Tag: doj

Mystery solved: DOJ secretly thwarted release of Russia documents declassified by Trump

In the final hours of the Trump presidency, the U.S. Justice Department raised privacy concerns to thwart the release of hundreds of pages of documents that Donald Trump had declassified to expose FBI abuses during the Russia collusion probe, and the agency then defied a subsequent order to release the materials after redactions were made, according to interviews and documents.

The previously untold story of how highly anticipated declassified material never became public is contained in a memo obtained by Just the News from the National Archives that was written by then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows just hours before Trump left office on noon of Jan. 20, 2021.

Meadows’ memo confirmed prior reporting by Just the News that Trump on Jan. 19, 2021 declassified a binder of hundreds of pages of sensitive FBI documents that show how the bureau used informants and FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign and misled both a federal court and Congress about flaws in the evidence they offered to get approval for the investigation.

The declassified documents included transcripts of intercepts made by the FBI of Trump aides, a declassified copy of the final FISA warrant approved by an intelligence court, and the tasking orders and debriefings of the two main confidential human sources, Christopher Steele and Stefan Halper, the bureau used to investigate whether Trump had colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election.

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FOIAs Reveal Progressive Money Fueling FBI, DOJ, Leftist Activist and Election Official Coordination

A strange constellation has emerged through public records requests of coordination between progressive funders, federal authorities, corporations, state election officials, and leftist organizations.

Freedom of information requests have uncovered oddball and opaque relationships between some state election officials, federal officials, corporations, progressive activists, and those trying to influence the conduct of those same election officials. These relationships extend to junkets that include baseball games, travel, and even data exchanges between state officials and outside progressive groups.

The story begins with a series of freedom of information act requests aimed at a number of states to see if any election officials are tempted to apply for now-illegal money from the Mark Zuckerberg-funded Center for Technology and Civic Life. Such grants and the wild expenditures of these funds altered the course of the 2020 election. (Read The Real Kraken, What Really Happened to Donald Trump in the 2020 Election at PJ Media.)

The FOIAs were submitted by the Public Interest Legal Foundation—with which I am associated—and were aimed broadly at election officials across the United States.

While no election official in a state that now prohibits private funding of elections has applied for new funding, something stranger, and more dangerous has emerged from the public information requests.

In one email, we find that the Democracy Fund—a hyper-funded progressive money source—is organizing state officials and third parties to discuss election administration.

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DOJ blocks GOP effort to get answers on Hunter Biden investigation

Republican senators appear to have been blocked by the Department of Justice from getting answers about the Hunter Biden investigation from the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware.

After repeatedly being stonewalled by DOJ headquarters in Washington D.C., Sens. Chuck Grassley (IA) and Ron Johnson (WI) sent a May letter to U.S. attorney David Weiss, who is handling the Biden criminal case.

The senators asked about possible conflicts of interest and the existence of recusals within the Justice Department, raised concerns about the president’s son’s claims of judicial influence in Delaware, pressed the federal prosecutor on whether he was being properly supported by Main Justice, and inquired about what steps he had taken during his investigation.

DOJ headquarters was clearly alerted to the letter, because it was it, not Weiss, that responded to Grassley and Johnson, denying their requests for information.

“This responds to your letter to the Department of Justice, dated May 9, 2022, regarding the employment of certain Department employees and regarding certain actions that may or may not have been taken by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware,” acting Assistant Attorney General Peter Hyun said in a letter last week to Grassley and Johnson, with the official saying DOJ had responded in February 2021, March 2021, July 2021, and February 2022 to similar letters.

Hyun told the senators: “Department attorneys receive ethics and professional responsibility training as appropriate, sign a pledge to maintain public trust in government, and are subject to the Department’s scrupulous ethics and recusal protocols” and that “it will not be able to provide you with any further information regarding Department officials’ employment or specific recusal decisions.”

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Dem Legislation Could End Gun Sales to All Current Firearm Owners Forever, Require DOJ License

Do you want Merrick Garland to decide if you’re eligible to own a gun every time you acquire a new firearm?

Senate Democrats are pushing gun control in the run-up to the midterms, in the form of a bill introduced on Thursday.

