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Steele dossier source Igor Danchenko pleads ‘not guilty’ to lying to FBI

British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s main source, Igor Danchenko, pleaded not guilty in federal court after being charged in John Durham’s investigation, with the special counsel alleging the Russian national repeatedly lied to the FBI in 2017 when questioned about his role in generating the Steele dossier. 

Igor Danchenko appeared in an Alexandria courtroom in the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday morning, where he pleaded, “Not guilty, your honor.” Danchenko, a Russian-born lawyer and researcher who has lived and worked in the Washington, D.C., area for years, was charged last Thursday “with five counts of making false statements to the FBI” that Durham claims he made about the information he provided to Steele for his “Company Reports,” which became the Steele dossier. The indictment says Danchenko made false statements in March, May, June, October, and November 2017.

The “PR Executive-1” in Durham’s indictment against Danchenko is Charles Dolan, an ally of the Clintons, whom Durham alleges was an originator of a false dossier claim he passed to Danchenko who then gave it to Steele. Danchenko was charged with making false statements in 2017 to the FBI about his sources, including about the role Dolan played in supplying at least the basis of certain claims. Dolan spent years doing business in and for Russia, met with Danchenko in Moscow in 2016, and passed information to the Steele source during that election.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz concluded Steele’s Democratic-funded dossier played a “central and essential” role in the FBI’s effort to obtain wiretap orders against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. 

Declassified footnotes from Horowitz’s report indicate the bureau became aware that Steele’s dossier may have been compromised by Russian disinformation. 

FBI notes of a January 2017 interview with Danchenko showed he told the bureau he “did not know the origins” of some of Steele’s claims. Horowitz said Danchenko “contradicted the allegations of a ‘well-developed conspiracy’ in” Steele’s dossier. 

Durham discovered Danchenko was investigated by the FBI as a possible “threat to national security,” according to documents declassified by then-Attorney General William Barr. The FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” team apparently became aware of this information by December 2016. 

“For the past five years, those with an agenda have sought to expose Mr. Danchenko’s identity and tarnish his reputation while undermining U.S. National Security. From the moment he was inappropriately revealed, he has been the focus of unrelenting politically motivated attacks,” Danchenko’s defense lawyer, Mark Schamel, said in a statement this week. “This latest injustice will not stand. We will expose how Mr. Danchenko has been unfairly maligned by these false allegations.” 

Fiona Hill, who worked at the Brookings Institution with Danchenko for years before serving as the Russia expert on Trump’s National Security Council and testifying during the Ukraine-focused impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump, introduced Danchenko and Steele a decade ago, and Durham says she introduced Danchenko and Dolan in early 2016. 

In her 2015 book, Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, Hill said Danchenko “provided us with a wealth of insights into and information about” Putin.

“The special counsel’s use of a ‘speaking indictment’ that presents a false narrative designed to humiliate and slander a renowned expert in business intelligence for political gain is contrary to decades of Department of Justice policy,” Schamel said in his statement. “Mr. Danchenko is a respected research analyst who uncovered and exposed Vladimir Putin’s plagiarized Ph.D. thesis and whose work has been recognized all over the world for its intellectual rigor and accuracy. Mr. Danchenko’s body of work, for the United States, is above reproach.” 

FBI notes of a January 2017 interview with Danchenko showed he told the bureau he “did not know the origins” of some of Steele’s claims and that the most salacious allegations may have been made in “jest.” Horowitz concluded that Danchenko “contradicted the allegations of a ‘well-developed conspiracy’ in” Steele’s dossier. 

A trial date for Danchenko was set for April 2021.

The Democratic Guide to Losing Elections

First, tell parents to butt out of schools. Next, imply that mom and dad are racists.

When the flagship of the progressive flotilla calls for a retreat, you know something big has happened. In a remarkable editorial last week, the New York Times called for “an honest conversation in the Democratic Party about how to return to the moderate policies and values that fueled the blue-wave victories in 2018 and won Joe Biden the presidency in 2020.”

