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Brandon Straka is pissed. @usminority The #WalkAway #LGBT Townhall Event was Cancelled by @LGBTCenterNYC Its time to #TakeBackPride #LGBexit June 8th in Washington DC LGBexit.com

Help Make This Viral Brandon Straka is pissed. @usminority The #WalkAway #LGBT Townhall Event was Cancelled by @LGBTCenterNYC   Its time to #TakeBackPride #LGBexit June 8th in Washington DC LGBexit.com Would You Support It? Attend? If you Support #WalkAway Then Support This Unity Event For ALL Donate at PayPal.Me/MagaFirstNews   We Need Funds For Staging […]

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The Latest: Woman who hid evidence had affair with Frazee

The Latest on the case of the death of a missing Colorado woman (all times local):

1:20 p.m.

A woman who has pleaded guilty to helping thwart the investigation into a Colorado woman's disappearance told police that she was in a romantic relationship with the man now charged in his fiancee's death.

Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Gregg Slater testified Tuesday that Krystal Jean Lee Kenney told investigators that she and Patrick Frazee became involved in March 2018.

Slater said Kenney told police that Frazee claimed his fiancee, Kelsey Berreth, abused the couple's 1-year-old daughter. Slater said there is no evidence of abuse.

Kenney said Frazee suggested that she drug a coffee and give it to Berreth. Police said Kenney admitted going to Berreth's home to give her a coffee in September. Kenney said she did not tamper with that drink.

Frazee is charged with murder and solicitation to commit murder. Berreth has not been found.

___

12:10 p.m.

Police searching the home of a missing Colorado woman initially found no evidence of foul play but later discovered traces of blood belonging to Kelsey Berreth.

The new information was revealed Tuesday during a court hearing. Berreth's fiance, Patrick Frazee, has been charged with murder and solicitation to commit murder in the 29-year-old's death. He has not entered a plea.

Authorities had released little information about what led to Frazee's arrest until Tuesday.

Police searched Berreth's Woodland Park home after she was reported missing Dec. 2 and found no evidence inside the home. But several days later, Berreth's parents reported finding blood in the bathroom.

Tests later determined blood found on the toilet, the exterior of the bath tub, a trash can, electrical outlet, door hinges and a towel rack belongs to Berreth.

___

10:30 a.m.

Prosecutors have filed additional charges against the Colorado man charged with murder and solicitation to commit murder in the death of his missing fiancee.

Patrick Frazee is in court Tuesday for a hearing to determine whether he will stand trial in Kelsey Berreth's death. Her body has not been found but police have said evidence suggests she was killed at her home on or around Thanksgiving.

Colorado prosecutors added a charge accusing Frazee of tampering with a deceased body and two charges of committing a crime of violence, which would let the state request a harsher penalty on conviction.

A Woodland Park Police commander later testified that cellphone location data showed Berreth's and Frazee's phones were in the same location after Nov. 22, the date Frazee told police he last saw Berreth.

___

7:46 a.m.

A Colorado man charged with murder and solicitation to commit murder in the death of his missing fiancee is scheduled to appear in court.

Prosecutors are expected to discuss the evidence that led to Patrick Frazee's arrest during the hearing Tuesday morning.

Frazee was charged in December, more than a month after the last sighting of 29-year-old Kelsey Berreth.

Authorities have released little information about the case and key court records remain sealed.

Berreth's sudden disappearance bewildered the flight instructor's family and drew national media attention.

Her body has not been found. Police believe she was killed at her home in the small mountain city of Woodland Park on or around Thanksgiving.

Frazee, who is 32, has not entered a plea. He has been jailed since his arrest.

Source: Fox News National

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Trump reshapes long-liberal 9th Circuit, as GOP-picked judges near majority on court

For the first time in more than three decades, Republican-appointed judges will soon occupy nearly half the seats on the left-leaning 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- dealing a setback to progressive legal advocates who have long seen the court as a safe bet for favorable rulings.

The radical transformation of the San Francisco-based court is largely the result of President Trump's aggressive push to nominate conservative judges and bypass traditional consultations with Senate Democrats -- a practice that has led to repeated howls of protest from California's two Democrat senators, Kamala Harris and Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein.

