I am not naïve about the difficulty of prosecuting Hillary Clinton over this scandal. The Wall Street Journal had a major story yesterday
about how American banks and other corporations are complaining about
the Obama Justice Department's strict interpretation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,
which prohibits bribes of foreign officials. A Justice Department that
would, correctly or incorrectly, ride herd on American companies
engaged in alleged bribery of foreign officials has yet to move against
Hillary Clinton over series of apparent crimes, including bribes she and
her whole family were in on from foreign governments!
Kudos to our friend Peter Schweizer of the Government Accountability Institute whose
new book has done so much to hold the Clinton machine accountable
("Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and
Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich") Schweizer, I'm told, made
smart use of our documents in his soon-to-be released book, which
describes how money was funneled through the Clinton Foundation by
foreign governments while Hillary Clinton was serving as secretary of
state.
As I told you last week, your JW got the ball rolling on public exposure of this Clinton scandal:
Our dogged work forced the disclosure last year of documents that provided a road map for over 200 conflict-of-interest rulings that
led to $48 million for the Clinton Foundation and other
Clinton-connected entities during Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary
of state. Previously disclosed documents in this lawsuit, for example,
raise questions about funds Clinton accepted from entities linked to
Saudi Arabia, China and Iran, among others. This is the story on
these documents that got the ball rolling. The headline says it all:
"State Department approved 215 Bill Clinton speeches, controversial
consulting deal, worth $48m; Hillary Clinton's Chief of Staff copied on
all decisions."
And
we are keeping the ball rolling. As we note in this week's Teneo
report, the Clinton email cover-up is front and center, as there is "the
dawning realization among media types that the Clinton Foundation,
Teneo and the disappearing State Dept. emails really do signal that some
sort of gigantic sleazy game is afoot."
Now, we are pressing ahead with a new lawsuit to
obtain the release of documents about Hillary Clinton's "efforts" to
gain approval for use of an iPhone or iPad to conduct official business
while she was secretary of state. The lawsuit came after the State
Department refused to respond to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request asking for:
Any
and all records of requests by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton or her staff to the State Department Office of Security
Technology seeking approval for the use of an iPad or iPhone for
official government business; and
Any
all communications within or between the Office of the Secretary of
State, the Executive Secretariat, and the Office of the Secretary and
the Office of Security Technology concerning, regarding, or related to
the use of unauthorized electronic devices for official government
business.
On March 2, 2015, The New York Times reported then-Secretary Clinton used at least one non-"state.gov" email account to
conduct official government business during her entire tenure as the
secretary of state. It also was reported that Secretary Clinton stored
these records on a non-U.S. government server at her home in Chappaqua,
New York.
All
told, there are about 18 lawsuits, 10 of which are active in federal
court, as well as about 160 Judicial Watch FOIA requests that could be
affected by Mrs. Clinton and her staff's use of secret email accounts to
conduct official government business. In our various FOIA lawsuits,
our lawyers have informed attorneys for the Obama administration that
Hillary Clinton's account and any other secret accounts used by State
employees should be secured, recovered and searched. So far, we have
filed over 20 requests about the Clinton email scandal. This new lawsuit
seeking iPhone and iPad documents is the first of several we expect to
file over the next few weeks, as the State Department and other
recalcitrant Obama agencies have failed to comply with the federal
transparency law.
Besides
exclusively using a secret email account to conduct official government
business, it's likely that Hillary Clinton also used unauthorized
electronic equipment-an iPad and an iPhone-as Secretary of State after
being warned not to, a veteran State Department official told Judicial
Watch this week.
On
at least half a dozen occasions Clinton's top aides asked the State
Department's Office of Security Technology to approve the use of an iPad
and iPhone, according to JW's inside source. Each time the request was
rejected for security reasons, the source confirms. The only mobile
device that meets the agency's security standards is the BlackBerry,
JW's source said, adding that the Office of Security Technology-Bureau
of Diplomatic Security's Directorate of Countermeasures must approve
all equipment such as cameras, phones and communication devices for all
officials.
Evidently
set on using the popular Apple devices, Clinton repeatedly challenged
the ban and asked management in the Office of Security Technology to
allow their use. The executive secretariat responsible for all
communications and information technology always rejected the requests,
JW's source affirms. "From day one Hillary was trying to get the iPhone
and the iPad approved," the State Department official told JW. "She kept
trying and trying to get us to approve the iPhone and the iPad, but we
wouldn't do it. Technology security experts tested the iPhone and the
iPad several times because she constantly wanted them approved, but it
never happened."
