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Posts tagged ‘hearing’

Ga. Judge: ‘Possible’ Evidence May Disqualify Willis


By Mark Swanson    |   Monday, 12 February 2024 03:46 PM EST

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/georgia-judge-hearing/2024/02/12/id/1153275/

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee said Monday that it’s “possible” the evidence that surfaced against District Attorney Fani Willis could disqualify her from the prosecuting the election interference case against Donald Trump and the remaining co-defendants. At issue is whether Willis’ admitted relationship with top prosecutor Nathan Wade “resulted in a financial benefit” to Willis by hiring him, McAfee said.

“What remains to be proven is the existence and extent of any financial benefit, again if there even was one,” McAfee said regarding his decision to move forward with a hearing.

“Because I think it’s possible that the facts alleged by the defendant [Mike Roman] could result in disqualification [for Fani Willis]. I think an evidentiary hearing must occur to establish the record on those core allegations,” the judge said.

Willis had asked McAfee to quash the subpoenas against her, Wade, and employees in the DA’s office and cancel Thursday’s hearing. McAfee rejected that.

The attorney for Roman filed a motion weeks ago for Willis to be disqualified over the relationship, which Willis finally admitted to on Feb. 2. The situation took a turn Friday when Roman’s attorney said Wade’s former law partner will “refute” claims Willis and Wade made that their relationship started after the prosecutor was appointed to lead the case against the former president.

“(Terrance) Bradley has non-privileged, personal knowledge that the romantic relationship between Wade and Willis began prior to Willis being sworn as the district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia in January 2021,” wrote Ashleigh Merchant, Roman’s lawyer.

Friday’s filing asserts their relationship began in 2019. Wade’s firm has been paid more than $653,000 since being hired by Willis in November 2021.

Records show that Wade purchased plane tickets for he and Willis to Aruba in October 2022 and San Francisco in April 2023. Roman alleges Wade spent more than $16,000 on cruises and trips in his filing, which accuses Willis of honest services fraud.

Mark Swanson ✉

Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.

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Dems’ Censorship Demand Now ‘Insatiable,’ Constitutional Expert Warns


By: Bob Unruh, WND News Center | December 6, 2023

Read more at https://conservativefiringline.com/dems-censorship-demand-now-insatiable-constitutional-expert-warns/

Gaines
 Riley Gaines (Courtesy photo)

The demands by Democrats in Congress for absolutely censorship of those with viewpoints contrary to the political party’s ideology have become “insatiable,” as evidenced by the actions of a party member from Pennsylvania, according to recognized constitutional expert Jonathan Turley.

Turley, a professor at George Washington University, often has testified before Congress on constitutional issues, and even has represented members in court.

His conclusion is that, “Democrats have embraced an anti-free speech agenda to silence opposing viewpoints” that has become “insatiable,” after Rep. Summer Lee, that Pennsylvania Democrat, lost her cool during a hearing.

She demanded that a witness statement, because it referenced her personally, be censored, even though Lee had barely finished attacking that witness.

It happened like this: Lee insulted witnesses scheduled to make statements as transphobic and hateful, with, “Madam Chair, I ask that while we sit through this hearing and the hateful misinformation I’m sure is coming our way, let us not forget the children at the core of this issue.”

Waiting to testify on the issue of Joe Biden’s agenda to promote transgenderism, no matter the injury to other innocent people, was Riley Gaines, famed as a college athlete after racing against Lia Thomas, a man portraying himself as a woman in college swim competitions.

Thomas responded to Lee’s attack with: “Of course, there is a place for everyone, regardless of gender identity, regardless of sexual orientation, regardless of race or what sports you play. There’s a place for everyone to play sports in this country. But unsafe, unfair and discriminatory practices towards women must stop. Inclusion cannot be prioritized over safety and fairness, and ranking member Lee, if my testimony makes me transphobic then I believe your opening monologue makes you a misogynist.”

Turley reported, “Lee than pounced and demanded that Gaines remarks be struck for ‘engaging in personalities.’”

He reported, “What followed was hurried consultation and presumable a few explanations for Lee on why witnesses are allowed to respond to such attacks by a member. Lee then withdrew her demand.”

He noted Congress has a rule that bans members from engaging in “personalities,” apparently to prevent personal attacks.

“However, Lee was attempting to use this against a witness who was defending herself against her own personal attack. It is a dangerous extension,” he warned.

He explained, “The fact that Lee’s immediate response was to censor a person who she had just attacked is telling. After labeling Gaines a hateful bigot, Lee did not believe that she should be allowed to denounce Lee’s own comments as an attack on women. It shows the slippery slope of censorship. Democrats have embraced an anti-free speech agenda to silence opposing viewpoints. That desire becomes insatiable even as citizens seek to rebut personal attacks from members in a congressional hearing.”

