Tag: Justice Department

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Elections Justice Department The Trump Adminstration WTF?!

Trump DOJ Official Said China Used ‘Special Thermometers’ To Alter The 2020 Vote Count

It’s safe to say that most of us have never heard of Jeffrey Clark, who served at the Justice Department during the Trump administration, but it seems that Clark was the one DOJ official intent on helping the failed, one-term former president successfully overturn the results of the 2020 election by pressuring states to alter their ballot totals.

CNN reports that Clark — who worked at Justice as head of environmental law — used “backchannel efforts” between the White House and Trump’s allies who were also involved in trying to change the results of the election.

Clark had an especially bizarre theory to explain why Trump had lost to Joe Biden in states such as Arizona and Georgia:

“By late December, as Trump and his allies pushed conspiracies about alleged irregularities that he claimed stole the election from him, Clark told senior Justice officials that he knew of sensitive information that indicated Chinese intelligence used special kinds of thermometers to change results in machines tallying votes, people briefed on the matter said. The Justice Department by then had made clear it found no evidence of vote-changing in the election.”

However, when then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe briefed members of the DOJ (including Clark), it soon became clear that U.S. intelligence agencies had absolutely no proof of any “Chinese thermometers” as Clark had alleged:

“At Rosen’s request, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe provided the briefing, which drew on classified findings not yet public that showed there was no evidence that foreign interference had affected vote tallies. Rosen and other officials had acceded to his request for a classified briefing out of belief it could put a stop to his unfounded claims of election fraud, according to some of the sources.

“Clark wasn’t swayed by what he heard from Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist who had stirred controversy with comments seeking to support Trump’s pre-election foreign interference claims that China and Iran were working to elect Joe Biden just as Russia was trying to support Trump.”

Clark will probably be called to testify before congressional committees investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the election, but it remains unclear if he will obey a subpoena and also if Trump will claim executive privilege to keep Clark from giving testimony. That alone suggests that Clark may have played a major role and has information that would directly implicate Trump or then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, both of whom are believed to have possibly broken federal law with their actions to help Trump remain in office.

Whether or not Clark does testify, he should be investigated fully by the current DOJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland and if he broke any laws, he should be charged and prosecuted for his crimes. The same holds true for Trump, Meadows, and anyone else who tried to carry out a coup that would have given Trump a stolen second term in office.

 

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Congress Domestic Terrorism GOP GOP Whining Justice Department

Gaetz Says He’s Afraid The Jan. 6 Commission Will Make Criminal Referrals To DOJ

During an appearance on Newsmax, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) sounded incredibly worried what the House Select Committee on the January 6 Capitol insurrection will find that might result in criminal charges being brought against GOP members of Congress.

Gaetz said he believes the real purpose of the committee is to gather evidence for criminal referrals to the Justice Department:

“I think the entire purpose of the Jan. 6 committee is to create a series of criminal referrals to the Biden Justice Department. And I think [House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy is the lead target, unfortunately.”

While he was at it, Gaetz also said he believes that McCarthy should remove Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) from the committees they serve on now that they’ve agreed to be members of the 1/6 panel.

However, Gaetz then circled back to the idea of criminal referrals to the DOJ, as if laying the groundwork for charges that may be forthcoming against him and others in the GOP:

“I really do believe that the end goal of the Jan. 6 committee is to create a series of criminal referrals. And remember during the Russia hoax, a lot of the criminal process occurred not as a result of any underlying federal criminal law but instead as a result of these process crimes.

“Kevin McCarthy better hope he never deleted an email or forwarded something to where it wasn’t saved,. Otherwise, there’s going to be an effort to use process crimes to try to jam up the Republican leadership.”

What Gaetz neglected to say is that so-called “process crimes” are still crimes and should be treated as such. Maybe they aren’t as serious as allegedly being involved in the sexual trafficking of a minor, but then again few things are as disgusting as what Gaetz is accused of doing with young girls over the years.

If none of the Republicans did anything wrong in connection with the Capitol riots, why do they sound so worried about getting to the truth? It’s almost as if they have something to hide.

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Crime Domestic Terrorism Elections Justice Department Sedition

DOJ Issues New Criminal Conspiracy Charges Against Capitol Insurrectionists

The wait is over for some of the people who participated in the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol which resulted in the deaths of five people, including a member of the Capitol Police Force.

CNN reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has begun handing down more criminal conspiracy charges against members of the group known as the Oath Keepers:

“The Justice Department has added four new defendants to the federal criminal conspiracy case against Oath Keepers who allegedly prepared for and took part in the US Capitol riot, according to a new indictment made public in DC District Court on Sunday.

“The newly named Oath Keeper defendants are Joseph Hackett, who went by ‘Ahab,’ Jason Dolan, who went by ‘Turmoil,’ and William Isaacs, all from Florida. A fourth new defendant’s name and alleged actions are still redacted.”

All of the Oath Keeper defendants are accused of taking part in a criminal conspiracy and entering the restricted Capitol grounds:

 “Isaacs, for instance, allegedly yelled, ‘The fight’s not over’ once the Oath Keepers group had gotten inside the building, and he waved rioters down the hallway toward the Senate, according to the indictment.”

