Turns Out, Gun-Hating Sen. Menendez Loves International Firearms Trade After All

SEE: https://www.ammoland.com/2023/09/gun-hating-sen-menendez-loves-international-firearms-trade-after-all;Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

By Larry Keane

NJ Senator Bob Menendez Poses with EveryTown and Moms Demand Action, IMG menendez.senate.gov
NJ Senator Bob Menendez Poses with EveryTown and Moms Demand Action, IMG menendez.senate.gov

To say U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) has been a thorn in the side of the firearm industry would be an understatement. The gun-controlling politician has railed for stricter gun control, called for bans on entire classes of firearms, taken money from gun control groups to advance a gun ban agenda, and has done all he could to undo the export reforms for the firearm industry to reduce redundancies and regulatory costs associated with export licensing while increasing national security.

America might now have a better insight as to why Sen. Menendez wanted more control over those exports.

Serious Corruption Charges

Sen. Menendez, along with his wife Nadine Arslanian and several executives, was indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for a corrupt bribery scheme. Sen. Menendez was charged with accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in cash, gold bars, a Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible, and home mortgage payments. Those payments were allegedly in exchange for the senator using his position to grease the skids for businesses and the government of Egypt between 2018 and 2022.

He’s also charged with promising to disrupt a criminal investigation and prosecution related to one businessman, and the senator recommended President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. Attorney for New Jersey be someone “who Menendez believed could be influenced by Menendez” regarding the prosecution of one of the businessmen he was allegedly involved in the corruption scheme.

The FBI reportedly discovered more than $480,000 in cash in Sen. Menendez’s home while executing a search warrant in June 2022, “much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe.” Agents found envelopes of cash inside jackets bearing the Senate symbol and Sen. Menendez’s name.

The senator and his wife were charged with conspiracy to commit bribery, conspiracy to commit honest services fraud, and conspiracy to commit extortion. The charges allege Sen. Menendez took bribes to benefit the businesses and the Egyptian government, “including with respect to foreign military sales and foreign military financing,” over which the senator has oversight as the Senate Foreign Relations Chairman, and Ranking Member previously. Sen. Menendez allegedly provided non-public information to intermediary businesses, after which one businessman texted an Egyptian official stating,

“The ban on small arms and ammunition to Egypt has been lifted. That means sales can begin. That will include sniper rifles among other articles.”

Gun Control for Thee…

Ironically, Sen. Menendez introduced legislation to prevent arms sales to human rights abusers. S. 1025 would increase Congress’ role in reviewing arms exports. That’s even as the State Department noted significant human rights issues in Egypt in a 2022 reportHuman Rights Watch, a watchdog group, reported that Egypt’s government was responsible for nationwide repression and causing one of the country’s worst human rights crises in many decades. He even signed a letter in September to President Joe Biden urging him to reverse the USML-CCL reforms, claiming, “The State Department is also better equipped than Commerce to assess the human rights and security impact of arms exports.”

This might explain why Sen. Menendez despised those firearm export reforms that were finalized under the Trump administration. Those are the U.S. Munitions List to Commerce Control List reforms that transferred licensing of small arms exports from the State Department, over which Sen. Menendez had control, to the Commerce Department. The reforms streamlined the export process, removing duplicative processes, but also raised the bar for ensuring end-user checks were vetted before any export could leave the United States.

This isn’t the first time Sen. Menendez has been charged with corruption. A bribery trial in 2017 involved a wealthy Florida eye doctor accused of buying Sen. Menendez’s influence by providing him with luxury vacations and campaign contributions. The judge in that case declared a mistrial after the jury was hopelessly deadlocked after more than six days of deliberations. It is worth noting he was not exonerated of those charges. The DOJ declined to retry him.

Defiance

Sen. Menendez remains defiant. Due to Senate Democratic Caucus rules, he was forced to resign his position as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, but he has said he “is going nowhere” and promises to run for re-election. He retained Abbe Lowell, the lawyer representing Hunter Biden in his tax and firearm cases, to tackle his own federal corruption charges in court. Pressure is building on Sen. Menendez to walk away from the Senate altogether.

