Congress Takes First Shot at Federal Censorship: A Moratorium on DOJ Payments to Social Media

Stunned by a growing body of evidence showing federal pressure to silence Americans’ voices online, House Republicans have unleashed their first legislation to slow government requests to Big Tech to censor content.

The ELON Act, introduced this month by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and backed by nine other cosponsors, would impose a one-year moratorium on taxpayer payments from the Justice Department to social media firms as well as require an audit on how much money changed hands since the start of 2015 between DOJ and Big Tech firms.

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Watchdog Groups Call for Expanded Search for Biden Classified Documents

The FBI searched President Joe Biden’s Delaware beach home Wednesday amid the 46th president’s ongoing documents scandal. 

FBI officials said the search uncovered no new classified documents, but government watchdogs are calling on the Justice Department to widen its net amid concerns the Biden administration has been less than forthright about the records quest thus far. 

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Biden’s Second Home in Delaware Searched by FBI for Classified Documents

President Joe Biden’s personal residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, was searched by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday as part of an ongoing probe into classified documents, according to a statement released by Biden’s personal attorney. “Today, with the President’s full support and cooperation, the DOJ is conducting a planned search of his home in Rehoboth, Delaware,” attorney Bob Bauer said in a statement. “Under DOJ’s standard procedures, in the interests of operational security and integrity, it sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to cooperate.”

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DOJ Official Overseeing Prosecution of Pregnancy Center Attacks Has a History of Disparaging Them

A top Department of Justice (DOJ) official who has criticized pregnancy resource centers, which she called “fake clinics,” is responsible for overseeing the prosecution of two individuals indicted for attacking pregnancy resource centers, according to the DOJ. The DOJ indicted Caleb Freestone and Amber Smith-Stewart this week for various FACE Act violations after they allegedly spray-painted threats on pregnancy resource centers such as “If abortions aren’t safe than niether [sic] are you” and “WE’RE COMING for U,” according to the DOJ. Kristen Clarke, the Assistant Attorney General heading the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, which will be prosecuting this case, condemned the Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to strike down a California law requiring pregnancy resource centers to offer information about state-funded abortions, as previously reported by The Washington Free Beacon.

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Biden’s DOJ Is Still Fighting to Reimpose Mask Mandates on Airline Flights

President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) continued its fight to implement a nationwide mask mandate on airplanes and other forms of transportation in federal court Tuesday, according to Reuters. The DOJ asked the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a federal judge’s April 2021 decision striking down the mask mandate, according to Reuters. Biden declared that “the pandemic is over” Sept. 18, 2021, and all 50 states and most localities had dropped their own mask mandates by early 2022.

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Ohio Senator Vance and Arizona Representative Biggs Send Bicameral Letter Opposing Biden’s Illicit Misuse of Immigration Parole

Wednesday, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) and Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ) wrote a bicameral letter to Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, requesting an explanation of the Department’s careless decision to drastically expand immigration parole programs in the face of a historic border crisis. According to Vance, the American people have a right to know the reasoning behind the Biden Administration’s decision, as well as, more significantly, the legal basis for it.

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DOJ Declined to Monitor Biden Documents Search: Report

The Department of Justice reportedly opted against having FBI agents oversee a search by President Joe Biden’s lawyers for classified documents at his private homes.

Biden’s legal team discussed directly with the DOJ the idea of having FBI agents present during such searches, according to the Wall Street Journal, though both parties ultimately agreed to leave the matter to the president’s own attorneys.

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Commentary: Is the Justice Department Blackmailing President Joe Biden?

by Robert Romano   In 2016, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, had an FBI investigation because she was storing classified information on her private server for the convenience of reading her classified emails on a smartphone. Details of the investigation came out throughout the campaign, resulting in former…

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China-Linked Hackers Stole Millions in COVID-19 Relief Funds, Secret Service Says

Foreign hackers linked to the Chinese government allegedly stole at least $20 million in COVID-19 relief funds, according to the U.S. Secret Service.

The China-linked hackers, known as APT41, are “a notable player” among the 1,000-plus investigations into criminals defrauding public benefits programs, according to an NBC News report confirmed by the Secret Service to the Daily Caller News Foundation. It is unknown whether the Chinese government directed APT41 to steal taxpayer funds or simply looked the other way, but the threat is  “dangerous” and has serious national security implications, an anonymous senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official told NBC News.

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Two Estonian Citizens Arrested for Alleged Involvement in $575 Million Cryptocurrency Fraud

The Department of Justice announced on Monday that two Estonian citizens were arrested on Sunday in Tallinn, Estonia on an 18-count indictment for alleged involvement in a $575 million cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering conspiracy. 

