Memo Controversy: Andrew C. McCarthy Is Asking The Right Questions
Posted: January 26, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Andrew C. McCarthy, DOJ, Donald Trump, FBI, FISA, James Comey, Steele Dossier Leave a commentFrom Release the Memo: Let’s See What’s in It
Andrew C. McCarthy writes:
… First, the main questions that we need answered are:
- Were associates of President Trump, members of his campaign, or even Trump himself, subjected to foreign-intelligence surveillance (i.e., do the FISA applications name them as either targets or persons whose communications and activities would likely be monitored)?
- Was information from the Steele dossier used in FISA applications?
- If Steele-dossier information was so used, was it so central that FISA warrants would not have been granted without it?
- If Steele-dossier information was so used, was it corroborated by independent FBI investigation?
- If the dossier’s information was so used, was the source accurately conveyed to the court so that credibility and potential bias could be weighed (i.e., was the court told that the information came from an opposition-research project sponsored by the Clinton presidential campaign)?
- The FBI has said that significant efforts were made to corroborate Steele’s sensational claims, yet former director James Comey has acknowledged (in June 2017 Senate testimony) that the dossier was “unverified.” If the dossier was used in FISA applications in 2016, has the Justice Department — consistent with its continuing duty of candor in dealings with the tribunal — alerted the court that it did not succeed in verifying Steele’s hearsay reporting based on anonymous sources? Read the rest of this entry »
As Walls Close in on FBI, the Bureau Lashes Out at its Antagonists
Posted: January 26, 2018 Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere | Tags: Christopher Wray, DOJ, FBI, Fusion GPS, opposition research, Rod Rosenstein Leave a commentSharyl Attkisson writes: What happens when federal agencies accused of possible wrongdoing — also control the alleged evidence against them? What happens when they’re the ones in charge of who inside their agencies — or connected to them — ultimately gets investigated and possibly charged?
Those questions are moving to the forefront as the facts play out in the investigations into our intelligence agencies’ surveillance activities.
There are two overarching issues.
First, there’s the alleged improper use of politically-funded opposition research to justify secret warrants to spy on U.S. citizens for political purposes.
Second, if corruption is ultimately identified at high levels in our intel agencies, it would necessitate a re-examination of every case and issue the officials touched over the past decade — or two — under administrations of both parties.
This is why I think the concerns transcend typical party politics.
It touches everybody. It’s potentially monumental.
This week, the FBI said it was unfair for the House Intelligence Committee not to provide its memo outlining alleged FBI abuses. The committee wrote the summary memo after reviewing classified government documents in the Trump-Russia probe.
The FBI’s complaint carries a note of irony considering that the agency has notoriously stonewalled Congress. Even when finally agreeing to provide requested documents, the Department of Justice uses the documents’ classified nature to severely restrict who can see them — even among members of Congress who possess the appropriate security clearance. Members who wish to view the documents must report to special locations during prescribed hours in the presence of Department of Justice minders who supervise them as they’re permitted to take handwritten notes only (you know, like the 1960s). Read the rest of this entry »
Law Enforcement Enforces Law? Justice Department Continues Crackdown on ‘Sanctuary’ Cities
Posted: January 25, 2018 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: Confederacy, DOJ, Illegal Immigrants, Immigration, Jeff Sessions, Rule of Law, Sanctuary Cities 1 CommentThe Justice Department sent letters to 23 states, cities and counties, including California, Los Angeles and Chicago, demanding records showing whether law enforcement officers are sharing information with federal agents on the immigration status of people in their custody. (Jan. 24, 2018)
Joseph Tanfani reports: Returning to a favorite cause for President Trump and Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, the Justice Department on Wednesday escalated a struggle with two dozen so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, demanding records proving they are cooperating with immigration enforcement agencies.
The department sent letters to 23 states, cities and counties, including California, Los Angeles and Chicago, demanding records showing whether law enforcement officers are sharing information with federal agents on the immigration status of people in their custody.
If the local jurisdictions don’t comply, the department says it will issue subpoenas or possibly cut off certain federal grant funds.
