When will these people get serious about the government corruption.
Democrats who are hoping that President Donald Trump will face harsh repercussions for paying settlements to women who allege relationships with him passed legislation on Thursday that requires them to make payments for sexual harassment with their own money.
Current law addressing sexual misconduct that was put in place in 1995 — ironically when Bill Clinton was in the White House — requires an accuser to get counseling, wait 30 days, and allowed accused lawmakers to use a slush fund of taxpayer money to pay off their accusers.
Part of the reason it took Congress all year to get this done is because the House wanted tougher punishments and more transparency when lawmakers sexually harass or discriminate against staff, while Senate Republicans, for some reason, insisted on watering down those provisions.
House lawmakers, for example, wanted to make members of Congress pay out of pocket for discrimination settlements too and wanted to provide legal representation to all accusers. But the Senate, which finally caved on requiring lawmakers to pay out of pocket for sexual harassment settlements, rejected both of those provisions and neither ended up in the final bill.
The passage of the bill, which President Donald Trump has to sign into law, is Congress’s response to the #MeToo movement launched last year, wherein women across the country accused men ranging from Hollywood moguls to media celebrities and members of the House and Senate of sexual harassment and worse.
Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) spearheaded the movement in Congress last year after announcing that she, too, had been the victim of sexual misconduct as a young congressional staffer. She was one of the main sponsors behind the House legislation, and she promised to push next session to put that chamber’s tougher terms back in place.
“Taxpayers should never foot the bill for Members’ misconduct,” Speier said in a statement provided to the Huffington Post. “And having spoken with many survivors, the process of going up against a lawyer for the institution and the harasser was as traumatic, if not more traumatic, than the abuse they suffered. … We are committed to offering victims the tools they need to pursue justice. We will address these issues in the next Congress.”
The law is not retroactive, so the members who have left their Congressional seats because of sexual misconduct charges will not be affected, including Blake Farenhold (R-TX), Patrick Meehan (R-PA), Trent Franks (R-AZ), John Conyers (D-MI), and Al Franken (D-MN).
The Daily Caller asked Speier why lawmakers paying off women who make accusations against them differs from what Trump is alleged to have done when his lawyer paid funds to women who claimed to have had a relationship with him.
“They’re totally unrelated,” Speier told The Daily Caller on Wednesday. She later explained, “One was to impact an election and the other was bad behavior within Congress.”
“When pressed further about the Congressional settlements being taxpayer money, as opposed to any money allegedly paid to Stormy Daniels through Michael Cohen, Speier responded, “I’m the one who has carried the legislation to make sure that members are held accountable. These members are now gone. There’s no one left who was sexually harassing.”
The Office of the Special Counsel deleted text messages from the iPhone of fired FBI agent Peter Strzok before turning it over to the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (OIG), according to a report released by the federal watchdog.
On Thursday, the Justice Department’s inspector general released a report stating thousands of text messages exchanged between Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page could not be recovered after Mueller’s team wiped clean the phones it had issued them.
So Mueller’s team wiped ALL of the data off of Peter Strzok’s iPhone after determining “it contained no substantive text messages.” Given what we know about Strzok, this smells like quite the coverup. Time for Congress to step in?
“SCO’s Records Officer told the OIG that as part of the office’s records retention procedure, the officer reviewed Strzok’s DOJ issued iPhone after he returned it to the SCO and determined it contained no substantive text messages,” the watchdog report reads. As Conservative Review national security reporter Jordan Schachtel first discovered, the OIG said Strzok’s cell phone was “reset to factory settings,” deleting all data stored on the device.
The federal watchdog said in the report it found “no discernible patterns” about the content of thousands of messages the FBI was able to recover between Strzok and Page. Both have been part of Mueller’s investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Strzok and Page testified before Congress this summer, and the former FBI agent admitted that he had not turned over all of his communications with Page to the Inspector General from his personal phone, even though their recovered conversations showed the two suggesting they move to apps like iMessage or Gmail. Strzok told outgoing Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) that it is a “safe assumption” that he sent messages to Page from his personal phone that were similar in nature to the widely-publicized messages attacking Trump supporters. He told House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) that he himself determined which messages on that phone were “relevant to FBI business” that the Inspector General could review.
