Confidential informant wasn’t interviewed prior to indictments on Russian nuclear bribery case

Free Republic

Sara A. Carter

 

DOJ tells Senate Judiciary confidential informant wasn’t interviewed prior to indictments on Russian nuclear bribery case

“In all my years as a federal prosecutor I would not have ever filed an indictment without interviewing the main witness,” said Victoria Toensing, attorney for William Campbell Jr., former confidential informant.

 

Department of Justice prosecutors did not interview a confidential informant and main witness in a Russian nuclear industry bribery and laundering case in 2014, prior to issuing its indictments against the defendants, this reporter has learned.

This “oversight” was disclosed in a briefing by the Department of Justice to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday regarding the 2014 case against Russian nationals and co-conspirators, according to several sources directly familiar with the briefing.

Continue reading

Judicial Watch Sues CIA, DOJ and Treasury for Records Related to Intelligence Leaks Regarding Investigation of General Flynn

Judicial Watch

Asks Court to Order Searches and Production of Records 

National Security Agency Refuses to Confirm or Deny Existence of Records 

(Washington DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the United States Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury regarding records related to the investigation of retired United States Army Lieutenant General Michel Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak (Judicial Watch v. Central Intelligence Agency et al. (No.1:17-cv-00397)).  (The National Security Agency refused to confirm or deny the existence of intelligence records about communications between Gen. Flynn and Amb Kislyak.)

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit after the agencies failed to respond to a January 25, 2017, FOIA request seeking:

Any and all records regarding, concerning, or related to the investigation of retired Gen. Michael Flynn’s communications with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak between October 1, 2016 and the present.

This request includes, but is not limited to, any and all related warrants, affidavits, declarations, or similar records regarding the aforementioned investigation.

For purposes of clarification, please find enclosed a CNN report regarding the investigation, which cites information that was provided to CNN by members of the Intelligence Community.

In its complaint Judicial Watch asks the court to order the agencies to search for all records responsive to its FOIA requests and demonstrate that they employed reasonable search methods; order the agencies to produce by a specific date all non-exempt records and a Vaughn index of all withheld records; and instruct the agencies to cease withholding all non-exempt records.

On January 23, 2017, CNN reported that the government was investigating Flynn, former national security adviser to President Trump:

The calls were captured by routine US eavesdropping targeting the Russian diplomats, according to the intelligence and law enforcement officials. But the officials said some of the content of the conversation raised enough potential concerns that investigators are still looking into the discussions, amid a broader concern about Russian intelligence-gathering activities in the United States.

The officials all stressed that so far there has been no determination of any wrongdoing.

FBI and intelligence officials briefed members of the Obama White House team before President Barack Obama left office about the Flynn calls to the Russian ambassador, sources said.

“President Trump is on to something. The Obama-connected wiretapping and illegal leaks of classified material concerning President Trump and General Flynn are a scandal,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch aims to get to the truth about these crimes and we hope the Trump administration stands with us in the fight for transparency.”

Obama Decrees ALL Public Schools Must Allow Transgender Bathroom Use

Daily Caller

via Free Republic

 

The Obama administration will send a letter to every public school district in the country Friday warning them that they must allow students to use whatever bathroom and locker room corresponds to their stated gender identity, or face a federal lawsuit.

The decree, sent jointly by the Department of Justice and the Department of Education, comes just a few days after North Carolina and the federal government sued each other over the state’s recent law governing bathroom use in public buildings. It won’t be a new federal law, but will instead reflect the Obama administration’s interpretation of existing federal anti-discrimination law.

In particular, the decree is based on Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. While the drafters of the law may not have known it at the time, the Obama administration’s position is that the law covers discrimination based on gender identity as well as physical sex.

Continue reading

Judicial Watch Obtains Fast and Furious Crime Scene Photos

Judicial Watch

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it has obtained graphic crime scene photos taken at the site of a 2013 gang-style assault on a Phoenix, AZ, apartment building, including a close-up photo revealing the serial number of the AK-47 rifle used by the assailants.  As a result of Judicial Watch’s October 2, 2014, public records lawsuit, the weapon has been already traced to the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) Operation Fast and Furious gunrunning program.  The photos were also produced by the Phoenix Police Department in response to this lawsuit (Judicial Watch v. City of Phoenix (No. CV2014- 012018)). Full batch of photos can be viewed here.

Barack Obama, Eric Holder

According to press reports at the time of the assault, police investigating the shooting that left two wounded found an AK-47 assault rifle in the front passenger area of a vehicle that had crashed into a fence surrounding the apartment complex. Inside sources informed Judicial Watch at the time of the crime scene investigation that the AK-47 used in the assault had been provided to the assailants as part of the Obama-Holder Fast and Furious program. On October 16, 2014, Judicial Watch announced that, based upon information uncovered through its October 2 public records lawsuit, the U.S. Congress had confirmed that the rifle was tied to the Fast and Furious operation.  Attorney General Eric Holder has already admitted that guns from the Fast and Furious scandal are expected to be used in criminal activity on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border for years to come.

Continue reading

Justice Department Inspector General Pushes Holder on Misconduct

PJ Media

Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz has published a memorandum to Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole about “challenges” facing the Justice Department. Among the list of challenges: misconduct and malfeasance by DOJ employees and units which PJ Media has been reporting about for years.

That these instances of misconduct were included in Horowitz’s report infers that Holder’s Department has either taken inadequate action to address the behavior, or has taken no action at all. Based on what sources inside DOJ are saying, I suspect the latter.

The report provides material which senators on the Judiciary Committee — such as Jeff Sessions (R-AL), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) — may use to probe Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights nominee Debo Adegbile in his confirmation hearing. Below, three of the issues raised in the report:

Continue reading

Update: Fmr. Imprisoned Navy SEAL Tranquilized Against Will; Once Housed With Bernie Madoff

 
Harry G. Butler Provides Further Details 
of his Incarceration Prompted by U.S. Secret Service
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO AMERICA’S VETERANS?
By Sharon Rondeau 
The Post & Email
Who initiated the “Sovereign Citizen” and “Operation Vigilant Eagle” programs?

(Jul. 22, 2013) — In late 2008 or early 2009, the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, and FBI, with the cooperation of the Department of Defense, launched “Operation Vigilant Eagle,” which was designed to scrutinize military veterans for tendencies to radicalization.  Combined with the efforts of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), DHS, state “fusion centers,” and local law enforcers, training programs depicting allegedly angry veterans, “birthers,” those opposed to illegal immigration and amnesty, and supporters of the U.S. Constitution and the Bible have been characterized as possible “domestic terrorists” and “Sovereign Citizens” under Obama.
At least one criminal complaint against a veteran has been proven to have been fabricated but landed him in federal prison on a multiple-year sentence for a crime he could not have committed because he was not in the location where the government claimed the crime occurred.  There were no arrests on the day of the alleged infractions, and law enforcers who allegedly witnessed people carrying guns near a courthouse remain unnamed.  In his affidavit, FBI Special Agent Mark Van Balen admitted that he himself had not witnessed the crimes he alleged had been committed on April 20, 2010 in Madisonville, TN by Darren Wesley Huff.
Both Huff and another veteran attempting to stand up to local corruption, Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III, were depicted in a 2011 Tennessee law enforcement training program as “Sovereign Citizens” in company with murderers and bank fraud perpetrators.
In August 2012, U.S. Marine Corps veteran Brandon Raub was arrested at gunpoint for posting allegedly controversial statements made on his Facebook page which were described as “terrorist in nature.”  Raub was forced into a psychiatric institution until a federal judge ruled a week later that there was no probable cause to hold him.  The Rutherford Institute is now suing the government on Raub’s behalf for an unspecified amount, claiming civil rights and constitutional violations.  In an interview conducted while he was incarcerated, when asked about what people could learn from his experience, Raub said that “Government is like fire.”
After Raub was seized, Rutherford founder John Whitehead told Glenn Beck that his organization received an onslaught of calls from America’s veterans to his organization reported harassment, arrests without probable cause, incarceration, intimidation and mysterious disappearances.
During Obama’s occupation of the White House, the U.S. military has become increasingly hostile to evangelical Christians, Jews, Catholics and others but has softened its stance on radical Islam and turned its ire on its own for teaching an approved course on the subject to other officers.  First Amendment rights have been under attack from Obama appointees who protect Islam while threatening arrest of anyone opposing it.
From 2007 to early 2009, former Navy SEAL Harry G. Butler, III spoke out about his certainty that Barack Hussein Obama was not a U.S. citizen.  In a recent conversation, he told The Post & Email that his issue was not presidential eligibility, but rather, Obama’s lack of American citizenship and his resultant status as “a phony.”
Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the Constitution states that the president and commander-in-chief must be a “natural born Citizen.”  It is understood that a non-U.S. citizen cannot hold the office of the presidency.
Several members of the military on active-duty status challenged Obama’s legitimacy in 2009 and 2010.  One, Dr. Terry Lakin, was ultimately sentenced to six months at Ft. Leavenworth prison after he refused to follow an order to deploy to Afghanistan on the grounds that he was unsure if Obama was eligible to issue it.  As part of discovery in his defense, Lakin had planned to request that Hawaii Department of Health officials release Obama’s original birth record to show that he had been born in the U.S., but Col. Denise Lind prevented all discovery on the grounds that it might prove “embarrassing” to Obama.
A former presidential candidate opined that Obama was never vetted for eligibility or citizenship.  Obama has been reported to have been born in Kenya, Hawaii, and Indonesia and self-reported that he held dual citizenship upon his birth.
With 18 years of service and his release from prison in May 2011, Lakin received a dishonorable discharge from the Army and loss of pension and pay.  While he was incarcerated at Ft. Leavenworth, the White House released the birth certificate image which has now been proven fraudulent.
During its 22-month-long investigation of the long-form birth certificate purported to be Obama’s posted on the White House website since April 2011, the Maricopa County, AZ Cold Case Posse has reported that not only is the image a “computer-generated forgery,” but also that reporters, commentators and others have been threatened with their careers or worse if they should continue to report on it.
The Post & Email has received numerous death threats, as has Cold Case Posse lead investigator Michael Zullo, because of their efforts to uncover the truth behind Obama’s ascendancy to the White House and now-proven fraudulent documents, including his Selective Service registration card.
Zullo has stated that the investigation has found no evidence that Barack Hussein Obama is an American citizen.
On July 12, 2013, Lakin was a guest on the “Freedom Friday” radio show hosted by Pastor and author Carl Gallups.  Butler was listening to the show called in, speaking briefly with Gallups and putting forth a question for Zullo, who was Gallups’ subsequent guest.  Butler told The Post & Email that he called in to “give Terry Lakin an ‘Atta Boy.’”
Butler told The Post & Email that he was arrested on January 23, 2009 for allegedly threatening Obama, a charge he denies.  After being tranquilized against his will, he spent two weeks in a local hospital and then a federal prison in Georgia.  He was later relocated to a prison in Miami, FL, and several months later, to Butner, NC for “another psychiatric evaluation.” In early December 2009, Butler was unexpectedly told one day that he was “free to leave.”
Butler denies having made threats against Obama’s person and stated that he had been trying to raise awareness of Obama’s “ineligibility to be eligible” to serve as president with his elected officials.  He told The Post & Email that he believes “They’re all scared to death” of the issue and “in complete lockdown.”
Butler believes that the drawn-out “evaluations” are the “way they keep you under thumb.”
We asked Butler if he ever underwent a psychological evaluation, to which he responded, “The two doctors I had were very, very nice, just wonderful people, but then they also had some that I thought were really sleazy.  Butner is a medical complex where they do operations and everything; it’s called an ‘FMC.’  Do you know who was in the ward with me?  Bernie Madoff.  Somebody had beaten the hell out of him, and they took him out of the ward that he was in and put him in with the psychiatric evaluation people.”
We then asked Butler, “Were there patients who were not considered psychiatric in these facilities where you were?”
“Oh, yeah.  They had different units, depending on what your problem was.”
“Were you in with people who really were psychiatric cases?”
“You have people who tried to kill themselves, so they would be on suicide watch.  They would take them to a different unit and put them in a padded cell.”
“Were they also criminals?”
“They were criminals, and all kinds of foreigners in there.  A lot of Mexicans and people from foreign countries.  There was a dentist in there that I just absolutely loved.  He was in there for money problems, and he was a very religious man.  We became very close friends, and I thought the world of him.  The majority of them are young black males who are in there for drug problems.  There was a Latin guy I thought the world of who was in there for money laundering.  So there are people from all different walks of life.  There are millions.  There are 30,000,000 people in prison in this country today.  Thirty million, and we look at the population of 330,000,000, and that’s a high percentage,” Butler told us.
The Post & Email asked Butler if while in prison, he thought about the reason he was there, to which he said, “All the time.  When all of this was unfolding, they talk about all of those things, but everything I do I really think it out.  I may write something that’s provocative, but it’s intentionally done and it’s well-written and well-thought-out.  That’s just the way I do things.  I think things out.  I was reading in one of your articles with the criminal complaint about my supposedly ranting and raving, and I thought, ‘This is so bogus…’ What really gets me is that one person can do this and get away with it as long as he is protecting the president.”
We then asked Butler, “Do you think that people were treated similarly for saying the same type of things about George W. Bush?” to which he responded, “I’m sure they were.” Source link – © 2013, The Post & Email. All rights reserved. – See more at: http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2013/07/update-fmr-imprisoned-navy-seal.html#sthash.Be16ZY4s.dpuf

Gunwalker Linked to Three More Murders

Pajamas Media

CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson has revealed a recent document submitted by the Department of Justice to congressional investigators. The document shows that guns linked to Operation Fast and Furious are responsible for at least three more murders in addition to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry:

Continue reading

Court Orders Obama Justice Department to Justify Some of Its Withholdings on Black Panther Scandal

Judicial Watch

Washington, DC — August 11, 2011

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that a federal court rejected a claim of the attorney work product doctrine by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for documents prepared after the government dismissed its case against the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense on May 15, 2009, and ordered the agency to provide better justification for withholding those documents related to the aftermath of its decision to drop its complaint against several members of the New Black Panther Party who were accused of engaging in voter intimidation during the 2008 presidential campaign. The ruling came in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Justice, No. 10-851(RBW)).

In his August 4, 2011, decision, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton rejected the Obama Justice Department’s arguments that documents prepared after the government dismissed its case (against the New Black Panther Party on May 15, 2009) could be withheld under the “attorney work product privilege” exemption. Judge Walton explained:

Continue reading

House Dems Set to Demonize Gun Owners with Gunwalker Hearing

Pajamas Media

The Committee on House Oversight and Government Reform will be having a hearing today on the “Gunwalker” scandal almost guaranteed to fill any observer with disgust. It will be a markedly different kind of hearing than the previous hearings on the scandal chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa.

Continue reading

DOJ Gave Millions to Illegal Immigrant ‘Sanctuaries,’ Report Finds

Fox News

The Department of Justice has spent tens of millions of dollars this year to compensate more than two dozen states, counties and cities for their costs of jailing illegal immigrants — even though those communities have adopted policies that obstruct immigration enforcement, according to a recently released report.

“Subsidizing Sanctuaries: The State Criminal Alien Assistance Program,” a report from the Center for Immigration Studies, found that the federal grant program commonly known as SCAAP allocated $62.2 million — more than 15 percent of its $400 million total — to 27 jurisdictions that are widely considered to be “sanctuary communities.”

Continue reading