Tag: Justice Department

DOJ Wants to Hide Why It Spied on Congressional Staff, Whistleblower Groups Fight Back

Just the News
Jason Foster

Several major whistleblower groups are fighting the Justice Department’s efforts in federal court to permanently hide why it spied on congressional investigators by obtaining their phone records during a leaks investigation years ago.

The whistleblower group, Empower Oversight, whose founder Jason Foster was one of the investigators whose phone records were taken when he was still in a top Senate staffer, had asked a federal judge to unseal the underlying documents that allowed DOJ to acquire the records in 2017.

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Commentary: Project 2025 and the Continued Democrat Meltdown

Connecticut Star Staff
Project 2025

Tying Donald Trump to Project 2025 is the latest desperation tactic from Democrats. But it’s likely to backfire. It might actually create a new generation of Conservatives in the process.

Last year, the Heritage Foundation published the Mandate for Leadership as assembled by a consortium of people and think tanks called Project 2025. It is a compilation of long-standing recommended Conservative policies for the next Republican administration. The Project 2025 group claims the document is “the Conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next Conservative administration to govern at noon, January 20, 2025.”

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Another Complaint Adds to Mounting Evidence of FBI’s Political Bias and Whistleblower Retaliation

Just the News

Evidence is mounting that the FBI—the country’s premier law enforcement agency—has resorted to basing decisions to suspend or revoke security clearances on FBI employees’ political views.

The evidence, which suggests political motivations in how the bureau has treated several of its own workers, has surfaced through whistleblower complaints recently filed internally and with the Justice Department’s watchdog.

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‘Social Justice Lawyers’ Told WPATH to Avoid ‘Evidence-Based Review’ of Sex-Change Guidelines for Minors, Docs Reveal

Connecticut Star Staff
Pediatrician with child patient

The World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) avoided “evidence-based” reviews of child sex-change procedures on the advice of “social justice lawyers,” a court filing states.

Republican Attorney General Steve Marshall of Alabama filed a motion for summary judgment in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Wednesday, seeking to beat back a challenge to Alabama’s law restricting the procedures. The Alabama attorney general’s office accused WPATH of placing “advocacy concerns” at the forefront of the creation of the organization’s “Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8” (SOC-8), which was based in part on the advice of the “social justice” attorneys who advised the organization to avoid seeking evidence-based recommendations.

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New Evidence Turned over to Congress Disputes Hunter Biden Testimony About Controversial Firm

Just the News
Hunter Biden in front of US Capitol building (composite image)

Already accused of lying to Congress about other issues, Hunter Biden’s February impeachment inquiry testimony distancing himself from a controversial securities firm directly conflicts with evidence the FBI seized years ago, including his signature on an employment contract that made him the firm’s vice chairman.

The documents were gathered by FBI and SEC agents back in 2016 and were recently obtained by Congress and shared with Just the News, but not until after Hunter Biden had already given his deposition in February to the U.S. House as part of his father’s impeachment inquiry.

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Criminal Referral Accuses DOJ’s Kristen Clarke of ‘Perjury,’ ‘False Statements’

Connecticut Star Staff
assistant attorney general for civil rights Kristen Clarke

The Justice Department’s Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for civil rights, will be hit with three ethics complaints and a criminal referral Monday, The Daily Signal has learned.

Article III Project is filing both the ethics complaints and criminal referral, which calls upon Attorney General Merrick Garland to open a criminal probe into Clarke on the grounds that she “knowingly and willfully” made “materially false statements” and that she committed “perjury.”

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Hunter Biden’s Seemingly Paradoxical Legal Defense Strategy

Just the News
Hunter Biden courtroom

Defense lawyers are approaching Hunter Biden’s felony gun trial with a strategy to paint the first son as the victim of his drug addiction but at the same time convey that he did not believe he was an addict when he allegedly lied on a federal firearm purchase form.

The defense argument, described by one legal analyst as “remarkably clever,” is designed to sow reasonable doubt in the jurors’ minds that Biden had full knowledge he was lying when he marked that he was not using drugs on the purchase form when he bought a firearm in Delaware in 2016. At the same time, the defense attempted to paint Biden as a victim of his own addictions, possibly to elicit sympathy from the jury.

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House Republicans File Criminal Referrals to Justice Department for Hunter, James Biden

Just the News

House Republicans have referred Hunter and James Biden to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, accusing the pair of making false statements to Congress during the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

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Justice Department Investigated Conservative ‘Moms for Liberty’ in Same Manner as KKK: Report

Just the News
Moms for Liberty

The internal emails appeared to show that the DOJ pressured local officials at times to accept their help, including by using emails from doj.gov accounts to allegedly pester them when they did not show interest.

