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Holder Misled Congress on Pursuit of Reporters’ Records

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holder_congressThe Justice Department’s acknowledgement that Attorney General Eric Holder was involved in the decision to seek a Fox News reporter’s emails is raising questions about whether Holder misled Congress when he testified on the investigation two weeks ago.

Appearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Holder insisted that “the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material” is not something he was involved in or knew about.

But the Justice Department obtained access to the emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen only after filing an affidavit that accused him of being a likely criminal “co-conspirator” in the leak of sensitive material regarding North Korea.

Rosen was never charged, and never prosecuted. But he was effectively accused of violating the federal Espionage Act, in the course of seeking the search warrant for his files.

J. Christian Adams, a former Justice Department attorney who in recent years has emerged as a prominent conservative critic of his former employer, said Tuesday that Holder seems to have misled Congress.

“Holder said it’s not something I’m involved with, don’t know anything about it — he lied on both counts,” Adams told Fox News.

Holder addressed the matter during a House hearing two weeks ago, under questioning by Democratic Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson. Johnson voiced concern that the Espionage Act of 1917 allows the prosecution of anyone who discloses classified information.

He said: “But we certainly need to protect the privacy of individuals, and we need to protect the ability … of the press to engage in its First Amendment responsibilities to be free and to give us information about our government so as to keep the people informed.”

Holder answered: “Well, I would say this. With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that I’ve ever been involved in, heard of or would think would be a wise policy. In fact, my view is quite the opposite.”

At the time, Johnson was referencing reports that the Justice Department secretly obtained the phone records of Associated Press journalists.

A few days later, it would emerge that the Justice Department in 2010 also sought the private emails from Rosen’s account, as part of a case against accused leaker Stephen Jin-Woo Kim. An FBI agent cited the Espionage Act in seeking those documents.

And on Friday, the Justice Department acknowledged that Holder was looped in on the decision-making in that case.

“The Department takes seriously the First Amendment right to freedom of the press. In recognition of this, the Department took great care in deciding that a search warrant was necessary in the Kim matter, vetting the decision at the highest levels of the Department, including discussions with the Attorney General,” the department said.

Jesselyn Radack, an attorney who works with the Government Accountability Project and has represented accused leakers, told FoxNews.com that Holder’s statement to the House committee was “at best hypocritical and at worst perjury.”

Holder, though, could argue that, in fact, Rosen was never prosecuted — and so his testimony was not misleading.

A federal law enforcement official said last week that the department had to establish probable cause in the affidavit in order to obtain the search warrant, per the terms of the Privacy Protection Act.

“Saying that there is probable cause to believe that someone has committed a crime and actually charging the person with that crime are two very different things,” the official said. “No reporter has been charged in this case.  And, at this time, we do not anticipate bringing additional charges against anyone in this matter.”

Karl Rove, former adviser to George W. Bush and a Fox News analyst, argued in a FoxNews.com opinion piece last week that, at the least, Holder has “a lot of explaining to do to Congress.”

Meanwhile, there are conflicting accounts involving a Justice Department claim that it notified Fox News’ parent company News Corp. of the investigation. Lawrence “Lon” Jacobs, News Corp.’s general counsel at the time, said they never got the apparent fax from the Justice Department that contained the information about Rosen.

“If the Justice Department wanted Fox to be advised, I think they would have sent the notification to Fox News not News Corp.,” he said. “I don’t know what fax number it went to but if it was faxed to my office it would have been received by my assistant and she would have notified me.”

He said he would have notified Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes had he received it.

Published May 28, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Lawmakers facing recall bids over strict gun laws in Colorado

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Daniel WhiteCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. –  A Democratic campaign office here usually would be quiet this time of year, a few weeks after the state’s legislature wrapped up work and lawmakers headed off to summer vacations.

But even though it’s not an election year, the office is in full campaign mode, with volunteers working the phones and reviewing maps in anticipation of a new front of modern campaigning — the recall phase.

A handful of Democratic state lawmakers in Colorado face recall petition efforts in what looks to be the first wave of fallout over legislative votes to limit gun rights. In an era in which recall efforts are booming, from governor’s offices down to town councils and school boards, the Colorado efforts will serve as the first test of gun-rights groups’ ability to punish elected officials who expanded gun control laws after last year’s Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., shooting massacres.

In Colorado, gun-rights activists wasted no time seeking recalls to oust state Senate President John Morse and three other Democratic lawmakers. The targeted lawmakers weren’t necessarily the main advocates for ratcheting back gun rights, but all come from districts with enough Republicans to give opponents hope they can boot out the Democrats and replace them with lawmakers friendlier to guns. Colorado is the only state outside the East Coast to have adopted significant statewide gun controls this year.

“Colorado seems to be the testing ground for some of the gun measures, so this has national implications,” said Victor Head, a plumber from Pueblo who is organizing a recall attempt against a Democratic senator.

Two of four recall efforts in Colorado already have evaporated from lack of support. But in Colorado Springs, Morse opponents are piling up signatures in gun shops and outside libraries and grocery stores. The National Rifle Association sent a political mailer saying it was coordinating the recall effort with local groups, though the local recall petitioners have denied that. The NRA did not return calls for comment on their involvement in the Colorado Springs effort.

Morse has mounted a campaign to urge voters not to sign petitions. In an indication of the national stakes, that push is largely funded by a $20,000 contribution from a national progressive group called America Votes. The Morse campaign said the donation came through the group’s local Colorado office.

The recall group’s main funding comes from a $14,000 contribution from a nonprofit run by a local conservative consultant, Laura Carno. She said that contribution was made possible by some out-of-state donors.

“People in other states that are further down this road, like New York and Massachusetts, are calling up and saying `What can we do to help?”‘ Carno said. “This isn’t what Colorado stands for.”

In an interview, Morse seemed resigned to facing a recall vote after signatures are verified. He believes national gun-rights supporters are using his district to make a national statement about the political peril officials face if they take on gun control.

“That’s what’s going on here. They want to take out the Senate president,” Morse said.

The organizer of the Morse recall effort, Anthony Garcia, didn’t disagree. Garcia doesn’t live in Morse’s district but in the northern Colorado town of Brighton. Garcia said Morse was targeted not just because of his votes for gun control but because he’s a prominent Democrat from a competitive district.

“It’s as much about saying Colorado is angry as it is about getting one guy out,” Garcia said. “Legislators need to know when citizens are outraged that they can’t ignore the people.”

Immediate accountability seems to be a common thread in recall attempts, said Joshua Spivak, who tracks recall elections nationwide at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College in New York. Technology makes it easier to organize, Spivak said, and modern-day voters watching political activity in real time on Twitter and TV aren’t content to wait until another election to show their displeasure when they feel ignored.

Spivak said at least 169 officials at all levels of government faced recalls last year, up from 151 the year before. The number this year could go even higher, he said.

Technology isn’t the only explanation.

“The other reason,” Spivak said, “is that they succeed.”

Most recalls actually fail, as in the case last year of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who survived a recall election after attacking collective bargaining rights for state employees. But compared with re-election campaigns, when incumbents face up to 75 percent likelihood of winning, Spivak said recall elections have a much lower rate of success for incumbents.

In Colorado last year, seven recall efforts made it to ballots, all local races, Spivak said. Of those seven, two officials were ousted and two more resigned.

Nationwide, 108 recalled officials last year lost or left office after a recall. That makes the recall a powerful tool — and one likely to be used more often, Spivak said.

Back in Colorado Springs, a couple of Morse opponents defended the recall attempt as the best way for citizens to keep their representatives accountable.

“I believe in gun rights. And he didn’t listen. He’s supposed to represent the people, and when he doesn’t do that, what are supposed to do? Nothing?” asked Bianca McCarl, a 40-year-old merchandiser who is supporting Morse’s recall.

Assuming the Morse recall goes to ballots, with an election to be held by late summer, the incumbent holds a slight party registration advantage in the district. He believes most voters liked his gun votes.

He’s counting on the support from voters like Joan Muir, a retiree who placed a pro-Morse sticker on her car bumper after seeing other cars carrying messages calling for his ouster. In an interview, Muir said she was dismayed by the recall campaign.

“I live here. I’m for gun control,” Muri said. “I don’t care for guns, period, so they don’t speak for all of us when they say Morse didn’t listen to the people.”

Published May 28, 2013 / Associated Press

Mormon Mom Jailed in Mexico after Aunt’s Funeral

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mormon_mother_mexicoAn LDS husband and wife from Goodyear, AZ (Phoenix) traveled to Mexico last week on a chartered bus to attend her aunt’s funeral.

