FBI in Internal Feud Over Hillary Clinton Probe
Posted: October 30, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Politics | Tags: 2016, Anthony Weiner, Classified information, Democratic Party (United States), Donald Trump, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton email controversy, Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, Huma Abedin, James Comey, Terry McAuliffe, Twitter 1 CommentDevlin Barrett reports: As federal agents prepare to scour roughly 650,000 emails to see how many relate to a prior probe of Hillary Clinton’s email use, the surprise disclosure that investigators were pursuing the potential new evidence lays bare building tensions inside the bureau and the Justice Department over how to investigate the Democratic presidential nominee.
“The FBI had searched the computer while looking for child pornography, people familiar with the matter said, but the warrant they used didn’t give them authority to search for matters related to Mrs. Clinton’s email arrangement at the State Department. Mr. Weiner has denied sending explicit or indecent messages to the teenager.”
Metadata found on the laptop used by former Rep. Anthony Weiner and his estranged wife Huma Abedin, a close Clinton aide, suggests there may be thousands of emails sent to or from the private server that Mrs. Clinton used while she was secretary of state, according to people familiar with the matter. It will take weeks, at a minimum, to determine whether those messages are work-related from the time Ms. Abedin served with Mrs. Clinton at the State Department; how many are duplicates of emails already reviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and whether they include either classified information or important new evidence in the Clinton email probe.
“In their initial review of the laptop, the metadata showed many messages, apparently in the thousands, that were either sent to or from the private email server at Mrs. Clinton’s home that had been the focus of so much investigative effort for the FBI. Senior FBI officials decided to let the Weiner investigators proceed with a closer examination of the metadata on the computer, and report back to them.”
The FBI has had to await a court order to begin reviewing the emails, because they were uncovered in an unrelated probe of Mr. Weiner.
The new investigative effort, disclosed by FBI Director James Comey on Friday, shows a bureau at times in sharp internal disagreement over matters related to the Clintons, and how to handle those matters fairly and carefully in the middle of a national election campaign. Even as the previous probe of Mrs. Clinton’s email use wound down in July, internal disagreements within the bureau and the Justice Department surrounding the Clintons’ family philanthropy heated up, according to people familiar with the matter.
The latest development began in early October when New York-based FBI officials notified Andrew McCabe, the bureau’s second-in-command, that while investigating Mr. Weiner for possibly sending sexually charged messages to a minor, they had recovered a laptop with 650,000 emails. Many, they said, were from the accounts of Ms. Abedin, according to people familiar with the matter.
[Read the full story here, at WSJ]
Those emails stretched back years, these people said, and were on a laptop that hadn’t previously come up in the Clinton email probe. Ms. Abedin said in late August that the couple were separating.
The FBI had searched the computer while looking for child pornography, people familiar with the matter said, but the warrant they used didn’t give them authority to search for matters related to Mrs. Clinton’s email arrangement at the State Department. Mr. Weiner has denied sending explicit or indecent messages to the teenager.
“At a meeting early last week of senior Justice Department and FBI officials, a member of the department’s senior national-security staff asked for an update on the Weiner laptop, the people familiar with the matter said. At that point, officials realized that no one had acted to obtain a warrant, these people said.”
In their initial review of the laptop, the metadata showed many messages, apparently in the thousands, that were either sent to or from the private email server at Mrs. Clinton’s home that had been the focus of so much investigative effort for the FBI. Senior FBI officials decided to let the Weiner investigators proceed with a closer examination of the metadata on the computer, and report back to them.
At a meeting early last week of senior Justice Department and FBI officials, a member of the department’s senior national-security staff asked for an update on the Weiner laptop, the people familiar with the matter said. At that point, officials realized that no one had acted to obtain a warrant, these people said. Read the rest of this entry »
Tomorrow’s New York Post Cover: ‘STROKING GUN’
Posted: October 28, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Democratic Party (United States), Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hillary Clinton, Patrick F. Kennedy, Political campaign, Republican Party (United States), Terry McAuliffe, United States Department of Justice, United States Department of State 1 CommentNew Clinton emails found during Anthony Weiner sexting probe
The devices were seized after it was revealed that Weiner, a former member of Congress and mayoral candidate, had been sexting with an underage girl.
The feds began to investigate Weiner, 52, after he sent a slew of sexual messages and shirtless selfies to a 15-year-old North Carolina girl.
Weiner allegedly shared his “rape fantasies” with the teen and even sent her pornographic videos.
He also is alleged to have asked the teen to get on Skype to undress and masturbate.
The former politician engaged in his possibly criminal activity using the handle “T Dog.”
Previously, he has sexted under the pseudonym “Carlos Danger.” Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Jake Tapper Exposes State Department’s Video Deletion Deception
Posted: June 2, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Diplomacy, Mediasphere, Politics, War Room, White House | Tags: China, CNN, Democratic Party (United States), Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal government of the United States, Jake Tapper, James Rosen, Jen Psaki, John Kirby, Marc Elias, Terry McAuliffe, United States Department of Justice 1 CommentDavid Rutz reports: CNN host Jake Tapper used the “buried lead” of his show Thursday to blast the State Department for its deception surrounding an intentional video deletion from a December 2013 briefing, saying it should “outrage every American.”
“It’s literally someone at the State Department trying to bury something, hiding it from you. In this case, it was an acknowledgment by the Obama administration of having lied to reporters, a scrubbing of the public record, and it should outrage every American.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted Wednesday that a staffer deliberately edited out video from the briefing of an unflattering exchange regarding Obama administration talks with Iran.
[Read the full story here, at freebeacon.com]
“It’s literally someone at the State Department trying to bury something, hiding it from you,” Tapper said. “In this case, it was an acknowledgment by the Obama administration of having lied to reporters, a scrubbing of the public record, and it should outrage every American.”
“We learned that there was a deliberate request, that this wasn’t a technical glitch. This was a deliberate request to excise video.”
— State Department spokesman John Kirby
In step-by-step fashion, Tapper laid out to viewers three different lies told by members of the agency. It started when former spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told Fox News reporter James Rosen in February 2013 that there had been no direct talks between Iran and the United States, when they in fact had been going on for months.
In December of 2013, Rosen pointed out to new spokeswoman Jen Psaki that the U.S. had engaged in bilateral talks with Iran earlier in the administration, as acknowledged by Psaki herself.
“The State Department had lied to him and to you,” Tapper said. Read the rest of this entry »
THERE’S ‘EMAIL RULES’? Hillary Didn’t Break ‘Email Rules’, She Broke FEDERAL LAW
Posted: May 26, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Bill Clinton, Bob McDonnell, Clinton Foundation, CNN, Democratic National Committee, email rules, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal law, Hillary Clinton, John R. Schindler, Mark Levin, Terry McAuliffe, The Pantsuit Report, The Washington Post, United States Department of Justice 2 Comments“You’ve heard by now, Hillary Clinton violated email rules. What? There’s email rules?”
At observer.com, writes:
…Any foreign intelligence service worth its salt would have had no trouble accessing Ms. Clinton’s emails, particularly when they were unencrypted, as this column has explained in detail. Yet Hillary was more worried about the American public finding out about what she was up to via FOIA than what foreign spy services and hackers might see in her email.
What she was seeking to hide so ardently remains one of the big unanswered questions in EmailGate. Hints may be found in the recent announcement that Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, the former head of the Democratic National Committee and a longtime Clinton intimate, is under FBI investigation for financial misdeeds, specifically dirty money coming from China. In fact, Mr. McAulliffe invited one of his Beijing benefactors over to Ms. Clinton’s house in 2013. Not long after, Chinese investors donated $2 million to the Clinton Foundation.
