Wednesday Open Thread | Now, THIS is what Oversight looks like

Posted on March 6, 2019 by rikyrah

Now, THIS is what Congressional Oversight looks like!!

House Judiciary Committee Demands Documents From Nearly Everyone in Trumpworld
From obstruction of justice, corruption, and what they’re calling abuse of power, the House Judiciary Committee is showing where Hill investigations of the president go next.
Spencer Ackerman

03.04.19 11:34 AM ET

If there’s anyone who might know anything about any allegation about wrongdoing by President Trump, encompassing everything from obstruction of justice to collusion with Russia to paying off potential ex-mistresses, the Democrats who now run the House Judiciary Committee on Monday are asking for their files.
Just days after the president’s former fixer Michael Cohen testified at length about what Cohen described as Trump’s habitual criminal behavior, House Judiciary Democrats sent letters requesting documents on a wide range of investigative lines to 81 people, government agencies, and private organizations.
It’s the investigative equivalent of shock and awe, heralding an even deeper phase of protracted congressional inquiries into all aspects of the president, his associates and his businesses. While the House Democrats are allergic to talk of impeachment, information they’re asking about concerns Trump and allies profiting from their offices, potentially lucrative ties to both hostile and allied foreign powers, and work to shut down investigations into these matters—all of which are likely to add to pressures on the left for impeachment.
Requests to produce material, initially due in just two weeks, went out to everyone from the White House and the Trump Organization to Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Jared Kushner, ex-communications director Hope Hicks, ex-strategist Steve Bannon, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, Roger Stone associate Randy Credico, Maria Butina boyfriend and GOP operative Paul Erickson, cooperating witness and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and Flynn’s son.

……………………………
The committee conceptualizes the document requests into three areas that can overlap: obstruction of justice, including about the various Russia probes; “public corruption,” including the campaign-finance violations that Cohen’s hush money payments to Stephanie “Stormy Daniels” Clifford and Karen McDougal potentially represent; and “abuse of power,” including attacks on what the committee described as “the press, the judiciary, and law enforcement agencies.”
That wide focus underscores both the aggressive investigative approach adopted by the newly empowered House Democrats and the wide span of allegations against the president of the United States.

Another poster made a good point. There isn’t anyone on this list who hasn’t already had a similar request from some law enforcement entity. That they have already gotten the request, and complied with said law enforcement entities, limits severely the ability of this White House to now attempt to call Executive Privilege. That could be why certain names that we thought SHOULD be on the list, but weren’t, didn’t wind up on the list….yet…

 

Between these requests, and please be sure, they are not mere requests…this is a nicety..failure to comply will result in a subpoena, and it can get nasty from then on. We also got the news last week from Congresswoman Maxine Waters, that she sent staff to New York to meet with Deutsche Bank and get the papers that she’s been after for almost 2 years. And, you also know who is being kept in the loop: The Southern District of New York and the New York State Attorney General’s Office.
Tee hee hee ….

Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) Tweeted:
Here’s the full list of Trump associates that the House Judiciary Committee has contacted for documents, including AMI’s David Pecker, Trump’s inaugural committee, Cambridge Analytica and nearly 80 others. https://t.co/0mOX3ytBbI https://t.co/3X4rK0DVrD https://twitter.com/rebeccaballhaus/status/1102609033968656385?s=17

Manu Raju (@mkraju) Tweeted:
“We have to make sure this is not a dictatorship,” Nadler said. Asked if probe is intended to lay groundwork for impeachment, he says on @OutFrontCNN: “It may come to that. It may not.” https://t.co/U6sYwAotZEhttps://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1102724829080440832?s=17

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104 Responses to Wednesday Open Thread | Now, THIS is what Oversight looks like

    • Liza says:
      March 7, 2019 at 9:49 am

      “A lot of the noise out there is designed to prevent us from taking on the question of our foreign policy toward Israel.”

      Actually, ALL the noise out there…

      Fixed.

      Reply
  12. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 5:15 pm

    This is true.
    No Wil, don’t do it. Step away. So much a part of the racial part of the Williams’s story IS their color.

    https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1103432561773240320

    Reply
  14. SouthernGirl2 says:
    March 6, 2019 at 4:49 pm

    Prayers for Alex Trebek.

    Heal him, Jehovah Rapha. The God who heals.❤️

    https://twitter.com/Jeopardy/status/1103416223331569664

    Reply
  18. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 4:16 pm

    Alex Trebek has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

    Reply
  19. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 4:05 pm

    Those responsible for this will NEVER EVER EVER be forgiven.
    The ignorance burns:

    The White House has issued an us-versus-them challenge to carmakers: back an administration plan to roll back fuel-economy standards or risk President Donald Trump’s wrath by siding with California’s stringent emissions requirements.

    That message was delivered during a tense conference call between Trump administration officials and auto executives in late February, according to five people familiar with the call who spoke on the condition they not be identified discussing the private conversation…

    The request has added to industry anxiety about getting caught in a conflict between Trump and the nation’s biggest auto market, the people said. The president is also reviewing the findings of a Commerce Department inquiry into whether imported cars and parts threaten national security, which automakers worry could provide the basis for new tariffs.

    Reply
  25. SouthernGirl2 says:
    March 6, 2019 at 3:01 pm

    Look y’all. This bitch is caught lying under OATH.

    https://twitter.com/JeffMerkley/status/1103343012942233600

    Reply
  26. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 2:46 pm

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    A Matter of Public Trust: AOC Should Fire Chief of Staff Who Ran Deceptive Campaign Finance Scheme

    The Washington Post has picked up a story that had thus far been predominantly limited to conservative outlets: it appears that Saikat Chakrabarti, the Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), treated AOC’s campaign as well as complicit progressive groups like the Justice Democrats as a corporate slush fund for a limited liability corporation he owns.

    The reason the Washington Post picked up the story, I suspect, is that filings from the two PACs involved appear to back up the case that Chakrabarti – no relations that I’m aware of – ran a deceptive money moving scheme during the 2018 election cycle and may have violated campaign finance laws.

    It turns out that two PACs that supported Ocasio-Cortez, Justice Democrats (JD) and Brand New Congress (BNC) paid more than $1 million for “strategic consulting” to a limited liability corporation associated with Brand New Congress, Brand New Congress LLC (BNC LLC). It would be bad enough that PACs were passing money back and forth basically amongst themselves, but things get really interesting when you find out who owns BNC LLC: you guessed it, Saikat Chakrabarti. Since Saikat Chakrabarti is also a founder of both Justice Democrats and the Brand New Congress PAC, it looks like two fundraising operations he had huge influence over were feeding cash to his LLC.

    Reply
  37. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 1:00 pm

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    Alan Gomez @alangomez
    Rep. Al Green [TX, to Nielson] says U.S. never put up walls or blockades to stop European migrants coming through Ellis Island, but is doing so now to stop migrants coming from Latin America.

    “White babies would not be treated the way these babies of color are being treated. This is about color.”

    Reply
  38. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 12:45 pm

    Sekulow was always a grifter. Lowell, on the other hand, had a Sterling reputation.

    https://twitter.com/jedshug/status/1103361795530678277

    Reply
  39. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 12:31 pm

    If you are interested in Black historical fiction, she is one of the best.and, her stuff never goes on sale

    https://twitter.com/AlyssaColeLit/status/1103123639602462721

    Reply
  45. Ametia says:
    March 6, 2019 at 11:35 am

    Word of the Day : March 6, 2019

    Abecedarian: adjective ay-bee-see-DAIR-ee-un

    Definition
    1 a : of or relating to the alphabet

    b : alphabetically arranged

    2 : rudimentary

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/abecedarian-2019-03-06?pronunciation&lang=en_us&dir=a&file=abeced01&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=wotd&utm_content=pron

    Reply
  46. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 11:11 am

    McConnell suggests voting-rights proposal is ‘socialist’
    03/06/19 10:47 AM
    By Steve Benen

    The House Democrats’ top priority for this Congress is a democracy-reform package called the For the People Act (HR 1), which is quite ambitious in its scope. As regular readers may recall, the bill is intended to create significant ethics and lobbying reforms, end partisan gerrymandering, expand voting rights, and improve government transparency.

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has made clear that he’s not a fan of the proposal, recently condemning a specific provision – making Election Day a national holiday – as a “power grab” that would help Democrats. (In the GOP leader’s mind, it’s apparently not fair to Republicans if more Americans are able to cast ballots.)

    But as the House debate on the For the People Act gets underway today, McConnell spoke from the Senate floor yesterday with a new criticism of the Democratic bill.

    “Like many Americans, I’ve spent the last several weeks watching with interest as prominent leaders in the Democratic Party have engaged in a political footrace. They’re sprinting as far left as possible, as quickly as possible, trying to outdo one another. The result is that one of our two major political parties has begun embracing one radical, half-baked socialist proposal after another. It’s really a sight to see.

    “First came the Democrat Politician Protection Act, a sweeping Washington D.C. takeover of what Americans can say about politics and how they elect their representatives. Speaker Pelosi and her House colleagues were ready with that from day one of this new Congress. They chose it as their ceremonial first bill of the year – H.R. 1. And let me say, this is quite a piece of legislation to hold up as the defining product of the new Democrat House majority.”

    Look, I realize the Senate Republican leader is never going to allow his chamber to vote on HR 1. The contemporary GOP is simply too hostile toward voting rights and election reforms to even consider legislation like this.

    But to characterize the package as a “radical, half-baked socialist proposal” is emblematic of a larger problem: Republicans are so preoccupied with instigating some kind of red scare, they no longer know or care what their own rhetoric means.