The
longtime State Department employee reveals that it's common knowledge
among government security tech experts that Apple devices don't meet
strict security standards so agency insiders were puzzled that the
Secretary of State was hell-bent on using them. "There was a lot of
head-scratching," JW's source revealed. Every State Department employee
goes through a rigorous security training that includes strict warnings
about using non approved equipment or personal email like Clinton did
throughout her tenure as the president's chief foreign affairs officer,
the agency insider said.
Clinton's
persistent efforts to persuade the State Department's technology
security experts to approve the use of her favorite Apple devices led
those in the division to conclude that she did in fact go through with
it. "My guess is she did it and wanted approval after the fact," JW's
source said. "But no waivers were ever issued." JW reached out to the
State Department for a comment on this latest potential scandal
surrounding its former leader, but failed to get a response.
Three weeks later, March 31, 2015, The Associated Press also reported that
Clinton while secretary of state, had used an iPad to email members of
her staff, contradicting her statements that she had used a secret email
account so that she could "conveniently" conduct official business on
one electronic device alone. None of Hillary Clinton's email records
have been produced to Judicial Watch, or disclosed to the courts as
required by law. Reports of Clinton's use of both a secret email server
based at her residence and of an iPad to conduct government business
have also raised concerns about the security of Clinton's
communications. That's a topic that does not get raised often enough.
It
is apparent to us that the Obama State Department would rather violate
FOIA requirements than give the American people simple facts about
Hillary Clinton's iPad and iPhone. The State Department is engaged in a
cover-up, but we are determined to hold this administration and Mrs.
Clinton to account for their apparent criminal violations of federal
records laws and other laws.
This scandal is fast moving. To keep track of all of JW's latest efforts, be sure to visit our website often.
In the meantime, we'll keep on shaming other media, Congress, and the
Justice Department that don't want to do the hard work of holding the
government and obviously corrupt politicians accountable to the rule of
law and the American people.
Obama IRS Targets Churches
The
Obama Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandal is more than a story about
the targeting and suppression of President Obama's perceived political
opposition. It is also about using the awesome powers of the federal
tax agency to target the First Amendment generally, including the
fundamental protection of our God-given right to freely exercise our
religious freedoms. Proof of this can be found in the latest unlawful
cover-up that resulted in Judicial Watch filing an important new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against
the Obama IRS on behalf of the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF).
Through this lawsuit Judicial Watch seeks to obtain the release of
documents about the IRS decision to reevaluate criteria for determining
whether churches and other nonprofit organizations can claim tax-exempt
status. The IRS had also suggested that it may initiate investigations
into church activities. This IRS attack on religious freedom is in
accordance with a lawsuit filed by the anti-religion group Freedom from
Religion Foundation (FFRF). We're long-time fans and allies of Alliance Defending Freedom, which is an alliance-building legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
The suit was filed after the IRS declined to comply with a FOIA request from ADF back in July 2014 that asked for:
(1) All
documents related to any existing, proposed, new, or adopted procedures
for church tax inquiries or examinations from January 2009 to the
present.
(2) All documents related to proposed or adopted changes to Treasury Regulations §301.7611-1 from January 2009 to the present.
(3) All documents related to new IRS policies or procedures referenced in FFRF's July 17, 2014 press release.
ADF
filed the FOIA request after an announcement by the Freedom from
Religion Foundation (FFRF) that, in settling a FFRF lawsuit, the IRS had
promised to begin looking into specific churches and other groups for
potential violations of tax law, and to reevaluate IRS' criteria for
when such evaluations should be executed.
The IRS stalled the release of records for months, most recently promising to produce records by March 31.
Par for the course, the Obama IRS broke its promise. As the April 9
ADF lawsuit notes, the Obama IRS is a serial violator of the Freedom of
Information Act:
As
of the date of this complaint, Defendant has failed to: (i) determine
whether to comply with the request; (ii) notify Plaintiff of any such
determination or the reasons therefor; (iii) advise Plaintiff of the
right to appeal any adverse determination; and/or (iv) produce the
requested records or otherwise demonstrate that the requested records
are exempt from production.
Your
JW has been mindful of the assault on religious liberty for some time
now, particularly as it relates to the actions of unsavory, anti-First
Amendment entities such as the FFRF and their inordinate and
inappropriate influence on government agencies.