That an illegal pay-for-play-scheme, with donations to the Clinton Foundation being rewarded by political favors from Hillary Clinton—who when she was secretary of state had an enormous ability to grant favors to foreign bidders—existed at the heart of EmailGate has been widely suspected, and we know the FBI is investigating this case as political corruption, not just for mishandling of classified information….
…Even The Washington Post, hardly a member of the VRWC, has conceded that EmailGate is a certifiably big deal, and “badly complicates Clinton’s past explanations about the server.” Its editors went further, issuing a blistering statement castigating Ms. Clinton’s “inexcusable, willful disregard of the rules.” They minced no words: “Ms. Clinton had plenty of warnings to use official government communications methods, so as to make sure that her records were properly preserved and to minimize cybersecurity risks. She ignored them.”
Although Post editors were at pains to state that Ms. Clinton had not broken any laws with her gross negligence at Foggy Bottom, the issue remains open.
Not broken any laws? Really?
At Hot Air, Larry O’Connor writes:
Mark Levin blew apart the media narrative that Hillary Clinton “broke email rules” at the State Department.
Wednesday’s release of the State Department’s Inspector General emphasized Clinton’s violation of internal email policies, but Levin went right to the core of the matter explaining that these “policies” are in place because of federal law:
“You’ve heard by now, Hillary Clinton violated email rules. What? There’s email rules? Thats how Politico headlined their breaking story. ‘State Dept watchdog: Clinton violated email rules.’ No. She didn’t violate email rules, she violated federal law. ‘The State Department Inspector General concluded that hc didn’t comply with the agency’s policy on records.’ Guilty. GUILTY! She’s guilty of violating a federal law. It’s not just the State Department that comes up with these policies. These policies are put in plac to undergird the federal records act.”
Source: Hot Air
Glenn Harlan Reynolds: Is the Gun Lobby Still Invincible? Yeah, Pretty Much
Posted: October 5, 2015 Filed under: Law & Justice, Politics, Self Defense | Tags: 2nd amendment, corruption, Glenn Reynolds, government, Gun control, Gun Lobby, Gun politics, Gun rights, National Rifle Association, New York Times, Newtown Public Schools, NRA, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Tech massacre 1 CommentA Power Derived From Mistrust of Police and Government
Glenn Harlan Reynolds writes: Is the gun lobby still invincible? Yeah, pretty much. The reason is trust. And if you want more trust, police and politicians must be more trustworthy.
In 2012, Room for Debate asked ”Is the Gun Lobby Invincible?” Since then, the answer has turned out to be “yeah, pretty much.” And the reason is trust.
According to a recent Pew poll, more Americans support gun rights than gun control. That represents a significant shift over the situation a few decades ago. And I believe the reason is that people don’t trust the government to protect them anymore, and, in fact, that they don’t trust the government in general….(read more)
Source: NYTimes.com
Glenn Harlan Reynolds is the Beauchamp Brogan distinguished professor of law at the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville.
Too Close: ‘Mr. Robot’ Finale Postponed Because of Similarity to Live TV Killings
Posted: August 26, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Interstate 81, Live television, Mr Robot, Roanoke, Television crew, Television station, Terry McAuliffe, Twitter, USA Channel, Virginia, WDBJ Leave a commentUSA said the decision to postpone was made because the finale ‘contains a graphic scene similar in nature to today’s tragic events in Virginia.’
Cynthia Littleton reports: USA Network has postponed tonight’s scheduled season finale of hacker drama series “Mr. Robot” for a week because the episode includes a scene with similarities to the real-life murders that occurred on live TV this morning in Virginia.
“Out of respect to the victims, their families and colleagues, and our viewers, we are postponing tonight’s episode. Our thoughts go out to all those affected during this difficult time,” USA said in a statement.
[Read the full text here, at Variety]
Early today, a reporter, Alison Parker, and cameraman, Adam Ward, for WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Va., were shot and killed while delivering a live report for the station’s morning news program. The suspected killer is a former co-worker of the pair who posted video of the ambush on social media after fleeing the scene.
