Free Republic

On Wednesday, the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) were all over the latest developments in the Russia investigation saga. They mainly focused on how former FBI Director James Comey received permission from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to speak to Congress. Among the developments that didn’t make the cut for ABC's and CBS's evening programming, were a series of subpoenas issued by the House to former high-ranking members of the Obama administration for improper unmasking. Instead, they mentioned those issued to Trump associates. When they did mention the subpoenas it was buried at the end of their reports. Unlike...

house-intelligence-committee-said-to-have-issued-seven-subpoenas-in-russia-probe Drudge link to article WSJ

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey uses conspiracy theory-laden blogs as sources for information on alleged Trump-Russia connections, according to a top aide in his office. “In fact, subpoenas have now been issued in Northern Virginia in regard to General Flynn and General Flynn’s associates. A grand jury has been empaneled up in New York,” the Massachusetts Democrat said in a Wednesday CNN interview. One of Markey’s top aides told The Daily Caller that his sources were Louise Mensch’s blog and a left-wing blog called the Palmer Report. Markey did not mention these sources in his television appearance.

Washington (CNN)Federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas to associates of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn seeking business records, as part of the ongoing probe of Russian meddling in last year's election, according to people familiar with the matter. CNN learned of the subpoenas hours before President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey. The subpoenas represent the first sign of a significant escalation of activity in the FBI's broader investigation begun last July into possible ties between Trump campaign associates and Russia.

FBI field offices in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Little Rock, Ark., are investigating the Clinton Foundation concerning allegations of pay-to-play financial and political corruption, according to a report at The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Sunday. Mirroring information provided by a former senior law enforcement official that “multiple FBI investigations are underway involving potential corruption charges against the Clinton Foundation,” WSJ revelation confirms what The Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group reported in August. FBI field offices in three cities, specifically, New York, Little Rock and Washington, D.C., were coordinating with the U. S. Attorneys working in those...

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh recently joined 16 other state Attorneys General to launch, in their own words, “an unprecedented, multi-state effort to investigate and prosecute the ‘high-funded and morally vacant forces’ that have stymied attempts to combat global warming—starting with holding ExxonMobil and other industry giants accountable for fraud and suppression of key climate science.” In explaining his support of “AGs United for Clean Power,” Frosh said: “There is no doubt that climate change is an existential threat to our society and to our entire planet….I am deeply troubled that oil companies have contributed to the problem by intentionally...

MADISON, Wis. – Democrat Milwaukee County prosecutors tapped the email and text communications of conservative activists as part of a five-year probe aimed at bringing down Republican Gov. Scott Walker, affidavits reviewed by Wisconsin Watchdog reveal. One target of the spying operation told Wisconsin Watchdog the methods used to keep tabs on Wisconsin residents were like those of the National Security Agency’s domestic spying program. “It was actually worse because (Milwaukee County prosecutors) were taking the body of emails and looking at actual data,” said the source, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from the prosecutors....

The City of Houston will withdraw its controversial subpoenas of five pastors tied to a lawsuit over the city's equal rights ordinance, Mayor Annise Parker announced at a news conference Wednesday. The announcement came amid a national firestorm about the subpoenas, which have prompted outrage among Christian conservatives. Parker said two meetings yesterday, one with local pastors and another with national clergy, persuaded her to pull the subpoenas altogether. The subpoenas are part of a discovery phase in a suit filed by equal rights opponents, who largely take issue with the rights the law extends to gay and transgender residents.

