Saturday, March 31, 2018

McCabe Lied Four Times To DOJ and FBI - Twice While Under Oath

Andrew McCabe lied four times to the Department of Justice and the FBI - including two times while under oath with Inspector General Michael Horowitz, according to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) appearing on Fox News.

This is the first time the public has heard more detail of the circumstances behind the decision to fire McCabe just over one day before he qualified for his full pension.

JORDAN: “McCabe didn’t lie just once, he lied four times. He lied to James Comey. He lied to the Office of Professional Responsibility and he lied twice under oath to the Inspector General. Remember, this is Andrew McCabe, Deputy Director of the FBI. This is Andrew McCabe, the text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page talking about Andy’s office, the meeting where they talk about the insurance policy in case Donald Trump is actually President of the United States… Four times he lied about leaking information to the Wall Street Journal.”

Specifically, McCabe authorized an F.B.I. spokesman and attorney to tell Devlin Barrett of the Wall St. Journal, just days before the 2016 election, that the FBI had not put the brakes on a separate investigation into the Clinton Foundation - at a time in which McCabe was coming under fire for his wife taking a $467,500 campaign contribution from Clinton ~~proxy~~ pal, Terry McAuliffe.

The WSJ article in question reads:

New details show that senior law-enforcement officials repeatedly voiced skepticism of the strength of the evidence in a bureau investigation of the Clinton Foundation, sought to condense what was at times a sprawling cross-country effort, and, according to some people familiar with the matter, told agents to limit their pursuit of the case. The probe of the foundation began more than a year ago to determine whether financial crimes or influence peddling occurred related to the charity.

...

Some investigators grew frustrated, viewing FBI leadership as uninterested in probing the charity, these people said. Others involved disagreed sharply, defending FBI bosses and saying Mr. McCabe in particular was caught between an increasingly acrimonious fight for control between the Justice Department and FBI agents pursuing the Clinton Foundation case.

So McCabe leaked information to the WSJ in order to combat rumors that Clinton had indirectly bribed him to back off the Clinton Foundation investigation, and then lied about it four times to the DOJ and FBI, including twice under oath.

Meanwhile - let's not forget, the FBI had evidence from undercover informant William D. Campbell, who recently told Congressional investigators that he collected smoking gun evidence of Russia routing millions of dollars towards a Clinton charity in advance of Clinton's State Department approving the Uranium One deal. Which McCabe was supposed to be investigating... and which the Little Rock field office took over in January of this year.

Also recall that McCabe's team, under Director Comey, heavily altered the language of the FBI's official opinion concerning Hillary Clinton's mishandling of classified information - effectively "decriminalizing" her conduct. Comey's original draft - using the term "grossly negligent" would have legally required that the FBI recommended charges against Clinton. Instead, McCabe's team changed it to "extremely careless," - a legally meaningless term.

According to documents produced by the FBI, FBI employees exchanged proposed edits to the draft statement. On May 6, Deputy Director McCabe forwarded the draft statement to other senior FBI employees, including Peter Strzok, E.W. Priestap, Jonathan Moffa, and an employee on the Office of General Counsel whose name has been redacted. While the precise dates of the edits and identities of the editors are not apparent from the documents, the edits appear to change the tone and substance of Director Comey's statement in at least three respects. -Letter from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI)

President Trump noted in a March 16 tweet that Comey "made McCabe look like a choirboy," despite the former FBI Director knowing "all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels."

At the time McCabe was fired, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement at the time that he had "made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor - including under oath - on multiple occasions."

"Confused and Distracted"

After he was fired, McCabe said he was "confused and distracted" when he was talking to investigators - four separate times as we've come to learn.

"I answered questions as completely and accurately as I could. And when I realized that some of my answers were not fully accurate or may have been misunderstood, I took the initiative to correct them," McCabe wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

So it was all just a big misunderstanding, you see.

In the meantime, people feeling sorry for ol' Andy have set up an "official" Gofundme donation campaign for McCabe's "Legal Defense Fund," which raised almost $400,000 in 10 hours for McCabe.

Hilariously, the description of the campaign starts off: "Andrew McCabe’s FBI career was long, distinguished, and unblemished."

...which ended when McCabe lied four times about leaking to the press in order to appear unbiased after his wife took nearly half-a-million dollars from a Clinton crony.

Good thing McCabe has that legal defense fund!

A wall would help: Mexico's war on the US

A Huge Caravan Of Central Americans Is Headed For The US, And No One In Mexico Dares To Stop Them

"If we all protect each other, we'll get through this together."

Originally posted on March 30, 2018, at 4:00 a.m.

Updated on March 31, 2018, at 2:44 a.m.

Adolfo Flores

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Reporting From
San Pedro Tapanatepec, Mexico

Migrants cheer after clearing the first immigration checkpoint in Chiapas.

Taking a drag from her cigarette, a Mexican immigration agent looked out toward a caravan of migrants that grew larger with each step they took on the two-lane highway.

When the agent, who'd covered her uniform with an orange and white shawl, learned that the Central American migrants heading her way numbered more than 1,000, she took off for the restaurant across the street.