As
we've previously reported in 2012, the FFRF filed a lawsuit alleging
that the IRS had routinely ignored its complaints about churches
promoting political candidates, issues or proposed legislation. In its complaint, FFRF
alleged that 1,500 clergy members violated electioneering restrictions
on Sunday, October 7, 2012. The atheist group has specifically cited
church teachings against abortion and same-sex marriage as being in
violation of the law. It also cited what it termed "blatantly political"
full-page ads by the Billy Graham Evangelical Association run on the
three Sundays leading up to the presidential elections.
But the FFRF abruptly dismissed its IRS lawsuit after a church, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty,
intervened in the lawsuit to challenge the IRS' alleged authority to
"revoke a house of worship's tax-exempt status, and levy fines against
churches and individual leaders, when religious leaders are deemed to
say things that the IRS does not allow." Alliance Defending Freedom and
other religious rights organizations have challenged directly the
notion that the federal government can restrict the speech of pastors.
In July 2014, the IRS announced that,
according to the terms of an agreement reached with the FFRF, it had
been monitoring churches and other houses of worship for electioneering
and other political activity. According to June 27, 2014, IRS letter to
the Justice Department: the IRS targeted 99 churches it said merited
"high priority examination" for allegedly illegal electioneering
activities. This church-targeting was determined by an IRS "Political
Activities Referral Committee."
The
Wisconsin-based FFRF, which describes itself as "an effective
state/church watchdog and voice for ... atheism, agnosticism,
skepticism," trumpets the IRS agreement at issue as an "IRS Victory!" on
its website homepage. Another victory touted on the atheist group's
homepage is a purported success entitled, "FFRF erases bible [sic] quotes from Mo. school's whiteboard."
Given
the Obama IRS' habit of abusing its authority in seeking to intimidate
and silence American citizens, and then stonewall investigators lawfully
seeking answers, it is no surprise that the IRS is once again seeking
to prevent the public from getting answers about a case involving vital
First Amendment freedoms. The continued attempt at secrecy and
subterfuge by the IRS has forced our client, the Alliance Defending
Freedom, to sue in federal court simply to have its lawful inquiry
answered. The IRS is
using a lot of energy to cover up details of its illicit targeting of
churches. Violating FOIA law comes at great taxpayer expense.
If
there is any good news to report where the perfidy of the IRS is
concerned, it comes from the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration (TIGTA), which is pursuing at least some of its watchdog
oversight duties over the IRS. The IRS scandal was exposed because of
TIGTA's May 2013 audit report confirming
that the IRS used "inappropriate" criteria to identify Tea Party groups
and other conservative organizations that had expressed opposition to
the Obama administration's policy stances during the 2012 election
cycle.
JW
quickly took the lead in investigating and litigating to get the truth
about an abuse of power that almost certainly helped Barack Obama win
reelection. Our subsequent FOIA litigation led to the disclosure that
Lois Lerner's emails had been lost, and then to the news that the IRS
was lying - Lerner's "lost" emails had been backed up! TIGGA began
trying to recover some of these newly found materials. And now we've
learned this week that the IRS' internal watchdog found thousands of
Lerner's emails, as first reported by The Hill:
An
inspector general investigating the IRS's improper scrutiny of Tea
Party groups has found thousands of emails from Lois Lerner, the agency
official at the center of that controversy, according to committees
involved in the probe.
The
Treasury inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) said it found
roughly 6,400 emails either to or from Lerner sent between 2004 and
2013 that it didn't think the IRS had turned over to lawmakers, the
panels said. The committees have yet to examine the emails, according to
Capitol Hill aides.
The statement from the IRS in response to the email recovery just doesn't pass the laugh test:
We
welcome the Inspector General's recovery of these Lois Lerner emails.
This is an encouraging development that will help resolve remaining
questions and dispel uncertainty surrounding the emails.
The
IRS has been committed to cooperating fully with the investigations. We
understand that, during the course of the past 10 months, the Inspector
General found about 650 emails from the period affected by the
hard-drive crash. It's important to note that last summer, the IRS
produced 24,000 emails from that period.
It
is also important to note that the IRS obstructed the TIGTA
investigation and did not lift a finger to help the watchdog recover the
emails. Also, the IRS is refusing to review and turn over these new
documents to Judicial Watch! The federal courts, thankfully, also have
independent oversight of the IRS.
The
agency that is obstructing federal courts and other investigations of
its abuse of power in of Tea Party and other conservative critics of
President Obama is also in cover-up mode on the apparent targeting of
religious conservatives and their churches. We are in court on both
issues for the First Amendment defenders at ADF and, of course, for you
and other concerned citizens.
We will keep you updated.
Tom Fitton President
No comments:
Post a Comment