By Mike Huckabee
November 12, 2021
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THE MORNING EDITION By Mike Huckabee
Good morning! Here are some stories from me that I think you will want to read. Topics include:
- Project Veritas Raid
- New Podcast
- Kyle Rittenhouse
- White House Coordination
- And Much More
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
4 I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalms 34:4
If you have a Bible verse you want to see in our newsletter, please email [email protected].
THE LATEST NEWS
1. RAID ON PROJECT VERITAS "IS A SCANDAL OF EPIC PROPORTIONS":
When the story broke about Project Veritas employees and founder James O’Keefe being raided by the FBI Saturday morning in a purported search for Ashley Biden’s diary, our first question was, “Did they take the electronics?”
Sure enough, the diary search seems to have been a pretext, at least in part, to take the electronics.
The FBI found privileged communications between Project Veritas and their attorney from several years ago, with PV asking for legal opinions regarding their journalistic activities. It seems the Bureau leaked these to THE NEW YORK TIMES, which apparently is illegal –- yes, even when the FBI does it, but since when have they cared? –- and the NYT reported on it, which as far as we know also is illegal.
Oh, and it gets shadier. The NYT happens to be in litigation with Project Veritas or a story they did in 2020 about a PV video alleging voter fraud in Minnesota. Wonder if they saw any attorney-client communications about that?
Adam Goldman and Mark Mazzetti wrote a piece for Thursday’s NYT called “Project Veritas and the Line Between Journalism and Political Spying,” which they say shows “how the conservative group worked with lawyers to gauge how far its deceptive reporting practices could go before running afoul of federal laws.”
So, let me get this straight. Reporters discuss with their attorneys on how to get information for their stories without breaking the law. Stop the presses!!
Ironically, the one who might have run afoul of the law is THE NEW YORK TIMES, as it has written about communications covered by attorney-client privilege. The materials are a series of memos written several years ago by Project Veritas attorney Benjamin Barr about how to do things such as mask identity and infiltrate groups without breaking federal law. This is actually the style of undercover reporting that investigative journalists used to do all the time; you know this if you watched 60 MINUTES and other prime time news shows in their long-ago heyday.
“The documents give new insight into the workings of the group,” the NYT story says, “at a time when it faces potential legal peril in the diary investigation –- and has signaled that its defense will rely in part on casting itself as a journalistic organization protected by the First Amendment.”
Note to the NYT: Project Veritas is a journalistic organization protected by the First Amendment.
And being a journalistic organization, they chose not to do a story on Ashley Biden’s diary because they couldn’t confirm it was hers. NATIONAL FILE published 112 pages of it, in October 2020, but Project Veritas left it alone.
“Most news organizations consult regularly with lawyers,” the NYT story says, “but some of Project Veritas’ questions for its legal team demonstrate an interest in using tactics that test the boundaries of legality and are outside of mainstream reporting techniques.”
So, whatever they thought they might need to do to get a story, they were running by their attorneys first to make sure it was LEGAL and didn’t interfere with national security. Hey, NYT (and FBI), there is nothing wrong with “demonstrating an interest.” And according to James O’Keefe and his lawyer Paul Calli, who appeared in an interview with Sean Hannity, they DID nothing wrong. This would imply denial of one of the allegations in the search warrant, transporting stolen goods [the diary] across state lines.
“Mr. O’Keefe likes to describe himself as a crusading journalist exposing wrongdoing, targeting liberal groups and Democrat politicians,” says the NYT.
Note to the NYT: That’s exactly what O'Keefe is. And thank God for that, as the mainstream media aren’t interested in doing the job. They show a remarkable lack of curiosity, especially when it comes to wrongdoings within their own party.
In their story, Goldman and Mazzetti admit that they passed along some of these Project Veritas memos to Bill Grueskin, a professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, formerly with the WALL STREET JOURNAL and BLOOMBERG NEWS. He said that these memos provided “pretty good advice” but that “the undercover nature of Project Veritas’ work was more problematic.”
Did this expert think it might be “problematic” that he was reading privileged attorney-client legal advice?
“Every newsroom I’ve ever worked in has basically said undercover journalism was unacceptable,” Grueskin said. On the contrary, we used to see a lot of this type of sting, with shaky undercover cameras inside purses and such. That was long before cameras were virtually everywhere, as they are now. Why do I get the feeling that the real objection to Project Veritas is not their tactics but their targets?
