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Government Corruption

ActBlue officials decline to testify, Congress threatens subpoenas in foreign donations probe

2025-05-24

[JustTheNews] The witnesses initially agreed to voluntary interviews but pulled back after President Donald Trump signed an order instructing the Justice Department to probe ActBlue, correspondence shows.

The chairmen of three powerful House committees on Thursday threatened to issue subpoenas after several current and former top officials of the Democrat online fund-raising platform ActBlue declined to testify in a probe into possible foreign and fraudulent political donations, according to correspondence obtained by Just the News.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., revealed in the letters that several of the witnesses initially agreed to voluntary, transcribed interviews, then pulled back through their lawyer earlier this month after President Donald Trump signed an order instructing the Justice Department to probe the platform.

“As we have explained, the Committees are examining allegations that ActBlue, a leading political fundraising organization, allowed bad actors, including foreign actors, to exploit the company’s online platform to make fraudulent political donations,” the chairmen wrote in letters to the witnesses, which were sent to a lawyer representing them, Danny Onorato.

"Fraudulent political donations corrupt American elections could amount to interstate criminal conduct," the letters also state.

The letters laid out the testimony flip-flops for each of the witnesses, including ActBlue’s former chief revenue officer, Peter Slutsky.

“On April 21, Mr. Onorato indicated that you had agreed to appear for a voluntary transcribed interview and began the process of scheduling your appearance. However, on May 7, Mr. Onorato notified the Committee that you had changed course and now would not appear for a voluntary transcribed interview,” the chairmen stated.

“He cited a reported Executive Branch investigation into ‘the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees’ as the basis for your refusal to cooperate voluntarily with the Committees,” the letter to Slutsky and Onorato also states.

You can read that letter here:

Similar language was used for nearly all the witnesses who got the letters, which told the witnesses that an ongoing DOJ probe wasn’t a valid excuse for refusing to testify to Congress.

“The relevant precedent is clear that the mere existence of state or federal law enforcement investigations has no bearing on Congress’s oversight power,” the lawmakers wrote. “As such, an Executive Branch investigation into matters related to versight by the Committees is not a legitimate basis on which you may decline our request.”

The letters demanded each witness schedule their interview by no later than May 29 or risk facing a subpoena.

“The Committees are prepared to resort to compulsory process, if necessary, to obtain compliance with our requests,” the lawmakers warned.

The committees have been probing ActBlue over lax security measures and whether those vulnerabilities allowed foreign entities to donate to U.S. political campaigns, which is illegal.

In October, Steil and Sen. Ron Johnson, a fellow Wisconsin Republican, wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines about concerns that four U.S. adversaries may have donated through the platform.

“We write to you to raise an urgent concern regarding potential illicit election funding by foreign actors,” the lawmakers wrote Yellen in a letter dated Thursday. “CHA has been investigating claims that foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China, may be using ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.”

They also said: “Our investigation has indicated that these actors may be exploiting existing U.S. donors by making straw donations without their knowledge.”

The lawmakers specifically demanded access to any Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to money passing through the fundraising platform generated by any U.S. financial institution as part of their anti-money-laundering activities. Congress has been pouring through those SARs in recent days after gaining access to them under the Trump administration.

ActBlue has acknowledged to Congress that it has updated its donor verification policy to automatically reject donations that “use foreign prepaid/gift cards, domestic gift cards, are from high-risk/sanctioned countries, and have the highest level of risk as determined,” by its solution provider, Sift.

The change occurred just three days after Steil introduced the Secure Handling of Internet Electronic Donations (SHIELD) Act, on Sept. 6, 2024, to ensure foreign money stayed out of online political fundraising. Before the change, Steil said, donations made with foreign gift cards were not automatically rejected by ActBlue before the change, Just the News reported.

ActBlue has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and says that it is fully cooperating with ongoing investigations.

"Democratic and progressive campaigns have trusted ActBlue’s two-decade-long track record of innovation and dependability to deliver during big fundraising moments," the firm said in a statement in June 2024 celebrating its 20th anniversary in business.

According to internal company documents reviewed by the committees, during the 2024 campaign cycle, ActBlue issued new standards encouraging staff to “look for reasons to accept contributions.” Before the policy change, the platform already failed to require CVV numbers for credit card transactions, increasing fraud risks.

An internal assessment by the company determined the policy change led to “between 14 and 28 additional fraudulent contributions each month,” the committees said.

The documents also show the platform began monitoring potential fraudulent donations from several foreign sources, including hundreds of donations from Brazil, Colombia, India, Iraq, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, and other countries.

The lawmakers and Trump have both asked DOJ to probe ActBlue for possible criminal conduct.

