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Posts tagged ‘corruption’

Appalachian Justice: Here’s How WV Handles an Out-of-Control Supreme Court


Reported By Ben Marquis | August 8, 2018 at 1:31pm

The issue of corruption among elected officials is one that enrages many American citizens as far too often it seems that the “powers that be” are willing to let suspected corrupt officials slide or slink away quietly without ever being held accountable to the people. However, in at least one instance it appears that won’t be the case. The four sitting justices on West Virginia’s state Supreme Court are collectively facing 14 counts of impeachment for alleged corrupt activities, according to the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

The 14 articles of impeachment against the justices were approved on Tuesday by the West Virginia House Judiciary Committee and include such charges as corruption, neglect of duty and “unnecessary and lavish” spending of taxpayer money, among other allegations.

The articles of impeachment will soon be submitted to the House for a vote, and if they obtain a majority will then proceed to the Senate. If two-thirds of the senators approve the impeachment articles, a trial will commence that would require another two-thirds majority for conviction, at which point the justices would be removed from the bench and barred from ever seeking public office in the state again.

“It’s a sad day, and it certainly isn’t a cause for celebration,” Judiciary Chairman John Shott said Tuesday, according to the Gazette-Mail.

The four justices charged under the articles of impeachment, which stem from violations of the impeachable offenses listed in Section 9, Article 4 of the West Virginia Constitution, include

  • Chief Justice Margaret Workman (four counts)
  • Justices Robin Davis (four counts),
  • Allen Loughry (eight counts)
  • Beth Walker (two counts).

All four justices face charges of “unnecessary and lavish” spending of taxpayer money to renovate their offices. They’re also accused of failing to develop and maintain court policies with regard to the use of state resources.

Davis, Loughry and Workman also face a charge of signing documents that authorized pay for senior status judges in excess of what was allowed by law. Loughry faces additional charges that include allegedly using a state vehicle for personal travel, using state-owned computers and furniture in his home and using taxpayer money to have artwork, documents and personal photos framed.

Former Justice Menis Ketchum, who resigned from his seat on the bench last month, escaped being named in the articles of impeachment by virtue of his recent resignation, which removed him from the oversight of the Judiciary Committee. It is worth noting that Ketchum just pleaded guilty to one count of federal wire fraud. Loughry was also recently hit with a 23-count federal indictment that included 16 counts of mail fraud, three counts of making false statements to federal investigators, two counts of wire fraud and one count each of obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

On top of that, Loughry — who was suspended from the bench without pay on June 8 — has also been charged with 32 counts of violating state’s Code of Judicial Conduct by the West Virginia Judicial Investigation Commission for similar charges included in the articles of impeachment, as well as for lying to lawmakers, the media and the public about his alleged conduct.

Of course, there were several lawmakers who opposed the articles of impeachment, not necessarily because they believed the justices were innocent of the charges against them, but because taking out all of the sitting justices in one fell swoop would allow Republican Gov. Jim Justice to appoint their replacements, most likely for at least a two-year term, given the close proximity and limited time-frame between now and November’s elections.

Such was the argument put forward by Democrat Del. Mike Pushkin, who said he didn’t like the fact that all four justices were grouped together in the articles of impeachment, as well as by Democrat Del. Barbara Fleischauer, minority chairwoman of the committee, who likened the move to an attempted “coup” against an entire branch of the state government by Republicans.

“We said this to our committee when we started, this was a no-win situation,” Chairman Shott said of those accusations. “Especially in an election year, there’s going to be people who will spin it however it creates the most advantage to them. That’s just part of the process.”

While impeaching all of the sitting justices on the state’s Supreme Court at once does seem rather drastic — and certainly opens the door to partisan complaints — it nevertheless also appears to be the correct remedy in this case for holding apparently corrupt elected officials accountable for their actions. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few weeks and months.

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Thank You For Spying


Drawn and Posted by Chip Bok | May 24, 2018

URL of the original posting site: http://bokbluster.com/2018/05/24/spying/


spying

Eric Holder’s Justice Department threatened Fox News Reporter James Rosen as a co-conspirator under the espionage act. Except Holder never really intended to charge Rosen. It was all a pretext to spy on his phone calls and emails to find out who in the government was leaking information to him.

The Obama administration also spied on the phone records of Associated Press journalists.

More Spying

And of course they lied about spying on us too.

This week Joy Behar, of all people, outed James Clapper for spying on the Trump campaign. Clapper claimed Trump should be happy about this because his agent was really spying on Russians.

The Washington Post and New York Times find this explanation perfectly reasonable.

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Michael Cohen Swamp Fox


Drawn and Posted by Chip Bok | May 17, 2018

URL of the original posting site: http://bokbluster.com/2018/05/17/swamp-fox/

swamp fox

Looks like Michael Cohen could afford to pay Stormy Daniels $130,000. Though, based on past behavior, I wonder if he first tried to sell her access to the president for a future “encounter.”