The Times editorial board cited economic issues such as inflation and spending and cultural issues such as border security and crime. “The concerns of more centrist Americans about a rush to spend taxpayer money, a rush to grow the government, should not be dismissed,” the editors rightly declared. A recent Gallup survey found that whereas a year ago Americans wanted government to do more, today they prefer government to do less. The share of independents who favor a more active government has dropped nearly 20 points.

The editorial noted, as many other observers have, that the progressive approach to policing went down in defeat across the country, including in Minneapolis, where George Floyd’s murder sparked national demonstrations. But the Times stayed notably silent on the issue that arguably made the difference in the Virginia gubernatorial contest—namely, teaching about race and ethnicity in public schools. In three easy steps, the defeated Democratic candidate showed how not to deal with it. First, tell parents to butt out and leave the matter to the experts. Second, infuriate parents by telling them that they are confused and there’s no real problem. Finally, accuse the Republican candidate of blowing a “racist dog whistle.” In effect, Terry McAuliffe accused Virginia voters who responded to Glenn Youngkin of being racists.

I can only speculate about why the Times editorial board chose not to address this matter, and I await their contribution to the discussion. Here’s a good place to begin. Recent surveys indicate that Americans overwhelmingly support teaching America’s history honestly—our sins as well as our accomplishments. If that is all that’s happening, why are so many parents upset, and why did Mr. Youngkin head into the election 15 points ahead of Mr. McAuliffe among parents with children in public schools?

Many Democrats would like to ignore the cultural issues and run instead on the economic benefits their agenda will provide middle- and working-class Americans. This strategy is unlikely to succeed. As the Times’s David Leonhardt put it recently: “Democrats can’t win over the working class by talking about only economic issues, any more than Republicans can win Scarsdale simply by saying ‘tax cuts now!’ ”

Persuadable working-class voters, Mr. Leonhardt observes, “span racial groups. They tend to be worried about crime and political correctness, however they define it. They have mixed feelings about immigration and abortion laws. They favor many progressive positions on economic policy. They are skeptical of experts. Most believe in God and in a strong America. If Democrats are going to win more of these voters, they will probably need to listen to them and make some changes, rather than telling them that they’re irrational for voting Republican.”

The bottom line: It is time for Democrats to get serious about the problems they have created for themselves in their decadeslong drift toward a cultural progressivism that repels the voters they need to build a national majority.

The Times editorial points to a gap between the reasons Joe Biden was elected president and what has happened since he took office. “Mr. Biden did not win the presidency because he promised a progressive revolution,” but “because he promised an exhausted nation a return to sanity, decency and competence.” Or, as moderate Virginia Rep. Abigail Spanberger put it, “No one elected him to be FDR. They elected him to be normal and stop the chaos.”

Here is the problem: The coalition that elected Joe Biden is divided between those who favor incremental improvements and those who insist on “transformational” change. The latter form the base of the party; the former, the moderates and independents who make a national majority possible. Many Americans who thought they were voting for a unity-seeking incrementalist now suspect that they were victims of a bait-and-switch.

Mr. Biden has the power to change this narrative, though probably not in time to alter the results of the midterm elections. He can begin by moderating his rhetoric—no more calling GOP voting laws “Jim Crow 2.0” or other hyperbole—and by focusing more on the issues that seem likely to dominate 2022, such as inflation, immigration, crime, schools and culture. A party that can’t discuss these matters honestly is unlikely to retain a majority—or the White House.

Apple loses appeal in epic battle against payment monopoly

A US federal judge has denied Apple’s request for a pause on a previous court order forcing the company to allow app makers to implement their own payment systems, after the tech giant was sued over alleged antitrust violations.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals shut down the company’s petition for a stay on an earlier order on Tuesday, saying Apple’s rules for payments on its App Store amounted to “incipient antitrust conduct,” also accusing it of “supercompetitive commission rates resulting in extraordinarily high operating margins.”

“Other than, perhaps, needing time to establish guidelines, Apple has provided no credible reason for the court to believe that the injunction would cause the professed devastation,” the judge added, referring to Apple’s argument that the changes ordered to in-app payments would cause “irreparable harm” to the company. She upheld a previous deadline of December 9 to adhere to the order, handed down in September, denying even a symbolic 10-day extension requested by Apple.

