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THE NECESSITY OF TESTIMONY FROM SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY TO EXPLAIN HIS DEPARTMENT'S FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH A CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENA (Extensions of Remarks - May 21, 2014) Text of this article available as: TXT PDF [Extensions of Remarks] [Page E797] THE NECESSITY OF TESTIMONY FROM SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY TO EXPLAIN HIS DEPARTMENT'S FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH A CONGRESSIONAL SUBPOENA _____ HON. DARRELL E. ISSA of california in the house of representatives Wednesday, May 21, 2014 Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, as the House's Select Committee on Benghazi stands up and takes ownership of an investigation that has been...

While Ambassador Chris Stevens was missing on September 11, 2012, and while Tyrone Woods, Sean Smith and Glen Doherty were fighting for their lives, with military assets within a quick flight to provide aid, the Obama White House decided to call…YouTube. A still-classified State Department e-mail says that one of the first responses from the White House to the Benghazi attack was to contact YouTube to warn of the “ramifications” of allowing the posting of an anti-Islamic video, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The memo suggests that even as

A still-classified State Department e-mail says that one of the first responses from the White House to the Benghazi attack was to contact YouTube to warn of the “ramifications” of allowing the posting of an anti-Islamic video, according to Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The memo suggests that even as the attack was still underway — and before the CIA began the process of compiling talking points on its analysis of what happened — the White House believed it was in retaliation for a controversial video. The subject line of the...

(CNSNews.com) – House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) subpoenaed the Department of Justice today for documents after the DOJ’s Election Crimes Branch director, Richard Pilger, refused to answer critical questions 34 times, as advised by a DOJ lawyer, about the IRS-Tea Party scandal. “The Department’s refusal to allow Mr. Pilger to testify about matters highly relevant to the Committee’s investigation unnecessarily delays and frustrates the Committee’s Constitutional oversight obligations,” said Chairman Issa in a letter sent with the subpoena. “The Department’s obstruction in this regard, coupled with its failure to produce any relevant material to date,...

In their first, and probably only, debate, GOP gubernatorial hopefuls Tim Donnelly and Neel Kashkari sparred Thursday over who would be most likely to beat incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown, in the process exposing deep divisions over the direction of the state’s Republican Party. The approximately 90-minute event, moderated by the hosts of KFI AM 640’s conservative radio program “The John and Ken Show,” hit on a wide range of topics, from gun rights to Kasharki’s tenure at the U.S. Treasury Department. A fake skeleton played the role of Brown, underscoring the governor’s absence.

House Oversight Committee head Darrell Issa slammed the State Department Thursday for using “slippery tactics” to weasel out of providing documents related to the 2012 Benghazi attack – and issued a new subpoena to haul Secretary of State John Kerry before the panel. The California Republican said he'd kept his part of a bargain – lifting an initial May 21 date for Kerry to go before the committee – but the State Department has "back tracked," The Hill reports. “With this State Department’s slippery tactics, it’s no wonder our friends in the world are losing faith in us and our...

Republican Congressman Darrell Issa on Thursday strongly condemned comments by GOP gubernatorial front-runner Tim Donnelly, in which the state lawmaker has tried to tie his Indian-American rival to fundamentalist Islamic law, calling his statements “hateful and ignorant garbage.” Donnelly, a state assemblyman who is popular with the tea party, has repeatedly said this week that Neel Kashkari supported Shariah banking code when he was a senior official at the U.S. Treasury Department in 2008. On Facebook, Donnelly posted a link to a banking seminar hosted by the department during which Kashkari, a Hindu, delivered opening remarks. “As far as I’m...

House Republicans have run out of patience with President Obama's administration, Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said Wednesday. Issa, who has been investigating employee misconduct at the Environmental Protection Agency, demanded that deputy administrator Bob Perciasepe produce documents within one month.