At that time of their exchanges, the FBI was investigating whether former secretary of state and then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton improperly used a private email account while she was Secretary of State. Strzok, a senior counterintelligence agent, was assigned to the case, as was Page. Reports claimed the two were romantically involved during this time. Strzok was ultimately fired after anti-Trump text messages between him and Page were discovered by the special counsel.
Thursday’s report said the FBI used special software to collect more than 20,000 text messages from the pair’s phones, but not all were sent between Strzok and Page. Investigators have already released some of the controversial texts, including a message from Strzok saying he would “stop” President Donald Trump from winning the election.
Missing text messages from the pair’s iPhones, though, continue to elude the FBI.
Early this year, the Office of the Inspector General contacted Verizon Wireless to determine if the carrier retains old text messages. Verizon said messages are retained for up to seven days after they are sent, and then erased. The missing messages in question were much older than a week by that time and Verizon no longer had them.
Flynn should have known better. He is a scumbag anyway with his Turkish connection.
Andrew McCabe urged Michael Flynn to meet with FBI agents without White House attorneys present, according to a court filing submitted Tuesday in the special counsel’s probe.
McCabe and other FBI officials also decided not to provide a warning to Flynn about penalties regarding lying to the FBI.
Though Flynn’s lawyers are suggesting he was trapped into lying to the FBI, the new filing does not explain why the retired lieutenant general made false statements about his interactions with Russia’s ambassador
Just days into President Donald Trump’s tenure, then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe urged then-national security adviser Michael Flynn to meet with two FBI agents without White House lawyers present, claiming that a limited meeting would be the “quickest” way to have a conversation about Flynn’s discussions weeks earlier with Russia’s ambassador.
As if that scenario was not fraught with enough legal landmines, Flynn was also not warned by the two agents he met with about the penalties for lying to federal investigators. That’s because McCabe and other FBI officials decided before the fateful Jan. 24, 2017 meeting that “they wanted Flynn to be relaxed.” The officials “were concerned that giving the warnings might adversely affect the rapport” between Flynn and his FBI interlocutors.
Those revelations are tucked into a 178-page filing that Flynn’s lawyers submitted on Tuesday in the special counsel’s investigation.
While the filing contains new details about the White House interview, Flynn’s team does not provide an explanation for why the retired lieutenant general made false statements to the FBI agents, aside from saying that he “recognizes that his actions were wrong and he accepts full responsibility for them.”
While Flynn’s lawyers said in the filing that he is remorseful for lying to the FBI during that Jan. 24, 2017 meeting, the activities of McCabe and the FBI agents who interviewed Flynn are sure to generate outcry about overreach in the Russia investigation. Flynn’s supporters have noted that McCabe and one of the FBI agents, Peter Strzok, have run into ethical and legal problems of their own.
According to the filing, McCabe wrote in a memo just after arranging the White House visit that he suggested to Flynn that attorneys stay out of the interview in order to save time.
“I explained that I thought the quickest way to get this done was to have a conversation between [General Flynn] and the agents only,” McCabe wrote.
Flynn went along with McCabe’s suggestion, telling McCabe that involving White House lawyers “would not be necessary.” He agreed “to meet with the agents without any additional participants,” according to McCabe.
Less than two hours after that conversation, Peter Strzok, the FBI counterintelligence official leading the Russia probe, visited Flynn along with another FBI agent.
According to notes cited by Flynn’s lead attorney, Robert Kelner, one of the two FBI interviewers noted that Flynn was “relaxed and jocular” during their session. The agent said that Flynn appeared to treat the FBI agents as allies.
Seemingly acting on instructions from FBI brass, “the agents did not provide General Flynn with a warning of the penalties for making a false statement under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 before, during, or after the interview,” Kelner writes.
Flynn has since acknowledged giving false statements during that interview. He pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2017 to lying to the FBI agents about conversations he had in December 2016 with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Flynn’s lawyers are seeking no jail time for the former lieutenant general, a request that is in line with prosecutors’ recommendation in a filing submitted on Dec. 4. Special counsel Robert Mueller in that filing cited Flynn’s “substantial assistance” in three separate investigations.
Kelner noted that Flynn, who was fired as national security adviser on Feb. 13, 2017, continued cooperating with the special counsel’s office “even when circumstances later came to light that prompted extensive public debate about the investigation of General Flynn.”
The lawyer appeared to be referencing the firestorm surrounding McCabe and Strzok.
