Free Republic

Why has Gov. Tom Wolf’s Office of General Counsel paid nearly $400,000 of taxpayer money to several private law firms? It’s a simple question, and there may be a simple and reasonable answer. But the administration’s failure to answer it raises questions about what causes and activities the governor has used state resources to pursue, and why he didn’t use the state’s attorneys to do it. Secrecy always raises suspicions, even if they are entirely unwarranted. In terms of legal bills for complex institutional litigation, $367,500 spread across six firms is a pittance. The Office of General Counsel employs hundreds...

On Friday, Special Counsel John Durham filed with the D.C. Federal District Court a what should have been a boring conflict of interest motion, but it hid a surprise: The Clinton campaign, through Perkins Coie, spied on Trump both before and after he was president. The following is an plain English-language summary of relevant parts of the motion: Michael Sussman was a partner at Law Firm-1 (i.e., Perkins Coie). He met with the FBI General Counsel (i.e., James Baker), and offered data and “white papers” purporting to show that Trump was communicating covertly with a Russia-based bank (i.e., Alfa-Bank). Mueller,...

Today, Special Counsel John Durham provided a “discovery Update” to the court in the Michael Sussmann case. In this filing, available here, he disclosed that his team has obtained a tremendous amount of information ranging from a variety of sources – including Perkins Coie, the Hillary Clinton Campaign, and former DNC/Clinton lawyer Mark Elias.While Sussmann has been charged with giving false statements to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker regarding the Alfa Bank/Trump Organization hoax (background here), Durham notes that the “Government also maintains an active, ongoing criminal investigation of” Sussmann’s conduct. In other words, Sussmann’s criminal conduct likely is not...

Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows unmasked two of the previously unidentified, anti-Trump, pro-Hillary FBI investigators referred for investigation by the Inspector General. These FBI attorneys do not work in “counterintelligence” as the FBI previously claimed as an excuse to withhold their names from the public. Rep. Mark Meadows unmasked two of the unidentified FBI officials in the IG report. The unnamed FBI officials “Agent 1” and “Agent 5” were involved in the FBI Clinton investigation and were also engaged in a romantic relationship just like fellow FBI lovebirds Strzok and Page. One of the FBI lawyers is Sally Moyer, the...

A Thursday report in Circa cites three officials claiming that FBI General Counsel James A. Baker is the “top suspect” in an investigation into leaks of classified Department of Justice information to the media. The report claims the investigation is “criminal” in nature. It is unclear exactly what information Baker is suspected of leaking and to which new outlets he did so. Baker is reportedly a “close ally” of ousted FBI Director James Comey, who, in 2014, appointed him to his current post as the top attorney representing the bureau. According to a June report in Vox, Baker was...

Sara Carter, Award Winning National Security Correspondent for Circa, joined Brian Kilmeade today to discuss her breaking news regarding leaks from within the FBI. Sarah has uncovered that the General Counsel for the FBI, James Baker, is allegedly under criminal investigation by the Department of Justice for leaking classified information. "I would be stunned if it was not true." Carter says, "The FBI just doesn't let stories like this run if there is no validity." Sara is also perusing the allegations of the unmaking of names by the Obama administration. "It appears to those who have viewed these documents...

President Bush has announced that he intends to appoint an official with toll-road investor Macquarie to be the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation. David James Gribbin, IV, of Virginia is currently the division director for Macquarie Holdings, a Washington, DC, company under the umbrella of the toll-road investor Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia. Before that private sector job, Gribbin was chief counsel of the Federal Highway Administration. Current Transportation Secretary Mary Peters also worked at FHWA at that time. Bush’s announcement may draw anti-privatization sentiment from U.S. senators during the confirmation process, according to Toll Road News,...