Link

-Land of the Free

Good of Them to Self-Deport

2025-03-29

[GatewayPundit] Five Senate Democrats Head to Gitmo to Protest Detention of Tren de Aragua Terrorists and Killers – But Don’t Give a D*mn About Americans’ Safety

Five Senate Democrats are heading to Guantanamo Bay—not to demand justice for Americans terrorized by violent foreign gangs, but to protest the detention of members of the notorious Tren de Aragua cartel, a brutal criminal enterprise originating in Venezuela with ties to trafficking, extortion, and murder.

The delegation includes Sens. Jack Reed (D-RI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Gary Peters (D-MI), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and self-proclaimed Independent Angus King of Maine, who caucuses with Democrats. The trip was led under the guise of “congressional oversight.”

This visit follows months of Democrat outrage over the use of Guantanamo Bay to detain foreign nationals with suspected ties to international terrorist organizations like Tren de Aragua.

Progressive lawmakers have echoed the radical left’s talking points, prioritizing “rights” for foreign terrorists over the safety of American citizens.

The Democrat demands include:

An immediate halt to transfers of immigrants to Guantanamo Bay.

A detailed report on past or prospective transfers to the facility.

Access to counsel for any past present, or prospective detainee.

A full accounting of government expenditures related to this detention program.

While Republicans have been pushing for tougher immigration enforcement, border security, and strong action against violent foreign gangs, Senate Democrats appear more committed to virtue-signaling and appeasing the open-borders lobby.

Link

Government Corruption

Biden White House turned over Trump, Pence government cellphones to FBI as part of anti-Trump agent''s case

2025-03-15

[NYPOST] White House officials under then-President Biden helped the FBI build out its 2020 elections case against Donald Trump

...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets...
by turning over government-issued cellphones belonging to the 45th president and former Vice President Mike Pence, documents show.

The revelation was made in whistleblower disclosures released by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Friday, related to the FBI's so-called 2022 ''Arctic Frost'' investigation into Trump, which the politicians say was improperly opened by ''anti-Trump'' former Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault.

''Sunshine is the best disinfectant,'' Grassley and Johnson wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, informing them of their findings. ''The American people deserve to know the complete extent of the corruption within the DOJ and FBI that led to the investigation into President Trump.

''We are making this information public for purposes of public accountability and to provide specific examples of past behavior at your institutions that must not be repeated,'' they added.

Link

Government Corruption

Congress demands anew Treasury provide access to Suspicious Activity Reports involving ActBlue

2025-03-12

[JustTheNews] New letter reveals Biden administration didn’t fully comply with requests involving Democrat online fundraising platform

The Biden administration failed to fully comply with a demand to allow Congress to review Suspicious Activity Reports involving the massive Democrat online fundraising platform, prompting a fresh request Monday to the Trump Treasury Department, according to correspondence obtained by Just the News.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil, R-Wis., made the joint request to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant seeking access to the SARs, which are required by federal law when banks suspect money laundering or other suspicious activity.

The committees first sought the reports last fall, and Comer has said government officials told them there are hundreds of such reports.

In their new letter, the chairmen revealed the Biden Treasury Department only let Congress see some of the reports.

“Although the Biden Administration initially stalled the Committees’ requests in its entirety for months, on January 2, 2025, Treasury allowed the Committees to review only limited documents,” they wrote Bessant. “We write to request Treasury, in its commitment to transparency and cooperation, provide both Committees with the remaining records relevant to our investigations.”

Congress along with numerous state attorneys generals began investigating ActBlue last election, citing concerns the massive fundraising online platform, which claims to have raised $2 billion for Democrats and liberal causes over the last two decades, had not until recently used security tools like the CVV number on the back of credit cards to ensure donor identities.

The lawmakers told Bessant they were concerned that loose security might have led to abuses on the platform, including the flow of prohibited foreign monies into U.S. elections.

“Our Committees are concerned that the failure to properly vet contributions made through online platforms may allow bad actors, including foreign nationals not lawfully admitted for permanent residence or individuals attempting to evade individual contribution limits, to more easily commit fraud to illegally exploit and violate federal campaign finance laws,” they wrote.

For emphasis, they added the committees want to “guard against illicit foreign influence or other illegal activities in U.S. elections.”

In a recent interview with the Just the News, No Noise television show, Comer indicated the “small fraction” of documents the committees was shown by the Biden Treasury Department only heightened lawmakers’ concerns and determination to get access to all records.

“I think you are going to have a lot to report on ActBlue in the coming weeks,“ Comer said. Asked whether there is a foreign trail of money, he responded: “Absolutely.”

Back in December, Steil told the Just the News, No Noise television show that Congress likely will refer ActBlue to the Trump Justice Department for possible investigation.

“Once Pam Bondi comes in as attorney general under the Trump administration, we then have a partner at the United States Department of Justice to look at this, to do the investigation into bad actors, and to hold anyone who is engaged in this activity accountable,” he said.

