ABC Bungles Report That White House Set Preconditions For Trump-Zelensky Meeting

• ABC News added a major correction to a report that U.S. officials set preconditions for a meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s president.
• ABC inaccurately identified the source of the story, Serhiy Leshchenko, as an adviser to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. 
• Leshchenko has not been an adviser to Zelensky for months. Leshchenko also disputed the quotes attributed to him in the ABC article, but an ABC reporter said he has a recording of Leshchenko’s remarks.
• Nellie Ohr testified to Congress in 2018 that Leshchenko was a source of information for Fusion GPS.

ABC News added a major correction to a would-be bombshell report Wednesday that said the Trump administration required Ukraine’s president to discuss Joe Biden as a precondition to meet with President Donald Trump.

The story would have been a huge development in the saga involving a whistleblower who filed a complaint regarding a July 25 phone call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader. The whistleblower asserted in the complaint that Trump pressured Zelensky to investigate Biden’s son’s Ukrainian business dealings.

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Devin Nunes Warns U.S. About ‘Tech Oligarchs’ Censorship, Bias Against Conservatives: ‘I Am Very Concerned’

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, told Breitbart News he is “very concerned” about the rising threat of the “tech oligarchs” at Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other tech giants censoring conservatives in an effort to stymie free speech and push a leftist agenda.

Nunes, who is suing Twitter right now in Virginia, said in an exclusive appearance on Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 this weekend that that company “has been the worst” and that tech companies have gotten away with bias against conservative for years because of a special “carveout” in federal law.

“Well, in general, I have a real concern overall about what I call the ‘tech oligarchs,’” Nunes said. “But Twitter has been the worst, especially to me. So if you look at what they’ve done, specifically to me, is they enforce their rules selectively. So I’m arguing they’ve operated their property negligibly. They’ve been negligent with the operation of their property, and they’re actually content developers. They have had it their way for a long time by having this ability to get out from lawsuits because Congress has actually carved out a special provision in law for them because they were supposed to be an open square—an open public square; they’re the Internet. So they’re not treated like someone like, say, some other kind of product would be treated like a car, for example, or a kitchen appliance. They’ve had this special carveout for 20 years.”

Especially since President Donald Trump was elected in 2016, Nunes argued, the tech giants have warped their products into pushing a certain ideology rather than being open platforms.

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TRUMP DELIVERS THE GOOGLE-FACEBOOK RECKONING THAT OBAMA REFUSED

Big Tech’s day of reckoning has finally arrived.

Both of the major antitrust enforcement agencies of the executive branch of the federal government are stepping into the fray, with the Department of Justice reportedly preparing for an investigation of Google parent Alphabet, Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) doing the same for social media giant Facebook.

The decision by President Trump and Attorney General William Barr to clear their regulators for action is a watershed moment, both in the history of antitrust law and in the evolution of Silicon Valley’s relationship with American society. After years in which the Obama administration delayed and thwarted any major action against the Big Tech companies, the decision has apparently even shamed some House Democrats into playing along.

This change of tack is long overdue; Google and Facebook are undoubtedly massive, manipulative monopolies.

Google controls roughly 90 percent of the online search market. Three quarters of mobile and 70 percent of desktop web browsing takes place on Google software, and its YouTube subsidiary has completely dominated the user-generated streaming video market virtually unchallenged since its inception.

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TRUMP SAYS SHEP SMITH, FOX NEWS WEEKEND HOSTS SHOULD BE WORKING AT CNN

President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday that Fox News host Shepard Smith should be working at CNN along with two of the network’s weekend anchors, Arthel Neville and Leland Vittert.

He also wondered if the two weekenders were “trained by CNN” before the network’s “ratings collapse.”

“Were @FoxNews weekend anchors, @ArthelNeville and @LelandVittert, trained by CNN prior to their ratings collapse?” Trump tweeted. “In any event, that’s where they should be working, along with their lowest rated anchor, Shepard Smith!”

While the president’s reason for criticizing Neville and Vittert was unclear, Shepard Smith has long drawn the ire of conservative Fox News viewers. Last year, the anchor finished dead last by a mile in a Daily Caller poll of favorite Fox News anchors.