    Reply
  47. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 10:56 am

    Trump’s DC hotel becomes backchannel for administration influence
    David Fahrenthold, reporter for the Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about how Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C. hotel has become a backchannel means of giving money to Donald Trump while attempting to curry favor on policies or agency rulings from his administration.

    Reply
  48. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 10:53 am

    Trump insurance filings under scrutiny after Cohen accusations
    Rachel Maddow shares new reports that New York State investigators are looking into Donald Trump’s insurance filings after Michael Cohen testified that Trump had adjusted the valuation of his properties to reduce his premiums.

    Reply
  49. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 10:46 am

    Sudden increase in activity suggests WikiLeaks case moving ahead
    Rachel Maddow reports on new activity surrounding Julian Assange and Wikileaks, from news reports to court subpoenas to congressional document requests, indicating that something is developing in that case.
    March 5, 2019

    Reply
  50. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 10:38 am

    W.H. refusal of House security document request sets up showdown
    Rachel Maddow reports on the White House refusing a request from House Oversight Committee for documents related to Jared Kushner’s security clearance, making subpoenas likely, and setting up a potential legal showdown.
    March 5, 2019

    Reply
  51. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 10:17 am

    Would ANYONE BLACK be given these kinds of chances?
    PUT.THAT.MUTHAPHUCKA.IN.JAIL.

    Judge losing patience with Stone stunts, strengthens gag order
    Rachel Maddow reports on Judge Amy Berman Jackson’s apparent exasperation with Roger Stone’s public expressions about his case, stopping short of jailing Stone, but basically banning him from speaking about his case or the Mueller investigation broadly.

    Reply
  52. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 10:11 am

    Trump DOJ maneuver would allow him to replace key prosecutor
    Rachel Maddow reports on Donald Trump nominating Jessie Liu for the number three spot in the DOJ, allowing him to name her replacement as the U.S. attorney for D.C., overseeing such cases as Paul Manafort, Maria Butina, Roger Stone, and Sam Patten.

    Reply
  53. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 10:10 am

    Have we discussed this hit piece on Klobuchar?

    The Anger of Amy Klobuchar
    Don’t sell cruelty and pathological behavior as a feminist victory.

    MAR 5, 2019

    Amy Klobuchar has a problem. Apparently it’s been an open secret in Washington and Minnesota, but because she didn’t have much of a national reputation, the press lacked occasion to expose it. But when she made a name for herself during the Kavanaugh hearings, suggesting that a presidential campaign was likely, the press had the necessary occasion, and now we all know about it.

    Her problem is rage, easily uncorked, and directed not at the various forces that might thwart the needs of her constituents, but at the people—many of them young—who work for her. During Klobuchar’s first senatorial campaign, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees decried her “shameful treatment of her employees” in the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office; in March of 2018, Politico reported that she had the highest staff turnover in the Senate. But it has been the recent reporting of BuzzFeed News, HuffPost, The New York Times, and others that has provided the vivid and ugly details of what apparently lies behind those facts. Although many of the staffers and former staffers provided their reports anonymously, the senator has mostly not disputed the specifics, instead seeking to frame the behavior as part of the high expectations she has of herself and her staff.

    Reply
  58. SouthernGirl2 says:
    March 6, 2019 at 9:21 am

    Impeach the motherf****r

    In the words of Patti LaBelle…..

    🎶🎤Hey sista
    Go sista
    Soul sista
    Go sista🎶🎤

    https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/1103311800148332544

    Reply
  70. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 8:14 am

    August J. Pollak (@AugustJPollak) Tweeted:
    It’s amazing how on the same day Trump is refusing to give Democrats investigative documents and 1/6 of all judges are now rammed-through Trump nominees, there remain people who think Democrats need to just return things to “fairness.”

    https://twitter.com/AugustJPollak/status/1103297007601532930?s=17

    Reply
  74. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 8:05 am

    Evil Azz Demons 😠😈😡

    BallsOut (@bjcreigh) Tweeted:
    As of March 1, ICE was detaining 16 infants in Texas.

    Infants.

    12 were released. All were ill.

    Is this really what we’ve become? https://twitter.com/bjcreigh/status/1102991772727296000?s=17

    Reply
  80. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 7:05 am

    Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) Tweeted:
    After two years of Congress abdicating its constitutional oversight responsibility for overtly partisan reasons, we’ve had two months of oversight of the most corrupt POTUS in history and some pundits who breathlessly covered Benghazi ask if it’s too much. The answer is no. Next.

    https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1103271545613496320?s=17

    Reply
    • Ametia says:
      March 6, 2019 at 11:23 am

      Please! We all know that hooping & hollering was because they just knew the BLACK GUY would spend ALL THEIR HARD-EARNED $$$ AND GIVE IT TO THE BLACKS!

      Reply
  93. rikyrah says:
    March 6, 2019 at 3:43 am

    Good Morning, Everyone 😊😊😊

    Reply

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