The two men, Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, both 37 years old, allegedly defrauded hundreds of thousands of people out of money by convincing victims to enter into fraudulent equipment rental contracts with the defendants’ cryptocurrency mining service called HashFlare.

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Ohio House Passes Bill to Close Loophole that Can Shield Bad Educators from Investigations

The Ohio House has approved legislation that will close a loophole in disciplinary investigation procedures for teachers and school employees.

House Bill (HB) 403 sponsored by Representatives Sarah Fowler Arthur (R-Ashtabula) and Adam C. Miller (D-Columbus) aims to close a loophole enabling a teacher or school employee who retires under threat of disciplinary investigation or termination to avoid further investigation. Under this bill school districts would report these teachers to the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) even if they retire.

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Democratic Candidate for Ohio Senate Seat Says He Advocates for Schools While Supporting School Closures

Ohio Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Representative Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) is highlighting school advocacy as part of his political platform while supporting school closures, forced mask mandates, and remote learning.

“Our kids are entering a competitive and rapidly changing world, and we owe it to them and their parents to make sure they’re ready to take on any challenges the world throws at them,” Ryan said.

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Chinese Officers Used ‘Fake’ Think Tank to Recruit Agents in America, DOJ Alleges

The Department of Justice unveiled allegations against Chinese nationals, including three intelligence officers working for China’s state security agency, of using a fake think tank to recruit espionage agents in the U.S. on Monday.

The indictment accuses Wang Lin and three others of a “wide-ranging and systematic effort” to recruit U.S. citizens, including professors at U.S. universities and a former federal law enforcement and state homeland security official, as well as others, to conduct espionage activities on behalf of the Chinese government’s Ministry of State Security (MSS). For at least a decade, the individuals used the Institute for International Studies (IIS) at the Ocean University of China as a front for their intelligence operations.

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Radicalized Medical Associations Ask DOJ and Big Tech to Censor and Prosecute Journalists Opposing Gender Surgeries for Minors

National medical associations that have been infiltrated by radical leftists wrote to Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland this week requesting the Department of Justice (DOJ) “do more” to block the views of those who spread “disinformation” regarding transgender surgeries for minors and to “take swift action to investigate and prosecute all organizations, individuals, and entities responsible.”

Journalist and author Christopher Rufo posted the letter from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, and the Children’s Hospital Association to Garland.

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Proposed Federal Legislation Would Establish Independent Oversight over Federal Prisons

Proposed bipartisan federal legislation would establish independent oversight of the nation’s 122 federal prisons and require the Department of Justice’s inspector general to report its findings and recommendations publicly.

The move follows a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations probe that found the DOJ’s tally of how many people died while in custody missed hundreds of deaths over the past couple of years. The investigation found that the problems spanned many years over multiple administrations, and committee staffers said there is widespread blame for the oversight.

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House Republicans Demand DOJ Investigate $637 Million COVID Deal Between New York Governor, Major Donor

House Republicans are demanding that the Department of Justice investigate New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office over a massive deal the governor struck between the state and one of her wealthy campaign donors. 

Hochul’s office came under scrutiny earlier this month following the revelation that the governor organized a $637 million deal to buy COVID tests from a company owned by one of her largest campaign donors.

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Trump Scores Another Win in Mar-a-Lago Case

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday scored a major win in the ongoing court battle pertaining to the FBI’s seizure of documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate in early August.

“There shall be no separate requirement on Plaintiff at this stage, prior to the review of any of the Seized Materials, to lodge ex ante final objections to the accuracy of Defendant’s Inventory, its descriptions, or its contents,” wrote U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in the Thursday ruling.

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Commentary: Time to Investigate the FBI’s Confidential Human Sources Program

To the surprise of no one paying attention, the Department of Justice recently acknowledged the use of several FBI informants in its investigation of the Oath Keepers, an alleged militia group tied to the events of January 6. 

Prosecutors last week asked for a protective order to conceal from jurors information about confidential human sources (CHS) expected to testify during the seditious conspiracy trial of five members of the Oath Keepers; jury selection is now underway. Not only does the government want to prevent defense attorneys from asking personal questions that could reveal the informants’ identities but prosecutors don’t want the sources to publicly disclose any involvement in past or pending criminal investigations or details of “the FBI’s CHS program and the training and methods used by the FBI as part of their undercover operations.”

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Pennsylvania Pro-Life Activist Pleads Not Guilty to Federal Charges, Lawyer Blasts DOJ’s ‘Political Prosecution’

A Pennsylvania pro-life activist has pleaded not guilty to federal charges alleging he used force to interfere with a reproductive health care provider, after a state court previously threw out the case.

