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Marcus Martin was injured when a Dodge Challenger drove through a group protesting an white nationalist rally Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Alex Jones, a conspiracy-minded conservative commentator, said the Charlottesville, Va., protests and counter-protests on Aug. 11-12, were staged acts of civil unrest funded by liberal interests to hurt conservatives and President Donald Trump.

In a pair of videos posted on his website Infowars.com, Jones accused the Southern Poverty Law Center of going to "central casting" to hire actors to "dress up as white supremacists." There is no evidence that is true, and Jones provided no evidence to support his claim in his video.

Jones then claimed the foundation for the Charlottesville protests is seen in emails between the Democratic Party and George Soros, a billionaire who often supports liberal causes.

"It was clear once Trump got inaugurated, they were going to go for civil unrest," Jones said.

"If you go back to the Wikileaks, from over a year ago, the Democratic Party is sending emails to George Soros and back and forth at the highest levels of the Democratic Party saying, Were losing the public. Minorities are getting into the free market. We (Democrats) want to keep people in their mothers basement as baristas.

"Remember even Hillary said that. What are we going to do to keep control of them? Keep them in the dark, keep them desperate.

"These are quotes. Hundreds and hundreds of emails," Jones said." Weve covered them linking to them."

While Jones offered no evidence the Charlottesville protests were staged, he did say there are quotes from Soros, Clinton or Democratic Party officials in emails talking about controlling minoritiesand stoking fear in the public to "keep them desperate" and "keep control of them."

So we decided to see if there is any evidence of that.

We couldnt find any. (We reached out to Jones through the media contact form on his Infowars.com website and did not hear back.)

For this fact-check, we consulted three email batches Jones could be talking about -- the emails Hillary Clinton made public during her time as secretary of state (search the government database), the leaked emails of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta (search the Podesta emails), or the leaked emails of the Democratic National Committee (search the DNC email database).

The George Soros connection

Jones claimed the "Democratic Party is sending emails to George Soros and back and forth at the highest levels of the Democratic Party saying, Were losing the public. Minorities are getting into the free market. We (Democrats) want to keep people in their mothers basement as baristas."

There are 15 emails in the DNC email database that mention the word "Soros," and five of those come from Politico email newsletters. Of the remaining 10, five reference news coverage and one is text of a speech from Trump referencing Soros ("Forget Soros, leave him alone, hes got enough problems.")

The other four are from May 22, 2016, and discuss a mobile application someone was building to support the Democratic nominee. The developer of the application was looking for funding for the project, including from Soros.

We also searched under Soros Open Society Foundation or OSF. We found four additional emails, the most interesting of which appears to be a communications officer for OSF trying to schedule a tour of the White House.

We did find an email, which Infowars has written about, that Soros sent to Clinton while she was secretary of state (see the email).

The 2011 email is about unrest in Albania, which included a series of anti-government protests amid corruption charges.

In the email, Soros asks Clinton to bring "the full weight of the international community" to try and ease tensions in the country. Soros writes that he is particularly concerned of the actions of Albanias prime minister and that Soros has heard of videotape showing national guard members firing on demonstrators.

Infowars also has written about a 2014 email from Podestas account in which Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said Clinton would only attend a fundraiser for a Soros-supported group, America Votes, "to make Soros happy."

The most recent emails leaked from Podestas account are from March 2016, and seem to be related to a meeting between Soros and Podesta.

"In general I think George is more interested in talking about policy than the campaign per se, though I cant imagine you wont spend some time on politics," Soros aide Michael Vachon wrote (read the email). "In a separate email I will send you Georges latest thinking on the migration crisis, which he is spending a lot of time on. His other big preoccupation these days is Ukraine. Both the migration crisis and Ukraine are part of his view of Europe as falling apart, and the US as ultimately not doing enough to prevent the political disintegration of its most important ally."

Heres the bottom line: Whatever the emails say about Soros access to top Democrats, including Clinton, they dont say anything akin to what Jones claimed.

The Hillary Clinton connection

Its a bit easier to triangulate what Jones was talking about when he said, "Remember even Hillary said that. What are we going to do to keep control of them. Keep them in the dark, keep them desperate. "

Hes likely referring to leaked audio of a February 2016 Clinton fundraiser in which Clinton was talking about the supporters of Bernie Sanders. Infowars wrote about this, too.

