Tag: Special Counsel

Commentary: Biden Staffer Who Mishandled China, Iran Secrets Retains High-Security Pentagon Job

RealClearWire

While Special Counsel Robert K. Hur has raised the issue of mental deterioration in explaining why he declined to prosecute 81-year-old Joe Biden for illegal retention and sharing of classified documents, the president chose another rationale to declare himself not culpable: He shifted the blame to the staffers who boxed up his records as he left the vice president’s office in 2017.

At a press conference hastily assembled after the report’s release, Biden said he assumed his aides had shipped “all” the documents to the National Archives in College Park, Md. “I wish I had paid more attention to how the documents were being moved and where,” he said. “I thought they were being moved to the Archives. I thought all of it was being moved [there].”

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Biden Defends His Mental Fitness After DOJ Report Calls Him ‘Elderly Man with Poor Memory’

The Center Square
Biden Speaking

A visibly upset President Joe Biden addressed the nation late Thursday to respond to news that the special counsel tasked with investigating his handling of classified documents had chosen not to charge him, but also detailed numerous examples of his memory loss.

The blockbuster special counsel report, while clearing Biden, sparked questions about Biden’s mental fitness when it called him an “elderly man with a poor memory.” Biden is 81 years old.

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Special Counsel Robert Hur Says Biden ‘Willfully’ Kept, Shared Classified Memos but Won’t Be Charged Because of His Poor Memory

Just the News
Biden Hur

Special counsel Robert Hur concluded in a stinging report released Thursday that President Joe Biden willfully kept classified documents from his time as vice president, shared them with an author and knew he had them as far back as 2017, but he recommended against prosecution.

Hur said that part of the reason he declined to prosecute the president’s age and poor memory would create reasonable doubt for jurors.

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Vivek Ramaswamy Sues the DOJ, Files New FOIA Request Relating to Trump Indictment

Kaitlin Housler

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) after the department failed to respond to his previously-filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to uncover the communication between the White House, DOJ, and Special Counsel Jack Smith about the indictment in the classified documents case of former President Donald Trump.

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Bipartisan Effort to Reform FISA, End Abuses Could be Iced by GOP Outrage of Durham Report Findings

Just the News

Congressional Democrats have joined in bipartisan effort to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amid abuses but GOP outrage over the findings in the Durham Report, including recent calls to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland over such matters, has likely hurt such efforts.

Congressional reauthorization of FISA is due in December, with particular focus on Section 702 of the law, which permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance on foreign people outside the U.S., with the assistance of electronic communication service providers, to acquire foreign intelligence information.

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Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson on Hunter Biden Plea Deals: ‘This Stinks to High Heaven’

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) joined a chorus of Republicans blasting plea deals that would keep the president’s ne’er-do-well son out of prison.  

“Well first of all, this stinks to high heaven. It certainly proves we do not have equal application of justice under the law,” Johnson said this week on Fox News’ Jesse Waters Prime Time. 

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Legal Experts: Politically Motivated, Yes, But Trump Could Be in Trouble with Latest Indictment

M.D. Kittle

While many Americans feel former President Donald Trump is the target of a political witch hunt by the Biden administration and its allies, the latest allegations against the Republican Party’s top presidential candidate are troubling, according to a leading constitutional law expert. 

Trump arrived in Miami Monday, a day ahead of his arraignment in federal court on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s 37-count indictment, including 31 counts alleging the former president violated the Espionage Act prohibiting willful retention of national defense information. He’s also charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements.

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Senators Want to Know Why Former FBI Officials Refused to Cooperate With Durham Investigation

M.D. Kittle

U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) want Special Counsel John Durham to explain why former high-level government officials refused to cooperate with his investigation exposing the FBI for its many failures in the bogus Trump-Russia collusion probe. 

Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, and Johnson, ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent Durham a letter Tuesday asking why former FBI Director James Comey, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and former FBI Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division Peter Strzok declined to fully cooperate.

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Garland Appoints Special Counsel to Investigate Classified Biden Documents

Just the News

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appointed a special counsel to investigate the classified documents from Joe Biden’s time as vice president.

He said he initially appointed U.S. Attorney John Lausch, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, to conduct the initial investigation, but because Lausch is retiring, a different special counsel needed to be appointed.

