Tag Archives: Senator Chuck Grassley

Whoops! I Guess We Forgot About That!

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On Monday, Breitbart reported the following:

FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate admitted during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday that the FBI redacted any mention of audio recordings of Joe and Hunter Biden in a document shown last week to Republican lawmakers in which an FBI informant alleged the Bidens were involved in a bribery scheme around 2015 and 2016.

Under grilling from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Abbate confirmed: “What I will tell you with respect to the document, the document was redacted to protect the source.”

If you believe that the only motive was to protect the source, I have some oceanfront property I want to see you in Arizona.

The article notes:

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Monday revealed that the document, which was a transcript of an FBI interview with an informant, contained references to 17 alleged audio recordings — 15 with Hunter Biden and two with then-Vice President Joe Biden. However, Grassley said, when the document was made available to the House Oversight Committee last week under pressure from Republicans, the references to the audio recordings had been deleted.

…Abbate had at first tried to skirt the question, with Blackburn asking him several times to explain why the information was redacted.

After he finally responded, she told him.

I think it would be helpful when you came before us, if you were willing to answer the questions, it would help to remove the perception that the American people have — they see you do it everyday — and that is politicizing the FBI and using it against the American people who don’t happen to be named Biden, Clinton, or one of the elites.

Abbate also denied that the FBI was politicized, which Blackburn disagreed with.

“There are two very clear standards of justice in this country. We see it every single day. The American people see this every single day. They look at you and see a politicized entity that is weaponizing an agency of the federal government against the American people,” she told him.

Does anyone still trust the FBI?

Will There Be Consequences?

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We have watched for a number of years as the Department of Justice reacted differently to crimes according to the political alignment of the person who committed them. Unfortunately, we may be about to see that happen again.

On Tuesday, Townhall reported the following:

The Republican Majority on the House Oversight Committee announced it would be taking further action against the Biden FBI on Tuesday after the agency again refused to provide unclassified documents responsive to a committee subpoena regarding an alleged criminal bribery scheme between then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national.

In a statement, Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had informed his committee “that it will not provide the unclassified documents subpoenaed by the Committee,” defying the House’s oversight powers on a matter of significant interest to members of Congress and the American people.

“The FBI’s decision to stiff-arm Congress and hide this information from the American people is obstructionist and unacceptable,” Comer continued. “While I have a call scheduled with FBI Director Wray tomorrow to discuss his response further, the Committee has been clear in its intent to protect Congressional oversight authorities and will now be taking steps to hold the FBI Director in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a lawful subpoena,” he explained.

The article concludes:

As Katie reported previously on the FBI’s refusal to turn over the unclassified documents related to the whistleblower allegations that the agency had knowledge of this alleged criminal scheme between Biden during his time as VP and an unknown foreign national:

The document in question allegedly shows then Vice President Joe Biden taking bribe money in exchange for changes in U.S. foreign policy. Earlier this month a whistleblower, who is now protected under federal law, came forward with the bribery allegation in testimony to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley. 

The FBI missed a deadline to turn over the document two weeks ago and sent a letter justifying their belief Congress isn’t entitled to the information. 

“I can’t speak to the specific document. We are committed to working collaboratively with both committees but we also have to balance sources and methods and ongoing investigations,” Wray recently said during testimony on Capitol Hill. “I really can’t get into the specifics here.”

The only thing that I can conclude here is that Christopher Wray thinks that the consequences of not handing over the document will be less severe than the consequences of handing over the document. That simply adds fuel to the idea that the document is important. It also adds fuel to the idea that we are watching carefully orchestrated theater that will eventually remove President Biden from the 2024 presidential race.

The Fix Has Always Been In

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On Saturday, The New York Post posted an article about some of the connections between Hunter Biden’s lawyer and an attorney at the the Justice Department.

The article reports:

A top official at the U.S. Justice Department was a law partner with Hunter Biden’s attorney Chris Clark, raising serious concerns about potential conflicts of interest as the years-long federal probe into the president’s son has reportedly reached a critical stage.

Clark, a partner at New York-based firm Latham & Watkins, worked with Nicholas McQuaid on at least four different cases when he was also a partner at the practice, court records indicate.

The cases were high-stakes commercial litigation where the pair regularly defended clients facing multimillion-dollar lawsuits.

McQuaid was named acting head of the Justice Department’s criminal division on Jan 20, 2021 — the day President Biden was inaugurated.

Obviously that was simply an incredible coincidence.

The article continues:

McQuaid’s presence leading the Department of Justice’s criminal division raises questions about the extent of his involvement in the Hunter Biden probe — which both the White House and the DOJ have refused to answer.