They’re using the Buffalo mass shooting as a political tool, even though the gunman easily bypassed New York’s gun control laws to attack unarmed grocery shoppers.

Democratic Sens. Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal and Bob Menendez are introducing the Federal Firearms Licensing Act, according to Politico.

The law would fundamentally revise gun ownership from a right enjoyed by American citizens to a privilege bestowed by the government at its own discretion.

Acquiring or buying a new gun would require a lengthy licensing process through the Department of Justice — every time you purchase a new firearm.

Buying a gun from a licensed firearms dealer already requires a NICS background check. Existing law prevents felons from buying or owning guns.

Booker’s bill would give the Attorney General discretion to approve or deny a federal firearms license, even if you’ve never been convicted of a crime.

The Attorney General would be able to deny a firearms license if they determined that the prospective gun owner “poses a significant danger of bodily injury to self or others” by owning a firearm.

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DOJ announces new office to enforce laws around climate crisis, toxic pollution

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday that the Justice Department is opening a new office aimed at addressing the department’s environmental justice efforts.

Low-income communities and communities of color face larger risks from pollution and the impacts of the climate crisis, scientists and health experts have reported. More than 40% of Americans live in areas with unhealthy air quality, according to the American Lung Association, and people of color are the most harmed by it.

The DOJ’s Office of Environmental Justice is part of the Biden administration’s strategy to prioritize environmental justice — specifically as it relates to the climate crisis — after the issue was largely ignored during the Trump administration.

Garland said the OEJ “will serve as the central hub for our efforts to advance our comprehensive environmental justice enforcement strategy,” with the office working alongside a number of other intradepartmental agencies, including the Civil Rights Division and United States Attorneys’ offices, to “prioritize meaningful and constructive engagement with the communities most affected by environmental crime and injustice.”

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Researchers: Garland Should Reopen OKC Bombing Case He Helped Prosecute

During the tenure of Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into threats of violence against school board members, pushed for severe sentences against Jan. 6 defendants, and created a new domestic counterterrorism office—all with the stated aim of combatting white supremacy and domestic extremism.

But if Garland really wants to combat violent racists, according to researchers of the subject, then he should reopen the case he worked on 27 years ago and find the accomplices of Oklahoma City bomber and avowed white supremacist Timothy McVeigh.

“Garland can kick off any effort to curtail white supremacists by finishing his work on the OKC bombing case,” OKC researcher Richard Booth wrote last year when Garland took the helm at DOJ. “And he can finish by apologizing to the American people for letting dangerous still-unidentified white supremacists get away with being accessories to murder for the last 25 years.”

Booth provided records to The Epoch Times for this story—which marks the 27th anniversary of the April 19, 1995, domestic terrorism attack—and he’s far from alone in arguing that the case should be reexamined. Others include Kathy Sanders, who spent decades looking for answers after her two grandchildren died in the attack; Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue, who’s procured thousands of FBI records via lawsuits against the U.S. government; historian Wendy Painting, who wrote her doctoral thesis on McVeigh; and the late investigator Roger Charles.

These researchers have spent untold thousands of hours documenting the connections between McVeigh, the criminal underground of the white supremacist movement, and undercover federal informants—making the case that this tangled web has shielded some of those culpable for murdering 168 people, including 19 children, in the deadliest domestic terrorist attack in this country’s history. They have also chronicled the dozens of witnesses who reportedly saw one or more unidentified co-conspirators in the days and hours leading up to the attack.

And the researchers aren’t alone in calling for another investigation. Retired FBI agents Danny Coulson and Danny Defenbaugh, who both worked on the case, have publicly supported reopening the matter.

Garland should be aware of these matters, having discussed McVeigh’s enigmatic accomplice, “John Doe 2,” court transcripts show.

Additionally, The Epoch Times received previously unpublished White House visitor logs showing the attorney general’s apparent visit to “FLOTUS” the day before he led the prosecution at McVeigh’s preliminary hearing—raising questions about why he’d be meeting with then-First Lady Hillary Clinton before jetting 1,300 miles west to Oklahoma.

The researchers and former law enforcement officials have offered varying opinions about Garland. However, they mostly share doubt in his assertion that the DOJ and FBI “did everything we could possibly do to find every person who was involved” with the attack.

