WASHINGTON, D.C. – A memo released today, signed by the Director of the National Intelligence Committee, John Ratcliffe claims the Russian collusion hoax against President Donald J. Trump was fabricated by his opponent, Hillary Clinton.  Today, Ratcliffe declassified portions of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

The FBI investigation found that in late July 2016, U.S. intelligence agencies obtained insight into Russian intelligence analysis alleging that U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Cli

nton had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee. The IC does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.

The FBI also said that then-President Barack Obama was briefed by former CIA Director John Brennan about Clinton’s proposal to vilify Trump.

“According to his handwritten notes, former Central Intelligence Agency Director Brennan subsequently briefed President Obama and other senior national security officials on the intelligence, including the “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,” the FBI investigation found.

On September 7, 2016, U.S. intelligence officials forwarded an investigative referral to FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok regarding, “U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private mail server.”

Ratcliffe said the release of the information will not impact or interfere with any ongoing Department of Justice investigations in a letter addressed today Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

As referenced in his 24 September 2020 letter to your Committee, Attorney General Barr has advised that the disclosure of this information will not interfere with the ongoing Department of Justice investigations. Additional declassification and public disclosure of related intelligence remain under consideration; however, the IC welcomes the opportunity to provide a classified briefing with further detail at your convenience.

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ – Attorney Howard Mankoff, once touted by Mayor Michael Reina as the superstar land-use lawyer who will defend the township against a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Agudath Israel of America is out.   Mankoff came highly recommended by Reina when he was hired to replace nationally renowned RLIUPPA attorney Marci Hamilton.  Hamilton walked off the job according to sources inside the township after the township rejected a negotiated settlement in 2019.

In 2020, Jackson Township Mayor Michael Reina fired township attorney Jean Cipriani and hired pay to play attorney Gregory P. McGuckin.   Howard Mankoff replaced Cipriani on the case, but according to court filings, has been “terminated” and replaced with Brent Robert Pohlman of Methfessel & Werbel, based in Edison.

Pohlman will represent the Township of Jackson, Robert Nixon, Michael Reina, William Campbell, Helene Schlegel, and Kenneth Pieslak.

Mr. Pohlman was the trial lawyer who represented the Borough of Woodcliff Lake against Valley Chabad.  Pohlman, in August, presented a settlement to the borough which the borough voted to adopt.

“Settlement avoids negative findings or illegal judgement against Woodcliff Lake,” the town attorney told the townspeople on August 20th.  “It saves money and it potentially resolves the matter once and for all at relatively an early stage of the case. The settlement doesn’t permit a vindication of the Town’s position. It doesn’t allow any vindication of the Valley Chabad’s position and it doesn’t allow vindication through the Department of Justice’s position.”

Pohlman urged Woodcliff Lake to settle with the Department of Justice.

“Things happen that nobody anticipates especially during a deposition. It also involves adverse publicity. Litigation also involves a tremendous cost. In a case of this magnitude, Woodcliff Lake is going to attorney fees to its own attorneys and should it lose, in any way, shape or form, the private action, it will pay the attorney fees of Valley Cha bad as well. Then there will be the cost of expert fees and there could be a judgement against the town. This will result in the town having to de-prioritize other things,” the town attorney said. “These are fiscally challenging times and elected members of this body and taxpayers are going to have to decide what do you want to spend your money on. Remember, if you settle, you compromise.”

The borough, through Pohlman’s negotiated settlement will now have to pay the Valley Chabad $1.5 million in attorney’s fees.