“I'm going to have a relaxing Coke,” she told BuzzFeed News.

For five days now hundreds of Central Americans — children, women, and men, most of them from Honduras — have boldly crossed immigration checkpoints, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States. Despite their being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.

Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, bypassing not only authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants.

Organizers like Rodrigo Abeja hope that the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.

“If we all protect each other we'll get through this together,” Abeja yelled through a loudspeaker on the morning they left Tapachula, on Mexico's border with Guatemala, for the nearly monthlong trek.

When they get to the US, they hope American authorities will grant them asylum or, for some, be absent when they attempt to cross the border illegally. More likely is that it will set up an enormous challenge to the Trump administration's immigration policies and its ability to deal with an organized group of migrants numbering in the hundreds.

The number of people who showed up to travel with the caravan caught organizers by surprise, and has overwhelmed the various towns they've stopped in to spend the night. Pueblos Sin Fronteras counted about 1,200 people on the first day.

About 80% of them are from Honduras. Many said they are fleeing poverty, but also political unrest and violence that followed the swearing in of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández after a highly contested election last year. The group often breaks into chants of “out with JOH.” They also chant “we aren't immigrants, we're international workers” and “the people united will never be defeated.”

Migrants hitchhike along the side of the highway as they move toward the city of Mapastepec, Chiapas.

Sweating after miles of walking in more than 90-degree heat with her two kids, Karen said conditions in Honduras were so bad she decided to take a chance with the caravan. She declined to give her full name.

“The crime rate is horrible, you can't live there,” Karen told BuzzFeed News on the side of a highway near Huixtla, a town in Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. “After the president [was sworn in] it got worse. There were deaths, mobs, robbed homes, adults and kids were beaten up.”

Before setting out on the journey, the migrants were organized into groups of 10 to 15 people, and a leader was designated for each group. Five groups were then banded together in what organizers call a sector. While there are organizers from Pueblos Sin Fronteras leading the way, much of the effort to get to the US border is in the hands of the migrants themselves.

They've been organized into security, food, and logistics committees. Organizers say it's meant to help the migrants empower themselves.

Sandra Perez, 40, who's also from Honduras, is one of two women who belong to the security committee. It's not her first caravan: She has traveled with a procession of Central American mothers through Mexico in search of disappeared migrants.

“I like doing this, it makes me happy and I feel useful,” she told BuzzFeed News.

Not everyone is planning on crossing into the United States undetected. Migrants like Yonis, an Honduran man who declined to use his full name, are hoping to get their families to other parts of Mexico. He was able to legalize his status in Mexico and is hoping to get his wife and seven month old baby to the Mexican state Nuevo León.

"I have my life there," Yonis told BuzzFeed News. "We're all here fighting together, going to different borders, chasing an American dream that sometimes becomes a reality or doesn't for some."

Organizers estimate that about two-thirds of people are planing on crossing into the United States undetected or asking for some type of protection like asylum.

Twenty-nine-year-old Mateo Juan said the caravan was his third attempt at getting to the United States. Seven months ago, Mexican immigration officers pulled him off the bus. The same happened about a month ago.

He heard about the caravan in March when he arrived in Tapachula, the caravan's starting point.

“Going alone is risky. You're risking an accident, getting jumped by robbers, and even your life,” he told BuzzFeed News. “All of that, and then you don't get to the United States. The caravan is slower but you know you're going to get there safely.”

Still, there are no guarantees on the route or assurances that once they reach the US border they'll be able to cross undetected or be allowed to stay under some type of protection like asylum.

Alex Mensing, another organizer with Pueblos Sin Fronteras, made that point clear to the migrants before the group started out. He also stressed that everyone is responsible for their own food, water, and payment for vans or buses. Still, it's far cheaper than being assaulted or falling into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers.

“I'm here to work together with the people who had to leave their countries for whatever reason,” Mensing said through a loudspeaker. “We're fighting together. We're not here to give anyone papers and we're not here to give anyone food.”

Mensing said Pueblos Sin Fronteras isn't calling on people to make the trek, but if they're going to try to go through Mexico on the way to the United States, the group will help them.

The caravan propels itself forward using whatever way it can. Sometimes that means packing into the back of a truck, negotiating lower rates for vans, or hitching a ride on the back of empty big rigs from whatever town they're in. The group sleeps in town plazas. Local townspeople and churches feed them.

In the evening, when the group settles in for the night, the kids play in playgrounds or dart among the crowd, chasing one another. Teenagers and adults play soccer using rocks as goal posts.

On Tuesday, the caravan had plans to board the freight train known as “the Beast” or sometimes “the Train of Death” in Arriaga to speed the journey north. It's a dangerous part of the journey, with death and injury only too possible from a precarious perch atop a rail car, and the group practiced boarding, one woman in a purple shirt slowly making her way up a parked train's ladder while the crowd below cheered her on. On another train car, men wearing backpacks steadily made their way up one by one.

Migrants practice boarding "La Bestia," the infamously dangerous train that will carry them toward the US border.