Secretary of State John Kerry will be on a previously scheduled trip to Mexico on May 21, the day he’s been subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to testify on Benghazi, a State Department spokeswoman said Monday. Deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said Kerry, who has been overseas, is aware of the subpoena, announced Friday by Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif. “As we’ve said repeatedly, we were all surprised, quite frankly, that instead of working with us and reaching out to us and offering first an invitation to testify, that Chairman Issa jumped immediately to subpoenaing...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa is issuing a subpoena for Secretary of State John Kerry to testify before the committee May 21 about Benghazi, Issa announced Friday. The move comes in the wake of new, "smoking gun" emails that show top White House officials working to craft a narrative that the attack was the result of a YouTube video and "not a broader failure of policy." Republicans have expressed outrage that the documents were not provided earlier under subpoenas for them, but were instead revealed via a Freedom Of Information Request lawsuit by the conservative non-profit group Judicial Watch....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee has issued a subpoena for Secretary of State John Kerry to testify at a May 21 public hearing concerning the attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, the committee said on Friday. Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said the panel wanted Kerry to answer questions about the State Department's response to the congressional investigation of the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012, that killed four Americans. Issa, a Republican, said the State Department has not fully complied with previous subpoenas for documents related to the attack. The Benghazi attack has become...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) blasted the Obama administration Thursday on Benghazi. The Obama administration misled the American people on Benghazi massacre blaming the attack on a YouTube video rather than terrorism. The White House crafted talking points blaming the video despite having knowledge that this was a planned terrorist attack on the US consulate. Chairman Darrell Issa: “It is disturbing and perhaps criminal that documents like these were hidden by the Obama administration from Congress and the public alike… The Americans who lost their lives in Benghazi, those who were wounded, and the American people deserve nothing...

Back in June of 2013 Elijah Cummings declared the IRS investigation over, despite the continued stonewalling by the Obama administration: Based upon everything I’ve seen, the case is solved. If it were me, I would wrap this case up and move on, to be frank with you. The IG made some recommendations, those recommendations are being adopted by the IRS, we’ve got a new commissioner in, acting commissioner in, Danny Werfel is doing a great job, I think we’re in great shape. Last month all of the democrat members of the House Oversight Committee demanded Darryl Issa end the IRS...

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) could face up to five years in federal prison for obstructing a Congressional proceeding. On Wednesday, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and five Subcommittee Chairmen on the committee sent a letter to Ranking Member Cummings demanding an explanation for his staff’s queries from the IRS, why the Minority hid these efforts from the Majority, and why the Ranking Member denied such actions by his staff at a February Subcommittee hearing: “Although you have previously denied that your staff made inquiries to the IRS about conservative organization True the Vote that may have led to additional...

The U.S. House Oversight Committee today released emails between the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Democrat Minority Leader Elijah Cummings of the same committee detailing joint attempts to collect non-public information from True the Vote. According to the release obtained by Breitbart Texas, House Oversight offered glimpses into coordinated fishing attempts for information: Five days after Cummings contacted True the Vote seeking “copies of all training materials used for volunteers, affiliates, or other entities,” the IRS sent True the Vote a letter requesting True the Vote provide “a copy of [True the Vote’s] volunteer registration form,” “…the process you use...

This story was published at 4:33 p.m. and has been updated with a response from Rep. Cummings.House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has accused the panel's top Democrat of prompting the Internal Revenue Service in 2012 to target a conservative organization applying for non-profit status. Issa said records obtained last week from the IRS show communications from the office of ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., about True the Vote, a Texas-based, non-profit conservative group that aims to prevent voter fraud.The communications at one point involved Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official whom Issa's panel is poised...

The heat in the IRS investigation just went up. Rep. Darrell Issa, head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter today to ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings in which he accuses Cummings of working to "obstruct the investigation" into IRS misbehavior. The bulk of Rep. Issa's letter is devoted to some recently uncovered emails which demonstrate that Rep. Cummings was seeking information on True the Vote, the voter integrity group based in Texas which became the target of much unwanted government attention. Cummings' staff contacted the IRS in August 2012 to inform them that they...

A new report from the head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee tries to discredit Democratic claims that the Internal Revenue Service targeted both liberal and conservative groups for extra scrutiny during the past two election cycles. “These Democratic claims are flat-out wrong and have no basis in any thorough examination of the facts,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the panel’s chairman, said in an executive summary of the findings. Before the 2010 election, the IRS began using “be on the lookout” lists, or BOLOs, to screen for groups that might be involved in too much political activity to...

The House Oversight Committee will vote next Thursday on whether to hold former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress, sources say. A committee aide tells National Review Online the panel will “make an announcement on the contempt process for Lois Lerner sometime today,” and a GOP congressman confirms that committee chairman Darrell Issa has indicated the vote will take place “next week.” Lerner has twice declined to answer questions from lawmakers about her role in the targeting of right-leaning groups. At a June hearing, the panel determined in a party-line vote that she had waived her...

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