A thriving social life is good for a dog’s health, according to a new study.
The study, from Arizona State University, found that although household income -- which correlates to a greater ability to afford veterinary care -- was a factor in how well and how long dogs live, it was not the biggest factor.
“We saw that the effect of social support was about five times stronger than the effect of finances,” Layla Brassington, a graduate student and one author of the study, said, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
“Meaning our dogs, like us, benefit greatly from social bonds and social connectedness.”
The dogs in the study were part of the Dog Aging Project, which attempts to understand how genes, the environment and lifestyle affect aging and disease.
The study surveyed over 21,000 dog owners. according to the New York Post. Questions ranged from diet and environment to medication.
Five factors went into the study: neighborhood stability, total household income, social time with children, social time with animals, and owner age.
“There were a few twists though: Dogs who lived in homes with children fared worse than those who lived with adults only, likely because owners spend more time with kids than pets, the researchers speculated," the Daily Star reported.
“We found that time with children actually had a detrimental effect on dog health,” Brassington said, according to SciTechDaily. "The more children or time that owners dedicate to their children likely leads to less time with their furry children.”
Graduate student Bri McCoy, who worked on the study, said the team’s interpretation was that it came down to “a resource allocation issue, rather than kids being bad for dogs.”
Play time, particularly with other dogs that want to run about with them, was important, the study found.
“This does show that, like many social animals, including humans, having more social companions can be really important for the dog’s health,” McCoy said, according to the Post.
Jamie Whittenburg, veterinarian director at Senior Tail Waggers, a group that gives advice on older pets, said the study reinforced what she has seen, according to the Daily Star.
“As both a veterinarian and lifelong pet owner, I was anecdotally aware that animals that had more positive social interactions received a health benefit, and it is great to see science backing this up,” said Whittenburg, director of Kingsgate Animal Hospital in Lubbock, Texas.
The study “reinforces what most of us know intuitively, which is that social connectedness has a positive effect on health in dogs,” she said.
However, she said, not every dog needs a playmate in the house.
“Owners should evaluate their individual dog and strive to provide the desired level of social interaction,” Whittenburg said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, accidentally killed her sister during a family vacation in 1981.
The day the accident happened was a few days before Siebel Newsom's 7th birthday, she told the Los Angeles Times.
Siebel Newsom, the second-eldest of five sisters, was playing on golf carts in Hawaii with other children when she backed her cart up without noticing that her older sister Stacey, 8, was hiding behind it.
The cart ran over Stacey, killing her.
Siebel Newsom responded to the childhood trauma by pushing herself academically, and in the arts and sports, she told the Times.
“I felt the pressure to be perfect, to make my parents forget, by being two daughters instead of one,” she said.
Siebel Newsom attended Stanford University, where she played soccer and earned an MBA.
“I’m sure there was survivor’s guilt, and I’m sure, in my subconscious, it’s like I have to make up for that loss, and I have to do something to improve other people’s lives or have an impact, double my own, which is a little crazy,” the 48-year-old said.
Siebel Newsom made headlines in November when she took the witness stand in Los Angeles to testify against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
She accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in a suite at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills in 2005. Siebel Newsom was an aspiring actress at the time, who had landed guest roles on various television programs and parts in films.
In December, the jury in the case deadlocked concerning her allegations, and prosecutors announced the case would not be retried.
In addition to being "first partner" of California (Siebel Newsom had the title changed from first lady), she is a documentary filmmaker.
Her most recent film is "Fair Play" (2022) based on the book of the same name about gender imbalances in the home.
Gov. Newsom has been raising his national profile in recent months through targeted television ads, and this week sat down for an interview with conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity.
Sean Hannity shows California Gov. Gavin Newsom 90 seconds of Biden's "struggles," then asks him if Biden is "cognitively strong enough to lead this country against China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and a new axis of evil."
Newsom says he's "seen a master class in results" 🥴 pic.twitter.com/P7iCSiIx2w
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) June 13, 2023
Newsom's media push, along with his wife's lengthy interview with the Times, will likely fuel speculation that he is waiting in the wings to launch a presidential bid, should President Joe Biden decide to pull out of the 2024 race, or perhaps if he appears vulnerable in the Democratic primaries.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
A multistate enterprise dealing in body parts has been disrupted with the arrests of six people, including the manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School, federal authorities announced Wednesday.
Cedric Lodge, 55, who managed the med school morgue, was among six people charged, along with his wife, Denise Lodge, 63, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. They are listed as residents of Goffstown, New Hampshire.
