Tom Boggioni is a writer, born, raised and living in San Diego — where he attended San Diego State University. Prior to writing for Raw Story, he wrote for FireDogLake, blogged as TBogg, and worked in banking, marketing and construction.
Kellyanne Conway on Fox & Friends -- Fox News screencapture
Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway on Sunday expressed disappointment that intelligence officials and lawmakers are leaking information on the Russian hacking of the election to help the president-elect and insisted it should be kept secret to "protect the public."
Appearing on Fox & Friends, Conway was asked by co-host Clayton Morris about Trump's planned meeting with embattled FBI Director James Comey, only to have Conway lash out at leaks coming from U.S. intelligence agencies.
"I'm always disappointed how public and sometimes political some of these figures can seem to be," she responded. "I'm very concerned, very concerned. You realize it is the Trump team, only us at this time, that is not divulging what occurred in a classified briefing."
"Ladies and gentlemen," she continued with her voice rising. "It's called a classified briefing for a reason. You had the vice president of the United States making a comment about it the other day. You have intelligence officials confirming or denying. This classified information, it's top secret. Why is it top secret? It's not top secret to keep it from the public, but to protect the public."
Over the weekend independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. spoke at a fundraiser for a far-right anti-government group in Erie County, New York – a slice of the country that had a large proportion of residents arrested and charged for crimes related to the January 6 insurrection. Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist and vaccine denialist, increasingly is embracing the far-right.
"That group, Constitutional Coalition of New York State, has founders who not only have ties to Donald Trump but are also connected to the stop-the-steal movement through their activist network, which includes groups that had a presence at the Capitol on Jan. 6," The Daily Beast reported Friday. "It’s yet another instance of Kennedy—who is mounting one of the most well-funded third-party presidential threats in decades—serving as a peculiar bridge between his own anti-establishment movement and Trump’s."
The Southern Poverty Law Center includes the Constitutional Coalition of New York State (CCNYS) on its page of anti-government groups. Political Research Associates, which detailed the high proportion of January 6 residents arrested and charged, included the Constitutional Coalition of New York State in its February report on "The Rise of the Far Right in Western New York."
“If you don’t think the government is lying to you, you’re not paying attention,” Kennedy told attendees at the CCNYS fundraiser, The Buffalo News reports.
"CCNYS founders Nick and Nancie Orticelli are also affiliated with the Watchmen, a nearby militia who Nick has encouraged his social media followers to join. The Watchmen had several members at the Capitol on Jan. 6, and one member, Pete Harding, is still facing charges for violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds," The Daily Beast noted. "Nancie Orticelli has also hosted the Watchmen’s founder, Charles Pellien, on her weekly radio show on several occasions."
One of Kennedy's goals in traveling to New York was to get on the ballot for the November presidential election. Various polls show him taking votes from both President Joe Biden and ex-president Donald Trump, but Kennedy currently has only qualified to be on the ballot in three states, Utah, Michigan and Hawaii, the newspaper reported.
But The Washington Post on Thursday reported The American Independent Party of California, which has a history of "far-right ties," and "backed segregationist and former Alabama governor George Wallace in 1968, nominated Kennedy for president."
Kennedy "said this week that he has qualified to be on the ballot in California and will accept the nomination of the American Independent Party, which has a history of associating itself with far-right figures and individuals who have expressed racist views."
Some news reports and RFK Jr. himself say the Trump campaign was actively courting Kennedy, attempting to convince him to consider being the ex-president's 2024 vice presidential running mate.
"That MAGA dalliance with Kennedy could be coming back to bite the Trump campaign, some Republicans close to the former president worry," The Daily Beast also reported.
“'They can only blame themselves,' a Trump-aligned strategist told The Daily Beast, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about private conversations about the risk Kennedy poses, 'because they cozied up to him and thought it was funny.'”
Watch WIVBTV's report on Kennedy's trip to New York below or at this link.
The Justice Department is expected to announce the indictment of Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Texas Democrat's home and office in Laredo were raided in January 2022 as part of a federal investigation into a group of U.S. businessmen with ties to Azerbaijan, although it's not clear whether the impending indictment was related to that case, reported NBC News.
“There has been no wrongdoing on my part," Cuellar said a year after that raid. "My focus remains the same from my very first day in office: delivering results for Texans across my district.”
Cuellar, the one-time chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, narrowly defeated progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros in a 2022 Democratic primary and won re-election that November, and he will be on the ballot again this year after facing no primary challenge in this cycle.
The 66-year-old lawmaker, who was first elected to the House in 2004, is the only Democrat left in Congress who opposes abortion rights.
It's not clear what longtime aide Hope Hicks might tell the jury in Donald Trump's hush money case, but a close friend made clear that she's not eager to testify against her former boss.
The former White House official could testify as early as Friday, and while she hasn't given details about what she'll say, several sources close to her made clear that she was frustrated and angry about being called to testify — and described the trial as a waste of time and money.
“This feels like something she’s being forced to do,” one former senior administration official who is close to her told the Washington Post. “She still has warm feelings toward the president and a lot of admiration for him.”
The 35-year-old Hicks, a former Trump Organization staffer who was one of his earliest campaign hires, was "in and out" of an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower to discuss the National Enquirer's role in identifying and killing damaging stories, according to testimony from former publisher David Pecker.
The Post also contacted Hicks to discuss the newspaper's impending publication of the "Access Hollywood" story in October 2016, which revealed Trump on tape bragging about molesting women, and prosecutors have alleged that recording played a key role in the decision to pay hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels — which eventually fell under prosecution.
“She was there for everything, so they are going to ask her questions,” said Hogan Gidley, a friend of Hicks who served as Trump’s principal deputy press secretary. “I know Hope, I talk to Hope, and she wants nothing but the best for Donald Trump and his family.”
Hicks and Trump have not spoken since 2022, when she was called before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, although a former adviser said their relationship remained "cordial."
But the former president and his family were reportedly unhappy with her candor in that testimony.
"[Trump] said something along the lines of, you know, ‘Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won’t matter — the only thing that matters is winning,'" Hicks told congressional investigators under oath.
The Trump family, especially Ivanka, were especially unhappy with text messages Hicks sent after Jan. 6 that she shared with the committee.
“In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter," Hicks said in one of those messages.