McCabe was fired on March 16 after the FBI’s personnel office and Justice Department inspector general determined that he made misleading statements under oath about authorizing leaks to the media in October 2016 regarding an investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
Prosecutors are reportedly pursuing a case against McCabe.
Strzok was removed from the Mueller investigation in July 2017 and fired from the FBI on Aug. 13 of this year because of anti-Trump text messages he exchanged with his mistress, FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
Kelner noted that Flynn met with the special counsel’s office five times before entering his plea deal on Dec. 1, 2017. He had 14 more meeting with prosecutors after striking the agreement.
The filing did not address other legal issues Flynn has faced.
As part of his plea deal, Flynn acknowledged making false statements when he registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent of Turkey for consulting work he did during the campaign. Flynn’s plea deal protected him from being prosecuted by the special counsel for his Turkish lobbying. Prosecutors in Virginia are investigating some of Flynn’s former business partners.
Former FBI Director James Comey said on Thursday that Republicans have subpoenaed him to appear before a closed-door meeting of the House Judiciary Committee early next month.
In a Thanksgiving Day tweet, Comey said he would be happy to answer the House Judiciary Committee’s questions, but will “resist a ‘closed door’’ for fear that his testimony will be leaked and distorted.
“Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions,” Comey tweeted. “But I will resist a ‘closed door’ thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion. Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.”
Happy Thanksgiving. Got a subpoena from House Republicans. I’m still happy to sit in the light and answer all questions. But I will resist a “closed door” thing because I’ve seen enough of their selective leaking and distortion.Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.
The subpoena calls Comey to testify as part of the congressional inquiry into allegations of anti-Trump bias that led to the shutting down of the probe of Hillary Clinton’s private email server and the opening of the investigation into purported ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
President calls the Mueller investigation a ‘total mess’ and ‘disgrace’ on social media; John Roberts reports from the White House.
Comey’s tweet partly confirms a story published in Politicothat reported that the former FBI director and former President Barack Obama’s attorney general, Loretta Lynch, had both been subpoenaed.
A source told Fox News that Lynch and Comey had indeed been subpoenaed. So far Lynch has not made any public statement on the subpoena.
The office of Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the outgoing chair of the House Judiciary Committee, was also unavailable for comment.
Comey has been the target of attacks by both Trump and Republicans for his time at the head of the FBI, with the president labelling the investigation into allegations of collusion between his campaign and Russia – now headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller – a “witch hunt.”
Democrats, however, argue that the GOP-led investigation in the House is itself a partisan move to undermine Mueller’s investigation and have promised to renew investigations of their own into Trump’s attacks on the FBI and Justice Department when they take the House majority in January.
In a statement sent to Fox News, Comey’s lawyer, David Kelley, said: “Mr. Comey embraces and welcomes a hearing open to the public, but the subpoena issued yesterday represents an abuse of process, a divergence from House rules and its presumption of transparency. Accordingly, Mr. Comey will resist in Court this abuse of process.”
The news of the subpoenas comes on the heels of a busy week in the Mueller investigation that saw Trump provide the special counsel with written answers to questions about his knowledge of Russian interference in the 2016 election, his lawyers said Tuesday, avoiding at least for now a potentially risky sit-down with prosecutors.
The compromise outcome, nearly a year in the making, offers some benefit to both sides. Trump at least temporarily averts the threat of an in-person interview, which his lawyers have long resisted, while Mueller secures on-the-record statements whose accuracy the president will be expected to stand by for the duration of the investigation.
The responses may also help stave off a potential subpoena fight over Trump’s testimony if Mueller deems them satisfactory. They represent the first time the president is known to have described to investigators his knowledge of key moments under scrutiny by prosecutors.
Also this week, it was revealed by the New York Times that Trump told his counsel’s office last spring that he wanted to prosecute Clinton and former FBI Comey, an idea that prompted White House lawyers to prepare a memo warning of consequences ranging up to possible impeachment.
Then-counsel Don McGahn told the president he had no authority to order such a prosecution, and he had White House lawyers prepare the memo arguing against such a move, The Associated Press confirmed with a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss the situation. McGahn said that Trump could request such a probe but that even asking could lead to accusations of abuse of power, the newspaper said.
Don’t worry we will win damnit and the GOP will do nothing.
Florida’s Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, head of Broward County’s election board, has repeatedly been accused of misconduct.
The Florida governor and Senate races could lie in her hands.