Project Veritas issued a statement saying it “stands behind these legal memos and is proud of the exhaustive work it does to ensure each of its journalism investigations complies with all applicable laws” and that their work “reflects Project Veritas’ dedication to the First Amendment, which protects the right to gather information, including about those in power.”
James O’Keefe got himself an outstanding attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, and she appeared on Tucker Carlson’s FOX NEWS show Thursday evening with a shocking story about how the FBI conducted their raid. She said they showed up at his door with “a battering ram,” “threw him out into the hallway,” put him “in handcuffs” and “took his phones.”
She said he had a lot of privileged information on his phones, including communication with “by my count, four dozen different lawyers over the years.” She can’t say with certainty how these NYT reporters got the information, but “can say that they got it in a way that is illegal and unethical.
She described this as a situation in which either the U.S. Attorney’s office or the FBI was tipping off the NYT to each of the raids on Project Veritas’ current and former employees. “We know that because minutes after these raids occurred, we got calls from THE NEW YORK TIMES,” she said. She described the story they ran as “a hit piece.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything this low from THE NEW YORK TIMES before, to publish people’s private legal communications,” she said. She then said what we'd concluded independently: “All it proves is that Project Veritas is an honest and thoughtful journalistic organization that sought legal advice” before running with their stories. We would add that perhaps THE NEW YORK TIMES could do a better job of that.
Finally, the FBI may have found a treasure trove of private stuff on those phones besides the attorney-client material. Dhillon said there was confidential source information, “including sources in the Biden administration and in corporate America.” There was also donor information, which is protected by the First Amendment. So why did the FBI take those phones? Still think all they were after was that diary?
On Thursday, Project Veritas was able to get a federal judge to order the FBI and the Southern District of New York to stop looking at the phones. But that sure sounds like locking the barn door after the horse is gone.
LEAVE ME A COMMENT HERE, I READ THEM>>>
2. NEW PODCAST EPISODE:
Governor Huckabee is back from Greece and has plenty to say about the "spectacular failure" of Joe Biden's vaccine mandates and the completely irrational plan to pay $450K to each illegal alien separated at the border -- an amount far greater than our country pays to the families of service members killed in the line of duty. Plus, Mollie Hemingway joins the show to discuss her blockbuster new book, Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections, about the 2020 elections.
3. COORDINATION:
The nonprofit group Parents Defending Education has obtained an internal memo confirming that the National School Boards Association had been “actively engaged” with federal departments, including the White House, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, before sending their letter to President Biden, asking for federal law enforcement intervention against angry parents.
The memo, written by NSBA president Viola Garcia, says members “were informed there had been a meeting with White House staff that morning and that NSBA was preparing to send a letter to the President. Subsequently, on September 17, 2021, the interim Executive Director emailed notice to the state association executive directors that indicated a letter requesting federal assistance would be sent…In response to the letter sent by NSBA, on October 4, 2021 the Attorney General announced in a memorandum widely shared throughout the U.S. Department of Justice that he was ordering all U.S. Attorney Offices and local FBI offices to reach out to local and state law enforcement officials to coordinate efforts on this problem within 30 days of the memorandum."
This alleged collusion resulting in Attorney General Merrick Garland's memo that parents should be investigated as a domestic terrorist threat was reported last month by the Washington Free Beacon, but the newly-uncovered memo seemingly confirms it.
It also seemingly confirms that when AG Garland testified to the Senate that his memorandum on parents didn’t rely on the NSBA letter, he was lying under oath.
Anyone going to do anything about that over at the Biden “Justice” Department? I won’t hold my breath.
4. KYLE RITTENHOUSE TRIAL UPDATE:
Thursday, the defense rested its case and due to the legal missteps of the prosecution, asked the judge to declare a mistrial with prejudice. That means the case would be dropped and the state couldn’t try him a second time. The judge put off ruling on that, so until he does, final arguments are set for Monday.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/kyle-rittenhouse-defense-case-jury-deliberations
Also, Rittenhouse’s mother gave an exclusive interview to Sean Hannity on Fox News, and blasted Joe Biden for defaming her son a year ago by publicly and falsely calling him a racist and white supremacist.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/wendy-rittenhouse-slams-joe-biden-defaming-kyle-rittenhouse-hannity
That kind of leaping to conclusions and tainting the jury pool was another trait of the Obama years that Biden is carrying on. If Rittenhouse is acquitted or the charges are dropped, I wonder how many people will riot because they think this case is about racism due to false messages from politicians and the media? I wonder how many even know that all three people shot were white? I wonder how many of the people who pushed the racism angle will feel even a twinge of guilt for lighting the fuse on the powder keg instead of urging people to let due process take its course and look at the evidence?
