Cross-Examination

• The FBI DID target Catholics: You’d think that Joe Biden, being the, ahem, good Catholic that he is, would be incensed about the FBI’s efforts to target adherents to his faith. Recall that back in July, the FBI’s pencil-pushing director, Chris Wray, was hauled before the House Judiciary Committee to explain the now-infamous Richmond memo — a document produced in January by the bureau’s Richmond field office exploring “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism in radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology” and discussing “new mitigation opportunities” for cracking down on them. At the time, Wray wanted us to believe that the document wasn’t to be taken seriously. Indeed, he dismissed it as “a single product by a single field office, which, as soon as I found out about it, I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems.” Earlier this month, Senate Judiciary Committee member Josh Hawley blasted Wray in yet another hearing: “You haven’t fired anybody,” he thundered. So much for accountability. And now we learn, via an April FOIA request by legal watchdog Judicial Watch, that the bureau’s Office of General Counsel reviewed the Richmond memo. “These documents disprove the FBI’s narrative that the spy operation against Catholics and churches was limited to one field office,” says Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “In fact, the operation seems to have been approved by top lawyers in the FBI. These documents should trigger a criminal inquiry into this Biden FBI scandal.”

• Justice for a Russia-colluding FBI hypocrite: There hasn’t been any justice meted out for the conspirators of the Obama administration who concocted the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, but some small consolation emerged on Thursday when Charles McGonigal, an FBI counterintelligence chief who spent more than two decades working on our nation’s biggest terrorism and national security cases, was sentenced to more than four years in prison. Of course, the sentence had nothing to do with his role in helping to launch Crossfire Hurricane against Donald Trump. Instead, McGonigal had pleaded guilty in August to accepting secret payments from a Russian billionaire with close ties to Vladimir Putin for the purpose of digging up dirt on a rival oligarch. The charges included conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions, money laundering, and violating federal law against doing business with sanctioned individuals. But that wasn’t McGonigal’s only foray into lawlessness. As The Wall Street Journal reports: “The Justice Department also charged McGonigal in a separate case in Washington with concealing his relationship with a former employee of an Albanian intelligence agency. Prosecutors alleged McGonigal received more than $225,000 from that person and hid aspects of their relationship.” While it’s true that there are plenty of committed and patriotic personnel within the FBI, the bureau’s reputation has suffered greatly due to its pro-Democrat politicization. Thankfully, McGonigal’s confession of a “deep sense of remorse and sorrow” fell on deaf ears at sentencing.

• Pro-life organizations are working for women: Republicans have taken their lumps at the polls ever since last year’s Dobbs decision overturned the half-century-old abomination of Roe v Wade, but the righteousness of the cause can’t be disputed — at least not by anyone who appreciates the sanctity of life. And the news hasn’t all been grim. As National Review’s Michael New writes, a new report from a group of pro-life organizations “found impressive increases in the impact of pro-life pregnancy help centers.” New continues: “In 2022, pregnancy help centers saw over 970,000 clients and provided over $358 million worth of goods and services to women, youth, and families. These included everything from strollers and cribs to ultrasounds and pregnancy tests. Even more impressively, over 97% of people who sought assistance at pro-life pregnancy help centers reported a positive experience.” We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Babies win!

• Another monument will bite the dust: Our nation’s obsession with whitewashing its past continues apace, as a Confederate memorial in Arlington National Cemetery will be removed in the coming days. The erasure is thus part of the Left’s push to eliminate symbols of our past that some find offensive — namely, those that commemorate the losing side in the War Between the States in an effort to bring about reconciliation. As The Washington Times reports, “The decision ignores a recent demand from more than 40 Republican congressmen that the Pentagon suspend efforts to dismantle and remove the monument from Arlington cemetery.” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin disagrees with the decision and plans to move the monument to a nearby historical park. The Times continues: “The statue, unveiled in 1914, features a bronze woman, crowned with olive leaves, standing on a 32-foot pedestal, and was designed to represent the American South. According to Arlington, the woman holds a laurel wreath, a plow stock and a pruning hook, with a Biblical inscription at her feet that says: ‘They have beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks.’”

• Taking DEI to the next level: In a self-proclaimed effort to stamp out sexism and a lack of diversity, the CEO of Aviva, a British insurance company, is engaging in blatant sexism and racial discrimination to ensure that woke diversity quotas are met. Aviva head Amanda Blanc says “no non-diverse hire” (read: white male) can be brought on without her approval. “The scope of the charter is to get more women into senior management roles,” she explained. “My belief is if you have more women in senior management roles, this behavior will go away.” The “problem” Blanc was referencing was a toxic work environment supposedly rife with sexual misconduct. It is interesting to see the effort to promote anti-white bigotry in a country whose indigenous population is white. But this is what adopting the neo-Marxist ideology of critical race theory gets you. People are judged not as individuals but as members of a group, and the ironic result is even more sexism and racism, the exact opposite of what the Left is claiming to fight. Go figure.

