Connect with us

News

Graham Says He’ll Open Sprawling Investigations Into FBI’s Handling of Trump-Russia and Clinton Email Probes

Published

on

Senate Judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Monday announced his intent to open a series of sprawling investigations into why the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe was opened, and how it was handled. He also announced he intends to open an investigation into how the Hillary Clinton email probe was handled.

Graham, who is running for re-election next year, said he wants Attorney General William Barr to also appoint a special counsel to investigate those areas in addition to his own investigation. Chairman Graham, as Politico reported, said, “for the country’s sake: Appoint somebody outside the current system to look into these allegations, somebody we all trust and let them do what Mr. Mueller did.”

Among his targets for investigation appear to be: the FBI and the DOJ, Hillary Clinton, Jim Comey, and the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrant process.

Graham, in Monday’s press conference, said he supported the Mueller investigation. In the past year he has become one of President Trump’s top supporters. He bristled with outrage when a reporter asked if he could be considered objective when it comes to President Trump, especially as he dined with the President and delivered a speech at Mar-a-Lago just 90 minutes after the Mueller report was delivered to the Attorney General Friday night.

“By any reasonable standard,” Senator Graham said, “Mr. Mueller thoroughly investigated the Trump campaign. You cannot say that about the other side of the story,” he claimed, falsely.

“When it comes to the FISA warrant, the Clinton campaign, the counterintelligence investigation, it’s pretty much been swept under the rug,” Graham said, falsely. “Those days are over.”

The Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General last year released the findings of its investigation into the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email investigation, supporting the decision to not prosecute Clinton over her private email server and handling of emails.

Spouting long-debunked conspiracy theories popularized by far right wing media, Chairman Graham also asked, “What role did the [Steele] dossier play? Was it the primary source of the information given to the court, was it supplemental, was its outcome determinative?”

The far right has been falsely claiming the Steele Dossier was the basis for the Trump-Russia probe. It was not.

“I want to know the role James Comey played in this process. I want to find out: Was the only reason you recused yourself was because of the tarmac meeting with Loretta Lynch?” Graham asked, speaking to the spontaneous 2016 meeting former President Bill Clinton had with then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch while her plane was on a tarmac.

Watch:

 

Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

‘RICO’: Trump Could Be Facing Racketeering and Conspiracy Charges Used to Prosecute Organized Crime

Published

on

Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis is reportedly considering RICO charges against Donald Trump in her probe of his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, CNN reports. RICO charges are generally used when prosecuting organized crime cases.

“The reason that I am a fan of RICO is, I think jurors are very, very intelligent,” Willis had said last year about a different case. “They want to know what happened. They want to make an accurate decision about someone’s life. And so RICO is a tool that allows a prosecutor’s office and law enforcement to tell the whole story.”

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a law professor and an NBC News/MSNBC contributor, Monday morning on Twitter, pointing to CNN’s report, said Willis “is seriously considering a RICO charge.” She repeated that claim on MSNBC shortly after.

READ MORE: Experts Warn Trump Is Encouraging Violence One Day After He Announces Rally at Waco on 30th Anniversary of Siege

CNN reports, “Investigators have a large volume of substantial evidence related to a possible conspiracy from inside and outside the state, including recordings of phone calls, emails, text messages, documents, and testimony before a special grand jury. Their work, the source said, underscores the belief that the push to help Trump was not just a grassroots effort that originated inside the state.”

On-air Monday morning, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, explained conspiracy, racketeering, and RICO, saying, “conspiracy” is “a loaded word. But all it really means is an agreement, a meeting of the minds between two or more people to commit a crime.”

But he added, “if we go up to racketeering, now, this is a really powerful tool the prosecutors use. What you have to do is show two things. First of all, the existence of what we call a racketeering enterprise, that can be a Mafia family, that can be a drug trafficking organization, but it could also be a corporation or a political entity, and then you have to show that they engage in what we call a pattern of racketeering activity, meaning that they committed two or more crimes in an organized fashion, which brings us to this other new piece of information. There’s a third phone call we already know about, of course, the infamous phone call to Brad Raffensperger. ‘I just want to find 11,780 votes.’ There’s also a public recording of Donald Trump talking to this investigator, Francis Watson, when he tells her, ‘when the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised.'”

