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Miranda Devine addresses “The Smirnov turnoff” in today’s New York Post column “New election year means another Russiagate as Biden, Dems try to smear impeachment probe.” Devine is of course the invaluable historian of The Laptop From Hell and the Biden family business. Here is the opening of her column:
For the 2016 election, Democrats launched Russiagate 1.0: the Trump-Russia collusion hoax proven groundless by the Mueller investigation.
For the 2020 election, it was Russiagate 2.0. Biden campaign adviser Antony Blinken prompted former CIA Acting Director Mike Morell to concoct the “Dirty 51” letter falsely claiming that Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop was Russian disinformation.
That lie justified censorship of The Post’s accurate stories from the laptop of Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s international influence peddling schemes.
Now that we’re heading into the 2024 election, we have Russiagate 3.0. Democrats pretend the impeachment inquiry has “utterly collapsed” because of the curious indictment last week of trusted FBI informant Alexander Smirnov on false statement charges after he allegedly told his FBI handler that Hunter and Joe each had received a $5 million bribe from the Ukrainians.
In a frantic effort to keep Smirnov in jail pre-trial, prosecutors for notorious Biden protector David Weiss, the Delaware US attorney, used language ripped straight out of the Russiagate textbook: “Smirnov’s efforts to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties [Joe] continues.”
Now Smirnov is being used as make-believe vindication of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed the fake laptop letter to help Biden win the 2020 election.
Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA operations officer who claims to be a victim of the dubious “Havana syndrome,” pounced on the Smirnov story.
“It validates exactly what we were warning about,” he told NBC News. “The Russians were going to push this narrative of Hunter Biden and corruption, to hurt Joe Biden.”
No. Hunter’s “laptop from hell” was not Russian disinformation. It still isn’t. The FBI has had it in its possession since December 2019 and has authenticated it as real and valid for use in court.
The Dirty 51 are grasping at straws to try to justify their interference in the 2020 election. It wasn’t the Russians. It was Trump-deranged former CIA management who felt any means justified the ends if they could stop Trump winning a second term.
But now, as the laptop is augmented by whistleblower receipts and witness testimony, and as House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer unravels the complex web of corrupt foreign payments to the Biden family, the president’s praetorian guard is desperate. They are drowning in evidence of corruption while burbling, “There is no evidence!” Russia is all they have.
The joke is on Biden’s media handmaidens still pushing Joe Biden’s absurd lies.
No, the laptop is not a “Russian plant,” as he claimed. And, yes, Joe did talk to Hunter about his “overseas business dealings.”
Heck, he did a lot more than talk.
He made himself available for breakfasts, lunches, dinners, coffees, and pleasant chit chat on the speakerphone with Hunter’s foreign benefactors, all to oil the wheels of the family business — which was selling access to him, as he well knew.
“Look after my boy,” he told Kremlin-backed oligarch Elena Baturina and her husband, Yuri Luzhkov, the corrupt former mayor of Moscow, when Hunter activated the speakerphone at a Russian restaurant in Brooklyn called Romanoff on May 4, 2014.
They sure did. Just three months earlier, Baturina had wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC, the firm cofounded by Hunter, his “best friend in business” Devon Archer, John Kerry’s stepson Chris Heinz, and Jimmy Bulger, nephew of mobster “Whitey” Bulger.
Devine has much more here.
The Disney Grooming Syndicate lost $134.2 million on Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, per financial statements reviewed by Forbes.
The post Nolte: Far-left Disney Lost $134 Million on ‘Indiana Jones 5’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Argentine President Javier Milei asserted in an interview on Sunday that he "would not have any problem" imposing diplomatic sanctions against Venezuela's socialist regime, suggesting he would be willing to convince other countries to support similar measures.
The post Argentina’s Milei Suggests Rallying Latin America to Sanction Venezuela After Biden Failure appeared first on Breitbart.
Hundreds of Bibles were found burned on Easter Sunday outside Global Vision Bible Church in Wilson County, Tennessee.
The post VIDEO – ‘Disrespectful’: Hundreds of Bibles Burned in Trailer Fire at Tennessee Church on Easter appeared first on Breitbart.
The Albuquerque Police Department released body cam footage showing an officer on horseback chasing an alleged shoplifter who was on foot.
The post WATCH: Officers on Horseback Chase Alleged Shoplifter appeared first on Breitbart.
United States District Court Judge Sam A. Lindsay enjoined the ATF from enforcing its pistol brace rule against NRA members on March 29, 2024.