In October, Steil and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a fellow Republican, wrote to then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray and then-Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines about concerns that four U.S. adversaries may have donated through the platform.

“We write to you to raise an urgent concern regarding potential illicit election funding by foreign actors,” the lawmakers wrote. “CHA has been investigating claims that foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China, may be using ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns.”

Link

Government Corruption

Conservatives in Congress are urging GOP leadership in both chambers not to agree to limiting DOGE in a spending bill, as Democrats are asking for.

2025-03-05

What could they be hiding?
[FoxNews] Conservatives tell GOP leaders, 'We will not support a government funding package that would be weaponized against President Trump'

A group of conservative lawmakers in the House and Senate is warning Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., against agreeing to restrict the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in a spending bill as the government shutdown deadline of March 14 inches closer.

The sometimes-resistant batch of Republicans is also committing to backing a clean stopgap bill for the rest of the fiscal year to avoid a shutdown, which they've opposed in the past.

"[W]e are deeply concerned about recent reports of Democrats’ demands for a government funding agreement that would perpetuate the unsustainable status quo of wasteful spending," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., joined by several others, wrote to the congressional leaders.

The group of signers included several fiscal hawks in the House and Senate, many of whom have opposed stopgap spending bills on principle, preferring full-year appropriations bills.

"Any attempt to use government funding legislation to dilute the President’s constitutional authority to save taxpayer dollars must be rejected outright," the lawmakers wrote.

In this circumstance, the group of Congressional conservatives said they're willing to back a "clean" continuing resolution, or short-term spending bill, that lasts the rest of the year, for the sake of avoiding a government shutdown.

But they also made it very clear to Johnson and Thune: Don't let Democrats restrict DOGE in the spending bill.

The correspondence was co-signed by 19 other Republicans: Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, and Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Barry Moore, R-Ala., Clay Higgins, R-La., Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., Brandon Gill, R-Texas, Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., Sheri Biggs, R-S.C., and Mark Harris, R-N.C.

Scott is the new chairman of the Republican Senate Steering Committee, a group of conservatives in the upper chamber that works to influence policy and priorities in their conference.

According to the sometimes rebellious group of Republicans, they "stand ready" to work with both House and Senate leadership to keep the government open. But, they said, "we will not support a government funding package that would be weaponized against President Trump at the very moment he is seeking to make good on the promises he made to the American people."

Johnson's office referred Fox News Digital to a recent appearance by the speaker on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures," where he said, "Heading up to the March 14 deadline, we'll have to probably pass a clean CR instead of separate [appropriations] bills. Why? Because the Democrats in Congress were trying to demand that as a condition of appropriations, that we would somehow tie the hands of the president, limit his authority, you know, put Elon Musk in a corner and take him off of his mission."

"We're not doing that. That's a nonstarter, and Democrats know that, so I hope they'll be reasonable," he said.

Thune's office declined to comment to Fox News Digital.

Last month, President Donald Trump sounded off on the shutdown deadline on Truth Social. "As usual, Sleepy Joe Biden left us a total MESS. The Budget from last YEAR is still not done. We are working very hard with the House and Senate to pass a clean, temporary government funding Bill ('CR') to the end of September. Let’s get it done!" he wrote.

The House Freedom Caucus has at times weaponized the House’s razor-thin majority to push for more conservative positions in negotiations and legislative matters. In the Senate, members of the more covert Steering Committee have also banded together in the past against actions by GOP leadership that they didn't agree with.

The deadline for a partial government shutdown is March 14, and Republicans and Democrats have yet to come to an agreement on a spending measure to avoid such a fate.

As Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's DOGE has aggressively tackled perceived waste and bloat in the federal government, Democrats have expressed outrage at widespread spending cuts and federal worker layoffs.

And now, with some leverage in the shutdown discussions, Democrats in Congress are demanding assurance that Trump spends the money as Congress has appropriated it, shielding it from DOGE.

Sources familiar with previously told Fox News this could take form in a specific bill provision hamstringing DOGE.

In order to pass a spending bill to avoid a partial shutdown, Republicans will need some level of Democratic support. Sixty votes are needed in the Senate, meaning at least seven Democrats will need to cross the aisle, provided that all Republicans also support it. Only a majority is needed in the House, but full Republican support of any bill is not guaranteed.

Do we object to the government shutting down for a bit? Historically, critical jobs continue to be done, just not the rest of them…

Link

Government Corruption

Grassley drops FBI whistleblower records that show anti-Trump agent was behind Jack Smith 2020 case

2025-01-31

[JustTheNews] Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Thursday released a series of whistleblower records that allegedly show a former FBI agent who was known for being anti-Donald Trump, played an important role in Jack Smith's 2020 election interference case.