While Gonzales Rogers said Apple’s own payment system might still be preferable for app developers and customers, “the fact remains: it should be their choice. Consumer information, transparency, and consumer choice [are] in the interest of the public.”

A spokesperson for Apple told Reuters it would immediately challenge Tuesday’s decision, adding that the company “believes no additional business changes should be required to take effect until all appeals in this case are resolved.”

The ruling is the latest in a lengthy antitrust battle over in-app payment systems launched last year by video game maker Epic Games, which objected to Apple’s steep 30% commission fees and tried to implement its own microtransaction system in its hugely popular game, ‘Fortnite’. Though Gonzales Rogers’ decision in September went largely in Apple’s favor, finding that Epic had violated its contractual obligations with the Big Tech firm and requiring it to pay a substantial sum in damages, Apple has nonetheless fought to retain its control over App Store payments – at least so long as the appeals process plays out in the courts, which could take several years.

Fully Vaccinated Choir Concert Ends in Substantial COVID-19 Outbreak

Unvaccinated who could provide negative test were banned from attending.

A choir concert in Germany that allowed only fully vaccinated or recovered people to attend, banning those who are unvaccinated but could provide a negative test, resulted in a COVID-19 outbreak that infected at least 24 people.

The concert, which took place in Freigericht (Main-Kinzig), operated under 2G rules, meaning only the fully vaccinated and those who can prove they recovered from COVID were allowed to attend.

This meant that people who could literally prove they didn’t have COVID-19 on the door by showing a negative test were barred from entering.

German news outlet Hessenschau reports, “More people were infected than previously known: As the district announced on Tuesday afternoon, at least 24 people tested positive. Previously, it was assumed that 18 participants and guests were infected, but it had not been ruled out that even more people were infected.”

“The event took place according to 2G rules. That means that only those who had been vaccinated and those who had recovered were admitted,” the report adds.

In other words, the outbreak occurred at an event where the vast majority of attendees were fully vaccinated.

Despite this and German currently experiencing record COVID cases, “scientists, doctors and politicians” are calling for the same 2G rules to be imposed nationwide, rather than 3G rules which do allow for a negative test.

This means that vaccinated people who can still spread the virus will be free to go about their lives, whereas unvaccinated people who can prove they don’t have COVID and therefore can’t spread it will be banished from society.

Makes total sense!

As we previously highlighted, unvaccinated people will be banned from visiting Berlin’s famous Christmas markets, with the option of providing a negative COVID test likely to be removed.

Everyone who attends will also be forced to wear face masks despite the markets being outside.

Earlier this summer, the editor-in-chief of Germany’s top newspaper Bild apologized for the news outlet’s fear-driven coverage of COVID, specifically to children who were told “that they were going to murder their grandma.”

Conservative Pastor Explains Why Socialism Is A Harmful Worldview To Faith, Families, And Nations

Noted pastor Dr. David Jeremiah spoke on the present political climate, including vaccine mandates, globalism, and the cancel culture.

One of the hosts of “American Thought Leaders,” Jan Jekielek, sat down with Dr. David Jeremiah, the founder of Turning Point for God and senior pastor of the Shadow Mountain Community Church, for a Nov. 7 “Morning Brief” episode.

Citing a passage from Dr. Jeremiah’s new book, “Where Do We Go From Here?” Jekielek enquired as to what he meant.

The paragraph states, “A deadly virus is quietly spreading throughout our nation, it is far more lethal than COVID-19, and most Americans are totally unaware of the threat that it poses to our freedom and way of life.”

When Karl Marx was mentioned, Jekielek highlighted that what people currently refer to as “wokeism” and “cancel culture” both had substantial Marxist origins.

Dr. Jeremiah agreed and responded to the question of what he believes is the most critical piece of information that people should know but do not grasp.

“First of all, obviously since I am a pastor, many people are surprised to discover that socialism is anti-God,” he said. “Socialists don’t believe that there is no God, they’re not atheists, they’re anti-God.”

“In fact, Karl Marx was not anti-God,” Jeremiah continued. “He was a cheerleader for the devil, and even the people that were close to him felt like he was demon possessed. He came from a very dark place, and I wrote one place in the book, ‘He was the hideous man and socialism became the full bloom of him as a person.'”