A lawyer tied to the Democratic National Committee and Fusion GPS, the group behind the Steele dossier, has now gotten involved in a recount effort.
Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Democrats are trying to “change the results” of the election, and a liberal said Snipes belongs in prison.
Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is warning that the fate of his state’s governorship could hang in the hands of Florida’s Broward County Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes, whom he’s called incompetent for violating state and federal laws. A liberal candidate similarly painted her as incompetent and corrupt.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum initially conceded the Florida race to Republican Ron DeSantis, but backtracked after vote totals changed Thursday, narrowing the gap to less than half a percent in both the gubernatorial and senatorial races. Broward County is often the slowest of the state’s 67 counties to count votes, and its election department has repeatedly been faulted for wrongdoing.
Now, Perkins Coie lawyer Marc Elias has been enlisted in a recount effort. Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson is retaining Elias, who said it’s “not plausible” that, as Broward statistics suggest, 14,000 people voted in sometimes-obscure state-level races but left the Senate one blank.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who, by initial appearances, beat Nelson in a race for Senate, said Elias will use aggressive techniques to “steal” the election.
Elias worked for both the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC during the 2016 election, even before the 2016 presidential candidate became the Democratic nominee, when the two were supposed to be independent. Perkins Coie also hired Fusion GPS during that election to investigate then-candidate Donald Trump, which ultimately resulted in an unverified dossier being sent to the FBI.
“Democrat lawyers are descending on Florida,” Rubio tweeted Thursday. “They have been very clear they aren’t here to make sure every vote is counted. They are here to change the results of election; & Broward is where they plan to do it.”
“Bay County was hit by a Cat 4 Hurricane just 4 weeks ago, yet managed to count votes & submit timely results,” the Florida Republican continued. “Yet over 41 hours after polls closed Broward elections office is still counting votes?”
Rubio also pointed out that Snipes “doesn’t know how many ballots are left to be counted” and that she isn’t regularly reporting results, which are “chipping away at GOP leads.”
Marco Rubio
✔@marcorubio
·
Long but IMPORTANT THREAT ON ELECTIONS IN #FLORIDA.#BayCounty was hit by a Cat 4 Hurricane just 4 weeks ago,yet managed to count votes & submit timely results.
Yet over 41 hours after polls closed #Broward elections office is still counting votes? #Sayfie
1/6
Marco Rubio
✔@marcorubio
#Broward supervisor:
– says she doesn’t know how many ballots are left to be counted; &
– Isn’t reporting hourly or regularly,but rather releasing thousands of additional votes,often in the overnight hours,that are chipping away at GOP leads
A liberal college professor who ran for Congress challenging Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz from the left, Tim Canova, made similar statements. Wasserman Schultz resigned as head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) after leaked emails showed party officials seeking to rig the 2016 presidential primary against Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, but she continues to represent the Broward area in the House. (RELATED: Debbie Wasserman Schultz To Step Down As DNC Chair)
Tim Canova
✔@Tim_Canova
It’s now close to 43 hours since the polls closed and Brenda Snipes STILL doesn’t know how many votes are left to count! The results in my race are IMPOSSIBLE to believe. WATCH her explain in video below!
Tim Canova
✔@Tim_Canova
Say Brenda, have you tried like, maybe, like, CALLING all the workers? “We have not been able to determine (the ballot problems) yet because we haven’t talked to all the workers.” https://miami.cbslocal.com/video/category/news-politics/3973972-broward-still-counting-ballots/?fbclid=IwAR1_XS6_jIjQcw1y5mOR0fbVE6fduleiwDM1b9cqn9UsHXocWJG61Iz5BaY …
A judge found in August that Snipes improperly handled mail-in ballots, and ordered her not to open mail-in ballots in secret after the Republican Party complained. Snipes’s defense rested on a claim that she didn’t know what the word “canvassing” meant, even though she is on the county’s Canvassing Board.
Canova told The Daily Caller News Foundation that in that case, “they claimed to not know the difference between a federal and state investigation. They claim to be incompetent, but my impression is it’s partly a ruse.”
Polling and early-voting results showed him performing well in 2016, then the reported results rapidly shifted to favor Wasserman Schultz, leading him to suspect manipulation.