“It’s yet another abject failure of accountability in a long list,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told The Post. “If Republicans retake a majority in the Senate, the department can expect additional pressure and process from me as chairman [of the Judiciary Committee ] and from my colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee. We’d be seeking information from dozens of individuals, and empowered by a committee majority — we’d no longer just be asking,”

Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson’s office said they had sent no less than five letters on “potential conflicts of interest at the Biden Justice Department. Including McQuaid.”

“Thus far DOJ refuses to provide responses to Sen. Johnson’s questions/requests,” a spokesman said.

The Senate has the responsibility of oversight of the Justice Department. It doesn’t sound as if transparency is the order of the day.

Fighting For Transparency

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On August 31, The Conservative Treehouse posted an screenshot of a memo Merrick Garland sent to DOJ and FBI employees reminding them of the restrictions involved when they talk to Congress. Coincidentally, the memo was written after several members of Congress had reported that they had been contacted by whistleblowers within the Department of Justice.

On September 1, Just the News reported that Senator Chuck Grassley has responded to that memo.

The article reports:

The Attorney General insisted the memo was not intended to discourage whistleblowers from reporting issues to Congress, but it came amid a string of whistleblower allegations from within the FBI both before and after the bureau raided former President Donald Trump’s estate.

“I write this letter to make clear to you that whistleblowers are the most patriotic people I know and they play an integral part in ensuring that inappropriate influences, political influence, and improper conduct within the Department and its components, such as the FBI, are exposed,” Grassley wrote. “Under your leadership, the Department and FBI have failed to be responsive to congressional oversight requests. Accordingly, it is often only because of whistleblowers that Congress and the American people are apprised of the type of wrongdoing that your memo seeks to protect against.”

“Even with your whistleblower caveats, and due to the timing of your memo, I remain concerned about the chilling effect it may have on whistleblowers who wish to approach Congress with information relating to fraud, waste, abuse, and gross mismanagement,” he concluded.

Congress is charged with oversight of the Department of Justice. It is becoming obvious that the current Department of Justice does not welcome that oversight.

 

FBI Whistleblowers Have Come Forward

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On Monday, The Epoch Times posted an article about fourteen whistleblowers who have come forward with information about the politicization of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The article reports:

Two months ago, Jordan (Representative Jim Jordan) said that six FBI whistleblowers approached the committee. Two came forward about a memo related to alleged violence and intimidation at school board meetings and four in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. In the Senate, meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in July that whistleblowers had come to his office to provide information, including disclosures relating to investigations into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

“It’s becoming a well-worn trail of agents who say this has got to stop, and thank goodness for them and that American people recognize it, and I believe they’re going to make a big change on Nov. 8,” Jordan said, referring to the midterm elections.

In June, Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray warning that several former FBI officials were coming forward, while alleging the agency is “purging” employees who have conservative views.

…Two months ago, Jordan said that six FBI whistleblowers approached the committee. Two came forward about a memo related to alleged violence and intimidation at school board meetings and four in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach. In the Senate, meanwhile, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in July that whistleblowers had come to his office to provide information, including disclosures relating to investigations into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.

“It’s becoming a well-worn trail of agents who say this has got to stop, and thank goodness for them and that American people recognize it, and I believe they’re going to make a big change on Nov. 8,” Jordan said, referring to the midterm elections.

I have said this before–do not count on a Republican wave in November. The media is already censoring conservative speech in preparation for that election, and there is no guarantee that the November election will not have the same sort of shenanigans that the 2020 election had. A number of states that have taken the time to audit the 2020 vote in detail have found major problems with the vote. Hopefully those problems will be fixed by November, but there are no guarantees. Unless we have an honest election, we can expect the corruption in the FBI to continue. There are no guarantees that it will not continue even if the Republicans take Congress. In the past our current Republican Congressional leadership has not shown that they have the courage to clean up the FBI. There is no reason to think that they will do it if they have the majority.

How The Truth Was Kept From Voters

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On Tuesday, The Patriot Daily Wire posted an article explaining how the FBI managed to keep the investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop from proceeding. The article includes some of the details about the obstacles currently preventing a thorough investigation of the contents of that laptop.

The article reports:

Several FBI whistleblowers say that the agency’s probe into Hunter Biden was internally sabotaged during the 2020 election in order to derail the investigation, after agents wrongfully deemed verified evidence as “disinformation” to ignore.

According to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), agents investigating Hunter “opened an assessment which was used by an FBI headquarters team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease,” adding that his office received “a significant number of protected communications from highly credible whistleblowers” regarding the investigation.

Grassley added that “verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation,” according to the Washington Examiner.

…The whistleblowers say investigators from FBI headquarters were “in communication with FBI agents responsible for the Hunter Biden information targeted by Mr. Auten’s assessment,” and that their findings on whether the claims were in fact disinformation were placed “in a restricted access sub-file” in September 2020, according to Grassley, who added that the disclosures “appear to indicate that there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation.”