New Jersey’s Gov. Phil Murphy has called on Sen. Menendez to resign. This isn’t because Gov. Murphy has suddenly become a critic of New Jersey’s senior senator. He’s concerned that the corruption scandal could cost antigun politicians a reliable seat. If Sen. Menendez were to resign, Gov. Murphy could appoint a new senator to serve the remainder of his term, which expires in January 2025. He has already gained a primary challenge from U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-N.J.). The New York Post reported that New Jersey Republicans are closely watching developments.

The charges are serious, and Sen. Menendez will have his day in court to defend against the charges. The firearm industry, which he has used as a political punching bag, is very interested in learning just how gold bars ended up in his home, stacks of cash in his suit coats, and why he was so adamant that all firearm exports be run through his committee.


About The National Shooting Sports Foundation

NSSF is the trade association for the firearm industry. Its mission is to promote, protect, and preserve hunting and shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of thousands of manufacturers, distributors, firearm retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations, and publishers nationwide. For more information, visit nssf.org

National Shooting Sports Foundation

Witch-hunt Continues: Judge Undervalues Trump Estate, Alleging Tax Fraud

Witch-hunt Continues: Judge Undervalues Trump Estate, Alleging Tax Fraud

Judge rules Trump defrauded banks, and insurers as he built real estate empire

Mar-a-Lago by Joe Raedle, Eric Trump by Drew Angerer, Donald Trump Jr. by Samuel Corum, NY AG Letitia James by David Dee Delgado (Photos via: Getty Images)
Mar-a-Lago by Joe Raedle, Eric Trump by Drew Angerer, Donald Trump Jr. by Samuel Corum, NY AG Letitia James by David Dee Delgado (Photos via: Getty Images)

OAN’s Sophia Flores
6:26 PM – Tuesday, September 26, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/witch-hunt-continues-judge-undervalues-trump-estate-alleging-tax-fraud/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

A judge has found 45th President Donald J. Trump liable for fraud in New York City. Trump’s family was quick to come to his defense and call out the “corruption.”

On Tuesday, Judge Arthur Engoron refused to dismiss New York Attorney General Letitia James’s lawsuit against the former president.

She claims that Trump and his family business inflated their wealth on financial records in an effort to benefit from “better loan terms” and lower insurance premiums.  

According to Judge Engoron, the GOP hopeful’s primary estate, Mar-a-Lago, is worth “around $18 million.”

Eric Trump, the former president’s son, responded to the news on the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, when it was revealed that Judge Engoron had placed a low valuation on Mar-a-Lago.

Eric Trump quickly refuted the judge’s assertion and provided images of other homes that are for sale in the same neighborhood as the famed Mar-a-Lago property.

All of the other properties that he included were much smaller and not close to the water, unlike his father’s home.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., also pointed out an empty lot in the affluent neighborhood that is down the street from Mar-a-Lago and how it is currently on sale for $150 million.  

The attorney general has had a lengthy history of claiming that the former president has committed money fraud. She first sued Trump in 2020.

At the time, James claimed that Trump was “exaggerating his wealth up by $3 billion.”

As part of his Tuesday ruling, Judge Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded.

Doing so would make it nearly impossible for the Trump Organization to operate business in New York. Additionally, Trump would have to assign an independent, third-party monitor to oversee Trump Organization operations.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

Hunter Biden Sues Rudy Giuliani And Former Lawyer Over Laptop ‘Hacking’

Hunter Biden Sues Rudy Giuliani And Former Lawyer Over Laptop ‘Hacking’

 (L) Photo by CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA/AFP via Getty Images / (R) Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
11:47 AM – Tuesday, September 26, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/hunter-biden-sues-rudy-giuliani-and-former-lawyer-over-laptop-hacking/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

In a civil action filed by Hunter Biden, he accused Rudy Giuliani and his former lawyer of violating federal and state computer privacy laws by allegedly trying to hack into his devices and causing “total annihilation” of his digital privacy.