Others indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy and interstate transport of stolen goods charge were Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, Massachusetts; Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania; and Mathew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota.
In addition, Jeremy Pauley, 41, of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, was charged by criminal information, the release said.
Candace Chapman Scott of Little Rock, Arkansas, who was alleged to be part of the body parts network, was already indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas, it said.
A statement posted on the website of Harvard Medical School called the incident an "abhorrent betrayal.”
"It is with profound sadness and distress that we write to share with you that federal authorities have accused a former Harvard Medical School employee of having engaged in activities that are morally reprehensible," the school said.
Cedric Lodge the now former head of the morgue at Harvard Medical School leaving federal court after being charged with trafficking stolen human remains. #wbz@6 pic.twitter.com/arRhdHiPdx
— Beth Germano (@BethWBZ) June 14, 2023
U.S. Attorney Gerard Karam expressed similar sentiments about the case, saying in a statement, "Some crimes defy understanding,"
"The theft and trafficking of human remains strikes at the very essence of what makes us human," Karam said. "It is particularly egregious that so many of the victims here volunteered to allow their remains to be used to educate medical professionals and advance the interests of science and healing. For them and their families to be taken advantage of in the name of profit is appalling.
"With these charges, we are seeking to secure some measure of justice for all these victims."
Karam said body parts taken from the Harvard Medical School morgue were bought and sold from 2018 to 2022 as part of a national network. The indictment alleges the body parts were shipped out of state on occasion and that at times Maclean and Taylor were allowed into the morgue to select the body parts they wanted.
Pauley was arrested in 2022 in connection with the sale of body parts stolen from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Jeremy Pauley allegedly bought remains from a woman in Arkansas, which included a half a head, three brains with a skull cap, one heart, and more. https://t.co/1GLpaiZaz0
— True Crime Daily (@CrimeWatchDaily) August 19, 2022
The U.S. attorney's news release said Pauley bought body parts from Scott, who obtained cadavers from a funeral home where she worked and a medical school. The release said the body parts shipped included those from “two stillborn babies who were supposed to be cremated and returned as cremains to their families.”
Pauley and Lampi are each accused of buying and selling body parts.
Pauley sold many of the stolen remains he purchased to other individuals, including Lampi, according to authorities. They said Lampi and Pauley bought and sold from each other over an extended period of time and exchanged over $100,000 in online payments.
[firefly_poll]
"The defendants violated the trust of the deceased and their families all in the name of greed," FBI Special Agent in Charge Jacqueline Maguire said in a statement.
“Robbing families of the remains of their loved ones is an unconscionable act and confounds our collective sense of decency," said Christopher Nielsen, the inspector in charge of the Philadelphia division of the Postal Inspection Service. "Using the United States mail to facilitate the theft and shipment of human remains is a federal crime and the Postal Inspection Service will do everything in its power to stop it."
A criminal complaint said the object of the conspiracy was "to profit from the interstate shipment, purchase, and sale of stolen human remains,” according to WBZ-TV in Boston.
Prosecutors allege Maclean "agreed to purchase two dissected faces for $600" from Lodge in October 2020. The complaint said Maclean shipped human skin to Pauley in Pennsylvania in 2021 and "engaged his services to tan the skin to create leather."
The complaint also alleged that on Nove. 20, 2020, "Taylor sent Denise Lodge $200 with a memo that read, ‘braiiiiiins.’”
The statement posted on the website of the Harvard Medical School said authorities believe Lodge acted "without the knowledge or cooperation of anyone else at HMS or Harvard."
“We have been working with information supplied by federal authorities and examining our own records, particularly the logs showing when donor remains were sent to be cremated and when Lodge was on campus, to try to determine which anatomical donors may have been impacted,” said the statement, which was attributed to George Q. Daley, dean of the faculty of medicine, and Edward M. Hundert, dean for medical education.
“We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others.”
Read more on the indictment and arrest of a former HMS employee for the unlawful transport of stolen human remains. https://t.co/D1HzdVM77E
— Harvard Medical School (@harvardmed) June 14, 2023
“We are appalled to learn that something so disturbing could happen on our campus — a community dedicated to healing and serving others," they said.
"The reported incidents are a betrayal of HMS and, most importantly, each of the individuals who altruistically chose to will their bodies to HMS through the Anatomical Gift Program to advance medical education and research."
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
A police K-9 dog has died in a hot car for the second time this month after a car system designed to alert officers of an air conditioning failure did not work as intended.