Grassley summarized the new allegations in a Monday letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The Examiner notes that FBI agent Auten was involved in the Trump-Russia investigation, including interviewing Christopher Steele’s primary source, Igor Danchenko.

According to Grassley, the “volume and consistency” of the allegations regarding the handling of the Hunter Biden probe “substantiate their credibility.”

The article includes a copy of the letter mentioned above. Please follow the link to read the entire article. We still don’t (and probably never will) know the extent of the backroom deals that Hunter Biden has been (and possibly still is) involved in. Even if the case is allowed to proceed, it is doubtful that he will be seriously punished. We truly have a two-tiered justice system in America right now. If they continues, the country will not survive.

Will There Ever Be Accountability?

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On Thursday, The Western Journal posted an article about Hunter Biden’s laptop. I realize that many of us are tired of hearing about Hunter Biden’s laptop, but what about the national security issues involved and the obvious issue of child pornography that is allegedly on the laptop?

The article notes:

Following an exhaustive investigation led by Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a report titled “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns” was released in September 2020. A second report with additional findings followed two months later.

Because in today’s new world, information is only accepted to be true if Democrats, the legacy media and Big Tech say it is, the report was declared to be Russian disinformation and was immediately discredited.

One of the most glaring dismissals of the report came from the liberal Lawfare blog, whose assessment read: “Seven months into a crippling pandemic and with wildfires ablaze across the West Coast, the majority of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Commitee (HSGAC) has its attention focused squarely on the most pressing issues: five-year-old financial transactions by Joe Biden’s son and stray WhatsApp messages from Democratic lobbyists.”

Ridiculous?

Unlike the Biden administration’s focus on a bill to make lynching a federal hate crime in the midst of domestic and foreign turmoil when the last lynching in the U.S. occurred over 40 years ago, fair coverage of the Grassley-Johnson report and the New York Post’s censored reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop would have provided voters with relevant information that might have prevented President Joe Biden’s “victory” and the damage it has visited upon the country. But I digress.

The article notes:

Grassley displayed a portion of an August 2017 receipt for a $100,000 payment from CEFC to Wells Fargo Clearing Services. He emphasized the notation near the bottom of the page that read “further credit to OWASCO PC” and informed his fellow senators that Owasco was one of Hunter Biden’s companies.

This particular transaction was being made public for the first time. (Grassley said he and Johnson would release the full document.)

“There’s no middle man in this transaction,” the senator said. “This is $100,000 from what is effectively an arm of the communist Chinese government direct to Hunter Biden.”

Please follow the link to the article for further details. Evidently a large part of the American government is bought and paid for by the Chinese Communist Party.

More Politics Inside The Department Of Justice

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On Sunday, Zero Hedge reported that the Department of Justice has stated that it will not withdraw a controversial memo used to activate the FBI Counterterrorism Division to investigate parents voicing their opposition to a variety of topics – primarily mask and vaccine mandates, and teaching critical race theory. Very questionable people are streaming across our southern border, and the Department of Justice is worried about parents who oppose mask and vaccine mandates and critical race theory. That is not only unbelievable–it’s dangerous to the security of our nation.

The article reports:

This week, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) revealed the pre-Christmas response – stating:

“[I]n December we asked why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division was getting involved in parents expressing their concerns at school board meetings. Now, just to be crystal clear, there’s no excuse for real threats or acts of violence at school board meetings, but if there are such threats, these should be handled at the local level and the Attorney General should withdraw his memo that started this whole thing.

“Well, a couple days before Christmas, the Justice Department responded to us with just a one-page letter.

“In that letter, DOJ had nothing to say about why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division was involved in local school-board matters. DOJ just said, ‘We’re not going to withdraw the memo.’ So, the Feds may be keeping track of school board meetings—even if it creates a horrible chilling effect. And, of course the FBI looking over your shoulder would have a chilling effect. Next week the Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on domestic terrorism. I hope we’re going to be focusing on the serious threats facing our country—and I hope no one thinks the focus is on our nation’s parents.”

The article also notes:

According to a public statement by Grassley regarding the one-page letter:

“The Department of Justice owes the American people a better answer than just a one-page letter that says nothing about why the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division is involved in local school-board matters. Now more than ever, parents should be their kids’ strongest and best advocates. They have the God-given right to do so. And the Justice Department ought to be doing everything it can to protect that right, not scare them out of exercising that right. Attorney General Garland should withdraw his memo. And he should take Congress’s oversight, and concern for the rights of parents, more seriously.”

Saturday night I watched the movie “The Lives of Others.” It is a foreign film with subtitles about life in East Germany under the Stasi, East Germany’s secret police. The movie was made in 2006. It is on Amazon Prime. If you haven’t yet seen it, I strongly recommend it–it gives a glance into what life is like when justice is political.

Getting Serious About False Allegations Against Nominees

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Senator Chuck Grassley posted an article on his Senate web page that included a letter asking the Attorney General and the Director of the FBI about investigations into false charges made against Justice Kavanaugh.