Although much has been reported regarding the ethics and legality behind the city of Houston's subpoena of five Houston-area pastors that had asked them to turn over all of their sermons that address homosexuality, gender identity, and the city's first openly-lesbian mayor, little attention has been given to who those five pastors actually are and the ministries they operate.Although those five pastors, Steve Riggle, David Welch, Hernan Castaño, Khanh Huynh and Magda Hermida, were not technically parties of the lawsuit against the city's new equal rights ordinance that sparked the need for the subpoenas, they all participated in the coalition...

https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/oagnews/release.php?id=4880 AUSTIN -- Attorney General Abbott today asked that the Houston City Attorney to immediately withdraw the subpoenas sent last month to several Houston-area pastors seeking sermons, notes and other information. In his letter to the city attorney, Attorney General Abbott said, “Whether you intend it to be so or not, your action is a direct assault on the religious liberty guaranteed by the First Amendment. The people of Houston and their religious leaders must be absolutely secure in the knowledge that their religious affairs are beyond the reach of the government.” Mr. David Feldman City Attorney City of Houston...

Churches have received subpoenas issued by the city of Houston demanding copies of sermons. Houston is probing opposition to a ballot referendum pertaining to an ordinance proposing a local discrimination law affecting gays. (Bryan Preston posted this summary of the lawlessness taking place in Houston.) Over 50,000 petition signatures were gathered opposing the ordinance. Now the city, run by the first openly gay mayor, Annise Parker, is retaliating and demanding that churches turn over sermons. You read that correctly. This is the sort of government behavior that used to be confined to two-bit third-world regimes. The gay rights movement was...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) issued a subpoena Friday for White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, arguing he has not cooperated with a GOP probe of President Obama's political office. Issa accused McDonough in a letter of failing to accept investigators' "good faith" effort to address concerns about revealing privileged communications between Obama and his staff. "The White House has acknowledged that the dialogue has been constructive and that progress has been made. Unfortunately, these characterizations represent the total sum of what the White House has provided," Issa wrote on Friday. "The White House has not produced...

Lois Lerner, the controversial director of the tax-exempt organizations division at the Internal Revenue Service, has a long sordid history of targeting conservatives. Under the direction of Lois Lerner, the Federal Election Commission sued the Christian Coalition in the 1990s. She harassed the Christian Coalition for three election cycles. Eventually, she lost her case. At one point Lerner even asked a targeted conservative if Pat Robertson prayed over him. (Sound familiar?)

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has subpoenaed the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service to testify next week before Congress about a trove of lost emails that could contain evidence of a plan to targeted conservative groups. Issa, R-Calif., will hold a June 23 hearing aimed at finding out more about two year´s worth of emails -- from 2009 to 2011 -- that the IRS has reported lost. The emails were from former top IRS official Lois G. Lerner to Justice Department and Treasury officials. ssa had requested the emails because he and other Republicans believe

(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,...

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 Republicans on Friday accused Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew of obstructing their investigation into the IRS’s targeting of tea party and conservative groups, and issued subpoenas for more agency documents. Oversight committee chairman Darrell Issa sent a scathing latter to Lew blasting him and Obama for dismissing the GOP’s claims about IRS targeting as a phony scandal, saying that Lew has attempted to thwart his investigation. (Snip) The IRS came under scrutiny when its auditor reported earlier this year that the agency had singled out groups with “tea party,” “patriot” or “9/12” in their names for special scrutiny when the...

It’s 4 p.m. ET as I’m writing this. If you had that time plus “deeper complicity for Holder in the Rosen investigation” in the pool, congrats.We already knew that he signed the warrant for Rosen’s e-mails. Now we know for sure that it wasn’t pro forma. President Good Government announced yesterday that he’s ordered the Attorney General to review the DOJ’s guidelines for snooping on reporters. Imagine how dismayed Eric Holder will be when he finds out what Eric Holder’s done. The Justice Department said on Friday that officials up to Attorney General Eric Holder vetted a decision to search...

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 lawmaker leading the charge to investigate the Benghazi terror attack on Friday subpoenaed the co-author of a report that slammed the State Department but didn´t interview Hillary Clinton. House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) formally demanded that retired ambassador Thomas Pickering submit to being deposed by the committee next Thursday. The subpoena comes in the wake of a series of acrimonious public exchanges this week between the two men. Issa didn´t issue a subpoena to former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen, who co-authored the Benghazi report with Pickering.