Jekielek was taken aback when he realized that parts of Marx’s poetry paralleled Jeremiah’s assertion.

“Well yeah,” the preacher agreed. “He said in one place that he was born to God and now he knows he was chosen for hell. He considered himself totally beyond any hope of redemption, and so lived his life with a careless evil that is not produceable in most other people that I’ve read.”

Marx’s catchphrase was, “Wipe God out of heaven and the capitalists off the land.” Jeremiah explained that this is Marx’s two-pronged strategy.

Speaking at universities, Jeremiah said he found out that many students were fascinated by this philosophy. Also, the statistics in Jeremiah’s book show that, among those aged 18 to 25, almost 60% believe socialism is acceptable or okay.

Jekielek pointed out that these young people are not necessarily anti-God in their sentiments. He asked Jeremiah as to whether or not he believed they really understood what they were advocating.

“No,” said Jeremiah emphatically.

“And it is pretty profound when you say to a young person, you can’t be a practicing Christian and a socialist because they’re oil and water, they don’t mix. How could you be an anti-God Christian? There’s no such thing. And then sometimes they like to cite passages in the Bible, like in the Book of Acts where they all held things together, but that wasn’t socialism, that was just a bunch of Christians sharing what they had during a tough time.”

Jeremiah went on to state that the Bible does not support socialism, either in the Old or New Testaments. People who say it does, he said, simply haven’t done their research.

“It’s not true, because socialism is totally at the opposite end of the spectrum from what it means to be a God-fearing person,” he said.

“There’s no room for God in socialism. In fact, they believe the church is the opium of the masses, because if the church is in a person’s life, it takes away from the loyalty that they demand from their adherence.”

Socialism kills

Between 1917 and 1979, Jeremiah said that there is a “black book” of communists that chronicles the total number of persons murdered under socialism. Since the outbreak of World War I and World War II, the number of individuals killed has doubled.

In light of this, he believes that the death throes of socialism are beginning to be felt in various ways, including in the schools.

A Senate candidate, Jekielek recalled, had startled him by saying that schools should decide education and parents should not be involved in it.

“Well once again, the roots of that are in socialism,” commented Jeremiah. “Because socialism wants control of the family, and they can’t do what they want to do if they can’t get the mothers out of the household and get control of what happens to the children.”

“Their goal as a part of the whole manifesto is to get control of the children, and the nuclear family is an enemy to socialism because the strength of it doesn’t allow socialism to do what it wants to do.”

As for the larger picture, Jeremiah states that socialism operates through undermining people’s fundamental values, such as those of their families, churches, and marriages.

“I wouldn’t have known that before,” he confessed. “But we need to have an awareness of this because it’s deadly, it will destroy everything. And all you have to do is go to Cuba, go to Venezuela, see what’s happened in China, wherever this ideology is at work, it’s not good.”

Rules For Thee? Nancy Pelosi Under Fire For Failing to Wear Mask While Attending Lavish Wedding

The House speaker was among the guests at the wedding of billionaire heiress Ivy Getty in San Francisco – where the local Department of Health only allows being unmasked indoors if there are less than 100 people and everyone is vaccinated.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has found herself in hot water after attending a luxurious wedding in San Francisco over the weekend – and failing to mask up as required by strict local guidelines.

Pelosi officiated the wedding of the artist and billionaire Ivy Getty at San Francisco City Hall before the celebration continued at the Getty Mansion. Among the guests were California Governor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, actress Anya Taylor-Joy, and many other prominent guests.

According to several photos of the attendees that emerged online, neither Pelosi nor the guests bothered to put on their masks.

While health guidelines in San Francisco allow being maskless if an event involves less than 100 people and everyone is fully vaccinated, Fox News noted in a report that the photos showed at least 60 people, and other photos published by Vogue showed more than 100 chairs. The wedding guests, however, were reportedly required to show proof of vaccination.

The total number of guests at the wedding is not immediately clear.

Netizens lashed out at the maskless speaker, swiftly recalling the saying “Rules for thee, not for me”. Some of them were particularly triggered by Pelosi not wearing a mask, but laws requiring children to wear face coverings for about 7 hours a day, both indoors and outdoors.