Swamp Fox

According to The Hill he tried to hit up the Qatari government for a cool million in exchange for access. Also on Cohen’s client access list were Novartis and ATT.

It’s the way of the swamp. But not illegal.

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Democrat Mega Scandal: NYC Mayor De Blasio Office Involved in Bribery, Prostitution and Illegal Weapons!


Reported By Scott Osborn |

NYC’s Liberal Mayor Bill De Blasio has found himself in a mess as three separate scandals hit his office, including bribery, prostitution and an illegal weapons arrest! In addition, a local businessman claims he raised $80,000 for the De Blasio campaign in exchange for various deals. As well, a prostitute is testifying a major de Blasio donor “watched and directed” her sex games with members of the NYPD.

Democrat Mega Scandal: NYC Mayor De Blasio Office Involved in Bribery, Prostitution and Illegal Weapons!

Rev-In Article

Reagan Stevens, the deputy director for Mayor De Blasio’s Office of Criminal Justice, was arrested Saturday for illegal weapons possession while sitting in a car that ‘reeked of weed’ near the scene of a Saturday night shooting. Stevens was charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. A 9mm gun with the serial number scratched off and a shell casing were found in the glove compartment. Cops noticed there was a “strong odor of marijuana” wafting from the SUV.

She was arrested with two men, Montel Hughes, 24, and driver Caesar Forbes, 25. They are also accused of gun charges as well as of carrying knives at the time of their arrest. Cops also found five Ziploc bags of pot in Hughes’ coat pocket. A gravity knife was also recovered from the pocket of his pants. Cops found the loaded handgun in the car. When no one claimed ownership, police took the three of them into custody.

The trio’s arrest followed a burst of five gunshots that activated an NYPD “ShotSpotter” device in Jamaica at 9:42 p.m. Saturday. The five shots fired from the car were caught on surveillance cameras. Moreover, the gun found in the car has an eight-round magazine and had three rounds left in it. A spent round was found on the driver’s side floor.

Stevens managed youth and strategic initiatives.

Her main job is implementing a 2017 state law that will raise the age at which kids can be prosecuted as adults for non-violent crimes from 16 to 18. Prior to her current position, Stevens served as the Deputy Director of the Mayor’s Action Plan’s Behavioral Health and the Criminal Justice System Task Force. She also spent 15 years implementing crime prevention, adolescent diversion programs and alternatives to incarceration at the Kings County District Attorney’s office.

De Blasio is notoriously pro strict gun control:

Just last month he joined a student walkout in Brooklyn. He told students: ‘You are making so clear to this whole country that you are sick of the violence, you’re sick of the madness, you’re sick of the slaughter and you won’t stand for it.’

The city’s Office of Criminal Justice suspended Stevens without pay from her job.

‘We take these allegations very seriously,’ said the statement.

But this is the third high profile scandal for Democrat De Blasio this year.

Harendra Singh, a Long Island restaurateur, raised as much as $80,000 for De Blasio in exchange for various deals. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to trying to bribe the mayor in hopes of getting a better lease.

Singh testified under oath on Thursday that he steered tens of thousands of dollars to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s political campaigns in return for favorable treatment by the city. Singh also claims that De Blasio not only knew of the illegal arrangement, but encouraged it and actively helped the restaurateur.

“He made many phone calls,” Mr. Singh said of the mayor. “His office was working very hard, from his deputy mayor to his assistant to his intergovernmental affairs person. Everyone was working.”

A one-time high-end hooker at the center of an NYPD corruption scandal is expected to testify that a major de Blasio donor “watched and directed” her alleged sexcapades with cops.

Former prostitute Gabi Grecko traveled to Las Vegas in early 2013 with Jeremy Reichberg and Jona Rechnitz. They were both major contributors to Bill de Blasio’s mayoral campaign. She claims Reichberg supervised the trysts.

During the private flight to Sin City, Grecko also performed “services” for the duo’s guests. They included retired NYPD Deputy Inspector James Grant, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged.

Grecko will discuss the mile-high hookups on the stand during the trial.

Reichberg’s lawyers have pushed to block prosecutors from bringing up “any evidence” Grecko and Reichberg had a sordid tryst mid-air. They claim that would have “the potential for unfair prejudice.”

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DOJ Inspector General Opens Investigation Into Obama Administration’s FISA Abuse


Reported By Nancy Hayes |

Department of Justice inspector general Michael Horowitz opened an investigation Wednesday into possible FISA abuses by the Justice Department and FBI officials and the nature of contacts between the FBI and a confidential source.

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who operates independently from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the Trump administration, announced Wednesday afternoon he will launch an investigation into alleged FISA abuse during the Obama administration.

“Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today that, in response to requests from the Attorney General and Members of Congress, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will initiate a review that will examine the Justice Department’s and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) compliance with legal requirements, and with applicable DOJ and FBI policies and procedures, in applications filed with the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)  relating to a certain U.S. person,” the DOJ Office of the Inspector General released in a statement Wednesday. “As part of this examination, the OIG also will review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source.  Additionally, the OIG will review the DOJ’s and FBI’s relationship and communications with the alleged source as they relate to the FISC applications.”

DOJ spokesman John Lavinsky said in a statement accompanying the announcement.

Lavinsky explained that “as part of this examination, the OIG also will review information that was known to the DOJ and the FBI at the time the applications were filed from or about an alleged FBI confidential source.”

Lavinsky noted that the investigation was prompted by requests from several members of Congress and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. House Republicans recently released a memo claiming widespread abuse of the FISA process on the part of the DOJ and FBI in order to obtain a surveillance warrant on former Trump campaign associate Carter Page.

The timing of the investigation and the reference to members of Congress point to Page as the U.S. person. The statement’s reference to a confidential source similarly floats concerns found in the Republican memo which found that the FBI and the DOJ did not disclose the political origins of the Steele dossier in its FISA application and revealed previously undisclosed testimony from former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe that an investigation into Page would not have occurred without Steele’s dossier.

The nature of contacts between DOJ officials and Steele during the opening of an investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign has been the nature of some controversy. The Republican memo especially expressed concern over the nature of meetings between Steele and DOJ official Bruce Ohr, whose wife worked for Steele for some time.

“If circumstances warrant, the OIG will consider including other issues that may arise during the course of the review,” the statement continues.

Michael Isikoff✔@Isikoff

Breaking: In response to requests from AG and members of Congress, DOJ IG Horowitz says he will investigate the FBI’s request for FISA warrant on “a U.S. person”– a reference to Carter Page. Probe will include role of “confidential FBI source”-a reference to Christoper Steele.

Horowitz has also been investigating for months potential misconduct at the FBI during the criminal investigation into Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of classified information. That report is due any day.

About a month ago, The Hill reported, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that the Justice Department will investigate potential abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). “Yes, it will be investigated,” Sessions told reporters at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees FISA warrants, according to the Washington Examiner. He said looking into any abuses is the “appropriate thing” to do.

Trump has publicly pressed Sessions to open up an investigation into potential abuses of the program, which allows U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies to obtain secret surveillance orders on individuals in the U.S. suspected of being foreign terrorists or spies.

The president claimed last year that the Obama administration improperly wiretapped members of his presidential campaign and transition team, though the White House has not provided any evidence to support that claim.

Allegations of FISA abuses surfaced again last month, when Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a controversial memo alleging that FBI and Justice Department officials misused their authority to obtain a surveillance order on Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser.

It’s about time the Obama administration and those in it paid the price for all their shenanigans. Personally, I hope all those involved including Yates, Mueller, Comey, Rosenstein, Page and Strzok and others all rot in jail. It’s time to let the Americans know that just because you are employed and work in the “high levels” of government that does not excuse you from the law. No one is about the law.

Isn’t that right, Hillary?

Resources: Townhall, Daily Caller, The Hill

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More Politically INCORRECT Cartoons and More for February 28, 2018


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Developing: Broward County Sheriff Ordered Deputies Not to Arrest


Reported By Rebekah Baker | February 27, 2018 at 1:42pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/broward-county-sheriff-ordered-deputies-not-arrest/

Just when it seemed like the government incompetence surrounding the events leading up to the Parkland, Florida high school massacre couldn’t get any worse, new information reveals that political motivations and bad policy in the leadership at the sheriff’s office had a pivotal role in failing to prevent the shooting.

First, it was the FBI. A tip that outlined the shooter’s “gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting,” was given to the FBI only six weeks before the deadly massacre occurred, NBC reported. The FBI failed to follow up.

Then, it was local law enforcement. Multiple agents within the Broward County Sheriff’s department cowered in the face of danger, and waited outside the Stoneman Douglas high school as innocent students were killed inside.

And there’s more: According to CNN, “Records obtained from the sheriff’s office by CNN show the law enforcement agency received at least 45 calls for service relating to Cruz or his brother from 2008 to 2017, before the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Feb. 14.”

So was it pure incompetence, or was something more sinister at play? It may have been both.

According to a report from RedState, a deeply embedded system of public corruption at the sheriff’s department may be to blame for the murderous shooter slipping right through the sheriff department’s fingers. As reported by CNN, dozens of calls were made to local law enforcement about Nickolas Cruz with descriptions such as “mentally ill person,” “child/elderly abuse,” “domestic disturbance,” “missing person,” and more. Most of those warning calls resulted in “no written report.”