As part of the consent decree approved by Pohlman, the borough will permit Valley Chabad to construct a new Chabad house on its property,” the Department of Justice said about the settlement. “The resolution would also enjoin the borough from acting in a manner that violates RLUIPA and require the borough to establish a procedure for receiving and resolving RLUIPA complaints, train its employees on RLUIPA’s requirements, and submit regular reports to the United States and the court on its compliance. In the separate agreement that resolves the related private action, the borough agreed to pay Valley Chabad $1.5 million to resolve its claims for damages and attorney’s fees that arose from the borough’s conduct.”\

“The statues under which these claims are made provide for compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorneys’ fees and costs. It is important to note that in the State of New Jersey there is no insurance coverages for punitive damages,” Pohlman said at the meeting. “To obtain a large verdict, a Plaintiff does not need to prevail on all or even most of their claims. In fact, under RLUPIA a Plaintiff does not even have to prove discriminatory intent. There is a theory of liability, one that is being put forth in this case, that allows a Plaintiff to prevail even if it can demonstrate that an Ordinance, rule or regulation of practice presented a substantial burden to the free practice of religion. These cases are extremely fact sensitive and involves thousands of pages of documents, many depositions and multiple experts. There is typically a significant amount of motion practice before the court and lengthy trials. The attorney fees on both sides are very high. In the cost of defense, potential damages are always a factor in determining your litigation strategy.”

MANCHESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ – Trick or treat is on in Manchester Township according to Mayor Ken Palmer.  Palmer said today his office has been receiving inquiries about Halloween trick or treating from residents and said as long as Governor Phil Murphy doesn’t cancel the holiday at the state level, the show will go on in his town.

“We have been getting a number of inquiries about Halloween and Trick or Treating. We WILL permit Trick or Treating unless the State proscribes otherwise. Enjoy and stay safe,” Palmer said today.

Palmer’s decision comes days after Brick Township Mayor announced trick or treat and trunk or treat are on for the township this year despite COVID-19 and gave residents suggestions on how to safely participate in both.  On Halloween, Ducey encouraged residents to use their porch lights as a signifier to let trick or treaters know if you want people knocking on your door or not.  Ducey said homes that will be giving out candy should turn their lights on at around 2pm and those homes that do not wish to have visitors should turn their porch lights off for the night.

“People might not want anyone knocking in this time we live in, for covid-19 or whatever,” Ducey said.   Trunk or Treat this year will take place on October 23rd. The township will soon be releasing more information on the event.

Check back here for the latest town by town Trick or Treat announcements at the Jersey Shore. If your town has an announcement, please email us [email protected].

TRENTON, NJ – An effort to recall New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy in 2019 fell short of getting the required number of signatures and failed to accomplish its goal, but a new filing this year has been flat out rejected by the state’s division of elections.  New Jersey resident Alexander Spielman filed with the state to recall the governor but received a letter this week notifying him of the state’s rejection.

“The Division of Elections received your notice of intention to recall Governor Philip Dunton Murphy on September 21, 2020.  Pursuant to NJSA 19:27 A-6, the notice of intention requires a statement as to whether the recall election shall be held at the next general election…or at a special election,” the letter read. “Your notice of intention failed to include a statement with a legal date for the recall election.  For this reason, your notice of intention has been rejected.”

Spielman said the state notified him that if he chose to hold a special election ahead of the 2021 election, he would have to incur the costs of that special election.

The letter continued, please be advised that the recall election cannot be included on the November 2020 ballot as ballots have already been printed.  Additionally, no election to recall an official shall be held after the date occurring six months prior to the general election or regular election for that office, as appropriate, in the final year of the official’s term.

Due to the timing of this year’s election and next year’s election, the state says the next available window to recall the governor, should he win in 2021 would be after January 2023, after having served more than one year of his new term.

TRENTON, NJ –  New Jersey trails far behind the rest of America when it comes to reopening businesses, including restaurants, movie theaters, gyms, barbers, nail salons and hair salons, but it leads the nation when it comes to rate of infection, rate of death and deaths per capita.  Those dueling facts fuel the fire for opponents of Governor Phil Murphy who claim his prolonged closures didn’t help save lives but helped to kill the state’s economy.   Hundreds, if not thousands of businesses have shut their doors in New Jersey for good.  Many once-thriving businesses are now struggling and state legislators want to know what the criteria to allow those businesses to reopen at full capacity are.

Murphy is keeping his formula a secret as if it was the secret formula for Coca Cola or KFC.