In October 2021, Mark Houck “forcefully shoved” Planned Parenthood volunteer Bruce Love, 72, the Department of Justice alleges, according to Fox News. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act bars the use of force to interfere with or coerce reproductive health providers. Houck on Tuesday pleaded not guilty on two counts.

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FBI Whistleblower: ‘Nobody I Know Signed Up’ to Investigate Parents Who Vented at School Board Meetings

An FBI whistleblower who was recently suspended said in an interview this week that he became a whistleblower last November because of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s email ordering the FBI to use Patriot Act counterterrorism tools to target parents at school board meetings.

Special Agent Kyle Seraphin, who was indefinitely suspended on June 1 after nearly six years with the Bureau, said that he was so disturbed by the directive, he went to his congresswoman’s office in New Mexico, and made a “protected disclosure.”

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Appeals Court Panel Allows DOJ to Continue Reviewing Documents from Trump Raid

A panel of three judges for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed the Department of Justice to continue reviewing documents the FBI seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, upending part of an earlier ruling from the district court judge.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon earlier this month enjoined further federal review of the documents and appointed New York Judge Raymond Dearie as special master to independently review them.

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Report Reveals ‘Shocking Long-Term Gaps in Federal Oversight’ over Prison Deaths

The Department of Justice’s tally of how many people died while in custody missed hundreds of deaths over the past couple of years, a 10-month U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations probe revealed.

The problems spanned many years over multiple administrations, and committee staffers said there is widespread blame for the oversight. The investigation found that changes to the methods for collecting the data and a transition of the agency within the Justice Department responsible for carrying out the act’s requirements led to the problems.

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Trump Accuses Biden of Waging Unprecedented ‘Political Repression’ That Will Backfire in Election

Former President Donald Trump leveled a blistering attack Saturday night against the man who succeeded him in the White House, telling a rally in Ohio that Joe Biden’s Justice Department was waging unprecedented “political repression” against MAGA supporters while his inflationary economic policies were “incinerating trillions of dollars of middle-class wealth.”

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Biden Administration Awards over $7 Million to ‘Elevate Parent Voices in Education’ After Smearing Vocal Parents as Potential ‘Domestic Terrorists’

The Biden education department announced Thursday it was awarding more than $7 million in competitive grants to eight organizations that have worked to achieve what the department calls “the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing efforts to enhance and increase parent and family engagement in local education.”

Grants from the Statewide Family Engagement Centers (SFEC) program, the announcement states, “provide financial support to organizations that offer technical assistance and training to state educational agencies and school districts that effectively engage families over policies, programs, and activities that lead to improvements in student development and academic achievement.”

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Biden Department of Justice Won’t Reveal Plans to Intervene in 2022 Midterms

With less than two months to go before the November midterms, the Biden Administration is refusing to release its plan to interfere in the 2022 midterms, even though a document exists at the Department of Justice (DOJ) detailing such a plan.

As reported by Breitbart, the 15-page document allegedly lays out a strategy for a “voter access” policy that will expand some of the questionable election practices that were implemented in the 2020 election. The administration reportedly plans to coordinate this rollout with several far-left groups.

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‘Massive Abuse of Power’: Intel Committee Rep Mike Gallagher Vows to Use ‘Power of the Purse’ to Get Transparency from Biden, DOJ

Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, denounced a “massive abuse of power” and vowed to use congressional funding powers to get transparency from the Biden administration about the Aug. 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago during a Sunday appearance on Fox Business.

“For something of this magnitude, something unprecedented, you would expect the FBI and the DOJ to go to great lengths to insure they are conducting themselves with the highest level of professionalism, but they never notified our committee — which you would expect them to do if, indeed, there was a danger posed by the classified material that was in Donald Trump’s possession,” Gallagher told former Republican Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, who guest-hosted the show, adding that many committee members found out details of the raid from news reports based on leaks from the Justice Department.

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Trump Calls DOJ’s Heavily Redacted Affidavit for Mar-a-Lago Raid a ‘Total Public Relations Subterfuge’

The Justice Department ordered the FBI raid of former President Trump’s home in Palm Beach, Florida out of concern that “highly classified national security documents” stored in the estate’s basement could be disclosed and compromise “clandestine human sources” used in intelligence gathering, according to a heavily redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain the warrant.

Judge Bruce E. Reinhart on Thursday ordered that a redacted version of the affidavit be unsealed by noon today. The order came hours after the Justice Department submitted a proposal for extensive redactions to the document.

