Posted on 09/16/2016 5:08:25 PM PDT by Kaslin
State Department purged emails about $300,000 grant to anti-Netanyahu group
Congress on Friday launched a wide-ranging probe into a secret Obama administration-funded campaign to unseat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to information exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The probe comes on the heels of an internal government report determining that the State Department provided hundreds of thousands to an organization that plotted to unseat Netanyahu in the country’s 2015 election.
Obama administration officials were found to have deleted emails from State Department accounts containing information about its relationship with OneVoice, the non-profit group that led the effort.
OneVoice, which was awarded $465,000 in U.S. grants through 2014, has been under congressional investigation since 2015, when it was first accused of funneling some of that money to partisan political groups looking to unseat Netanyahu. This type of behavior by non-profit groups is prohibited under U.S. tax law.
A group of nine leading lawmakers led by Sen. David Perdue (R., Ga.) are now formally petitioning the State Department to come clean about the effort and provide answers about how U.S. taxpayer dollars were permitted to be spent on an organization working against the elected leader of America’s closest Middle East ally, according to a readout of the investigation obtained by the Free Beacon.
“State Department officials failed to properly vet the OneVoice grant proposal because they failed to properly conduct an analysis of risks in the pre-award phase,” the senators wrote in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry. “Unfortunately, it seems that inconsistency and apathy toward oversight of such grants at the State Department is not new. Our aid dollars should be going toward solving real problems, not contributing to the destabilization of allied governments.”
The lawmakers—including Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), Mark Kirk (R., Ill.), Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), Mike Lee (R., Utah), and Johnny Isakson (R., Ga.) among others—wrote that the State Department turned a blind eye to OneVoice’s highly partisan activities and failed to perform proper oversight about how U.S. funds were being spent by the group.
“State Department officials utterly failed to follow established procedures and guidelines to properly identify, mitigate, or guard against any risk that OneVoice would misuse these funds before, during, and after the grant period,” the letter said. “As a direct result of these failures, OneVoice was able to use the more than $300,000 grant to build campaign infrastructure and resources which later were deployed in support of a negative campaign against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Likud Party, and the democratically elected coalition government of Israel during the 2015 Israeli parliamentary election.”
State Department officials were aware of OneVoice’s partisan activities, but still permitted the grant money to be awarded, according to the senators, who are pushing for the administration to take disciplinary action against the officials involved.
“Despite knowledge of such activities, State Department officials failed to adequately document any assessment of the risk that OneVoice might continue obstructive efforts against a certain political party in the event of an election,” the letter stated.
“State Department grant policies and procedures are in place to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used to fund U.S. government initiatives and further U.S. interests,” the letter said.
The senators require the State Department to answer a series of questions about the grant, including how it vetted OneVoice and why proper oversight methods were not employed.
They also are seeking to determine what “disciplinary action” is being taken against U.S. officials who knew about the plan to unseat Netanyahu but failed to take action to report this behavior.
There is no Constitutional authority for these expenditures. They need to end under Trump.
L
next edition of the encyclopedia...,
look up EVIL
and get pictures of Obama (and Soros)
no further definition required.
I guess they got away with it when Bubba was President so they thought it would work again...
Because Congress has been able to fix so much, and punish those responsible for the corruption and law breaking of the Executive Branch, DOJ, IRS, et al.
>
Because Congress has been able to fix so much, and punish those responsible for the corruption and law breaking of the Executive Branch, DOJ, IRS, et al.
>
Well, it *IS* an election year and....Hey, I didn’t get a ‘Harrumph’ outta that guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTmfwklFM-M
Ooh boy, I bet this will keep Obama up at night. /s
Nutless, ineffectual, posturing, blowhard fairies.
The only reason this type of story is newsworthy is for historical purposes. Trump wins, how many of these losers will be lining up to press these cases? None.
There’s not as much distance between Lindsey Graham and the senators named in this story as people think. IMO.
The Congress Critters control the purse strings and this crappola continues on yet today. So the Washington Free Beacon reports about and then the matter is never seen in the light of day. The current Obama Administration is crooked - it should have nothing to do with the election process in any country. George Soros should be in prison. But that is wishful thinking on my part.
Just quit with these monthly investigations. UNTIL YOU ARE READY TO STOP THE OBIE ADMIN WITH THE CONSITUTIONAL POWERS GRANTED TO YOU I don’t want to see or hear any more kabuki theater out of Congress.
Hey Doc Mengele, thanks for the explanation!
Hussein Obama, America's FIRST Muslim President, hates Jews like Muslims do everywhere. To insult Jews is one thing but to kill them in mass, now that is what makes the Muslims happy.
The Congress criters now need to expose Hussein's treason against the United States and his support for Muslim terrorists in every way he could. The Repubs have been letting Hussein destroy the Demorat Party, now it's time to expose Hussein for what he is.
What American Jews don't understand is that if Hussein and the Muslims are successful, they will be some of the first executed by the Muslims. But American Jews are liberals, and hence, they are NOT thinking people.
Trying to defeat a friendly gov of a nation friendly to US is horrible.
We won’t have too many friends left in the world with this kind of behavior.
Trump will change all this, when he becomes president.
Memo to the GOPe: No one believes the dog and pony shows you call “investigations” anymore, so you can dispense with them now.
You do a lot of that, don't you?
Like wishing you were a real hero instead of just a lying fraud piece of dog doo who doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as real veteran patriots.
We know you for the liar you are when you post stuff like " i have military service related injury related to the bombing in lebanon in 1983...and susequent days of being entombed in a collapsed building..." which is a complete lie.
And in addition to your laughably poor grammar and spelling this is totally fake. And that makes you a fraud.
If you were actually in The Corps you'd be getting a "Code Red" right about now.
Democrats are LAW-LESS because Republicans are BALL-LESS!!
Republicans can only do so much, especially if they only have a small majority.
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