Free Republic

Every day brings new revelations about who knew what about the IRS targeting conservative groups during President Obama's re-election campaign, but the overall impression is of a vast federal bureaucracy run amok. While the White House continues to peddle the story of a driverless train wreck, taxpayers are being treated to a demonstration of the dangers of an unwieldy and unaccountable administrative state. Look, Ma, no hands! In his press events, Mr. Obama has said that while he learned about the Cincinnati rogues on the news, he plans to "hold accountable those who have taken these outrageous actions." But the...

Under President Obama, "justice" is anything but blind. Neither is it deaf. In fact, based on recent revelations, it appears to be watching your every move and listening to your every word. Still, if you happen to be a federal employee, now it´s even listening for your silence. The only thing this Obama White House seems to generate is scandal. Well, here´s yet another to add to the growing list. In addition to the Benghazi cover-up, IRS targeting of political dissenters and the illegal seizure of media phone records, whistleblowers within DOJ have contacted Liberty Counsel

Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: The Obama Justice Department has seized the phone records of numbers that are associated with White House staffers and, apparently, with Fox News reporters, according to a document filed on October 13, 2011, in the case of Stephen Jin-Woo Kim, a former State Department contractor accused of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information to James Rosen, a Fox News reporter.

But here’s why you should care — and why this case, along with the administration’s broad snooping into Associated Press phone records, is more serious than the other supposed Obama administration scandals regarding Benghazi and the Internal Revenue Service. The Rosen affair is as flagrant an assault on civil liberties as anything done by George W. Bush’s administration, and it uses technology to silence critics in a way Richard Nixon could only have dreamed of. To treat a reporter as a criminal for doing his job — seeking out information the government doesn’t want made public — deprives Americans of...

BENGHAZI DOT ONE, WHY THE VIDEO AND WHY AP This began as a response to a question posed by 'just a hairy ape' on a previous thread. To fully understand Benghazi, I have to go back and break this down into parts. There was more than one reason and we need to understand them all which isn't easy,(and even less easy to explain,) because there are details long forgotten as if each 'thing' was in a box of its own separate from each other 'thing'. In reality, they are connected in a myriad of ways. So this is going to...

How often do we see Kirsten Powers, Eugene Robinson, and Brit Hume agree on a major issue? Not often, but when the government violates the First Amendment and in particular on reporting, probably more often than not. Let’s start with the least surprising criticism, which comes from Brit Hume, former Fox anchor and colleague of James Rosen, who was investigated as a co-conspirator in an espionage case for doing what reporters in Washington do all the time. Hume argues that the Obama administration’s actions speak a lot louder than their words about respecting the freedom of the press:CLICK ABOVE LINK...

Sharyl Attkisson, the Emmy-award winning CBS News investigative reporter, says that her personal and work computers have been compromised and are under investigation. "I can confirm that an intrusion of my computers has been under some investigation on my end for some months but I'm not prepared to make an allegation against a specific entity today as I've been patient and methodical about this matter," Attkisson told POLITICO on Tuesday. "I need to check with my attorney and CBS to get their recommendations on info we make public."

Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made the following statement after an Office of Inspector General Report showed that U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke leaked a sensitive document to the press regarding a whistleblower who had come forward with allegations of gunwalking, that he leaked an internal memo regarding Fast and Furious suspect Jaime Avila to the New York Times, and that he lied to Deputy Attorney General James Cole. The document leaked to Fox News was deemed so sensitive by the Justice Department that it was not provided to Congress, except in a secured room at...

Senator Charles Grassley, who launched the first Capitol Hill investigation of Operation Fast and Furious more than two years ago, today blasted the treatment of a chief whistleblower in the investigation by the former U.S. attorney in Arizona, and subsequent attempts to discredit him by the Justice Department. Grassley released a statement after the Office of Inspector General released a report Monday morning that shows former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke leaked “a sensitive document” to a Fox News reporter in an attempt to discredit John Dodson, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The IG’s...