Police in Houston informed the public on Monday that one of its service dogs had died after it was left in a department cruiser.
The Houston Police Department described the loss of a 4-year-old K-9 officer as a “tragic accident” that was the result of multiple factors.
“On June 12, 2023, we lost a member of our K-9 family in a tragic accident,” the department said in a statement. “Houston Police Department K-9 Aron, 4 years of age with 1.5 years of police service at the department, passed away from heat exhaustion.”
The department said the officer who left Aron in the car, which is a common practice between calls, did everything right.
“The handler left Aron in a running, air-conditioned patrol vehicle, which is a necessary and common practice when the K-9 partner is not actively engaged in police work,” police said.
But when Aron’s handler returned to the patrol car, a catastrophic failure was discovered.
Police said:
“When Aron's police handler returned to the vehicle, it was discovered that the engine had shut off and Aron was in distress. He was transported to an emergency veterinarian clinic but ultimately succumbed to the heat.
"HPD K-9 vehicles are equipped with a system that notifies the handler, sounds the horn, activates cooling fans, and rolls down the car windows, if for some reason the vehicle shuts down.”
On Monday, that system failed to work as designed. Numerous complaints have been made about system glitches issues since 2021.
The department is currently investigating why the alert system failed in an attempt to prevent a future tragedy involving a department K-9 officer.
Police assured the public that every car in the department will be inspected to ensure their systems are in working order.
In the meantime, the department asked for prayers.
“Please keep Aron's handler and the entire K-9 team in your prayers as they mourn the loss of Aron,” the police statement concluded.
Aron’s tragic death follows the hot car death of another K-9 officer in Georgia last week.
WAGA-TV reported a K-9 officer named Chase with the Cobb County Police Department died on June 5 after his handler was assigned a different car.
For an unknown reason, the department said the car’s air conditioning went out.
Chase was found unresponsive and later died.
Police said a safety system that should have alerted Chase’s handler of the malfunction failed to do so.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
Two House Republicans are demanding answers from Secretary of State Antony Blinken over his role in presenting information from Hunter Biden’s laptop as little short of disinformation.
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, and Mike Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee sent Blinken a letter on Monday chiding him for what they call his “unresponsive” reply to a letter they sent Blinken in April.
The April letter demanded to know Blinken's role in the Oct. 19, 2020, letter that warned Hunter Biden’s leaked emails, which appeared to show corruption in the Biden family, were part of a Russian operation.
Blinken was an adviser to the campaign at the time. Since then, the contents of the laptop have been verified as authentic.
Rep. @Jim_Jordan and @RepMikeTurner ramped up pressure on Blinken to provide information about any involvement he had in 51 former intelligence officials publicly casting doubt on the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop. https://t.co/iLlFVZuIl7
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 12, 2023
In the Monday letter, which was posted by Breitbart, the congressmen noted that “We received a reply letter from your attorney on May 4, 2023, which set forth several reasons why you believe you do not need to cooperate, and therefore was unresponsive to our request.”
“Accordingly, we respectfully write to reiterate our request for your voluntary cooperation,” the letter said, although it noted in its closing that it set a deadline of June 26 for a reply and, “The Committees may consider the use of compulsory process if these requests remain outstanding beyond that date.”
In the original April letter to Blinken asking him to explain his role in the letter, Jordan and Turner quoted testimony from Michael Morell, a former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, that a phone call from Blinken was the impetus for him to draft the letter.
In the letter dated Monday, Jordan and Turner wrote that “the response letter sent on your behalf did not dispute the central facts at issue -- that you, while serving as a senior advisor to the Biden campaign, contacted Michael Morell, a former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), about the Hunter Biden laptop story, which set in motion the events that led to the issuance of the public statement.”
After citing Morell's comments that Blinken instigated his effort to have the letter published, the letter said, “The most logical inference from these facts is that the public statement about Hunter Biden’s laptop would not have happened if not for your outreach to Mr. Morell.”
“Although Mr. Morell denied that the Biden campaign asked him to prepare a statement, the actual record on this point is not as clear as your response letter claims, relying, as it does, on selective leaks from the Committees’ minority members,” the letter said.
The letter cites a comment from Marc Polymeropoulos, who helped draft the statement that Morell "'did mention to me that someone in the kind of Biden world had asked about doing this.’”
The letter quoted Polymeropoulos as also saying, "'Morell said to me, that someone from kind of the Biden world has asked for this. And he did not tell me who it was or any other kinds of details of it.’”