What in the world would have motivated an “oversight” like that? According to RedState, it all comes back to Sheriff Israel.

First elected as sheriff in 2012, Israel’s run for re-election in 2016 was highly criticized and controversial, according to an August 2016 report from Sun Sentinel.

“Sheriff Scott Israel has hired from the ranks of his political supporters, building a community outreach wing his critics say doubles as a re-election team,” the Sentinel explained. “Israel’s opponents say he’s built a publicly funded political machine, paying back supporters with jobs and using them to keep him in office. They say the money could be better spent, particularly after the sheriff complained about not having enough funding to secure the county courthouse, where a murder suspect recently escaped.”

In other words, Israel rewarded his political supporters with high-paying cushy jobs within the sheriff’s office. The outreach manager position, for example, earned a $78,489 salary. That position was held by the husband of Israel’s campaign manager, the Sentinel reported.

So, a group of unqualified people filled the positions at the sheriff’s office. And we wonder why they failed to stop Nickolas Cruz?

It gets worse. An ominous foreshadowing of the deadly shooting was revealed in the form of a 2016 sheriff re-election campaign questionnaire. “Why are you running and what gives you an edge over your opponents?” the questionnaire asked Israel.

See Israel’s answer below:

I am the incumbent Sheriff for the past four years, and a career law enforcement officer with over three decades in the profession.  The results speak for themselves. As our sheriff, I successfully implemented new policies and approaches to public safety that sharply reduced violent crime and burglary rates – the sharpest declines in the entire State of Florida. My innovative initiatives also helped keep children in school and out of jail, greatly expanding the juvenile civil citation program and making issuance of civil citations mandatory for BSO deputies. I worked to combat gun violence by openly lobbying legislators to curtail Stand Your Ground, block open carry legislation, and block legislation allowing concealed guns on school campuses. 

(Emphasis added.)

You read that right. Policies put into place within the sheriff’s department by Israel Scott discouraged arresting or expelling juveniles, apparently even if their behavior was violent or threatening.

Cruz had a history of violence at school and was never officially expelled. He had a history of violent behavior at home but was never arrested. And one day, he stormed into a school building and murdered 17 innocent people — but it was too late.

When pressed for answers on allegations about his alleged public corruption, Israel deflected. “Lions don’t care about the opinions of sheep,” he reportedly said at the time.

And lions apparently care more about their own interests than the lives of those they swore to protect.

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoons


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More Poliotically INCORRECT Cartoons for Wednesday November 15, 2017


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Today’s Ann Coulter Letter: New Democratic Spin Cycle: Launders Money, Gets Out The Toughest Sleaze!


Commentary by Ann Coulter  | Wednesday Nov 8, 2017 5:55 PM

The Democrats have two very different profiles. One is their public face of absolute moral purity. They’re just better people than Republicans. That’s what you’re buying when you walk into the Democratic store: pure virtue. They’ve got nothing else on the shelves. No beef jerky, no wiper fluid, no Gatorade. 

The other profile is reality: In the backroom, where the employees eat lunch, the Democrats and their fat-cat donors are committing unspeakably sleazy and immoral acts. Everyone on the left knows this. That’s why, the moment Harvey Weinstein was exposed as a sexual predator, his reflexive response was not to apologize. Accused of the kind of rapes you’d usually need a gang to commit, he put up a virtue shield by attacking the National Rifle Association.

As we recently discovered, first with Weinstein and then with the Hillary campaign paying for the Russian dossier, the left has an all-new trick that exponentially multiplies the Democrats’ sleaze factor. It used to be that Democrats like Bill Clinton would deploy FOBs — Friends of Bill — like James Carville and Sidney Blumenthal to smear his victims. Now, they run their Watergate-style “ratf—ing” through law firms.

Ronan Farrow writes in this week’s New Yorker that Weinstein deployed a raft of spies to befriend and deceive his accusers in order to collect information that could be used against them. A spy with the Israeli private investigations firm Black Cube used a fake name and fake foundation to meet actress Rose McGowan. Then, pretending to be a deeply sympathetic women’s rights advocate, the agent secretly tape-recorded the actress, hoping to get incriminating evidence against her. At a minimum, this is unspeakably repellent and possibly illegal.

And who hired the spies? Not Weinstein! The law firm of David Boies, prominent Democratic attorney.

Using a law firm as a cut-out between the client — an alleged sexual predator — and the people stealthily recording his accusers has one very useful purpose: It places the spy agency’s work behind the protection of attorney-client privilege.

Boies pretends to be steeped in the ethics of his profession, flying to California to argue against the “hate” of Proposition 8 and rushing to Florida after the 2000 election to defend Al Gore’s rightful claim to the presidency.