Once Trump's latest picks to the 9th Circuit, including Ken Lee and Dan Collins, are confirmed as expected and remaining vacancies are filled, 13 of the 29 active seats on the key appellate court will be filled with judges picked by Republican presidents. At this time last year, 16 judges on the 9th Circuit were appointed by Democrats, with only six chosen by Republicans.

"As the 9th Circuit shifts to become more conservative and better parallels the Supreme Court's ideological baseline, I could only imagine fewer liberal 9th Circuit decisions and fewer overturned 9th Circuit decisions generally," legal scholar and judicial data guru Adam Feldman, who blogs at Empirical SCOTUS, told Fox News.

TRUMP: 9TH CIRCUIT WOULD OVERTURN MY THANKSGIVING TURKEY PARDON IF IT COULD

"As a general statement, with the death of [Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen] Reinhardt and Trump's push for conservative judges to fill the circuit, I suspect that there will be a noticeable shift in a portion of ideological case outcomes," Feldman added.

Protesters outside the 9th Circuit.  (AP)

Protesters outside the 9th Circuit.  (AP)

The circuit has had a reputation for seeing its decisions reversed by the Supreme Court. But citing data from the Supreme Court Database, which is widely used by scholars, Feldman noted that the number of liberal decisions from the 9th Circuit that the Supreme Court has chosen to review has diminished since the beginning days of the Roberts Court in 2006.

"The general notion that the Supreme Court may not be looking to overturn liberal 9th Circuit decisions to the same extent as it has in the past is clear," Feldman said.

Cases before the 9th Circuit are typically heard by randomly selected three-judge panels, out of a pool that includes the 29 active judges and a group of several senior status judges, which is currently evenly divided among conservative and liberal jurists. In certain cases, the entire 9th Circuit can choose to hear a case en banc, which would result in a randomly chosen 11-member panel reviewing the three-judge panel's decision.

In both scenarios, conservative judges will soon have a historically high chance to occupy the majority on the panels. That's good news for Republicans, who have complained that the 9th Circuit has repeatedly stood in the way of the Trump administration with a slew of injunctions on matters like asylum law and the travel ban, only to later be overturned by the Supreme Court.

“We’re very happy to have these extraordinary nominees,” Carrie Severino, chief counsel for the Judicial Crisis Network, told The Daily Signal in February. “It doesn’t change the [9th Circuit] majority to Republican nominees. But when we are talking about future three-judge panels, the odds are a lot better.”

Feldman has found that, while the 9th Circuit's decisions are more often reviewed by the Supreme Court, that owes to its large caseload and sweeping purview over several Western states. The 9th Circuit is overturned in 79 percent of the cases taken by the Supreme Court, Feldman found -- more than any other appellate court except the Sixth Circuit, although three other courts have an overturn rate above 70 percent.

Many of the 9th Circuit's cases, however, have been high-profile, with sweeping implications for executive power and the Trump administration's agenda. Just weeks ago, the 9th Circuit broke ranks with another federal appellate court and ruled that a Sri Lankan man who failed his initial asylum screening had the constitutional right to go before a judge -- threatening to clog the immigration court system further with tens of thousands of similar claims per year and setting up a likely Supreme Court showdown.

Meanwhile, left-leaning legal groups repeatedly have brought big cases directly to the 9th Circuit during the Trump administration. Ben Feuer, one of the top appellate litigators in California and chairman of the California Appellate Law Group, told Fox News that progressives are unlikely to look to other circuits now that the 9th Circuit is turning more conservative.

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 24: Bridget S. Bade, nominated by President Trump and later confirmed to be a U.S. circuit judge for the Ninth Circuit, is sworn in during a judicial nomination hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee October 24, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 24: Bridget S. Bade, nominated by President Trump and later confirmed to be a U.S. circuit judge for the Ninth Circuit, is sworn in during a judicial nomination hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee October 24, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

"Aside from the 9th Circuit, only the Second and Eleventh Circuits currently have a majority of Democratic appointees (the Tenth is tied)," Feuer said. "The Second Circuit is +5 Democratic by my count and the Eleventh is +2 Democratic. Those aren't very significant differentials -- certainly not on par with the Ninth Circuit of yore."