Here is what Clinton said (bold emphasis is ours):

Clinton: "Some are new to politics completely. Theyre children of the Great Recession. And they are living in their parents basement. They feel they got their education and the jobs that are available to them are not at all what they envisioned for themselves. And they dont see much of a future. I met with a group of young black millennials today and you know one of the young women said, "You know, none of us feel that we have the job that we should have gotten out of college. And we dont believe the job market is going to give us much of a chance." So that is a mindset that is really affecting their politics. And so if youre feeling like youre consigned to, you know, being a barista, or you know, some other job that doesnt pay a lot, and doesnt have some other ladder of opportunity attached to it, then the idea that maybe, just maybe, you could be part of a political revolution is pretty appealing. So I think we should all be really understanding of that and should try to do the best we can not to be, you know, a wet blanket on idealism. We want people to be idealistic. We want them to set big goals. But to take what we can achieve now and try to present them as bigger goals."

You can listen to the comments here, courtesy of the Intercept, but you can see how Jones distorts Clintons comments.

Jones said Democrats wanted to keep "people in their mothers basement as baristas," to "control them," "keep them desperate."

But Clinton was talking about people new to politics who grew up at a time when opportunities were difficult to find. She never once discussed controlling or keeping people desperate. Clinton did face criticism for describing Sanders supporters as people living in their parents basement, but thats not what Jones was saying.

Our ruling

Jones said, "if you go back to the Wikileaks, from over a year ago, the Democratic Party is sending emails to George Soros and back and forth at the highest levels of the Democratic Party saying, Were losing the public. Minorities are getting into free market. We (Democrats) want to keep people in their mothers basement as baristas. "Remember even Hillary said that. What are we going to do to keep control of them? Keep them in the dark, keep them desperate.

Jones comments were part of a broader accusation that the events in Charlottesville were staged by liberals and coordinated by top Democrats.

We can find no evidence that Jones broad attack, or his specific claim about comments made by Soros, Clinton or Democrats in emails, checks out. Clinton did describe supporters of Bernie Sanders as working as baristas or living in their parents basements. But thats well short of what Jones alleged.

We rate this claim Pants on Fire.

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2017-08-14 17:12:21 UTC

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Pants on Fire

Emails show Democrats, Hillary Clinton and George Soros instigated and orchestrated racial protests in Charlottesville by trying to "control" and keep people "desperate."

Alex Jones

Editor, Infowars

In a video

Saturday, August 12, 2017

2017-08-12

Here is the original post:
Infowars' Alex Jones falsely says George Soros, Hillary Clinton instigated Charlottesville violence - PolitiFact

In this April 6, 2017, file photo, former United States Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton speaks during the Eighth Annual Women In The World Summit at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.

For over 600 days, Hillary Clinton's pastor wrote daily inspirational letters drawn from Biblical scripture during the presidential campaign.

Hundreds of those letters have now been compiled in a book, "Strong For a Moment Like This." The collection features a letter sent in the aftermath of her election loss.

Rev. Dr. Bill Shillady, the New York-based executive director of the United Methodist City Society, has been a longtime friend and pastor to the former U.S. secretary of state, senator and first lady.

I wrote to her on a daily basis. If I was not writing then there was team of writers, Shillady said during a phone interview with NBC.

The collection, published by Abingdon Press, includes 365 of the more than 600 devotions written for Clinton, along with personal notes, portions of her speeches, and headlines that provide context for that days devotion.

On the difficult days, like the terrorist incidents, we dug deep and found gratitude for life, he said.

The day after the 2016 election, Shillady sent a letter beginning with the title "Sunday Is Coming" and ending with one of his cherished phrases.

"You know one of my favorite sayings is 'God doesn't close one door without opening another, but it can be hell in the hallway,'" he wrote in the last paragraph. "My sister Hillary. You, our nation, our world is experiencing a black Friday. Our hope is that Sunday is coming. But it might well be hell for a while."

Here is the letter "Sunday Is Coming":

According to Shillady, the post-election letter has been shared over 40,000 times on social media. The letter shares the struggle of disciples after the loss of Jesus Christ and the reminder that for Clinton there was more to be grateful for in life.

Most of the response has been positive and some thought I was comparing her to Christ that is simply not true, he said. If you really read it then you will understand.

The book, "Strong For a Moment Like This,"is due for sale in stores and online on Aug. 15.

Shillady and his team of writers came from different backgrounds, including Presbyterian, Baptist and a clergy of women. All the clergy writers, hopeful about the outcome of the election, used daily news headlines as a source of inspiration for the devotions.

