Trump Threatens Cities With Feds After Violence Against Portland Protesters | The 11th Hour | MSNBC

Oregon Expanding Criminal Probe Of Unmarked Federal Troops | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Trump pounding at defund the police, but Biden is an elusive target

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-pounding-at-defund-the-police-but-biden-is-an-elusive-target

Things would be so much easier for the Trump campaign if Joe Biden was in favor of defunding the police.

But the president and his team are determined to tie every out-there left-wing position around their opponent’s neck, brushing aise his denials.

 

But Biden is a fascinating case study. While he’s certainly more liberal than any past Democratic standard-bearer of the modern era, he’s largely avoided embracing the most controversial proposals from the Bernie/AOC wing of the party. Biden has said repeatedly he doesn’t support defunding the police, he didn’t back the Green New Deal and refused to support Medicare for All, drawing flak from the woke progressives.

But President Trump took a very different tack in the Chris Wallace interview that aired Sunday.

“Biden wants to defund the police,” Trump said.

“No he, sir, he does not,” Wallace countered.

“Look,” Trump said. “He signed a charter with Bernie Sanders; I will get that one...Did you read the charter that he agreed to with...”

“It says nothing about defunding the police,” Wallace said.

“Oh really? It says abolish, it says -- let’s go. Get me the charter, please.”

An aide brought the document, and Wallace was right--it did not address taking money away from police departments.

Federal agents in unmarked cars, 'wall of moms': Here's what's happening in Portland

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/20/portland-protests-federal-agents-unmarked-cars-and-walls-moms/5470780002/

The agents come from the U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group and an elite U.S. Customs and Border Protection team based on the U.S.-Mexico border and have been deployed to protect federal property.

Last week, video also surfaced of the federal authorities using unmarked vehicles to detain people, seemingly without an explanation.

 

'They Just Started Waling On Me': Violence In Portland As U.S. Agents Clamp Down

https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-protests-for-racial-justice/2020/07/20/893082598/they-just-started-whaling-violence-tension-as-u-s-agents-clamp-down-in-portland

President Trump defended the federal response. "We are trying to help Portland, not hurt it," he tweeted on Sunday. "Their leadership has, for months, lost control of the anarchists and agitators. They are missing in action. We must protect Federal property, AND OUR PEOPLE."

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf brushed aside criticism that federal officers are inciting violence.

"I don't need invitations by the state, state mayors or state governors to do our job," Wolf said Monday on Fox News. "We're going to do that, whether they like us there or not."

 

Portland protests: All you need to know about Trump's crackdown

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53473732

 

Senior Democrat Nancy Pelosi said "unidentified Stormtroopers" were "kidnapping protesters". Another Democrat Ro Khanna described those involved as "secret federal agents".

So, who exactly are they?

They belong to a new federal force created last month in an executive order signed by President Trump which tasks them to protect historic monuments, memorials, statues, and federal facilities.

The personnel are drawn from a range of teams including the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency and the US Marshals Service. The Federal Protection Service, part of the Homeland Security and charged with protecting government buildings, also has officers in Portland and has detained protesters.

The US Marshals Service's Special Operations Group says it is "deployed in high-risk and sensitive law enforcement situations, national emergencies, civil disorder and natural disasters."

When asked about the arrest of a protester captured on video, the CBP said the individual was suspected of destroying federal property. They said agents had identified themselves and were wearing CBP insignia but their names were not displayed "due to recent doxing incidents against law enforcement personnel who serve and protect our country."

Some of those CBP agents in Portland photographed in camouflage are in the Border Patrol Tactical Unit, the agency's equivalent to a Swat team.

Chris Wallace's interview of Trump reveals his lies, racism, callousness and cognitive decline

Navy veteran praised as 'Captain Portland' after beating by federal officers during riots

https://www.foxnews.com/us/portland-protest-navy-veteran-federal-officers-baton-pepper-spray

Federal officers were seen in a video that has since gone viral striking a Navy veteran with a baton and firing tear gas at him when he failed to pull back from a federal courthouse in Portland, Ore., Saturday night.

Christopher David, 53, was seen standing with his arms at his side in front of a group of federal officers outside the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse Saturday night. One federal officer strikes him at least three times with a baton before another uses a can of pepper spray on his eyes, according to a video of the incident first shared by Portland Tribune reporter Zane Sparling.

