Special Counsel Robert Mueller said he lacked confidence to clear Donald Trump of obstruction of justice but suggested Congress could take action on at least 10 instances where the president sought to interfere with the probe.
“We concluded that Congress has authority to prohibit a president’s corrupt use of his authority in order to protect the integrity of the administration of justice,” he said in the report sent to Congress on Thursday.
Mueller said acts of possible obstruction include “discouragement of cooperation with the government and suggestions of possible future pardons.” The 448-page report cited actions including Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey and efforts to have former Attorney General Jeff Sessions take control of the investigation.

Attorney General William Barr spoke to reporters in advance of the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, which was submitted last month. A lightly redacted version of the report will be released publicly on Thursday.
Here are Barr’s remarks as prepared for delivery.
Good morning. Thank you all for being here today.
On March 22, 2019, Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation of matters related to Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and submitted his confidential report to me pursuant to Department of Justice regulations.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN) on Tuesday, as the freshman legislator continued to face accusations of antisemitism led by President Donald Trump.
“I don’t think the congresswoman is antisemitic,” Pelosi said during an interview with CNN‘s Cristiane Amanpour.
Last weekend, Trump published a tweet featuring a video of Omar saying that Muslims had been treated as second-class citizens because “some people did something,” on September 11, 2001 — when the Al Qaeda terror group carried out attack that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people in New York City, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC.

Israeli startups raised a total of $1.55 billion in the first quarter of 2019 across 128 deals, according to a new report published Tuesday by Tel Aviv-based market research firm IVC Research Center Ltd. and law firm Zysman Aharoni Gayer & Co. (ZAG/S&W). The sum represents a 28 percent increase compared to the first quarter of 2018, spread across 15 percent more deals. Venture capital players accounted for 71 deals and $1.3 billion of the total sum raised.

Police arrested a 37-year-old New Jersey man for trying to enter St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City with 2 gasoline cans and lighter fluid Wednesday — 2 days after fire devastated Notre Dame.
“His basic story was that he was cutting through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue, that his car had run out of gas. We took a look at the vehicle. It was not out of gas, and at that point he was taken into custody,” NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said.
No fire was started in the cathedral, which was built in 1878. The incident takes place just  days after a fire tore through the centuries old cathedral at Notre Dame.

Russia denied on Wednesday Israeli media reports suggesting Russian operatives had exhumed the remains of former Mossad spy Eli Cohen from Syria.
“We resolutely refute the fabrications of a number of Israeli media that Russian representatives allegedly removed from Syria the remains of Mossad agent Eli Cohen, who was executed in Damascus in 1965,” the Russia’s embassy in Israel said in a statement.
The embassy responded to a report on Monday by Israel’s Channel 12 which said Syrian opposition groups claimed that a Russian team had exhumed the remains of former Mossad spy Eli Cohen, lauded in Israel as a national hero for the sacrifices he made for the benefit of public service.

2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang discusses his proposal for universal basic income.
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The Instagram accounts of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force, were suspended Tuesday – a day after the IRGC was officially designated by the United States as a terrorist organization.
Instagram also suspended the accounts of IRGC commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari and Brig. Gen. Mohammed Pakpour, the commander of the IRGC’s ground forces.
Khamenei’s English account was suspended, though his Farsi one remains active.
The reason for the suspensions is unclear.
Instagram did not respond to a request for comment.
(JNS.org)
{Matzav.com}

Drivers who use the Outerbridge crossing can put away their cash, because the bridge between New Jersey and Staten Island will be the latest Port Authority crossing to go cashless next week, joining the Bayonne Bridge.
Once the three Port Authority Bridges from New Jersey to Staten Island — the Bayonne, Outerbridge, and Goethels — switch over to cashless tolls, it is predicted to save drivers approximately 200,000 hours a year in travel time, reduce toll booth crashes by 7 to 10 percent, and cut exhaust emissions from idling traffic by 11,500 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year.

Is Beto O’Rourke’s campaign already over? Reaction and analysis from Ben Shapiro on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’
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