July 9, 2020
Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.
Will the Justice Department prosecute anybody for Spygate? Better now than later. Here’s why.
Voters need to know how and why the Obama-Biden administration
was spying on its political opponents, the opposition party, the Trump
campaign, in the days before the election on false charges of being foreign
agents, and why the investigation was secretly carried over into the Trump
administration afterward on the most specious of grounds. This is not merely a
sad state of affairs with a two-tiered justice system, one for Republicans and
another for Democrats that makes untouchable. This a mortal danger to our
constitutional republic and the two-party system and appears the tip of the
spear in a bid for one-party rule and to deny the American people their choice from
2016. The peaceful transfer of power was anything but. If there is no
accountability now, these false charges against political opponents will happen
again — only it will be worse next time.
Video: Kanye West for President? Former Bush admin support of Biden. ALG President Rick Manning reacts!
It may well be a publicity stunt, but hip-hop star Kanye West
could be running for president. Is it something that could work out for him?
Also, what is with these former Bush admin members coming out against Trump?
Hear what Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning has to say.
Video: Daily COVID-19 cases and deaths are down two-thirds since April, so why is the media lying about it?
COVID-19 peaked in late March at almost 250,000 new cases a day
and in April with more than 2,200 deaths a day and have both fallen by
two-thirds to 79,000 estimated new cases a day and 700 deaths day. But
mainstream news outlets want you to think that the pandemic is worst than ever with
“record” numbers of cases. It’s just more fake news.
If China is our greatest information and IP threat, why are U.S. private pensions still investing in it?
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning: “Yesterday,
FBI Director Christopher Wray called China’s counter-intelligence and economic
espionage, ‘The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and
intellectual property’ of our nation, a statement which was tweeted out by
former CIA Director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Given this, why
are U.S. private pension funds still investing in Chinese assets? The U.S. Labor Department has a legal
responsibility under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to
make certain that pension funds are only invested in fiduciarily sound
investments. What most people don’t know, perhaps the Labor Department included,
is that in 2013 the Obama-Biden administration issued a Memorandum of
Understanding waiving the transparency requirements that U.S. companies must
comply with to be traded on the stock exchanges for Chinese companies and
bonds. This fact alone makes every
Chinese asset that does not have annual audits and open books to be unsuitable
for U.S. private pension fund investment.
What’s more, ten days ago, the Pentagon named twenty Chinese companies
as owned and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. These companies, which
include Huawei and China Telecomm are little more than Chinese spy agency
extensions and yet, the Labor Department is ignoring their responsibility to
require the divestment of the pensions of millions of Americans’ pensions from
these dangerous firms.”
Will the Justice Department prosecute anybody for Spygate? Better now than later. Here’s why.
By Robert Romano
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is concerned that Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham will not bring any prosecutions against members of either the Justice Department or intelligence agencies for spying on the Trump campaign, transition and administration in 2016 and 2017. The investigation falsely accused President Donald Trump and members of his campaign of being Russian agents until after the 2020 election so as to not unduly influence American politics.
Grassley wrote on Twitter, “IF NO PROSECUTIONS TIL AFTER ELECTIONS SAD SAD //just think Flynn Mueller Impeachment/ The deep state is so deep that [people] get away [with] political crimes/Durham [should] be producing some fruit of his labor…”
Grassley’s frustration is well placed. The Obama administration launched its investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016 and then secretly carried that investigation over into the Trump administration after the President was elected. Within months Special Counsel Robert Mueller was appointed, but it would not be until July 2019 that he would finally produce a report that found the central premise of the entire investigation was false.
In 2019 Mueller and his team reported, “[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” and “the evidence does not establish that the President was involved in an underlying crime related to Russian election interference.”
Afterward it took Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz six more months before his review of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation would be complete in Dec. 2019.
Surely, it contained bombshells, including the fact that the primary source used by former British spy Christopher Steele was not questioned by the FBI until Jan. 2017 after the dossier had been published by Buzzfeed, and then he contradicted Steele’s allegations about Trump being a Russian agent.
Also, the FBI knew Carter Page was a CIA agent reporting on Russians in Aug. 2016, but hid it from the FISA court in order to get the spying warrant against the Trump campaign.
Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein has since stated that had he known then what he knew now, he “would not” have renewed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants in 2017.
Astonishingly, none of these revelations were ever included in the Mueller report, nor did they cause Mueller to conclude and dismiss the investigation at a much earlier time.
Mueller’s delay is what makes today’s investigation and potential prosecutions now exceedingly problematic, especially now that we are into the heart of the 2020 election season. If prosecutions happen now they will be viewed politically.
But here’s why now may be better than later.
No matter when Barr and Durham bring charges, they will be viewed politically. Moreover, if they are brought after the election, in the event Trump loses, they will be leaving the Justice Department in precisely the same position the Obama Justice Department left it — with an ongoing major national security investigation into ostensible political opponents being carried over into the new administration.