WATCH: FEINSTEIN FUMES AS TRUMP ADMIN PLOWS AHEAD WITH 9TH CIRCUIT NOMINATIONS WITHOUT CONSULTING HER

Feuer added: "Now, if the trend continues, that could certainly change, but I don't know that filing suit with left-leaning outcome goals in New York or Miami is very likely to get a much different result than in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Seattle. Also, many of the more progressive state statutes being enacted are coming from the experimental West Coast cities and states, so those have to be litigated in the Ninth Circuit anyway."

In televised remarks last Thursday, Feinstein warned that a future Democrat administration would immediately move to load the 9th Circuit with more liberal justices, given the Trump administration's no-compromise approach. But, Feuer said, that may not be entirely within Democrats' control.

"We're only recently into the filibuster-free 'post-nuclear' era in judicial appointments, in which simple majorities in the Senate can confirm nominations," Feuer said. "That means that if a party controls both the presidency and the Senate, they'll get in pretty much whoever they want -- so if the Democrats get both, there will surely be some vacancies and the balance may well shift back ... But we don't really know what it means when the presidency and the Senate are split."

He noted that in such scenarios in the past, the president would tend to compromise with more center-leaning nominees but questioned whether that would be the case going forward.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"Perhaps a split between the presidency and the Senate would mean no new appointments of any kind," Feuer speculated.

The 9th Circuit, meanwhile, could still grow. The Judicial Conference of the United States, which was created by Congress to advise on federal court matters, has recommended creating five new appellate judge positions and 17 new trial judge positions for the 9th Circuit, given its growing caseload.

Should Congress opt to create those five slots  -- in the same way the post-Watergate Democrat-controlled Congress added 10 judges to the 9th circuit in the late 1970s -- GOP appointees could surge to an unprecedented 18-16 majority on the 9th Circuit.

Such a move, however, would require the consent of the House, which is currently under Democratic control.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Key Senate panel split on Trump-Russia collusion: sources

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Burr arrives inside Hart Senate Office Building in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) arrives inside the Hart Senate Office Building before former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen testified behind closed doors before the committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., February 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

March 19, 2019

By Mark Hosenball and David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, known as perhaps Congress’ most bipartisan panel, is split along party lines over whether Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, sources told Reuters.

The division is unsurprising in Washington’s bitterly partisan climate but raises a broader question: If the Senate intelligence panel cannot produce a consensus view of what happened with Trump and the Russians, what committee can?

It would in turn stir doubts about whether congressional investigations into Trump will result in lawmakers trying to start impeachment proceedings against the Republican president.

At least six congressional committees are probing whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow in its efforts to sway U.S. voters to support Trump in 2016; whether Trump has tried to obstruct investigations; whether his businesses have ties to Moscow; and whether he has used his office to enrich himself.

The inquiries have months to go and much could change, especially with a long-running probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller not yet completed and many hours of congressional hearings, both open and closed, still to play out.

But at the moment, sources said, Intelligence Committee members have been considering the production of dueling final reports, one from the committee’s eight Republicans and one from its seven Democrats, reaching different conclusions.

Congressional sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that both Republicans and Democrats on Senate Intelligence agreed there was a lack of direct evidence pointing to collusion. The two sides disagree on circumstantial evidence.

The Democrats say there is enough circumstantial evidence to support a finding of collusion in the committee’s final report. Trump’s fellow Republicans on the panel say there is not.

“There is no hard evidence of collusion,” a Democratic source said, but “plenty of circumstantial evidence.”

Senate Intelligence oversees America’s spy agencies, from the CIA to the intelligence-related functions of the FBI.

Led by Republican Chairman Richard Burr, the panel’s members also include Republicans Marco Rubio and Susan Collins, as well as Democrats Mark Warner, Dianne Feinstein and Ron Wyden.

A spokeswoman for Burr declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Wyden, a senior committee Democrat.

Burr told CBS last month that the committee, at that time, had found no proof that Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow.

Trump denies any collusion occurred and has repeatedly blasted such inquiries as a “witch hunt.”