During the return trip the bus was was stopped at a military checkpoint near Hermosillo on Wednesday, and Mexican military personnel ordered all of the passengers out of the bus. After two hours of waiting, Yanira Maldonado was informed by authorities that they found marijuana tucked under the seat assigned to her. She was taken into custody for smuggling drugs, and hauled away to a Mexican jail to await arraignment before a judge this morning.

Family member Brandon Klippel said Gary and Yanira Maldonado were the only U.S. citizens on the bus – and if drugs were truly found on board, they were already there when the couple sat down.

“You hear all of these horror stories about Mexico and you think it’s just something in the movies, right?” said Klippel. “You don’t believe it’s something that could happen to someone you know. But, when it happens to your brother and your sister – it’s hard, it’s tough to take.”

The Mormon couple, with seven children and two grandchildren between them, became quite frantic when officials first told Mr. Maldonado that the drugs were found under his seat, and placed him under arrest. After arresting Gary Maldonado, Mexican officials said they’d made a mistake – that the marijuana was actually found beneath Yanira Maldonado’s seat and an empty seat next to her’s.

The couple’s 21-year-old daughter, Anna Soto, said, “If you would’ve known my mom, if you would’ve met her – you would know she had nothing to do with it.”

Mr. Maldonado tried desperately to get his wife freed, and hired a local attorney to represent her. Brandon Klippel reports, “His attorney had talked to the prosecuting attorney there and came back to him and said, ‘You know how it works in Mexico, right? He said, ‘no I don’t.’ He [attorney] said, ‘well, if we bribe the judge – then he’ll let you go.'”

Klippel said after Gary Maldonado frantically scraped together $5,000 to free his wife Thursday, he was told it was too late–apparently, news of the arrest had focused too much attention on the case to allow for the customary bribes to judges.

Yanira Maldonado has been transferred to a holding facility in Nogales.

“When he [Gary] got there they said, ‘we don’t have any record of her at all,'” said Klippel. “He panicked. He told me terror struck him. And he thought, for that period of time, that he’d never see his wife again.”

“Yanira saw me from a distance and she just started like jumping up and down and gave me a big hug and we just cried,” said Gary Maldonado, who was finally able to visit with his wife on the morning of their wedding anniversary.

Klippel said the reunion was a major relief for the couple – especially after what Yanira had been through in the past 24 hours.

“She had a rough night,” he said. “Their interrogation included putting her in a non-air-conditioned room and waking her up several times in the middle of night – trying to get her to sign documents that she said she couldn’t read.”

He said Yanira Maldonado maintains her innocence and believes those documents were probably admission of guilt statements.

“In Mexico, I guess you’re guilty until proven innocent,” said Klippel. “So, it’s just been a real nightmare for them.”

Klippel said the Mexican Consulate is working this case and that Sen. Jeff Flake is in contact with the family, in an effort to bring Yanira Maldonado home.

Typically, a defendant in Mexico has 72 hours after the arraignment that to prove her innocence–then she’s in for the long haul.

Gary Maldonado said they have a woman and her son who can testify they saw the couple enter the bus without any packages – and, he’s hoping the charter bus company Tufesa will have surveillance video they can also use as evidence.

Senator Flake’s office is waiting to hear back from the Mexican Consulate and the U.S. Embassy’s Office and released a statement in the case, “Senator Flake is personally monitoring the situation and he has had multiple conversations with the deputy Mexican ambassador.”

Federalist Press recommends that readers call their senator or representative and demand that this American mother and wife be released immediately.

A Facebook page has been set up to support Yanira Maldonado

PUBLIUS

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The “Mormon Effect”

Dem Unions Split from President on ObamaCare

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Obamacare_UnionsLabor unions that have solidly backed President Obama are splitting with him over ObamaCare — with one calling for the “repeal or complete reform” of the president’s signature health-care law.

Union leaders argue insurance costs for millions of workers will increase under the president’s health-care plan so they might have to drop their existing plan, despite Obama promising the opposite.

Their primary concern is the multi-employer or so-called Taft-Hartley plans that cover unionized workers in retail, construction, transportation and other industries that frequently use seasonal and temporary employment.

The union leaders say the roughly 20 million people covered by the plans will likely have higher premiums because the Affordable Care Act does not include tax subsidies for them.

However, workers seeking coverage in the upcoming, state-based marketplaces for insurance, known as exchanges, can qualify for subsidies.

Union leaders are now hearkening back to what Obama repeatedly said starting in 2009: “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”

Joe Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, wrote in a recent op-ed that that scenario “is not going to be true for millions of workers now” and the realization “makes an untruth out of what the president said.”

The plans are jointly administered by unions and smaller employers that pool resources to offer continuous coverage, even during periods of unemployment.

The union plans were already more costly to run than traditional single-employer health plans. And the Affordable Care Act only added to the cost by mandating essentially all plans cover dependents up to age 26, eliminate annual or lifetime coverage limits and extend coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.

“We’re concerned that employers will be increasingly tempted to drop coverage through our plans and let our members fend for themselves on the health exchanges,” said David Treanor, director of health care initiatives at the Operating Engineers union.

Other unions expressing their concerns include the hotel workers union UNITE HERE, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, according to The Hill newspaper.

They are joined in such concerns by at least two congressional Democrats, House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer, Maryland, and retiring Montana Sen. Max Baucus.

Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, recently said implementing the law could be a “train wreck.”

The bulk of the law is scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2014.

Bob Laszewski, a health care industry consultant, said the real fear among unions is that many labor contracts are already very expensive and now employers are going to have an alternative to very expensive labor health benefits.

“If the workers can get benefits that are as good through ObamaCare in the exchanges, then why do you need the union?” Laszewski said. “In my mind, what the unions are fearing is that workers for the first time can get very good health benefits for a subsidized cost someplace other than the employer.”

However, Laszewski said it was unlikely employers would drop the union plans immediately because they are subject to ongoing collective bargaining agreements.

Labor unions have been among the president’s closest allies, spending millions of dollars to help him win re-election and help Democrats keep their majority in the Senate. The wrangling over health care comes as the 2014 elections near and union membership steadily declines amid attacks on public employee unions in state legislatures in Wisconsin and elsewhere across the country.

Union officials have been working with the administration for more than a year to try to get a regulatory fix that would allow low-income workers in their plans to receive subsidies. But after months of negotiations, labor leaders say they have been told it won’t happen.

A Treasury Department spokeswoman declined to discuss the specifics of negotiations but said the law helps bring down costs and improve quality of care.

In addition, union officials also reportedly met privately this month with Senate Democratic leaders to discuss the issue.

Unions say their health care plans in many cases offer better coverage with broader doctors’ networks and lower premiums than what would be available in the exchanges, particularly when it comes to part-time workers.

Unions backed the health care legislation because they expected it to curb inflation in health coverage, reduce the number of uninsured Americans and level the playing field for companies that were already providing quality benefits. While unions knew there were lingering issues after the law passed, they believed those could be fixed through rulemaking.

“In the rush to achieve its passage, many of the act’s provisions were not fully conceived, resulting in unintended consequences that are inconsistent with the promise that those who were satisfied with their employer-sponsored coverage could keep it,” Kinsey Robinson, president of the United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers, said last month. “I am therefore calling for repeal or complete reform of the Affordable Care Act.”

Published May 25, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Two Arrested as London Muslim Terror Probe Expands

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london_terror_attackBritish police have made two further arrests and searched multiple properties as they widened their investigation into Wednesday’s fatal hacking to death of a British soldier in broad daylight on a busy London street by two Muslim terrorists.

Read yesterday’s story of the brutal attack

The two arrests, of a man and a woman — both 29 — on suspicion of conspiracy to murder, raises the possibility that the gruesome attack was not a so-called “lone wolf” killing as once thought.  Earlier it had been reported that the attackers were known to both UK authorities and a radical jihadist group well before the shocking attack that has stunned the United Kingdom and risked inflaming tensions between communities.

The two men, who were captured on cellphone video covered in blood and spouting jihadist rhetoric moments after the attack, have not yet been named, although Scotland Yard confirmed that they remained hospitalized in stable condition after being shot by armed police at the scene. But the killers, who wielded a machete and a cleaver and were dubbed “sickening individuals” by an incensed Prime Minister David Cameron, were already on the radar of security services, according to the BBC.

And Anjem Choudary, the leader of radical Islamist organization al-Muhajiroun — a group banned under anti-terrorism laws in the UK — has told Reuters that he knows one of the reported suspects. Michael Adebolajo, named by the BBC as one of the attackers, attended a number of the organization’s demonstrations, lectures and activities according to Choudary, although he claimed not to have seen him for about two years.