But now we find out he’s been harassing and intimidating a rape victim on behalf of his client (the rapist) with private eyes who lie about their identity and motives, wasting hours of the victim’s time with false promises of support for her cause — a cause she has taken up precisely because of her alleged rape by the lawyer’s client. Whether or not this violates any bar association ethical canons, it’s certainly despicable.

Two weeks ago, we found out that the law firm cut-out maneuver was the exact same technique used by Hillary’s campaign to obtain damaging information on Donald Trump from the Kremlin — the infamous Russian dossier. The Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee shelled out $12 million seeking incriminating information on Trump from Russian government officials.

Just like Weinstein, the Democrats funneled money for a nefarious purpose through a law firm. To wit: The Democrats paid a law firm (Perkins Coie), which paid a private investigations firm (Fusion GPS), which in turn paid a spy (Christopher Steele), and Steele paid Russian government officials for dirt on Trump.

When the media found out that Donald Trump Jr. had taken a meeting with a friend of a friend, because she claimed to have incriminating information from Russia on Hillary, the word “treason” filled the airwaves.

Hillary’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. Tim Kaine (D- Va.), called Don Jr.’s pointless meeting “potentially treason.”

MSNBC’s favorite former Bush official, lunatic Richard Painter, said anyone who “wanted to help the Russians (disrupt our election process) engaged in treasonous conduct.” Al Sharpton said that the willingness to accept “information to discredit your potential opponent in an American election from Russia — from what is supposed to be an enemy state” — raised the prospect of treason.

If that’s “treason,” then what is it when the Democrats reach out to the Russians and pass them money for dirt on Hillary’s opponent in a presidential election? Wasn’t that dossier an attempt to discredit her opponent and disrupt the election?

Remember: Don Jr. didn’t seek a meeting with any Russians to get compromising information on Hillary, nor did he receive any. The Russian woman was using the pretense of having dirt on Hillary as a ruse to get a meeting, so that she could lobby Don Jr. on the Magnitsky Act.

Unlike Don Jr., the Democrats didn’t wait to be asked! They paid $12 million, funneled through a law firm, seeking information on Trump from Russian government officials.

But we’re not allowed to mention it because the Clinton campaign and DNC used Weinstein’s money laundering technique.

The attorney-client privilege is intended to ensure that people are completely truthful with their attorneys. It is not supposed to be a shelter for any sordid, and possibly illegal, behavior by liberals. 

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Convenient: Mueller Nails Manafort Right After Hillary – Uranium One Scandal Explodes


Reported By Martin Walsh | October 30, 2017 at 4:48pm

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/mueller-nails-manafort-hillary-scandal/?

Shortly after several reports have linked both former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State/failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to the Uranium One scandal, Democrats are trying to shift everyone’s attention.

As reported by the Daily Mail, Trump’s former campaign manager from the 2016 presidential election, Paul Manafort, and his partner, Rick Gates, surrendered on Monday morning following an indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller in the Russia probe.

The news comes just days after the Justice Department announcement Thursday that it would lift a gag order on a secret FBI informant who has firsthand knowledge of the Uranium One deal involving the Clintons.

According to Townhall, the informant’s identity will remain anonymous, but they will be speaking with the Senate Judiciary Committee on how the Clintons benefited from selling U.S. uranium to a company connected to Russia.

Mueller’s indictments of former Trump officials come just days after an explosive report from The Hill, which detailed how Clinton approved the partial sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to Russian nuclear company Rosatom, giving Russia 20 percent of the United States’ uranium.

Both The New York Times and New York Daily News reported that officials associated with the sale donated a reported $145 million to the Clinton Foundation, and Bill Clinton was given $500,000 from a bank with ties to the Kremlin for giving a single speech in Moscow.

As detailed by a report from The Hill, the FBI had collected a plethora of documents showing that Russia officials involved with the Uranium One deal were engaged in extortion, bribery, kickbacks, and money laundering prior to the Obama administration — with Clinton’s help at the State Department — approving the deal in 2010.

The FBI agents also supplanted a U.S. witness to work closely with the Russian nuclear industry to gain inside access to financial records, collect emails, and make secret recordings on how Moscow violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

And yet, the Obama administration approved the sale and agreed to do business with the corrupt Russia company to sell 20 percent of the U.S.’ uranium.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said last week he wanted the Department of Justice to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Uranium One sale and the Obama administration’s involvement with the deal.

In light of the bombshell report exposing Obama and Clinton for carrying out a shady deal with Russia, Mueller conveniently decided to announce indictments that would move the spotlight back to someone else.

Grassley’s call for a special prosecutor into the Clinton Foundation allowing foreign governments to influence American policy while the Clintons gained personally is a bombshell story the must be investigated, but the mainstream media conveniently distracted everyone from this corruption with Mueller’s recent announcement.