Additionally, five of the individuals already named as defendants are also facing charges of allegedly deleting their social media and cell phone activity, which could lead to them being convicted of obstruction of justice and other federal felonies.

The new court filings also lay out disturbing new details about how the Oath Keepers illegally attempted to smuggle weapons into Washington, D.C. for the Jan. 6 event:

“Department of Justice prosecutors were describing in court filings what else they’ve learned about the group’s so-called Quick Reaction Force, an effort to allegedly bring guns to a Northern Virginia Comfort Inn as backup for the siege.

“Previously, prosecutors had described how the Oath Keepers gathered and stashed weapons at the Comfort Inn, and how defendant Thomas Caldwell of Virginia allegedly had floated an idea of ferrying weapons across the Potomac River to assist with the Capitol siege.”

Before federal prosecutors are finished, many of the Oath Keeper defendants could well be facing charges that would put them in federal prison for the remained of their lives, a fitting punishment for anyone who dares to try and overthrow the elected representatives of the nation as they were going about their official duty of certifying the 2020 presidential election results.

Ironically, the Oath Keepers love to portray themselves as being devoted to the principle of defending the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” But they’re nothing more than terrorist punks who deserve to rot behind bars.

 

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Corruption Crime Donald Trump The Trump Adminstration

New Developments In The Case Against Rudy Suggest The DOJ Has Evidence Of Multiple Crimes

A little over two weeks ago, you probably recall, the FBI raided the home and office of Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, seizing his electronic devices and sending a clear message that the former New York City mayor is on the Justice Department’s radar screen in a major way.

There are reports federal prosecutors already have evidence that proves Giuliani illegally took money from foreign governments such as Russia and Ukraine. If they can prove that, Rudy is looking at spending a few years in federal prison, which at his age could conceivably be a death sentence.

Now, however, we know now that the DOJ is investigating Giuliani for other, more serious crimes which also trace back to his connections in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported that the feds are taking a long look at a dossier Giuliani had cooked up in an attempt to smear Joe Biden during the height of the 2020 election:

“In late 2019 during the Trump-Ukraine scandal, The New Yorker, which obtained a copy of the dossier, described one of its allegations as a byzantine conspiracy theory in which the U.S.-backed creation of NABU— Ukraine’s anti-corruption prosecutors—in 2014 was somehow a scheme concocted by Ambassador Yovanovitch and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent to prevent Ukraine from investigating the Bidens. In another allegation described by the magazine, the dossier casts right wing boogeyman and liberal philanthropist George Soros as the orchestrator of Yovanovitch’s appointment as U.S. ambassador in Kyiv.”

The dossier, however, did manage to make its rounds inside the Trump administration, where it was discussed and debated, then dismissed as worthless:

“According to one former Trump White House official, those in the White House who examined the pages and interview notes in 2019 almost across-the-board dubbed the research “amateurish” and unhelpful, with Trump officials discussing amongst themselves how they believed it was unlikely that anyone, foreign or American, would agree to pay Giuliani to produce this—if only because of the utterly shoddy nature of the work.”

The fact that none of those White House advisers reported Giuliani’s bogus dossier to the FBI or other law enforcement agency also places them in significant legal jeopardy. And it’s safe to assume they’ll be glad to sell out Rudy to save their own hides. Provided, that is, Giuliani doesn’t feed them to prosecutors first.

What a nasty mess Rudy and his pals have gotten themselves into. Here’s hoping they all go to prison for a very long time.

 

Categories
Elections Justice Department

The Justice Department Is Forcing The Arizona GOP To Abandon The Next Step Of Their Election ‘Audit’

Republicans in the Arizona Senate have decided to abandon the next phase of their “audit” of the 2020 election in the Grand Canyon State, and it appears they did so as a result of actions taken by the Department of Justice.

AZCentral reports:

“The Arizona Senate is dropping, for now, a controversial plan to go door-to-door to ask local residents about their voting history as part of its audit of Maricopa County’s election.

“The decision, which Senate President Karen Fann included in a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday, comes after federal officials raised concerns that the canvassing could violate civil rights laws aimed to prevent voter intimidation.”

This is an encouraging sign, because it suggests that the DOJ will be actively involved in fighting against states that attempt to intimidate voters or restrict the rights of people to cast a ballot.

Specifically, the Justice Department wrote Fann and let her know that asking people how they voted is almost an intimidation tactic used to target minority communities.

In the letter, Pamela S. Karlan, principal deputy assistant attorney general in the department’s Civil Rights Division, wrote:

“Such investigative efforts can have a significant intimidating effect on qualified voters that can deter them from seeking to vote in the future.”

Arizona Republicans have also suggested that the 2020 election was rigged in their state by using ballots flown in from Asia. John Brakey, a Tucson activist involved in the audit, remarked:

“There’s accusations that 40,000 ballots were flown in and stuffed into the box and it came from the Southeast part of the world, Asia. And what they’re doing is to find out if there’s bamboo in the paper.”

 

The DOJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland is keeping their pledge to preserve, protect, and defend the U.S. Constitution,