The post Federal Judge Blocks Enforcement of ATF Pistol Brace Rule Against NRA Members appeared first on Breitbart.
Illegal migration in the English Channel has surged by 43 per cent over last year as nearly 800 boat migrants were ferried ashore at Dover over the Easter holiday weekend.
The post Channel Crisis: Illegal Boat Migration Up 43 Per Cent in Britain over Last Year appeared first on Breitbart.
A 12-year-old student was killed and two fellow classmates were seriously injured in a school shooting in Finland on Tuesday morning.
The post One Killed, Two Seriously Injured in Finland School Shooting, 12-Year-Old Boy Detained on Suspicion of Murder appeared first on Breitbart.
An illegal alien, accused of sexually abusing children, was repeatedly shielded from deportation thanks to Massachusetts sanctuary policies.
The post Sanctuary Massachusetts Repeatedly Shielded Illegal Alien Accused of Sexually Abusing Children from Deportation appeared first on Breitbart.
An illegal migrant from Haiti has reportedly admitted to Florida law enforcement that he inappropriately touched a 10-year-old girl.
The post Florida Police: Illegal Migrant from Haiti Admits Sexually Abusing 10-Year-Old Girl Multiple Times appeared first on Breitbart.
Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf attempted to brand opposition to his draconian speech restrictions as merely from "right wing" actors.
The post Scottish Leader Claims Criticism of Hate Speech Law Only From ‘Right Wing’, Despite Opposition from Liberals J.K. Rowling and Joe Rogan appeared first on Breitbart.
Police Scotland said they would not charge J.K. Rowling under the new hate speech law over her comments critising transgender ideology.
The post Bluff Called: Police Scotland Won’t Charge J.K. Rowling over Trans Comments, Author Vows to Stand With Any Woman Who Calls ‘A Man a Man’ appeared first on Breitbart.
An illegal alien accused of trafficking fentanyl in Massachusetts is also wanted for murder in his native Dominican Republic.
The post Sanctuary Massachusetts: Illegal Alien Accused of Fentanyl Trafficking Also Wanted for Murder appeared first on Breitbart.
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The sycophantic entertainment media will blame anything and everything on Hollywood’s ongoing box office collapse. These liars have all kinds of excuses: Streaming! Unruly crowds! Too much dew on windshields! Hell, to this day, some still blame the COVID pandemic.
The post Nolte: Exclusive — By 2-to-1, Americans Say Movies are Worse Today appeared first on Breitbart.
Non-stop entertainment comes at a price and for Gen Z and Millennials that price is increasingly too high, a poll reveals.
The post Gen Z and Millennials Say Streaming Costs Them Too Much a Month appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden’s Justice Department announced Wednesday that it had filed a lawsuit accusing the state of Utah, and its Department of Corrections, of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act in failing to give a man hormones for his gender dysphoria.
The prisoner, who identifies as a transgender woman, is said to have requested to purchase women’s clothing and “personal items in the commissary,” such as women’s underwear and makeup.
He also wanted to be housed with female prisoners, the DOJ said. The Utah Department of Corrections assigns prison accommodations based upon sex at “commitment,” when staffers conduct a visual search of genitals, according to the Justice Department.
The Utah Department of Corrections did not grant those requests, the DOJ said, accusing the Utah agency of causing the man’s gender dysphoria to worsen.
“Twenty-two months after entering custody,” the DOJ said, the trans-identifying prisoner “performed dangerous self-surgery and removed [his] own testicles.”
“People with gender dysphoria, including those held in jails and prisons, are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act and are entitled to equal access to medical care, just like anyone else with a disability,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
“Delays or refusals to provide medical treatment for people with gender dysphoria can cause irreparable harm, including debilitating distress, depression, attempts at self-treatment and even death by suicide,” Clarke added. “The Civil Rights Division is committed to protecting the rights of all people with disabilities in our country, including those who experience gender dysphoria—and those rights are not given up at the jailhouse door.”
The DOJ also accused the Utah Department of Corrections of “imposing unnecessary eligibility criteria for assessment and treatment for gender dysphoria that it does not require for other conditions.” A letter of findings to the Utah agency states that the prison system routes requests for “medical care” for gender dysphoria through its gender dysphoria committee.