Part of the letter states:

These criminal referrals were not made lightly.  In each of the aforementioned cases, the referred individual(s) made false allegations against then-Judge Kavanaugh.  These allegations were taken seriously and carefully investigated by Committee staff, resulting in the diversion of significant resources.
    1. The first referral, dated September 29, 2018, relates to a false allegation made by an individual who told the Committee that he had direct knowledge that Judge Kavanaugh assaulted a close friend on a boat in the harbor at Newport, Rhode Island in 1985. [1]  After the Committee extensively questioned Judge Kavanaugh about the allegation, the individual recanted and apologized on social media for making the false allegation.
    1. The second referral, dated October 25, 2018, relates to false allegations made by Mr. Michael Avenatti and his client, Ms. Julie Swetnick.[2]  In a September 23, 2018, email to Committee staff, Mr. Avenatti stated that he and Ms. Swetnick were aware of evidence that during the 1980s, Judge Kavanaugh participated in the “targeting of women with alcohol/drugs in order to allow a ‘train’ of men to subsequently gang rape them.”[3]  Committee staff interviewed Judge Kavanaugh and ten other individuals in connection with these allegations, which were outlined in graphic detail in a sworn statement to the Committee purportedly written and signed by Ms. Swetnick.  After a thorough investigation, the Committee found no verifiable evidence to support any of the allegations made in the declaration.  The Committee also found that both Mr. Avenatti and Ms. Swetnick had a long history of credibility issues and may have criminally conspired to mislead the Committee and obstruct its investigation.
    1. The third referral, dated October 26, 2018, relates to evidence that Mr. Avenatti falsified a sworn statement to the Committee in order to provide support for Ms. Swetnick’s unfounded allegations.[4]  The sworn statement by an unknown declarant claimed that Judge Kavanaugh had spiked the punch at house parties with Quaaludes and/or grain alcohol in order to make “girls more likely to engage in sexual acts and less likely to say ‘No.’”[5]  NBC News later reported on a series of contacts with the purported declarant, who stated that she had denied the key allegations in the declaration both before and after the statement was publicly released and that Mr. Avenatti had “twisted [her] words.”[6]
    1. The fourth referral, dated November 2, 2018, relates to allegations made by Ms. Judy Munro-Leighton.[7]  On October 3, 2018, Committee staff received an email from Ms. Munro-Leighton stating that she was the author of an unsigned letter containing highly graphic sexual-assault accusations against Judge Kavanaugh previously received by the office of Senator Kamala Harris.  Ms. Munro-Leighton included the text of the letter in her e-mail to the Committee, claiming that Judge Kavanaugh and a friend had raped her “several times each” in the back seat of a car.[8]  When Committee staff interviewed Ms. Munro-Leighton, she admitted that she falsely identified herself as the author of the letter and its allegations and had only claimed authorship “as a way to grab attention.”[9]  When asked by Committee investigators if she had ever met Judge Kavanaugh, she said:  “Oh Lord, no.”[10]

The letter continues:

As the Committee stressed in each of the referrals issued during and after the investigation into allegations against then-Judge Kavanaugh, investigations in support of the judicial nomination process are an essential part of the constitutional role in confirming judges.  As Committee members, we are grateful to citizens who come forward with relevant information in good faith, even if they are not entirely sure about the accuracy of that information.  But, when individuals intentionally mislead the Committee, they divert important Committee resources during time-sensitive investigations and materially impede its work. Such acts are not only unfair; they are potentially illegal.  It is illegal to make materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements to Congressional investigators.  It is illegal to obstruct Committee investigations.
It is important to protect the constitutional process from being hijacked by bad actors involved in insidious partisan operations.  The Committee can bring bad actors to the attention of law enforcement and the American people by being as transparent as possible about its investigative findings.  However, it is up to the FBI and the Justice Department to hold those who mislead Congress accountable for the criminal aspects of their behavior.  The DOJ has not shied away from selectively filing charges against individuals for alleged violations of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1001 in the past.  Martha Stewart, former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, and ex-Presidential aide Scooter Libby are just a few individuals who have been charged with lying to federal investigators.[11]  Lying to Congress is and should be treated as an equally serious offense.
The next Supreme Court nominee should not have to defend himself or herself against baseless and fabricated allegations, and Committee staff should not have to spend valuable time investigating them.
Accordingly, please respond to the following no later than October 21, 2019:
    1. For each criminal referral made by the Committee to the FBI, did the FBI open a criminal investigation?  If so, which investigation(s) resulted in a referral to the Justice Department for prosecution?  If not, why not?
    1. For each case that was referred to the Justice Department for prosecution, which cases were rejected and which were accepted for prosecution? 

It will be interesting to see if there is any response to this letter.