• Seattle teen “fails” gender quiz for giving correct answer: A sophomore at Chief Sealth International High School in Seattle, Washington, recently failed a history quiz when he gave answers to questions that didn’t adhere to the woke gender-bending dogma. The quiz in question was titled “Understanding Gender vs. Sex,” and it used a true-false formulation. The student answered two questions as “true” — “All men have penises” and “Only women can get pregnant.” His accurate answers were marked incorrect, resulting in a failing score for the “knowledge check” quiz. The student’s mother felt “frustration and anger” upon seeing the quiz and noted how her son, who is white, reports being accused of being a racist by teachers and called “a product of the patriarchy that teaches young boys not to care about anything.” The Seattle public schools claimed that the quiz was designed to “promote inclusion” in line with its standards for Ethnic Studies class. The school district was quick to also claim that the failed quiz would not affect the student’s overall grade. Well, that’s a telling admission. It would appear the Seattle school district knows it’s engaged in pushing woke indoctrination as education since its standards can’t hold up to objective truth, scientific reality, and historical accuracy.

• Rainbow Mafia vs. Abilene Christian University: A biblically committed Christian school holds to a view on human sexuality that views any sexual activity outside the bonds of marriage — defined as between one man and one woman — as sinful and people are “shocked”? Please. Yet this is what the Leftmedia and its Rainbow Mafia dons would have you believe. Hence the attempt to gin up outrage over the fact that Abilene Christian University holds to Scripture as its guide on sexuality during its Holy Sexuality Week event. A new alumni group claiming “over 2,000 students, alumni and friends” has formed to smear the recent event as denying “the lived reality of LGBTQ+ Christians,” claiming it inaccurately promoted the idea “that homosexuality lacks a genetic basis” (which is true; there is no evidence of a “gay gene”) and that “the opposite of homosexuality is holiness.” This is a classic case of Rainbow Mafia bullying. They don’t like the fact that a private Christian school views homosexuality as sinful and therefore seeks to pressure administrators, faculty, and staff into giving up their faith-based convictions in order to avoid being labeled as “hateful bigots.” The trouble is, too many are willing to bow to the rainbow flag rather than withstand the deviant assault. Here’s hoping that ACU stands strong on the unchanging word of God and doesn’t fall for the false temptation of going along to get along.

• A miracle of tornado survival: A Tennessee couple and their two young children are happy to be alive after a tornado destroyed their home recently. When an EF-3 tornado hit their neighborhood in Clarksville, it destroyed multiple houses and killed six people. Thankfully, Sydney Moore, her two children, and her boyfriend are not among the dead, even as their mobile home was ripped to pieces around them and their four-month-old son was whisked away by the twister. After the tornado passed, the couple desperately searched through the rubble for their infant, though before long the baby was found in a fallen tree. “I thought he was dead,” Moore said. “I was pretty sure he was dead and we weren’t going to find him. But he’s here, and that’s by the grace of God.” Indeed. A GoFundMe has been started by Moore’s sister to help the family recover from the ordeal.

Headlines

• Leaked explicit video shows two men having sex in Senate hearing room (Washington Examiner)

• Giuliani must pay $148 million in damages for defaming Georgia election workers (Forbes)

• Suspect charged with DUI after Biden motorcade crash (Fox News)

• Biden admin gives $34 million to “confidential” aid groups in Gaza. Watchdog warns the money could enrich terrorists. (Free Beacon)

• Majority of Americans 18-24 think Israel should “be ended and given to Hamas” (New York Post)

• Billions in Middle East donations to U.S. universities linked to campus anti-Semitism (Washington Times)

• Three hostages were shot dead after being misidentified by soldier, Israel says (NPR)

• A former hostage describes seven weeks with Hamas (Hot Air)

• Ten IEDs found at U.S.-Mexico border in cartel gunfight (Fox Business)

• Democrat Arizona governor signs order to send National Guard to border (Hot Air)

• Chicago mayor announces plans to ax city’s high-achieving selective-enrollment high schools to boost “equity” despite promising not to during election campaign (Daily Mail)

• Ex-NYT editor forced out over Tom Cotton op-ed writes damning tell-all about exit (Daily Wire)

• Musk-hating Biden FCC drops Starlink deal adopted in 2020 (Hot Air)

• Children turn to social media before their parents, poll indicates (Washington Stand)

• Veteran given eight medals on his 100th birthday that he never received for his service during WWII (Not the Bee)

• Humor: Clarence the Angel takes Gavin Newsom to Florida to show him what California would look like if he’d never been born (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.