Sharyl Attkisson

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Sharyl Attkisson

Another immigration-related Supreme Court victory for President Trump

A string of victories for President Trump continued with a Supreme Court decision allowing the administration to begin enforcing limits on immigrants who may become too reliant on welfare at U.S. taxpayer expense.

Acting Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli has been instrumental in pushing to step up enforcement of government authority to keep out immigrants likely to become a financial burden or "public charges."

Cuccinelli said the tightened considerations of immigrants is intended to emphasize "the ideals of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility, ensuring that immigrants are able to support themselves and become successful here in America."

Lawsuits filed by opponents said the rules are too strict and not what Congress intended.

The Supreme Court decision means that while the formal dispute continues to work its way through court, the Trump administration can go ahead and begin applying the new requirements.

In September, the Supreme Court gave Trump a victory by allowing the go-ahead for a new policy barring U.S. asylum for immigrants who first pass through another safe country, such as Mexico.

In August, the Supreme Court allowed Trump's plan to move funds from other money pots to build new border wall.

In January, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump Administration to move forward with a policy banning transgenders from serving in the military.

In June 2018, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump Administration's ban on travelers from certain troubled nations.

In the latest ruling Monday, two of the Supreme Court's conservative justices noted that lower court judges have been issuing nationwide injunctions more often than before. They stated it has caused "chaos for the litigants, the government, the courts, and all those affected by these conflicting decisions."

In 2016, Trump's opponents, including Benjamin Wittes of the left-wing blog "Lawfare," announced plans to use the courts as part of an "insurance policy" to obstruct Trump's policies in the event he ended up getting elected.

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A lesson in "The Smear"

The following is a letter published in Medium.com by the subject of a recent Full Measure cover story. Below the letter you can link to the story.

by Trevor Fitzgibbon

I have spent the majority of my adult life working to oppose war, genocide, and supporting courageous whistleblowers. In 2002 I left my job as an environmental organizer to help lead the national PR effort to push back against the Bush administration in the run-up to the war in Iraq. In 2007 I worked with active-duty American soldiers who called for a withdrawal of troops in Iraq — an effort featured on 60 Minutes. In 2011, my firm launched and ran the Bradley Manning Advocacy Fund at a time when Manning was held in quasi solitary confinement and being stripped naked at nights in front of other prisoners. The effort helped lead to the dismissal of PJ Crowley, Secretary Clinton’s long-standing spokesman, after he had been recorded claiming that the military’s treatment of Manning was “stupid and counterproductive.”

My clients included Julian Assange’s Legal Defense Fund, PR support for Edward Snowden’s initial disclosures, and the governments of Venezuela and Ecuador (before they sold out JA).

In 2015 I was falsely accused of crimes that, if convicted, could have put me in prison for life. While the US Attorney dropped all charges and closed its investigation, the woman who falsely accused me of the worst offense has helped to facilitate an orchestrated and global smear campaign with her co-conspirators that continues to this day. I am defamed daily. Even after the woman’s retraction of her false allegations and being held in contempt of court by a federal judge, she and her co-conspirators continue the defamation.

My attorney, whose mentor was CIA whistleblower, Sam Adams (Sam Adams Awards for Integrity), is litigating to expose those responsible. Any and all actions taken are when and where irrefutable evidence exists of an individual’s participation in the almost four-year smear operation.

To my critics who believe that my actions are unwarranted, I kindly suggest they may feel differently if they found themselves as the target.

Thank you.

Trevor S. FitzGibbon

January 25, 2020

Click here for more on Sharyl Attkisson's five-star New York Times bestseller: The Smear.

Watch and read the Full Measure cover story "Shades of Grey" by clicking the link below.

http://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/shades-of-grey-07-24-2018

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Amazing! A real "Vulcan mind meld"

Leonard Nimoy as Spock 1967, NBC

An international team of researchers has created a device they say can convey simple messages over long distances via brain-to-brain transmissions. That's according to an article in iflscience.com.