New evidence has emerged that Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez may have improperly prosecuted Wells Fargo, Bank of America and dozens of other banks for lending discrimination by using deficient mortgage data in investigations. IBD has learned the special prosecutor spearheading Perez's record number of statistics-based cases of racism against lenders told federal bank regulators in 2010 he lacked key home loan data needed to conduct the kind of iron-clad "regression analyses" that would hold up in court. Still, Perez's civil-rights division used the shaky data to force bank defendants into a record $600 million in settlements, including loan set-asides...

"The reporter did so by employing flattery and playing to Mr. Kim's vanity and ego"

THREE Fox News staffers were monitored by DOJ. WOW. WOW. WOW.— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) May 20, 2013 Whoa.Drip, drip, drip.Megyn Kelly is reporting that it was not just James Rosen who was targeted by Obama’s Department of Justice. @MegynKelly on @FoxNews now reporting not just Rosen targed by DoJ; 3 Fox News staffers.— Brian Faughnan (@BrianFaughnan) May 20, 2013 Not just one! Three Fox News staffers in DoJ sites reports @megynkelly #fb— johnny dollar (@johnnydollar01) May 20, 2013 Now @megynkelly reporting @JamesRosenFNC, another FNC reporter and producer were targeted by DOJ— Andy Lancaster (@andylancaster) May 20, 2013 Evidently, two...

The U.S. Attorney in Arizona violated Justice Department policy by providing Fox News with information apparently aimed at undercutting the credibility of a federal agent who helped reveal the botched arms-trafficking probe called Operation Fast and Furious, the Justice Department's inspector general said Monday. There was substantial evidence in the 2011 incident that then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke's motive for disclosing a memo by federal agent John Dodson was retaliation, the inspector general's report said. In testimony to a House committee just two weeks earlier, Dodson had raised serious concerns about Operation Fast and Furious. In Dodson's memo, which was eventually...

A Fox News correspondent was accused in a Justice Department affidavit of being a possible criminal "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...

Top White House aides first learned of a draft report detailing IRS abuses in targeting conservative groups in late April, but they chose to insulate President Obama by not informing him until it exploded in the press, the president’s spokesman said Monday. White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Monday that White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler learned about an IRS inspector general’s draft report looking into the singling out of conservative groups on April 24. She advised senior White House staff including chief of staff Denis McDonough — about the then-draft report, but Mr. Carney said she believed that...

With new reports today that the Obama Department of Justice leaked documents intended to smear a whistleblower in the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal, it is now more obvious than ever that this administration has, in the words of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) created a “culture of intimidation” that stretches from the White House down to myriad agencies of the executive branch. *** Department of Justice: Today’s report from the Department of Justice Inspector General, showing that former US Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke leaked documents intended to smear a whistleblower in Fast and Furious, are only the...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General published a new report Monday that confirms former U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke leaked a document intended to smear Operation Fast and Furious scandal whistleblower John Dodson. The DOJ IG said it found “Burke’s conduct in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to be inappropriate for a Department employee and wholly unbefitting a U.S. Attorney.” “We are referring to OPR our finding that Burke violated Department policy in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to a member of the media for a determination of whether Burke’s conduct violated the Rules of Professional Conduct for the state...

Under President Obama, “justice” is anything but blind. Neither is it deaf. In fact, based on recent revelations, it appears to be watching your every move and listening to your every word. Still, if you happen to be a federal employee, now it’s even listening for your silence. The only thing this Obama White House seems to generate is scandal. Well, here’s yet another to add to the growing list. In addition to the Benghazi cover-up, IRS targeting of political dissenters and the illegal seizure of media phone records, whistleblowers within DOJ have contacted Liberty Counsel to express grave concerns...

Remember the White House war on Fox News in 2009? By the fall of that year, it had collapsed from overreach; after attempting to block Fox from participating in pool coverage, the rest of the White House press corps revolted, forcing Anita Dunn and others into retreat. Apparently, the Obama administration found a way to wage that war by other means. The Washington Post reports that the Department of Justice spied on James Rosen, Fox’s Washington correspondent, in 2010: When the Justice Department began investigating possible leaks of classified information about North Korea in 2009, investigators did more than obtain...