“This is so the women and children can lose their fear, know what it's like to board the train, and turn back if they want,” Irineo Mujica, director of Pueblos Sin Fronteras, told the crowd.

But the train Mujica hoped would move the entire group to Puebla, one of their stops, never came, and in the end the group boarded trucks and school buses to cover the distance to San Pedro Tapanatepec, a town in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.

The move to the trucks was frantic, as people jostled for the limited space, and the security committees made a chain to hold people back. Mostly women and children wearing backpacks and carrying jugs of water got on the first truck.

Moving the entire group took hours, and some of the men, unable to gain a space in the vehicles, walked all night to join the rest of the group. On Friday, Good Friday, the organizers hope to board the Beast at another location.

Mujica said he was left with a sense of disbelief at seeing so many people go through such hardship in search of a better life.

“I can't imagine my son walking on top of these trains. I can't imagine hiding my children just to get to a city that's four hours away,” Mujica said. “These are good people who are suffering as if they were slaves and putting their kids' lives at risk. But it is what it is.”

UPDATE

March 30, 2018, at 5:44 p.m.

By Friday afternoon, plans to make it to another train stop had fallen through, and the caravan set up camp in Santiago Niltepec, in Mexico's Oaxaca state. Several of the buildings in the municipality are still cracked and crumbling from an earthquake that struck in February. But migrants took shelter in them anyway as it began to rain. Many of the people were wondering when, or if, they’d be able to board “the Beast” for the journey north.

Adolfo Flores is a national security correspondent for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles. He focuses on immigration.

Contact Adolfo Flores at adolfo.flores@buzzfeed.com.

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Gun control

Felon allegedly breaks in and attacks homeowner. He grabs gun and makes sure crook doesn’t get away.

Mar 29, 2018 4:40 pm

A Nashville, Tennessee, homeowner reportedly shot and killed a convicted felon who allegedly broke into his house Wednesday night.

What are the details of the incident?

According to the Tennessean, police said the homeowner — Brent Bishop — was not at home when two men reportedly broke into his house and attacked his wife, striking her in the face.

Bishop arrived home shortly after his wife was attacked and was struck in the head upon entering his residence, the report said.

The intruders allegedly told Bishop to open his gun safe, where three long guns and a pistol were reportedly stored.

Bishop complied with the intruders’ demands, and when the two men went to leave the property, he reportedly went outside to find his wife, who had fled from the home earlier.

Instead, Bishop reportedly encountered the intruders once again.

Police reported that Bishop fatally shot one of the men, and the second intruder reportedly left Bishop’s firearms at the scene and fled to the home of a neighbor.

According to the report, the deceased intruder was later identified as Terry Adams Jr., a 27-year-old convicted felon.

The Tennessean reported that Adams had “multiple convictions” for auto burglary crimes, as well as felony theft, aggravated assault, and attempted burglary.

The second intruder remains at large.

According to police, Bishop’s home was burglarized in February, when a television was taken from his home. Adams was also the suspect in the robbery case.

Bishop suffered a fractured skull as a result of the attack and, as of Thursday, remains hospitalized.

Former Democratic Maryland senator pleads guilty in federal corruption case

Mar 30, 2018 10:38 am

Sen. Nathaniel T. Oaks, a Baltimore state legislator, pleads guilty to federal corruption charges. He faces sentencing in July and could be sentenced up to 20 years in prison for each count. (WJZ-TV video screenshot)

Former Maryland state Sen. Nathaniel T. Oaks pleaded guilty on corruption charges after admitting that he accepted over $15,000 in bribes, according to WJZ-TV.

What are the details?

Oaks, a 71-year-old Baltimore Democrat, reportedly accepted the bribes from a man he believed to be a Texas real estate developer and investor. The funds were purportedly provided in exchange for helping receive funding for a housing development project in Baltimore, but as it turned out, the investor was actually an FBI informant.

According to WJZ, Oaks pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud. As a result of his plea, eight other charges — which reportedly include obstruction of justice — were dropped.

Oaks faces sentencing in July and could be sentenced up to 20 years in prison for each count.

In addition to pleading guilty, Oaks also resigned from Maryland state Senate on Thursday. He had served in the Maryland General Assembly for 30 years.

WJZ also reported that in 2016, Oaks sent “fraudulent letters,” which were written on official letterhead, in order to obtain federal funding for the man he believed to be a real estate developer and investor.

Later in 2016, Oaks reportedly requested an additional $250,000 in state funds for the project.

Oaks was indicted in 2017.

The Washington Post reported that Oaks also ran into trouble in the 1980s after being convicted of stealing “thousands of dollars” from his campaign account. As a result of the conviction, Oaks lost his seat in the House of Delegates, but later regained it in 1994.

He was appointed to the Maryland state Senate in 2017 as a replacement for a senator who stepped down due to poor health.

Saturday, March 31, 2018

McCabe Lied Four Times To DOJ and FBI - Twice While Under Oath

McCabe Lied Four Times To DOJ and FBI - Twice While Under Oath

A wall would help: Mexico's war on the US