The letter also cited testimony from James Clapper, former Director of National Intelligence, that former CIA Director John Brennan told him "'that Tony Blinken had reached out to Michael [Morell] about putting together a public statement.’”
The letter concluded that “Whether you explicitly solicited the letter or not, the Committees’ record is clear that you played a key role in the inception of this statement.”
The Hunter Biden issue is not the only one facing Blinken in which Congress is demanding information. Last month, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas threatened Blinken with contempt of Congress if Blinken does not provide a classified cable related to the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to U.S. News and World Report.
A Wall Street Journal article has said the cable warned that Kabul would collapse if U.S. troops were withdrawn.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
A Michigan town has discovered almost 300 absentee ballots from the 2020 election sitting in a storage unit.
"My biggest concern is why were they in a storage unit?" Thetford Township Supervisor Rachel Stanke said, according to WJRT-TV.
"Why were they never mailed out to the voters for one? There's got to be a reason why. I don't think you can forget to mail out 289 ballots to voters,” she said.
Stanke said none of the ballots were mailed, and although 77.5 percent of the ballots found were marked spoiled -- which means new ones were sent -- not all were so marked.
"I'm thankful that those people did get to vote, but there is a good amount of people that never got to vote," Stanke said. "And I believe during that time we were in a pandemic. People didn't want to come out of their houses. We have disabled people. There's a reason that they vote absentee."
Stanke said she first heard about a box of absentee ballots last summer, according to WWMT. At the time, she said she alerted the Michigan Attorney General's Office and the Secretary of State's Office before reaching out to the Michigan State Police.
After contacting the Michigan State Police, they took them away last August.
[firefly_poll]
At the time, she said she alerted the Michigan Attorney General's Office and the Secretary of State's Office for contacting Michigan State Police.
Stanke eventually filed a Freedom of Information request to learn what the state police discovered.
The storage unit had been rented by a former township employee.
“[The former employee] was not aware when she was asked to store them in there. She thought they were old township documents," Stanke said.
Nearly 300 absentee ballots from 2020 were just found in a storage unit, where the margin of victory for a local election was 19 votes.
"Katie Hicks, who lost by 19 votes in her race for Thetford Township Clerk..said she cannot trust future elections."https://t.co/yyNEsuXVSR
— Cari Kelemen (@KelemenCari) June 10, 2023
Stanke said she shared the information at a town board meeting last week to ensure everyone knew the facts.
“So that's why I want to bring this to their attention. And I want them to be able to make sure that their elections are run fairly and smoothly,” she said.
But Katie Hicks, who lost the race for town clerk by 19 votes in 2020, was sour on the elections when asked if she could trust the process.
"No, I cannot," she said.
In the 2020 election, nearly 2 million Michigan voters requested absentee ballots, a 73 percent increase from 2018, according to WDIV-TV.
“Now this is all coming out and it kind of, you know, I'm kind of happy that it's coming out because the election is right around the corner again. And it concerns me that this will take place again for 2024," Stanke said, WWMT reported.
The town is now waiting for the Michigan Attorney General's Office to issue a ruling to assess if any laws were broken in the incident, according to WJRT-TV.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
With former president Trump now facing federal charges over a litany of spurious charges, it might be time to reflect on the fact that Biden, the man whose Justice Department is behind the indictment, seemingly has some nasty secrets of his own.
On Friday, journalist Chanel Rion, chief White House correspondent for One American News Network, took to Twitter to remind Americans of a very disturbing fact - that the former Ukrainian prosecutor general has a document that could ruin the president.
Back in 2019, as Congress was getting ready to impeach Trump for the first time, Viktor Shokin, who formerly served as Ukraine's top prosecutor, told OAN that he had been investigating the money laundering activities of Hunter Biden regarding his holdings in the company Burisma.
In the interview, Shokin alleges that he was forced to end his investigation of Hunter by the then-president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, who said that then-Vice President Joe Biden was threatening to withhold aid to Ukraine unless the investigation ended.
Poroshenko, who desperately needed American aid in the face of Russian aggression, demanded that Shokin halt the investigation, and when Shokin refused, he dismissed him.
Shokin then claimed that there are transcripts of Biden's phone calls with Poroshenko that prove that he was trying to bribe Ukrainian officials to end their investigation of his son.
“The transcripts of Biden’s telephone conversations with Poroshenko is where the truth will show itself," Shokin said, "Americans must demand it."