A crackdown on sanctuary jurisdictions was one of the first measures ordered by Trump a year ago, and Sessions has repeatedly focused on the policies, which he says are a hazard to public safety. Read the rest of this entry »
NYT Only Finds the FBI Texts Newsworthy in that Republicans are ‘Seizing’ On Them
Posted: December 15, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: 2016 Presidential Campaign, Bias, Democrats, Department of Justice, DOJ, FBI, GOP Pounce Story, Hillary Clinton, media, New York Times, Peter Strzok Leave a commentThe New York Times has already moved on to the ‘Republicans pounce’ portion of the news cycle.
Becket Adams writes: Special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is facing a brewing scandal involving hyper-partisan texts written by his former team members, and the New York Times has already moved on to the “Republicans pounce” portion of the news cycle.
Because that’s often the modus operandi for these sorts of things.
Peter Strzok, who specializes in Russian counterintelligence, was removed from Mueller’s team this July. The decision to take Strzok off the Russia investigation came after the Justice Department’s inspector general discovered he had sent and received dozens of anti-Trump texts between August 2015 and 2016 from Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer with whom Strzok was having an affair. Page was also on Mueller’s team, but only briefly. She returned to the FBI before the special counsel was made aware of the texts.
There’s really no getting around it: The texts are extremely partisan.
“I can not believe Donald Trump is likely to be an actual, serious candidate for president,” Page wrote in one note.
Strzok wrote in another note, “God Hillary should win. 100,000,000-0.”
“And maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace,” Page wrote in another text. “I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps.” Read the rest of this entry »
Fusion DoJ: It’s Getting Hard to Tell Where the Clinton Campaign Ends and the Federal Law Enforcement Apparatus Begins
Posted: December 14, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice | Tags: CIA, DOJ, Fusion, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, James Comey, Justice Department 1 Comment
The Department of Justice headquarters building in Washington. Photo: J. David Ake/Associated Press
James Freeman reports: Is animus toward President Donald Trump a prerequisite for landing a job with special counsel Robert Mueller ? Recent revelations in Washington also raise again the question of what former President Barack Obama knew about the decisions of his FBI Director James Comey to exonerate Hillary Clinton and investigate Mr. Trump in 2016.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
A top FBI agent and an FBI lawyer, who were involved in the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email arrangement and the probe into Russian electoral meddling, exchanged texts disparaging then-candidate Donald Trump, including calling him an “idiot” and a “menace,” according to copies of the messages the Justice Department provided Congress.
Peter Strzok, 47 years old, was one of the highest-ranking agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was removed from his post with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling this past summer after a Justice Department watchdog launched an inquiry into the texts.
The messages between Mr. Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page include one in which Ms. Page tells him in August 2016: “Maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace.”
The New York Times reports on another 2016 text:
On July 27, Ms. Page wrote, “She just has to win now. I’m not going to lie, I got a flash of nervousness yesterday about Trump.” That text message was sent after the Clinton investigation had been closed. Days later, the F.B.I. began investigating possible coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.
Recently the Journal’s Kim Strassel noted the stone wall against congressional oversight that has been constructed by Mr. Mueller, his Department of Justice colleagues, and Mr. Mueller’s deputies, many of whom have demonstrated their political opposition to the President.
[Read the full text here, at WSJ]
Is there really no way to run a special counsel’s office or a federal law enforcement agency without appointing liberal political activists—or at least people with close ties to the President’s adversaries—to senior roles? Fox News reports:
A co-founder of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS acknowledged in a new court document that his company hired the wife of a senior Justice Department official to help investigate then-candidate Donald Trump last year.
Do Rosenstein and Mueller Have Conflicts of Interest in the Trump Investigation?
Posted: June 18, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Russia, Think Tank, U.S. News, White House | Tags: DOJ, Donald Trump, FBI, Mueller, Rosenstien Leave a commentFor many weeks, I questioned the need for a Special Counsel in the Russian investigation because it seems like a coverup in search of a crime. I still do not see the evidence of a crime and simply saying “collusion” does not supply an actual crime. However, when President Donald Trump fired James Comey, I supported the appointment of a Special Counsel to investigate obstruction of justice, even though I remained skeptical of the basis for an actual obstruction charge. I still fail to see the compelling basis for an obstruction case without stretching the criminal code to the breaking point. Nevertheless, I continue to support the need for an independent investigation.