“Out of respect to the victims, their families and colleagues, and our viewers, we are postponing tonight’s episode. Our thoughts go out to all those affected during this difficult time.”
“Mr. Robot” has emerged as a critical darling for USA this summer. The series revolves around an anti-social IT whiz who is drafted to work for an underground group of hackers focused on rooting out evil and corruption in corporate America. Rami Malek and Christian Slater star. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Cuccinelli: Cantor’s Loss a Reminder that Hillary ‘Juggernaut’ Is Vulnerable
Posted: June 15, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Eric Cantor, Hillary Clinton, John Boehner, Ken Cuccinelli, Republican Party (United States), Terry McAuliffe, United States, Virginia 1 Comment“Juggernauts are only juggernauts as long as they stay looking like juggernauts…”
Hillary Clinton supporters should take note of defeats such as House majority leader Eric Cantor’s and realize no candidate is inevitable, particularly following her less-than-stellar book tour thus far, said Ken Cuccinelli. Cuccinelli, the 2013 Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate and recently announced Senate Conservatives Fund president, said presumed candidates have struggled as of late as voters look for a change…(read more)
University of Virginia Bans Unconstitutional Campus ‘Free Speech Zones’
Posted: April 9, 2014 Filed under: Censorship, Education, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Campus, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Free speech zone, Friday, Greg Lukianoff, Ohio, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia 3 CommentsFor Ricochet, Greg Lukianoff writes: On Friday, April 3, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe signed a first-of-its-kind bill that effectively designates all outdoor areas on Virginia public campuses as public forums. This has the practical effect of not allowing campus speech to be quarantined into ‘free speech zones.'(read more)
Bonus: In this video, note how some libertarian students in Ohio defeated one such zone:

Regulation Migration: Gun Companies Continue to Move Operations to Southern States
Posted: February 18, 2014 Filed under: Economics, Guns and Gadgets | Tags: Andrew Cuomo, Beretta, Bill Haslam, Connecticut, Magpul Industries, New York, Tennessee, Terry McAuliffe, Texas 4 Comments
Bob Grabowski (right) said his office is the first one complete at PTR Industries in the Cool Springs Business Park on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2013. PTR Industries is a gun manufacturing company that moved from Connecticut. Grabowski is also an Horry County councilman. Photo by Janet Blackmon Morgan / jblackmon@thesunnews.com
AWRHawkins reports: What started as a slow trickle when American Tactical Imports (ATI) and PTR moved from the northeast to South Carolina, has now become an all out surge with Magpul Industries leaving Colorado, Beretta leaving Maryland for Tennessee, and Remington acquiring a 500,000 square ft. facility in Alabama.
[See also: Work begins at Horry County’s first firearms manufacturer]
As Breitbart News previously reported, Governor Andrew Cuomo‘s (D) SAFE Act drove ATI from New York in October while Governor Dannel Malloy‘s (D) draconian gun control drove PTR from Connecticut in June.
[Order The Enlightenment in America (Galaxy Books) from Amazon]
In early 2013 Magpul made it clear they were leaving Colorado if the state’s Democrat legislators passed a ban on “high capacity” magazines. The legislators passed the ban anyway, and on January 2, 2014 Breitbart News reported that Magpul was moving manufacturing to Wyoming and its corporate headquarters to Texas.
[VIDEO] Terry McAuliffe: ‘Bush Family Should Be Thrown in Jail’
Posted: January 11, 2014 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, Bush, Bush family, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Ishmael Reed, Terry McAuliffe, Weekly Standard 1 CommentNote: I’ve seen Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, and really enjoyed it. If you get a chance to catch it on Netflix, or via Amazon, or the public library, I recommend it.
Jim Swift writes: A 2008 documentary reveals that Terry McAuliffe, who is being sworn in today as governor of Virginia, thinks that members of the Bush family “should all have been put away in jail.”
