The Morning Briefing: Hamas Attacks Israel as Embassy Opens in Capital and Much, Much More

Good Tuesday Morning.

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

The president gives remarks at the 37th Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service
President Trump participates in a Senate Republican policy lunch

Hamas terrorists attack Israel as the U.S. opens its embassy in capital city of Jerusalem

The death toll of Hamas terrorists is at 58 right now. One of the dead is a baby. A BABY?? What sort of animal brings a baby to a war zone???

Of those who died, six were minors, according to the ministry. It was not clear how the baby inhaled the tear gas. In addition, more than 2,700 people were injured, with 130 in serious or critical condition, the ministry said. Roughly half of the injured were hit with gunfire.

More than 35,000 Palestinians gathered along the security fence, where they faced Israeli gunfire as they protested the relocation of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, marking the deadliest day in Gaza since a 2014 war between Israel and Gaza’s ruling Hamas, according to The Associated Press.

So protests like holding signs? No?

It’s hardly a secret what these types of actors plan to do should they be allowed across the border. They have thrown not just rocks and flaming kites but Molotov cocktails — and attempted to plant a bomb. These individuals are not simply seeking the right to march through the territory they believe is theirs. This is not about a peace-loving cabal looking to hop the fence.

“We are excited to storm and get inside … whatever is possible, to kill, throw stones,” The Washington Post quoted one of the “protesters,” 23-year-old Mohammed Mansoura, as saying.

The White House rightly blames Hamas. The American Hamas sympathizers in the media and Hollywood remove any agency from the malefactors suggesting that, of course, the proper response to the U.S. opening its embassy in Jerusalem is bringing children to a war zone while throwing explosives at border guards. Of course, Antifa is going to beat innocent bystanders and destroy property if Ann Coulter or Milo Yiannopoulos comes to speak on campus. I mean, of course.

NO, NOT OF COURSE. It’s a choice to bring your children to a war zone and it’s a choice to try and breach the Israeli border while throwing explosives at border guards after you were warned explicitly not to do so. And it’s a choice to assault people and destroy property, one that in a civil society, you are held accountable for and defended against.

Turkey recalls ambassadors to US, Israel over embassy move

RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA update

Let’s start with the cherry-on-top. Mueller may have a conflict — and it leads directly to a Russian oligarch, John Solomon writes at The Hill.

In 2009, when Mueller ran the FBI, the bureau asked Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to spend millions of his own dollars funding an FBI-supervised operation to rescue a retired FBI agent, Robert Levinson, captured in Iran while working for the CIA in 2007.

You don’t say?

One agent who helped court Deripaska was Andrew McCabe, the recently fired FBI deputy director who played a seminal role starting the Trump-Russia case, multiple sources confirmed.

Deripaska’s lawyer said the Russian ultimately spent $25 million assembling a private search and rescue team that worked with Iranian contacts under the FBI’s watchful eye. Photos and videos indicating Levinson was alive were uncovered.

This reminds me of that time when Carter Page helped the FBI arrest and convict three RUSSIAN spies and then a year later, the FBI turned around and said Page was a RUSSIAN spy (and then used a raggedy dossier of questionable veracity to spy on the Trump campaign). Ah, yeah.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) of the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) are angry about attacks on one of the Committee’s staffers. The attacks are anonymous, of course.

“I would have a lot more respect for DOJ or House committee Democrats if they would take out their frustrations on members of Congress, and leave staffers alone,” South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told Fox News on Monday. “The members make the final decision and are responsible for them, not staffers.”

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team is opposing a hearing about alleged leaks coming from the special counsel’s office. “Manafort’s speculative claim of improper conduct falls far short of the showing necessary to warrant a hearing on potential violations of [a grand jury secrecy rule] or of his constitutional rights,” prosecutors wrote. “A pretrial hearing on alleged government leaks, which would itself generate publicity on the very matters that Manafort finds prejudicial, is unwarranted.” I get the feeling the special counsel’s office doesn’t want any scrutiny. The hearing would allow witnesses to be called to testify and it could get messy, but it would also reveal some of the inner workings of Mueller’s witch hunt.

And Mueller is having a problem on another legal front: The Russians Try to Call Mueller’s Bluff, File Request to View Secret Grand Jury Info .

The motion further specifies that Concord Management is requesting a private “inspection of the legal instructions provided to the grand jury regarding Count One of the Indictment…in order to determine whether the instructions provided could support a motion to dismiss Count One of the Indictment.”

Concord’s argument is that Mueller failed to include a necessary knowledge requirement in count one of the indictment against Concord Management and other Russian entities and therefore, may need to be dismissed. (A knowledge requirement refers to intent or knowledge of criminal wrongdoing. Thus, an allegedly offending party would have knowledge of the criminality they’re alleged to have engaged in.) The motion notes, “violations of the relevant federal campaign laws and foreign agent registration requirements administered by the DOJ and the FEC require the defendant to have acted ‘willfully,’ a word that does not appear anywhere in Count One of the Indictment.”

Remember, Mueller never thought anything would come of these indictments. They were purely a PR stunt to show the public the special counsel was punishing the RUSSIANS “who interfered with the election.” But now that one of the companies is fighting the indictments, Mueller’s work is going to face unexpected legal attention.

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION: Has Mueller Given Comey Immunity?

Avenatti roundup

Avenatti threatens conservative outlet

Avenatti defends disclosures on Michael Cohen finances

Michael Avenatti Hasn’t Corrected False Allegations Made Against The Wrong Michael Cohens

Stormy Daniels’ lawyer Michael Avenatti says he had no issue releasing Michael Cohen info

Historical picture of the day: