Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review are amused to see the Clinton campaign accusing Republicans and the intelligence community inspector general of conspiring to accuse Hillary Clinton of having beyond top secret emails on her server. They also blast Republicans for attacking Ted Cruz for his opposition to crony capitalism in ethanol and they discuss why tea party darling Sarah Palin would endorse Donald Trump. They react to news that a Fast and Furious gun capable of downing helicopters was found with El Chapo. And they mourn the death of Ben Carson staffer Braden Joplin.
News & Politics
‘People Have Been Prosecuted for Far Less’
On Sunday, Hillary Clinton said there should be “no individual too powerful to jail” and the author of the explosive book alleging Clinton used the State Department for favors to Clinton Foundation donors says that rule should apply to the Democratic front-runner as well.
“Clinton Cash” author Peter Schweizer says the Clintons are also still profiting off the pardon of Marc Rich, one of the ugliest – and last – acts of President Bill Clinton in 2001.
In a debate hosted by NBC and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, the Democratic White House hopefuls were asked about their differences in reforming Wall Street. Sec. Clinton scolded Sen. Bernie Sanders for being critical of her and President Obama for accepting campaign donations from Wall Street, but he also highlighted where their positions are similar.
“There is no daylight on the basic premise that there should be no bank too big to fail and no individual too powerful to jail. We agree on that,” said Clinton.
Clinton is under FBI investigation for conducting all of her State Department business through a home server and possibly breaking the law for how she handled classified and top secret information. Last week, reports revealed that the FBI expanded its probe of Clinton into whether she used the State Department to reward donors to the Clinton Foundation.
Schweizer says as long as everyone seems interested in punishing corruption in the markets, in politics and elsewhere, Clinton ought to be closely investigated as well.
“If you look at recent prosecutions for political corruption, whether that’s Gov. (Bob) McDonnell in Virginia, whether that’s Sen. (Rober) Menendez in New Jersey or a former governor down in Alabama, people have been prosecuted on far less developed patterns of taking payments and doing favors than in the case of Hillary Clinton,” said Schweizer.
While Schweizer’s book contends there is a pattern of corruption from Hillary Clinton at the State Department, he says the Clintons were clever in how they constructed their charitable organization.
“They basically circumvented laws that say you can’t take money from foreigners in a way that will influence a political campaign. So they take it instead as speaking fees and as donations to the Clinton Foundation,” said Schweizer.
But he says they still have huge legal problems.
“The international anti-bribery standards, which Hillary Clinton endorsed as secretary of state says that bribery can include donations going to a charity run by a politician. So the fact the Clinton Foundation does charitable work really does not let them off the hook,” said Schweizer.
So what will come of the FBI investigation?
“We want to believe and think that decisions to prosecute for criminal conduct are just going to be based on the facts and there’s not going to be a political component to it, but I think very few of us are naive enough to think that’s the way the world actually works,” said Schweizer.
“I would say the odds of a criminal referral from the FBI are fairly high but I think the Department of Justice actually acting on that I would say is fairly low,” said Schweizer.
He also believes if there are any charges they will be minor ones related to the server and classified information and Clinton will face no charges on corruption. The probe into classified information got another jolt on Tuesday when a letter from the inspector general for the intelligence community was released that showed even more highly sensitive material was discovered on Clinton’s unsecure server.
But Schweizer says there is much more on the corruption front as well. A case in point he says, is the ongoing windfall the Clinton Foundation appears to be getting 15 years after Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich. Schweizer detailed the money chain recently in the New York Post.
The pardon came on January 20, 2001, Clinton’s final day in office.
“Marc Rich was an international fugitive. He was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. He made a lot of money by trading with rogue regimes like the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, apartheid South Africa, North Korea. He basically acted as an oil middle man for these roguish governments,” explained Schweizer.
At the time, even many liberal voices like the New York Times and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., slammed Clinton for the pardon. Clinton himself later said it was one of his biggest political mistakes. But Schweizer says the shady details didn’t end in 2001.
“A lot of people were shocked and then when they found out Denise Rich, Marc Rich’s ex-wife, had donated $450,000 to the Clinton Foundation and another million to the Democratic Party right before that pardon took place, people immediately drew those connections. I think those connections are real but that’s not the end of the story,” said Schweizer.
Namely that the pardon is still paying dividends.
“If you look at some of the biggest donors to the Clinton Foundation, you will find that these are individuals who were longtime business partners with Marc Rich, that they were his personal attorneys, that they were his media people. There’s a collection of individuals that have poured tens of millions of dollars into the Clinton Foundation that are directly tied to Marc Rich,” said Schweizer.
It will ultimately be into the billions because Schweizer says Gilbert Chagoury has promised to donate a billion dollars by himself to the Clinton Foundation. He says Rich and Chagoury smuggled oil out of Nigeria and sold it on the black market.
But the real total of Rich-related donations remains a mystery.
“The Clinton Foundation, contrary to their promises, has actually not even disclosed all of its contributors. We know there are at least a thousand, based on some of their fundraisers, that were never disclosed and those donors were people that were precisely in Marc Rich’s industry,” said Schweizer.
Rich died in 2013 and the pardon was 15 years ago, but Schweizer says if the money coming in is directly the result of that action, a crime is still being committed. He says McDonnell was convicted and Menendez charged with corruption based on much more speculation than is taking place with the Clintons.
“It behooves us, I think, to get an explanation from prosecutors as to why these individuals get prosecuted but the Clintons don’t,” said Schweizer.
Three Martini Lunch 1/19/16
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review react to the Defense Department considering demoting David Petraeus for his mishandling of classified information and the message this sends to those investigating Hillary Clinton. They also slam Marco Rubio for continuing to say he thinks all illegal immigrants who are not felons should be able to stay in the U.S. once they’ve been here a certain time. And they discuss the uproar over an alleged lack of diversity in the Oscar nominations.
Lawmaker Details Bill Classifying Sex with Lobbyists as Gift
Politicians are often accused of being in bed with the special interests, but in Missouri, a lobbyist who literally hits the sheets with a lawmaker would have to report the liaison as a gift if a new bill makes it into law.
The legislation sponsored by Republican State Rep. Bart Korman would require lobbyists to report any sexual encounter with a member of the legislature as a gift with the state ethics commission. Korman says recent indiscretions in the Show Me State prompted his effort to clean up the system.
Last year, two sex scandals involving lawmakers and interns rocked Jefferson City. In May, Republican State House Speaker John Diehl stepped down after sexually charged texts with an intern were discovered. Two months later, Democratic State Sen. Paul LeVota resigned in response to allegations he sexually harassed two interns.
“I looked at the law and there’s really no statute against that type of relationship. After some of the allegations against some of the members of the General Assembly last year and a priority of ethics reform after having discussion this year, I put the two subjects together and put this bill forward,” said Korman.
Korman doesn’t believe sexual relationships between politicians and lobbyists are rampant in Missouri, but he says there is enough chatter around the capitol to make his plan necessary.
“I don’t think there’s very much of that activity but you always hear of a situation or two out there of rumors that you don’t know exist or not. After last year’s situation, I figured maybe it’s time to put something like this forth,” said Korman.
While the argument will likely emerge that the state has no right to know about the personal affairs of lawmakers, Korman says the people they serve certainly do.
“One, I think if a relationship like that occurs, the citizens of Missouri should know that it’s going on,” said Korman. “Two, hopefully with the reporting process, it would deter that type of activity altogether which would probably be the best thing for everybody.”
He explained what his bill would require in terms of transparency.
“Lobbyists are required to report any gift activity on a monthly basis,” said Korman. “I put it so it’s zero value and I put it into the current ethics reporting system because I didn’t want to create a bigger bureaucracy here in Missouri.”
While Korman is intent on raising ethical standards in the Missouri government, he does not demonize lobbyists in general. He says they perform an important function.