The documentary, Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, features a clip of President George H.W. Bush’s 1989 Inaugural Address, where Bush discusses the need to “make kinder the face of the nation” with regard to “those who cannot free themselves of enslavement to whatever addiction—drugs, welfare, the demoralization that rules the slums.”
Liberalism, the Decline of an Illusion
Posted: November 6, 2013 Filed under: History, Politics | Tags: Al Gore, Jay Carney, Ken Cuccinelli, Keynesian economics, Liberalism, New York City, Obama, Roger L Simon, Terry McAuliffe 2 Comments
Be careful where you’re standing when it all starts to crumble.
Roger L Simon writes: I have no idea if Republicans will end their circular firing squad and unite sufficiently to right our country, but one thing seems abundantly clear from the events of the last weeks, including Tuesday’s election in which Terry McAuliffe barely eked out a victory over the unexciting Ken Cuccinelli. Liberalism in our country is in a more precarious position than ever. It may not even really exist.
Liberalism as practiced in today’s America is a chimera, not actually an ideology but an alliance of interest groups controlled by elites for the preservation of their (the elites’) wealth and power. The interest groups often seem to be working against their own advantage by being so affiliated (e. g. African-Americans are in the worst shape in years under Obama), but not the elites who have been able to thrive. These elites are also able to appear altruistic to themselves and others while behaving in manners that are hideously selfish and atrocious to the common good. Liberalism is not so much an ideology in our society as it is a shield, a defense mechanism for a lifestyle.
This accounts, in part, for all the lying and bumbling in the face of the Obamacare debacle from the president on down to his hapless porte-paroles Jay Carney and Deborah Wasserman-Schultz (who apparently is so flummoxed she cannot pronounce the word “misled”). None of them ever knew what the healthcare legislation was in the first place in anything approximating serious detail. That would have been been too much of a bother when it was just a pose. It was never really about people’s health anyway — it was for show. Read the rest of this entry »
GOP Gives Up Virginia To Democrats Instead Of Giving Tea Party and Social Conservatives A Win
Posted: November 6, 2013 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: Chris Christie, Cuccinelli, Democratic, Ken Cuccinelli, Republican, Tea Party, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia 1 CommentWhen the facts are considered in the slim victory that terribly flawed Democrat Terry McAuliffe had against Ken Cuccinelli, it’s hard to deny the conclusion that the Republican party decided it was better to abandon Virginia to the Democrat party than to allow the Tea Party and social conservatives to win.
CRAPTASTIC: Democrat Hack Terry McAuliffe Projected Winner in Va. Governor’s Race
Posted: November 5, 2013 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Democratic, Democratic National Committee, Ken Cuccinelli, McAuliffe, McLean Virginia, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia Leave a comment
(Who is the guy on the left? A member of the opposition campaign? He looks deeply troubled…)
Nov. 5, 2013: Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and his wife Dorothy depart after voting at Spring Hill Elementary School in McLean, Virginia .reuters
Democrat Terry McAuliffe is projected to win the Virginia gubernatorial race, defeating Republican nominee Ken Cuccinelli in a surprisingly close victory.
Fox News projected McAuliffe as the winner Tuesday night.
Cuccinelli’s Collapse: Why Republicans are losing the Virginia governor’s race
Posted: October 28, 2013 Filed under: Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Bill Bolling, Bob McDonnell, Cuccinelli, Democratic, Ken Cuccinelli, Northern Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia 2 CommentsW. James Antle III writes: Next week Virginians will head to the polls to elect a new governor. It is a race that, on paper, Republicans should win. But the paper the polls are printed on says otherwise.