Grassley and Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson claimed that internal emails and records show that former FBI agent Timothy Thibault,

…who was admirably placed as Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office to cause the kind of trouble he rejoiced in…

who was fired in 2024 for violating the Hatch Act, sent a subordinate an email that included the language for what ultimately became Smith's false elector case.

The investigation into Trump was formally opened by the FBI on April 13, 2022, and was known inside the agency as "Arctic Frost."

Thibault also allegedly improperly took action to open the investigation into Trump's role in the 2020 election interference case because he was not authorized to open investigations in his role, according to Fox News.

Grassley mentioned the whistleblower disclosures during President Donald Trump's nominee for FBI Director Kash Patel's confirmation hearing on Thursday, where he emphasized the American people's lack of trust in the bureau.

"Mr. Patel, in my time, I’ve never seen our law enforcement and intelligence community institutions so badly infected with political decision-making. They’ve broken faith with We the People," Grassley said in his opening statements.

"Partisan FBI agents and DOJ officials tried – and ultimately succeeded – in launching a full-field criminal investigation and prosecution of the President of the United States," he continued. "Justice Department and FBI leadership acted in concert to further a political scheme to take down Trump ... They have yet to learn their lesson ... As I’ve said before, if a politically-charged investigation is to be opened, it must be done the right way. That didn’t happen here."

Link

Government Corruption

Despite Biden Pardon, Fauci Still Faces Legal Perils. Here They Are...

2025-01-21

[ZeroHedge] President Biden’s pardon of Dr. Anthony Fauci may protect the former National Institutes of Health official from immediate criminal prosecution, but some critics say he is not completely out of legal jeopardy and that public sentiment might still condemn the man who became known during the COVID-19 pandemic as “Mr. Science.”

In the days before Biden offered the pardon to Fauci, along with other critics of Donald Trump, some experts who have followed Fauci’s career and handling of the pandemic, as well as members of the Trump transition team, reiterated their assertion that Fauci perjured himself on several occasions during the pandemic – especially regarding his agency’s links to the lab in Wuhan, China, that might have created the virus that causes COVID-19.

The pardon addresses any COVID-related offenses, and is backdated to 2014—the year a U.S. ban on so-called "gain of function" virus research took effect -- research Fauci is accused of outsourcing to China.

Despite reporting that Trump is bent on revenge, the appetite among MAGA appointees for holding Fauci accountable hasn’t been particularly vocal. But former Senate investigator Jason Foster, who now runs the whistleblower nonprofit Empower Oversight, says that Biden’s pardon creates new legal jeopardy for Fauci. Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to continue investigating the COVID origins question, and sources tell RealClearInvestigations that Sen. Ron Johnson and House Republican investigators plan to do so as well. When testifying in those inquiries or answering written depositions, Fauci will be unable to dodge questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment protections against self-incrimination. “They can ask him if he lied before, replough old ground,” Foster said. “And if he lies about any prior lie, he can be prosecuted for that or held in contempt.”

Andrew Noymer, associate professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine, said such hearings are necessary for scientific and historical reasons. “I’m hopeful that he will now come clean about everything he knows about the origins of the virus,” Noymer said. “For the sake of public trust in science – explaining what killed 20 million people – that a complete account is much more important than speculation about what criminal penalties he may have avoided.”

“These pardons will not stop Department of Justice investigations,” said one adviser to the Trump transition team, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “We expected this and look at it as a predicate to get truth from people who can no longer use the Fifth Amendment. Now we can bring every one of them in front of a grand jury.”

Link

Home Front: WoT

Feds warned a year ago that U.S. ill-prepared for attacks on ‘soft targets and crowded places'

2025-01-12

[JustTheNews] Tragic start to 2025 prompts worries about a new era of terrorism foretold in a 2023 Rand Corp. report to the Homeland Security Department.

Thank goodness the grownups are in charge again, unlike the Biden administration ignoring the obvious possibilities.

A year before twin New Year’s Day incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas darkened the start of 2025, the Department of Homeland Security commissioned a study that warned America was facing a new era of terrorism and was ill-prepared to protect its citizens from that threat.

“Attacks on soft targets (STs) and crowded places (CPs) (ST-CPs) represent a significant challenge in the 2023 security environment,” Rand Corp’s Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center reported to the agency, urging a significant change in posture for a security apparatus that spent two decades hardening defenses against the sort of foreign-inspired and spectacular attacks that al-Qaeda pulled off on Sept. 11, 2001.

Rather than flying planes into hardened security targets of major institutions like the Pentagon or World Trade Center towers, a growing number of foreign-inspired or domestic-grown terrorists and mass shooters have deployed low level tactics – vehicles, improvised explosive devices and guns – on targets with less security but that still house large numbers of potential human victims, the report noted.