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BUZZFEED’S REPORT HAS BEEN DISPUTED BY MUELLER, BUT ADAM SCHIFF IS GOING TO INVESTIGATE ANYWAY

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said Sunday he will “absolutely” investigate allegations made in a controversial BuzzFeed article even though the report has been directly disputed by the special counsel’s office.

“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Schiff told CBS’s “Face the Nation” when asked whether he would investigate allegations laid out in a BuzzFeed article published Thursday.

“Congress has a fundamental interest in two things. First, getting to the bottom of why this witness came before us and lied, and who else was knowledgeable that this was a lie,” the California Democrat added.

BuzzFeed reported former Trump attorney Michael Cohen told the special counsel’s office President Donald Trump instructed him to lie to Congress about his efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The website also reported documents and witness testimony would corroborate Cohen’s statements to prosecutors.

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CNN’S WORST MOMENTS OF 2018

It’s always a good idea to do some self-reflection before the start of a new year, and the establishment media sure has a lot to think about.

MSNBC has been covered by the Washington Free Beacon, but in order to help CNN in this process, we’ve compiled the most insane moments that happened on their airwaves in 2018.

CNN kicked off the year in style by having anchors Brooke Baldwin and Don Lemon get wasted in a New Orleans bar on New Year’s Eve. Fellow reporter Randi Kaye, meanwhile, was in Colorado worrying about getting a “contact high” on a party bus filled with pot-smokers.

The nonsense continued through February when CNN sent a reporter to the home of an elderly woman who unwittingly shared pro-Trump Facebook posts that were created by Russian trolls. After CNN aired the video of their reporter confronting the woman, she was exposed to vicious and constant online harassment and threats.

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SOROS HAS GIVEN $1 MILLION TO GROUP LINKED TO FUSION GPS FOR TRUMP-RUSSIA INVESTIGATION

George Soros, the billionaire financier who supports numerous progressive causes, has provided $1 million in funding for a nonprofit group that works closely with Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the infamous Steele dossier.

Soros is considering providing more funding for the group, the Democracy Integrity Project, according to The New York Times.

The Democracy Integrity Project, which was founded in January 2017 by Daniel Jones, a former Democratic staffer on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has worked with Fusion GPS and dossier author Christopher Steele to investigate Russian interference in American elections. The group has also investigated President Donald Trump’s possible links to Russia.

The $1 million in funding matches what the Democratic National Committee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid Fusion GPS during the campaign to investigate Trump and his campaign.

Details of Soros’ links to the Democracy Integrity Project and Fusion GPS have trickled out since March, when an attorney for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska revealed his interactions with Jones.

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TOM STEYER RUNS FACEBOOK AD COMPARING PRESIDENT TRUMP TO SADDAM HUSSEIN

Left-wing billionaire Tom Steyer is running a Facebook ad comparing President Donald Trump to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The ad features a three-minute long video that accuses the president of following a “dictator’s playbook” modeled by tyrants like Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in addition to Hussein.

The ad describes Trump as a “malignant narcissist” and claims he is perpetuating “systemic misogyny.” The video claims Trump’s support for a border wall and attacks on the media make him comparable to dictators like Hussein and Chavez.

Steyer first published the Facebook video on Friday and on Monday began running ads promoting it, Facebook’s ad archive shows.

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UNFAKE THE NEWS: THE MEDIA IS LOSING THEIR CREDIBILITY OVER KAVANAUGH ALLEGATIONS

Yodit Tewolde, a criminal defense attorney, compared convicted sexual assaulter Bill Cosby (who was sentenced to 3-10 years in jail) to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on CNN Tuesday afternoon.

She failed to point out though that Cosby was convicted, whereas Kavanaugh has only been accused of such actions.

In another example of the media attacking Kavanaugh or the GOP, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin falsely claimed that the woman who was selected to question Kavanaugh’s accuser was from Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s department.

“Unfake the News” is a Daily Caller program dedicated to debunking the mainstream media narratives that dominate our news cycle.

That’s where TheDC’s Vince Coglianese steps in to cut through the PC bull. Each week, Vince takes a closer look at how cable news outlets are telling the top story and then gives you his own unadulterated take.