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A High-Ranking Proud Boy Is Now Snitching for the Feds

Federal prosecutors appear to have made their biggest breakthrough yet in their sprawling investigation into the violent riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A high-ranking Proud Boy has flipped, agreeing to testify in any and all cases where his testimony might be “deemed relevant by the government.” 

It’s the latest example of the government strengthening its case against the far-right street-fighting gang that’s become a national household name since its leaders and dozens of members have been charged in relation to the Capitol riot. 

Late last week, the Justice Department announced that Charles Donohoe, leader of the North Carolina Proud Boys chapter, had pleaded guilty to two charges—conspiring to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election results, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers.

Donohoe was charged with conspiracy along with five prominent Proud Boys, including the group’s former national chairman Enrique Tarrio. 

But Donohoe’s agreement with the government could have cascading effects beyond his case.

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NYC’s elite are in a tizzy after Justice Department ‘inadvertently’ publishes list of 121 ‘clients’ – including lawyers, businessmen, and socialites – who solicited Sarah Lawrence ‘sex cult victim’ who was forced into prostitution

New York’s business elite was left shaking in its boots Tuesday after a list of alleged clients of the student prostitute in the Sarah Lawrence ‘sex cult’ case was inadvertently published online.

The list, which was entered into evidence under seal in the ongoing trial of accused cult leader Larry Ray, includes lawyers and businessmen and socialites throughout the Tri-state area.

DailyMail.com acquired a copy of the list of 121 names which was taken down nearly as fast as it was put up.

A top executive at The Gap clothing firm and her husband was one of two married couples included. A former New York State Supreme Court judge is also named.

Another alleged client is a painter who has studios in Manhattan’s East Village and in Italy. A third is an architect, famous for designing college and university buildings. 

An investment executive who was also in pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous little black book of contacts is also listed.  

Other names include a hedge fund manager who has donated millions to charity and has his name on a museum building in New York, a Washington DC, lobbyist who has worked for a foreign resistance movement and an international diamond dealer. 

Also included is an executive at the Metropolitan Transit Authority, an account executive at Amazon and a veteran travel writer. 

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Biden’s DOJ Say Arsonist Who Killed A Man Should Get Reduced Sentence Because He Was Rioting For BLM

A BLM rioter who set fire to a pawn shop and killed a man is facing a shorter sentence than normal because, according to US Attorney W. Anders Folk, he was “caught up in the fury” of the Black Lives Matter riots.

On June 5, 2020, in Minnesota, BLM riots were breaking out and becoming violent. Hundreds of people took to the streets and began looting local businesses, vandalizing private property, and recklessly setting fire to buildings. Montez Terriel Lee Jr. was one of these violent actors.

That night, Lee broke into a pawn shop, poured fire accelerant around, and set it on fire. These actions were caught on video.

According to court records, one of the videos captures Lee standing in front of the burning shop, saying, “F*** this place. We’re gonna burn this b**** to the ground.”

Over two months after Lee burned down the shop, a 30-year-old man, Oscar Lee Stewart, was found dead among the debris.

By joining in the violence of the BLM riots and being misled into thinking that was the right way to act, Lee took the life of an innocent man that night.

The typical sentence that would be applied to Lee’s case is over 200 months of incarceration. However, in a memo from the US Attorney’s office for the District of Minnesota, a lesser sentence was recommended because of the “motives” behind Lee’s actions.

The memo describes Lee’s motives as almost admirable. Forgetting the violence he enacted and the innocent life he took, at least his intentions were “good”.

Mr. Lee’s motive for setting the fire is a foremost issue. Mr. Lee credibly states that he was in the streets to protest unlawful police violence against black men, and there is no basis to disbelieve this statement. Mr. Lee, appropriately, acknowledges that he “could have demonstrated in a different way,” but that he was “caught up in the fury of the mob after living as a black man watching his peers suffer at the hands of police.”

The defense that Lee was “caught up in the fury of the mob” is a poor way to set an example for the rest of the country. There needs to be some maintained sense of right and wrong. If you are upset and seeking social change, you shouldn’t be allowed to do so by burning cities and being violent. Generating fear and endangering others is not a reasonable way to get a point across.

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