On this episode of Liberty Never Sleeps, Tom discusses the state of education today and the education front in Election 2020.
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Someone Is Lying About the Handling of the Clinton Email Case
James Comey, left, Loretta Lynch, right.
Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch accused former FBI Director James Comey of mischaracterizing her statements under oath by repeatedly alleging she instructed him to call the Hillary Clinton email probe a “matter” instead of an “investigation.”
The transcripts of her remarks, which were made during a joint closed-door session of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees last December, were released by Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee.
“I didn’t direct anyone to use specific phraseology,” she told congressional investigators during a joint closed-door session of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees last December. “When the Director asked me how to best to handle that, I said: What I have been saying is we have received a referral and we are working on the matter, working on the issue, or we have all the resources we need to handle the matter, handle the issue.”
“So that was the suggestion that I made to him.”
In June 2017, Mr. Comey testified under oath before the House Intelligence Committee that Ms. Lynch pressured him to downplay the significance of the investigation back in September 2015.
The now-fired former FBI director said it led him to question Ms. Lynch’s independence and his decision to hold the highly irregular press conference in July 2016, during which he announced no charges would be filed against Mrs. Clinton.
“I was quite surprised that he characterized it in that way. We did have a conversation about it, so I wasn’t surprised that he remembered that we met about it and talked about it,” she added. “But I was quite surprised that that was his characterization of it, because that was not how it was conveyed to him, certainly not how it was intended.”
As People’s Pundit Daily (PPD) was first to report, Mr. Comey told relevant FBI investigators about the alleged instruction to refer to the case as a “matter” rather than an investigation. While Ms. Lynch denied that version of events, when pressed by House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio — then the panel’s chairman — her testimony got less clear.
Jordan: “Excuse me. Ms. Lynch, so in the meeting with the FBI Director you referred to the Clinton investigation as a matter — I just want to make sure I understand — but you did not instruct the Director when he testified in front of Congress to call it a matter. Is that accurate?”
Lynch: “I said that I had been referring to — I had been using the phraseology. We’ve received a referral. Because we received a public referral, which we were confirming. And that is Department policy, that when we receive a public referral from any agency, that we confirm the referral but we neither confirm nor deny the investigation. That’s actually a standard DOJ policy. So in the meeting with the Director, which was, again, around September — I don’t recall the date — of 2015, it was very early in the investigation, I expressed the view that it was, in my opinion, too early for us to confirm that we had an investigation.”
Ms. Lynch also told congressional investigators that Mr. Comey did not tell her about the press conference until that very morning.
“No, I wasn’t aware of it until the morning of when he called you [Congress]. He called me before he gave it. And I believe he called others. I was on the line for those calls,” she said. “But I was not aware of it until that morning when he called and indicated he would be making a press announcement about the investigation.”
“But it was not to the extent of letting me know that it would be his recommendation ultimately.”
The former attorney general came under fire during the investigation after it was revealed she met with Bill Clinton secretly on a tarmac in Phoenix, Arizona, aboard her private plane.
Mr. Comey has recently found himself in disagreement with other Obama Administration officials, as well.
He disputed testimony made under oath by former CIA director John Brennan, specifically regarding which agency insisted on using information from the Steele dossier in the intelligence assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
That assessment was later given to then-President-elect Donald Trump.
“No, it wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had,” Mr. Brennan testified in May 2017. “It was not in any way used as a basis for the intelligence community’s assessment that was done.”
Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the now-retired former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, claims to have seen an email from Mr. Comey stating that Mr. Brennan “insisted” on including the document.
Trump Directs Former White House Counsel to Defy House Democrat Subpoena, Citing Office of Legal Counsel Opinion
Graphic concept for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). (Photo: AdobeStock)
The Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel said former White House Counsel Don McGahn “is not legally required to appear and testify about matters related to his official duties as Counsel to the President.”