The Justice Department (DOJ) appeared to investigate a conservative parental rights group in the same manner that it investigated the Klu Klux Klan (KKK), according to a news report on Wednesday.

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Justice Department Sues Iowa over Immigration Law After Warning

Just the News
Kim Reynolds

The Justice Department sued the state of Iowa on Thursday, after the state failed to stop a new immigration law that makes it a crime for people to be in the state if they were previously denied admission to the United States.

The lawsuit is the second legal action taken against the state over the new law, which goes into effect in July. The first was a lawsuit from a civil rights group that was filed earlier Thursday. The department warned Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds that it would sue last week if she did not stop the law by May 7.

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Julie Kelly Commentary: The Supreme Court Can Right an Egregious Wrong in Jan 6 Cases, But Will It?

Julie Kelly

In July 2023, Joshua Youngerman was arrested in California on five misdemeanors for his participation in the events of January 6. According to charging documents, Youngerman entered the Capitol at 2:37 p.m. — 20 minutes after the House went into recess amid the escalating chaos — through an open door as Capitol…

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Federal Investigators Want More Money to Go After Pandemic Fraud

The Center Square
Merrick Garland DOJ

The federal officials tasked with tracking down widespread fraud during and after the COVID-19 pandemic want more time and more money to finish the job.

The Justice Department’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force, made up of nearly 30 federal agencies, released its 2024 report on Tuesday. The report details the efforts of the task force in response to fraud involving COVID-19 relief programs.

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Judge Expresses Skepticism of Hunter Biden’s Move to Dismiss Tax Charges: Report

Just the News
Hunter Biden in courtroom (composite image)

Judge’s skepticism indicates trial could begin in June, coinciding with his father’s election campaign.

The judge handling the California tax case against the first son appeared skeptical of Hunter Biden’s attempt to have his tax charges tossed.

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Bob Menendez Says He Won’t Run for Reelection as Democrat in 2024

Connecticut Star Staff
Bob Menendez

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey announced he would not run in the Democratic Senate primary Thursday, saying he was “hopeful” that he could eventually run as an independent candidate.

The Justice Department unsealed an indictment against Menendez and his wife, Nadine, on three counts according to a September release by the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, then added additional charges in a March 5 superseding indictment. Menendez said he would not be running in June’s New Jersey Senate primary, but left the door open to running as an “independent Democrat.”

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Special Counsel Hur Squares Off with White House, Says Biden ‘Willfully Retained’ Classified Memos

Just the News

Special Counsel Robert Hur on Tuesday directly disputed the White House narrative on President Biden’s retention of classified documents after his vice presidency, confirming Biden “willfully” retained classified documents, indicated Biden lied to reporters when he said he did not share such information, and testified his report “did not exonerate” Biden of wrongdoing.

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Biden Classified Memos Report Re-Ignites Debates About Dual Justice, ‘Diminished’ President

Just the News
Biden Speaking

Special Counsel Robert Hur’s final report on Joe Biden’s willful retention and dissemination of highly classified information is rocking Washington, re-igniting concerns of a dual system of justice while putting the full weight of the government behind the notion that America is currently being served by a president with “diminished faculties.”

Hur’s 388-page report released Thursday may have spared Biden the spectacle of a criminal prosecution similar to that his Justice Department imposed on Donald Trump, but it delivered a devastating blow to the 46th president’s re-election hopes by going out of its way to explain criminal charges weren’t levied in part because jurors might see Biden as a dottering, forgetful old man incapable of criminal intent.

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Biden Pushes Inmate Voting with Help from Interest Groups

Connecticut Star Staff
Inmate

A federal agency is working with left-of-center nonprofits to increase voting among prisoners and former prison inmates under an executive order from President Joe Biden designed to increase election turnout. 

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has partnered with and regularly consults on voting issues with the League of Women Voters, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Campaign Legal Center, and the Washington Lawyers’ Committee. 

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Alleged Foreign Agent Law Violations Loom over Hunter Biden as House Prepares to Depose Him

Just the News

The U.S. law firm that did work for Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings was encouraged by the Justice Department to register as a foreign agent for the same type of work that Hunter Biden did for the company while he was a board member. Burisma was not registered as a foreign agent at the time.

Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (Cravath) as part of its representation of Burisma and its founder, litigation partner John Buretta met with State Department officials and sent a letter directly to the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings submitted earlier this month.