Reuters reported that the two men were British citizens of Nigerian descent. Police in Lincolnshire, in eastern England, said a property was being searched in connection to the attack, and that a search warrant had been obtained but would not provide details about the search.

The Ministry of Defense has named the slain soldier as 25-year-old Drummer Lee Rigby, of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

In a statement made outside his Downing Street office after having chaired a meeting of the British government’s COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A) emergency committee, British Prime Minister David Cameron refused to comment about whether security forces had prior knowledge of the suspects. However, he firmly condemned the attack in Churchillian terms, stating: “We will never give in to terror, or terrorism, in any of its forms.”

Additionally, the Conservative Prime Minister emphasized that “there is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act,” and that the fault lay solely with the attackers. He also noted that more Muslim lives have been lost in terrorist acts than any other religion.

President Obama, in a statement Thursday afternoon, condemned the attack in strong terms, and reaffirmed the relationship between the US and the UK, stating: “The United States stands resolute with the United Kingdom, our ally and friend, against violent extremism and terror.”

Prime Minister Cameron also praised the bravery of Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, a cub scout leader and mother of two, who got off a bus and tried to reason with the attackers after she tried to help the victim lying on the street.

The 48-year-old tried to keep talking to the two attackers before police arrived at the scene near the Royal Artillery Barracks in the neighborhood of Woolwich.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Loyau-Kennett said that when one of the attackers told her that they wanted to start a war in London, she responded: “It is only you versus many people. You are going to lose.”

Saying she wanted to stop one of the suspects from attacking anyone else, she asked him if he “did it” and what he wanted.

Loyau-Kennett said she saw a crashed car and the victim lying on the street and tried to help him since she had been trained in first aid. She had determined the man was dead by the time the attackers confronted her.

She said “a black guy with a black hat and a revolver in one hand and a cleaver in the other came over” and excitedly warned her to stay away from the body.

“I asked him why he had done what he had done,” The Guardian quoted her as saying. “He said he had killed the man because he [the victim] was a British soldier who killed Muslim women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was furious about the British Army being over there.”

She told The Daily Telegraph that the suspected terrorist was “in full control of his decisions” and did not appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

When the man told him he was going to kill police when they arrived, she asked him if that was reasonable and tried to keep him engaged.

Then she spoke to the other attacker, who she described as quiet and shy.

“I asked him if he wanted to give me what he was holding in his hand, which was a knife, but I didn’t want to say that,” she said. “He didn’t agree and I asked him: `Do you want to carry on?’ He said: `No, no, no.’ I didn’t want to upset him,” she is quoted as saying in The Guardian.

Loyau-Kennett said she was not scared and that the armed men did not seem to be drunk or on drugs. She said she was trying to keep them occupied so they didn’t get more agitated.

She re-boarded her bus shortly before police arrived, watching from the vehicle as police shot and wounded the two unidentified suspects, who are both receiving treatment in the hospital.

“The officers shot them in the legs, I think” she told The Guardian.

The British government’s COBRA emergency committee met Thursday after Prime Minister David Cameron said there were “strong indications” it was an act of terrorism, and two other officials said there were signs the attack was motivated by radical Islam.

One of the attackers went on video to explain the crime — shouting political statements, gesturing with bloodied hands and waving a meat cleaver.

Images from the scene showed a blue car that appeared to have been used in the attack, its hood crushed and rammed into a signpost on a sidewalk that was smeared with blood. A number of weapons — including butchers’ knives, a machete and a meat cleaver — were strewn on the street.

Footage — obtained by ITV news and The Sun newspaper — showed a man in a dark jacket and knit cap walking toward a camera, clutching a meat cleaver and a knife. Speaking in English with a British accent, he apologized that female passers-by “have had to witness this” barbarity, saying that “in our land our women have to see the same.”

He gave no indication what that land was as he urged people to tell the government to “bring our troops back.” British troops are deployed in Afghanistan and recently supported the French-led intervention in Mali.

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you,” the man declared. “We must fight them as they fight us.” The camera then panned away to show a body lying on the ground.

Scotland Yard confirmed that counterterrorism officers were leading an investigation into the attack. Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said the two men had been arrested and urged Londoners to remain calm. Both men were hospitalized, one in serious condition.

Late Wednesday, riot police fanned out in Woolwich as about 50 men waving the flag of the far-right English Defense League gathered, singing nationalistic songs and shouting obscenities about the Quran.

Meanwhile, Muslim groups quickly condemned the attack, calling for the police to calm tensions. The Muslim Council of Britain called it a “barbaric act that has no basis in Islam,” adding that “no cause justifies this murder.”

Britain has been at the heart of several terror attacks or plots in recent years, the most deadly being the 2005 rush-hour suicide bombings when 52 commuters were killed. More recently, Parviz Khan was convicted in 2008 of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham.

Some extremists have lashed out at Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recently, groups have also criticized Britain’s assistance in the French-led mission to Mali to root out Islamic extremists in the north.

Published May 23, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

IRS Official Waived Rights to 5th by Making Statement of Innocence, Headed Back to Testify

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Lerner_IRS_FifthHouse Republicans are considering trying to haul back into the hearing room the embattled IRS official who refused to testify Wednesday, claiming she may have inadvertently waived her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent by delivering an opening statement.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division which oversaw the controversial targeting of conservative groups, caused confusion on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning when she — according to some lawmakers — tried to have it both ways. She pleaded the Fifth, saying she would refuse to answer questions from a House committee probing the IRS program. But before she did so, she delivered a defiant opening statement declaring she had done nothing wrong.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, questioned whether she had “effectively waived” her rights, but ultimately dismissed her from the hearing room. But Issa and others are now strongly considering trying to call her back.

“If you could do it the way she wants to do it, then every defendant would come, say ‘I didn’t rob the bank, and I’m not going to answer the prosecutor’s questions,'” Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told Fox News. “So we’d all in life like to get out our version without having to answer anyone else’s questions. It’s just not fair. And I don’t think it’s legal.”

Issa made clear by the end of Wednesday’s hearing that he was strongly considering calling Lerner back.

“I must consider this, so although I excuse Ms. Lerner, subject to a recall, I am looking into the possibility of recalling her and insisting that she answer questions in light of a waiver,” Issa said.

He said for that reason, the hearing would stand in recess, but not be adjourned.

In her opening statement, Lerner asserted her innocence.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

Lerner is represented by lawyer William W. Taylor, who is noted for winning a dismissal of all charges against former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a high-profile sexual assault case.

It’s unclear whether Lerner can avoid another round of questioning by the committee.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on the committee who was as tough as any Republican on the IRS witnesses Wednesday, said he thought Lerner was still in her right to refuse to answer questions.

“I’d like to see (hearings) run like a federal court. Unfortunately, this is not a federal court and she does have a right,” Cummings said Wednesday. “And we have to adhere to that.”

Former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, who stayed to testify Wednesday, endured a tough round of questioning for the second day in a row. Lawmakers were visibly frustrated as he struggled to explain why he didn’t notify Congress after learning of the practice last year.

But lawmakers are itching to question Lerner, having aired a string of complaints about her own failure to notify Congress.

Lerner touched off the public controversy when, at an American Bar Association conference this month, she apologized for the IRS’ practice of targeting conservative organizations for additional scrutiny. It was the first time the agency acknowledged the practice.

She said she hadn’t revealed the information sooner, because she was never asked. But just two days before the ABA conference, Lerner was specifically asked about the investigation.

Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., who had asked her about it, later called her answer evasive.

“The bottom line is you cannot lie to Congress, and you cannot be evasive, you cannot try to mislead Congress,” he said.

Published May 23, 2013 / FoxNews.com

DOJ Seized Phone Records for Fox News Reporter, and Parents

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james-rosenNewly uncovered court documents reveal the Justice Department seized records of several Fox News phone lines as part of a leak investigation — even listing a number that, according to one source, matches the home phone number of a reporter’s parents.

The seizure was ordered in addition to a court-approved search warrant for Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s personal emails. In the affidavit seeking that warrant, an FBI agent called Rosen a likely criminal “co-conspirator,” citing a wartime law called the Espionage Act.

Rosen was not charged, but his movements and conversations were tracked. A source close to the leak investigation confirmed to Fox News that the government obtained phone records for several numbers that match Fox News numbers out of the Washington bureau.

Further, the source confirmed to Fox News that one number listed matched the number for Rosen’s parents in Staten Island.

Rosen’s father, attorney Myron Rosen, told FoxNews.com he found the records seizure to be “downright ludicrous.”

“My son and his wife call us all the time, and we talk about grandchildren,” he said. “We don’t talk about nuclear proliferation.”

He continued: “The fact that they had our phone records, it shows how crazy they are, how desperate.”