“We provide the same answer the Department of Justice has repeatedly provided for nearly five decades: Congress may not constitutionally compel the President’s senior advisers to testify about their official duties,” Assistant Attorney General Steven A. Engel, wrote in the opinion.
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued a subpoena on April 22 to try and force Mr. McGahn to testify. It was only days after the release of the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and the committee scheduled a hearing for Tuesday.
Volume I of the Special Counsel’s report exonerated the President of the United States and others of accusations of so-called “collusion” with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Volume II, which cited interviews with Mr. McGahn, involves the question of obstruction of justice.
Mr. Mueller made the very unusual and irregular decision not to make a recommendation on obstruction of justice, opting instead to punt to Attorney General Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
After consultation, the nation’s top cop and his number two decided the ten instances of potential obstruction did not meet the statutory bar, lacking the required “corrupt intent” to obstruct an underlying crime.
President Donald Trump directed Mr. McGahn to defy the subpoena and not to show to the hearing. The White House cited the opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel.
“The Department of Justice has provided a legal opinion stating that, based on long-standing, bipartisan, and Constitutional precedent, the former Counsel to the President cannot be forced to give such testimony, and Mr. McGahn has been directed to act accordingly,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said.
“This action has been taken in order to ensure that future Presidents can effectively execute the responsibilities of the Office of the Presidency.”
President Trump ordered Mr. McGahn and White House staff to comply fully with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the course of his investigation. He refused to assert executive privilege on the release of the report, though Attorney General William Barr said he “would’ve been well within his right to do so.”
But the White House drew a line in the sand with respect to cooperation with House Democrats, who favor using the guise of oversight hearings as de facto impeachment proceedings. Earlier this month, now-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone notified the committee that Mr. McGahn would not be allowed to comply with the subpoena.
Worth noting, The New York Times first reported that the President would direct Mr. McGahn not to show for the hearing.
“The White House provided these records to Mr. McGahn in connection with its cooperation with the Special Counsel’s investigation and with the clear understanding that the records remain subject to the control of the White House for all purposes,” Mr. Cipollone wrote. “The White House records remain legally protected from disclosure under longstanding constitutional principles, because they implicate significant Executive Branch confidentiality interests and executive privilege.”
Assistant Attorney General Engel also stated in the OLC opinion “Congress could not lawfully exercise any inherent contempt authority against Mr. McGahn” for refusing to appear.
“We similarly believe that Congress could not lawfully exercise any inherent contempt authority against Mr. McGahn for asserting immunity,” he wrote. “The constitutional separation of powers bars Congress from exercising its inherent contempt power in the face of a presidential assertion of executive privilege.”
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee just recently voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena that would violate the law. It demanded DOJ turn over 535 fully unredacted copies of the Mueller report by May 1.
Redactions to the publicly release version constitute less than 10% of the report. Attorney General Barr further made available a near-fully unredacted version minus grand jury testimony to the Gang of Eight, Chairs and Ranking members of both Judiciary committees.
In a letter to Chairman Nadler, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said the less-redacted version “would permit review of 98.5 percent of the report, including 99.9 percent of Volume II, which discusses the investigation of the President’s actions.”
Thus far, not a single Democrat has even bothered to review it.
“The immunity of the President’s immediate advisers from compelled congressional testimony on matters related to their official responsibilities has long been recognized and arises from the fundamental workings of the separation of powers,” Mr. Engel further wrote in conclusion. “This immunity applies to the former White House Counsel.”
“Accordingly, Mr. McGahn is not legally required to appear and testify about matters related to his official duties as Counsel to the President.”
Why are liberals always trying to change things? Can’t they just leave well enough alone? Tom blames liberals for ruining everything.
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All bumper music and sound clips are not owned by the show, are commentary, and of educational purposes, or de minimus effect, and not for monetary gain.
No copyright is claimed in any use of such materials and to the extent that material may appear to be infringed, I assert that such alleged infringement is permissible under fair use principles in U.S. copyright laws. If you believe material has been used in an unauthorized manner, please contact the poster.