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Biden White House Facilitated DOJ’s Criminal Probe against Trump, Scuttled Privilege Claims: Memos

Long before it professed no prior knowledge of the raid on Donald Trump’s estate, the Biden White House worked directly with the Justice Department and National Archives to instigate the criminal probe into alleged mishandling of documents, allowing the FBI to review evidence retrieved from Mar-o-Lago this spring and eliminating the 45th president’s claims to executive privilege, according to contemporaneous government documents reviewed by Just the News.

The memos show then-White House Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su was engaged in conversations with the FBI, DOJ and National Archives as early as April, shortly after 15 boxes of classified and other materials were voluntarily returned to the federal historical agency from Trump’s Florida home.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: It’s Inevitable, Trump Will Be Indicted

A few days after federal agents stormed Donald Trump’s castle in Palm Beach last week, Judge Beryl Howell berated a man from Georgia for his involvement in the Capitol protest on January 6, 2021.

“Listening without question to political rhetoric that leads to serious offenses, criminal conduct, is not an excuse when you’re standing in a court of law,” Howell told Glen Simon, a Trump supporter who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on restricted grounds. “You’ve got to use your common sense and your own sense of who you are and how you’d like to conduct yourself as an American citizen before just blindly doing what a political figure says.”

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Trump Calls for Release of Full Affidavit Used for FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Raid

Former President Trump is calling for the full release of the affidavit submitted with the warrant allowing the FBI to raid his Mar-a-Lago estate – after the Justice Department asked the document to remain sealed.

“There is no way to justify the unannounced RAID of Mar-a-Lago, the home of the 45th President of the United States … by a very large number of gun toting FBI Agents, and the Department of ‘Justice’ but, in the interest of TRANSPARENCY, I call for the immediate release of the completely Unredacted Affidavit pertaining to this horrible and shocking BREAK-IN,” Trump wrote late Monday evening on his platform Truth Social.

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DOJ Admits ‘Mistakenly’ Taking Trump’s Passports, Offers to Return Them

In an acknowledgment the FBI over-collected evidence during the Mar-a-Lago raid, the Justice Department informed Donald Trump’s team Monday that agents seized the former president’s passports and are obligated to return them, Just the News has learned,

DOJ was making plans Monday evening to return the passports and have also alerted defense lawyers the FBI may have obtained materials covered by various privileges that will be returned in the next two weeks, two sources told Just the News.

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Ohio GOP Congressional Delegation Wants Garland and Wray to Explain Mar-a-Lago Search

Republican members of Ohio’s congressional delegation reacted with mistrust that the federal government had sufficient cause to conduct its surprise search of former President Donald Trump’s home at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, FL earlier this week.

The former president himself has characterized the move as “prosecutorial misconduct” by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice to unfairly target President Joe Biden’s most high-profile adversary. Sources with knowledge of the event told the press that agents intended to gather evidence regarding whether Trump brought classified documents from the White House to his Palm Beach residence.

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Commentary: As New Trial Looms, Justice Department Silent on Whitmer Kidnapping Plot

For the first time since the government failed to win a single conviction in the alleged criminal plot to “kidnap” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, a top Justice Department official was publicly confronted about the FBI’s primary role in concocting the hoax.

It was not a welcome line of inquiry, to say the least.

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19 State Attorney Generals Petition SCOTUS Supporting Lawsuit over Altered Deportation Policy

Nineteen attorneys general, led by Arizona AG Mark Brnovich, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case the Biden administration is fighting after a federal judge in Texas ruled against it last month.

Texas and Louisiana sued over a Department of Homeland Security directive altering deportation policy.

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The DOJ Is Creating a ‘Reproductive Rights Task Force’

President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is forming a “Reproductive Rights Task Force” to monitor state and local abortion restrictions, the agency announced Tuesday.

The task force will track state and local legislation that restricts women’s ability to seek abortions or seeks to legally penalize medical workers who perform abortions in a manner consistent with federal law, according to the DOJ announcement. The unit will also collaborate with other federal agencies and take steps to secure and promote abortion access, “including proactive and defensive legal action where appropriate.”

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Amid Biden DOJ Deprioritization of Beijing’s IP Theft, Blinken Set to Meet Chinese Counterpart

When Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the Indonesian island of Bali on Saturday, the FBI will likely be in the process of launching a new probe into Chinese espionage against the U.S. — if it hadn’t already done so earlier in the day.

That’s based on an estimate by FBI Director Christopher Wray, who on Wednesday said his agency opens counterintelligence investigations into China roughly every 12 hours.