The investigation of a sitting American president however must itself be beyond question as to any bias or influence. For that reason, I have been questioning the propriety of Rod Rosenstein to continue in his current position…
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New Lawsuits Could Determine Not Only The Legal Status Of The Comey Memos But The Legality of Comey’s Actions
Posted: June 18, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: DOJ, Donald Trump, FBI, Jonathan Turley Leave a commentLast week, CNN filed a lawsuit seeking the famous Comey memos from the FBI, which is discussed in the column below in The Hill newspaper. The lawsuit could produce an official characterization of the status of the memos as either personal or FBI information. After this column was posted, Judicial Watch also filed a lawsuit seeking the memos which it maintained were the property of the FBI. The lawsuit states “Upon learning that records have been unlawfully removed from the FBI, you then are required to initiate action through the Attorney General for the recovery of records.” These lawsuits could prove vindicating or implicating for Comey.
Here is the column:
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Report: Rosenstein Appears To Deny That He Threatened To Resign Over False Account Regarding His Comey Memorandum [UPDATED]
Posted: May 11, 2017 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: DOJ, FBI, James Comey, Rosenstein Leave a commentDeputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein who wrote the memorandum firing James Comey is back in the news today. Various news organizations are reporting that he allegedly threatened to quit after the White House represented that Comey was fired based on his recommendation. Both the Washington Post and ABC News are reporting that Rosenstein was sufficiently outraged by the White House statements that he was prepared to walk. The reporting is highly disturbing on a number of levels. The White House made a notable change in its account of the decision yesterday — admitting that Trump decided that he wanted Comey gone over a week earlier. Of course, this does not change the fact that Rosenstein recommended the firing of Comey in the memo but it raises serious questions of the veracity of the White House. UPDATE: The White House is categorically denying that Rosenstein threatened to resign. More importantly, Rosenstein has…
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BREAKING: Former Attorney General Eric Holder Recommends Obama Administration Playbook to New AG Jeff Sessions
Posted: March 2, 2017 Filed under: Law & Justice, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: Department of Justice, DOJ, Eric Holder, Jeff Sessions, satire 1 CommentThings That Exist Only in the Mind of David Brock: ‘The Kochs Control the Obama Justice Department and the FBI’
Posted: October 21, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Benghazi, Charles Koch, David Brock, David Koch, Democratic Party, DOJ, FBI, Freedom Partners, GOP, Hillary Clinton, Koch, New York Times, Presidential Campaign 2016, propaganda 1 CommentSource: The New York Times
Gun Violence Facts from the Dept of Justice
Posted: October 9, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Guns and Gadgets, Law & Justice, Self Defense | Tags: Assault rifle, Automatic Weapon, Civil Rights, Department of Justice, DOJ, Gun control, Gun Debate, Gun Facts, Gun Show, Gun violence, Inmates, Pistol, Prisoner, Semi-Automatic Weapon 1 Comment[VIDEO] EXCLUSIVE: Leaked Footage of Clinton Lawyer’s Psychotic Meltdown
Posted: August 23, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, The Butcher's Notebook, White House | Tags: Clinton Foundation, Democratic Party, DOJ, Email server, Frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, Lawyer, Mental health, news, Parody, Personal Server, Pundit Planet Media, scandal, The Pantsuit Report, video Leave a commentHillary Clinton Email Saga: Timeline
Posted: August 18, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: Bill Clinton, blackberry phones, Chappaqua, Des Moines, DOJ, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hillary Clinton, New York, Pantsuit Report, Personal Server, Republican Party (United States), Sidney Blumenthal, United States Department of Justice, United States Department of State 1 CommentHillary Clinton’s email troubles began when her private address was exposed by a Romanian hacker. Now the resulting scandal threatens to torpedo her presidential ambitions.