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Top Two Presidential Candidates, Relatives Facing Legal Woes as 2024 Voting Starts

Just the News

The top two 2024 presidential candidates are running with lawsuits looming over them, as former President Donald Trump has multiple trials he faces this year while President Joe Biden’s son is having his own legal troubles.

On Thursday, both Trump and Hunter Biden were in court at opposite ends of the country, with the former president in New York and the first son in Los Angeles. Trump’s trial is a civil case brought by the state attorney general regarding alleged business fraud while Hunter Biden was in court for alleged tax fraud.

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Commentary: Enemies of the Administrative State

RealClearWire
DOJ Logo

Amid allegations from conservative lawmakers and activists that Washington, D.C.’s most powerful agencies have been weaponized against their critics, one organization has not only played a key role in helping marshal evidence of such malfeasance, but found itself at the center of an emerging government targeting scandal that would seem to only further substantiate the claims of administrative state critics.

That organization is Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research. It has represented whistleblowers at the heart of some of the most consequential and contentious congressional investigations in recent years, touching on matters ranging from the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, to alleged FBI inflation of the domestic terror threat.

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Feds Hide Anti-White Discrimination Complaints, Names of Policy Architects from FOIA Suits

Just the News
Work Office

How many anti-white discrimination complaints have been leveled by employees against the federal watchdog for workplace discrimination? Who is shaping federal policy on “indigenous knowledge” and its implications for scientific research?

The public apparently won’t get those answers unless a judge says so.

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DOJ Charges Two in Scheme to Supply Iran with Military Technology

Connecticut Star Staff

The Justice Department announced charges against two men in a scheme to supply electronic technology to Iran, according to multiple media outlets.

Hossein Hatefi Ardakani and Gary Lam were indicted in September 2020 on charges of conspiracy to provide Iran with microelectronic technology to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Agence France-Presse reported. The pair, who made the purchases in 2014 and 2015, allegedly used front companies to carry out their plot, according to ABC News.

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Sen. Joni Ernst Releases List of Federal Agencies with High Employee No-Show Rates Post-COVID

Just the News
Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA)

With Christmas fast-approaching, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa put out a “naughty list” of government agencies that have high no-show rates of employees who have not returned to the office after the COVID-19 pandemic ended.

According to Ernst’s list, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Social Security Administration top the list with just 7 percent office occupancy rates.

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Hunter Biden Asks Judge to Subpoena Donald Trump, Ex-Justice Department Officials in Criminal Case

Just the News

First son Hunter Biden on Wednesday asked the federal judge presiding over his criminal case in Delaware to approve subpoenas of former President Donald Trump and his former top Justice Department officials as he argues that his investigation was the result of “incessant, improper, and partisan pressure” from the former president and his allies. 

The court filing asked U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, a Trump appointee, to subpoena the former president, former Attorney General Bill Barr, former acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, according to NBC News. 

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Federal Prosecutors Spied on Congress in Search for Leaks, Now DOJ Is Being Investigated for It

Just the News

Several current and former congressional oversight staff have been recently informed that the U.S. Justice Department seized their phone and email records back in 2017 as part of leak investigations, belated revelations that have touched off an inquiry by DOJ’s internal watchdog and raised serious concerns about the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches.

Over the last week, several current and former Senate and House staff from both political parties have alerted Congress that they received belated notifications from Apple, Google or other Big Tech firms that their email or phone records were obtained from their personal devices via a grand jury subpoena.

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House Conservatives Say Any Spending Bill Must Address Border Security, DOJ Weaponization

Connecticut Star Staff

The House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative lawmakers in the House, outlined Monday what conditions would need to be met for them to vote for a new spending bill.

The group is calling for spending bills to include provisions on border security, the “unprecedented weaponization” of the Justice Department and FBI, and the Pentagon’s “cancerous woke polices.” The lawmakers also oppose “any blank check for Ukraine in any supplemental appropriations bill.”

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Trump Says His Team Met Prosecutors, Who Gave No Indication of Indictment in 2020 Election Probe

Just the News

Former President Donald Trump said his legal team had a “productive meeting” Thursday with the Justice Department for Special Counsel Jack Smith’s probe, but prosecutors did not give any indication that he would receive a notice of indictment in the probe involving efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.

“My attorneys had a productive meeting with the DOJ this morning, explaining in detail that I did nothing wrong, was advised by many lawyers, and that an Indictment of me would only further destroy our Country. No indication of notice was given during the meeting — Do not trust the Fake News on anything!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

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Judge Rejects Deal in Hunter Biden Case as First Son Pleads Not Guilty

Just the News

Hunter Biden’s plea deal with the Justice Department on two tax misdemeanor tax charges fell apart Wednesday after the federal judge overseeing the case said she had “concerns” about the constitutionality of a pre-trial diversion agreement that would allow him to avoid prison on felony firearms possession charge.