H/T Townhall

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More Obama Corruption Revealed: Overtly Excluded Conservatives from $1 Billion Settlement


Reported By Warner Todd Huston October 27, 2017

URL of the original posting site: https://constitution.com/obama-corruption-revealed-overtly-excluded-conservatives-1-billion-settlement/

As the nation awakes to more news on the corruption of the Democrats and their Russian collusion with the fake Trump “dossier,” there is also other news of the corruption endemic in the Obama administration.

There is much corruption to write about with the Obama administration, sadly. Indeed, Obama’s regime was one of the most corrupt in American history. But the latest news is that of Obama’s scheme to enrich far left organizations at the expense of U.S. corporations, even as conservative groups were purposefully excluded.

At issue is a scheme that forced companies about to be sued by the Department of Justice to donate billions of dollars to left-wing causes and organizations as a payoff to avoid prosecution. It was little else but an elaborate extortion scheme for the liberal groups that benefitted from the policy. And, naturally, only left-wing groups benefitted from Obama’s kickback scheme. No conservatives groups were the recipient of any of these corporate “donations.”

According to a report by government watchdog group Judicial Watch, “The new records demonstrate a collaborative effort among high-level officials in the Office of the Assistant Attorney General (OAAG) and the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to ensure conservative groups did not receive any settlement cash.”

Judicial Watch has more:

The operation is known as a DOJ “slush fund” that filled the coffers of Obama-allied nonprofits such as the National Council of La Raza, Urban League and National Community Reinvestment Coalition. Earlier this year Judicial sued the DOJ for records relating to the problematic Obama administration policy of settling government lawsuits against corporate defendants by requiring that the corporations make “donations” to leftwing interest groups. Back in 2010 Judicial Watch sued the DOJ over a similar program in which the agency’s Civil Rights Division directed large sums of cash settlements in discrimination lawsuits to organization that were not officially connected to the lawsuits. Recipients were also leftist groups that aligned with Obama’s ultra-liberal agenda. 

The story is not a new one, of course. Obama’s scheme has not gone unnoticed. But this week the House Judiciary Committee revealed what is being termed a “smoking gun” proving the whole thing.

“It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday, according to Fox News. “Here, we have it.”

Republican lawmakers have logically dubbed the scheme a “slush fund” for liberal organizations who raked in one billion dollars from Obama’s extortion plan.

Fortunately, the Trump administration put an end to the extortion policy but not before liberals everywhere benefitted from Obama’s corruption.

While Obama’s operatives insisted that there was nothing at all wrong with the program, the newly released records proves that Obama’s DOJ operatives not only made sure that the corporations paid money to the favored lefty organizations, but they also made double sure that no conservative group benefitted from the scheme.

One Obama administration email, for instance, told Citigroup to be sure that no funds go to “conservative property-rights legal services.”

As Fox reported:

“Concerns include: a) not allowing Citi to pick a statewide intermediary like the Pacific Legal Foundation (does conservative property-rights legal services),” the official, whose name is redacted in the email, wrote under the title of “Acting Senior Counselor for Access to Justice.”

The official added that “we are more likely to get the right result from a state bar association affiliated entity.” 

“Aiding their political allies was only the half of it,” Rep. Goodlatte said. “The evidence of the Obama DOJ’s abuse of power shows that Tony West’s team went out of its way to exclude conservative groups.”

Goodlatte celebrated the Trump administration’s move to end the forced donations, but said that Congress needs to act to prevent this sort of extortion from ever occurring again.

This is but a single tale of the sort of corruption that plagued the country with Barack Obama at the head of our government.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Warner Todd Huston

Warner Todd Huston

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago-based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com and BigJournalsim.com along with all Breitbart News sites, RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, and many, many others. He has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs across the country to discuss his news stories and current events and has appeared on TV networks such as CNN, Fox News, Fox Business Network, and various Chicago-based news programs. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.

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GREAT NEWS: DOJ Lifts Gag Order, Frees Informant to Speak to Congress on Russia Bribery Case With Ties to Clintons


Reported By Andrew Kerr | October 26, 2017 at 8:45am

URL of the original posting site: https://www.westernjournalism.com/doj-lifts-gag-order-frees-informant-to-speak-to-congress-on-russia-bribery-case-with-ties-to-clintons/?

The Justice Department lifted a gag order Wednesday that will allow a former FBI informant to speak with Congress about information he uncovered involving a Russian bribery scheme linked to a controversial uranium deal in 2010.

The move comes as Congress renews its focus on the Obama administration’s approval of Russian-owned energy company Rosatom’s purchase of Uranium One, a company based in Canada that controlled 20 percent of U.S. uranium.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton led the State Department when it approved the deal back in 2010. Eight other U.S. government agencies also approved the deal.

Three congressional committees launched investigations into the deal last week after The Hill reported that the FBI had gathered substantial evidence that the Russian nuclear industry officials involved in the deal were involved in a racketeering scheme as early as 2009.