2008 – Hillary Clinton acquires a personal email server for her use in running for president, and has it installed in her Chappaqua, New York home
January 13, 2009 – Internet records show that the domain ‘clintonemail.com’ was created
January 21, 2009 – Clinton is confirmed by the U.S. Senate as President Obama’s secretary of state
February 1, 2013 – Clinton leaves the State Department
March 20, 2013 – Clinton’s private email address, hdr22@clintonemail.com, is made public when a Romanian hacker named ‘Guccifer’ (whose real name is Marcel Lazăr Lehel) hacks into longtime Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal’s AOL email account and leaks images of his inbox – including emails from Clinton
June 2013 – Hillary’s team shifts control of the email domain to an outside IT contractor in Denver called Platte River Networks, and sends the original server hardware to a data center facility in New Jersey, where it is erased
August 11, 2014 – Following a congressional subpoena and more than a year of delays, the State Department hands over a small number of Clinton’s private emails, 10 in all, to a House committee investigating the 2012 terror attack on a State Department compound in Benghazi, Libya – including some emails from the hdr22@clintonemail.com address
November 2014 – The Benghazi committee asks the State Department for a larger batch of Clinton’s emails and receives about 300 that relate to the Libya saga, amounting to 850 printed pages
December 5, 2014 – Clinton’s aides say that in response to a request from the State Department, they have handed over about 55,000 pages of her work-related emails, comprising 30,490 messages
February 13, 2015 – The State Department sends the Benghazi committee another 850 pages of Clinton’s emails, including some from two different accounts on the private ‘clintonemail.com’ server
February 27, 2015 – State Department staffers tell Benghazi committee aides that Clinton had used her private address exclusively during her tenure at the agency, and that they don’t have any of her emails other than those she provided voluntarily
March 4, 2015 – The Associated Press reports that it has traced Clinton’s private email address back to a private server at her Chappaqua, New York home, and that the server was registered under a fake name
March 10, 2015 – In a contentious press conference following a speech at the United Nations, Clinton admits that she deleted more than 30,000 emails that she says were personal in nature, and says she turned over everything work-related to the State Department, while insisting that ‘I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email; there is no classified material’
March 11, 2015 – The Associated Press sues the State Department to force the release of Clinton’s emails and other documents that the agency has failed to turn over following a Freedom Of Information Act request
April 12, 2015 – Clinton launches her second presidential campaign with an online video and begins two months of low-key campaigning marked by a lack of interaction with reporters
May 22, 2015 – The first 300 of Clinton’s emails are made public by the State Department, revealing a close relationship with Blumenthal in the weeks following the Benghazi terror attack; one of them has been retroactively classified by the FBI as ‘secret’ but Clinton insists it was ‘handled appropriately’
May 27, 2015 – A federal judge orders the State Department to begin releasing all of Clinton’s emails in installments every 30 days, setting monthly targets for the agency so the work is completed by January 29, 2016
July 23, 2015 – Charles McCullough, the inspector general for the U.S. intelligence community tells members of Congress in a letter that a random sampling of 40 Clinton emails turned up four that contained material classified as secret Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Clinton Refuses to Say Whether or Not She Wiped the Server: ‘That’s for the Investigators to Find Out’
Posted: August 18, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Clinton Foundation, CNN, DOJ, Email server, Hillary Clinton, Investigation, Pantsuit Report, Personal Server, Press Conference, U.S. Department of State 1 CommentWhat, Me Worry?
Posted: August 15, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Clinton Foundation, DOJ, Email server, Hillary Clinton, media, news, Pantsuit Report, Personal Email Server, Time, Time Magazine 1 CommentHillary Clinton Downplays Concerns About Personal Email Server
Hillary Turns Over Thumbs
Posted: August 13, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: #ReadyForHillary, comedy, Criminal Probe, DOJ, Email server, Hard Drive, Hillary Clinton, Pantsuit Report, Personal Server, satire, Thumb Drive, Top-Secret, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of State Leave a comment[VIDEO] Live From Chappaqua: Hillary Clinton’s Record-Keeping Operation
Posted: August 12, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Chappaqua, Department of Justice, DOJ, Email Probe, Email server, Hillary Clinton, National Review, Pantsuit Report, Private Server, Probe, Top-Secret, U.S. Department of State, United States Leave a commentI blame David A. French for introducing me to this. It’s brilliant. Also see Turmoil mounts surrounding Clinton emails, at The Hill.