The government began to push back Wednesday on some of the information circulating about the case. The office of U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen Jr., who is prosecuting the case, stressed in a statement Wednesday that his office “did not wiretap the phones of any reporter or news organization” or “monitor or track the phone calls of any reporter’s parents.”

“We take seriously our obligations to follow all applicable laws, federal regulations, and Department of Justice policies when grand jury subpoenas are issued for phone records of media organizations, and strive to strike the proper balance between the public’s interest in the free flow of information and the public’s interest in the protection of national security and the effective enforcement of our criminal laws,” the statement said.

Asked about the documents, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told Fox News earlier that he “can’t comment on an ongoing criminal investigation.”

The documents filed in October 2011 appear to show exchanges that match the specific locations of Fox News’ White House, Pentagon, State Department and other operations. The last four digits of each of the phone numbers listed are redacted in the government filing.

Among the numbers listed were several that start with the area code and exchange, 202-824 — which is an area code and exchange for the Fox News Washington bureau.

The phone information was included in a long list of numbers, email addresses and other details that prosecutors shared with defense attorneys shortly after the alleged leaker was indicted. The document said the government had already obtained a trove of material from the defendant, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, including his passport applications, State Department badge records, emails, computer and hard drive.

Click to read the documents.

Meanwhile, the White House Correspondents’ Association spoke out on incidents involving two news organizations. The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of phone records from the Associated Press and obtained a search warrant for the personal emails of Fox News’ James Rosen. The information about the phone records was uncovered Tuesday.

In the latter case, an FBI agent also claimed in an affidavit that Rosen was possibly a criminal “co-conspirator.”

Though no charges were brought against Rosen, the White House Correspondents’ Association said no journalist should even face that threat for doing their job.

“Reporters should never be threatened with prosecution for the simple act of doing their jobs,” the WHCA said in a statement Tuesday. “The problem is that in two recent cases, one involving Fox News’ James Rosen and the other focused on the Associated Press, serious questions have been raised about whether our government has gotten far too aggressive in its monitoring of reporters’ movements, phone records, and even personal email.”

The statement went on: “We do not know all of the facts in these cases, so we will just say this in general: Our country was founded on the principle of freedom of the press and nothing is more sacred to our profession. So we stand in strong solidarity with our colleagues who have been scrutinized. And in terms of the administration, ultimately what will matter more in all of these cases is action not words.”

Earlier, Carney said President Obama believes reporters shouldn’t be prosecuted for doing their jobs. The association said it agreed.

The WHCA’s board is led by Fox News’ Ed Henry.

The statement comes after court documents showed the Justice Department obtained a portfolio of information about Rosen’s conversations and visits to the State Department. This included a search warrant for his personal emails.

In an affidavit, an FBI agent claimed there’s evidence the Fox News correspondent broke the law, “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”

Michael Clemente, Fox News’ executive vice president of news, defended Rosen in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

“We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter,” Clemente said. “In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”

In the case involving Rosen, a government adviser was accused of leaking information after a 2009 story was published online which said North Korea planned to respond to looming U.N. sanctions with another nuclear test.

Rosen said Monday that “as a reporter, I always honor the confidentiality of my dealings with all of my sources.”

The Department of Justice said in a statement that “leaks of classified information to the press can pose a serious risk of harm to our national security and it is important that we pursue these matters using appropriate law enforcement tools.”

The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia also said the government, before seeking approval for the search warrant, “exhausted all reasonable non-media alternatives for collecting this evidence.”

Click for more from The New Yorker.

Published May 23, 2013 / FoxNews.com / Fox News’ Bret Baier and FoxNews.com’s Judson Berger contributed to this report.

IRS Official Who Refused to Testify Facing Scrutiny Over Scandal, Past

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irs_official_pleasds_fifthThe IRS official who refused to testify at a House hearing Wednesday has become a key focus of the congressional investigations into the IRS practice of singling out conservative groups.

Now under the protection of her lawyers and the Fifth Amendment, Lois Lerner is facing a maelstrom of controversy.

Members of Congress are calling her evasive, and question why she didn’t reveal the program sooner — plus her history at the Federal Elections Commission is coming under scrutiny.

Lerner touched off the public controversy when, at an American Bar Association conference earlier this month, she apologized for the IRS’ practice of targeting conservative organizations for additional scrutiny. It was the first time the agency acknowledged the practice.

“They used names like Tea Party or patriots … and they selected cases simply because the application had those names in the title,” she admitted.

She said she hadn’t revealed the information sooner, because she was never asked. But just two days before the ABA  conference, Lerner was  specifically asked about the investigation.

Rep. Joseph Crowley, D-N.Y., asked her if she could “comment briefly on the status on the IRS investigation into these political not-for-profits.”

She said: “Well there’s a questionnaire that began this discussion and there’s also a questionnaire out there that is seeking info from 501 c3,4,5 organizations.”

Crowley later called her answer evasive.

“The bottom line is you cannot lie to Congress, and you cannot be evasive, you cannot try to mislead Congress,” he said.

In the 1990’s, Lerner also served as chief of enforcement at the Federal Elections Commission.

Under her direction, the FEC undertook the largest enforcement action in its history — suing the Christian Coalition for violating campaign laws. The Christian Coalition won, but in one deposition, FEC lawyers asked a defendant if televangelist Pat Robertson prayed for him.

James Bopp, the Christian Coalition’s lawyer, said he was “shocked and appalled” by that.

“Both political activity and religious activity are specifically protected by the First Amendment,” he said.

When Bopp learned years later that Lerner had been promoted to an IRS position, he became concerned.

“She was in effect being promoted for what she had done at the Federal Election Commission and now was going to be expected … to replicate that at the IRS and now we know that’s exactly what happened,” he said.

Lerner is represented by lawyer William W. Taylor, who is noted for winning a dismissal of all charges against former IMF director Dominique Strauss-Kahn in a high-profile sexual assault case.

Lerner said at Wednesday’s hearing that she had done nothing wrong.

“I have not done anything wrong,” she said. “I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee.”

By Doug McKelway / Published May 23, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Muslim Attacker Speaks To Camera After Beheading: ‘You People Will Never Be Safe’

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Muslim_Attacker“I apologize that women had to witness this today but, in our land, our women have to see the same,” the attacker said on camera after beheading a man on the streets of London. “You people will never be safe.”

It is believed there were two attackers who acted in coordination, killing one and wounding two more in the streets of London. The attackers were incapacitated after they assaulted police.

This violent act is being considered an Islamist terrorist attack by British authorities.

UPDATE: Two Arrested as London Muslim Terror Probe Expands

UPDATE: The full statement made by the attacker is as follows:

“We swear by Almighty Allah, we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. The only reasons we killed this man is because Muslims are dying daily. This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We apologize that woman had to see this today, but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your government. They don’t care about you.”

Another witness, who gave his name only as James, told London’s LBC 97.3 radio station that he saw two men standing by the victim on the floor.

At first he thought they were trying to help the man but then saw two meat cleavers, like a butcher would have.

“They were hacking at this poor guy, literally,” he told the radio station, as if they were trying to remove his organs.
“These two guys were crazed. They were just not there. They were just animals.”

Fox news is now reporting:

Two men wielding a machete and a cleaver hacked a man believed to be a soldier to death on a busy London street Wednesday while yelling “Allahu Akbar,” in an attack that was caught on video and left the nation shocked and horrified.

The victim, who some reports said may have been a soldier, was killed at the scene, and the attackers waited at the scene until police arrived and shot both. One attacker, his hands soaked in blood and still holding a machete, delivered an angry jihadist screed as stunned passersby watched, the dead man lying on the street, in the southeast London neighborhood of Woolwich.

“We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you. The only reason we have done this is because Muslims are dying every day,” he said in a video clip that was shown on the ITV website. “This British soldier is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

“I apologize that women have had to witness this today, but in our land our women have to see the same,” the killer continued. “You people will never be safe. Remove your government, they don’t care about you.”

Witnesses said the attackers shouted “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is Great,” during the bloody rampage, according to the BBC.

Police said two attackers were shot by authorities and taken to separate London hospitals to be treated for their injuries. Live television images of the scene showed a trail of blood on the pavement, cordoned-off streets and crime scene investigators marking the scene as witnesses recounted the harrowing attack.

“These two guys were crazed. They were just animals,” one witness, identified as James, told LBC radio. “They dragged him from the pavement and dumped his body in the middle of the road and left his body there.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who cut short a visit to Paris, condemned the killing as “truly shocking,” and said there are “strong indications” that the attack was terror-related. He asked Home Secretary Theresa May to call an urgent meeting of the government’s emergency committee.