DUELING REPORTS

If Senate Intelligence, and possibly other committees in Congress, end up producing conflicting reports, Americans looking to Congress for explanations about links between Moscow and the Trump campaign are likely to be disappointed.

Moreover, experts said, such an outcome could reduce the odds of an eventual Trump impeachment. Under the Constitution, the impeachment process would begin in the Democratic-led House of Representatives, but it would fall to the Republican-led Senate to decide whether to remove Trump from office.

“This may indicate that Republicans don’t think there’s a smoking gun, nothing that ties the president to a conspiracy,” said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington.

“It leaves things with no impeachment, probably. … If the Republicans are saying: ‘Uh uh, this is not impeachable,’ then I don’t think it’s going to happen,” she said.

Entrusted with some of the most sensitive U.S. secrets, Senate Intelligence began its Trump-Russia probe shortly after Trump took office. It is now moving to re-interview key witnesses, with senators joining staff investigators in the questioning for the first time, the sources said.

The committee will assess a January 2017 report from the U.S. spy agencies that found Russia interfered in the 2016 election in various ways. Russia denies any meddling.

Also being scrutinized by the panel are the role of social media in the 2016 campaign, the security of U.S. voting systems and steps former President Barack Obama’s administration took – or did not take – after initial reports of Russian interference.

But the central topic of the committee’s probe will be the question of collusion.

Bipartisan oversight on those questions is crucial, said Norman Ornstein, a political analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

“If there is a bipartisan report of the Senate Intelligence Committee, assuming it’s a full exposition, that would make a difference, even if Burr and Warner had different interpretations,” he said.

Separate, partisan reports would tell a more familiar story, he said. “Then we’re back to the dynamic where Republicans will believe the Burr report, while Democrats, the mainstream media, the intellectual community and the Never-Trumpers are going to believe the Warner report,” Ornstein said.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball and David Morgan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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Aviva, NatWest to join ‘Brexodus’ of business to EU

FILE PHOTO: A man walks past an AVIVA logo outside the company's head office in the city of London
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past an AVIVA logo outside the company's head office in the city of London March 5, 2009. REUTERS/Stephen Hird/File Photo

February 19, 2019

By Huw Jones, Simon Jessop and Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters) – England’s High Court on Tuesday gave Aviva, Britain’s second largest insurer, approval to transfer around 9 billion pounds ($11.69 billion) in assets to a new Irish company just before the starting gun is fired on Brexit.

The move, timed for 2259 GMT on March 29, is part of a wider withdrawal of business and money by financial companies seeking to keep contracts and policies within the European Union even after Britain departs. Brexit formally takes effect at 2300 GMT on March 29.

London has yet to agree a divorce settlement with the bloc but banks and insurers are shifting hundreds of billions of pounds in assets regardless of the form Brexit takes, reversing decades of European financial market integration and chipping away at the City of London’s dominance of it.

The High Court in London approved the transfer of policies after a hearing on Aviva’s application last week to move life insurance assets. It had previously secured court approval to move around 1 billion pounds in general insurance assets.

“The current state of extreme and intensifying uncertainty regarding the terms of United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union renders the need for certainty of provision all the more pressing,” Martin Moore, Aviva’s counsel, told the court.

On Friday, NatWest, part of Royal Bank of Scotland, is due to ask a court in Edinburgh to approve its application to move 6 billion pounds in assets and 7 billion pounds in liabilities from Britain to its Dutch hub.

Aviva and NatWest are moving assets under a legal process known as Part VII transfers, taking up to 18 months and now coming to conclusion.

“Insurers have set up their European insurers and have transferred or are transferring their European business,” said Ashley Prebble, an insurance partner at Clifford Chance law firm.

“These are not transfers that will be reversed in the event that a transition period is agreed; this is the new environment.”

So far, the amount of business being moved is a small part of the UK financial sector, where total premium income was 224.5 billion pounds in 2016, with banking assets totaling 8.1 trillion pounds in 2018, according to TheCityUK.

Consultancy EY has estimated that 800 billion pounds in assets are being moved from Britain to EU hubs ahead of Brexit.