If a man in the Utah Department of Corrections self-identifies as a transgender woman, he will have to request an evaluation by the agency’s mental health staff, and these staffers then present their findings to the gender dysphoria committee. The committee will decide whether or not to refer the man to a health care provider for a diagnostic evaluation for gender dysphoria, and if the committee approves the evaluation, the Department of Corrections will refer the individual to its contract psychologist, according to the letter of findings.
“If the committee denies the evaluation, the incarcerated person must wait one year before they are eligible to request diagnostic services again,” the letter said. “After a diagnostic assessment, [the Utah Department of Corrections] medical staff will consider the psychologist’s recommendations and may order treatment with hormones, but not ‘[c]osmetic or elective surgical procedures for the purpose of sex reassignment.’”
The Justice Department claims that the committee included people who were reluctant to prescribe hormones for gender dysphoria, calling that “overt bias against the individuals seeking care.”
When the Department of Corrections finally allowed the prisoner identified in the Justice Department’s lawsuit to start hormonal medication, the DOJ claimed, the prisoner’s Department of Corrections doctor tried to talk him out of taking hormones. The DOJ claims that the doctor then failed to take “basic steps to ensure that it was provided safely and effectively,” such as conducting routine laboratory testing.
The Justice Department is calling on the Utah agency to adopt, revise, and implement new policies that let men who think they are women or women who think they are men to obtain “health care services” for gender dysphoria, and to “reasonably modify UDOC policies, practices, and procedures when necessary to ensure that individuals with gender dysphoria have equal access to all UDOC services, programs, and activities including commissary, pat and visual searches, housing, and required and optional programming.”
The Utah Department of Corrections said in a March 12 statement that it is working to address the “complex” issue and described itself as “blindsided” by the DOJ’s announcement regarding its findings in March.
“We have also taken steps on our own, and as a state, to address the needs of inmates while maintaining the highest safety standards,” Executive Director Brian Redd said in a statement. “We fundamentally disagree with the DOJ on key issues, and are disappointed with their approach.”
The post Biden DOJ Targets Utah Prisons After Trans Prisoner Removes His Own Testicles appeared first on The Daily Signal.
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Six other activists, including a Christian father of 11 and a 73-year-old man, are facing up to 11 years behind bars.
The post Biden’s DOJ Secures FACE Act Convictions for 4 Pro-Life Activists, Including 87-Year-Old Survivor of Communist Concentration Camp appeared first on Breitbart.
Chaos erupted around Scotland's new hate speech law, with leftist leader Humza Yousaf reportedly receiving more complaints than J.K. Rowling.
The post Woke Fail: Leftist Scottish Leader Receives More Hate Speech Complaints than J.K. Rowling, as Police Swamped with Reports appeared first on Breitbart.
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The nationwide average price for regular gas topped $3.54 a gallon, a spike of more than 45 percent under President Joe Biden, AAA reported Wednesday.
The post Nationwide Gas Prices Top $3.50, Spiking More than 45% Under Joe Biden appeared first on Breitbart.
Russia needs a stronger deterrence to stop its aggressive moves on mainland Europe and a UK reintroduction of conscription would go some way to foiling Moscow's predatory ambitions, Estonia Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Thursday.
The post WWIII Watch: Estonia PM Calls on UK to Reintroduce Conscription appeared first on Breitbart.
Police are hunting for more remains after human body parts were found in a London park, triggering a murder investigation.
The post Murder Investigation After Human Remains Found in London Park appeared first on Breitbart.
Police Scotland has been accused of bias and 'making it up as they go along' over new hate crime laws defied by J.K. Rowling.
The post Rowling Wins Another Round: Police Back Down on Recording Harry Potter Author’s Comments as ‘Non-Crime Hate Incident’ appeared first on Breitbart.
A former transgender person who has detransitioned crashed Disney's shareholder meeting on Wednesday by calling into the public line and accusing the studio of pressuring young girls into undergoing sex-change procedures.
The post Detransitioner Crashes Disney Shareholder Meeting, Blames Company for Her Body Being ‘Irreversibly Damaged’ appeared first on Breitbart.
The North Face sponsors an LGBTQ camp where children as young as 12 can perform in drag, and housing and bathrooms are "genderless."
The post North Face Among Sponsors of LGBTQ Camp Where 12-Year-Olds Can Perform in Drag appeared first on Breitbart.
The Justice Department asked a New York district judge for prison time of four to ten months for the woman who stole Ashley Biden's diary.
The post Justice Department Demands Prison Time for Woman Who Stole Ashley Biden’s Diary appeared first on Breitbart.
