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Biden admin considering ‘preemptive pardons’ for Fauci, Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, Mark Milley: report

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From LifeSiteNews

By Doug Mainwaring

The behind the scene discussions come in the wake of Biden’s controversial pardon of his son, Hunter, and likely intensified following Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel as FBI director.

Top aides in the Biden administration are debating the possibility of issuing blanket preemptive pardons for government officials as a means of protecting them from future inquiries and indictments after Donald Trump returns to the White House.  

At the top of the list of those being considered for the extraordinary pardons are Dr. Anthony Fauci, Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-California), and former GOP representative Liz Cheney; according to Politico, which broke the story. 

The behind the scenes discussions come in the wake of Biden’s controversial pardon of his son, Hunter, and likely intensified following Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel as FBI director. Patel has made it clear that he intends to hold public officials accountable for their outrageous, unjustified actions against the former president. 

“End-of-administration pardons are always politically fraught. But President George H.W. Bush’s intervention to spare former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and Bill Clinton’s pardon of financier and donor Marc Rich seem quaint compared with what Biden officials are grappling with as Trump returns to the presidency with lieutenants plotting tribunals against adversaries,” wrote Politico’s Jonathan Martin. “And that was before the president pardoned his son, infuriating many of his own party already angry at Biden for insisting on running for reelection as he neared 82.” 

“Now, Biden’s aides also must consider whether they should offer the same legal inoculation to public officials who’ve attracted the ire of Trump or his supporters that the president granted his convicted son,” he added.  

Dr. Anthony Fauci  

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – who was the frontman for the government/Big Pharma extreme COVID-19 jab mandates, lockdowns, and masking measures, as well as the chief promoter of the now disproven “COVID-19 was not created in a Wuhan lab” lie – has long been in the crosshairs of those critical of the government’s audacious response to the COVID pandemic.   

Fauci has also been cited for use of a private email account to conduct government business in order to escape scrutiny.  

During Capitol Hill hearings, Sen. Rand Paul has been relentless in calling out Fauci’s repeated evasive and mendacious testimony attempting to avoid responsibility for the government’s outrageous, tyrannical response to COVID-19 and subsequent cover-up measures.  

“For his dishonesty, frankly, he should go to prison,” said Sen. Paul during a radio interview. “If you lie to Congress, and you’re dishonest, and you won’t accept responsibility. For his mistake in judgment, he should just be pilloried.”  

Liz Cheney and Adam Schiff 

“The central cause of Jan. 6 was one man, Donald Trump, who many others followed,” declared Cheney, who lost her primary bid by an historic margin in 2022. “President Trump had a premeditated plan to declare that the election was fraudulent and stolen before Election Day.” 

Schiff argued during the hearings that Trump had “incited that angry mob to march on the Capitol” on January 6 and “knew they were armed and dangerous.” 

Schiff was also the lead U.S. House prosecutor in the Senate’s first Trump impeachment trial. 

General Mark Milley 

Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, came under fire from not only Trump, but Republicans in Congress, active and retired military, and American patriots across the country for the horrific U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan that left 14 U.S. servicemen and women dead and let tens of billions of dollars worth of equipment fall into the hands of the Taliban.  

Milley also reportedly called his then-military counterpart in China at the time of the 2020 election and promised that he would warn him if the U.S. planned to attack China, an act which was seen as “treason” by Trump.   

Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, said at the time that Milley had undermined the commander in chief and “contemplated a treasonous leak of classified information to the Chinese Communist Party in advance of a potential armed conflict.”   

Preemptive pardons 

Preemptive pardons are extremely rare but not without precedent.

President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon “for all offenses against the United States which he… has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from July (January) 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974.” 

In 1977 Jimmy Carter pardoned all Vietnam-era draft dodgers, and in 2017, Donald Trump issued a pardon to former Sheriff Joe Arpaio that mentioned “any other offenses that might be charged” in addition to those specifically mentioned.   