"And if they do," he continued, "they will see, broad as day, Joe Biden was illegally influencing foreign officials in order to protect his son Hunter and shield illegal money laundering activities.”
Fmr Ukraine Prosecutor Gen. Victor Shokin on #BidenBribery:
“The transcripts of Biden’s telephone conversations with Poroshenko is where the truth will show itself.
Americans must demand it.
And if they do, they will see, broad as day, Joe Biden was illegally influencing… pic.twitter.com/uS3TYXmwKC
— Chanel Rion OAN (@ChanelRion) June 9, 2023
To be clear, none of Shokin's claims have been proven true, but they nonetheless could cause major problems for the president.
Joe Biden's personal interest in Ukraine is at the heart of the allegations of corruption and bribery against his family, and there is a very high-ranking Ukrainian official who claims to have proof of it.
Bear in mind, this is not just some random Ukrainian government worker, Shokin was the country's top prosecutor and it would have been his job to oversee the investigation of Hunter Biden.
The transcripts, if real, would prove that Biden knew of his son's illegal activities and abused his position as vice president to cover for him.
That would be problematic on a number of levels, for obvious reasons.
Right now, the nation is focused on the indictment of Donald Trump, a case that has the potential to cause serious problems for him. But the accusations against Biden are no less damming.
Should these alleged transcripts actually exist, they would prove everything that conservatives have said for years about the Biden family, and the president would be unable to deny his involvement.
Americans need to know if their president was involved in these illegal activities.
If the transcripts are real, Americans deserve to see them.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
During the third year of President Joe Biden’s presidency, more younger people are identifying as socially conservative, according to a new poll.
Meanwhile, the number of older Americans who identify as conservative dropped by two points from the previous year.
Gallup released its yearly Values and Beliefs survey Thursday, and some of its findings are surprising.
While much of the country’s culture and politics have shifted to the left in recent years, more people are identifying as conservative than in a decade.
According to the poll, the number of people who identify as socially conservative is at its highest in more than 10 years.
Thirty-eight percent of people polled by Gallup said they are either conservative or very conservative.
The number is the highest since 2012, when 38 percent of Americans also identified as conservative during the final year of former President Barack Obama’s term in the White House.
At the same time, the number of Americans who identified as either liberal or very liberal dropped to 29 percent from 34 percent, where it had remained throughout 2021 and 2022.
When Gallup asked people to identify their political leanings by age, only one age demographic identified as less socially conservative than the previous two years.
Of those 65 and older, 42 percent told Gallup they were socially conservative.
In 2022, that number was 44 percent, while 43 percent of seniors said they were socially conservative in 2021.
Gallup noted, “Since 2021, there have been double-digit increases in conservative social ideology among middle-aged adults -- those between the ages of 30 and 64.”
The pollster added, “At the same time, older Americans’ ideology on social issues has been stable, while there has been a modest increase in conservative social ideology among young adults.”
Gallup found that among Americans aged 18-29, 30 percent in this year's poll said they were socially conservative.
In 2022, 26 percent of young people identified as conservative, while in 2021 that number was only 24 percent – a six-point increase in 24 months.
Surprisingly, 10 percent of Democrats said they identified as socially conservative, while six percent of Republicans said they identified as liberal.
Among all independent voters, 29 percent of them said they identify as socially conservative, while 23 percent of them said they identified as liberal.
Gallup surveyed 1,011 American adults from May 1 to May 24.
The poll reported a margin of error at +/- four points.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny said in a new interview he was scared in the moments leading up to his fatal encounter with Jordan Neely on a New York City subway last month.
Penny, 24, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the May 1 death of Neely, 30, a mentally disturbed homeless man with a lengthy criminal record.
He faces up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted of the crime as charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
In an interview with Fox News published Thursday, Penny declined to go into detail about the chokehold in which he put Neely after the man allegedly threatened to harm passengers.
According to numerous accounts, an erratic Neely boarded the train, began to threaten people and said he was prepared to spend the rest of his life in prison.
"If [Neely] had carried out his threats, he would have killed somebody," Penny told Fox News.
He also said, "Between stops, you’re trapped on the train, and there’s nowhere to go. You can try to move away, but you can only do so much on a packed car.”
In his reaction to Neely, he said, "I was scared. I looked around, and I saw older women and children, and they were terrified.”
'I WAS SCARED': Marine vet accused of fatal subway chokehold reveals why he stepped in. https://t.co/Gp7ARYkhnZ pic.twitter.com/FhnVwlizSo
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 8, 2023
Penny decided not to share any further details about the physical encounter.