The Biden White House looked at Biden’s gas prices and canceled a scheduled refill of our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The post Nolte: Biden’s High Gas Prices Force Him to Cancel Strategic Petroleum Reserve Refill appeared first on Breitbart.
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A $100 grocery haul in 2019 costs almost $140 today for the same common items, causing consumers to "become creative to cope."
The post Analysis: Grocery Prices Nearing 40 Percent Higher Than In 2019 appeared first on Breitbart.
Staffers at a pro-life pregnancy resource center in Rochester, New York, are criticizing the FBI for failing to provide any kind of status update of investigations into pro-abortion vandals’ attacks on the pregnancy center.
Nearly two years after the initial June 2022 attack, CompassCare pregnancy medical center says that the FBI has put up billboards offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of the criminals who firebombed the pregnancy center.
The billboard is placed about a mile away from the center, CompassCare said in a release. The group added that the billboard appeared shortly before the sentencing of a separate pro-abortion arsonist, Hridindu Sankar Roychowdhury, who in December pleaded guilty to attacking a pro-life organization in Madison, Wisconsin.
CompassCare says that the FBI won’t communicate with them about the billboard, first noticed by the organization on April 1, and won’t provide a status update on its investigation into the attack.
“Supporters have asked if CompassCare paid for this expensive billboard,” said the Rev. Jim Harden, CompassCare CEO, in a statement provided to The Daily Signal. “We did not. The FBI refuses to communicate.”
“The erratic nature of [Department of Justice] and FBI behavior around cases of violence against pro-life groups appears to be PR related, bolstering their reputation when under pressure to produce results by media and congressional judiciary committees,” Harden speculated.
“Perhaps they anticipate more violence against Christian pro-lifers ahead of the next big Supreme Court ruling in June and want to make it look like they care?” he questioned.
The FBI and DOJ did not immediately respond to requests for comment for this article.
CompassCare was attacked a second time in March 2023. The Daily Signal’s Virginia Allen reported at the time that surveillance footage from the attack showed an individual wearing a hoodie walk up to the front of the pregnancy center, spray paint the word “Liars” over the CompassCare sign, then walk away back down the street.
The radical pro-abortion group Jane’s Revenge took responsibility for the June 2022 firebombing of the pro-life center. Pro-abortion activists also spray-painted the words “Jane was here” on the side of the building.
Since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade would soon thereafter be overturned, there have been at least 236 attacks on Catholic churches and at least 90 attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers, according to Catholic Vote trackers.
The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act) prohibits the intentional destruction or damage of reproductive health care facilities, theoretically protecting not only abortion clinics, but also pro-life churches and pregnancy centers.
But President Joe Biden’s DOJ charged only pro-life activists with FACE Act violations in 2022, and has since charged only five individuals with violating the FACE Act by targeting pregnancy centers.
In February, conservative leaders called on House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson to pass the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2023 “as soon as possible.”
“In the aftermath of additional pro-life activists being convicted by the Biden administration under the FACE Act for peacefully protesting outside an abortion business, we respectfully urge you to take immediate legislative action to protect peaceful pro-life activists from the Biden administration’s weaponized Department of Justice and an unconstitutional law,” the leaders said in a letter first obtained by The Daily Signal.
“The Biden administration has weaponized the FACE Act against peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors and activists who want to save lives and change hearts and minds,” Advancing American Freedom Executive Director Paul Teller told The Daily Signal at the time.
Virginia Allen contributed to this report.
The post Pregnancy Center Slams FBI For Failure to Arrest Pro-Abortion Firebombers appeared first on The Daily Signal.
A deep-voiced male lawyer is being jeered for his decision to sexually display himself as a big-chested woman in a low-cut dress.
The post Watch: 70-Year-Old Transgender Lawyer Stephanie Mueller Goes Viral for Provocative Courtroom Outfit appeared first on Breitbart.
Scottish police have warned that the controversial new hate speech law will force police to cut backs on the policing of actual crimes.
The post Scottish Police Warn Hate Speech Law Will Force Cuts in Policing Actual Crime appeared first on Breitbart.
A deep-voiced male lawyer is being jeered for his decision to display himself as a big-chested woman in a low-cut dress.
The post Munro: Watch — 70-Year-Old Transgender Lawyer Stephanie Mueller Goes Viral for Provocative Courtroom Outfit appeared first on Breitbart.