Yes, that's brain-to-brain communications....without words, body language, or writing. It's not exactly like "Spock's" Vulcan "mind meld" in the TV series Star Trek. That's where he was able to place his hands on a person's temple and learn what the person was thinking. But it's pretty close!

The device is placed on the users' scalps, detects and transmits certain brain activity, then encodes and sends the activity to the receiving subject, according to the story.

The "mind meld" was tested on two subjects 5000 miles apart; the story reports that some simple communications were "over 90% accurate."

Scientists say they hope the technology could be used in the future to help patients who are aware, but unable to speak due to disease or injury.

Click on the link below to read the full story on iflscience.com:

https://www.iflscience.com/brain/direct-brain-brain-communication-used-humans/

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WATCH: Virginia's "Second Amendment Sanctuary Cities"

The following is a transcript of this week's investigative cover story on Full Measure. Watch the video by clicking on the link at the end of the transcript.

We begin with an epic Constitutional battle in Virginia that’s drawing national attention. Inside of two months, nearly every county in the state has passed new measures supporting Constitutional gun rights. The effort culminated with a massive, peaceful rally at the state capitol this past week where the Governor declared a state of emergency and warned there could be violence. We investigate what triggered a movement that is now being watched by both sides across the U.S.

This was the scene as thousands of gun rights advocates turned out for one of the biggest rallies in memory at Richmond, Virginia’s Capitol.

Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency in advance and temporarily banned guns on Capitol grounds. But outside the perimeter thousands peacefully filled the streets, many of them armed.

The protests were triggered by a political sea change in the Old Dominion State. Democrats have just taken over the majority in both the Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates for the first time in more than 20 years.

Together with Governor Ralph Northam, also a Democrat, they’ve promised one of the biggest single packages of new gun restrictions anyone can recall. It’s popular among gun control advocates, but opponents say it raises constitutional concerns and worry the government could go so far as to confiscate legally purchased firearms.

To understand the massive backlash here it helps to understand how Virginians pride themselves on their independence dating back to when the state was the largest and most populated of the original colonies. It played a major role in the breakaway from the British and determining guarantees under a new American constitution and Bill of Rights which includes the right to bear arms.

History was in the forefront at a meeting in Stafford County, Virginiacalled to fight new gun restrictions.

Speaker: Stafford claims greatest American of all, George Washington!

George Washington moved here with his family in 1738 when he was 6 years old.

Speaker: Two thousand citizens on their own have come out here at night to declare the sacrosanct rights which they were born with.

Stafford County is in a wave of Virginia localities that have held overflow crowd emergency meetings to declare themselves Second Amendment sanctuary cities or Constitutional havens.

Speaker: As long as I am on the board with you, we will partner with the sheriff, Sheriff Decatur who’s in audience and that Stafford residents never ever have to worry about our police going to their door to confiscate their weapons as good honest law-abiding citizens.

Speaker: The law-abiding gun owners will not go quietly into the night we will not sit idly by as we watch the Governor subvert government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Mark Dudenhefer, County Board of Supervisors: The gall of those men to even hint or suggest calling out the national guard to enforce some of these crazy ideas that they have. And I’ll say, hey Ralphie, have you looked at what the demographics of our national guard are? They’re not coming to get us. They’re coming to get you!

Speaker: Tally vote, motion passes seven to nothing.

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New proposed state laws have included bans on assault weapons, silencers and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Raising the age to buy a gun from 18 to 21.

A limit of one handgun purchase a month.

An expanded definition of “assault” weapons; owning or transporting one would be a felony.

Banning private indoor gun ranges.

And “red flag” laws where guns can be temporarily confiscated from people exhibiting “dangerous behavior that presents an immediate threat.”

One draft bill would have outlawed some now-legal guns, redefining them as “assault” weapons, making millions of Virginians felons overnight, according to the National Rifle Association. The Governor has since said current owners could keep their guns, as long as they register them with the government.