He did say he was traumatized by the fatal encounter and had not ridden in a subway car since the incident.
Penny also offered some more information about his background, telling Fox News he grew up around 9/11 first responders and he has always been drawn to service, which was why he joined the Marines.
Penny recounted that Holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel spoke at his high school after students had read his autobiography, “Night,” about his time in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
"One of the overall messages that he talked about was that good people did nothing," he said of Wiesel’s message. "It’s a lesson that I carry with me to this day.”
In addition, Penny said he has been praying for Neely’s family.
"They’ve been in my prayers. I feel for their loss," he said. "Like Jordan, they’re also victims of a failed system.”
Penny also thanked donors who gave millions of dollars to his legal defense fund through a GiveSendGo campaign.
[firefly_poll]
"I was working two jobs as a student," he told Fox News. "My family doesn’t come from money, so I’m incredibly thankful for this fund and all the people who have supported me."
He said he does not regret his decision to intervene when Neely made the threats.
Neely reportedly suffered from mental illness and had been arrested at least 40 times in recent years. Some of those arrests were for violent crimes against women, children and the elderly.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The ongoing persecution of Donald Trump by both the Department of Justice and the establishment media is a game of dirty pool.
The latest splash the bad actors are hyping involves an actual pool: The swimming pool at Trump’s home at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach County, Florida.
A CNN "exclusive" report published Monday by reporter Katelyn Polantz claims the DOJ is investigating an incident that took place in October when a room containing computer equipment flooded when the pool was drained. The implication is that Trump contrived the flood to destroy surveillance footage concerning document handling at the home.
Prosecutors are making a deep dive into the matter to make sure the flood was not an effort to destroy evidence and thwart investigations, Polantz reported, citing unnamed, as usual, "sources familiar with the matter."
Appearing Monday on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," Polantz said the apparent maintenance accident “adds into this constellation of things that just are suspicious.”
“A maintenance worker.. drained the pool and when that happened, it flooded a room and that room had I.T. Equipment in it that had surveillance footage.. and it's not clear if prosecutors believe that this flood was intentional. It could’ve been a mistake” pic.twitter.com/YBMlcb4NbK
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 5, 2023
In her article, Polantz floated the claim that the same maintenance man who allegedly was filmed moving boxes around a secured storage room in the Trump residence was the one who drained the pool. It was not explained where the surveillance equipment was located, and how pool water got there during the draining.
Tellingly, Polantz mentioned reports said no video surveillance footage was damaged in the flood, which would seem to undermine the point of the story.
It has not been confirmed if there are missing documents or missing footage. There isn’t even confirmation there was any damage to the servers.
"Prosecutors have heard testimony that the IT equipment in the room was not damaged in the flood, according to one source," Polantz reported.
However, for establishment media reporters covering Trump, the point seems to be to make up accusations, just like the whole "Russia collusion" hoax that was exposed and documented by special counsel John Durham.
Polantz needs to add those systematic deceptions to her "constellation of things that just are suspicious."
The handling of classified documents is just one of the current witch hunt strategies against Trump. It began with an unprecedented and unjustified FBI raid in Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022.
The FBI had inspected the document storage in June 2022, and raised no concerns, other than requesting an additional lock be installed. Then two months later, the FBI executed a search warrant in a manner Trump described as looking like a military coup.
Trump accused President Joe Biden of being in on the raid, which Biden denied. The plausibility of that denial took a serious hit in April when a conservative watchdog group went public with evidence that the White House actually helped instigate the raid.
The raid backfired with the public, exposing FBI shenanigans like rummaging through former first lady Melania Trump’s wardrobe and having to issue “revised” inventories of the documents seized.
Even left-leaning media sources like The Hill had to admit that as president, Trump very well may wield the ultimate power to declassify documents, rendering the pretext for the raid moot.
Desperate to get Trump on something, anything, corrupt Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel in November to carry on the Trump witch hunt.
Of course, no special counsels were named to investigate Biden or former Vice President Mike Pence, even though classified documents had shown up in their possession, too.
This latest leftist conspiracy that Trump may have masterminded a server room flood is based on wishful thinking by those who hate him. The journalists and investigators imagined Trump would stoop to the same tactics the swamp uses.
They fantasize Trump ordered a Fulton County, Georgia-style burst pipe scenario to cover up his theoretical crimes. They hope by proving Trump conspired to drain the pool onto his security cam footage, he can be prevented from returning as president to drain the swamp.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