David, wearing a white sweatshirt with the word Navy written across, a mask and a black backpack, walks away from the federal officers, flipping them the middle finger. The 11-second video clip has since been viewed more than 9.5 million times.

David, a Portland resident who served in the U.S. Navy for more than eight years, said he took the bus downtown to join protesters and looked for federal officers before he “stood in the street in front of them and I started asking them if it was OK to violate their oath of the Constitution.”

Flynn urges appeals court to end the battle over dismissing his case

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/michael-flynn-appeals-court-case-dismissal-372929

“To allow Judge Sullivan to delay and generate litigation against a criminal defendant is unconstitutional,” Flynn’s lawyers, Sidney Powell and Jesse Binnall, say in the filing. “This action itself diminishes the status of the federal judiciary as an independent bulwark for the rule of law.”

Even if Sullivan is deemed to lack standing, whether his case gets taken up by the full appeals court is another matter. Any active D.C. Circuit judge can request a poll of the full court, even if no litigant seeks it or has standing to do so.

How It Starts

Navy vet says he was beaten, pepper sprayed by authorities at Portland protest

Trump law enforcement officials brush off pleas to butt out of Portland

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/20/ken-cuccinelli-federal-law-enforcement-portland-372570

President Donald Trump’s top law enforcement officials on Monday defended the descent of militarized government forces upon Portland, Ore., rejecting pleas from local and state leaders to pull back the fusion of federal officers.

In an interview on CNN, acting deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli claimed the department deployed federal law enforcement personnel to Portland over the July 4 weekend after having received “locally generated” intelligence regarding “planned attacks” on federal facilities.

 

The remarks from the three senior administration officials, none of whom were confirmed by the Senate to serve in their current roles, come amid national scrutiny of protesters’ treatment at the hands of DHS forces in Portland.

One viral video of the protests depicts a Navy veteran, who is standing still, being beaten with a baton and tear-gassed by a group of masked officers.

Another piece of footage from Portland widely circulated online shows two men wearing camouflage loading a protester into an unmarked van while refusing to identify themselves to onlookers.

Asked about criticisms of officers’ conduct Monday, Wolf placed blame on “local leaders” in Portland whom he said “have fostered this environment that allows these individuals to … do these very violent acts, destructive acts night after night after night.”

Jerusalem court to rule on Malka Leifer in September

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/283875

An Israeli court said Monday it would rule in September if an Orthodox Jewish teacher accused of sexually abusing children in Australia will be extradited, a courts spokeswoman told AFP.

The Jerusalem District Court heard new arguments by defense lawyers Monday against the extradition of Malka Leifer, the latest chapter in years of legal battles.

The court had ruled in May that she was mentally competent to stand trial, rejecting defense arguments to the contrary.

Leifer was not in court on Monday but took part by videoconference, the Israel Courts Administration spokeswoman said.

She is accused of child sex abuse while she was a teacher and principal at a haredi Jewish school in Melbourne, where she had emigrated from hernative Israel.

According to Australian media, she is facing 74 counts of child sex abuse, but her lawyers say there were only "three actual complaints."

After allegations against her surfaced in Australia in 2008, Leifer and her family left for Israel and have been living in the town of Emmanuel.

Defense at extradition hearing: Leifer’s students effectively consented to abuse

https://www.timesofisrael.com/defense-at-extradition-hearing-leifers-students-effectively-consented-to-abuse/

At a long-awaited extradition hearing for Malka Leifer on Monday, the defense team of the former headmaster at an Australian school sought to argue that those who accuse their client of sexual abuse had effectively consented to it.

The highly anticipated session at the Jerusalem District Court was the 69th hearing convened since Leifer was initially arrested in 2014, six years after fleeing Australia, where she now faces 74 charges of child sex abuse.

Defense attorney Nick Kaufman argued that the three sisters accusing his client were around or even over the consenting age of 18 when the alleged abuse took place. He did not state specifically that the allegations were true, but argued that even if they were, there were holes in their stories, which should prevent Leifer from being extradited.

State prosecutor Matan Akiva flatly rejected the claims, saying the alleged victims were in no place to say “no” to Leifer and that their principal had total control over them. Moreover, he argued that the nature of their ultra-Orthodox community in Melbourne left the girls without the tools to be able to cope with such abuse.