A German theologian Karl Barth said something like 'a pastor is not worth their weight if they dont have a newspaper in one hand and a Bible in the other,' he said. [The devotions] reminded her that she was child of God and of her strength, qualities this campaign demanded from her.

NBC contacted the Clinton Foundation for a comment about the book and have not yet received a response.

Shillady said each chapter in the book is organized into 12 themes, such as forgiveness, doing good, courage, and women.

Published 2 hours ago

The rest is here:
Hillary Clinton's Pastor Reveals Post-Election Letter in Book - NBC4 Washington

When the entire inevitable first female president train flew off the tracks in spectacular fashion last November there seemed to be a sense that the related stories of potential criminal investigations into Hillary Clintons handling of classified documents was going away as well. After all, hadnt the FBI concluded that it was pretty much a done deal? (At least a couple of times as I recall.) It had become more of a campaign talking point than anything else, and with defeat having been snatched from the jaws of victory, couldnt you all just let the poor woman be?

In the months since then it feels as if nobody has even been talking about it, with the exception of the occasional Tweet from the President when he wanted to criticize Jeff Sessions. But under the covers there was still a slow, grinding investigation taking place. Tens of thousands of documents had been turned over by the State Department and more of them kept popping up in unexpected places. As the Washington Times reported this weekend, the final chapter has yet to be written in this saga and additional classified material may still be coming to light.

The Hillary Clinton email fiasco isnt ending anytime soon, with State Department officials saying they have no idea when they will finish sorting though and releasing the previously hidden messages.

More classified documents that the former secretary of state improperly handled keep coming to light.

The Trump administration doesnt even know if it has hunted down every trace of the emails that Mrs. Clinton a former first lady, U.S. senator, top diplomat and Democratic presidential nominee sent from a secret email server stashed in her home

This June, the FBI provided approximately 7,000 additional documents recovered from the laptop computer shared by top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her husband, Anthony Weiner, whose habitual sexting cost him a seat in Congress, the mayoral election in New York and ultimately his marriage to Ms. Abedin.

We have not yet determined how many of these documents are State Department records as opposed to personal emails, nor have we determined how many documents are duplicative of material already in our possession, said the official.

So its been almost two months since all of the Carlos Danger material was turned over. A fair question is being raised here as to why its taking so long to go through everything. While the campaign was still going on there was a much greater sense of urgency (or so it seemed) and they processed considerably larger volumes last summer in a shorter period of time. Did they simply assign fewer people and resources to it once the election was over and the spotlight had moved elsewhere?

I suppose thats one possibility. But heres another thought to ponder. That entire Loretta Lynch story has been blowing up all over again this summer and its raised additional questions about how James Comey was handling the email investigation from the beginning. Now there are fresh sets of eyes at State, the DoJ and the FBI. Is it conceivable that they arent in quite as much of a hurry to put the entire story to rest as the Obama administration was?

That remains unknown for the time being. One thing we can count on, though, is that defenders of Clinton will label this an unnecessary distraction, a vindictive political witch hunt and everything else you would expect. But is it? If the questions about the former First Ladys handling of classified material were valid in terms of criminal culpability last summer, are they any less so now that shes exited the public stage? (For the most part, anyway.) The only thing we can probably count on for sure is that Clinton will be unlikely to get a presidential pardon any time soon if charges are still possible.

View post:
I bet you thought the Hillary Clinton email scandal was over - Hot Air

Dear John: You recently criticized the FBI for its investigation of Hillary Clintons e-mails.

I am a retired FBI agent and extremely proud of my career and service. I feel compelled to write. Former FBI Director James Comeys statements, testimony and behavior are truly abhorrent.

Comey admitted under oath before Congress that the bureau did not utilize a federal grand jury in the Hillary e-mail investigation.

Furthermore, he testified that in his experience, when dealing with attorneys, you can obtain information easier and faster than via a federal grand jury.

Never, I repeat never, in my 25-year career have I or any FBI agent known to me investigated a criminal case without the use of a federal grand jury, federal grand jury subpoenas, search warrants, etc.

Search warrants and/or subpoenas should have been executed at Clintons residences in Chappaqua and Washington and at Platte River Networks.

In fact, Comey frequently cites his vast experience. Well, I am certain that in every case with which he was involved (except this one, conveniently) he employed the use of a federal grand jury and all of the authority that encompasses.

Comeys parsing of words to justify his cowardly decision was awkward and juvenile. These circumstances are indicia of Hillarys intent (which, as we both are aware, is not a necessary element to satisfy the federal espionage statute) on which Comey placed so much emphasis.