“Britain has suffered terrorist attacks before, terrorist attacks from the IRA, terrorist attacks from Islamic extremists,” Cameron said. “We have suffered these attacks before and we have always beaten them back.”

Both French President Francois Hollande and MP Nick Raynsford told the BBC the dead man had been a soldier.

Scotland Yard said officers responded to reports of the assault, which took place just a few blocks from a the Royal Artillery Barracks. The barracks — which house a number of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery and independent companies of the Grenadier and Coldstream Guards — were the site of shooting events during the 2012 London Olympics.

The Muslim Council of Britain condemned the attack.

“This is a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly,” the group said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with the victim and his family. We understand the victim is a serving member of the Armed Forces.”

PUBLIUS

Readers may also be interested in these stories:

Muslim Preacher Tells Followers: Getting Welfare Cash For Holy Wars Is Easy And Right

Liberal Bob Beckel: Hold off on Muslim Students Coming to US

Paris, Europe, an Islamic Stronghold

Our Children Forced into Islam?

‘Islamization’ of Paris – a Warning to the West

Watch the report below via ITV:

New Poll: Obama Ratings Dip, Voters Say Government ‘Out of Control’

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obama_irsAfter a week of revelations about government spying on reporters and the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservatives, most voters feel “like the federal government has gotten out of control and is threatening the basic civil liberties of Americans.”

At the same time, a new Fox News poll finds disapproval of President Obama’s job performance is above 50 percent for the first time in a year, his honesty rating is at a new low and half of voters already think he’s a lame-duck.

More than two-thirds of voters — 68 percent — feel the government is out of control and threatening their civil liberties.   About one quarter disagree (26 percent).

Nearly half of Democrats (47 percent), as well as large numbers of independents (76 percent) and Republicans (87 percent) feel Uncle Sam is taking liberties with their liberties.

Those who identify with the Tea Party movement, one of the groups targeted by the IRS, are among those most likely to say things are out of control and civil liberties are being threatened:  92 percent of Tea Partiers feel that way.

Six in 10 Americans say the Justice Department “went too far” when it seized the phone records of reporters working at the Associated Press (AP) without prior notice.  That’s almost twice as many as the 31 percent who think the actions were “justified” because the government was looking for leaks about a terrorist plot.

Most Republicans (77 percent) and a majority of independents (62 percent) feel the Justice Department went too far.  Nearly half of Democrats agree (45 percent), while almost as many say the government was justified (44 percent).

The recent controversies have taken a toll on the president’s standing with voters.

Overall, 45 percent of voters approve of the job Obama’s doing, down from 47 percent last month.  Just over half — 51 percent — disapprove of his performance, up from 45 percent last month.  This is the first time disapproval of Obama has topped 50 percent since April 2012.

The increase in disapproval of Obama is driven mainly by independents (+ 7 percentage points) and Republicans (+8 points).  Disapproval among Democrats remained mostly unchanged (15 percent).

The poll also finds more voters questioning Obama’s honesty.  Some 49 percent think Obama is honest and trustworthy today.  That’s down from 51 percent last July — and the first time in a Fox News poll that less than half of voters said Obama was honest.  Obama’s highest honesty rating was 73 percent in April 2009, when he had been in office about 100 days.

A record number also now thinks Obama is not honest: 48 percent in the new poll, up from 46 percent last summer.

Nearly half of voters now consider Obama a lame-duck president.  Less than a year into his second term, 49 percent of voters say Obama is a lame-duck, including 25 percent of Democrats.

Almost as many voters — 47 percent — say Obama still has the power to get things done.

Views on Obama’s leadership closely track his job performance rating.  Forty-five percent rate his leadership skills positively:   “excellent” (15 percent) or “good” (30 percent).  Another 19 percent say “only fair.”

More than twice as many voters rate Obama’s leadership skills as “poor” (36 percent) as rate them as “excellent” (15 percent).

Many more voters disapprove (40 percent) than approve (28 percent) of the job Eric Holder is doing as attorney general.  A third are unable to rate him (32 percent).  Approval of Holder is down eight points from 36 percent in May 2010, when voters were last asked about his performance on a Fox News poll.

Holder is the head of the Justice Department.  He has recused himself from the current AP investigation.

Which of the current Obama administration scandals is the most troublesome to voters?  The largest number says the IRS targeting of conservative groups (32 percent), and that’s closely followed by Benghazi (27 percent).  About one in five say the Justice Department seizing the phone records of reporters concerns them the most (21 percent).

Even if voters had known before the election what they know now about the Obama administration controversies, the consensus is he still would have won:  62 percent say Obama would have still won re-election, while 33 percent think Romney would have won.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,013 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from May 18 to May 20.  The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

By Dana Blanton / Published May 21, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Disgraced Ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner Announces Bid for NYC Mayor

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Anthony_WeinerFormer Congressman Anthony Weiner has announced he is running for mayor of New York City, almost two years after resigning over a Twitter scandal.

In a video released Tuesday night, Weiner announced his candidacy for the election in November 2013, with his wife, Huma Abedin, aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and their young son Jordan, by his side.

Sources tell the New York Post the video is authentic, but said it was supposed to be released later Wednesday. The video vanished from Weiner’s website and YouTube page early Wednesday.

The married Democrat resigned from Congress in 2011 after tweeting a lewd picture of himself and lying about his account being hacked. He later admitted trading inappropriate messages with several women.

Weiner touts his New York City roots in the video, describing how he grew up a “middle-class kid in Brooklyn.” He says he wants to work to make the middle-class lifestyle more attainable for more New Yorkers, and references some of his accomplishments from his time in Congress, such as getting help for Sept. 11 first responders.

“Look I made some big mistakes,” Weiner says in the video. “And I know I’ve let a lot of people down. But I’ve also learned some tough lessons. I’m running for mayor because I’ve been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life. And I hope I get a second chance to work for you.”

The website also provided a link to Weiner’s “action plan” for the city.

“These ideas are diverse, but what binds them is the help they offer to the middle class and those struggling to make it there,” the introductions read. “Part of being a New Yorker is looking at problems and figuring out a better way. I put these ideas on the table to start the dialog for a better way for our great city.”

Anthony-Weiner-SextingWeiner acknowledged he was considering a bid for mayor in a lengthy interview with the New York Times Magazine in April.

He told the magazine his committee has dropped more than $100,000 on polling and research, as was previously shown in campaign finance reports.

Weiner said his pollster was telling him he’d be the “underdog” in a race.

“I am a bit of a polarizing case,” Weiner said.

The Democrat is jumping into a crowded field for September’s primary. He’s arriving with some significant advantages, including a $4.8 million campaign war chest, the possibility of about $1.5 million more in public matching money, polls showing him ahead of all but one other Democrat — and no end of name recognition.

In seeking a second chance from the public, Weiner will have to overcome some voters’ misgivings. In a recent NBC New York-Marist Poll poll, half said they wouldn’t even consider him, though the survey also showed that more registered Democrats now have a favorable than unfavorable impression of him.

Weiner can expect opponents to hammer at his prior prevaricating, and he said in a recent interview on the RNN cable network that he couldn’t guarantee that no more pictures or people would emerge.

And while he might welcome attention to his policies rather than his past, they also have attracted some criticism. About a dozen young people recently demonstrated outside his Manhattan apartment building to denounce his proposal to make it easier to suspend disruptive public school students; “(hash)Weiner: You ask for a second chance in (hash)NYC2013 but deny students a second chance,” read one sign, using Twitter’s beloved hashtag marks.

Since leaving office, Weiner has put his government experience to work as a consultant for various companies.

His Democratic opponents include City Councilman Sal Albanese; Public Advocate Bill de Blasio; Comptroller John Liu; City Council Speaker Christine Quinn; the Rev. Erick Salgado, a pastor; and former Comptroller Bill Thompson.

Republican contenders include billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, former Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota and homelessness-aid organization head George McDonald. Former White House housing official Aldolfo Carrion Jr., a Democrat who recently dropped his party affiliation, is running on the Independence Party line and also interested in the Republican nomination.

Published May 22, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report.

DOJ Seized Phone Records of Numbers Tied to Fox News

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studiob_reporter_dojNewly uncovered court documents show the Justice Department seized phone records associated with several Fox News lines as part of a leak investigation — a revelation that comes as the White House Correspondents’ Association spoke out against the administration’s monitoring of reporters.

Documents filed in October 2011 appear to show exchanges that match the specific locations of Fox News’ White House, Pentagon, State Department and other operations. The last four digits of each of the phone numbers listed are redacted in the government filing so it is impossible to know the full numbers. The seizure was ordered in addition to a court-approved search warrant for Fox News correspondent James Rosen’s personal emails.