A six-month investigation led to a series of raids on Mexican cartel-connected chop shops in the Houston metroplex this week. The raids led to the seizure of more than $1 million in stolen vehicles.
The post Houston Car-Theft Ring Tied to Mexican Terrorist Drug Cartel appeared first on Breitbart.
NYC will pay a large settlement after two women say their rights were violated when they were forced to remove their hijabs for mugshots.
The post Lawsuit: NYC to Pay $17.5 Million After Muslim Women Forced to Remove Hijabs for Mugshots appeared first on Breitbart.
Two people died and seven were injured after a shootout between Doral Police Officers and an armed patron erupted around 3:30 a.m. Saturday.
The post Two Dead and Seven Wounded During Officer-Involved Shootout at Miami-Dade Martini Bar appeared first on Breitbart.
Utah state Rep. Phil Lyman (R) said on Breitbart News Saturday that Gov. Spencer Cox (R) is more of a "Gavin Newsom 2.0" than a Republican.
The post Exclusive — Phil Lyman: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox More of a ‘Gavin Newsom 2.0’ than a Republican appeared first on Breitbart.
U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes slammed lawyers for the Department of Justice for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the U.S. House of Representatives when Peter Navarro is sitting in prison for the same conduct.
The post Biden-appointed Judge Rips DOJ for Ignoring House Subpoenas While Navarro in Prison appeared first on Breitbart.
Two Warner Bros. Discovery executives have resigned from the Board of Directors after the DOJ told them they were under investigation.
The post Warner Bros. Discovery Executives Resign from Board After DoJ Investigates Anti-Trust Violations appeared first on Breitbart.
The globalist government in Poland is reportedly seeking to criminalise "incitement to hatred" against LGBT people with three years in prison.
The post Globalist Polish Government Pushes Scottish-Style Hate Speech Law with Three Years in Prison appeared first on Breitbart.
Democrat President Joe Biden’s border crisis is so “out of control” that his administration is “willing to steal from our nation’s heroes and divert resources away from their care,” charged Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who reiterated her dedication to fighting the current administration’s outrageous redirection of resources from veterans to illegal immigrants.
The post Exclusive: Joni Ernst Accuses Biden Admin of ‘Stealing’ from Veteran ‘Heroes’ to Fund Illegal Immigrants appeared first on Breitbart.
A couple in Montgomery County, Texas, have been arrested on several charges including child porn and bestiality.
The post Police: Texas Couple Arrested on Charges of Child Porn and Bestiality with Great Dane appeared first on Breitbart.
Leonel Moreno, the Venezuelan "migrant influencer" known for instructing fellow migrants on how to take advantage of American "squatter's rights," is now complaining of "persecution" as he sits in jail.
The post Venezuelan ‘Migrant Influencer’ Claims ‘Persecution’ from Jail After Arrest appeared first on Breitbart.
Gay comedian Jerrod Carmichael won't drop his beef with Dave Chappelle.
The post Golden Globes Host Jerrod Carmichael Calls Dave Chappelle an ‘Egomaniac,’ Says Gay Jokes Still ‘Scary for Me’ appeared first on Breitbart.
A Chicago woman is accused of helping her boyfriend dispose of his alleged murder victim before fleeing to Arkansas.
The post Chicago Woman Accused of Helping Boyfriend Dump Body Before Fleeing to Arkansas appeared first on Breitbart.
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The producers of the West End's multiracial staging of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, starring Spider-Man actor Tom Holland, have condemned what they call "deplorable racial abuse" aimed at actress Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, who plays Juliet.
The post ‘Romeo and Juliet’ Theatre Producers Condemn Online ‘Abuse’ of Tom Holland’s Black Co-Star appeared first on Breitbart.
The opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party prevailed in the local elections, maintaining its position as the largest political party in Poland.
The post Conservative Law and Justice Party Tops Polish Regional Elections in Setback for Globalist Tusk appeared first on Breitbart.
Monkey Man was supposed to be the next John Wick, but instead, it’s one more piece of woke garbage that failed to perform near expectations.
The post Nolte: Woke ‘Monkey Man’ Disappoints at Box Office appeared first on Breitbart.
Hollywood hates Normal People and wants to queer our kids. There is nothing wrong with hating Hollywood back.
The post Nolte: Experts Already Predict Global 2024 Box Office Failure appeared first on Breitbart.
An illegal alien is accused of spying on girls by looking under stalls in a Walmart bathroom in D'Iberville, Mississippi.