READ MORE: ‘Reacting to a Cult Leader’: Trump Supporters Organizing to ‘Stock Up on Weaponry’ Says GOP Adviser

“Now we know, Trump also called the former Georgia Speaker of the House asking him to convene a special session,” Honig continued. “As we know we’ve heard from some of the grand jurors special grand jurors who’ve come out, they’ve told us that they recommended indictments for more than a dozen people.”

Watch CNN’s report below or at this link.

Continue Reading

News

‘This Man Is a Criminal’: George Conway Busts GOP’s ‘Completely Ridiculous’ Trump Defense

Published

on

George Conway ripped Republicans for defending lifelong “criminal” Donald Trump against a looming indictment in New York.

The ex-president apparently expects to be charged in the Stormy Daniels hush money payoff, and the conservative attorney told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that he richly deserves it.

“The Republicans are behaving like complete disgraces,” Conway said. “They’re basically saying that, by saying that Trump is being persecuted, they’re essentially saying, you can’t touch Trump and Trump is above the law. Whatever slack you might have wanted to cut a former president, that was gone after Jan. 6. This man is a recidivist criminal, he’s committed fraud all his life, he’s lied all of his life.”

“This Stormy Daniels thing was something he cooked up,” Conway added. “The notion that [Michael] Cohen is going to be discredited on it is ridiculous given the paper trail. We see the checks signed by Donald Trump. It’s hard to say he is being picked on for paying $130,000 in hush money to a porn star and concealing that and using a straw donor, which was Cohen, to do that, and saying he’s being persecuted somehow when no one has ever done that it is completely ridiculous.”

RELATED: Georgia weighs slapping Trump with racketeering charges: CNN

Watch the video below or at this link.


 

Continue Reading

News

Watch: Fox Anchor Tells Viewers Trump Could Be Handcuffed if Indicted

Published

on

Fox Corp. anchor John Roberts told viewers Friday afternoon that if Donald Trump is indicted he might be handcuffed.

Discussing reports that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has requested a “meeting with law enforcement ahead of a potential Trump indictment,” Roberts said, “to discuss logistics for some time next week, which would mean that they are anticipating an indictment next week.”

Roberts appears to report the decision to handcuff the former president or not would be up to the Secret Service.

“Same sources familiar with the planning said they will go over security preparations in and around the courthouse in lower Manhattan. Secret Service will take the lead in what they will allow or will not allow, the source cautioned, mentioning for instance, that the decision to handcuff the president, the former president, or not, they will set the tone and will escort him into the courtroom.”

Bragg’s Office has been investigating Trump’s $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, which could fall under a number of legal categories, including falsification of business records and unlawful campaign contributions, among others.

READ MORE: ‘A BFD’: Legal Experts Say Judge Ordering Ex-President’s Attorney to Testify Means ‘Trump Probably Committed Crimes’

Without even knowing what charges Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg might bring to indict Trump, if he even decides to charge the ex-president, Roberts claimed: “This was a misdemeanor in New York that Alvin Bragg has decided to elevate to a felony while at the same time downgrading other felonies to misdemeanors. So we’ll be watching this to see how it all unfold to get more information as it comes in.”

The New York Times last week reported, “In New York, falsifying business records can amount to a crime, albeit a misdemeanor. To elevate the crime to a felony charge, Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors must show that Mr. Trump’s ‘intent to defraud’ included an intent to commit or conceal a second crime.”

“In this case,” The Times explained, “that second crime could be a violation of New York State election law. While hush money is not inherently illegal, the prosecutors could argue that the $130,000 payout effectively became an improper donation to Mr. Trump’s campaign, under the theory that it benefited his candidacy because it silenced Ms. Daniels.”

Earlier Friday NBC News reported that five local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies were meeting to coordinate plans if Trump is indicted.

Watch below or at this link.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.