Comeys cowardice and lack of integrity is further exemplified in his surreptitious disclosure of confidential information through an intermediary to the New York Times.

Comey has created a disgraceful legacy. P.B.

Dear P.B.: I changed your initials and some other details because Id like to speak with you and dont want anyone to guess your identity.

My sources say Comey and three others made the decision on Hillary. The rest of the investigating agents werent consulted, and many were shocked by the decision not to pursue charges.

Read more here:
Comey botched the Hillary Clinton email investigation - New York Post

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch set aside ethical norms and good judgment to take her secret, election-year meeting with former Present Bill Clinton at an Arizona airport. Her agency was investigating Clinton's wife, Hillary, and pondering the permutations of prosecuting her as she ran for president.

In doing so, she paved the way for then-FBI Director James Comey to take unprecedented decision-making power in the investigation of Hillary Clinton's emails.

She also plunged her department and the White House into a panic when a local reporter got wind of the meeting. We finally know a bit more about it, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit pursued by the American Center for Law and Justice.

After an unjustifiable 12 months of resisting compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, the Justice Department has finally handed over correspondence between the FBI, the Justice Department, and White House officials about how they should handle the fallout from Lynch's meeting. Among the findings was the fact that Lynch used a pseudonymous email address.

This is not the first recent case of federal officials doing so, nor of FOIA requests being unnecessarily delayed and litigated to cover up political wrongdoing, nor, most importantly, of documents being redacted for no reason other than to avoid embarrassment.

The bottom line is that government transparency is becoming a joke, and the joke is on all of us.

Recall that Hillary Clinton used a private email account and failed contemporaneously to hand over government records she thus created. This allowed her to thwart valid FOIA requests for years, and to stonewall a congressional inquiry. In a case similar to Lynch's, former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson went by the alias "Richard Windsor." Although both Jackson and Lynch claim that FOIA compliance officers in their agencies were aware of their aliases, was every one of them really aware of it? There is room for doubt. Was there any way to guarantee that future FOIA officers would have this information so they could respond within the law when their records were searched in the future?

Problems with FOIA go beyond efforts by senior officials to hide their identity or their correspondence from public scrutiny. It is equally if not more concerning that the Justice Department, as often occurs with politically sensitive FOIA requests, improperly dragged its feet to thwart the ACLJ's valid request for the emails about Lynch's meeting with Clinton.

Not only did the department force the matter into unnecessary litigation that has lasted nearly a year but also imposed ridiculous and unjustified redactions that exceed permitted exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act.

Talking points that DOJ wrote and sent to the White House Office of Political Affairs were completely blacked out on the basis of a b(5) exemption, which is designed to protect "inter-agency or intraagency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency."

According to DOJ's guidance on FOIA's b(5) exemption, courts have interpreted this to "exempt those documents, and only those documents that are normally privileged in the civil discovery context." It is absurd to suggest that draft media talking points, written in a panic and sent to the White House to facilitate political damage control, would qualify as exempt from discovery in a civil court case. But the b(5) exemption has been so badly abused in other contexts that it is casually referred to as "the withhold-it-because-you-want-to exemption." This indicates a much bigger problem.

President Obama famously failed to keep his promise that his administration would presume in favor of disclosure wherever there was doubt. Instead he ran an administration that set new records for non-compliance with FOIA. As a result, Congress stepped in last year with a reform bill, which Obama did at least sign, to create a statutory presumption of disclosure. But even this has failed to change officials' habits, which always seek to conceal embarrassing details as long as possible.

Congress needs to fix FOIA, because it has become a sick and ironic joke. If bureaucrats refuse to preserve and deliver requested documents in a timely fashion as the law requires, perhaps all of their communications should by default be made available online after 30 days, with exemptions applied for on a case-by-case basis and subject to court challenge. The federal bureaucracy's obstinate non-compliance with valid requests justifies extreme measures. This is the entrenched civil service acting against the public interest and the law to shield itself and its political masters from detection in wrongdoing.

We hope that Lynch's case, with all the others over the years, helps convince Congress to go back to the drawing board on FOIA. Add tougher penalties, place stricter limits on exemptions, tighten regulations for government use of email. Do whatever is necessary. But make clear that no one is above the law, and make the federal government truly transparent to the public it exists to serve.

More here:
Bureaucrats can't run but they can hide, and it's time to stop them - Washington Examiner