The post Illegal Alien Accused of Spying on Girls in Bathroom at Mississippi Walmart appeared first on Breitbart.
Tennessee is divided over reparations, with a black Memphis pastor leading the charge against a bill that would prohibit the funding of a proposed reparations study in the state.
The post Tennessee Progressives Fight So-Called ‘White Supremacist Legislation’ Banning Local Reparations Task Forces appeared first on Breitbart.
The Biden administration is proposing a new rule that would further entrench unelected federal bureaucrats from accountability to President Joe Biden or his elected successors.
Key to the new rule from the Office of Personnel Management is the effective “grandfathering” of federal employees into their current category of employment, making it harder for a future president to issue an executive order like the one that then-President Donald Trump signed in October 2020 to rein in the bureaucracy.
A rule listed in the Federal Register, like this one was Thursday, could be more difficult to overturn than an executive order because it would have to be reversed under the provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act, one former senior OPM official said.
“If such a rule were allowed to stand, it would tie a future president’s hands—at least temporarily—in carrying out his responsibilities to make and implement his policies,” said Robert Moffit, who was at OPM during the Reagan administration and is now a senior research fellow for health and welfare policy at The Heritage Foundation. (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news and commentary outlet.)
The president cannot run the huge federal government from his office in the West Wing of the White House, Moffit told The Daily Signal.
Some career federal employees who have civil service protection are neither impartial nor nonpartisan, he added.
“To effect his policy, therefore, the president must not only have the ability to hire political personnel who will carry out his electoral mandate, but also remove career personnel who attempt to obstruct that mandate,” Moffit said. “So, any attack on any president’s capacity to carry out the policies upon which he was elected is fundamentally ant-democratic; it is an attack on the American people who elected him.”
Among other things, the OPM’s proposed rule would clarify that “the status and civil service protections an employee has accrued cannot be taken away by an involuntary move from the competitive service to the excepted service, or from one excepted service schedule to another.”
“Once a career civil servant earns protections, that employee retains them unless waived voluntarily,” the rule says.
In October 2020, just before the election he lost to Biden, Trump signed an executive order to create a new category of federal employee called Schedule F. Personnel in this category are in confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating positions that remain on the payroll when a presidential transition occurs.
The executive order from Trump, who faced resistance to his policy changes from within the federal bureaucracy, gave agencies more flexibility and oversight for career employees in critical positions that affect policy.
Upon taking office in January 2021, Biden scrapped the Trump order. The final version of the new rule would make it more difficult for a future president to reverse, because it is a regulation published in the Federal Register rather than an executive order. Undoing it would require going through a time-consuming administrative procedure.
Career federal employees enjoy civil service protection, making it nearly impossible to fire them; by contrast, political employees serve at the pleasure of an elected president.
Career federal bureaucrats tend to be overwhelmingly Democrat-leaning based on their campaign donations; federal employee unions donate between 70% and 90% to Democrat candidates. Republicans have accused some career employees of blocking implementation of Republican presidents’ policies.
Project 2025, an initiative led by The Heritage Foundation that establishes a plan for the next conservative presidential administration, calls for restoring Trump’s Schedule F as part of a broader effort to rein in the federal bureaucracy.
This has been a long-standing policy goal for Heritage, Moffit noted.
“Respecting the president’s prerogatives to have the appointees necessary to carry out policies is one of the major reasons why former Heritage President Ed Feulner strongly opposed Republican attempts to hamstring Democratic President Clinton and reduce the number of his political appointees,” Moffit said.
“Political appointees can formulate the details of the president’s policies and see to it that they are implemented all the way down the chain through departments, agencies, subagencies, and bureaus of the federal government.”
Biden’s Office of Personnel Management issued the final rule Thursday, asserting it received 4,000 comments about it, and said the rule would be published Tuesday in the Federal Register.
“This final rule honors our 2.2 million career civil servants, helping ensure that people are hired and fired based on merit and that they can carry out their duties based on their expertise and not political loyalty,” OPM Director Kiran Ahuja said in a public statement. “The Biden-Harris administration is deeply committed to the federal workforce, as these professionals are vital to our national security, our health, our economic prosperity, and much more.”
According to the OPM press release, the new rule also would clarify that the phrase “confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating” refers to positions that are noncareer, political appointments.
The rule also would establish procedural requirements for moving positions from “career” to “political,” and set up an appeals process for employees.