Most of the policies being moved by Aviva were written in branches across Europe, with just 100 million pounds or so of policies written in Britain.

Aviva said it would move an additional 303 million euros in capital to Dublin as part of the transfer of assets, to cover its life insurance policies, and 89 million pounds to cover those for general insurance.

MONEY MOVES FASTER

For now, money is moving quicker than jobs. A Reuters survey published earlier this month found only around 2,000 jobs in financial services are expected to be moved or created in other EU cities to deal with Brexit.

But the quiet shift of money means less business will be processed in Britain and less tax will be raised by the country’s financial sector, currently the biggest source of corporate tax revenue.

Trading in euro-denominated stocks and bonds, along with clearing in euro repurchase agreements, will move to the continent next month.

The Association of British Insurers said insurers operating from Britain have made 36 Part VII applications representing 20 million contracts, using figures from the Bank of England.

Among banks, Britain’s Barclays secured court approval last month to move 190 billion euros in assets to a Dublin subsidiary.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has transferred $44 billion in assets to its Dublin based subsidiary, while UBS has secured approval to shift 32 billion euros from London to its German unit.

Japan’s Nomura said it would re-allocate $300 million in capital from its London-based subsidiary to other members of its group, while Credit Suisse said it had moved $200 million of assets and liabilities to its German unit.

Most of the largest international banks are keeping their asset and capital transfer plans confidential, with JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citi all eschewing Part VII applications in favor of repapering contracts client by client.

Aviva was among the last of the big insurers to secure court approval for shifting chunks of life, general, property, casualty and motor insurance policies to EU hubs.

Prudential and AIG were among the first out of the block, the former moving 76 million pounds in assets to Dublin, and the latter shifting 5.6 billion pounds in assets to a Luxembourg hub last year.

Phoenix, a specialist life insurer, will transfer some 18 billion pounds in assets from Britain to Dublin, subject to a hearing in March, representing 582,000 policies.

Lloyd’s of London, the world’s oldest commercial insurance market, looks set to be among the last and probably the biggest of all, saying it won’t complete its coordination of Part VII transfers on behalf of its syndicates until the end of 2020.

($1 = 0.7701 pounds)

(Additional reporting by Sinead Cruise. Editing by Carmel Crimmins)

Source: OANN

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Donna Brazile: We need to see full Mueller report to get country 'back on same page,' protect from future attacks

Former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile says that she wants to see the full report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller to see how the Trump campaign responded to Russia’s attempts to impact the election.

“We are adults, we need to see the report. And I think once the report is out, all of the report, then I think the American people can get a better understanding of what’s happened,” Brazile told “Fox & Friends.”

“And hopefully we can stop thinking about who’s right and who’s wrong and figure out how to protect our country from the hacking.”

WATCH FOX NEWS’ LIVE COVERAGE

Let us see the report and I think we’ll all get back on the same page when it comes to protecting our country from future attacks

— Donna Brazile on "Fox & Friends"

Brazile noted the summary released by Attorney General William Barr Sunday which said that Trump did not conspire with Russia did leave some unanswered question.

“It says that ‘the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,’” Brazile said.

“I’m a Democrat, but I’m also an American, I want to know when the Russians came to Trump campaign and they tried to give them information did they tell the FBI, did they call the police and say, ‘hey, we got these guys from Russia trying to give us stuff we don’t need or we don’t want.’”

DONNA BRAZILE: WHAT WE REALLY NEED TO LEARN FROM THE MUELLER REPORT

Brazile added: “Let us see the report and I think we’ll all get back on the same page when it comes to protecting our country from future attacks.”

The former head of the DNC also defended Democrats talks of continuing investigations saying that they have a “constitutional responsibility,” adding it is both parties responsibility to protect the country from future hacking attempts.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Do you know what I want Democrats and Republicans to do?  I want them to make sure this never happens to our country again,” Brazile said.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Judge tightens gag order on ex-Trump adviser Stone, warning he could be jailed

FILE PHOTO: Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone gives an interview to Reuters in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone gives an interview to Reuters in Washington, U.S., January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

February 21, 2019

By Sarah N. Lynch and Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A visibly angry judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump’s former political adviser Roger Stone to stop speaking publicly about U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal case against him or else he will be sent to jail pending trial.