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Biden Admin Funnels Taxpayer Dollars into ‘Programming Curriculum’ for Transgender Inmates

The Department of Justice invested almost $1.5 million of taxpayer dollars into a “transgender programming curriculum” focused on transgender inmates’ needs.

The curriculum is designed to help transgender inmates with their gender “identity,” sexual health and safety, according to a summary of the government contract. Though it’s unclear if the curriculum has been implemented, the program could be available for up to 1,200 transgender inmates, according to Justice Department estimates.

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Former U.S. Military Pilot Admits He Spied for China, Sold U.S. Secrets

A former U.S. Army helicopter pilot admitted to serving as a paid agent of the Chinese government, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.

Shapour Moinian pleaded guilty to making false statements during security background checks and also admitted to accepting payment in exchange for passing aviation secrets obtained from his defense contractor employer to Chinese agents, the DOJ announcement stated. Moinian now faces 15 years in prison and a fine up to $500,000 for his crimes at his August 29 sentencing.

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Feds Raid the Home of Former Trump DOJ Official Who Wanted to Investigate Allegations of Voter Fraud

In a pre-dawn raid Wednesday, armed federal law enforcement agents searched the home of Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump Justice Department official who has emerged as a central figure in the partisan House Select Committee’s investigation into the January 6 riot.

Clark’s name was expected to come up in the Jan. 6 Committee hearing on Thursday.

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‘The Leash Is Off’: Abortion Activists Behind Attacks on Pro-Lifers Issue New Threats, Urge Others to ‘Burn’

A statement that appears to be from the violent pro-abortion group Jane’s Revenge was posted online Tuesday, saying “the leash is off” for attacks on pro-life operations and declaring violence until pro-life groups shut down.

The statement was posted to Abolition Media, an “online news source for revolutionary movements,” and promised violent attacks on pro-life organizations such as crisis pregnancy centers.

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Alliance for Free Citizens Denounces Department of Education’s ‘National Parents and Families Engagement Council’

The Alliance for Free Citizens, a education-focused advocacy group, denounced a reported plan by President Joe Biden’s Department of Education to create the “National Parents and Families Engagement Council.”

According to a report from Fox News, the new organization will work to improve the relationship between parents and schools.

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Republican Senators Demand Federal Law Enforcement Work to Prevent Violence Against Pro-Life and Faith-Based Organizations

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is one of 16 Republican senators who joined in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland Tuesday that calls for federal law enforcement to investigate acts of violence against organizations working to protect the unborn and to prevent future acts.

The letter follows one written by Johnson in May to Garland, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, in which the senator asked the federal officials why the violent attack on the Wisconsin Family Action office in Madison has not been identified as an act of “domestic terrorism.”

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Commentary: Stolen Elections, a Tale of Two D.C. Courtrooms

The Elijah Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington, D.C. is center stage this month to two competing tales of stolen presidential elections.

In the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper, federal prosecutors have presented a detailed account of the greatest scandal in U.S. political history: the conspiracy of the country’s most powerful interests to fabricate the Trump-Russia collusion hoax in order to sabotage Donald Trump before the 2016 election.

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Biden’s Department of Justice Announces New ‘Office of Environmental Justice’

On Thursday, two of Joe Biden’s Cabinet members announced plans to create a new division within the Department of Justice that will focus on fighting for “environmental justice.”

As reported by Fox News, the joint announcement was made by Attorney General Merrick Garland and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan. The new Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) will serve as a “central hub” for a “comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy,” and will soon lay out a “series of actions” that will be taken in order to ostensibly “secure environmental justice for all Americans.”

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Math Professor Convicted of Hiding China Ties to Get Taxpayer Funding

A federal grand jury found a professor at a public university guilty on espionage charges Wednesday, according to court records.

The jury found Mingqing Xiao, a math professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), guilty on four counts related to filing false tax statements, according to records from The Southern District of Illinois United States District Court.

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Commentary: Caught Between Science and Power

After losing in court and receiving a nationwide injunction against the institution of the mask mandate, the Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had a decision to make: accept the court’s decision and move on to other means to combat Covid-19 without resorting to mask mandates; try to start from scratch and put a mask mandate rule in place that might conform better with statutory requirements; or appeal the case.

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Biden Administration Endorses Transgender Hormones and Surgeries in Children

Joe Biden

The Biden administration released documents Thursday that endorse children and adolescents with claims of gender dysphoria to experience “gender-affirming care,” including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and body-mutilating transgender surgeries, including elective double mastectomies and castrations.

Biden appeared in a video endorsing transgender treatments and surgeries for children.

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