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Commentary: Censorship Is More Dangerous Than Disinformation

Connecticut Star Staff

The First Amendment is under assault by the very people entrusted to protect it. The Biden administration and the corporate media removed any doubt about this after a July 4 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Terry A. Doughty. Evidence revealed during the discovery process in Missouri v. Biden convinced the judge that administration officials illegally pressured social media platforms to censor disfavored views. Doughty issued a 155-page opinion and an injunction prohibiting federal officials from “pressuring or coercing social-media companies in any manner to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce posted content of postings containing protected free speech.”

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Bipartisan Effort to Reform FISA, End Abuses Could be Iced by GOP Outrage of Durham Report Findings

Just the News

Congressional Democrats have joined in bipartisan effort to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amid abuses but GOP outrage over the findings in the Durham Report, including recent calls to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland over such matters, has likely hurt such efforts.

Congressional reauthorization of FISA is due in December, with particular focus on Section 702 of the law, which permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance on foreign people outside the U.S., with the assistance of electronic communication service providers, to acquire foreign intelligence information.

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Pressure Grows on Judge to Reject Hunter Biden Plea Deal amid Evidence of DOJ Interference

Just the News

Pressure is growing in congressional, legal and media circles for the federal judge in the Hunter Biden case to reject a plea deal that would spare the first son from serving prison time after evidence has emerged from two IRS whistleblowers that a more serious criminal tax case was sabotaged by the Justice Department.

“I don’t understand how any judge could bless this plea agreement now that all of this evidence of obstruction and DOJ and FBI wrongdoing has surfaced,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Just the News. “So I hope this judge does reject this, and then insists and demands on an honest investigation and an honest prosecution as well.”

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Justice Department Watchdog Blames Jeffrey Epstein’s Death on Prison ‘Negligence, Misconduct’

Just the News

Financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 death in a Manhattan federal jail cell was the result of “negligence” and “misconduct” on the part of the Bureau of Prisons, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a report Tuesday.

“Epstein’s injuries were more consistent with, and indicative of, a suicide by hanging rather than a homicide by strangulation,” the report also stated.

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Commentary: Democrats Are Starting to Panic as Trump’s Numbers Unaffected by Indictment over Documents

Admin

“Democrats have a deep bench. They had better prepare now to turn to it.”

That was former Bloomberg News executive editor Al Hunt writing for The Messenger on June 25, pontificating about the prospects of replacing President Joe Biden in 2024 as the Democratic Party nominee as the incumbent president’s poll numbers still appear gloomy even after Biden’s Justice Department brought his top political opponent, former President Donald Trump, who is standing for election once again in 2024, up on charges over documents retained after the Trump administration that Trump says he declassified.

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With New Evidence, Congress Unmasks a Multi-Year Government Plot to Protect Biden, Sully Trump

Just the News

When the Justice Department discovered from journalists a storage locker containing evidence against ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a search was executed immediately.

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Congress Prepares to Unseal Testimony, Evidence from IRS Whistleblower in Hunter Biden Case

Just the News

The House Ways and Means Committee took final steps Tuesday to release to the public as early as this week the testimony and evidence from an IRS whistleblower who alleges the Justice Department gave favorable treatment to Hunter Biden and engaged in political interference in the criminal tax case against the first son.

Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., scheduled an executive session for 8 a.m. Thursday where lawmakers are expected to vote to free the whistleblower evidence and testimony of IRS supervisory criminal agent Gary Shapley from the 6103 privacy requirements that normally shield Americans’ tax information from public disclosure.

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Famous Rapper’s Attorney Rips DOJ for Letting Hunter Biden Walk on Crime While His Client Spent Years in Jail

Connecticut Star Staff

The attorney for rapper Kodak Black blasted the Justice Department Tuesday over the plea deal reached with Hunter Biden, questioning whether there is “2 tiers of justice” in America’s legal system.

Black was sentenced to serve over three years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm in 2019, the same charge the younger Biden reached a plea agreement on Tuesday, Fox News reported. Biden will be put into a pre-trial diversion program on the gun charge, the Justice Department announced, although U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump in 2017, said the investigation is still ongoing.

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Ramaswamy: Plea Deal Keeping Hunter Biden out of Prison Is a ‘Joke,’ the ‘Perfect Fig Leaf’

M.D. Kittle

GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is blasting a plea deal announced Tuesday that will keep President Joe Biden’s troubled son out of prison on two federal misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes and a separate felony charge of possession of a firearm by a known drug user.