BREAKING: Hillary Clinton’s Email Server to Be Delivered to the Department of Justice
Posted: August 11, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, White House | Tags: Associated Press, Clinton Campaign, David Kendall, Department of Justice, DOJ, Email server, FBI, Hillary Clinton, Pantsuit Report, Personal Email Server, Private Server, U.S. Secretary of State 1 CommentSenate Confirms Loretta Lynch: Here’s the List of Ten GOP Senators Who Voted to Confirm
Posted: April 23, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, White House | Tags: Department of Justice, DOJ, Eric Holder, GOP, Loretta Lynch, Senate Confirmation Hearings 1 CommentBREAKING: Eric Holder Delivers Formal Apology to Officer Darren Wilson
Posted: March 5, 2015 Filed under: Humor, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Al Sharpton, Attorney general, Big Lie, Civil and political rights, Darren Wilson, Department of Justice, DOJ, Eric Holder, Eyewitness, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ferguson, Hands up don't shoot, Left-wing politics, Missouri, Officer Wilson, Police, Real evidence, United States Department of Justice, Witness Leave a commentPhoto of Attorney General delivering apology to Darren Wilson
From The Washington Post:
Here is a key part of the conclusion of DOJ’s report:
As discussed above, Darren Wilson has stated his intent in shooting Michael Brown was in response to a perceived deadly threat. The only possible basis for prosecuting Wilson under section 242 would therefore be if the government could prove that his account is not true – i.e., that Brown never assaulted Wilson at the SUV, never attempted to gain control of Wilson’s gun, and thereafter clearly surrendered in a way that no reasonable officer could have failed to perceive. Given that Wilson’s account is corroborated by physical evidence and that his perception of a threat posed by Brown is corroborated by other eyewitnesses, to include aspects of the testimony of Witness 101, there is no credible evidence that Wilson willfully shot Brown as he was attempting to surrender or was otherwise not posing a threat. Even if Wilson was mistaken in his interpretation of Brown’s conduct, the fact that others interpreted that conduct the same way as Wilson precludes a determination that he acted with a bad purpose to disobey the law. (p. 86).
Audio Exclusive: Eric Holder’s Apology to Officer Wilson
Hopefully this report will put to rest some of the outlandish claims that have been made about Michael Brown’s death. For example, the report convincingly rebuts the “hands up, don’t shoot” account:
[T]here are no witnesses who could testify credibly that Wilson shot Brown while Brown was clearly attempting to surrender. The accounts of the witnesses who have claimed that Brown raised his hands above his head to surrender and said “I don’t have a gun,” or “okay, okay, okay” are inconsistent with the physical evidence or can be challenged in other material ways, and thus cannot be relied upon to form the foundation of a federal prosecution. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Eric Holder Promotes Fox News
Posted: February 17, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: DOJ, Eric Holder, Fox News, ISIS, Islamic extremism, Islamism, Jihadism, Justice Department 1 Comment[VIDEO] Holder: I Cleaned Up Bush’s Politicized Justice Dept
Posted: February 4, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: corruption, cronyism, Department of Justice, DOJ, Eric Holder, Obstruction of Justice, Partisan, Radical Leave a commentA favorite tactic of Obama and members of his Regime, is to run with the biggest, boldest lie possible, and dare anyone to question it. Eric Holder – easily the most corrupt Attorney General in our nation’s history – fully embraced that tactic in spectacular fashion at a press conference Tuesday when he made the ludicrous claim that he cleaned up Bush’s Justice Dept.
Yep. He actually said that.
Attorney General Eric Holder pushed back against Republicans who said the Justice Department, under his leadership, had become little more than a political machine to push liberal causes — and said that he’s actually cleaned up all the politicking that had taken place under the former Bush administration.