Drivers in Wisconsin in 2022 and Germany in 2024 plowed through Christmas Day gatherings with extreme lethal consequence. Shooters from Buffalo, N.Y.; to Charleston, S.C.; and Orlando, Fla.; to San Bernandino, Calif.; claimed numerous victims by focusing on stores, schools, and houses of worship with lower security postures. Plots to plant improvised explosive devices multiplied in the last decade too, a Just the News review of tens years of mass casualty incidents showed.

Meanwhile, such soft targets have been provided little training and security guidance, Rand warned.

“We found little specifically on how to secure open spaces and non-secured buildings that, almost by definition, do not have more-intensive security measures,” the report warned. “What little is present sometimes includes surveillance cameras and other sensors (for areas that have shot detection). The only reliable security measure present, however, is the bystanders themselves.”

You can read the full report here.

Rand’s report was as academic as it was prescient. On Wednesday, police said, an Army veteran apparently radicalized to support ISIS drove his vehicle bearing an ISIS flag into a crowded French Quarter in New Orleans, where scores were still celebrating New Year’s Eve, claiming 15 lives and injuring many more.

The driver, identified as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar of Texas, also came armed with guns to shoot officers and had explosives both inside his car and planted in the neighborhood he targeted.

FBI officials said it was a terror attack, and they believed others, still uncaptured, assisted it.

Meanwhile, another driver pulled up to the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas a few hours later on Wednesday morning and detonated a rented Tesla Cybertruck filled with fireworks and explosive materials, killing one and injuring seven.

FBI officials said they were trying to determine if it was a terrorist attack and whether it was related to New Orleans. Both drivers, authorities said, rented from the same rental company, heightening concerns.

Whatever the final outcome, the incidents reaffirmed that soft targets remain soft and easily accessed, creating potential catastrophic opportunities for bad actors when they are crowded like a hotel and public celebration area were on the New Year’s holiday.

The vulnerabilities coupled with four years of an insecure border under President Joe Biden and liberal defund the police movements in big cities have created a perfect storm, one key lawmaker told Just the News on Wednesday night.

"With the Democrats defund the police and open borders policy fiascos, it was always just a matter of time before America would experience these terrorist type of attacks,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and soon to be chairman of the Senate’s most powerful investigative body.

Johnson’s home state experienced the Christmas parade massacre carried out by a lone driver in 2022 in Waukesha, Wis., and he has warned for years that America has too many soft targets for bad actors to strike.

“President Trump has some major Democrat-created messes to clean up,” he added.

The question of local police capabilities has already surfaced in the New Orleans tragedy, where officials admitted security barriers known as bollards that were intended to protect pedestrians from vehicles had been temporarily removed and were to be replaced because they malfunctioned at times before the attacker drove through Bourbon Street shortly after 3 a.m. Wednesday.

“Bollards were not up because they are near completion, with the expectation of being completed before the Super Bowl,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell admitted Wednesday afternoon.

The lack of barriers and the ease the driver found in driving into the French Quarter is particularly alarming for experts given that the city was hosting a major college championship football game, the Sugar Bowl, on Wednesday and the NFL's Super Bowl a month later.

"There's obviously a lot of blame to go around for this terrorist attack in New Orleans,” former CIA analyst and National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz told Just the News. “Security barriers in the street that were put in place to prevent this type of attack were not activated. That is the fault of New Orleans police and officials. “

But Fleitz said the federal government and the Biden administration also deserved blame, focusing on issues like opening the borders to more illegal aliens, imposing ideologies like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on security agencies, and equating political dissent with terrorism.

“The Biden administration has admitted at least 250 of the known migrants were on the U.S terrorist list. I believe a much larger number of terrorists entered the country as illegal migrants across the southern border since 2021,” he said.

“We also have a Homeland Security Department and an FBI that has lumped radical Islamist terrorists, a non-politically correct term government employees are forbidden to use, with peaceful protesters such as parents who attend PTA meetings, pro life protesters, and the January 6 protesters.

Fleitz said he is "very concerned that Biden's mismanagement of our homeland security agencies has seriously undermined their ability to defend the American people against real domestic security threats like radical Islamist terrorism."

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., who was briefed on the New Orleans tragedy, suggested Americans will be more alarmed when all the details are eventually made public.

“Here’s what I want to ask from the federal government: Catch these people and then tell the American people the truth,” Kennedy said. “Now, I don’t want you to tell us yet anything is going to interfere with the investigation. And there are things that I’ve been told that I think are true that I’m not sharing with you today because it could interfere with their investigation.”