Associated Press President Gary Pruitt said Sunday the Justice Department sent a strong – and negative -- message to future sources that the government would go after them if they spoke to the press. It’s a move Pruitt called not only unconstitutional, but damaging to the ideal of a free press in the country. “It will hurt,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We’re already seeing some impact. Officials are saying they’re reluctant to talk.” The Justice Department sought phone records for a two-month period from more than 20 phone lines in four bureaus,including Washington and New York. "Their...

The president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press on Sunday called the government's secret seizure of two months of reporters' phone records "unconstitutional" and said the news cooperative had not ruled out legal action against the Justice Department. Gary Pruitt, in his first television interviews since it was revealed the Justice Department subpoenaed phone records of AP reporters and editors, said the move already has had a chilling effect on journalism. Pruitt said the seizure has made sources less willing to talk to AP journalists and, in the long term, could limit Americans' information from all news outlets.

Under President Obama, “justice” is anything but blind. Neither is it deaf. In fact, based on recent revelations, it appears to be watching your every move and listening to your every word. Still, if you happen to be a federal employee, now it’s even listening for your silence. The only thing this Obama White House seems to generate is scandal. Well, here’s yet another to add to the growing list. In addition to the Benghazi cover-up, IRS targeting of political dissenters and the illegal seizure of media phone records, whistleblowers within DOJ have contacted Liberty Counsel to express grave concerns...

Under President Obama, “justice” is anything but blind. Neither is it deaf. In fact, based on recent revelations, it appears to be watching your every move and listening to your every word. Still, if you happen to be a federal employee, now it’s even listening for your silence. The only thing this Obama White House seems to generate is scandal. Well, here’s yet another to add to the growing list. In addition to the Benghazi cover-up, IRS targeting of political dissenters and the illegal seizure of media phone records, whistleblowers within DOJ have contacted Liberty Counsel to express grave concerns...

The new policy was announced in a joint letter from the Education Department and Justice Department to the University of Montana. *** After outlining the specifics of the case, the letter states that only a stunningly broad definition of sexual harassment—"unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature"—will now satisfy federal statutory requirements. This explicitly includes "verbal conduct," otherwise known as speech.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday he makes "no apologies" for his concern about leaks to the media that could compromise U.S. national security or put American military and intelligence officers at risk. Obama expressed complete confidence in Attorney General Eric Holder and declined to comment on the Justice Department's seizure of Associated Press phone records, part of a probe into media leaks about a Yemen-based plot to bomb a U.S. airliner. "Leaks related to national security can put people at risk," Obama said at a news conference.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department failed to provide the names of some terrorists in the witness protection program to the center that maintains the government's watch list used to keep dangerous people off airline flights, the department's inspector general said in a report Thursday. As a result of the department's failure to properly share information, some in the witness protection program who were on the "no-fly" list were allowed to travel on commercial flights, the federal watchdog said. "It was possible for known or suspected terrorists to fly on commercial airplanes in or over the United States and evade...

A fine line exists between satire and bad taste. Mel Brooks danced up to that line with his “Springtime for Hitler and Germany” in “The Producers.” And, every night, comedian pundits like Jon Stewart (www.thedailyshow.com) and Stephen Colbert (www.colbertnation.com) use the politics of comedy and the comedy of politics as they laugh all the way to the bank. I make my living off the evening news, as the song says, in a newsroom where it helps to have the maturity level of a 14-year-old boy. I say this to give context to the following train of thought from earlier in...

That’s the revelation made by California Congressman Devin Nunes, who sits on the House Ways And Means Committee on Hugh Hewitt’s Show Wednesday night. Here’s the key part of that transcript: HH: The idea that this might be a Geithner-Axelrod plan, and by that, the sort of intimation, Henry II style, will no one rid me of this turbulent priest, will no one rid me of these turbulent Tea Parties, that might have just been a hint, a shift of an eyebrow, a change in the tone of voice. That’s going to take a long time to get to. I...

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) told Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday to visit the Truman Library, “because we don’t know where the buck stops,” referring to scandals at the Justice Department. “Mr. Attorney General, I think that this committee has been frustrated for at least the last two and a half years—if not the last four and a half years—that there doesn’t seem to be any acceptance of responsibility in the Justice Department for things that have gone wrong,” Sensenbrenner said, during an oversight hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. “Now, may I suggest that you and maybe Mr....