However, the Department of Justice waited until 2014 to bring any charges on the evidence first gathered in 2009 and 2010.

The CEO of Tenex, a subsidiary of Rosatom, pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2015.

Congressional Republicans now seek to discover who knew what, and when. Republicans have also expressed concerns about Clinton’s connection to the interested parties in the nuclear deal. The Clinton Foundation reportedly received millions of dollars in contributions from interested parties in the transaction, and former President Bill Clinton received $500,000 for a speech in Russia around the time of the deal.

The FBI informant, who hasn’t been identified by name, went undercover for five years to obtain intelligence on Russia’s efforts to acquire a share of the U.S. uranium market.

Justice Department spokesman Ian Prior said the DOJ would cooperate with the three open congressional investigations.

“As of tonight, the Department of Justice has authorized the information to disclose to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as one member of each of their staffs, any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market,” Prior said in a statement Wednesday, according to The Washington Free Beacon.

Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores confirmed to The Hill that the undercover FBI informant is cleared to disclose to Congress “any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market, including but not limited to anything related to Vadim Mikerin, Rosatom, Tenex, Uranium One, or the Clinton Foundation.”

The informant’s lawyer, Victoria Toensing, told The Hill her client has information relating to “the Russian nuclear bribery case and the efforts he witnessed by Moscow to gain influence with the Clintons in hopes of winning favorable uranium decisions from the Obama administration.”

“He is now able and willing to talk with the congressional committees seeking his testimony, though I will be working with all parties to ensure his identity remains confidential to ensure his safety,” she added.

But some high-ranking Democrats have called foul on the Republican’s renewed focus on the 2010 uranium deal.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday the investigations are a “partisan effort to distract” from the real issue at hand — special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Donald Trump’s alleged collusions with the Russians during the 2016 election.

Trump told reporters Wednesday he believes the uranium investigation will quickly swell to Watergate proportions.

“The uranium sale to Russia and the way it was done was so underhanded. With tremendous amounts of money being passed, I actually think that’s Watergate: modern age,” Trump said, as reported by the New York Post.

DOJ Lifts Gag Order on Uranium One Informant, Hillary and Obama Feeling the Heat

Reported By Kim Smith | October 26, 2017 at 9:40am

URL of the original posting site: https://conservativetribune.com/doj-gag-order-informant-hillary/?

The Justice Department announced Wednesday night that it had lifted a gag order on a former FBI informant who could provide testimony to Congress about an inquiry linked to a 2010 Obama-era deal that transferred ownership of a uranium mining firm to a Russian-owned company.

Fox News reported the department said it authorized the informant to speak to the Senate Judiciary Committee, House Oversight Committee, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, as well as select staffers.

The Justice Department said the informant could provide “any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market,” including Russian company Rosatom, its subsidiary Tenex, Uranium One and the Clinton Foundation.

The FBI said in court documents and in interviews that they had gathered enough evidence to prove that Rosatom-connected officials were engaged in a bribery scheme that included kickbacks and money laundering in 2010, Circa reported.

Despite that little tidbit, the U.S. government approved the sale. Not surprising considering who was in office. Now we have a chance to know what really went down.

The informant’s attorney, Victoria Toensing, told Fox Business Network Monday that her client could “tell what all the Russians were talking about during the time that all these bribery payments were made.”

Toensing said her client, an American businessman who reportedly worked as an undercover FBI confidential witness, was prevented from testifying by former attorneys general Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch after having signed a non-disclosure agreement, according to Fox News.

Circa reported that Toensing also said the informant has pertinent information regarding Russia’s attempts to gain access to former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to influence the Obama administration’s decision on the purchase of Uranium One.

After the sale of Uranium One to Rosatom was completed, millions of dollars flowed to the Clinton Foundation from Russian officials, as reported by The Hill.

This FBI informant can also testify about comments made by FBI agents that suggested “political pressure was exerted during the Justice Department probe of the Russia corruption case and that there was specific evidence that could have scuttled approval of the Uranium One deal if it became public,” according to The Hill.

There is little doubt that if Clinton had won the presidency, this gag order would still be enforced.

Thus, the truth about who really colluded with the Russians would likely never be known. Hopefully, the informant’s testimony will shed some light on what happened during these deals and the truth behind them can come out. You can bet this news has former President Barack Obama and Clinton sweating bullets.

You can also bet the mainstream media will take its sweet time covering this news because it doesn’t fit their Trump-hating agenda.

H/T American Military News

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The Big Nothing Burger


Reported by Walker Wildmon | Assistant to the President | Wednesday, June 14, 2017 @ 1:32 PM

The Big Nothing Burger

The recently released book Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes reveals that Hillary Clinton’s two trusted advisers, John Podesta and Robby Mook, conspired the day after the election to blame Russia for their campaign’s failure. The authors write:

That strategy had been set within twenty-four hours of her concession speech. Mook and Podesta assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.