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GOP Rep. Greene Says Kevin McCarthy, House GOP Will Defund Special Counsel Investigating Trump

Just the News

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday said that current House Minority Leader and likely next House Speaker Kevin McCarthy would deny funding to the Department of Justice special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump.

In a Tweet detailing the plan, Greene insisted McCarthy would invoke the Holman rule, a procedural measure by which the House may adjust appropriations legislation to reduce the salary of or fire specific government employees. They may also use it to cut specific programs.

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AG Merrick Garland Appoints Special Counsel to Oversee Trump Investigations

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Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Friday that he is appointing a special counsel to oversee the federal criminal investigations into former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents.

This action comes days after Republicans—who plan to investigate the grossly political Justice Department—won the House of Representatives, and over a week after Joe Biden told reporters that his administration will make sure Trump “will not take power if he does run.”

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Support Grows Among Republicans for Naming a Special Counsel to Investigate Hunter Biden

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Nearly 100 House Republicans are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals, saying they had the hallmarks of an influence peddling scandal.

The letter led by Reps. Tom Rice (R-S.C.) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.), the chair of the House GOP Study Committee, comes as the U.S. attorney in Delaware enters his third year investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes, foreign lobbying and money movements.

In all, 95 House GOP members signed the letter.

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Gableman: Wisconsin Audit’s Purpose Is to Determine What Was Supposed to Happen on Election Day

The Center Square
Michael Gableman

The latest update on Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’ election investigation comes with a promise and a warning.

Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman released a YouTube video on Monday, explaining his investigation into Election Day 2020.

“My job as special counsel is to gather all relevant information. And while I will draw my own conclusions, my goal is to put everything I know and everything I learn before you. So you can make up your own mind,” Gableman said. “But I think it’s critical to know that an obstruction of this office is an obstruction of each citizen’s right to know whether all ballots were appropriately counted; that our elections were managed with fairness, inclusivity and accountability.”

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Judge in Case of Anti-Trump Mudslinger is Married to Attorney for Ex-FBI Lawyer Lisa Page

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FBI logo outside of building

Last week, the special counsel appointed to oversee the probe into the FBI’s investigation of former president Donald Trump indicted Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. Republicans and Trump allies are optimistic about the latest development in John Durham’s investigation but are still concerned that Attorney General Merrick Garland might halt the investigation to protect allies and even the president himself.

FBI notes appear to suggest that as vice president, Joe Biden played a role in the Democratic Party project to smear Trump as a Russian asset by raising the obscure, disused, 18th century statute the Logan Act as a possible vehicle for prosecuting Michael Flynn for speaking with the Russian ambassador to Washington — even after FBI case agents had cleared Trump’s incoming national security adviser of wrongdoing.

And now Republicans are raising concerns that the judge appointed to the Sussmann case has too many conflicts of interest to preside over it fairly.

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Wisconsin Office of Special Counsel Tells State Election Commission to Prevent Evidence Destruction

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Flag with ballot form

Special Counsel and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Mike Gableman is attempting to prevent the potential destruction of evidence pertaining to the 2020 presidential election in the state.

Gableman reminded the Wisconsin Election Commission via letter of its duty to prevent the tampering and destruction of evidence.

“I hereby request that you and your office preserve any and all records and evidence […] including but not limited to information retained on any and all voting machine,” including “metadata, router information, and/or access logs,” he wrote.

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Washington Braces for Mueller’s Appearance Wednesday

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  A leading House Democrat says special counsel Robert Mueller will give “very substantial evidence” that will make the case for impeaching U.S. President Donald Trump. “This is a president who has violated the law six ways from Sunday,” House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler told Fox television on the weekend. Legislators from Trump’s Republican Party, however, predict a highly anticipated hearing this week will amount to nothing more than a rehash of previously published information. Also speaking Sunday on Fox television, Congressman Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, accused Democrats of “going after things that we’ve already known.” Mueller is set to testify before two House committees Wednesday about his investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the 2016 presidential election and if Trump obstructed justice in trying to derail the probe. “We have to present, or let Mueller present, those facts to the American people…because the administration must be held accountable and no president can be above the law,” Nadler said. Mueller report conclusions  The Mueller report concluded there was not enough evidence to determine that Trump or his campaign colluded with Russia. But Mueller wrote he could not exonerate…