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Trump walks back tariffs on Mexico, Canada for another month

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Stocks sunk Thursday afternoon despite President Donald Trump’s decision to grant major exceptions to the 25% tariffs he put on Mexico and Canada earlier this week.

All three major U.S. market indexes were in the red by the time of Trump’s afternoon bill signing. Trump said Thursday in the Oval Office that steel and aluminum tariffs were on track for next week without modifications.

Trump shrugged off the stock losses, blaming the decline on “globalists.”

“I think it’s globalists that see how rich our country is going to be and don’t like it,” he said.

Trump has promised that his tariffs would shift the tax burden away from Americans and onto foreign countries, but tariffs are generally paid by the people who import the products. Those importers then have a choice: They can either absorb the loss or pass it on to consumers through higher prices. He also promised tariffs would make America “rich as hell.” And he’s used tariffs as a negotiating tactic to tighten border security.

Trump granted temporary tariff relief to both Canada and Mexico on Thursday by exempting goods under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement from tariffs until April 2.

On April 2, Trump plans to announce broader reciprocal tariffs against countries that impose tariffs on U.S. goods or keep U.S. goods out of their markets through other methods.

Since imposing his latest round of tariffs on top of trading partners this week, Trump has been paring them back. On Wednesday, Trump said the Big Three automakers – Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Stellantis NV – would be exempt from his tariffs for a month.

In February, Trump took a step forward on his plan to put reciprocal tariffs on U.S. trading partners by signing a memo directing staff to come up with solutions in 180 days. Trump previously said he would put those tariffs in place on April 2 to avoid any confusion on April 1.

In his joint address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump said all countries would have to either make their products in the U.S. or be subject to tariffs.

“Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them,” Trump said. “If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. We will take in trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before.”

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, governs trade between the U.S. and its northern and southern neighbors. It went into force on July 1, 2020. Trump signed the deal. That agreement continued to allow for duty-free trading between the three countries for products largely made in North America.

U.S. goods and services trade with USMCA totaled an estimated $1.8 trillion in 2022. Exports were $789.7 billion and imports were $974.3 billion. The U.S. goods and services trade deficit with USMCA was $184.6 billion in 2022, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

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International

Pursuing world peace: Trump’s secret peace talks with Hamas a stunning break from decades of neocon policy

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From LifeSiteNews

By Frank Wright

The Trump administration is pursuing a clean break with the approach of the last 70 years. Perhaps the only hope for peace lies in breaking the rules of the old rules-based order.

As Donald Trump publishes a stark warning to Hamas, news emerges that his administration is also engaged in direct negotiations with the militant group to secure a lasting peace deal in Gaza.

A statement released on Trump’s Truth Social account and by the White House reads:

“Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you. Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted! I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say.”

The statement followed Trump’s meeting at the White House with some of the Israeli hostages released following a deal brokered by his initiatives and led by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff.

 

“We believe you have been sent by God to save us,” Trump was told. Israel media reported hostage relatives asking, “Why does Witkoff (Steve Witkoff, US Envoy to the Middle East) answer us but not our own ministers?”

Trump is credited by the released hostages and their families with saving their lives, whilst Israeli leader Netanyahu has been accused of having “sabotaged” every hostage deal for the past year, with his own national security minister saying Netanyahu “sacrificed the hostages for his own personal interests” in January. The deal to release the hostages was secured because Trump “pressured” Netanyahu into accepting it, Israeli sources say.

Donald Trump’s message to Hamas and to the people of Gaza was stark:

Yet an exclusive report from Axios yesterday showed the Trump administration is also engaged in secret and direct negotiations with Hamas.

“The Trump administration has been holding direct talks with Hamas over the release of U.S. hostages held in Gaza and the possibility of a broader deal to end the war, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell Axios.”

The White House confirmed the historic move.

Direct talks with Hamas were described by Reuters as having broken a “long- standing diplomatic taboo,” with their report also noting the Israeli response to the news.