The GOP standard-bearer is Ken Cuccinelli, a prominent conservative who hails from the critical Northern Virginia suburbs—he lives in Prince William County and was elected to the state legislature from Fairfax County—and won the attorney general’s race with 58 percent of the vote just four years ago. His constitutional challenge to Obamacare did not prevail at the Supreme Court, but it would seem at least somewhat vindicated by the law’s metastasizing implementation problems. Read the rest of this entry »
Hollywood Prepares to Shower Hillary Clinton With Love, Support, and Giant Bags of Money
Posted: October 28, 2013 Filed under: Entertainment, Politics | Tags: Clinton, Clinton Foundation, Elizabeth Warren, Haim Saban, Hillary Clinton, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Los Angeles, Obama, Steven Spielberg, Terry McAuliffe 1 CommentTed Johnson reports: It may be at least a year before Hillary Clinton announces if she will run for president in 2016, but in the next few weeks, her presence in Los Angeles and Hollywood may be as busy as her last bid for the White House.
On Wednesday, she is scheduled to headline a $15,000-per-person fundraising luncheon for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe at the home of media mogul Haim Saban and his wife Cheryl. That evening, she is scheduled to speak at the environmental org Oceana’s Partners Award Gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, with a long list of politically active entertainment figures among those who are chairing the event. Read the rest of this entry »
A Libertarian Governor for Virginia?
Posted: October 24, 2013 Filed under: Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Conservative Party, George Wallace, George Will, Ken Cuccinelli, Libertarian, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia, William F. Buckley 1 CommentGeorge Will writes: When William F. Buckley, running as the Conservative Party’s candidate for mayor of New York in 1965, was asked what he would do if he won, he replied: “Demand a recount.” Robert Sarvis, Libertarian Party candidate for governor of Virginia, will not need to do this.
Hours before Gallup reported record nationwide support — 60 percent — for a third party to leaven politics, Sarvis was declared ineligible for the final debate for gubernatorial candidates because he fell a tad short of a 10 percent average in recent polls. None of this disturbed his leisurely enjoyment of a tuna-burger lunch before sauntering off in search of free media, about the only kind he can afford.
Democrats party at Hillary’s swanky house as government shuts down
Posted: September 30, 2013 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Clinton, Daily Caller, Democratic, Hillary Clinton, James Carville, McAuliffe, Terry McAuliffe, Virginia 2 CommentsWASHINGTON —Alex Pappas reports: While Washington, D.C. braced Monday evening for the federal government to shut down, Hillary Clinton hosted rich, connected, powerful Democrats at her swanky northwest D.C. home to raise money for Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.
“Good to see everybody!” McAuliffe said before being driven away from Clinton’s home in a black SUV on Monday night.
(Grae Stafford/Daily Caller)
The Democratic nominee for governor declined to answer questions from The Daily Caller about the Virginians likely to be furloughed in a government shutdown. An estimated 150,000 Virginians are likely to be affected.
Despite the shutdown threat, a Who’s Who of national Democrats (and a deer) still attended the fundraiser at the invitation of the former Secretary of State, First Lady and likely 2016 presidential candidate. Read the rest of this entry »
Gun-Control People, This is Your Cue to Wet Your Pants: NRA Fundraising Breaks Records
Posted: September 26, 2013 Filed under: Guns and Gadgets, Self Defense | Tags: Friends of NRA, Joe Manchin, John da Silva, Kay Hagan, National Rifle Association, NRA, Shooting sport, Terry McAuliffe 1 CommentThe NRA’s “Friends of NRA” campaign has raised a record breaking amount of money so far this year. “Friends of NRA” is one of the group’s grassroots efforts, sponsoring volunteer events and fundraising banquets around the country.
According to Richmond’s WTVR.com, the program has already raised $51 million, with “more than 200 fundraising events left in 2013.” The amount raised in the first eight and a half months of 2013 is already $1 million more than the entire amount raised in 2012.
What does this say to gubernatorial candidates like Terry McAuliffe, who openly pledge to put Colorado-like gun controls in place if elected?
And what does this portend for pro-gun control Senators who have been fortunate enough to be elected in anti-gun control states? Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kay Hagan (D-NC) come to mind. Read the rest of this entry »