And I wonder how many would have gone ballistic if President Trump had weighed in the motives and guilt of a defendant before the trial and without knowing the facts of the case?
Related: Just how misinformed are people who get their news from leftwing sources? A group of hotheads are so fired up by outlets like CNN trying to hide the weakness of the state’s case by accusing the judge of being racist (there really is only one key on their piano) that they launched a petition demanding that the judge be removed. They say they plan to send it to the Illinois State House.
The trial is in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
5. DC APPEALS COURT PLACES TEMPORARY HOLD ON REQUEST:
The DC Court of Appeals put a temporary hold on a lower court’s order to let the Congressional January 6th committee see former President Trump’s White House records. They set a quick schedule, with oral arguments scheduled for November 30th.
House Democrats say they need these records to see if Trump colluded with insurrectionists to plan the Capitol incursion. Trump says they just want to rifle through all his confidential records and discussions with advisors, looking for anything they can leak and make him look bad.
As previously noted, the Biden White House sided with the Democrats against protecting the President’s executive privilege rights. I suspect their kneejerk “TRUUUUMP!!!” reaction to everything will come back to bite them in the rump when GOP Congressional investigators start demanding Biden’s confidential White House records.
6. THE FIGHT AGAINST THE BIDEN OSHA VACCINE MANDATE:
As of this week, 27 states have filed lawsuits to block the Biden OSHA vaccine mandate, as have a number of trade and workers’ organizations.
This article is especially worth reading because it goes beyond the political and legal arguments to look at how this is negatively affecting human beings, in this case, workers at Siemens, a big tech company with many government contracts. Obviously, those are being prioritized over defending their own workers’ rights.
It shows how Biden’s draconian overreach is causing people with serious health issues or religious reservations intense stress and worry over losing their jobs just before Christmas. It also explains some of the legal arguments for why this mandate is an attempt to do an end-run around the Constitution, and the likely reasons why the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals put a block on it that Biden is urging businesses to ignore (which if Trump did that would be an impeachable offense.)
7. THE CDC COMES UNDER SCRUTINY:
With tens of millions of Americans having already had COVID-19, a lot of people question why the CDC refuses even to discuss a natural immunity exception to vaccine mandates. The agency claims that vaccination boosts immunity even for those who’ve already had COVID, but that relies on one study from Kentucky that’s contradicted by other studies.
But the agency is now coming under new criticism after admitting in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request that it doesn’t have a single case on record of an unvaccinated person who previously had COVID spreading the disease to anyone else.
As the linked article notes, “fact-checkers” are already rushing to stem the damage by insisting that this is not proof that people with natural immunity don’t spread COVID, just that the CDC isn’t keeping such records. That’s true, but it also obscures the important point.
The bombshell news here is that the CDC, which Americans are told to depend on as a reliable source for all the latest information on COVID, hasn’t even bothered to gather any data on one of the most important and contentious issues: the relative effectiveness of natural immunity. If they had, they might reach the conclusion that recovered people don’t need “vaccine passports” or to comply with vaccine mandates. This revelation makes them look more concerned with pushing an agenda than with amassing the most accurate data and being transparent about it. It only feeds the skepticism of those who already distrust the CDC. They’re not going to convince more people to get a shot in the arm by continually shooting themselves in the foot.
By the way, if you want to know more about the various studies and the arguments for and against natural immunity, this recent video by a professor of pharmacology summarizes it all pretty objectively.
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
This feature returns with images of America's cities, landscapes and people.
HYMNAL: HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW
Listen: https://youtu.be/Q_8pUqXADTE
Today's hymn was recommended by Margaret F.
1 Why should I feel discouraged,
Why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely,
And long for heav’n and home;
When Jesus is my portion?
My constant Friend is he;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me.
Refrain:
I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free;
For his eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me.
2 “Let not your heart be troubled,”
His tender word I hear,
And resting on his goodness,
I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path he leadeth,
But one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me. [Refrain]
3 Whenever I am tempted,
Whenever clouds arise;
When songs give place to sighing,
When hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to him,
From care he sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know he watches me. [Refrain]
Author: Civilla D. Martin
If you have a favorite hymn you want to see in our newsletter, please email [email protected].
For past editions of my morning newsletter, please visit my website here.
For more of my news coverage, visit my website here.
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