U.S. economy on an American flag background waving in the wind, in 3D rendering. (Photo: AdobeStock)
The Chicago Fed National Activity Index (CFNAI) unexpectedly declined to -0.45 in April from an upwardly revised +0.05 in March, missing the consensus forecast.
I shared a video last year that pointed out that Americans live in a nation that became prosperous thanks to “creative destruction.”
That’s the term developed by Joseph Schumpeter to describe the economic churning caused by competition, innovation, and markets. International trade is just a minor part of this process, though it’s the part that generates the most controversy.
The bad news is that some people lose their jobs as the economy evolves and changes. And some companies go bankrupt. There are real victims and tragic stories.
But the good news is that other jobs are created. And entrepreneurs start new businesses.
And the better news is that our living standards increase. Especially over time. Even for many of those who lost jobs in the short run.
That’s why we’re much richer, on average, than our parents and grandparents.
Needless to say, a key measure of a healthy and dynamic economy is for the job gains to exceed the job losses.
So, when I spoke to congressional staff earlier this week about trade and protectionism, I figured I should go beyond theory and include some numbers.
I went to the relevant website at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and found that more than 28 million jobs were lost in 2017 (final data for 2018 is still not available).
That sounds terrible. And for many workers, it was horrible news.
But the good news, as you can see in the screenshot below is that the U.S. economy created more than 30 million new jobs that year.
The obvious takeaway from this data is that the crowd in Washington should adopt policies that ensure we have strong growth so that people who lose jobs have lots of good options for new employment.
For what it’s worth, that message seems to be lost on Bernie Sanders, who has a long list of policies that would turn America into a version of Greece, France, and Italy.
Bernie Sanders stands at the podium on stage during a walk through before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 25, 2016. (Photo: SS)
Bernie Sanders is a delusional hard-core statist, but that’s part of what makes him attractive for some voters. Simply stated, they think he’s authentic rather than a finger-in-the-wind politician.
But I’m not so sure that’s true.
I pointed out in 2015 that he’s not even true to his socialist ideology. Rather than promoting government ownership, central planning, and price controls, he has behaved like a conventional left-wing politician. Indeed, there was almost no difference between his voting record and those of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Whether that’s good or bad is a matter of judgement, of course.
Today, though, I want to highlight something that’s unambiguously bad. He’s decided that currying favor with union bosses at the National Education Association is so important that it’s okay to trap kids from poor families in failing schools. And that, to me, makes him a political hack rather than an honest leftist.
Check out these excerpts from a story in the New York Times.
Senator Bernie Sanders took aim at charter schools on Saturday… In a 10-point plan, Mr. Sanders…said that, if elected, he would…forbid…federal spending on new charter schools as well as…ban…for-profit charter schools — which account for a small proportion of existing charters. “The proliferation of charter schools has disproportionately affected communities of color,” Mr. Sanders wrote… Mr. Sanders of Vermont would also require that charter schools be subject to the same oversight as public schools… Parts of the plan focused on educators, declaring Mr. Sanders’s support for a $60,000 baseline for teachers’ starting salaries as well as unionization efforts by charter schoolteachers.
By the way, I’m not a big fan of charter schools. It would be far better to have true school choice and allow parents to pick high-performing private schools.
But charter schools are definitely a better option if the only other choice is a failing government school. Especially since pouring more money into a broken system doesn’t work. Regardless of whether it’s a Democrat plan to waste money or a Republican plan to waste money.
This assumes, however, that the goal is to help children get a good education so they have a better chance for a good life.
That’s not what motivates Bernie Sanders. Like many Democrats, his main goal is to appease the teacher unions. And that means protecting and preserving the privileges and perks of union members and the government’s education monopoly.
DOJ Official Warns Former U.S. Intel Officers Spying for China
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Graphic.