“Career officials are obviously crucial in the implementation of presidential policy,” Moffit told The Daily Signal. “Those of us who served in presidential administrations all have war stories, however, about how politically hostile civil servants, through various means, including intentional slow-walking or foot-dragging, can delay, thwart, or undermine the president’s policies.”
“A career civil servant who does not or will not carry out the policy of any president, regardless of party affiliation, should have the honor and the decency to resign,” he said. “They should not enjoy regulatory protection.”
The post Biden Protects Deep State Bureaucrats With ‘Anti-Democratic’ Rule appeared first on The Daily Signal.
Police Scotland was overwhelmed by a flood of approximately 8,000 hate speech reports during the first week of the new speech restrictions.
The post Police Scotland ‘Can’t Cope’ With Flood of Hate Speech Reports as 8,000 Flood in During First Week of Draconian Law appeared first on Breitbart.
A Canadian intelligence commission concludes China “clandestinely and deceptively interfered" in both the 2019 and 2021 elections.
The post Canadian Intelligence Commission Finds China Interfered in Last Two Elections appeared first on Breitbart.
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A prominent Catholic organization is calling on the Department of Justice to defend Catholic churches from anticipated pro-abortion attacks, pointing to the disparities in the DOJ’s enforcement of a law protecting both abortion clinics and churches.
In a letter first obtained by The Daily Signal, CatholicVote President Brian Burch calls on Attorney General Merrick Garland to detail what steps the DOJ plans to take to “combat the incessant attacks against Catholic churches.”
“How much more violence needs to happen before you will act?” he asks Garland. “Why is the FACE Act being enforced against Holocaust survivors, but not [against] those who attempt to destroy churches or even kill Catholics?”
The letter references President Joe Biden’s administration’s focus on prosecuting pro-life activists through the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. As recently as April 3, the DOJ announced that a federal judge found four pro-life activists guilty of violating the FACE Act—including an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, Eva Edl.
“We have had enough of the Biden administration prosecuting pro-lifers while ignoring attacks against Catholic churches across the country,” Burch told The Daily Signal on Tuesday.
“Attorney General Garland’s silence on these hate crimes is deafening,” he added. “Many more attacks are expected this year if he continues to turn a blind eye. It is well past time for the Biden administration to act.”
CatholicVote points out to the DOJ that a man in Verona, New Jersey, set a Catholic Church on fire on April 4. This was the third time since 2018 that this individual, named Elliot Bennett, 42, had “engaged in violence and vandalism against the church,” Burch said. Bennett had been charged with criminal mischief and a hate crime related to prior incidents.
“The Verona incident was the 21st attack on a Catholic church in 2024, the 247th attack since Catholic churches across the country were put under organized siege by pro-abortion domestic terrorists after the Supreme Court leak [of a pending ruling overturning Roe v. Wade] in May 2022, and the 412th attack since general civil unrest swept the nation in May 2020,” Burch wrote. “We have found evidence of arrests in only about 25% of these cases, and zero federal prosecutions.”
The FACE Act protects churches in the same way that it protects abortion clinics, Burch emphasized.
“And yet under your leadership, the Biden administration has refused to prosecute a single act of violence against a Catholic church despite many other cases of arson and firebombing; pro-abortion protesters blocking church entrances and disrupting Masses; and even physical assaults on priests and parishioners, among many other types of violence,” the CatholicVote leader said.
“These attacks have caused at least $25 million in quantifiable damage to churches and instilled fear into hundreds of Catholic communities,” he added.
Though the DOJ promised CatholicVote in December 2021 that it would conduct a 15-day review to ensure that appropriate resources are being deployed to protect houses of worship, this review apparently has not occurred. And according to Burch, the violence has not only continued, but “increased, unabated.”
“This problem is taking on new urgency this year,” he wrote. “Up to a dozen states will be voting on abortion-related ballot initiatives. We have seen surges of attacks against Catholic churches during voting on abortion ballot initiatives in Kansas, Michigan, and Ohio, which had signs expressing their opposition to abortion.”
CatholicVote argues that Catholic churches and individuals have an absolute right to practice their faith, and that these attacks against churches that stand for the right to life are “textbook examples of voter intimidation and voter suppression.”
He added: “You have sued multiple states which you allege are engaging in voter suppression, comparing their laws to those of the Jim Crow era, yet you have not devoted a single minute of federal time to addressing the intimidation and suppression of Catholic voters, which bears striking similarities to the prejudice and violence against African Americans during the Jim Crow era.”
The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal.
