The Morning Briefing: Election Results, Rick Gates, Bruce Ohr and Much, Much More

Good Wednesday morning.

Here is what’s on the president’s agenda today:

The president has dinner with supporters

Yesterday’s election a complete repudiation of Trump

Just kidding. That’s the spin you are going to hear today and I just want to get you ready for what you will face out there in the political post-election jungle.

The most watched race in Ohio, a special election in OH-12, is really too close to call. Republican Troy Balderson has declared victory over Democrat Danny O’Conner with a slim lead of about 1700 votes. There are still provisional and absentee ballots to be counted.

Other results:

Dems hang tough in safe GOP districts during special elections, but victories are elusive

Trump-backed candidate wins Michigan GOP Senate primary

Voters reject Missouri right-to-work law

Five takeaways from Ohio’s too-close-to-call special election

WOMP WOMP The Sanders/Cortez progressive takeover of the Democratic party crashes in primary elections

In Kansas, Another Close Race, as Kobach and Colyer Remain Deadlocked

GOP skirts disaster in Ohio

Twitter will not ban Alex Jones/Infowars

I don’t know nothin’ about Alex Jones and Infowars. I don’t listen or watch or whatever one does to familiarize themselves with his operation. But Jones has been banished by the progressive tech cartel from various internet platforms as they continue their march to wipe out any group or person who does not parrot the progressive orthodoxy. Twitter is the lone holdout. I don’t think Jones should have been banned from anywhere — just don’t engage his content if you don’t like him, how about that? This censorship is scary because one day it’s Jones and the next day the progressives will go after another site or personality to deplatform. Here’s a little insight into where we are heading, courtesy of Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.):

Infowars is the tip of a giant iceberg of hate and lies that uses sites like Facebook and YouTube to tear our nation apart. These companies must do more than take down one website. The survival of our democracy depends on it.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 6, 2018

Just the tip of the iceberg.

These tech companies can’t have it both ways: either they are merely a platform or they are editing the content that appears on their platform. If they are picking and choosing, they are not merely a platform.

RUSSIA collusion roundup

Some interesting developments on the RED SCARE front. First, Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will get his hot little hands on a video deposition of former spy and FBI informant Christopher Steele. Steele has refused to talk to any congressional investigators looking into DOJ/FBI bad behavior when they conducted an “investigation” into the Trump campaign.

A lawyer for a Russian businessman suing BuzzFeed News over the infamous Steele dossier says he will provide the Senate with a video of a deposition that Christopher Steele, the document’s author, gave as part of the BuzzFeed lawsuit in June.

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the judiciary panel, asked Val Gurvits, a lawyer for Boston Legal Group, to provide a transcript and video of a deposition that Steele gave in London on June 18 as part of a lawsuit against BuzzFeed in a July 25 letter.

Gurvits’s client, Aleksej Gubarev, is suing the media company for defamation for publishing the dossier. The 35-page document, which Steele wrote while working for the Clinton campaign and DNC, accuses Gubarev of being a Russian spy and using his web hosting companies of stealing information from the DNC’s computer systems.

Over at The Hill, John Solomon has the scoop on newly obtained documents concerning Bruce Ohr and his relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS. Go read the whole thing.

But a close review of these new documents shows just how closely Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, who reported to Obama-era Deputy AG Sally Yates, maintained contact with Fusion — and, in particular, its primary source, former British spy Christopher Steele — before, during and after the election.

Feds scrutinizing Michael Cohen’s former accountant and bank loans

Leaked document: Putin lobbied Trump on arms control

GOP Lawmakers Renew Focus On Bruce Ohr, The DOJ Official Whose Wife Worked For Fusion GPS

Manafort trial: the saga continues

If you are interested in the Manafort trial, you must follow Techno Fog on Twitter, he is tweeting out the transcripts each day. Yesterday we learned that Rick Gates cheated on his wife and embezzled millions of dollars. He sounds like a great witness for the Mueller witch hunters!

Manafort trial Day 6: Gates is a liar who led ‘secret life,’ defense team argues

The Trump Campaign Was Just Referenced for First Time at Paul Manafort Trial, and It Wasn’t Good

Your daily WTF:

Four Missouri children locked in ‘boxes’ secured with plywood and screws, cops say; 2 arrested

Your feel-good stories of the day:

Walmart employee uses break to paint nails for woman with disability

ICE Employee Forced To Resign For Campaigning For Hillary On The Job

Historical picture of the day:

The zeppelin Hindenburg floats in a hazy sky near the Empire State Building over Manhattan, Aug. 8, 1938. The German airship is en route to Lakehurst, N.J. from Germany. (AP Photo)

Other morsels:

OH Homeland Security: More than 600,000 foreigners overstayed U.S. visas in 2017

Chicago deploying hundreds of additional officers to bloodied neighborhoods

Child’s remains recovered in New Mexico compound where 11 children found

43% of Republicans say Trump should be allowed to shut down media

Saudi Arabia escalates punishment to Canada

Trump escalates trade war, slaps even more tariffs on Chinese imports

DOJ Fires Back: Of Course President Trump Can Block People on Twitter

Record-breaking California fire may take until September to contain

PLEASE RUN Al Sharpton Not Ruling out 2020 Run for President

ACLU to sue Sessions for changing asylum protections for immigrants fleeing violence

California teacher kicks high school student out of class for wearing NRA shirt