In a tense court hearing on Thursday, U.S. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that Stone’s apology and explanations for why he posted a photo of her next to the image of the crosshairs of a gun on his Instagram account were not credible.

Jackson made her ruling after a highly unusual hearing in which Stone, who is charged with crimes related to Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, took the stand to testify about the posting.

Stone’s seemingly contradictory statements and at times foggy recollections about the post’s origins during a cross-examination by the government frustrated Jackson, who later concluded he “could not even keep his story straight on the stand.”

Stone, a longtime Republican political operative, friend of Trump and self-proclaimed “dirty trickster,” was arrested on Jan. 25. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of making false statements to Congress, obstruction and witness tampering.

Besides probing the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that Moscow ran an operation to hack Democratic Party computers and spread disinformation to undermine candidate Hillary Clinton and the American electoral process, Mueller is also investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow officials.

Trump denies collusion and Russia denies allegations of meddling.

Stone apologized to the judge for the post on Instagram and asked for a second chance.

“Thank you, but the apology rings quite hollow,” Jackson told Stone.

“What all of this means, Mr. Stone, is that any violation of this order will be a basis for revoking your bond and detaining you pending trial. So I want to be clear – today I gave you a second chance. But this is not baseball. There will not be a third chance.”

Jackson had ordered Stone to appear in court to review whether the posting on his Instagram account violated his conditions of release and a narrowly tailored media gag order she imposed last week. He is out on a $250,000 bond and is free to travel without court permission to certain cities.

The media gag order did not explicitly bar Stone from speaking publicly about the case as long as he was not on courthouse grounds.

However, it cautioned him to tread carefully and said he would not be able to complain later if he decided his own comments had tainted the jury pool.

The original posting on Monday on Stone’s Instagram account not only contained a photo of Jackson next to the crosshairs, but also had text that ranted against Mueller as a “hitman” and called Jackson “an Obama-appointed judge” a reference to Trump’s Democratic predecessor in the White House.

Stone later took the image down and apologized, but afterwards he gave an interview on conspiracy website Infowars defending the post.

At Thursday’s hearing, Stone said: “I abused the order,” Stone said. “I am kicking myself over my own stupidity.”

“Your honor, I can only beseech you to give me a second chance,” Stone said. “Forgive me the trespass. I’m hurtfully sorry.”

The investigation has clouded Trump’s two years in office and has been a frequent target of the president and his allies. So far, the investigation has ensnared 34 people.

The most tense exchanges of Thursday’s hearing were during a cross-examination by prosecutor Jonathan Kravis, who repeatedly tried to get Stone to reveal who had selected the image for him.

Stone testified he has between five and six volunteers who come and go freely from his home and have access to his cell phone. He rattled off the names of some volunteers, but also said he could not remember all of them.

At first when asked by his lawyer Bruce Rogow if one of those volunteers had posted the image, Stone testified he did not select or review it.

Later, however, Stone said he had seen the picture and posted it himself, but did not realize its implications.

“Excuse me, did you not just tell me under oath less than five minutes ago that someone else posted it?” Jackson asked Stone.

“That’s not inconsistent – I didn’t choose the image. I did post it,” Stone replied.

Later, he again changed the story, saying he had at his disposal several images of the judge to choose from before the posting.

“I erased all of the images of your honor because I did not want to make the same mistake twice,” he said.

“You had a choice?” an incredulous Jackson asked. “You closed your eyes and picked?”

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Mark Hosenball; additional reporting by Makini Brice; Writing by Tim Ahmann; editing by Grant McCool)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO - A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat
FILE PHOTO: A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – India has once again delayed the implementation of higher tariffs on some goods imported from the United States to May 15, a government official said on Friday.

The new tariff structure was to come into force from May 2, the spokeswoman said without citing reasons for the delay.

Angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs, New Delhi decided in June last year to raise the import tax from Aug. 4 on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the new tariff.

Trade friction between India and the U.S. has escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this year to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

In a further blow, U.S. on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers including India to continue importing limited volumes.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.

Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.