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Asa Hutchinson: GOP Should ‘Back Off’ Accusations of DOJ ‘Weaponization’

Just the News

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is running in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, said Republicans should “back off” of “accusations” of the “weaponization of the Justice Department.”

Hutchinson told ABC on Sunday that while he disagrees with some of the DOJ’s decisions, he believes Republicans are incorrect to label the department’s indictment of former president Donald Trump as “weaponization.”

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Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance Vows to Block Biden’s DOJ Nominees until Garland Stops ‘Harassing’ Political Opponents

Just the News

Sen. J.D. Vance says he is going to place holds on all of President Joe Biden’s Justice Department nominees following former President Donald Trump’s federal indictment for his handling of classified materials.

Vance, an Ohio Republican, wrote Tuesday on Twitter that he will halt all Justice nominees until Attorney General Merrick Garland “stops using his agency to harass Joe Biden’s political opponents.”

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Federal Prosecutor in Trump Probe Reprimanded in Earlier Case for Secretly Recording Defense Lawyer

Just the News

A Justice Department prosecutor who helped secure last week’s indictment of former President Donald Trump was publicly reprimanded by a judge in 2009 for “gross negligence” in connection with secretly taping a defense lawyer and an investigator, an agency source has confirmed to Just The News.

The prosecutor, Karen Gilbert, is now serving as a deputy to Special Counsel Jack Smith, who on Thursday issued the 37-count indictment of Trump. 

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All Presidents Since Reagan Mishandled Classified Memos, Trump First Referred to DOJ, Archives Says

Just the News

Prior to former President Donald Trump, the Justice Department had not been involved in enforcing the Presidential Records Act, according to testimony from a National Archives and Records Administration official.

On Wednesday, the House Intelligence Committee released a transcript from an interview in March with NARA officials in which the agency’s chief operating officer, William Bosanko, testified that the agency had “found classified information in unclassified boxes” for all the presidential administrations “from Reagan forward.”

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Commentary: Look Ahead, Not Backwards, to Hold the Justice Department Accountable

Connecticut Star Staff

Release of Special Counsel John Durham’s report on law enforcement and intelligence misconduct related to the 2016 presidential election has been met with outrage, recriminations, and a justified amount of vindication for those, including President Donald Trump, who helped expose the brazen operation from the start. 

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Hunter Biden Case Takes Stark Twist with Allegation of Retaliation Against IRS Whistleblower

Just the News

The Justice Department removed an IRS whistleblower and his entire team from the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden’s taxes in what his lawyers described to Congress on Monday as an act of retaliation and possible obstruction of congressional inquiries, according to correspondence to lawmakers obtained by Just the News.

The IRS whistleblower, whose name has not been released, is a decorated supervisory criminal investigative agent who led the team probing the presidential son’s tax affairs.

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James Comer Pointedly Warns Against Witness Intimidation, Too Narrow DOJ Focus in Hunter Biden Probe

Just the News

The chief congressional investigator in the Hunter Biden scandal says he is deeply worried that the Justice Department has tailored its criminal investigation narrowly to protect the first family and that Democrat defenders are coming close to engaging in witness intimidation that could obstruct his probe.

House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer told Just the News on Thursday night that he is deeply troubled by legal letters and veiled threats that defenders of Hunter Biden have sent witnesses. Threats were allegedly made to cooperating banks, and political attack activities were being funded in the districts of some lawmakers who are investigating the Biden family for alleged influence peddling.

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Commentary: Feds Still Fighting Release of January 6 Tapes Despite Mounting Legal Pressure

Admin

Matthew Graves just received a court summons.

As the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Graves is rarely on the receiving end of a legal inquiry. In fact, Graves’ hand must be tired from signing thousands of criminal indictments, sentencing memos, and plea offers related to his ongoing investigation into the events of January 6, 2021. Just this week, the FBI arrested two more individuals on minor offenses, giving Graves’ overstaffed office more fresh meat for the Justice Department’s vengeful retaliation against Americans who protested the certification of Joe Biden’s election that day.

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Senior IRS Agent Blows Whistle, Alleging Biden DOJ Thwarting Criminal Prosecution of Hunter Biden

Just the News

Adecorated supervisory IRS agent has reported to the Justice Department’s top watchdog that federal prosecutors appointed by Joe Biden have engaged in “preferential treatment and politics” to block criminal tax charges against presidential son Hunter Biden, providing evidence as a whistleblower that conflicts with Attorney General Merrick Garland’s recent testimony to Congress that the decision to bring charges against Biden was being left to the Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney for Delaware.

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