This is “Unfake the News.”

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GEORGE SOROS FUNDED FUSION GPS, HIS SPOKESMAN CONFIRMS

• A spokesman for left-wing billionaire financier George Soros is acknowledging that he indirectly funded Fusion GPS, the firm behind the Steele dossier
• Sources have told The Daily Caller News Foundation in the past that Soros helped fund Fusion’s post-election work on Russian interference in the election process
• Soros’ spokesman told The Washington Post that Soros donated to the Democracy Integrity Project, a group founded by a former staffer to Sen. Dianne Feinstein

George Soros has indirectly funded Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the infamous Steele dossier, a spokesman for the billionaire financier has acknowledged.

Michael Vachon, the Soros aide, told Washington Post columnist David Ignatius that Soros provided a grant to a nonprofit group called the Democracy Integrity Project.

That organization, which was formed in 2017 by Daniel Jones, a former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer for Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, paid Fusion GPS as a contractor to continue an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The Post column confirms what a Washington, D.C., lawyer named Adam Waldman told The Daily Caller News Foundation about a conversation he had with Jones in March 2017.

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FIVE KEY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEW YORK TIMES’ ANONYMOUS ‘SENIOR OFFICIAL’

One day after The New York Times published an op-ed from an anonymous “senior official” in President Donald Trump’s administration who trashed the president and claimed to be secretly working against his or her wishes, five key questions remain unanswered.

1) Who wrote it?

The question everyone is asking: Who is the anonymous official? TheNYT appeared to let slip in a tweet that the author is a “he,” though the paper later claimed the gendered word was used in error. Twitter has been filled with speculation — based on the official’s sentiments and word choices — about the writer’s identity. CNN’s Chris Cillizza published 13 guesses about the official’s identity, “based on what we know about the various factions, likes, dislikes, motivations and ambitions within the Trump administration.” Denials have begun rolling in from prominent officials in the administration. (RELATED: Denials Roll In From Top Admin Officials On Op-Ed) 

2) How senior is this person?

Just how senior is this anonymous “senior official”? The Trump administration has “roughly 1,200 positions” that require Senate confirmation, including 640 “key positions,” according to PolitiFact. Axios’s Mike Allen similarly noted in his newsletter that the “senior official” label could apply to “hundreds of officials.” If the person who wrote the op-ed isn’t an assistant to the president or a cabinet-level official, TheNYT would likely face a backlash for exaggerating the official’s importance in the administration.

3) Why did this official write it?

The author’s decision to remain anonymous and continue working against a president he or she is supposed to be helping has been sharply criticized in the press. “Here, I think, President Trump’s use of ‘gutless’ is apt,” wrote Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan. “The piece is an exercise in ego, although I have no doubt that the writer is thrilled with his or her own display of courage.” The Atlantic’s David Frum argued the official’s op-ed was meant to portray himself or herself as heroic but instead threw “the government of the United States into even more dangerous turmoil.” Still, until the author is identified, it will be tough to say exactly what the motive was.

4) Who was the intermediary?

The anonymous senior official submitted the op-ed to TheNYT using an intermediary, according to the paper. The intermediary has not yet been identified.

5) How accurate is the op-ed?

Democrats in Congress have been eager to tout the official’s claim that “there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment.” Other claims are similarly damaging to Trump, including that “many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.” But it’s difficult to evaluate those claims without knowing who or how credible the author is.

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NPR HOST CALLS OUT OMAROSA OVER DISCREPANCY IN TRUMP RACISM ALLEGATION

In an interview Friday, former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman contradicted a claim in her forthcoming book that she heard a tape of President Trump using the “n-word.”

Manigault Newman insisted in an NPR interview that she heard Trump utter the pejorative in an audio file recorded on the set of “The Apprentice.”

“Hearing it changed everything for me,” Manigault Newman told NPR host Rachel Martin.

“I heard the President of the United States use, not only the ‘n-word,’ but as Bill Pruitt described during that interview, other horrible things during the production of ‘The Apprentice,'” she continued. Pruitt is a former “Apprentice” producer who claimed before the 2016 election that tapes existed of Trump making racial comments about black people.

