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In June of 2017, then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein decried leaks and said “Americans should exercise caution before accepting as true any stories attributed to anonymous ‘officials’ …” “Americans should be skeptical about anonymous allegations,”Rosenstein warned in a June 2017 statement. “The Department of Justice has a long-established policy to neither confirm nor deny such allegations.” BuzzFeed obtained through FOIA a tranche of emails from the Justice Department showing Rosenstein offering to be one of the ‘anonymous officials.’ About two weeks before Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel, he emailed a reporter [named redacted by BuzzFeed] and told them...

Former Arkansas State Senator Linda Collins-Smith was found mysteriously murdered inside her home last week, and so far, local law enforcement has been pretty silent on any possible motive or culprit. Considering she was a GOP state senator in the state where Bill and Hillary used to run wild, there’s instantly cause for suspicion, however. Now we have learned that, according to reports, Collins-Smith may very well have been close to closing in on a child trafficking ring within the Arkansas state government. CD Media reports: Former Republican Arkansas state Senator Linda Collins-Smith, who was found murdered in her home...

TOKYO The Japanese government has been requesting the United States for concrete evidence to back its assertion that Iran is to blame for the attacks on two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday, government sources said Sunday. The request came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a statement hours after the attacks blaming Iran but without offering proof. The Department of Defense later released a video allegedly showing an Iranian patrol boat removing an unexploded mine attached to the side of the Japanese-operated tanker Kokuka Courageous. But Japanese government officials remain unconvinced, the sources said. "The...

Before this story has played out to its conclusion, I will figure out how to turn it into a fine powder and snort it. Ingesting it in dribs and drabs over the course of the day simply isn’t enough. Which reminds me: It’s disgraceful that in 2019 America, which is literally governed by a reality-show host, we don’t have cameras inside the Giannulli household broadcasting this drama in real time for our entertainment. The feds should agree to knock a year off her sentence if Loughlin’s willing to agree to that. Recommended A Palo Alto woman harassed an elderly Jewish...

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation is not expected to be delivered to the Justice Department next week, a senior department official told The Associated Press on Friday. The official could not discuss the matter publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear when the report might come, though Mueller is showing signs of concluding his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election and ties to the Trump campaign. […] On Friday, six House Democratic committee heads called on Barr to make Mueller’s full report public, including any “evidence...

President Donald Trump plans to nominate David Malpass, a Trump administration critic of the World Bank, to lead the institution. That’s according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to comment publicly on personnel decisions.Trump is expected to make an announcement later this week. Malpass, the undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department, has been a sharp critic of the World Bank, especially over its lending to China. …

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cautioned President Trump privately this week about the consequences of declaring a national emergency to build his border wall, telling him the move could trigger political blowback and divide the GOP, according to two Republicans with knowledge of the exchange… That would take place under provisions of the National Emergencies Act, which provides that a presidential declaration can be terminated if lawmakers pass a joint resolution to do so. House Democrats would be likely to move swiftly to approve such a resolution, and the law provides that it would come to the Senate floor, where...

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ resignation, which shocked Washington’s national security establishment and rattled America’s allies, was sealed in a fateful 18-hour period that saw President Trump resolve to withdraw troops from Syria – alarming Pentagon officials who see America’s role in the region as crucial. For Mattis, the president’s order was the final straw, Fox News is told. “Make no mistake – Jim Mattis is resigning in protest over the president's national security policies,” a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has been advised by Justice Department ethics officials that he does not need to recuse himself from overseeing the special counsel’s Russia probe. That’s according to a person familiar with the matter and not authorized to discuss it publicly who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity. Members of Congress have raised concerns about Whitaker’s past criticism of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. …

...A senior source involved in the process told me fairly late last night: "We’re going into this vote and we don’t have 50 right now." "There’s been a lot of work that was done today, by members wading through this material. I don’t want to put my thumb on..."

Hoagie sandwich chain Taylor Gourmet will close all 19 of its outlets largely due to a decline in sales after its co-founder attended an event last year led by President Donald Trump, according to Washingtonian.

A Russian maritime patrol aircraft with multiple personnel on board was inadvertently shot down by Syrian regime anti-aircraft artillery on Monday after the Syrians came under attack by Israeli missiles, according to a US official with knowledge of the incident The US official said the regime was actually trying to stop a barrage of Israeli missiles. A second official confirmed that Israel was responsible for the missile strikes on the Syrian regime. The Russian state news agency TASS reported that a Russian IL-20 military aircraft with 14 personnel on board disappeared over the Mediterranean on Monday. According to TASS, the...

"The ministry specified that 'the mark of the IL-20 went off the radars disappeared during the attack of four Israeli F-16 on Syrian targets in the province of Latakia" Russian News Agency Tass at 732 PM Eastern Time US

Veteran journalist Bob Woodward said a “key” official in the Trump administration privately told him that the details in his books are “1000 percent true,” but later publicly defamed him. Woodward was interviewed on The New York Time’s podcast, “The Daily,” on Tuesday — the day his book “Fear: Trump in the White House” was officially released. Woodward told reporter Michael Schmidt that after excerpts of his book began circulating last week, someone working for the administration called him to praise the accuracy of his book. “After the information in ‘Fear’ started breaking last week, one key person who’s in...

President Donald Trump demanded that that the New York Times hand over the anonymous official who disparaged the president in a recent op-ed for national security reasons, in a Wednesday tweet. Does the so-called “Senior Administration Official” really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 5, 2018 “It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in...

Earlier today it was widely reported that North Carolina Senator Richard Burr was not happy with Ted Cruz. That doesn't make him a special snowflake. Most of the practitioners of crony capitalism and Failure Theater in the Senate are not happy with Ted Cruz. But Burr was not content to merely take a number and get in line. Burr had to make a point of how pissed he was at the idea of Ted Cruz winning the nomination. (Burr's Heritage Action score is 45%, which is the same as arch-conservatives John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell.) Cruz has become such a...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently told the White House he might have to leave his job if President Trump fired his deputy, Rod J. Rosenstein, who oversees the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to people familiar with the exchange. Sessions made his position known in a phone call to White House counsel Donald McGahn last weekend, as Trump’s fury at Rosenstein peaked after the deputy attorney general approved the FBI’s raid April 9 on the president’s personal attorney Michael Cohen.

President Donald Trump floated replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Scott Pruitt as recently as this week, even as the scandal-ridden head of the Environmental Protection Agency has faced a growing list of negative headlines, according to people close to the President. "He was 100% still trying to protect Pruitt because Pruitt is his fill-in for Sessions," one source familiar with Trump's thinking told CNN. Though the President has, at times, floated several people a day for multiple positions in his administration that are already occupied, the proposition reveals just how frustrated Trump remains with Sessions because of his decision...

The Trump administration is expected to approve a plan to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem as early as next year, rather than waiting for several years, Trump administration officials said Friday. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been considering several options since President Donald Trump, late last year, declared Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital and announced the United States would finally move its embassy there from Tel Aviv. Tillerson has said previously that building a new facility that satisfies the significant security requirements is a complex process involving site-selection, permitting and construction. He’s said that process is...