It appears that rather than looking internally at why their campaign/candidate lost, they decided to collude with the media to blame Russia.

Since then, the media and Democrats have accused President Trump’s campaign of colluding with the Russian government to sabotage America’s election system ultimately affecting the outcome of the election. Let’s look at this one piece at a time.

When was the Russian hacking accusation first launched? In June of 2016 the Washington Postreported that Russian governmental hackers gained access to DNC data. The next day a private cyber security firm whom the DNC hired to investigate this matter released a blog that confirmed the Washington Post story. Nearly a month later the FBI confirmed that it had opened an investigation into the matter. The most important thing to note here is that the DNC used a private firm to investigate the alleged hacking and they never allowed the FBI access to their servers. FBI director James Comey admitted in an open Congressional hearing that his agency has never accessed the DNC server.  Instead, the FBI relied solely on the private firm for evidence.

All the Russian hacking accusations are based on one blog post released by a private firm in California. To my knowledge, the FBI and other agencies have built the bulk of their investigation around this one blog post.

Assuming that this private firm’s assessment is accurate and it was the Russians who hacked the DNC, how did President Trump and his campaign get in the mix? On December 9, 2016 the Washington Postpublished a story claiming that the CIA had concluded that Russia hacked the DNC to help Mr. Trump win the election. Do you notice who is perpetuating the narrative? The Washington Post.

Once again, the FBI has not independently confirmed who hacked the DNC yet the intelligence community is able to conclude the motive of the alleged hackers? Where is the CIA getting its information?

Let’s err on the side of respect for the FBI and CIA and grant legitimacy to their claim that Russia hacked the DNC. Why are these agencies bringing up President Trump’s name in their reports? Clearly, President Trump and his associates were pulled into this investigation in an attempt to discredit their reputation and ultimately undermine President Trump’s election victory. They want you to believe that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the election.

Proponents of the alleged Russia collusion story will say that former campaign advisers such as Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Carter Page have connections to the Russian government. It is true that each of these gentlemen gave speeches in Russia, had business dealings in Russia and at times dealt with Russian officials for various reasons. These gentlemen also had dealing with other countries. This is typical for advisers and private businessmen who work for various governments to represent their interests in the U.S. and other countries.

According to a story at investors.com:

There may be no Clinton Foundation office in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but it is not for lack of trying. Bill Clinton received half a million dollars in 2010 for a speech he gave in Moscow, paid by a Russian firm, Renaissance Capital, that has ties to Russian intelligence. The Clinton Foundation took money from Russian officials and oligarchs, including Victor Kekselberg, a Putin confidant. The Foundation also received millions of dollars from Uranium One, which was sold to the Russian government in 2010, giving Russia control of 20% of the uranium deposits in the U.S. —  the sale required approval from Hillary Clinton’s State Department. What’s more, at least some of these donations weren’t disclosed. ‘Ian Telfer, the head of the Russian government’s uranium company, Uranium One, made four foreign donations totaling $2.35 million to the Clinton Foundation. Those contributions were not publicly disclosed by the Clintons; despite an agreement Mrs. Clinton had struck with the Obama White House to publicly identify all such donors…’

The article goes on to say,

In March — that is, long after the election was over — it was revealed that Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman had failed to disclose the receipt of 75,000 shares of stock from a Kremlin-financed company — Joule Unlimited — for which he served as director from 2010 to 2014, when he joined the Obama White House in 2014. Podesta apparently had a large chunk of the shares transferred to “Leonidio Holdings, a brand-new entity he incorporated only on Dec. 20, 2013, about 10 days before he entered the White House…

Lastly, it says,

Mr. Podesta’s brother, who has close personal and business relations with Mrs. Clinton, was ‘key lobbyist on behalf of Sberbank, according to Senate lobbying disclosure forms. His firm received more than $24 million in fees in 2016, much of it coming from foreign governments, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics’…The bank was ‘seeking to end one of the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against that country.’ The report goes on to note that ‘Podesta’s efforts were a key part of under-the-radar lobbying during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign led mainly by veteran Democratic strategists to remove sanctions against Sberbank and VTB Capital, Russia’s second largest bank.’ Mr. Obama imposed the sanctions following the Russian seizure of the Crimean region of Ukraine in 2014…In March, Mr. Putin’s spokesman said that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak met with members of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign several times while she was running for president in 2016. Further, the campaign never disclosed the number or nature of these secret meetings.

It appears as though the Clinton campaign colluded with the Russian government rather than the Trump campaign.

Is it accurate to say the Russians hacked the DNC in July of 2015? Yes, if you trust a blog post from a private cyber security firm in California. Is it accurate to say that President Trump’s campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the election? No, because evidence of such does not exist. 

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