But as Martin noted in the interview, Manigault Newman wrote in her book, “Unhinged,” that she was merely told of the tape. She does not suggest in the tell-all that she has actually heard Trump’s voice.

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TRUMP CLAIMS ‘FAKE NEWS’ MEDIA IS AT IT AGAIN WITH REPORTS ABOUT TRUMP JR MEETINGS

President Donald Trump dinged “Fake News” Sunday morning for pushing what he called fabricated reports that he is concerned about his son’s decision to meet in 2016 with a Russian lawyer.

“Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower,” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to reports Saturday suggesting he is concerned Donald Trump Jr. is in legal trouble with respect to Special Council Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling.

Fake News reporting, a complete fabrication, that I am concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2018

“This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!” Trump said, noting the details about a meeting his son had during the presidential campaign with Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who promised to provide “dirt” on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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UNFAKE THE NEWS: TWITTER SHADOW BANS CONSERVATIVES, BUT BLAMES THEIR ALGORITHM

Twitter recently changed their algorithm and it led to the “shadow banning” of many prominent Republican figures. Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz, Mark Meadows, and Jim Jordan all had their visibility in searches suppressed, a Vice News investigation from last week.

Twitter executives absolved themselves of any fault, blaming it entirely on the algorithm. But, as TheDC’s Vince Coglianese points out, if that were true, wouldn’t some Democrats have been shadow banned as well?

“Unfake the News” is a Daily Caller program dedicated to debunking the mainstream media narratives that dominate our news cycle.

That’s where TheDC’s Vince Coglianese steps in to cut through the PC bull. Each week, Vince takes a closer look at how cable news outlets are telling the top story and then gives you his own unadulterated take.

This is “Unfake the News.”

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FACEBOOK, AMAZON, GOOGLE AND TWITTER ALL WORK WITH LEFT-WING SPLC

• The Southern Poverty Law Center helps Facebook, Amazon, Google and Twitter determine what organizations are “hate groups”
• Amazon gave the SPLC the most direct authority while pretending to remain unbiased
• The SPLC has been plagued by inaccuracies

Four of the world’s biggest tech platforms have working partnerships with a left-wing nonprofit that has a track record of inaccuracies and routinely labels conservative organizations as “hate groups.”

Facebook, Amazon, Google and Twitter all work with or consult the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in policing their platforms for “hate speech” or “hate groups,” a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found.

The SPLC is on a list of “external experts and organizations” that Facebook works with “to inform our hate speech policies,” Facebook spokeswoman Ruchika Budhraja told The DCNF in an interview.

Facebook consults the outside organizations when developing changes to hate speech policies, Budhraja said, noting that Facebook representatives will typically hold between one and three meetings with the groups.

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Fake News Nearly Caused Trump To Fire Mueller

President Donald Trump considered firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller in December 2017 after the publication of news stories that turned out to be inaccurate.

Trump told advisers to fire Mueller following reports the special counsel’s office subpoenaed his bank records from Deutsche Bank, according to The New York Times. Trump believed the subpoenas crossed a “red line” he had set for the Mueller probe, which initially began as an investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government.

Trump ordered Mueller’s firing at least one other time. Trump demanded White House counsel Don McGahn fire Mueller in June 2017 because the president believed the special counsel’s prosecutors and investigators were politically biased, The Times previously reported. But Trump backed down after McGahn threatened to resign.

The stories about the Deutsche Bank subpoenas, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Bloomberg on Dec. 5, turned out to be inaccurate. The outlets issued a correction noting the subpoenas were for bank records of Trump associates.

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Here Are All The Times The Feds Have Tried And Failed To Convict The Bundys

U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro declared a mistrial Wednesday in case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, marking the fourth time in the past two years the federal government has failed to convict a member of the Bundy family or their compatriots.

Navarro’s ruling came after numerous instances of prosecutorial misconduct from the team led by acting U.S. attorney for Nevada Steven Myhre. The prosecution violated the Bundys’ right to a fair trial by withholding exculpatory evidence that potentially supports the defense’s case.