This is not the first time Nancy Pelosi has been criticised for breaching the mask guidelines. In July, she received backlash over removing her mask for a photo op in the Capitol in violation of the requirements imposed by the Capitol Police. And in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, she was roasted for visiting a closed hair salon in San Francisco without her mask on.

Newsom’s COVID Cases Explode, Double DeSantis’ Florida Numbers

A month after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom bragged that California “continues to lead the nation with the lowest COVID case rate,” infections have rocketed in his state despite oppressive mask mandates and vaccine browbeating.

California’s coronavirus rates are now more than double those of Florida, which banned mask orders and opposed vaccine mandates.

As of Tuesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Newsom’s state had a seven-day case rate of 112.2 per 100,000 residents. Meanwhile, Florida was at 49.9 cases per 100,000.

These statistics suggest that Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is doing a much better job navigating his state through the pandemic than his authoritarian liberal peer, leaving so-called experts baffled.

“You’re paying for your success, which is weird,” Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington, told the San Jose Mercury News on Saturday. “You succeed in controlling the virus, and now you’re having infections.”

Mokdad said he’s confused as to why Californians aren’t “reaping more reward for their adherence to health guidance.”

California’s vaccination rate is higher than those of Republican-run states Texas and Florida (neither of which has vaccine or mask mandates), but that hasn’t stemmed viral outbreaks in the left-wing cesspool.

Predictably, the establishment media — which spent months attacking DeSantis for opposing vaccine and mask mandates — are hypocritically silent now that his state is outperforming California.

In contrast, the left-wing media heaped praise on Newsom for a similar turnaround earlier this year.

Former CIA officer Buck Sexton and radio host Clay Travis called out the blatant media hypocrisy on their podcast Tuesday.

“The COVID infection rate in New York — right now, New York state — is triple what it is in Florida,” Travis said. “And it is over double in California what it is in Florida as well.”

“Plus, California — in the past 14 days — is up 61 percent. And in the past 14 days in New York, cases are up 11 percent. In the past 14 days, Florida is down 20 percent.”

Travis continued: “So not only is Florida way better in terms of COVID cases per 100,000 people than both New York and California … the trend lines are actually getting worse for New York, Buck, and worse for California, relative to Florida.

“Yet there are almost no stories — New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC.”

Sexton first criticized the corporate media’s farcical partisanship on the subject in late September.

“It seems so odd that the media holds Ron DeSantis personally responsible for a surge in COVID cases in Florida in the summer but feel no need to mention a rapid 50 percent case decline in the fall, doesn’t it?” he tweeted.

At this point, “experts” (real or self-proclaimed) spout their opinions and hypotheses as to why infection rates are rising or declining, but much of it appears to be conjecture.

We’re still navigating and adapting to this pandemic, and neither mask orders nor vaccine mandates appear to be the perfect solution. But the vitriolic partisan bickering and coverups will continue.

As for DeSantis, he credited rejecting unscientific “Faucism” for Florida’s remarkable turnaround.

When the pandemic initially surfaced, the governor followed the advice of flip-flopping Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, by closing down his state and imposing mask mandates.

But after reviewing the data, he quickly figured out that the elderly were the highest-risk group, while COVID-19 was not life-threatening — or even dangerous — for the vast majority of people under the age of 50.

That’s when DeSantis realized how dubious the one-size-fits-all restrictions being pushed by Democrats were and started customizing them to his state.

“When they did the ’15 days to slow the spread’ and some of that stuff, you know, we followed that,” he said on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in April, “whereas I think if I had had more data, I would have had the ability to say, ‘Wait a minute, you know, why would we need to, you know, close a gym for two weeks?’

“I mean, these are younger people going to work out. If you’re healthy, you’re going to end up dealing with the virus better.”

DeSantis continued: “And so, I think that it took me a few weeks — March and into April — to get enough data to say, ‘OK, you know, we’re not doing Faucism. You know, we’re going to make sure our state’s open. We’re going to get the kids back into school, and we’ll just focus our protection on elderly people, who are the ones at risk.’”

The governor said listening to so-called experts didn’t seem to make much of a difference. “Some of the restrictions we did, I think, were ineffective,” he said.

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