A commentary at RedState explained, “If a congressional member chooses to personally attack someone in a hearing, they shouldn’t be able to shut down a response just because they don’t like it.”

In fact, Turley pointed out that danger.

“That would create a nightmarish combination if members are protected from actions in defaming witnesses but then can censor them when they defend themselves.”

The commentary pointed out, “Democrats and their bureaucratic allies already believe they have the right to shut down speech they don’t like. It’s just a matter of whether the courts allow them to get away with it or not.”

The commentary’s conclusion? “The Democratic Party is made up of entitled wannabe tyrants who believe they should be immune from the very things they do. They don’t want to live by their own standards, and that’s not a tenable position for a functioning society. The problem is especially acute among younger Democrats like Lee. She does her ‘yas queen’ rantings for the camera, accusing others of bigotry but can’t take the slightest bit of pushback. Meanwhile, she wouldn’t dare say that stuff outside the halls of Congress because she knows she’d be legally liable. It’s cowardly and pathetic.”

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Whistleblower Warns: ‘The FBI Will Crush You’


By Sandy Fitzgerald    |   Thursday, 18 May 2023 01:41 PM EDT

Read more at https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/fbi-investigations-weaponization/2023/05/18/id/1120293/

FBI whistleblower Garret O’Boyle, one of three testifying before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Thursday, had a warning for any of his former colleagues who may be thinking about testifying against the agency: Don’t do it.

“The FBI will crush you,” O’Boyle warned, when committee member Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., asked him what he’d advise. “This government will crush you and your family if you try to expose the truth about things that they are doing are wrong, and we are all examples of that.”

O’Boyle said he would tell colleagues that he would take their complaints to Congress for them or put them in touch with Congress, “but I would advise them not to do it.” He admitted that not testifying would not solve the issues the FBI has, or shine light on corruption, but based on his experience, he’d still urge them to turn away.

O’Boyle’s words came at the end of a lengthy, often-heated hearing in which he joined two other FBI whistleblowers, Stephen Friend, and Marcus Allen, to testify about the retribution they experienced for coming forward with statements on several issues. This included the investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the Capitol, the investigations of parents speaking out at school board meetings, and other instances that the Republicans on the committee say show the weaponization of the government against the American people. 

In O’Boyle’s case, he told the committee that he was forced to rely on charity after the FBI moved him and his family from Kansas to Virginia, but soon ended his assignment. He claimed the bureau blocked him for six weeks from getting his family’s personal property back.

Chairman Jim Jordan asked all three men for their reactions to the FBI’s activities against them, and all insisted they followed the oaths they had taken when they went to work with the agency. They agreed with Jordan that they felt the “full weight of the federal government” come down on them, particularly when the FBI sent a letter to members of the committee to inform them that the agents’ security clearances had been revoked. 

“Of course, they timed it perfectly,” said Jordan. “It’s in the letter to us yesterday. We knew they would. We knew it was going to happen that way.”

They also testified that their former colleagues have not reached out to them to support them after they found themselves put out. 

“I know for a fact that my former supervisor had a meeting with my squad shortly after I was suspended, and he told them that I was going to be arrested, fired, and charged. So if that’s not chilling, I don’t know what it is,” said O’Boyle.

Friend agreed, commenting that those who have reached out to him “have used encrypted ways to do it because they fear retribution.”

Allen added that he’s been “ghosted by everybody.” 

Earlier in the hearing, Allen testified that he was targeted based on “unsubstantiated accusations that I hold ‘conspiratorial views’ regarding the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and that I allegedly sympathize with criminal conduct. I do not.”

O’Boyle said the actions against him came after his testimony in another proceeding that the FBI prioritized investigations of anti-abortion activiy after the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned the Roe v. Wade decision on legal abortion. 

He said Thursday that he was forced to accept a new position in another state and that the FBI ordered him to report when his family’s youngest child was only two weeks old. 

Friend, meanwhile, said he has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel saying he was suspended after he raised concerns about the FBI’s manipulation of crime statistics, the treatment of Jan. 6 defendants, and the agency’s use of SWAT teams. 

“The FBI weaponized the security clearance processes to facilitate my removal from active duty within one month of my disclosures,” he said, also alleging the agency “initiated a campaign of humiliation and intimidation to punish and pressure me to resign” and refused his request for records so he could get another job “in an obvious attempt to deprive me of the ability to support my family.”

He also accused the FBI’s Inspection Division of having “imposed an illegal gag order in an attempt to prevent me from communicating with my family and attorneys.”

The hearing was organized by Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and comes after the release publication of Special Counsel John Durham’s report that revealed the FBI lacked evidence to open its investigation on former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The hearing also comes after the Judiciary Committee’s Republicans released a 1,000-page report with the allegations of the politicization of the FBI and Justice Department politicization. 

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