Published on Jun 5, 2019
By Hank Berrien
Steele has been adamantly refusing to meet with U.S. intelligence officials; the House Intelligence Committee, which was examining the origins of the dossier when it was under Republican control last year, requested for him to meet with them, but he would not. In the Senate, Senate Intelligence Chairman, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) has been trying for two years to interview Steele; that has not eventuated.
The Hill reported:
Republicans have long alleged it was Steele’s dossier that improperly led to an FBI inquiry, which ultimately morphed into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. The Justice Department’s internal watchdog is investigating aspects of the Mueller probe, including whether officials abused their power when they ordered surveillance of a former campaign aide partially based on information from Steele’s dossier.
CBS News reported in February that the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation was a three-pronged effort: to review the intelligence buttressing an estimate of Russia’s actions during the 2016 election; to examine the “active measures,” including cyber activities, Russia used, and to look into possible links between Moscow and the campaigns.
CBS News continued:
One key witness whom the committee had been unsuccessful in engaging, Burr said, was Christopher Steele … Last February, the former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, sent a letter to a Washington-based lawyer acting as an intermediary for Steele asking whether Steele may have been indirectly on the payroll of Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin. The implicit suggestion of Grassley’s inquiry was that the dossier contained purposeful misinformation intended to help Russia. It is not a view, or a suspicion, that Democrats share. Burr would only say that Steele remained of interest, but out of reach.
Burr added, “We’ve made multiple attempts,” to get an answer from Steele.
The New York Times explained, “Fusion GPS was hired on behalf of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign and the D.N.C. by their law firm, Perkins Coie, to compile research about Mr. Trump, his businesses and associates — including possible connections with Russia. It was at that point that Fusion GPS hired Mr. Steele, who has deep sourcing in Russia, to gather information.”
The Daily Mail reported that the investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller included references to the Steele dossier:
“Comey’s briefing included the Steele reporting’s unverified allegation that the Russians had compromising tapes of the President involving conduct when he was a private citizen during a 2013 trip to Moscow for the Miss Universe Pageant,” according to the report. “During the 2016 presidential campaign, a similar claim may have reached candidate Trump. On October 30, 2016, Michael Cohen received a text from Russian businessman Giorgi Rtskhiladze that said, ‘Stopped flow of tapes from Russia but not sure if there’s anything else. Just so you know… .’ … Rtskhiladze said ‘tapes’ referred to compromising tapes of Trump rumored to be held by persons associated with the Russian real estate conglomerate Crocus Group, which had helped host the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Russia. … Cohen said he spoke to Trump about the issue after receiving the texts from Rtskhiladze. … Rtskhiladze said he was told the tapes were fake, but he did not communicate that to Cohen,” according to the report.
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
The ad, which was reportedly posted on Indeed.com in April, invited applicants to attend a May 14th job fair.
A teacher took a screenshot of the posting before it was deleted and provided it to the Post.
“District 1 in NYC is looking to hire teachers of color for the 2019-2020 school year,” the ad read.
A description of the job fair posted to Eventbrite reportedly stated, “We are committed to diversifying our teaching staff to better serve the diverse populations we serve.”
A DOE spokesman says the posting was “not authorized” and the matter is being investigated.
“This was a mistake by one school and it shouldn’t have happened,” he said.
Lawyers consulted by the Post offered their opinions that the advert violated employment discrimination laws and could potentially lead to a lawsuit.
“So, playing this out, if a qualified applicant who is not a person of color is denied the job, that person could bring a claim for discrimination and that job posting would be strong evidence that race/color played a factor in the decision,” said employment attorney David Gottlieb.
The NYC DOE is currently embroiled in a budding scandal stemming from the recent filing of a bombshell lawsuit alleging Chancellor Richard Carranza and other officials have engaged in a ‘crusade against toxic whiteness’ in the department.
The three plaintiffs, all white women and former DOE executives, allege they were systematically purged from their positions and replaced with less qualified persons of color, and shamed and demeaned in the process.
“Under Carranza’s leadership, DOE has swiftly and irrevocably silenced, sidelined and punished plaintiffs and other Caucasian female DOE employees on the basis of their race, gender and unwillingness to accept their other colleagues’ hateful stereotypes about them,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Davida S. Perry, wrote in the filing.
Carranza, who was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2018, recently denied any wrongdoing or discriminatory policies.
By Hannah Bleau
The California lawmaker has been hesitant to jump aboard the impeachment train alongside the more “energized” members of her party. Prior to the tumultuous 2018 midterm elections and Mueller report results, Pelosi promised impeachment was “off the table.”
“Going into the [2006] election, I said it’s off the table. I didn’t mean it’s off the table if you had some goods. If somebody has information, then we can act upon it,” Pelosi toldRolling Stone. “But from what we know now, it’s off the table.”
“Even with Trump. If you got something, show it,” Pelosi continued. “But I’m not going after it. What we’re going after is the economic security of America’s working families.”
Pelosi seemed to have a change of heart last month and accused Trump of being involved in a “cover-up.”
“We do believe that it’s important to follow the facts. We believe that no one is above the law, including the president of the United States. And we believe the president of the United States is engaged in a cover up,” she said after emerging from a meeting with House Democrats.
Fellow Democrat members are desperately trying to build a pro-impeachment coalition– one Pelosi would be unable to withstand. A number of House Democrats have been settingup a series of meetings in an effort to recruit and beef up their pro-impeachment movement, according to a report from the Daily Beast.
Despite Pelosi’s subtle shift in tone, there’s still an element of hesitancy for pursuing impeachment. It’s seemingly rooted in her concern for the American people’s mental capacity, or lack thereof.
Pelosi reportedly made the remarks during a closed-door members’ meeting following Memorial Day weekend, according to the Daily Beast, who reported:
The Speaker, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting, expressed concerns that the public still doesn’t understand how the process of impeachment would play out. She noted that in her time over the recess in California well educated voters didn’t seem to understand that impeachment proceedings would not necessarily result in Trump’s immediate ouster from office.
An internal struggle continues to exist between House members who want to impeach Trump and those who fear ruffling the House Speaker’s feathers.
Reporter Sam Stein tweeted about the reaction to a Daily Beast effort to dox and harass a private citizen for the crime of posting a doctored video of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when he decided to philosophize on the nature of propaganda, concluding that “disinformation isn’t the purview of Russia alone.”
Who could ever have guessed?
On Twitter, reaction to Stein’s tweet was split between those wondering why he thought attempting to ruin the man’s life was a solid editorial decision — and those stunned that Stein had, until now, apparently believed disinformation was something uniquely Russian.
The only people who ever believed disinformation was “the purview of Russia alone” are “self-aggrandizing, sleazy, click-chasing Daily Beast journalists,” tweeted journalist Michael Tracey.
“Thank you for showing us that moronic Russophobia is very much the purview of Daily Beast journalists,” wrote reporter Aaron Mate.
Many felt a tad uncomfortable with the idea of major media outlets using their resources to attack and harass citizens for posting political content that they don’t agree with on social media.
This is far from the first of the Daily Beast’s rather flimsily-founded hit pieces. Last month, the website ran an article claiming Democratic presidential hopeful Tulsi Gabbard was being “boosted” by Russia after digging up three donations she had received from so-called “Putin apologists.”
Twitter suspends anti-Trump stars the Krassenstein brothers for fake accounts
The Bronx man continues to maintain his innocence regarding the Pelosi video, even launching a GoFundMe page to open a legal case against the website. Meanwhile, Stein is presumably furiously researching the history of propaganda and having his mind blown by the results.
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