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Tim Ryan Releases Statement in Support of Impeachment Proceedings

Anthony Gockowski

  Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) said the House “must begin impeachment proceedings” in a statement released Tuesday morning. Republicans criticized Ryan, a 2020 hopeful, for using the impeachment issue to “breakthrough in a crowded primary field” and “satiate his radical base.” But Ryan claims he came to the decision “after much thought and consideration and after both reading the Mueller report and hearing directly from the Special Counsel.” “In America, no one is above the law. In America, we have an elected president, not a king. In America, the people govern,” Ryan began his statement. “We must fully expose the lawlessness which has already occurred and prevent additional lawlessness from occurring. While it is unlikely that we will see a conviction in the Senate with its present Republican leadership more concerned with power and party than their constitutional duties and the rule of law, we can no longer sit by while a lawless president remains unchecked,” he continued. Statement on Impeachment pic.twitter.com/8pzx1zQnhC — Tim Ryan (@TimRyan) June 4, 2019 Ryan went on to suggest that avoiding impeachment would enable “this kind of lawless behavior to continue and to metastasize.” “Our republic cannot survive if we acquiesce to the view held…

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Jim Jordan Goes on Media Blitz Against ‘Collusion Delusion’

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) blasted his Democratic colleagues for their “collusion delusion” during several cable news appearances this week. Fox and Friends, America’s Newsroom, Hannity, Ingraham Angle—if there was coverage of the Russia investigation, then Jordan was likely there to talk about it, and his message was clear: “no new indictments, no sealed indictments, no collusion, no obstruction.” But he didn’t stop there. Jordan, along with Rep. Mark Meadows (R-SC-11), believes that the other side of the story needs to be investigated. “Let’s do everything we can to work with Chairman Graham to get to the bottom of this and expose how they used one party’s opposition research document to get a secret warrant to spy on the other party’s campaign and launch this whole ridiculous thing that we saw unfold over the last several years,” Jordan said during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s show. During an appearance on Fox New’s Ingraham Angle, Jordan agreed with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich that the Democratic Party is “in denial” after the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report. “It was so strong what Bill Barr said about Bob Mueller’s investigation. Remember the numbers – 19, 40, 500, 2,800. 19 lawyers, most…

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Jim Jordan Reminds Nation That Democrats Used to Talk About Mueller Like He’s ‘Next to Jesus’

Anthony Gockowski

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) sat down for an interview with George Stephanopoulos Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” where he said his Democratic colleagues viewed Robert Mueller as “next to Jesus” heading into the Russia investigation. Prior to his interview, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA-28) was on the show and suggested that a lack of indictments in the Mueller report doesn’t necessarily vindicate President Donald Trump. “Well we’ve got to read the report, but what I do know is to date not one bit of evidence to show any type of coordination, collusion, conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the election. And that was the charge, George, when this thing started almost two years ago,” Jordan said in response. “The Democrats were all saying that the president of the United States worked with a hostile foreign country to steal the election, and again, there has not been one bit of evidence to suggest that any of that happened.” Jordan repeatedly emphasized that the focus of the special counsel investigation was to determine whether or not there was “collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to impact the election.” “And again, remember, this is Bob Mueller, this was the guy…

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The Full Text of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Indictment of Former Trump Aide Paul Manafort

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The suspense is over, and we all now know who the first to be charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller – himself in peril of being sucked into the giant vortex known loosely as the ‘Clinton-Russia Scandal.’ The indictment itself runs thirty-one pages and specifically names Paul Manafort and his aide, Richard Gates. Allegations run the gamut from conspiracy to launder as much as $21 million and funneling millions more to foreign bank accounts, to working as foreign agents (Ukraine) and making false statements. The indictment contains twelve allegations (crimes or violations of law), however, that number can change over the course of adjudication.   INDICTMENT The Grand Jury for the District of Columbia Charges: Introduction: At all times relevant to this indictment: 1. Defendants Paul J. Manafort, Jr. (MANAFORT) and Richard W. Gates III (GATES) served for years as political consultants and lobbyists. Between at least 2006 and 2015, MANAFORT and GATES acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was President from 2010 to 2014), Yanukovych, and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions that formed in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to…

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