One presumes former Vice President Joe Biden has already discounted such an investigation. Heck, he’s called on Barr to resign. While there was a lot of pressure on the Trump administration to allow the Justice Department and then Mueller to fully investigate Russian election interference, would the same thing really happen in a Biden administration? C’mon.
The American people are already losing faith in the justice system. Even when the Justice Department opts to dismiss the case against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals orders to the case to be dismissed, Judge Emmet Sullivan drags his heels.
It’s a two-tiered justice system, plain as day. One set of rules for Republicans complete with kangaroo courts and false charges, and another set of rules for Democrats that makes them all but untouchable. We elect presidents to faithfully execute the laws, and it can be said that President Trump did not really have the chance to hold these bad actors to account, and now he might never have that chance.
This is a level of corruption that must not be allowed to stand and must never happen again.
The American people have a right to know what happened in 2016, and to know it before they vote, precisely because it could prove determinative politically. Was the investigation into Trump by Obama-Biden well predicated or was it not?
If nothing else Durham should produce a report akin to the Mueller report that lays out the facts of what has been discovered based on grand jury testimony and other documents that have been discovered.
There is the possibility that the nation’s surveillance laws were not even violated, and that what took place was fully authorized because it occurred with the FISA court’s approval. If so, we need to know that so we can debate reforms now — while there’s an opportunity to hold candidates not only for President but critically Congress who also stand for election to account.
Voters need to know how and why the Obama-Biden administration was spying on its political opponents, the opposition party, the Trump campaign, in the days before the election on false charges of being foreign agents, and why the investigation was secretly carried over into the Trump administration afterward on the most specious of grounds.
This is not merely a sad state of affairs, as Sen. Grassley stated. This a mortal danger to our constitutional republic and the two-party system and appears the tip of the spear in a bid for one-party rule and to deny the American people their choice in 2016. The peaceful transfer of power was anything but. If there is no accountability now, these false charges against political opponents will happen again — only it will be worse next time.
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
To view online: http://dailytorch.com/2020/07/will-the-justice-department-prosecute-anybody-for-spygate-better-now-than-later-heres-why/
Video: Kanye West for President? Former Bush admin support of Biden. ALG President Rick Manning reacts!
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kotBag9Ebw4
Video: Daily COVID-19 cases and deaths are down two-thirds since April, so why is the media lying about it?
To view online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRlLSJeLYCU&feature=youtu.be
If China is our greatest information and IP threat, why are U.S. private pensions still investing in it?
July 8, 2020, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement urging the Department of Labor to block U.S. private pension plans from investing in China after FBI Director Christopher Wray called China “The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property”:
“Yesterday, FBI Director Christopher Wray called China’s counter-intelligence and economic espionage, ‘The greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property’ of our nation, a statement which was tweeted out by former CIA Director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“Given this, why are U.S. private pension funds still investing in Chinese assets? The U.S. Labor Department has a legal responsibility under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to make certain that pension funds are only invested in fiduciarily sound investments. What most people don’t know, perhaps the Labor Department included, is that in 2013 the Obama-Biden administration issued a Memorandum of Understanding waiving the transparency requirements that U.S. companies must comply with to be traded on the stock exchanges for Chinese companies and bonds. This fact alone makes every Chinese asset that does not have annual audits and open books to be unsuitable for U.S. private pension fund investment. What’s more, ten days ago, the Pentagon named twenty Chinese companies as owned and controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. These companies, which include Huawei and China Telecomm are little more than Chinese spy agency extensions and yet, the Labor Department is ignoring their responsibility to require the divestment of the pensions of millions of Americans’ pensions from these dangerous firms.
“In May, the Senate acted to require transparency for Chinese firms listed on American exchanges, and hopefully that becomes law, but right now the Labor Department is seeking comments on a regulation defining the suitability of certain investments for private pension portfolios, and the simple addition requiring pension investment assets to be subject to the same transparency requirements that every U.S. investment must meet, is a bare minimum standard. The Labor Department has been doing yeoman’s work on many issues and indeed the regulation defining suitable pension investments is a needed and welcome change, but it would be a shame if my good friends at Labor didn’t take this opportunity to join with the Senate, the Secretary of State, FBI Director and the President by specifically amending the suitable investment language to include a requirement that basic transparency requirements be followed.
“It is time for American pensions to stop capitalizing Chinese companies seeking to destroy us, and forcing transparency in pension investments will effectively end our nation’s private pensioners from providing the money needed for China to continue its long war against the United States of America.”
To view online: https://getliberty.org/2020/07/if-china-is-our-greatest-information-and-ip-threat-why-are-u-s-private-pensions-still-investing-in-it/