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying: ‘Israel has expressed to the United States its position regarding direct talks with Hamas.’ It did not elaborate but Israel, which along with many other countries considers Hamas a terrorist organization, refuses to negotiate directly with the group.”

The pursuit of direct bilateral talks with the “enemy” here mirrors the approach pursued by the U.S. in reopening and normalizing diplomatic channels with the Russians – suspended by the Biden administration for around three and a half years.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this week it was notable that “normal conversation” had resumed between his nation and the U.S.

 

The return of direct diplomacy is a signal that the Trump administration is serious about peace, and whilst stressing its power to respond with overwhelming in force in both theaters of war, has been willing to engage with the Russians and with Hamas to break the deadlock.

This is a significant departure from the decades of policy which produced escalation, emergencies, and periodic wars in place of rational compromise and peace.

Israeli commentator Ori Goldberg, a former academic in Middle East Studies, framed the situation as a choice between a leader who is for peace, and another who is for war.

 

Trump’s direct threats in public are partnered with direct negotiations in private, with the goal seemingly to return hostages and remove the leadership of Hamas from Gaza. It is likely these negotiations will feature the vastly higher number of Palestinian hostages held by the Israelis, whose appalling treatment has included rape with metal rods – a practice endorsed in the Israeli parliament and discussed favorably on Israeli daytime TV.

The ultimatum to Hamas follows Trump’s “Mar-A-Gaza” plan for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip along the lines of a holiday resort, which would seemingly entail the mass expulsion of the Palestinian population.

In response to this proposal, which has been met with widespread condemnation and outcry, Arab leaders have produced an Egyptian-led counter-proposal for the future of Gaza, involving $35 billion of Arab-led investment. This plan, rejected by the Israelis, would see Egypt assume security supervision of Gaza in place of Hamas, and would permit the Palestinians to remain in Gaza as reconstruction is undertaken. U.S. national security spokesman Brian Hughes said the plan, which will be presented to Trump in the coming weeks, did not recognize that Gaza was now “uninhabitable.”

Meanwhile, the crisis flowing from Netanyahu’s actions – and inaction – undertaken to consolidate his grip on power continues to develop. Controversy over the failings of the Israeli government and army to prevent the October 7 attacks continues to deepen.

The new IDF (Israeli army) chief of staff, ignoring Netanyahu’s strong opposition, has ordered a “re-examination” of the army’s actions during the October 7 attacks. The previous army chief, Herzi Halevi, has resigned – citing his and the Netanyahu government’s failure to protect Israelis.

Netanyahu “dismissed” a warning from Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, issued five months in advance of the attacks, as Haaretz reports. Whether Netanyahu deliberately sabotaged the hostage deal, or refused to act on warnings about October 7, the Israeli leader is beset with questions he refuses to answer.

He is increasingly being seen, inside and outside Israel, as the main problem, being implacably opposed to any attempts to find solutions that would give several decades oppressed Palestinians any new rights and their own state.

Having been in power for most of the last 16 years, Netanyahu can be charged not only with corruption, but with having managed Israel into what has become an existential crisis the tiny nation has never before experienced to this degree. His political future, very similar to that of also corrupt, Jewish Ukrainian president Zelensky, appears to be staked on making any lasting peace impossible.

The reality behind the headlines once again reveals the development of a new geopolitical order beneath the sensational chaos of the current news cycle.

The Trump administration is pursuing a clean break with the approach of the last 70 years. That consistent pattern of repeatedly broken agreements, war crimes, propaganda, atrocities, and ruinous regime change has been part of the process intended to sabotage any chance of peace through periodic escalations and a permanent state of emergency punctuated by all-out war.

After decades of politics dominated by an ongoing death machine, perhaps the only hope for peace lies in breaking the rules of the old rules-based order and placing the protection of ALL innocent human lives as the top priority.

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