WASHINGTON, D.C. – Members of the Congressional Western Caucus including Chairman Paul Gosar (AZ-04), Chief Infrastructure and Forestry Officer Bruce Westerman (AR-04) and Members Tom Emmer (MN-06) and Kevin Cramer (ND-At Large) released statements after President Trump announced at a rally last night in Duluth, Minnesota that he would be cancelling the Obama Administration's political mineral withdrawal in the Superior National Forest:

Congressman Emmer stated, “The President's announcement last night is great news for Minnesota. My MINER Act demonstrated strong bipartisan support for unleashing our state's mining potential and now, by reversing the politically motivated and short-sighted actions from the Obama administration on their way out the door, President Trump is stepping in to restore local control of Minnesota’s mineral rights. I am hopeful that the steps needed to ensure a full reversal of the former administration's harmful actions are taken soon, specifically ending the withdrawal proposal that has now dragged on for 18 months, to dramatically revitalize local communities and their economies.”

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The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges and obtained an asset freeze against the individuals and companies behind a $102 million Ponzi scheme that bilked investors throughout the U.S.

According to the SEC’s complaint, the defendants defrauded more than 600 investors through sales of securities in issuers they controlled, including First Nationle Solution LLC, United RL Capital Services, and Percipience Global Corp. The complaint alleges that investors were told that their funds would be used for the companies and some were guaranteed dividends or double-digit returns. But, according to the complaint, the defendants spent at least $20 million to enrich themselves, paid $38.5 million in Ponzi-like payments, and transferred much of the remainder in transactions that appear unrelated to the issuers’ purported businesses.

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Joshua Adam Schulte has been charged in a 13-count Superseding Indictment (the “Indictment”) in connection with his alleged theft of classified national defense information from the Central Intelligence Agency (“CIA”) and the transmission of that material to an organization that purports to publicly disseminate classified, sensitive, and confidential information (“Organization-1”). The Indictment also charges Schulte with the receipt, possession, and transportation of child pornography, as well as criminal copyright infringement.

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Mike Pompeo
Secretary of State
Detroit Economic Club
Detroit, Michigan
June 18, 2018

SECRETARY POMPEO: Thank you. Thanks, Gerry, and thanks to the Detroit Economic Club for hosting me. It’s great to be with you. The whole Twitter thing up there makes me really nervous. (Laughter.) And to be – to have my name mentioned in the same sentence with folks like Rusk and Kissinger and Shultz, I find it odd and humbling and truly driving me every day to try to do my job in a way that honors our country in the same way that each of them did.

Before I came here – when the speech was originally set I was the CIA Director. That’s when I originally accepted the invitation. So my remarks were about espionage and economics. I’ll come back to that. But my role is a bit different today, a little more public. You’ll note I got the Michigan deal – I didn’t go blue or green, I wore red, the neutral here, as I understand it. The same issue with my family between Army and Navy, always wear the black and gold.

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The operators of a scheme that sold “secrets for making money on Amazon” are banned from marketing and selling business opportunities and business coaching services under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, and they will surrender millions of dollars for return to consumers.

According to the FTC, the defendants, who have no affiliation with Amazon.com, falsely claimed their “Amazing Wealth System” would enable consumers to create a profitable online business selling products on Amazon. Buyers, however, did not earn the advertised income. Most of them lost significant amounts of money, and many often experienced problems with their Amazon stores, including suspension and the loss of their ability to sell on Amazon.com.

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Health and Human Services Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan issued the following statement regarding the upcoming Congressional tours of the Unaccompanied Alien Children facilities:

"We look forward to having several members of Congress tour HHS – funded Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) facilities in Texas and California today and tomorrow. Congress gave HHS the responsibility to care for these children and teenagers, and we take this legal mandate very seriously. It is our hope that as members tour the facilities they will see the facilities for what they are intended to provide: safe and healthy environments for children and teenagers to reside until such time as they can be released to an appropriate sponsor, while their immigration cases are adjudicated."

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