting him instead on lesser charges stemming from the leak. Joshua Schulte, 31 years old, was convicted of making false statements and contempt of court—charges that related to Mr. Schulte’s conduct after the March 7, 2017 publication of the CIA materials, dubbed Vault 7 by WikiLeaks. The jury said Monday they were deadlocked on the remaining eight counts, including the illegal gathering and transmission of national defense information. The hung jury, following a week of jury deliberations, marks a blow to the Justice Department in its crackdown on government leaks. One former top CIA official who testified called the leak “the equivalent of a digital Pearl Harbor.” The government could choose to prosecute Mr. Schulte again on the deadlocked charges. A spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which brought the charges, declined to comment on the verdict. Lawyers for Mr. Schulte declined to comment.

During the four-week trial in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors presented witness testimony, internal CIA communications and computer records in an attempt to show that Mr. Schulte stole the top-secret materials and gave them to WikiLeaks in 2016. At the time, he was a disgruntled employee in the CIA unit that designed the agency’s hacking tools. In cross-examinations of government witnesses, Mr. Schulte’s lawyers sowed doubt about the government’s case, suggesting that the CIA had pinned the embarrassing leak on Mr. Schulte because he was a difficult employee who had antagonized his colleagues and superiors. “The prosecution here simply has it wrong,” his lawyer, Sabrina Shroff, told the jury in her opening statement. On Friday afternoon, the jury—made up of just 11 jurors, after one was dismissed during deliberations last week for reading news coverage of the case—sent a note to U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty saying they were “aligned on two counts” but at an “impasse on the remaining counts.” On Monday morning, Judge Crotty agreed to receive the verdict on two counts and declare a mistrial on the remaining counts.

In all, the jury deadlocked on eight counts: three counts related to the gathering and transmission of national defense information, two counts of unauthorized access to a computer to obtain information, one count of theft of government property, one count of transmission of a harmful computer program or code and one count of obstruction of justice. The judge dismissed an 11th count before the jury began deliberations last week.

Mr. Schulte faces a separate federal trial on child-pornography charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. During the investigation into the WikiLeaks disclosure, federal agents said they found thousands of images and videos of child pornography on devices in Mr. Schulte’s home. Bringing such cases to court presents a challenge for the intelligence community, experts say, because of concerns about exposing state secrets. The CIA placed limits on access to information and what could be disclosed in court.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/split-verdict-for-cia-programmer-charged-in-massive-leak-11583774050