The Associated Press is far from satisfied by the Department of Justice's initial response regarding the government grabbing months of phone records from the wire service. Gary Pruitt, president and CEO of The Associated Press, sent a sternly worded follow-up letter to the Department of Justice today, one which said its attempt at explaining what happened hardly proved reassuring and appeared dubious at face value. "The scope of the subpoena was overbroad under the law, given that it involved seizing records from a broad range of telephones across AP’s newsgathering operation. More than 100 journalists work in the locations served...

On Tuesday, White House Spokesperson Jay Carney claimed that President Barack Obama and other White House officials were unaware that an independent inspector general had been investigating the IRS about whether it targeted conservative groups until they read about it in press reports last Friday, even though the White House general council's office was notified "several weeks ago" about the investigation. When pressed by reporters about how he could "categorically" be so sure that nobody in the White House knew about the IRS's actions before Friday, Carney deflected the questions. He became less steadfast in his defense, saying he had...

- Federal government demanded a list of everyone a Tennessee organization had ever trained, or planned to train - Linchpins of Liberty mentors high school and college students and teaches them conservative political philosophy, but is not tea-party-linked - 'Can you imagine my responsibility to parents if I disclosed the names of their children to the IRS?' asked the group's founder - IRS Inspector General report listed seven questions the agency should never have asked, but this wasn't one of them When a Tennessee lawyer asked the IRS for tax-exempt status for a mentoring group that trained high school and...

So the American Civil Liberties Union, concerned about the US government's alleged propensity to surveil the email of American citizens without a warrant, filed a request with the Justice Department under the Freedom of Information Act for more information. This is what it got: A memorandum entitled “Guidance for the Minimization of Text Messages over Dual-Function Cellular Telephones” that is completely blacked out. All fifteen pages of it. Mr. President, I don't think "transparent" means what you think it means.

It’s really too bad it had to come to this, but thanks to a gross violation (at least in spirit) of the First and Fourth Amendments to the Constitution, we finally got a bit of skepticism about Obama from the mainstream press.

Eric Holder just ended a press conference. As previously reported by Fox News: Attorney General Eric Holder is recusing himself from the investigation into leaks made to The Associated Press, Fox News has learned. Also, as CNN reported, Holder previously had recused himself from consideration of issuance of the subpoenas: Attorney General Eric Holder recused himself from the decision to subpoena the phone records of Associated Press reporters, a source told CNN’s Jessica Yellin on Tuesday. The approval fell to Deputy Attorney General James Cole, the source said. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Tuesday that the White House had...

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus believes Attorney General Eric Holder should resign for tapping the phones of the Associated Press, calling the move a violation of the First Amendment. Here is his statement: “Freedom of the press is an essential right in a free society. The First Amendment doesn’t request the federal government to respect it; it demands it. Attorney General Eric Holder, in permitting the Justice Department to issue secret subpoenas to spy on Associated Press reporters, has trampled on the First Amendment and failed in his sworn duty to uphold the Constitution. Because Attorney General Holder has so egregiously...

The DOJ’s U.S. Attorneys’ Manual is quite clear on this point: The Attorney General’s authorization is normally required before the issuance of any subpoena to a member of the news media or for the telephone toll records of a member of the news media. However, in those cases where the media member or his or her representative agrees to provide the material sought and that material has been published or broadcast, the United States Attorney or the responsible Assistant Attorney General may authorize issuance of the subpoena, thereafter submitting a report to the Office of Public Affairs detailing the circumstances...

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) told Breitbart News he thinks Attorney General Eric Holder needs a refresher course on the U.S. Constitution in the wake of reports that the Department of Justice secretly obtained two months of the Associated Press's phone records. Gosar expressed concerns that President Barack Obama’s “enemies list” continues to grow, especially in light of revelations that the IRS targeted conservative and Tea Party organizations. “On one hand, I am encouraged to hear that the Attorney General obtained warrants first. Score one for the Fourth Amendment,” Gosar said in an email. “But I remain concerned about the First...

The White House has "no knowledge" of the Justice Department's efforts to obtain phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, press secretary Jay Carney said Monday. “Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP," he said in a statement. "We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department," he added. "Any questions about an ongoing criminal investigation should be directed to the Department of Justice.”