A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer was sentenced Friday to 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to transmit national defense information to an agent of the People’s Republic of China. The Justice Department (DOJ) warned the case is part of an “alarming trend” involving China targeting former U.S. intelligence officials.
Kevin Patrick Mallory, 62, of Leesburg, Virginia, was found guilty in June 2018 under the Espionage Act on counts of conspiracy to deliver, attempted delivery, delivery of national defense information to aid a foreign government and making material false statements.
The trial took place in March and April 2017. A district court subsequently ordered an acquittal on the counts of delivery and attempted delivery due to lack of venue.
“Former U.S. Intelligence officer Kevin Patrick Mallory will spend the next 20 years of his life in prison for conspiring to pass national defense information to a Chinese intelligence officer,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, said in a statement. “This case is one in an alarming trend of former U.S. intelligence officers being targeted by China and betraying their country and colleagues.”
According to court records and evidence presented at the trial, Mr. Mallory travelled to Shanghai to meet with an individual who claimed to be an employee of a think tank in the People’s Republic of China. However, Mr. Mallory, who speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese, determined Michael Yang was in fact a Chinese Intelligence Officer.
Ultimately, Mr. Mallory consented to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reviewing a Samsung Galaxy given to him by Mr. Yang for use as a covert communications (covcom) device.
Analysis of the device revealed a number of communications in which the two talked about classified information that Mr. Mallory could sell to the PRC’s intelligence service. FBI analysts determined the former CIA officer completed all of the steps necessary to securely transmit no less than five classified U.S. government documents via the covcom device.
One of the documents contained unique identifiers for human sources who had helped the U.S. government. At least two of the documents — which the two discussed on the covcom device — were successfully transmitted to Mr. Yang, endangering the lives of those human sources.
A surveillance video from a FedEx store in Leesburg was presented at trial. It showed Mr. Mallory scanning documents classified at the Secret and Top Secret level onto a micro SD card. Mr. Mallory paid to have the paper copies of the eight documents shredded.
But during a search of his home the day of his arrest on June 22, 2017, FBI agents were able to located a carefully concealed SD card containing the documents. A jailhouse recording from June 24, 2017, was played at trial. Mr. Mallory could be heard asking his family to search the location for the hidden SD card.
Mr. Mallory has held numerous positions with various government agencies and several defense contractors, including working as a covert case officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and an intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He obtained a required Top Secret security clearance, which was terminated in October 2012.
“This sentence, together with the recent guilty pleas of Ron Hansen in Utah and Jerry Lee in Virginia, deliver the stern message that our former intelligence officers have no business partnering with the Chinese, or any other adversarial foreign intelligence service,” Mr. Demers added.
Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, a resident of Syracuse and a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer, pleaded guilty on March 15 in the District of Utah for an attempted transmission of national defense information to the People’s Republic of China.
His sentencing is scheduled for September 24, 2019.
Jerry Chun Shing Lee, aka Zhen Cheng Li, 53, a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer, was arrested in January 2018 on charges of unlawful retention of national defense information.
He was caught with two small books containing handwritten notes that contained classified information, including but not limited to, the real names and phone numbers of CIA assets and covert employees, operational notes from asset meetings, operational meeting locations and locations of covert facilities.
Mr. Lee, a naturalized citizen residing in Hong Kong, China, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison if convicted.
The U.S. Census Bureau and Commerce Department said retail e-commerce sales rose 3.6% (±0.7%) to $137.7 billion in the first quarter (Q1) 2019.
Total retail sales in the U.S. for Q1 2019 were estimated at $1,344.9 billion, virtually unchanged (±0.2%) from Q4 2018. The Q1 2019 estimate pushes the year-on-year increase for retail e-commerce sales to 12.4% (±1.1%),
Total retail sales rose 2.7% (±0.4%) in the same period. E-commerce sales in the Q1 2019 accounted for 10.2% of total retail sales.
Revised not adjusted estimates and corresponding adjusted estimates are scheduled for release on June 25, 2019 at 10:00 a.m. EDT.
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