House Speaker Nancy Pelosi starts shifting the semantic granules to avoid a political loss.  The financing for, and construction of, a see-through fencing system (Trump’s position) is the request of DHS and Border Patrol, and supported by the vast majority of Americans.

Today, Speaker Pelosi starts by claiming no wall will ever be permitted, then garbles her way through a pretzel response by saying “Normandy Barriers” being replaced by “Normandy See-Through Fencing”, is ok.  She’s trying to avoid a political loss. Watch:

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This is the clearest indication that Pelosi knows: (a) she’s losing the argument; and (b) the topic is now politically hazardous to her team.  It is clear that Predator Trump also smells blood in the political water.  He sees Pelosi trying to claim a “Normandy Fence” is not a wall.  He strikes:

Russia and China have invested billions in Venezuela to prop-up the Maduro regime. On Monday the U.K. denied Maduro access to $1.2 billion in gold held by the Bank of England. On Monday night a Russian aircraft landed in Caracus. On Tuesday it was reported that 20 tonnes of Venezuela gold bars have gone missing (link).

“President Donald J. Trump spoke today with Venezuelan Interim President Juan Guaido to congratulate him on his historic assumption of the presidency and to reinforce President Trump’s strong support for Venezuela’s fight to regain its democracy.”

“Interim President Guaido thanked President Trump for the United States’ commitment to freedom and prosperity in Venezuela and the region, and noted the importance of the large protests across Venezuela against former dictator Maduro, set to occur today and Saturday. They agreed to maintain regular communication to support Venezuela’s path back to stability, and to rebuild the bilateral relationship between the United States and Venezuela.”  ~ White House

(Via White House) RECOGNIZING THE LEGITIMATE GOVERNMENT OF VENEZUELA: The United States has officially recognized Juan Guaido as the Interim President of Venezuela.

• President Trump officially recognized the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the Interim President of Venezuela on January 23.
  • Venezuela’s National Assembly invoked the country’s constitution to declare Nicolas Maduro illegitimate and declared the presidency vacant.
  • Other governments in the region and across the world have joined the United States in recognizing Guaido as Venezuela’s Interim President.
• The Administration has authorized Guaido to receive Venezuelan Government assets held at the United States Federal Reserve and other insured United States financial institutions.
  • Venezuela’s legitimate government, led by Guaido, must be allowed to safeguard its assets for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.

PRESSURING MADURO AND HIS CRONIES: The United States has imposed tough sanctions on Maduro and members of his previous regime.

• President Trump signed an Executive Order to make clear that United States sanctions continue to target Maduro and his corrupt cronies.
• The United States will not tolerate those who seek to undermine Venezuela’s democratic institutions and loot Venezuelan resources to enrich themselves at the expense of the people.
• The Trump Administration is blocking assets in the United States owned or controlled by Venezuela’s state-owned oil company.
  • This action will further international efforts to disconnect Maduro and his cronies from their revenue sources, while preserving critical assets for the future of Venezuela.
• More than 100 individuals, entities, and aircraft have been designated as blocked property.
• The United States is confident that energy markets will remain well supplied despite reduced imports of Venezuelan oil.
  • Respected forecasters like the United States Energy Information Administration expect global oil supply to exceed demand in 2019 and 2020.
  • Over the next year, United States production is forecasted to increase to an all-time high of more than 12 million barrels per day.

STANDING WITH THE VENEZUELAN PEOPLE: President Trump stands with the people of Venezuela as they demand democracy, human rights, and prosperity denied to them by Maduro. 

• The United States continues to provide humanitarian assistance to the Venezuelan people.
  • Food and medicine have long been – and remain – exempt from our sanctions.
• More than three million people have fled Venezuela since 2015 and the United Nations estimates that number may swell to more than 5.3 million by the end of 2019.
• As of December 2018, there were more than 280 known political prisoners in Venezuela.
• Venezuelans have suffered from violence at the hands of the security services, including extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrests.
• Mismanagement by Maduro led to hyperinflation exceeding one million percent in 2018, worsening already dire economic circumstances.
• (LINK)

Giddy up.  Two days of intense trade discussions begin today in the Eisenhower building led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his Chinese counterpart Vice Premier Liu He. The stakes are high as the deadline for an agreement is March 2nd.

Ambassador Lighthizer is joined by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and China’s arch nemesis, White House trade advisor Peter Navarro.

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Adding to the intensity, the United States just charged Chinese telecommunications company Huawei Technologies and its chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran by doing business through a subsidiary.  Ms. Meng was arrested in Canada at the request of the United States; her extradition has been requested by the Department of Justice.

President Trump has made sure the Chinese are aware the status quo cannot stand. Additionally, USTR Lighthizer has previously affirmed that significant, substantive and deliverable progress must be made to avoid pending tariff increases.

This is the first time China has faced such significant and openly hostile push-back within a trade discussion. To say the talks are tense would be a massive understatement. President Trump wants a deal; however, Trump, Lighthizer, Ross and Mnuchin have already put the consequences for failure in the middle of the table.

China knows what will happen on March 2nd, if they do not negotiate in full faith.

Beijing has provided little indication these current officials are willing to address the core U.S. demands to fully protect American intellectual property rights and end policies that Washington has said force U.S. companies to transfer technology to Chinese firms. Thus the severity of the two-day talks takes on a very confrontational tone.

Additionally the U.S. Team have previously accused China of cyber theft and illicit acquisition of U.S. technological trade secrets. China’s prior acquisition of U.S. technology firms is the basis for President Trump to leverage pending U.S. tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports.