Since November 6, 130 Virginia counties, towns, and cities have passed pro-Second Amendment legislation. That includes 91 out of 95 of Virginia’s counties.

We headed to Virginia Beach the night of their special meeting.

It’s where a disgruntled city employee named Dewayne Craddock shot and killed 12 people in a mass shooting last May.

It's about an hour before the meeting here in Virginia Beach and there's already a huge line. The vast majority of the people waiting are wearing these orange stickers, “Guns Save Lives,” indicating they are pro-gun rights.

Man: I know that if anybody is going to get guns taken away from them, it's going to be people who go have them legally because that's the only ones that have them on record.

So I don't think that's right.

Virginia Beach Council Member Jim Wood is one of the sponsors of the pro-gun rights measure.

Sharyl: What does it say?

Jim Wood: It says we are encouraging the general assembly to uphold the constitution and to take no action that infringes on the second amendment.

Sharyl: And what would be the net impact if that's approved?

Wood: Well, I, I think it's, it's part of a, of a overall impact that's going around the entire state where, where people are expressing their opinion on this and in a peaceful manner.

Like the rest of Virginia’s local meetings, gun control advocates are, for the most part, staying home.

We found only one person on the other side in line.

Lexi Hickman: Obviously, what we're doing isn't working. If we're having mass shootings or the amount of gun violence that we already have. We still need to work on it. Not just say, well we can't do anything cause it's an Amendment.

Mayor Robert Dodd: By the authority vested in me as Mayor of the city of Virginia Beach, I hear bye call a special session of the Virginia Beach City Council.

There were so many people, they set up a TV monitor on the lawn outside. They too passed their gun rights measure.

Mayor Dodd: OK, please.

Speaker: By vote of 6 to 4, you’ve adopted the resolution.

Neither Governor Northam nor top Democratic legislators responded to our interview requests.

The Governor recently addressed the movement to fight his new gun laws in his annual state of the commonwealth address.

Governor Ralph Northam:

It’s clear that a majority of Virginians support these measures, and so do a majority of you. I ask all Virginians to refrain from promoting fear and intimidation.

I want to reiterate: This common-sense legislation does not violate the Second Amendment. No one is calling out the National Guard. No one is cutting off your electricity or turning off the Internet. No one is going door-to-door to confiscate guns. These laws are intended to keep Virginians safe. Period. It is time to act.

No matter what local ordinances have been passed, Virginia’s attorney general promises new gun laws will be enforced. Gun rights advocates insist they’ll protect their Constitutional rights.

New gun restrictions are being proposed right now in other states including Minnesota, Nebraska, Indiana, Rhode Island, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama and Washington State.

Click on the link below to watch the story on FullMeasure.news:

http://fullmeasure.news/news/cover-story/triggered

Fight improper government surveillance. Support Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI over the government computer intrusions of Attkisson's work while she was a CBS News investigative correspondent. Visit the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund. Click here.

Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words

One of the shyest Supreme Court Justices speaks candidly in a new documentary that will be released on Friday, Jan. 31: Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words.

Thomas is known for staying quiet during Supreme Court oral arguments and giving few, if any, interviews to the press. (He explains the former in the documentary.) Even those who think they know something of Thomas's life will likely find some surprises revealed in the film.

Thomas speaks of his life born to a poor Georgia family where English was a second language. He went hungry, often had no bed to sleep in and wandered the streets. The film traces how he became interested in seminary, discovered racism in the then-all-white Catholic church culture, and became a radical and "angry black man" (his words).

Watch the preview of "Created Equal" by clicking below:

In "Created Equal," Thomas describes his sharp turnaround from anger and hate to an attitude of love and acceptance. He also talks about his contentious Supreme Court confirmation that was marred by 11th hour accusations lodged by Anita Hill, a former employee, who claimed Thomas had brought up unwanted sexually-tinged conversations with her.

Thomas says that because he is conservative, he was viewed as "not the right black man" in the eyes of liberals who targeted him with relentless attacks no matter his accomplishments.