Four men on trial for their roles in the 2014 standoff were freed in August after the federal government failed to land any convictions. Two of the men were acquitted of all 10 charges against them. The two other were acquitted of most charges, and the jury was hung regarding four other charges. The men were facing decades long prison sentences if convicted.

The four had already been tried once in April 2017. The trial ended in a hung jury. After delivering convictions against two others in the trial, the jury said they could not reach unanimous agreement to convict the other four. Navarro ordered the jury to continue deliberations but eventually ended the trial, saying the jury was “hopelessly deadlocked.”

The first time the federal government failed to convict the Bundys or their associates was in 2016 regarding a separate but related case from the 2014 standoff.

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Trump Accusers Hold Press Conference With Soros-Funded Group

As sexual harassment and assault accusations tear through celebrity and political circles, three women turned to a Soros-funded film group to once again share their allegations against President Donald Trump.

Trump has repeatedly denied the claims and at a campaign event in Oct, 2016, said at least one of the women “would not be my first choice.”

Rachel Crooks, Samantha Holvey and Jessica Leeds appeared in a Facebook live press conference hosted by Brave New Films (BNF) on Dec. 11, to call for a congressional investigation into Trump’s alleged behavior. Holvey claimed Trump ogled her in a dressing room during the 2006 Miss America pageant, Crooks claimed Trump kissed her on the mouth without her consent in 2005, while Leeds accused Trump of putting his hand up her skirt during a flight in the 1970s.

Brave New Films, a nonprofit film group, received at least $1 million from Soros since 2007. Foundation Directory records showed Soros gave BNF $100,000 in 2007 and $500,000 in 2014. BNF annual reports indicated Soros gave at least $200,000 in 2015 and 2016 as well.

Another liberal group, The Ford Foundation gave Brave New Films at least $4.2 million since 2011.

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Judge Roy Moore Announces Plans to Sue Washington Post: ‘We Expect the People of Alabama to See Through This Charade’

Judge Roy Moore, the GOP nominee for the United States Senate, announced Sunday evening at an event that he plans to sue the Washington Post for its series of hit pieces against him, his wife, his foundation, and his campaign.

Breitbart News was granted exclusive access to the event, which was closed to the press. After the Judge’s speech, his wife Kayla spoke out in a forthcoming exclusive Breitbart News interview — her first-ever interview with the press during this campaign and the first time she has spoken out publicly in response to the salacious allegations from the Post.

“Shortly after becoming the Republican nominee for the United States Senate, the Washington Post published an article attacking me, my wife, my Foundation for Moral Law in Montgomery, Alabama, on my salary,” Moore announced to a crowd of about 100 supporters at the Huntsville Christian Academy:

They said I took over a million dollars. There were not a million dollars. I wish I had a million dollars. In fact, I didn’t take the money they awarded me for a salary because I had my own recognition and opted to embrace that salary myself and not take anything from the foundation. So my salary collection wasn’t so much. Over eight years it would have been about $87,000 a year—so I had to take a note and a mortgage for the rest of it. But I never got the money. So, the Washington Post finally realized this after they published an article saying my wife and I got a million dollars, saying, “you didn’t pay taxes for what you didn’t get.”

The audience laughed before Moore continued.

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Fusion GPS Founder Met With Russian At Center Of Trump Tower Meeting

The founder of the opposition research firm behind the Steele dossier met with the Russian attorney who attended the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting before and after the controversial conclave, Fox News is reporting.

The revelation could prove significant to understanding how the Trump dossier was put together. Fusion GPS was the firm that commissioned the document, which was financed by the Clinton campaign and DNC and written by former British spy Christopher Steele.

Glenn Simpson, a founding partner of Fusion GPS, was with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya just hours before she attended the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower session. Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, was also with Veselnitskaya after the meeting,

Steele’s first dossier memo was written just 11 days after the meeting, which is currently being scrutinized by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Among the document’s many claims is that the Kremlin had been feeding intelligence to Donald Trump. That intelligence allegedly included damaging material on Hillary Clinton.

There has been no verification that the Trump Tower meeting is described in the dossier. But the session, which reportedly lasted less than 30 minutes, took place after Donald Trump Jr. was offered dirt on Clinton.

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