Monmouth County Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso wants answers, but she’s not getting them.  She asked about the Governor’s new reopening criteria at a budget committee hearing, but received no answers from the Murphy administration.

Initially, the state’s pandemic shutdown was sold to New Jersey as a two-week closure to “soften the curve” to ensure the state’s medical care system wasn’t overloaded.  That overload never happened, but no sooner than the curve was softened in May, Governor Phil Murphy pulled “spot positivity rate” or “Rt” as a key indicator for reopening, along with new hospitalizations and the virus’ effective reproduction rate.

With all three of those indicators at pandemic low levels, last week the state announced it is now using ten different indicators, but so far hasn’t shared the 7 newly added indicators with anyone outside of Murphy’s administration.

We’re now seven months removed from the initial pandemic shut down and Governor Phil Murphy keeps moving the goalposts on New Jersey’s struggling industry and businesses.  Freshman New Jersey Senator Michael Testa this week said enough is enough and the state legislature needs to act swiftly to stop Murphy’s “power grab” which is disguised as a government concerned about the health and wellbeing of its residents.

For the seventh time since March, Governor Murphy has extended the Public Health Emergency that he has used to justify overbearing executive orders that have caused unimaginable disruption to the lives and livelihoods of our friends and neighbors,” Testa said. “New Jerseyans did exactly what the governor asked back in March. They stayed home and many lost their jobs as employers ordered closed by the governor have shuttered forever. It has to end.”

Testa cried foul against the Murphy administration saying the governor is acting in an authoritative manner, ignoring the legislative branch of government.

“The Legislature has met numerous times since the Public Health Emergency was first declared in March, providing ample opportunity for the Legislature to be consulted and perform oversight as a co-equal branch of government,” Testa said. “Shame on the Democrats who control Trenton for failing to make the governor justify each and every one of the restrictions he placed on New Jerseyans.”

DiMaso and New Jersey Senator Declan O’Scanlon this week called for Murphy to increase the 25% capacity in restaurants to 66% before more businesses close their doors and more New Jersey jobs are lost.  O’Scanlon said he received a message from a prominent business owner and restaurateur that he may be forced out of business if things don’t change.

With the weather getting colder and Murphy’s outdoor dining exclusion set to expire in November, restaurant owners are starting to panic about the future.

“This is a prominent restaurateur, his family and restaurant are beloved throughout Monmouth County. This is the last restaurant I’d expect to hear this from. If this individual is this close to the precipice we are in danger of losing them all,” said O’Scanlon. “This is a direct text and if this individual does pull the trigger it will be a shock to Monmouth County and to the State industry.”

“Sorry to bother you I know you’re a busy man but I was wondering if there has been any word on Murphy raising the indoor dining percentage from 25% to your proposed 66% because if that doesn’t happen sooner than later I’m going to have to throw the towel in it’s just not enough to keep the doors open and I would like to give my staff ample notice. I mean looks like we may have this week on our side but that’s probably it. Unfortunately I cannot put outdoor heaters under our canopy due to the obvious fire hazard and after September 30 the road closure which allowed us to put tables out in the street ends… lmk thanks,” the restaurant owner texted to O’Scanlon.

“The evidence is clear from all of our surrounding states – Indoor dining at 50 percent to 100 percent capacity can be done safely. We are way behind our Northeast neighbors virtually all of which have been open far longer than we have and at capacities ranging up to 100 percent. None of them are reporting spikes due to indoor dining.” O’Scanlon continued. “The science isn’t different in New Jersey.”

“We hear every single day from beleaguered restaurant owners who don’t know how to continue like this,” said DiMaso. “The Governor claims we need to see a sustained lack of outbreak, but we’ve already seen that. And even yesterday in his conversation with Dr. Fauci, the Governor was told that we are in a good position to continue the reopening of our economy. These businesses cannot take much more and, frankly, I don’t know what the administration is waiting for anymore.”