Thomas's wife, Ginni, appears with him in the documentary.

To find out where "Created Equal" will be playing, check out the link below:

http://www.justicethomasmovie.com/#allscreenings

Filmmakers Michael Pack (left), Gina Cappo Pack (center), Faith Jones (right)

Below is the description from the filmmaker:

With unprecedented access, the producers interviewed Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Virginia, for over 30 hours of interview time, over many months. Justice Thomas tells his entire life’s story, looking directly at the camera, speaking frankly to the audience. After a brief introduction, the documentary proceeds chronologically, combining Justice Thomas’ first person account with a rich array of historical archive material, period and original music, personal photos, and evocative recreations. Unscripted and without narration, the documentary takes the viewer through this complex and often painful life, dealing with race, faith, power, jurisprudence, and personal resilience.

In 1948, Clarence Thomas was born into dire poverty in Pin Point, Georgia, a Gullah- speaking peninsula in the segregated South. His father abandoned the family when Clarence was two years old. His mother, unable to care for two boys, brought Clarence and his brother, Myers, to live with her father and his wife. Thomas’ grandfather, Myers Anderson, whose schooling ended at the third grade, delivered coal and heating oil in Savannah. He gave the boys tough love and training in hard work. He sent them to a segregated Catholic school where the Irish nuns taught them self-discipline and a love of learning.

From there, Thomas entered the seminary, training to be a priest. As the times changed, Thomas began to rebel against the values of his grandfather. Angered by his fellow seminarians’ racist comments following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and disillusioned by the Catholic Church’s general failure to support the civil rights movement, Thomas left the seminary.

His grandfather felt Thomas had betrayed him by questioning his values and kicked Thomas out of his house. In 1968, Thomas enrolled as a scholarship student at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. While there, he helped found the Black Student Union and supported the burgeoning Black Power Movement. Then, Thomas’s views began to change, as he saw it, back to his grandfather’s values. He judged the efforts of the left and liberals to help his people to be demeaning failures. To him, affirmative action seemed condescending and ineffective, sending African-American students to schools where they were not prepared to succeed. He watched the busing crisis in Boston tear the city apart.

To Thomas, it made no sense. Why, he asked, pluck poor black kids out of their own bad schools only to bus them to another part of town to sit with poor white students in their bad schools? At Yale Law School, he felt stigmatized by affirmative action, treated as if he were there only because of his race, minimizing his previous achievements. After graduating in 1974, he worked for then State Attorney General John Danforth in Missouri, eventually working in the Reagan administration, first running the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Education and then the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In 1990, he became a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. His confirmation hearings would test his character and principles in the crucible of national controversy. Like the Bork hearings in 1987, the Democrats went after Thomas’ record and his jurisprudence, especially natural law theory, but also attacked his character. When that failed, and he was on the verge of being confirmed, a former employee, Anita Hill, came forth to accuse him of sexual harassment. The next few days of televised hearings riveted the nation. Finally, defending himself against relentless attacks by the Democratic Senators on the committee, Thomas accused them of running “a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas.” After wall-to-wall television coverage, according to the national polls, the American people believed Thomas by more than a 2-1 margin. Yet, Thomas was confirmed by the closest margin in history, 52-48.

In his 27 years on the court, Thomas’s jurisprudence has often been controversial—from his brand of originalism to his decisions on affirmative action and other hot button topics. Critical journalists often point out that he rarely speaks in oral argument.

The public remains curious about Clarence Thomas—both about his personal history and his judicial opinions. His 2007 memoir, My Grandfather’s Son, was number one on The New York Times’ bestseller list.

About "Created Equal: Clarence Thomas In His Own Words"

Watch for my interview with Director and Producer Michael Pack on an upcoming episode of Full Measure.

Support the fight against government overreach in Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI for the government computer intrusions.
Thanks to the thousands who have already supported!