Among the numbers listed were several that start with the area code and exchange, 202-824 — which is an area code and exchange for the Fox News Washington bureau. The phone number for Rosen’s parents also falls within one of the exchanges listed in the document, though other numbers could fall within that exchange.

The phone information was included in a long list of numbers, email addresses and other details that prosecutors shared with defense attorneys shortly after the alleged leaker was indicted. The document said the government had already obtained a trove of material from the defendant, Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, including his passport applications, State Department badge records, emails, computer and hard drive.

Asked about the documents, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told Fox News he “can’t comment on an ongoing criminal investigation.”

Click to read the documents.

The case is being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald Machen Jr.

Meanwhile, the Correspondents’ Association spoke out on incidents involving two news organizations. The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of phone records from the Associated Press and obtained a search warrant for the personal emails of Fox News’ James Rosen. The information about the phone records was uncovered Tuesday.

In the latter case, an FBI agent also claimed in an affidavit that Rosen was possibly a criminal “co-conspirator.”

Though no charges were brought against Rosen, the White House Correspondents’ Association said no journalist should even face that threat for doing their job.

“Reporters should never be threatened with prosecution for the simple act of doing their jobs,” the WHCA said in a statement Tuesday. “The problem is that in two recent cases, one involving Fox News’ James Rosen and the other focused on the Associated Press, serious questions have been raised about whether our government has gotten far too aggressive in its monitoring of reporters’ movements, phone records, and even personal email.”

The statement went on: “We do not know all of the facts in these cases, so we will just say this in general: Our country was founded on the principle of freedom of the press and nothing is more sacred to our profession. So we stand in strong solidarity with our colleagues who have been scrutinized. And in terms of the administration, ultimately what will matter more in all of these cases is action not words.”

Earlier, Carney said President Obama believes reporters shouldn’t be prosecuted for doing their jobs. The association said it agreed.

The WHCA’s board is led by Fox News’ Ed Henry.

The statement comes after court documents showed the Justice Department obtained a portfolio of information about Rosen’s conversations and visits to the State Department. This included a search warrant for his personal emails.

In an affidavit, an FBI agent claimed there’s evidence the Fox News correspondent broke the law, “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”

Michael Clemente, Fox News’ executive vice president of news, defended Rosen in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

“We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter,” Clemente said. “In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”

In the case involving Rosen, a government adviser was accused of leaking information after a 2009 story was published online which said North Korea planned to respond to looming U.N. sanctions with another nuclear test.

Rosen said Monday that &quotas a reporter, I always honor the confidentiality of my dealings with all of my sources.&quot

The Department of Justice said in a statement that “leaks of classified information to the press can pose a serious risk of harm to our national security and it is important that we pursue these matters using appropriate law enforcement tools.”

The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia also said the government, before seeking approval for the search warrant, “exhausted all reasonable non-media alternatives for collecting this evidence.”

‘Violent Confrontation’ Prompts FBI Agent to Shoot Boston Bombing Associate

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boston-bombersDEVELOPING: A man who was fatally shot by an FBI agent in Florida knew one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, a friend of the victim said Wednesday.

FOX 35 News OrlandoFBI Agent Dave Couvertier said in a statement that an unidentified agent encountered Ibragim Todashev, of Orlando, while conducting official duties.

“The agent, along with other law enforcement personnel, were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the subject,” the statement read. “During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries. As this incident is under review, we have no further details at this time.”

Khusen Taramov, who was at the scene and identified himself as the victim’s friend, said Todashev, 27, knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old former amateur boxer suspected in the April 15 bombings that killed three and injured more than 260, MyFoxOrlando.com reports.

The early Wednesday shooting occurred at an apartment complex near Universal Studios in Orlando, the Associated Press reports.

Taramov said he and Todashev had no connection with the Boston Marathon bombings, but the FBI had been questioning them since the attacks.

“He used to talk on the phone with him [Tsarnaev],” Taramov said of his friend. “They talked last time a month ago. After the bombing, I couldn’t believe it. The FBI kept asking, ‘What’s the connection?’ But there is no connection … no connection.”

An FBI agent was interviewing Todashev regarding his connections to Tsarnaev and other extremists. He was originally cooperative, but was shot after attacking the agent, NBC News reports.

Taramov said Todashev had planned to soon return to Chechnya, but recently canceled his plane tickets instead.

“Me and him and my friends, we knew this was going to happen. That’s why he wanted to leave the country,” Taramov said. “But he canceled the tickets. The FBI’s been pushing him, ‘Don’t leave, don’t leave.’ So he decided to stay.”

Taramov said he was questioned by the FBI earlier Tuesday but was allowed to leave, MyFoxOrlando.com reports. When he came back, he found out that Todashev had been shot dead, he said.

“The FBI knows what happened,” Taramov said.

Messages seeking additional comment from FBI officials were not returned. Police officials in Boston told FoxNews.com they had no information regarding the shooting.

An FBI post-shooting review team has been dispatched from Washington, D.C., and expected to arrive in Orlando within 24 hours, Couvertier said in a statement.

Todashev was arrested on May 4 by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, according to court records. He was charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm. Additional details were not immediately available.

Published May 22, 2013 / FoxNews.com

 

Top IRS Official to Plead The Fifth

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Lois-LernerWASHINGTON –  Lois Lerner, the director of the IRS division that singled out conservative groups, is expected to invoke the Fifth Amendment Wednesday when she appears before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Fox News has learned.

That means Lerner, head of the exempt organizations division, probably won’t answer any questions on what she knew about IRS agents going after Tea Party-related groups. That also means she probably won’t say why she sat on the information for so long before it became public.

Lerner’s attorney William Taylor III asked committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., in a letter if she could skip Wednesday’s hearing since she would be pleading the Fifth.

Taylor argued in the letter that forcing Lerner to appear “would have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.”

Late Tuesday, the House oversight committee released a statement saying Lerner was still under subpoena and would be required to appear in the morning.

“Chairman Issa remains hopeful that she will ultimately decide to testify tomorrow about her knowledge of outrageous IRS targeting of Americans for the political beliefs,” committee spokesman Ali Ahmad said in a statement.

Other former or outgoing IRS officials have already testified, and will continue to give their testimony on Wednesday. But Lerner, who is the official who first acknowledged the IRS program, has faced significant scrutiny.

Since the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into the IRS scandal and the House committee indicated it would question Lerner about why she provided incomplete information to the committee at least four times last year, Taylor wrote that his client would be invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The House committee is also scheduled to hear from Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin, among others, as the search for someone who will claim responsibility continues.

On Tuesday, outgoing IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, was back in the hot seat as he testified for the second time in two weeks on Capitol Hill.

Miller expressed regret for the agency’s decision to use a planted question to go public with the IRS’s practice of singling out conservative groups.

It was one in a series of missteps that have not only publicly marred the reputation of the IRS but also called into question what the White House knew about the scandal and when they knew it.

“We’re not looking for people to be evasive but we want people forthright and straightforward with us,” Rep. Joseph Crowley, a Democrat from New York, told Fox News.

While Crowley did not go so far as to say Lerner should be let go, he did say, “the bottom line is that you cannot lie to Congress, be evasive or mislead. You must answer the question and not mislead Congress.”

Separately, two Tea Party-related groups filed lawsuits against the IRS this week.

On Tuesday, Texas-based True the Vote claimed it was unfairly targeted by the IRS and demanded in court documents the government admit its mistake, grant the group tax-exempt status and pay for damages totaling more than $85,000.

On Monday, the NorCal Tea Party Patriots filed the first federal suit against the national tax agency. Like True the Vote, the northern California group says the IRS violated its constitutional rights when it held up its applications for tax-exempt status.

The NorCal lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Cincinnati,  seeks group status for “all conservative and libertarian groups targeted for additional scrutiny” between March 2010 and May 2013. It’s also seeking unspecified monetary damages for the alleged violation of its constitutional rights and the costs associated with trying to comply with IRS demands.

The lawsuit is being backed by Citizens for Self-Governance, a group launched by Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler.

Meckler claims that IRS agents also demanded massive amounts of disclosure of information not authorized by the Internal Revenue Code or any other federal law. The suit alleges that the tactic was used to delay or dissuade conservative groups from going through with their applications.

The IRS acknowledged that employees at its Cincinnati office had targeted conservative groups, creating massive amounts of paperwork or rejecting applications altogether.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram and Fox Business Network’s Rich Edson contributed to this report.

 

Poll: Majority Think White House Knew About IRS-Out of Control

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obama-biden-rahm-emanuelVoters are concerned about the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative political groups for unfair treatment, and over half think the White House either knew it was happening or — worse yet — was actually behind the operation.