TRENTON, NJ – As New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy continues to tout his success in the COVID-19 battle, facts don’t back up the governors position any more than they can back up his science that has led New Jersey to become the most deadly state when it comes to contracting COVID-19.

New Jersey has had 207,977 reported cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic.  16,225 New Jersey residents died from the virus. In comparison, states like Texas, California, and Florida each have had over 700,00 reported cases and between 14,000 to 15,000 people died.

Once exposed, Californians have a 1.92% chance of dying from the virus.  In Texas and Florida, the percentage of deaths among those infected has been 2%.  Nationwide the death rate among infected COVID-19 patients ranges from 1% to 2%.  In New Jersey the death rate is a staggering 7.8%.  In New York, it is 6.7%.  New Jersey leads the entire nation in deaths per capita with 1,827 deaths per 1 million residents.  New York is second with 1,708 deaths per 1 million residents.

Despite being ranked 9th in the country in total case volume the decisions made by Governor Murphy in the early days of the crisis have led to the state being the COVID-19 death capital of America, with New York close behind in second place.  This happened despite the Governor’s prolonged forced closure of businesses, restaurants and outdoor activities this past spring and summer.

A critical failure of the Murphy administration was when, on March 29th, New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichili ordered that nursing homes and extended care facilities could not refuse COVID-19 patients. What happened after that was an already overburdened and unprepared senior healthcare system was inundated with patients it could not properly care for.  Over 10,000 senior citizens died because of that fateful decision made by the Murphy and Persichili.

Now, even as the New Jersey COVID-19 caseload has diminished and the “Curve” has been flattened since May, a new flareup in Ocean County has health officials statewide worried about the second wave of COVID-19.   Although with enhanced treatments and better knowledge of how to treat the virus, this new round of patients are beating the virus.   Live saving drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma are no longer being withheld by the state government, so people are recovering quicker and fewer patients are being put on ventilators, according to state COVID-19 records posted daily.

While the first phase of COVID-19 was predominantly a senior-citizen healthcare tragedy, the new wave of COVID-19 in New Jersey is affecting younger people.  Teens and young adults have accounted for many of the newest cases, with very few having anything more than mild cold and flu-like symptoms, but that can change.  Health officials warn that a hospital spike could trail as long as two to three weeks behind the initial outbreak.

Testing volume has increased in Ocean County, especially among the Orthodox Jewish community where lines are now forming outside walk-in clinics in Jackson, Lakewood and Toms River as residents test to see whether or not they have been infected.   A source within Ocean County’s government says over 1,000 have been infected in Lakewood in the past five days and numbers being released to the public are not reflective of actual numbers, due to a glitch in the state COVID-19 reporting system.

As for Murphy, the governor has blamed sports parties, house parties and family gatherings for the latest spike in Ocean and Monmouth County.  The Governor is expected to visit Ocean County on Thursday to meet with county officials to discuss the recent surge in cases.

TOMS RIVER, NJ – Earlier today, the Ocean County Health Department reported over 500 total cases of COVID-19 on Monday.  Tonight, Daniel Regenye, spokesperson for the OCHD said that number was an error generated by the state’s COVID-19 tracking system.

“The State had issues with their system over the weekend, so number exports over the past few days have been inconsistent,” Regenye said. “We are hopeful they resolved the issue and it will get back on track.”

Now, the county lists 242 new cases in Ocean County for Monday.

TRENTON, NJ – Governor Phil Murphy is asking the Trump administration to approve a request of $34.2 million in federal disaster recovery funds to help pay for costs associated with Hurricane Isais back in August.

https://www.facebook.com/423813954320813/videos/658728264788456

“These funds are necessary to help state, county and local officials recoup the costs of the cleanup from the storm,” Murphy said. ” The damage from Isaias led to roughly 1.4 million losing power and many of those outages lasted for several days along with disruption to mass transit and closures due to downed power lines and trees.”

The storm damage forced the state to open thirteen temporary debris management sites used to transfer debris to permanent facilities.

Murphy is requesting a major disaster declaration for Atlantic, Bergen, Burlington, Cape May, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Monmouth, Morris, Salem and Sussex Counties.   The Governor did not request funds for Ocean County, where he visited Jackson Township the day after the tropical storm struck the county.

When visiting Ocean County, Murphy met with Jackson Mayor Michael Reina, who is currently the focal point of a Department of Justice civil rights lawsuit and now a possible FBI criminal investigation.

Reina thanked Murphy for everything he has done for the residents of Jackson and Ocean County, which now amounts only to a photo op visit by the governor in close proximity to his Island Beach State Park mansion where he was staying around the time of the storm.

Today, Governor Phil Murphy announced that the Trump administration is giving the state 2.6 million 15-minute COVID-19 tests and thanked the President for giving his state the ability to nearly double its testing capacity and to return test results to patients within minutes.

Murphy today was notified by the White House via teleconference meeting that it will be part of a historic initiative led by the Trump administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of and Defense (DOD).   That initiative awarded a contract for $760 million to Abbott for delivery of 150 million rapid, Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card Point of Care (POC) SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic tests to expand strategic, evidence-based testing in the United States.  Testing will be potentially deployed to schools and to assist with serving other special needs populations.

The first 170,000 tests will be delivered to New Jersey within the next two weeks and Murphy said it will “scale up” New Jersey’s testing capabilities.

“This could be a game-changer,” Murphy said. “We can double our testing capacity and test-up resources into hot spots like Ocean County.”

“The introduction of Abbott’s antigen test is another incredibly valuable result of President Trump’s all-of-America approach to constructing our world-leading COVID-19 testing capacity,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “By strategically distributing 150 million of these tests to where they’re needed most, we can track the virus like never before and protect millions of Americans at risk in especially vulnerable situations.”

The Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card recently received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, does not require instrumentation, and will deliver COVID-19 test results in 15 minutes or less.  The Administration has laid the groundwork for this program with months of collaborative work, paving the regulatory and innovation pathways.

The BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card test uses nasal swabs and is simple to use, inexpensive, and can be easily employed by medical personnel or trained operators in certain non-clinical environments operating through a CLIA certificate.  Rapid POC testing will help to enable the opening of and also to lower the risk of COVID-19 spread.

“Over the past months, our collaboration with Abbott has exemplified the Administration’s whole-of-society approach to this pandemic, fully leveraging America’s industry and innovative spirit,” said ADM Brett Giroir, MD.  “Under President Trump’s leadership, we have worked closely with the private sector to stimulate testing innovations such as the Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 test. This is no small achievement and is of an unprecedented scale. The Administration is now prepared to fully deploy this new testing asset to continue combatting the virus and safely and sensibly reopening our great nation.”

Abbott has the capability to scale up to meet the demand for antigen testing across the country and is the only known sources that can immediately provide the required items to meet HHS’s urgent needs. The system uses a nasal swab and associated media placed on a strip that can detect COVID-19 and other viruses.

FREEHOLD, NJ – Youth sports are being blamed for the uptick in Monmouth County COVID-19 infections, according to the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

“I know that there has been a lot of talk about the recent uptick in COVID cases in Monmouth County and I would like to shed some light on these cases and the reasons they are occurring,” said Freeholder Director Thomas A. Arnone. “The Monmouth County Health Department’s (MCHD) case investigations have determined the bulk of exposures are from youth athletic facilities, school sports practices and gatherings that occurred during Labor Day Weekend and almost half of the new cases are young adults between the ages of 16 and 25.”

Arnone said the return of school sports has been linked to the increase, but echoed other official statements that indoor dining has not lead to any increases in the spread of the virus.

“It is also important to note that MCHD has conducted a thorough review all the COVID-19 cases in the 29 towns they serve and no cases have been linked to restaurants or retail food establishments at this time,” added Freeholder Director Arnone.

Just last week, Governor Phil Murphy said youth sports have not played a role in an increase of infections statewide.

Photo by Kobby Mendez on Unsplash