On Tuesday, Hunter Biden accused Giuliani and lawyer Robert Costello of spending years “hacking into, tampering with, manipulating, copying, disseminating, and generally obsessing over data that they were given that was taken or stolen from” his devices in the case, which was filed in federal court in California.

“Plaintiff has demanded Defendants Giuliani and Costello cease their unlawful activities with respect to Plaintiff’s data and return any data in their possession belonging to Plaintiff, but they have refused to do so,” attorneys for Hunter Biden wrote in the lawsuit. “Defendants’ statements suggest that their unlawful hacking activities are ongoing today and that, unless stopped, will continue into the future, thereby necessitating this action.”

The lawsuit filed by Hunter Biden on Tuesday is the most recent in a string of aggressive legal actions he has taken against his critics. Republicans are currently looking into President Joe Biden’s possible impeachment, and they are also looking into Hunter’s foreign business dealings.

“Everyone involved in stealing and manipulating Hunter’s data should be hearing footsteps right about now,” a source on Hunter’s legal team told the press.

However, a Giuliani aide refuted claims that the former mayor of New York “manipulated” any technological devices that belonged to the president’s son.

“Hunter Biden has previously refused to admit ownership of the laptop,” said Ted Goodman, the adviser. “I’m not surprised he’s now falsely claiming his laptop hard drive was manipulated by Mayor Giuliani, considering the sordid material and potential evidence of crimes on that thing.”

Hunter Biden filed a similar legal lawsuit against former Trump White House assistant Garrett Ziegler earlier this month, alleging that Ziegler “had committed much of his waking time and attention” to the endeavor of accessing devices that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden since leaving his White House position.

Hunter also filed a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) this week, claiming that the agency failed to secure his private data and that its employees improperly disclosed his tax information.

The former New York mayor, according to Hunter Biden’s attorneys, “not only admitted but bragged about downloading data from Plaintiff’s ‘laptop’ (even though he only had a hard drive) onto his own computer; about using his own computer to access, tamper with and manipulate the downloaded data; and about maintaining multiple copies of the data for his and Defendant Costello’s personal use.”

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

_________________________________________________________________

SEE ALSO: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/09/26/hunter-biden-sues-rudy-giuliani-over-laptop-alleges-tampering-n1729897

FTC Sues Amazon For Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power

FTC Sues Amazon For Illegally Maintaining Monopoly Power

This picture shows the Amazon logo at one of the company's centre in Bretigny-sur-Orge on November 28, 2019. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS SAMSON/AFP via Getty Images)
This picture shows the Amazon logo at one of the company’s centre in Bretigny-sur-Orge on November 28, 2019. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS SAMSON/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN’s Sophia Flores
12:07 PM – Tuesday, September 26, 2023

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/ftc-sues-amazon-for-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power/;

Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 17 state attorneys general have filed an antitrust lawsuit against the E-commerce company, Amazon.

On Tuesday, the FTC and the 17 state attorneys general accused Amazon of illegally maintaining its monopoly power to “inflate prices, degrade quality, and stifle innovation for consumers and business.”

The states that joined the FTC lawsuit were Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.

“Our complaint lays out how Amazon has used a set of punitive and coercive tactics to unlawfully maintain its monopolies,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement. “The complaint sets forth detailed allegations noting how Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them.”

Additionally, the lawsuit alleges that the world’s largest online retailer is operating without competition in two markets, which in turn is allowing the company to conduct “monopolistic practices.”

However, Amazon released a counterstatement after the suit was announced, calling the legal action wrong and accusing the FTC of losing focus of its original mission.

“Today’s suit makes clear the FTC’s focus has radically departed from its mission of protecting consumers and competition,” Amazon said. “The practices the FTC is challenging have helped to spur competition and innovation across the retail industry, and have produced greater selection, lower prices, and faster delivery speeds for Amazon customers and greater opportunity for the many businesses that sell in Amazon’s store.”

The announcement follows a separate legal action taken against Amazon by the FTC earlier this year.

In June, the E-commerce company was accused of utilizing deceitful tactics in order to trick millions of customers into enrolling in its Prime subscription service.

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts