Friday, October 27, 2017

Fusion GPS scandal: Clinton, DNC broke campaign finance law with dossier funding, complaint says

Of course, Clinton claims she knew nothing about the dossier.

Hillary Claims She Didn’t Know About The Dossier

The cliché "Clinton's only lie when their lips are moving" does not even begin to approach the multitude of whoppers they have told through the years. In fact, they are in a league all their own. So much so a new word had to be coined to explain the trail of never-ending lies.

Clintonesque:

Using language as a tool of deceit, clever obfuscation, using language to avoid candor and truthfulness, intending to confuse by clouding an issue. In matters of speech, to parse the English language so painfully at a direct question as to avoid responsibility for your own actions. In matters of conduct, to be more interested in #1, instead of the greater good.

Usage: His answer was so Clintonesque that it was laughable.

That about sums up the Clinton's entire lifespan!

Two of their "classics".

Funny when you think about. Here we have a dossier with connections to Russian intermediaries not to mention the Uranium One deal... and who's being investigated for Russian Collusion?

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WH: Clinton campaign lied about paying for Trump dossier

President Trump says new reports prove the dossier is fake and politically motivated.

The revelation that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund a salacious anti-Trump dossier last year is raising new legal questions for the Clinton team — with a watchdog group filing a formal complaint alleging they hid the payments from public view.

The Campaign Legal Center filed the complaint Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, accusing the DNC and Clinton’s campaign committee of breaking campaign finance law by failing to accurately disclose the money spent on the Trump-Russia dossier.

“Questions about who paid for this dossier are the subject of intense public interest, and this is precisely the information that FEC reports are supposed to provide,” Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center said in a statement to Fox News.

The Washington Post reported this week — and Fox News confirmed — that the political consulting firm Fusion GPS was retained last year by Marc E. Elias, an attorney representing the DNC and the Clinton campaign. The firm then hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to write the now-infamous dossier.

TRUMP RIPS CLINTON LINK TO FUSION GPS DOSSIER AS A ‘DISGRACE’

According to the Post, that money was routed from the Clinton campaign and the DNC through the law firm Perkins Coie and described on FEC reports as legal services. The Clinton campaign reportedly paid the law firm nearly $6 million from June 2015 to December 2016, while the DNC paid $3.6 million, though it’s unclear how much money went to Fusion GPS.

Responding to the revelations, Clinton’s former campaign spokesman Brian Fallon compared the project to the kind of “oppo research” that “happens on every campaign.”

But the Campaign Legal Center described the FEC reporting as “misleading.”

“Payments by a campaign or party committee to an opposition research firm are legal, as long as those payments are accurately disclosed,” Fischer said. “But describing payments for opposition research as ‘legal services’ is entirely misleading and subverts the reporting requirements.”

The controversial dossier contained unverified and lurid allegations about dirt the Russians had on Trump and his campaign’s possible connections to Moscow.

Critics argued the latest revelation makes it harder for Democrats to accuse the Trump campaign of collusion.

“Kremlin gave info to Christopher Steele,” tweeted Ari Fleischer, the former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “His oppo-research was paid for by the Clinton campaign. If that’s not collusion, what is?”

“Given Democrats’ argument that Russia’s interference on Trump’s behalf was beyond the pale, the Clinton camp and the DNC paying a Brit for information would seem somewhat problematic,” wrote Aaron Blake of the Washington Post.

Responding to the controversy, a DNC official stressed that current Chairman “Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization.”

A spokesman for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who led the DNC at the time, told Fox News on Wednesday that, “She did not have any knowledge of this arrangement.”

It’s unclear what Hillary Clinton may have known about the research, though Fallon said he didn’t know at the time.

“I personally wasn’t aware of this during the campaign,” Fallon said in a statement, adding: “The first I learned of Christopher Steele or saw any dossier was after the election. But if I had gotten handed it last fall, I would have had no problem passing it along and urging reporters to look into it.”

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Wednesday slammed Democrats for not being more concerned about Russia’s role in the dossier.

“It really tests the validity of how much the Democrats want to get to the bottom of Russia’s interference in this election,” McDaniel said on Fox News’ “The Daily Briefing.” “Because when it comes to them, when it comes to the DNC, when it comes to Hillary Clinton, they don’t seem to have that same appetite as when it comes to this witch-hunt against President Trump.”

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Tucker Reveals Las Vegas Security Guard Left The Country Days After Shooting

I found Campos's disappearance right after the shooting questionable. After all, this guy was supposed to be the "hero security guard". I wrote it off. Why? I thought perhaps he is an illegal trying to avoid the limelight. After reading the story below... more questions then answers. One for me, in a world where privacy no longer exists why is there no video of Paddock entering or leaving Mandalay Bay?

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Fox News host Tucker Carlson dropped a huge new detail on the days following the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history in Las Vegas Wednesday.

According to a document from a confidential source, Tucker revealed that Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos left the United States to go to Mexico just days after being an eyewitness to the Las Vegas mass shooting committed by Stephen Paddock.

Carlson said that he has a “customs and border patrol form that shows Jesus Campos entering the United States from Mexico at the San Ysidro border crossing in San Diego County almost exactly one week after the Las Vegas shooting. The document does not reveal how long Campos had been in Mexico.”

He continued, “Our source told us that Campos entered the United States at the same crossing in January of this year. At that time, he was driving his own vehicle, with Nevada plates. And yet in this document from a little over two weeks ago, Campos was driving what appears to be a rental car with California plates.”

Carlson said, “Jesus Campos is the only eyewitness to the biggest mass shooting in modern American history. At the time he was in Mexico, the press was reporting that investigators thought Paddock may have had an accomplice. Why did authorities allow him to leave the country just days after it occurred, while the investigation was still chaotic?”

The Daily Caller co-founder raised a number of questions, asking, “How did Campos, who reportedly had a gunshot wound to the leg from a high-powered rifle round, manage to travel to Mexico? Did he fly? Did he drive? Was his employer aware that he left the country? Were investigators? Did they facilitate the trip? What day did Campos get to Mexico? How was he able to drive back, for hundreds of miles, from the San Diego border to Nevada? Why did he take a rental car instead of his own? The union that represents Campos told us that they were aware he left the country. Why did it take a government leak for the rest of us to find out?”

Carlson also asked, “Had [Campos] ever had previous contact with Stephen Paddock?”

“We could go on. The point is, this story gets murkier by the day. That’s the opposite of what’s supposed to happen. It’s impossible to know exactly what’s going on with the Vegas shooting investigation. But it’s obvious there’s lying and incompetence at the heart of it,” he concluded.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

'Smoking gun' email reveals Obama DOJ blocked conservative groups from settlement funds, GOP lawmaker says

Don't think in the annals of our history and serving in the same administration will you find two DOJ's more despicable, more corrupt, than Holder and Lynch.

Throw Rice in the mix and you got three people on the wrong side of a jail cell.

If they are prosecuted the protection this card once offered is now expired.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see what course the Republicans will take. By that I mean it may require hitting the "Trump bashing pause button" in order to conduct an extensive investigation.

Not sure Republicans are capable of that.

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While Eric Holder was attorney general, the Justice Department allowed prosecutors to strike agreements compelling big companies to give money to outside groups not connected to their cases to meet settlement burdens. (Reuters)

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee claims he obtained a “smoking gun” email that proves the Obama Justice Department prevented settlement payouts from going to conservative-leaning organizations, even as liberal groups were awarded money and DOJ officials denied “picking and choosing” recipients.

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

While Eric Holder was U.S. attorney general, the Justice Department allowed prosecutors to strike agreements compelling big companies to give money to outside groups not connected to their cases to meet settlement burdens. Republican lawmakers long have decried those payments as a “slush fund” that boosted liberal groups, and the Trump DOJ ended the practice earlier this year.

But internal Justice Department emails released Tuesday by Goodlatte indicated that not only were officials involved in determining what organizations would get the money, but also Justice Department officials may have intervened to make sure the settlements didn’t go to conservative groups.

“It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday. “Here, we have it.” (Associated Press)

In one such email in July 2014, a senior Justice Department official expressed “concerns” about what groups would receive settlement money from Citigroup — saying they didn’t want money going to a group that does “conservative property-rights legal services.”

DOJ ENDS HOLDER-ERA ‘SLUSH FUND’ PAYOUTS TO OUTSIDE GROUPS

“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.”

The Pacific Legal Foundation responded to the email release Tuesday by telling Fox News it believes “permanent reforms to prevent such abuse are needed.”

“We are flattered that the previous administration would be concerned enough about our success vindicating individual liberty and property rights to prevent settlement funds from making their way to Pacific Legal Foundation,” PLF CEO Steven D. Anderson said in a statement.

“When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people— not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. (Associated Press)

Goodlatte, who is sponsoring the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2017, disclosed the emails during a speech on the House floor, taking aim at then-Associate Attorney General Tony West.

“Aiding their political allies was only the half of it,” 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.”

The documents indicate West played an active role in helping certain organizations obtain settlement information.

“Can you explain to Tony the best way to allocate some money to an organization of our choosing?” Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Elizabeth Taylor wrote in one November 2013 email.

Groups who received funding also expressed appreciation for West’s efforts, according to the emails.

“Now that it has been more than 24 hours for us all to try and digest the Bank of America settlement, I would like to discuss ways we might want to recognize and show appreciation for the Department of Justice and specifically Associate Attorney General Tony West,” wrote Charles R. Dunlap, executive director of the Indiana Bar, in an August 2014 email.

Dunlap wrote that West “by all accounts was the one person most responsible” for the Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts group receiving money.

One person, Bob LeClair, responded to Dunlap’s email by saying, “Frankly, I would be willing to have us build a statue [of West] and then we could bow down to this statue each day after we get our $200,000.”

West, who now works as an executive vice president at PepsiCo, did not immediately return an email from Fox News seeking comment.

In 2015, however, Geoffrey Graber, who oversaw the Justice Department’s big banks settlements, told Goodlatte during a congressional hearing that the department “did not want to be in the business of picking and choosing which organizations may or may not receive any funding under the agreement.”

“But internal DOJ documents tell a different story,” Goodlatte said Tuesday. “They show that contrary to Graber’s sworn testimony, the donation provisions were structured to aid the Obama administration’s political friends and exclude conservative groups.”

Even before the release of Tuesday’s emails, Republicans had blasted these settlements as a “slush fund” for favored groups.

Gibson Guitars was forced to pay $50,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in 2012, though that organization has nothing to do with the case. In 2014, Bank of America gave money to the National Urban League, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America and the National Council of La Raza as part of a major mortgage fraud settlement stemming from the 2008 financial crisis.

'Aiding their political allies was only the half of it.'

- House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.

Asked about the emails, the Justice Department on Tuesday referred Fox News to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ statement in June after he announced the end to the practice.

“When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people — not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power,” Sessions said.

Goodlatte on Tuesday praised Sessions’ move to end mandatory donations, but called his legislation a “good governance measure,” and called it necessary to prevent a future Justice Department from reversing the action. The bill prohibits the Justice Department from requiring defendants to donate money to outside groups as part of a settlement with the federal government.

The Obama administration has been accused of unfairly targeting conservative organizations before — most famously after the revelation, the IRS applied extra scrutiny to groups with “Tea Party” in their names.

Barry was right. There wasn't a "smidgen" of proof.

More like an avalanche.