That’s according to a Fox News poll released Tuesday.

The IRS recently admitted it targeted tea party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when the groups sought tax-exempt status.

Most voters think the White House was involved in the IRS scandal in some way:  37 percent think the administration knew it was going on but didn’t initiate the policy, while another 29 percent believe the White House directed the IRS to go after those groups.

About a quarter (24 percent) says the White House had absolutely nothing to do with what the IRS was doing.

Almost all of those who identify with the Tea Party movement think the White House was involved:  58 percent think the administration intentionally had them targeted, and 31 percent believe that while the White House knew about the unfair treatment, it wasn’t behind it.

Confidence in the IRS has dropped significantly.  The poll finds 42 percent of voters have “a great deal” (7 percent) or “some” (35 percent) confidence in the agency.  That’s down from 62 percent who had at least some confidence in the IRS in May 2003 (the last time the Fox News poll asked Americans to rate the IRS).

Seventy-eight percent of voters are concerned that certain groups have been singled out, including 50 percent who are “very” concerned and 28 percent “somewhat” concerned.

Even more — 84 percent — are worried individual Americans could receive the same unfair treatment (61 percent “very” and 23 percent “somewhat” concerned).

The poll asked about three current Obama administration controversies.  A 32-percent plurality says the IRS scandal is the worst, followed by Benghazi (27 percent) and the Justice Department seizing the phone records of reporters (21 percent).

Democrats (26 percent) and independents (28 percent) are more than twice as likely as Republicans (11 percent) to say the Justice Department controversy is the worst.

The IRS scandal tops the list for both Republicans (39 percent) and Democrats (28 percent).  Still, Republicans are more likely to pick it as the most troubling by an 11-point margin.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 1,013 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from May 18 to May 20.  The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

By Dana Blanton / Published May 21, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Ex-IRS Chief to Testify Before Congress as Carney Admits White House Knew More

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Jay Carney, Craig FugateLawmakers will get their first opportunity to question the man who ran the IRS when agents were improperly targeting tea party groups Tuesday, as the timeline for when senior White House officials knew about the scandal seems to be shifting.

The lawmakers are expected to ask former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman why he didn’t tell Congress that agents had been singling out conservative political groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status — even after he was briefed on the matter.

Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, left the IRS in November when his five-year term ended. He is testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, which has launched a bipartisan investigation into the matter.

The hearing comes after White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that the president’s counsel was told on April 24 about the preliminary findings of an IRS audit that showed tax officials unfairly targeted Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status.

Carney had previously said that White House counsel did not have any details about the IRS probe and was given a generic heads up that one was being conducted.

Senior legal counsel Kathryn Ruemmler was told about the audit on April 24, Carney said Monday. She then told Denis McDonough, Obama’s chief of staff and other senior officials about the investigation.

“It was the judgment of counsel this is not a matter she should convey to the president,” Carney said. “Her opinion that this is not the kind of thing that requires notification to the president.”

“No one in this building intervened in an independent investigation or anything that could be seen that way,” he said, adding that the misconduct had stopped in 2012, “almost a year before we knew about it.”

Carney also said while Ruemmler knew the subject of the investigation and potential findings, they were not given a draft of the report and understood details could change.

Ahead of the hearing, the committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the ranking Republican, sent a letter to the IRS Monday, asking for an explanation. The letter included 41 separate requests for information. They gave the IRS until May 31 to respond.

The two senators said the IRS had not been forthcoming about the issue in the past.

“Targeting applicants for tax-exempt status using political labels threatens to undermine the public’s trust in the IRS,” Baucus and Hatch wrote. “Lack of candor in advising the Senate of this practice is equally troubling.”

For more than a year, from 2011 through the 2012 election, members of Congress repeatedly asked Shulman about complaints from tea party groups that they were being harassed by the IRS.

Shulman’s responses, usually relayed by a deputy, did not acknowledge that agents had ever targeted tea party groups for special scrutiny. At a congressional hearing March 22, 2012, Shulman was adamant in his denials.

“There’s absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people” who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman said at the House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing.

The IRS has said Shulman did not know about the targeting at the time of the hearing.

The agency’s inspector general says he told Shulman on May 30, 2012, that his office was auditing the way applications for tax-exempt status were being handled, in part because of complaints from conservative groups. However, the inspector general, J. Russell George, said he did not reveal the results of his investigation.

George was also testifying at Tuesday’s hearing. So was Steven Miller, who took over as acting commissioner in November, when Shulman’s term expired. Last week, Obama forced Miller to resign.

George issued a report last week blaming ineffective management for allowing agents to inappropriately target conservative groups for more than 18 months during the 2010 and 2012 elections.

The agents were trying to determine whether the groups were engaged in political activity. Certain tax-exempt groups are allowed to engage in politics, but politics cannot be their primary mission. It is up to the IRS to make the determination, so agents are supposed to look for clues when reviewing applications for tax-exempt status.

In March 2010, agents starting singling out groups with “Tea Party” or “Patriots” on their applications. By August 2010, it was part of the written criteria for identifying groups that required more scrutiny, according to George’s report.

Agents did not flag similar progressive or liberal labels, though some liberal groups received additional scrutiny because their applications were singled out for other reasons, the report said.

Published May 21, 2013 / FoxNews.com / The Associated Press contributed to this report

DOJ Official Who Retaliated Against ‘Furious’ Whistle-blower, Lied About Him

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The former U.S. Attorney for Arizona could be disbarred, after an investigation found he lied to the Justice Department about his role in trying to discredit the federal whistle-blower who exposed the botched gun-running scheme known as Fast and Furious.

DENNIS-BURKEAn Office of Inspector General report showed that Dennis Burke — the former chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appointed as U.S. Attorney for Arizona by President Obama in September 2009 — lied when asked if he leaked sensitive documents to the press meant to undermine the credibility of ATF whistle-blower John Dodson.

The IG report also said Burke likely leaked the memo in retaliation for Dodson’s whistle-blowing, and challenged the credibility of statements he made to congressional investigators. Dodson first went to Congress in 2010 after his own agency and the Justice Department refused to investigate his complaints that Operation Fast and Furious, an anti-gun-trafficking effort, was out of control.

“We also concluded that Burke’s disclosure of the Dodson memorandum was likely motivated by a desire to undermine Dodson’s public criticisms of Operation Fast and Furious. Although Burke denied to congressional investigators that he had any retaliatory motive for his actions, we found substantial evidence to the contrary,” the IG report, released Monday, said.

Dodson appeared before Congress in June 2011. At the time, the Department of Justice denied his claim that the federal government approved a plan to knowingly assist criminals in smuggling thousands of guns to the Mexican drug cartels.

Dodson’s credibility was crucial since nearly everyone above him denied the allegation. The report found that Burke leaked information that sought to undermine Dodson’s story to a Fox News producer.

“The report brings into question, yet again, the treatment that whistle-blowers receive from this administration,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Monday. “Instead of examining the allegations that came forward, the Justice Department almost immediately began to attack the credibility and good name of a dedicated federal agent upset with what he was ordered to do.”

Burke used his private email account to leak the information to a friend in Washington who then hand-delivered the information to the Fox producer. The IG said in its report it used an “administrative subpoena” to identify the personal email of relevant Department employees to confirm the leak.

Once contacted by IG staff, Burke admitted he was the source. The IG’s office had asked 150 Justice Department employees to affirm they were not the leak.

But the report said he gave misleading information to congressional investigators. Asked about the issue by congressional investigators, Burke said: “I was under the impression that (the Dodson memo) had gone to the Hill and that I was basically giving (the Fox producer) a time advantage.”

He also allegedly misled his own superior in Washington, Assistant Attorney General James Cole.

At the time, Cole had seen a New York Times story about Fast and Furious. In it, the paper published a picture which showed the document had been faxed from the U.S. attorney’s office in Arizona. When confronted, the report said Burke told Cole, “I don’t think we have a fax machine.”

The IG report claims Burke was “admonished by Deputy Attorney General Cole for lying to him … and had been put on notice such disclosures should not occur.”

After speaking with Burke, Cole wrote “another horrible incident of bad judgment.” The following day, Aug. 13, Burke resigned.

Fox News tried unsuccessfully to contact Burke, who recently formed a security and lobbying firm with former Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano’s Chief of Staff Noah Kroloff.

The Office of Inspector General is an investigative arm that monitors the Justice Department. It tried to interview Burke, but he resigned.

The IG said Burke violated numerous federal and professional rules of conduct and it would forward a copy of its report to the Arizona State Bar Association for disciplinary conduct.