In a press conference that began with his personal introduction — “For the record, I am Eric Holder” — the exiting agency head took shots at critics who suggested…
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Texas Enforcing Voter ID Law Today – Despite DOJ Attack
Posted: February 18, 2014 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: DOJ, Hans von Spakovsky, Heritage Foundation, Photo identification, Texas, United States Department of Justice, Voter ID laws, Voting Right Act 2 Comments
(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Logan Churchwell reports: Early voting for the March Primary Election began today with Texas’ voter ID law enjoying full enforcement, despite U.S. Department of Justice objections in federal court. Just as Texans experienced in the 2013 Constitutional Election, voters must present an approved photo ID to cast a regular ballot at their polling place.
The Holder Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against Texas in summer 2013 on the claim that voter ID was a violation of the Voting Right Act, as part of a wider national campaign to block election integrity reforms. On February 11, the DOJ requested the court consider postponing the September 2014 trial date – arguing they did not have ample time to analyze data among ethnic groups and, therefore, their effort would be “irreparably prejudiced” as a result. The DOJ was rejected on Friday.
Going Sideways: POTUS Subverted DOJ Investigation During Chris Matthews Interview
Posted: December 9, 2013 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, White House | Tags: Chris Matthews, DOJ, Internal Revenue Service, President of the United States, United States Department of Justice, White House 3 CommentsDEBRA HEINE reports: In his attempt to downplay the IRS scandal during his soft-ball interview with Chris Matthews, Thursday, the President of the United States subverted the ongoing DOJ investigation of the scandal.
Obama declared that the IRS office in Cincinnati was merely trying to “streamline the system” for “bureaucratic reasons” and that agents weren’t intentionally singling out “Tea Party folks.”
“If on the other hand, you’ve got an office in Cincinnati in the IRS office that I think for bureaucratic reasons is trying to streamline what a difficult law to interpret about whether non-profit is actually a political organization deserves a tax exempt agency , and they’ve got a list, suddenly everybody’s outraged,” the president said.
He went on to note that “some so-called progressives” were also initially outraged by what he wants us to believe turned out to be a phony scandal.
By the way, Chris, I’ll point out that there are some called progressives perceived to be liberal commentators who during that week were just outraged at the possibility that these folks had been at the direction of the Democratic Party in some way discriminated against tea party folks. That is what gets news, what gets attention.
Emails reveal Justice Dept. regularly enlists Media Matters to spin press
Posted: September 18, 2012 Filed under: Mediasphere | Tags: DOJ Leave a commentInternal Department of Justice emails obtained by The Daily Caller show Attorney General Eric Holder’s communications staff has collaborated with the left-wing advocacy group Media Matters for America in an attempt to quell news stories about scandals plaguing Holder and America’s top law enforcement agency.
Dozens of pages of emails between DOJ Office of Public Affairs Director Tracy Schmaler and Media Matters staffers show Schmaler, Holder’s top press defender, working with Media Matters to attack reporters covering DOJ scandals. TheDC obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Emails sent in September and November 2010 show Schmaler working with Media Matters staffer Jeremy Holden on attacking news coverage of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation scandal.
Holden attacked former DOJ Civil Rights Division attorneys J. Christian Adams and Hans von Spakovsky on Sept. 20, 2010 for what he called an attempt “to reignite the phony New Black Panther Party scandal.”
Before Holden posted his article at 7:52 p.m., Schmaler sent him several emails with information helping him attack both former DOJ oficials.
“Here’s one Wolf letter,” read the subject of one email Schmaler sent Holden that contained no text. The email was likely a reference to Virginia Republican Rep. Frank Wolf, a member of Congress who led the Republican charge on the New Black Panther Party scandal involving alleged voter intimidation at a November 2008 polling place in Philadelphia.
In response, Holden told Schmaler that “The response to interog 38 is particularly helpful. Thanks!”
Interrogatory 38 was a reference to a question from Congress that the Justice Department answered, concerning the role of several senior officials in discussing litigation related to that voter intimidation case.
A follow-up email shows Schmaler sending Holden more information…
via The Daily Caller.