The Morning Briefing: Moore Allegations, RUSSIA Update and Much, Much More

Good Friday morning.

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

In the morning, President Donald J. Trump will depart Beijing, People’s Republic of China en route to Da Nang, Vietnam.
In the afternoon, the president will deliver remarks to the APEC CEO Summit.
The president will then participate in a veterans meet and greet.
In the evening, the president will participate in an official welcome reception for the APEC leaders and spouses followed by a gala dinner and cultural performance.

Moore allegations

Depending on where you sit on the TRUMP INDEX OF HATE™, there was some very good or very bad news yesterday about the Alabama special election. The Washington Post broke a story about a group of women who are alleging that GOP candidate Roy Moore sexually harassed them. One of the women was 14 years old at the time of the alleged incident.

Moore denies the allegations and will not step down. “The forces of evil are on the march in our country…I have a duty to stand up and fight back against the forces of evil waging an all-out war on our conservative values,” Moore wrote in a statement.

Clearly, this was a political hit, designed to come out right before the election, which is in early December. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but those who run as insurgent candidates better have their houses nice and clean because the left and the establishment will come for you.

The allegations have brought out some crazy:

“Take the Bible. Zachariah and Elizabeth for instance. Zachariah was extremely old to marry Elizabeth and they became the parents of John the Baptist,” Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler told The Examiner. “Also take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus.”

“There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here,” Zeigler said. “Maybe just a little bit unusual.”

No. Just no. This is not helpful. According to the allegations, Moore was 32 and one of the women was 14, so the purported events are absolutely unacceptable under any circumstances. Do you have a 14-year-old daughter? Would you be ok with this?

Developing…

RUSSIA Update

Over at The Daily Caller, Chuck Ross reports that Fusion GPS brought a report (or dossier, if you will) to the controversial Trump Tower meeting in June of 2016.

As part of that work, according to Reuters, Fusion produced a four-page memo of opposition research on Bill Browder, a London-based financier who helped push through the Magnitsky Act.

The memo was presented at one point last year to Russia’s prosecutor general, Yuri Chaika, The New York Times recently reported. Fusion’s fingerprints on the memo were not included in the Times report.

So what was in the memo?

The document, which was published by Foreign Policy last month, claims that Browder, who was born in the U.S. but is now a British citizen, made illegal campaign contributions to the Clinton campaign through Ziff Brothers, a private equity firm.

Most of the rest of the memo alleges that Browder has lied about Sergey Magnitsky, his former attorney and the namesake of the Magnitsky Act. Browder alleges that Magnitsky was murdered in a Russian prison in 2009 while investigating a $230 million money laundering scheme involving well-connected Russian thugs.

Veselnitskaya has accused Browder of lying about Magnitsky’s death in order to cover up his own financial misdeeds.

And on another front we have some more information about RUSSIAN Twitter bots defending the Trump campaign.

Russian agents used phony Twitter accounts to discredit scandalous news about Donald Trump just weeks before the election — and tried to refocus media criticism on Hillary Clinton, according to a new investigation.

Tweets by Kremlin-backed accounts such as “America-1st” and “BatonRougeVoice” pounced after the release of the infamous “Access Hollywood” recordings, in which Trump boasted that he could “grab [women] by the p—y.”

The Russians quickly unleashed a tweetstorm on the phony accounts highlighting emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta, according to the investigation, conducted by the Associated Press.

Did this interfere with the election? Were voters moved to change their vote to Trump from Clinton? You decide.

Investigator Robert Mueller has had a chat with Trump advisor Stephen Miller. According to CNN, Miller was being questioned about his role in drafting a memo about the firing of FBI director James Comey.

Miller’s role in the firing of FBI Director James Comey was among the topics discussed during the interview as part of the probe into possible obstruction of justice, according to one of the sources.

Special counsel investigators have also shown interest in talking to attendees of a March 2016 meeting where foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos said that he could arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin through his connections. Miller was also at the meeting, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

And then there is some buzz about 34 sealed indictments that may or may not be related to the Mueller investigation.

LawNewz.com verified that there are currently 34 cases that have been filed under seal in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia between the dates of October 27th (when Manafort was indicted) and today’s date. While the sealed cases are certainly interesting to note, they may not be tied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation of possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

There are also a bunch of sealed indictments sitting in Virginia. But is this normal? Some say it is. “A few other words of caution: sealed indictments are not uncommon and the U.S. attorney’s office in DC does many complex cases. Mueller is not the only active prosecutor working in that courthouse. I’m not saying nothing is cooking, but don’t read too much into docket numbers,” said Benjamin Wittes. You decide.

The left is desperate to cover up the politically motivated attack on Senator Rand Paul

The lefties, seasoned purveyors of political violence, are trying very hard to spin this attack on Senator Rand Paul as a dispute over landscaping and not another politically motivated assault like the attack against Republican congressmen. Remember when a group of congressmen were hunted down and ambushed, in an attempted assassination attempt by a progressive Bernie Bro nutter? It sure looks like that’s what happened with Rand.

According to Fox News, sources say that Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has been told that his attacker could face federal charges for the incident that broke six of his ribs. The report also indicates that the attacker might have been politically motivated.

Shep reports: Multiple sources tell Fox that the Senator Rand Paul has been told to expect federal charges to be filed against his attacker.
The attack is believed to have been politically motivated. pic.twitter.com/gzcdVJkRZy

— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) November 9, 2017

Basically this progressive, GOP-hating wacko ambushed Paul as he was mowing his lawn and left the senator with six broken ribs. Over landscaping? I don’t think so.

Historical picture of the day:

U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, second from left, talks with Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Anderson during dedication ceremonies of the Marine Corps War Memorial, background, in Washington, D.C., Nov. 10, 1954. From left are, Anderson, President Eisenhower, Vice President Richard Nixon and Gen. Lemuel G. Shepherd Jr., commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. The statue, based on the Marines raising the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II, is dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in the defense of the United States. (AP Photo)

Other morsels:

Homeland Security bulletin warns of weaponized drones and threat to aviation

Trump administration terminates program that united thousands of families fleeing violence in Central America

What Senate Republicans are proposing in their tax plan

15 Dreamer protesters arrested on Capitol Hill

DREAMers Take Control Of Senate Office Building (VIDEO)

Feds Spending $163,638 Studying ‘Intersection of Food Insecurity and Smoking’

She’s running? Hillary aides launch new super-PAC

Former FB pres unloads on social platform: ‘God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains’

Under fire for pointing kids to disturbing videos, YouTube promises to put in place new age restrictions

Texas shooting: Church in Sutherland Springs will be demolished, pastor says

How the church shooter slipped past the Air Force and FBI