Impeachment trial: Wake me when it's over

The Senate impeachment trial of President Trump

The following is an excerpt of my latest column in The Hill:

By Sharyl Attkisson

Let me be clear, as we say in Washington, where we are rarely clear: I am not diminishing the importance of the impeachment proceedings. They are historic. They theoretically could result in the removal of the president of the United States.

Democrats insist democracy is at stake and it is their duty to act against a corrupt-minded commander in chief. Republicans see the Senate trial as proof positive of political conspiracies to remove a duly-elected president whom Democrats cannot beat at the polls.

I know that the news media is covering this trial with something that resembles great interest. And most U.S. senators are closely watching (because they are required to).

But I have a feeling that’s just about where the close attention ends.

Since I have conducted business outside the Washington beltway in recent days, I have yet to find anybody out there who is watching the proceedings. The first wake-up call was the other day when I saw an acquaintance who typically shows more interest in politics than most of my outside-the-beltway friends. He said to me — these were his exact words — “So I guess the whole impeachment thing just kind of went away?” (Continued...)

Read the rest of the article by clicking the link below:

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/479747-senates-impeachment-trial-wake-me-when-its-over

Sharyl Attkisson Speaks Out

The following is an excerpt from The American Thinker about Attkisson v. Rosenstein and other federal officials for the government's illegal computer intrusions.

There are many books, TV shows, and movies about once-revered FBI agents portaying them as heroes.  But after revelations concerning Donald Trump, Richard Jewell (accused of the Atlanta Olympic bombing), and well-respected journalist Sharyl Attkisson, people might be reconsidering. Maybe FBI should stand for Fear, Beware, and Intimidate, while DoJ, the parent company, should stand for Department to Obstruct Justice.  Granted, many do their jobs well, but the leaders at the top are definitely suspect to having an agenda. 

American Thinker had the privilege of interviewing Sharyl Attkisson, a whistleblower of sorts, about her reaction to the current climate regarding the FBI/DoJ and the lawsuit she filed. She is an investigative reporter who hosts the syndicated TV news series “Full Measure,” as well as an author publishing a new book that details the death of news, to be released right after the election.  

As a CBS investigative reporter, Attkisson worked on the Fast and Furious and Benghazi scandals that occurred under the Obama Administration.  In 2011, government agencies began to monitor her for having the audacity to dig into the facts of these fiascos. Using the curtain of national security, the DoJ went on the offensive, including a playbook to actively target journalists with electronic surveillance.  Tasked to carry out these investigations was the FBI.

During this time, Attkisson noticed anomalies in numerous electronic devices in her home, specifically on a CBS-issued Toshiba laptop computer and a family Apple iMac desktop computer. On April 3, 2013, Attkisson filed a complaint with the DoJ Inspector General regarding these incidents of suspected government electronic surveillance and cyberstalking. On May 6, 2013, an official with the DoJ’s Inspector General office called Attkisson back, stating that the FBI denied any knowledge of any operations involving her computers or phone lines. Fed up with the DoJ and FBI’s stalling and avoidance tactics, Attkisson filed a lawsuit in 2015 suing the DoJ and Postal Service for alleged “unauthorized and illegal surveillance” of her laptops and phones between 2011 and 2013. Unfortunately, this lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice for failing to expressly name the government spies and conspirators who hacked her computers and remotely planted classified information. (Continued...)

Read the full article by clicking the link below:

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/01/sharyl_attkisson_speaks_out.html

Fight improper government surveillance. Support Attkisson v. DOJ and FBI over the government computer intrusions of Attkisson's work while she was a CBS News investigative correspondent. Visit the Attkisson Fourth Amendment Litigation Fund. Click here.

Second Amendment Sanctuary Cities (PODCAST)

The inside story behind Virginia's "Second Amendment Sanctuary City" movement that you didn't hear on the news.

Listen to this podcast by clicking the link below, or the arrow in the player below. Or listen on iTunes or your favorite podcast distributor under "The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast" and "Full Measure After Hours." Subscribe, Share, Review and Follow my podcasts on Twitter @TheSharylPodcast @FullMeasureAH

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