Supervisor of elections for Broward County Dr. Brenda C. Snipes holds a group of overvote ballots at the Broward county election equipment center in Ft Lauderdale, Florida, November 2, 2004. Overvotes are absentee ballots that have a vote for more than one candidate in a category. REUTERS/Gary I Rothstein
“So we put in a public records request to inspect some of the ballots, and if inspecting the paper ballot matched up, then it’s done, it will satisfy everyone,” Canova told TheDCNF. ” But the supervisor of elections stonewalled me for months.”
“I was told they didn’t have scanned images, even though on election night they put the ballots through a scanner. So we filed a discovery request to see the paper ballots,” he continued. “Three days later [Snipes] signed an order to destroy the ballots and certified that they were not the subject to ongoing litigation.”
“Her excuse was she just signed anything put in front of her and didn’t read it,” Canova said. “Then she said the ballots were put in the wrong place and that’s why they were destroyed. She concealed the destruction for two weeks.”
Snipes’s position is an elected one, and she is a Democrat.
Canova said even though Snipes admitted to destroying the ballots in a videotaped deposition, the government continued to fight the case.
“They’re using taxpayer money while bleeding us dry.”
Canova questioned why Scott and state Attorney General Pam Bondi, who’s also a Republican, didn’t pursue Snipes for criminal prosecution. He said she could face felony charges that carry five years in prison.
“We’re dealing with organized crime. I just don’t trust anything that comes out of this office,” he said. He said Republicans had joined with him to try to defeat Wasserman Schultz, saying “I might not agree with Tim about Medicare for All, but this about integrity, this is about getting out corruption.”
She sure wasn’t happy in her sworn deposition where she ADMITS to illegally destroying all YOUR paper ballots in my 2016 race against Wasserman Schultz. Watch/Listen to Snipes’ LAME EXCUSE for committing felonies yet to be investigated by law enforcement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGwG3WrqBRs&t=21s …
Canova posted video of people putting bags of ballots into private vehicles, including a sports car.
WATCH:
Tim Canova
✔@Tim_Canova
Caught On Video: Concerned citizen sees ballots being transported in private vehicles & transferred to rented truck on Election night. This violates all chain of custody requirements for paper ballots. Were the ballots destroyed & replaced by set of fake ballots? Investigate now!
In Broward County, Miramar Elementary School teacher Lakeisha Sorey came across a box labeled “Provisional ballots” left behind at the school from Election Day & she’s concerned it might have votes. She didn’t look in the box because she didn’t want to tamper with it
I’m looking forward to the day when Brenda Snipes, Broward Elections Supervisor, goes to prison for destroying every ballot cast in 2016 primary. I’m looking forward to the day when we can inspect the software for the electronic voting machines that supposedly counts every vote.
Andrew Gillum
✔@AndrewGillum
I’m looking forward to seeing every vote counted. https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-election-broward-turnout-difference-20181107-story.html …
When Will Obama Be Questioned On His Corrupt Administration?
A former top lawyer at the FBI provided “explosive” testimony to Congress on Wednesday regarding the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, lawmakers said.
James Baker, who served as the FBI’s general counsel until May, told Congress that a previously unidentified source provided information to the FBI for its investigation, which began on July 31, 2016.
“During the time that the FBI was putting — that [the Department of Justice] and FBI were putting together the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act surveillance warrant] during the time prior to the election — there was another source giving information directly to the FBI, which we found the source to be pretty explosive,” Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan said after a hearing, according to Fox News.
As the FBI’s top attorney, Baker was directly involved in handling applications for the FISA warrants granted against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Baker was interviewed behind closed doors as part of a congressional task force’s investigation into the FBI’s possible abuse of the FISA process. Republican lawmakers have expressed concerns that the Page FISAs relied heavily on the unverified Steele dossier.
The document, which was funded by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee, was cited extensively in the FBI’s applications to spy on Page.
“Some of the things that were shared were explosive in nature,” North Carolina GOP Rep. Mark Meadows told Fox regarding Baker’s interview. “This witness confirmed that things were done in an abnormal fashion. That’s extremely troubling.”
Jordan and Meadows did not provide additional details about what information Baker shared or who the FBI’s source was. They said that congressional investigators were not aware of the source until Baker’s testimony.
Meadows said earlier on Wednesday that he has seen evidence that “confidential human sources” used by the FBI “actually taped members within the Trump campaign.” (RELATED: Undercover FBI Sources Taped Trump Campaign)
“There is strong suggestions in that some of the text messages, emails, and so forth who was involved, that extraordinary measures were used to surveil,” Meadows told Hill.TV.