Since the May 2022 leak of the draft Supreme Court opinion indicating that Roe v. Wade would soon thereafter be overturned, there have been at least 236 attacks on Catholic churches and at least 90 attacks on pro-life pregnancy resource centers, according to CatholicVote trackers.
Yet the Biden DOJ charged only pro-life activists with FACE Act violations in 2022, and has since charged only five individuals with violating the FACE Act for targeting pregnancy centers.
In February, conservative leaders called on House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., to pass the FACE Act Repeal Act of 2023 “as soon as possible.”
“In the aftermath of additional pro-life activists being convicted by the Biden administration under the FACE Act for peacefully protesting outside an abortion business, we respectfully urge you to take immediate legislative action to protect peaceful pro-life activists from the Biden administration’s weaponized Department of Justice and an unconstitutional law,” the leaders said in a letter first obtained by The Daily Signal.
“The Biden administration has weaponized the FACE Act against peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors and activists who want to save lives and change hearts and minds,” Advancing American Freedom Executive Director Paul Teller told The Daily Signal at the time.
The failure to prosecute attacks on Catholic churches under the FACE Act has drawn particular attention in light of the fact that Biden is the nation’s second Catholic president and is often described by the media as a “devout Catholic”—though the president heads the most pro-abortion administration in U.S. history; promotes transgender surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers, even for children; and celebrates transgender ideology.
The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is a crime against human life, that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and that homosexual acts are “contrary to the natural law” and “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”
In an Easter weekend interview, the left-leaning archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Wilton Gregory, described the president as a “cafeteria Catholic” who “picks and chooses” which parts of Catholicism to adhere to.
“I would say there are things, especially in terms of the life issues, there are things that he chooses to ignore,” Gregory said.
“The issues of life begin at the very beginning. And they conclude at natural death,” the cardinal said. “And you can’t pick and choose. You’re either one who respects life in all of its dimensions, or you have to step aside and say, ‘I’m not pro-life.’”
The post EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Must Defend Catholic Churches From More Expected Pro-Abortion Attacks, Leader Says appeared first on The Daily Signal.
The brother-in-law of Scottish leader Humza Yousaf has been charged with abduction and extortion in relation to the death of a man in Dundee.
The post Leftist Scottish Leader Humza Yousaf’s Brother-in-Law Charged with Abduction and Extortion appeared first on Breitbart.
A group of January 6 defendants has reportedly filed a class action lawsuit against 21 Capitol Police officers for millions of dollars.
The post Report: January 6 Defendants Sue Capitol Police Officers for ‘Millions’ appeared first on Breitbart.
A 25-year-old man has been arrested after police launched a nationwide manhunt for a suspect over the knife slaying of a young mother.
The post Arrest Made After Mother Pushing Baby in Pram Stabbed to Death in ‘Broad Daylight’ appeared first on Breitbart.
A BLM activist will only have to pay back £1 of the tens of thousands she stole from a charity intended to help disadvantaged black children.
The post Convicted BLM Fraudster Only to Pay Back £1 of £70,000 Stolen Charity Donations appeared first on Breitbart.
The nationwide average price for regular gas hit a reported six-month high of $3.60 a gallon on Tuesday, spiking more than 50 percent under President Joe Biden.
The post Gas Prices Hit Six-Month High, Spiking More than 50% Under Joe Biden appeared first on Breitbart.
Planet Fitness has been hit with bomb threats following an incident involving a transgender woman shaving in the women's locker room.
The post Planet Fitness Slammed with More Than Two Dozen Bomb Threats After Transgender Locker Room Incident appeared first on Breitbart.
A group of anti-Israel protesters calling for Congress to support a ceasefire and end military aid to Israel shut down the Senate cafeteria.
The post Anti-Israel Protesters Shut Down Senate Cafeteria appeared first on Breitbart.
Democrats are the "radicals" on abortion, former President Donald Trump said after revealing his official position on the issue.
The post Donald Trump: ‘The Democrats Are the Radicals on Abortion’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Evidence for helping children to change gender including hormone blockers is built on "shaky foundations", a major review has found.
The post NHS Report Finds Child Transgender ‘Medicine’ Built on ‘Shaky Foundations’, Rejects Puberty Blockers appeared first on Breitbart.
The worse than expected inflation likely dashes hopes for a rate cut in June.
The post Bidenflation Reignited: Consumer Prices Rise More Than Expected For Third Straight Month appeared first on Breitbart.
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