If an agreement is not reached President Trump will raise tariffs on $200 billion of goods from 10 percent to 25 percent, effective with the March 2nd deadline. The U.S. administration has also threatened new tariffs on the totality of all remaining Chinese products shipped to the United States.

Initially China retaliated with their own tariffs; however, following the dinner between Chairman Xi and President Trump China suspended some of their reciprocal tariffs on U.S. agriculture.

Lastly, President Trump has blunted the traditional leverage of the Red Dragon by agreeing to meet with North Korea Chairman Kim Jong-un. Not coincidentally the timing for that summit intersects with the deadline for the U.S-China trade deal.

When you plant your trees in another man’s orchard, don’t be surprised if you end up paying for your own apples…

According to the DOJ announcement released today three companies: Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Huawei Device USA Inc. and Skycom Tech Co. Ltd. are charged with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and conspiracy to violate IEEPA, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Huawei and Huawei USA are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice related to the grand jury investigation in the Eastern District of New York.

Additionally Ms. Meng Wanzhou is charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracies to commit bank and wire fraud.  Acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew G. Whitaker, Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Wilbur Ross of the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue for the Eastern District of New York, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of the National Security Division, announced the charges:

Transcript of AAG Matt Whitaker announcement HERE.

Details of DOJ Indictment HERE.

Keep in mind that China has loaned Venezuela over $50 billion in the past five years. In exchange, Venezuela gave China a 49% stake in PDVSA. Venezuela makes payments on the loans via oil shipments to China.

(VIA U.S. Treasury Dept) Today the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PdVSA) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850 for operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy. PdVSA is a Venezuelan state-owned oil company and a primary source of Venezuela’s income and foreign currency, to include U.S. dollars and Euros.

“The United States is holding accountable those responsible for Venezuela’s tragic decline, and will continue to use the full suite of its diplomatic and economic tools to support Interim President Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly, and the Venezuelan people’s efforts to restore their democracy,” said Secretary of the Treasury Steven T. Mnuchin.

“Today’s designation of PdVSA will help prevent further diverting of Venezuela’s assets by Maduro and preserve these assets for the people of Venezuela. The path to sanctions relief for PdVSA is through the expeditious transfer of control to the Interim President or a subsequent, democratically elected government.”

As with previous OFAC designations of certain Venezuelan officials and their supporters, U.S. sanctions need not be permanent. Sanctions are intended to change behavior. The United States has made it clear that we will consider lifting sanctions for those who take concrete, meaningful, and verifiable actions to support democratic order and combat corruption in Venezuela, including PdVSA.

As Venezuela’s state owned oil company, PdVSA has long been a vehicle for corruption. A variety of schemes have been designed to embezzle billions of dollars from PdVSA for the personal gain of corrupt Venezuelan officials and businessmen. For example, a 2014 currency exchange scheme was designed to embezzle and launder around $600 million from PdVSA, money obtained through bribery and fraud. By May 2015, the conspiracy had allegedly doubled in amount, to $1.2 billion embezzled from PdVSA.

Abraham Edgardo Ortega, a Venezuelan national who was PdVSA’s executive director of financial planning, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in the billion-dollar international scheme to launder funds embezzled from PdVSA.

In a separate case, U.S. prosecutors have alleged that, from 2011 to 2013, senior Government of Venezuela and PdVSA officials, including Nervis Villalobos, the former Venezuelan vice minister of energy; Rafael Reiter, who worked as PdVSA’s head of security and loss prevention; and Luis Carlos de Leon, a former official at a state-run electric company, sought bribes and kickbacks from vendors in exchange for helping them secure PdVSA contracts and gain priority over other vendors for outstanding invoices during its liquidity crisis.

Today’s action designating PdVSA follows a determination by Secretary Mnuchin pursuant to E.O. 13850 that persons operating in the oil sector of the Venezuelan economy may be subject to sanctions.

Concurrent with this action, OFAC is issuing general licenses that authorize certain transactions and activities related to PdVSA and its subsidiaries within specified timeframes.

As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of PdVSA subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. (link)

8:15 p.m. – AP – The Mexican government says it disagrees with a map displayed by the White House that shows Mexico among those countries that support Venezuela’s embattled president, Nicolas Maduro.

National security adviser John Bolton held a press briefing Monday with a map that showed in red the countries supporting Maduro and in blue those nations supporting the Venezuelan congress leader Juan Guaido, who has declared himself Venezuela’s interim president.

Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. told reporters in Washington that her government isn’t taking sides in the crisis.

In Ambassador Martha Barcena’s words: “We are not against the U.S. regarding the position on Venezuela. We are not siding with Maduro. We are not siding with Guaido. We think a third way of a peaceful solution can be found.”  (read more)

Internal polling and fear of resistance backlash must be significant for the democrats.  President Donald Trump accepted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to deliver his State of the Union speech on Feb. 5, a week later than originally scheduled.

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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers a press briefing for Monday January 28th.  Anticipated start time 3:30pm EST

UPDATE: Video Added

WH Livestream Link – Fox News Livestream Link – Alternate Livestream Link

White House Director of Strategic Communications appears on Fox News to discuss the ongoing appropriations discussion, and the White House position on border security to avoid another shutdown in three weeks.

Investigative reporter Chris Ramirez reported on the security crisis and crime on the southern border in New Mexico. He speaks with New Mexico border residents about the security challenges on the border, with one resident noting, “we have a crisis down here.” The report ran on the local New Mexico NBC news station KOB 4.  Watch:

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President Trump drew attention to this report moments ago on Twitter:

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