Larry Mitchell Hopkins

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The leader of an armed, right-wing militia that was stopping migrants at the southern border was “training” his group to assassinate Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros, an FBI agent said in court papers.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, was arrested in New Mexico, where the United Constitutional Patriots is based, and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The UCP boasted about detaining about 6,500 migrants in New Mexico in the past two months.

FBI Special Agent David S. Gabriel said in an affidavit that the FBI was alerted to Hopkins’ suspicious activities following reports in October 2017 of “alleged militia extremist activity,” the New York Times reports.

A month later, two FBI agents entered Hopkins’ home with his consent and found 10 firearms. Hopkins insisted the guns belonged to his common-law wife, Fay Sanders Murphy.

In the affidavit, the FBI said the UCP “were training to assassinate George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama because of these individuals’ support of Antifa,” a left-wing activist group that has clashed, sometimes violently, with right-wing groups across the country. No more details were provided.

What remains unclear is why the FBI waited so long to arrest Hopkins after finding the guns. The FBI concluded at the time that the possession of weapons was illegal because Hopkins was a felon.

“My question is, why now?” Hopkins’ attorney, Kelly O’Connell, asked about the arrest.

Hopkins, who has a long rap sheet, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

O’Connell acknowledged he’s “not a militia specialist,” but said Hopkins and other members of the armed group “believe they are helping to enforce the laws of America on immigration.”

President Trump

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

President Trump has not fulfilled his campaign pledge to ban all refugees that could be perceived as threatening from entering the country, but he’s considering a drastic step to reduce the numbers.

The New York Times reports the administration may reduce the number of refugees allowed into the United States to under 50,000, the lowest number since at least 1980. 

By comparison, President Barack Obama said 110,000 refugees should be admitted into the country in 2016.

The Times reports that some in the administration, including Stephen Miller, want the number to be even lower than 50,000.

The Times wrote:

The issue has created an intense debate within the administration, with Mr. Miller and some officials at the Department of Homeland Security citing security concerns and limited resources as grounds for deeply cutting the number of admissions, and officials at the National Security Council, the State Department and the Department of Defense opposing a precipitous drop.

No final decision has been made, according to the officials, but as the issue is being debated, the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the administration to bar almost any refugees from entering the country while it considers challenges to the travel ban order. The court will hear arguments in the case next month.

Donald Trump

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

President Trump’s claims in March that his predecessor, Barack Obama, wiretapped his phones are not backed by evidence, the Justice Department said in a court filing.

The discovery came in a Freedom of Information case involving the government transparency watchdog, American Oversight, which was seeking information about surveillance of Trump, his New York City tower and his presidential campaign, Bloomberg reports. 

“Both FBI and NSD confirm that they have no records related to wiretaps as described by the March 4, 2017 tweets,” the Justice Department filing said.

Trump made the bold claim on Twitter, and it appears his source was Breitbart, a conservative media outlet that has become a propaganda tool for the alt-right.

“Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory,” Trump wrote on Twitter. ”Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”

The Justice Department wants the FOIA case to be dismissed since the records don’t exist.

By Danny Fenster

David Cross, the stand-up comic and star of TV shows “Mr. Show” and “Arrested Development”, claims he snorted a very small amount of cocaine in the same banquet room where President Barack Obama and his Secret Service agents were in 2009, reports FOX news. He reportedly did it under the table.

The incident occurred at the White House Press Correspondents’ Dinner, where Cross attended as the “plus one” to his actress girlfriend Amber Tamblyn. FOX sources the March issue of Playboy magazine as the place where Cross, who has told parts of the story elsewhere already, disclosed the whole of the details.

“It was a tiny granule of coke that I put on my wrist and said, ‘Watch this. I need a witness.’ And then I ducked under the table and did it,” said Cross. “It wasn’t like I got high,” he said, likening the effect to the that of “licking an empty espresso cup … It was just about being able to say that I did it, that I did cocaine in the same room as the president,” Cross said. “I’m not proud of it, nor am I ashamed of it.”

He said his only regret was getting Tamblyn effectively blacklisted from White House events. “I was her date, her plus-one, and she got dragged through the mud because of what I did,” he said. “She had nothing to do with it. She didn’t know I was going to do it. And because of that she’ll never be invited to the White House again. That’s not cool.”

To read more click here.

By Danny Fenster

A failed city council candidate from Carson, Calif. has caught the attention of the Secret Service after posting racist commentary about the president on Facebook, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Jules Manson, who ran in March for city council on the Libertarian platform, called Barack Obama a “monkey,” then called for the assassination of the president and his “monkey children.”

“We are aware of the incident and are going to conduct appropriate followup,” said Secret Service spokesman George Ogilvie, according to the LA Times.

Manson’s post was made in reaction to the controversial National Defense Authorization Act, which permits indefinite detention without trial for some terrorism suspects.

Manson later erased the comment and apologized, saying it was “careless, emotionally driven remarks that had no real substance.” He was, perhaps, not entirely sorry. He went on to write that “Not including my regular friends whom I converse with often or have in the past and always welcome their comments and posts, I do not believe many of you are concerned citizens. Most of you were simply looking for drama to demonstrate your politically correct righteousness.”

To read more click here.

By Michael Gerson

The closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison and civilian trials for terrorists were more than policy changes proposed by Barack Obama as a presidential candidate. They were presented as a return to constitutional government – a dividing line from an uncivilized past.

The indefinite detention of terrorists, according to Obama, had “destroyed our credibility when it comes to the rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment.”

Testifying last year before Congress, Attorney General Eric Holder not only defended a New York trial for lead Sept. 11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, he lectured, he taunted, he preened. Unlike others, he was not “scared” of what Mohammed would say at trial. Failure was “not an option.” This case, he told a reporter, would be “the defining event of my time as attorney general.”

Which it certainly has been. Under Holder’s influence, American detainee policy is a botched, hypocritical, politicized mess.

To read more click here.

• Acquittal in NY Terror Trial Shows Justice System’s Strength (Washington Post Editorial)
• NY Case Makes Stronger Argument for Military Detentions (Washington Post)

white house photo

A white man was sentenced today to nine years in prison for burning down a predominately African-American church in Springfield, Mass., the day after Barack Obama won the presidential election.

Benjamin Haskell, 24, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor in Springfield for the 2008 burning of the Macedonia Church of God in Christ. The predominately African-American church was under construction and 75 percent complete when it was torched, the Justice Department said.

In addition to the prison term, Haskell must pay a $7,500 fine and $1.7 million in restitution, including $123,570.25 to the Macedonia Church.

“The burning of the Macedonia Church because of racial hatred and intolerance was a vicious attack on one of our most cherished freedoms — to worship in the religion of our choice safely and without fear of discrimination,” Carmen Ortiz, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said in a statement.

To read more click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST

• Cargo Bomb Plotters Did Dry Run (AOL News)
• Court Hears Arguments on Violent Video Games (AP)
• 9 Possible Jurors Retained In Elizabeth Smart Kidnap Trial (AP)
• Atlanta Newlywed Shot to Death by Husband (AP)
• FBI Agent: Guantanamo Defendant Had Detonator (AP)