Link

Home Front: Politix

Feds' disbanded 'censorship nerve center' faces hellish afterlife amid lawsuits, Hill probes UPDATE: not dead, just renamed

2025-01-05

[JustTheNews] State ignoring FOIA requests for its communications related to Europe's pro-censorship Digital Services Act, requester says in suit. First Amendment disinformation police boycott suit on hiatus until Feb. 18.

The State Department laid to rest the alleged "censorship nerve center" of the federal government last week after Congress refused to reauthorize the interagency Global Engagement Center, known for teaching youth to distrust populism and allegedly squelching American small businesses online.

While it may have a peaceful afterlife – State plans to "realign" GEC staff with other entities that handle purported "foreign information manipulation and interference activities" – GEC also faces an unquenchable fire and undying worm on multiple fronts.

The Functional Government Initiative (FGI) filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Monday against State, with nine exhibits, because it "has produced no records and has failed to assert any claims that responsive records are exempt from production" in response to three FOIA requests whose statutory due dates have passed.

Two seek discussions within GEC and State's Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, and their talks with the White House, on the European Union's Digital Services Act (DSA), whose stated goal is stopping "illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation."

The third asks for "internal press guidance" mentioned in a New York Post article Sept. 13 in which State officials mulled how to discredit journalists reporting on GEC's funding of disinformation police NewsGuard and Global Disinformation Index (GDI), and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., for supporting a ban on "federal funding of anti-free speech groups."

It's not the first FOIA to State for internal press guidance related to GEC's funding. The agency hid the vast majority of emails, and even the names of public officials, in a FOIA production to former Department of Education lawyer Hans Bader in 2023.

Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson has also been warning he'll aggressively wield his substantial subpoena powers as chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and demand transparency from agencies.

He called on President-elect Donald Trump to create something like a "secretary of information extraction" to coordinate with Trump's incoming secretaries on exposing agency records he's seeking, and for binding budget caps based on the last surplus year of 1998 in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Then-EU Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton repeatedly invoked the DSA to threaten X owner Elon Musk, starting with his purchase of the former Twitter, which also prompted President Biden to float a potential security review.

The EU distanced itself from Breton's final threat, to preempt Musk's planned X interview with then-GOP presidential nominee Trump, which prompted Musk to respond with a meme telling Breton to "literally, f*** your own face!"

The Frenchman resigned a month later, accusing President Ursula von der Leyen of trying to get France to replace him – days after House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, demanded a briefing from Breton on his threats against X, use of EU law to censor American speech and communications with the White House to "bypass the First Amendment."

Breton didn't let his departure stop him from saber-rattling against Musk, demanding Europe enforce the DSA against Musk on Dec. 21 for his "foreign interference" in German elections by endorsing the "far-right" Alternative for Germany party, which favors lower immigration.

"Only the AfD can save Germany," Musk had written, using its German acronym, in response to presumptive German Chancellor Friedrich Merz refusing to cooperate with AfD "no matter how many" seats it won in upcoming elections against his Christian Democratic Union.

All sorts of legal stuff at the link, for those who have the intestinal fortitude to face such things this early in the new year.
Update from American Greatness at 1:00 p.m. ET: It’s not dead, it’s just quietly rebranded:

Funding for the GEC was in the original 1500-page obscenity that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had the temerity to bring to his colleagues as a “continuing resolution” last month. That monstrosity instantly drew some portion of the contempt and ridicule it deserved, not least from Elon Musk, whose fingers got a workout on the platform formerly known as Twitter. A 120-page, slimmed-down version of the bill was hastily cobbled together minus the GEC funding and other objectionable features (a raise for the legislators, for example). That passed, and so a putative “government shutdown” was avoided.

There was modified joy over this seeming victory. The fact that funding for the GEC was cut was one of the principal goads to celebration. Here at last was proof that a bad government activity could actually be zeroed out. No money, no activity.

But the joy was short-lived. Deploying a pragmatic version of the Juliet Principle (“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”), the deep staters in the State Department just cooked up a new name.

Allow me to introduce you to the “Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub,” a polysyllabic, “rebranded” version of the GEC. Many of the people employed by the GEC are now employed by the new “hub.” They’ll need new business cards, stationery, and signs for their offices. Doubtless, there will be other expenses. But since much of the GEC’s budget has been “realigned” to the new shop, that won’t be a problem.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Trump announces more picks, nominates Kimberly Guilfoyle to serve as ambassador to Greece

2024-12-11

[FoxNews] President-elect Trump on Tuesday announced several picks to join his incoming administration, including tapping Jacob Helberg to serve as his Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment and Kimberly Guilfoyle to serve as ambassador to Greece.

Trump announced the picks on his Truth Social platform.

"In this role Jacob will be a champion of our America First Foreign Policy," he wrote. "He will guide State Department policy on Economic statecraft, promoting America’s Economic security and growth, and American technological dominance abroad. Jacob is a successful technology executive, has the knowledge, expertise, and pragmatism to defend America’s Economic interests abroad, and always puts AMERICA FIRST!"