The White House on Monday distanced President Obama from the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press telephone records. “Other than press reports, we have no knowledge of any attempt by the Justice Department to seek phone records of the AP,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. Carney said the White House had no involvement in the Justice effort. “We are not involved in decisions made in connection with criminal investigations, as those matters are handled independently by the Justice Department,” he said. The Justice Department said in a letter to the AP on Friday that...

John asks Mary for a date. She says no. The request was unwelcome, so he’s a sexual harasser. Professor Smith discusses the risk of HIV transmission through anal sex, making one of his 500 students uncomfortable. He’s a sexual harasser. Just about everyone on campus is guilty of sexual harassment under rules set out May 9 by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education, charges the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).

The Department of Justice issued a vague response to an Associated Press report Monday that the DOJ had “secretly obtained” two months worth of phone records of AP reporters and editors. AP reported that the government would not give an explanation for why it had sought out the phone records, but noted that the DOJ had previously stated that it was looking into who leaked information to the AP for a story in May about a terror plot that was successfully deterred. In the story were details about “a CIA operation in Yemen that stopped an al-Qaida plot in the...

<p>Looks Like DOJ HAS BEEN TAPPING AP NEWS TELEPHONE LINES TO DISCOVER THEIR CONFIDENTIAL SOURCES IN CONGRESS!</p> <p>The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.</p>

The Department of Justice under Eric Holder can’t seem to help itself. Truth and candor have gone extinct. The latest lie involving the nomination of Thomas Perez to be Labor secretary is found in today’s Washington Post. Naturally, the compliant reporter, Josh Hicks, appears to make no effort to challenge the lie, and probably never will. This latest lie about Perez revolves around his illegal use of his personal Verizon email account to conduct Justice Department business at his Takoma Park, Maryland, home. I testified to the House Judiciary Committee last month that when he was confronted with the question...

(US President Barack gestures as he speaks at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City, Friday, May 3, 2013.) (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama, speaking in Mexico City on Friday, said the United States is responsible for much of the crime and violence in Mexico because of the demand for drugs and the illegal smuggling of guns across the southern border. He told the crowd, “We understand that the root cause of violence that’s been happening here in Mexico for which so many Mexicans have suffered is the demand for illegal drugs in the United States.” He later added, “We...

Guns To Mexico: Once again blaming his own country for Mexico's gun violence without mentioning Fast and Furious, the gun runner in chief pledges to find and jail gun smugglers. Perhaps he should start with his own administration. 'We recognize that most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States. ... We'll keep increasing the pressure on the gun traffickers who bring illegal guns into Mexico, and we'll keep putting these criminals where they belong — behind bars," President Obama told students assembled at the Anthropology Museum in Mexico City on Friday, repeating...

On the same day that the 2013 NRA Convention began in Houston, TX Barack Obama was in Mexico telling an audience that “most of the guns used to commit violent crimes here in Mexico, come from the United States.” What he didn’t tell that audience was that his administration is responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, a program in which the ATF told reluctant gun store owners to sell high-powered guns to bad guys who would then ‘walk’ those guns to drug cartels in Mexico. Yet, Republicans and gun rights activists have avoided bludgeoning those in the administration and on...

The Hill reports that Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback just signed into law a statute that "bars the federal government from regulating guns and ammunition manufactured and stored within Kansas state lines." Moreover, the new law makes it a felony for federal authorities to attempt to enforce federal gun control laws, treaties, or rules related to firearms within Kansas state lines. Federal agents would not be arrested but will be prosecuted on "a complaint-and-summons basis." Naturally, U.S. Attorney general Eric Holder is furious. Already he has sent a letter to Brownback promising, “The United States will take all appropriate action, including...

An Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms senior agent assigned to the Phoenix office in 2010, Dodson's job is to stop gun trafficking across the border. Instead, he says he was ordered to sit by and watch it happen. Dodson's bosses say that never happened. Now, he's risking his job to go public. Agent Dodson and other sources say the gun walking strategy was approved all the way up to the Justice Department. The idea was to see where the guns ended up, build a big case and take down a cartel. And it was all kept secret from Mexico. ATF named...