By William La Jeunesse / Published May 20, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Local Tea Party Founder Targeted by Federal Agencies

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huck_engelbrechtCatherine Engelbrecht has been telling people for years she’s been targeted and harassed by the federal government. Not many people listened.

But her case is receiving new attention after her congressman, Republican Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, recounted her ordeal during a high-profile House committee hearing on the IRS practice of singling out conservative groups. He claimed she was audited and visited by several different federal agencies — including the FBI — in the years after she formed her Tea Party group.

“She received four FBI inquires,” Brady said. “And her business received unsolicited audits, unscheduled audits.”

Engelbrecht is the founder of True the Vote, a Houston-based group that says its goal is to root out voter fraud. She’s claimed for years that the Internal Revenue Service was picking on her, asking her over-the-top personal questions, demanding binders full of paperwork and going after her family’s oil field machinery business.

After her case was spotlighted at Friday’s hearing, Engelbrecht explained the targeting in an interview with Fox News.

“At some point those questions cross the line,” she said.

Her troubles started, she claims, after she founded a Tea Party group called the King Street Patriots and worked as poll watcher in the local 2009 elections. She said she found major discrepancies in voting procedures and uncovered cases of political harassment and wrongdoing. She brought up the claims to local officials but they were never proved.

In July 2010, she applied for nonprofit status for two of her organizations: True the Vote and King Street Patriots.

Five months after she filed for 501(c)(4) status for KSP, Engelbrecht says the FBI Domestic Terrorism Unit called her about one of the people who had attended a KSP group meeting. Five months after that, the FBI called her again to ask “how we were doing?” A month later on June 2011, she received another FBI general inquiry, which was followed by two more in November and December.

In February 2012, the IRS asked her questions about her nonprofit application.

“The first contact we had from the IRS, in the first general round of questions, they wanted to see every Facebook posting we had made, every tweet we tweeted,” Engelbrecht told Fox News’ “Huckabee.”

Engelbrecht said IRS agents wanted to know every place she had ever spoken publicly, to whom she had spoken, what she said and her intent.

Engelbrecht said her fight for 501 (c)(3) tax exempt status for True the Vote was even more frustrating. She underwent five rounds of questioning from the IRS and still hasn’t received approval. What’s worse, she claims, is that the government also started going after her personal tax returns and those of her family’s business.

Engelbrecht says the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also conducted an unscheduled audit of Engelbrecht Manufacturing in February 2012. That was followed by another unscheduled audit in July 2012 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and another in November 2012 by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

At times, Engelbrecht said she thought about not coming forward with her story.

“I really thought that the best way I could protect my family would be to keep my head down,” she said.

Both Republicans and Democrats have lashed out against the IRS over its systematic scrutiny of conservative groups during the past two election cycles.

Engelbrecht said the questions she had the biggest problems with were the ones that focused on her family.

Calls to the FBI and IRS for comment were not immediately returned.

Published May 20, 2013 / FoxNews.com

Obama Met with Anti-Tea Party Union Head Day Before IRS’ Targeting Began

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Obama-takes-oath-of-officeThe American Spectator has broken a story on President Obama meeting with the head of an “anti-tea party” union head the day before the IRS began targeting conservative groups.

According to searchable White House visitor logs, the President of the National Treasury Employees Union Colleen Kelley met with the President of the United States on March 31st, 2010, just one day before the Inspector General’s report shows the top tax agency began targeting tea party and conservative groups for audits and other forms of harassment.

The timing of the meeting with Kelley is purely circumstantial, and we do not know the content of her meeting with the chief of the “most transparent administration” in U.S. history. But Kelley heads a left-wing union with 150,000 members, including representation of IRS employees, that gave 94% of its 2010 interim election campaign contributions to Democrats, who often ran against tea party-backed opponents.

In terms of the timing, page 37 of the Inspector General report explains how the IRS’ targeting of tea party, patriot and 9/12 groups was confirmed to be known by agency higher-ups on April 1st, 2010. Again, a screenshot of the document is provided:

visualIGreport

This doesn’t seem like a mission carried out by some rogue agents at the IRS. ABC’s Jonathan Karl lays out exactly how the politically motivated targeting developed, and had roots in IRS employees’ application searches in March 2010:

As we reported on “Good Morning America” this morning, the IRS began targeting “Tea Party or similar organizations” in March 2010. That was when the Cincinnati-based IRS unit responsible for overseeing the applications for tax exempt status starting using the phrases “Tea Party,” “patriots” and “9/12″ to search for applications warranting greater scrutiny.

During this first phase, 10 Tea Party cases were identified. By April of 2010, 18 Tea Party organizations were targeted, including three that had already been approved for tax-exempt status.

By June 2011, the unit had flagged over 100 Tea Party-related applications and the criteria used to scrutinize organizations had grown considerably, flagging not just “Tea Party” or “Patriot” in group names, but also groups that were working on issues like “government debt,” “taxes” and even organizations making statements that “criticize how the country is being run.”

It looks like there’s definitely there “there.” The American Spectator documents exhaustively Colleen Kelley’s often bragged-about “collaboration” with the White House. The report ends with the portentous questions: “What did the President know? And when did he know it?”

By Kyle Becker

Obama’s DOJ Still Trying to Quiet the Press – Naming Fox News Journalist

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james-rosenA Fox News correspondent was labeled in a Justice Department affidavit as a possible “co-conspirator” for his alleged role in publishing sensitive security information — in a leak case that takes the highly unusual step of claiming a journalist broke the law.

According to court documents, the Justice Department obtained a portfolio of information about Fox News’ James Rosen’s conversations and visits to the State Department. This included a search warrant for his personal emails.

The effort follows that by the department to secretly obtain two months of phone records from Associated Press journalists as part of a separate leak probe. The department in this case, though, went a step further — as an FBI agent claimed there’s evidence the Fox News correspondent broke the law, “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.”

Michael Clemente, Fox News’ executive vice president of news, defended Rosen in a statement issued Monday afternoon.

“We are outraged to learn today that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter,” Clemente said. “In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.”

The case has also caught the attention of Congress. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a statement Monday he was “very concerned” about the reports of “possible criminal prosecution for doing what appears to be normal news-gathering protected by the First Amendment.”

He added: “The sort of reporting by James Rosen detailed in the report is the same sort of reporting that helped Mr. Rosen aggressively pursue questions about the Administration’s handling of Benghazi. National security leaks are criminal and put American lives on the line, and federal prosecutors should, of course, vigorously investigate. But we expect that they do so within the bounds of the law, and that the investigations focus on the leakers within the government — not on media organizations that have First Amendment protections and serve vital function in our democracy.”

In the case involving Rosen, a government adviser was accused of leaking information after a 2009 story was published online which said North Korea planned to respond to looming U.N. sanctions with another nuclear test.

An affidavit entered by FBI agent Reginald Reyes claimed there was “probable cause” to believe Rosen — identified only as “the reporter” — had violated a provision of U.S. law barring the unauthorized disclosure of defense information. This is where Reyes labeled Rosen as a possible “co-conspirator” — an allegation used to gain access to two days’ worth of emails.

The search warrant for that request was ultimately approved, the records show.

Investigators, in pursuing the case, also obtained records of Rosen’s visits to the State Department headquarters by tracking security-badge information. As first reported by The Washington Post, a court affidavit said they used the badge records to log his visits as well as the movements of the adviser, Stephen Jim-Woo Kim.

The FBI agent said in the affidavit that the visits suggested a “face-to-face” meeting.

According to the Post, investigators also obtained two months of phone records from Kim’s office.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, asked about the case Monday, said he could not comment on the “ongoing investigation.” He said President Obama is a “strong defender of the First Amendment,” but also is “insistent that we protect our secrets, that we protect classified information.”

The Department of Justice said in a statement Monday that “leaks of classified information to the press can pose a serious risk of harm to our national security and it is important that we pursue these matters using appropriate law enforcement tools.”

The U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia also said the government, before seeking approval for the search warrant, “exhausted all reasonable non-media alternatives for collecting this evidence.”

While Kim has already been indicted, the office said no other charges have been brought. “Based on the investigation and all of the facts known to date, no other individuals, including the reporter, have been charged since Mr. Kim was indicted nearly three years ago,” the office said.

Attorney General Eric Holder said at a House hearing last week that he is not interested in prosecuting the press.

“With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that I’ve ever been involved in, heard of or would think would be a wise policy,” he said on May 15.

The seizure of records from the AP offices also spanned two months.

AP President Gary Pruitt said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that the AP records grab was not only unconstitutional but damaging to the operation of the press.

“It will hurt,” he said. “We’re already seeing some impact. Officials are saying they’re reluctant to talk.”

Published May 20, 2013 / FoxNews.com

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