Guilfoyle was nominated to serve as ambassador to Greece.

"For many years, Kimberly has been a close friend and ally. Her extensive experience and leadership in law, media, and politics along with her sharp intellect make her supremely qualified to represent the United States, and safeguard its interests abroad," Trump said.

Guilfoyle, 55, who previously dated Donald Trump Jr., but the pair have reportedly broken up. She was previously married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.

Guilfoyle has been a loyal ally of Trump and was a staple at many Trump family gatherings. In a post on X, she said she was "honored" to accept the nomination.

"President Trump’s historic victory is bringing hope and optimism to the American people and to freedom-loving allies across the world," she wrote. "It was the democratic values born in Greece that helped shape the founding of America."

The nomination would require Senate confirmation.

Tom Barrack, a private equity real estate investor and founder of Colony Capital LLC, was tapped to serve as ambassador to Turkey.

"He is a well respected and experienced voice of reason to a wide range of thought leaders in both political and business circles," Trump wrote.

Attorney Mark Meador was tapped to serve as a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission. Meador previously served as deputy chief counsel for antitrust and competition policy to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee.

Ed Martin will serve as the next Chief of Staff at the Office of Management and Budget, Trump also announced.

"Together with Phyllis Schlafly, they co-wrote 'The Conservative Case for Trump,'" he said, referring to the deceased anti-feminist activist.

U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, R- N.C., was named the deputy director for the Budget at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

In that role, Bishop will implement Trump's "cost-cutting and deregulatory agenda" and root out the "Weaponized Deep State."

"I’m so honored to be nominated by President Trump to serve in the stellar OMB team led by @russvought," Bishop wrote on X. "Much work to do to fight for and implement President Trump’s agenda. I’m ready to get down to it. Let’s go!"

Trump names former El Salvador ambassador Ron Johnson as choice for Mexico envoy

[FoxNews] Johnson previously served under Trump as ambassador to El Salvador during his first administration

Former U.S. ambassador to El Salvador Ronald Johnson has been tapped by President-elect Trump to serve as ambassador to Mexico in his upcoming administration.

Like many of his picks, Trump announced the news on his Truth Social network.

"Ron will work closely with our great Secretary of State Nominee, Marco Rubio, to promote our Nation’s security and prosperity through strong America First Foreign Policies," he wrote.

"During my First Term, Ron served as the Ambassador to El Salvador, where he worked tirelessly with Salvadoran authorities and our team to reduce violent crime and illegal migration to the lowest levels in History," he added.

Johnson, a former official with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and U.S. Army Green Beret, would serve in one of the high-profile diplomatic posts in the Trump administration.

Trump has threatened to impose steep tariffs on Mexico if it doesn't do more to prevent the flow of illegal immigrants and illegal drugs across the southern border. He's also threatened to impose tariffs on Canada and China as well.

In his announcement, Trump said Johnson would help put an end to "migrant crime, stop the illegal flow of Fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into our Country and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!"

Link

Home Front: Politix

ActBlue in Trouble?

2024-12-05

[HotAir] ActBlue is the Democratic Party's main fundraising arm, and it is a cesspool of fraud and corruption.

It's not like this is a particular secret. It is common knowledge in political circles that the organization facilitates "smurfing," which is a method of laundering illegal campaign contributions through straw donors. It is a way to break up enormous political contributions that exceed campaign contribution limits into smaller donations that evade scrutiny.

Over the years the organization has gotten ever more blatant, laundering contributions through the identities of real people by making contributions in their names without their knowledge. By now the amount of money involved is likely in the billions in fraudulent poitical donations.

Independent journalists have been tracking down individuals whose identities have been used to launder big contributions, stunning some "donors" with the massive contributions they were supposed to have made. These are generally Democrats

...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy, white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects...
who have indeed contributed small amounts. Once ActBlue has their donor information, larger sums are washed through their accounts to enable illegal campaign contributions.

Several Attorneys General from Republican states have opened up investigations, and now Mark Block, a Republican who discovered that his identity was used to launder campaign contributions to Kamala Harris
once a marijuana-busting Caliphornia DA
, is suing ActBlue in Wisconsin. ActBlue was fighting discovery, and a judge just knocked them down.

For the first time, a Wisconsin court has approved a subpoena to the massive Democrat fund-raising platform ActBlue, saying it owes an explanation to a Republican whose email identity was used to make liberal donations he did not authorize.

"Something is not right," Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad D. Schimel declared as he approved a limited demand for documents and opened a new front into a widening fund-raising probe begun earlier this year by Congress and 19 attorneys general.