But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump’s election.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

“The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.

Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG

“@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right,” she wrote.

The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.

While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.

Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Justice Democrats — who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing increased calls for her immediate resignation, remains in poor health and is not “lucid” enough to decide whether to step down, her attorney told reporters late Thursday.

Steve Silverman, speaking outside one of Pugh’s residences which was raided by the FBI and IRS earlier in the day, said the embattled city leader could make a decision as early as next week.

“She is leaning toward making the best decision in the best interest in the citizens of Baltimore City,” he said, adding that Pugh has “several options” to consider.

“She just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make appropriate decisions.”

BALTIMORE MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH, ON LEAVE AMID BOOK PROBE, HAS HOMES AND CITY HALL OFFICE RAIDED BY FEDS

Silverman said Pugh met with a doctor at home Thursday and plans to do so again Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In the latest image-tarnishing scandal for struggling Baltimore, the first-term Democratic mayor faces accusations that she used children’s book deals to cover up kickbacks for favorable treatment as a state lawmaker and city leader that earned her roughly $800,000 over several years.

BALTIMORE’S ACTING MAYOR SAYS HE ‘WOULD HATE TO SEE’ EMBATTLED MAYOR RETURN AFTER BOOK SCANDALS

As a state senator, 69-year-old Pugh sold $500,000 worth of her self-published “Healthy Holly” illustrated paperbacks to the University of Maryland Medical System, a major state employer whose board she sat on for nearly 20 years.

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

UMMS reportedly paid Pugh for 100,000 copies of her books between 2011 and 2018 with the stated intention of distributing the books to schools and day care centers. But some 50,000 copies remain unaccounted for and officials are probing if they were even printed.

Pugh also made $300,000 in bulk sales to other customers including health carriers that did business with the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL CALLS ON EMBATTLED MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY

The politically isolated Pugh slipped out of sight on April 1 after a hastily organized press conference where she called her no-contract book deals a “regrettable mistake.” That same day, Maryland’s governor called on the state prosecutor to investigate allegations of “self-dealing.”

Pugh took an indefinite leave of absence, citing her health deteriorating intensely after a bout with pneumonia.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide. (Loyd Fox/Baltimore Sun via AP)

On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI and IRS searched her two Baltimore homes, her City Hall offices, and a nonprofit organization she once led. The home of at least one of Pugh’s aides was also scoured.

Silverman said federal agents also served a subpoena at his law firm, retrieving Pugh’s original financial records. They did not seek any attorney-client privileged communications, he said.

Pugh’s attorney said she was “emotionally extremely distraught” following the searches by FBI and IRS agents.

“There was nothing incriminating that came out of her home,” Silverman said.

UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg told reporters that the medical system received a grand jury witness subpoena seeking documents and information related to Pugh.

Other probes against Pugh include a review by the city ethics board and the Maryland Insurance Administration.

BALTIMORE MAYOR’S $500G DEAL FOR ‘HEALTHY HOLLY’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS DRAWS SCRUTINY

In recent weeks, the calls for Pugh’s resignation have intensified with the strongest voice coming from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not mince words after Thursday’s early morning raids.

“Now more than ever, Baltimore City needs strong and responsible leadership. Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” he said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via AP)

Many of her fellow Democrats, including those on Baltimore’s demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, are also insisting that Pugh put the citizens’ interests above any attempt to preserve her political career.

City Council member Brandon Scott called the Thursday raids “an embarrassment to the city.”

However, only a conviction can trigger a mayor’s removal from office, according to the city solicitor. Baltimore’s mayor-friendly City Charter currently provides no options for ousting its executive.

Six of Pugh’s staffers joined her on paid leave earlier this month; three of them were fired this week by the acting mayor.

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Pugh came to office in late 2016 after edging out ex-Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had spent much of her tenure fighting corruption charges before being forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal connected to the misappropriation of about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

She would certainly face a bruising 2020 Democratic primary if she were to return and run for reelection. Veteran City Council leader Bernard “Jack” Young, who is serving as acting mayor, said as she went on leave that he would merely be a placeholder. But this week, before the raids, he said “it could be devastating for her” if she tried to return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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