Schimel rejected ActBlue’s arguments that it was onerous to require it to comply a subpoena for third-party donations it processed on its platform. The judge permitted GOP consultant Mark Block and his lawyers from America First Policy Institute to conduct discovery to determine if fraud was involved in the use of his identity to make dozens of Democrat donations on his old email address.

"I get the argument that this is an assumption on plaintiff's part that the donations are fraudulent," the judge stated in a hearing Nov. 21. "There may be an element of fraud or maybe it is innocent. Plaintiff has set forth enough in their complaint and in support of their subpoena to demonstrate that there may be something here."

ActBlue is and always has been a money laundering operation, and once the investigations into its practices really get going we will see exactly how billions of dollars have gotten laundered into the coffers of Democratic Party campaigns.

Everybody has been stunned at the scale of Kamala Harris' spending and how outrageously inefficient the campaign was, but too few people have focused on how ridiculous it is to believe that Harris legally raised $1.4 billion in so little time. It boggles the mind, and more importantly, raises questions.

James Carville suggested an audit of the Harris campaign to figure out who exactly benefited, and in that I wholly agree. But the audit shouldn't be just of the spending, but of the money raised. Where, exactly, did it really come from? Were all the people who supposedly donated the real donors?

Ron Johnson, earlier this year, revealed how uninterested the FBI and federal government were interested in pursuing the smurfing issue, even if foreign actors are involved. They seem just fine with campaign finance fraud, at least considering who benefits.

This is not an idle concern. In fact, ActBlue uses a method of processing credit cards that explicitly allows for fraudulent contributions--not collecting CVV numbers (the security numbers on the back of the card). This allows a card to be dissociated from a person.

Processing cards this way is more expensive but allows for the anonymity of the card owner. A donor can use a gift card with no attached name and then input the name of anybody as the donor. That's how Mark Block wound up being an unwitting "donor" to Kamala Harris.

This practice goes back more than a decade, and everybody knows it. As with so much other political corruption, now is the time to shut it down and prosecute the fraudsters.

Link

Government Corruption

House formally subpoenas ActBlue as feds confirm suspicious activity tied to Democrat fundraising

2024-10-31

[JustTheNews] GOP lawmakers worried foreign adversaries like China, Iran, Venezuela and Russia are exploiting loopholes to route illicit foreign money to Democrat candidates.

House investigators formally subpoenaed the Democrat donations platform ActBlue in a rapidly expanding probe into possible illicit foreign funding in the 2024 election after the Treasury Department confirmed to Congress its money laundering detection system has generated hundreds of suspicious activity reports related to the online fund-raising giant.

The dramatic developments were communicated to House members and ActBlue itself in a series of memos this week obtained by Just the News that reaffirmed that lawmakers fear foreign adversaries like China, Iran, Venezuela and Russia may be routing illicit foreign money into Democratic coffers by using the names of unsuspecting American donors.

"Although Treasury has not yet produced any records, it is currently reviewing hundreds of potentially responsive records according to three video conference calls between Committee and Treasury staff since the initial request," House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer wrote colleagues in a confidential memo Tuesday night.

Comer's committee, House Administration Committee Chairman Bryan Steil and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., recently requested access to suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by financial institutions concerning money flowing through ActBlue, and "Treasury revealed this is one of the largest records reviews it has conducted this Congress," according to the Comer letter obtained by Just the News and first reported by The New York Post.

As Comer's team awaited a review of the SARs, Steil's committee sent a subpoena Wednesday afternoon to ActBlue demanding the massive fund-raising platform turn over records on how it confirms donors' identities and endures no fraud or money laundering occurs with contributions going to Democratic candidates and groups.

"The Committee is compelling, via the attached subpoena, the production of documents and communications related to ActBlue’s donor verification policies and the potential for foreign actors, primarily from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China, to use ActBlue to launder illicit money into U.S. political campaigns," Steil wrote in the letter to ActBlue CEO Regina-Wallace Jones.

Steil said he was concerned about the fund-raising platform’s security practices after ActBlue disclosed to his committee last year that it did not require from donors on all transactions the credit card verification value (“CVV”) associated with the credit or debit card used by the contributor, a key protection against identity fraud and money laundering.

“You explained that your platform did not require contributors to provide their CVV when making an online contribution in all transactions,” he wrote.

Specifically, Steil's letter demanded that ActBlue turn over to his committee:

Any changes to ActBlue’s CVV verification policy since October 2023;

All documents relating to contributions ActBlue has processed via prepaid cards, including a breakdown of any contributions from cards originating outside the United States;

Any entities that ActBlue has deplatformed due to a decision “not to process” by any third-party payment processors or because the source of funding came from a foreign or sanctioned source;

All reports received from U.S. citizens alleging unauthorized or fraudulent donations made in their names.

Link

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