“Lawmaking is probably different than any other process out there. It’s one that is interactive and lobbyists are just as much a part of the process as citizens because a lot of citizens have an organization that hires lobbyists to watch what’s going on here on a daily basis,” said Korman.
There is no precedent for the legislation anywhere in the U.S. Korman says the closest they came was some confusion over the law in North Carolina.
Korman introduced the bill Jan. 6. He says the response from his colleagues gives him tentative hope the bill has a chance to pass.
“A lot of members think it’s a good bill, however I’ve got no co-sponsorships on it so we’ll see how that changes in time. There’s a few snickers here and there as well,” said Korman.
Even he has no formal allies yet for the bill, it’s already in the legislative pipeline.
“The more co-sponsors you get, the more the speaker and the chairman that has the bill would know that there’s support for it. The speaker did refer it to committee, so now it will be up to the committee chairman to see if he wants to have a hearing on the bill or not,” said Korman.
Three Martini Lunch 1/15/16
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review review the three most intense exchanges from Thursday’s Republican presidential debate. They praise Ted Cruz for his defense of his eligibility to be president against accusations to the contrary by Donald Trump. They also conclude Trump got the better of Cruz on the squabble over New York values by invoking the spirit following 9/11. And they discuss the dueling flip-flop charges over immigration and more between Cruz and Marco Rubio.
Three Martini Lunch 1/14/16
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review discuss the implosion of Al Jazeera America. They also slam Secretary of State John Kerry for thanking Iran for its treatment of 10 U.S. sailors after our women and women were humiliated on video. They slam Chelsea Clinton for suggesting Bernie Sanders and Republicans have the same position on Obamacare. And they pay tribute to the late actor Alan Rickman, villain from “Die Hard,” the official movie of the Three Martini Lunch.
Calling Obama Foreign Policy ‘BS’, GOP Rep Pushes for Censure
The congressman who first challenged John Boehner as Speaker of the House is now spearheading an effort to censure President Obama over his handling of national security.
Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., says it’s time for Congress to hold Obama accountable for acts that repeatedly weaken our security and embolden our enemies. He officially filed the legislation Wednesday afternoon.
“We’ve entered this resolution of censure and condemning his lack of energy and strategy strictly on national security. This is going to be a significant thing because at the very end it says Congress will act if the president doesn’t change course,” said Yoho.
The resolution is just four pages. In addition to making general accusations, including Obama contributing to global instability and failing to enforce laws and honor his constitutional oath, several items get more specific.
“Whereas President Obama has willfully failed to follow the counsel and expert advice provided by United States military and intelligence advisors by prematurely with-drawing troops from Iraq, thus leading to further destabilization of the Middle East and increased threats to national and global security,” reads one charge.
“Whereas the dereliction of duty and miscalculations of President Barack Obama have allowed the combined terrorist organizations of the world to control more land, and increase membership, armament, and resources more than during any other time in history,” states another in reference to ISIS and the Taliban.
“Whereas President Barack Obama has failed to instruct the Department of Justice to take action to end the practices of certain State and local governments that refuse to abide by standing immigration laws,” adds another in light of Obama defending the concept of sanctuary cities..
The resolution also condemns Obama for failing to halt the Iran nuclear deal after Iran violated the terms through multiple ballistic missile tests and for lacking any discernible strategy in Libya. It culminates by asking lawmakers to formally rebuke Obama for his failure to act in the best interests of national security.
“Resolved, That the House of Representatives (1) does hereby censure and condemn President Barack Obama for having willfully disregarded the President’s constitutional responsibilities as Commander in Chief of the United States through his continued failed lack of foreign affairs strategy, failure to follow the advice of military and intelligence advisors, and failed national security policy; and (2) does hereby put President Barack Obama on notice and strongly urges the President to reverse course and begin fulfilling his constitutional responsibilities,” concludes the resolution.
The allegations contained in the censure resolution paint a very different picture from the one Obama offered Tuesday in his final State of the Union message. In discussing ISIS, Obama urged everyone to take the long view.
“They have to be stopped but they do not threaten our national existence. That is the story ISIL wants to tell. That’s the kind of propaganda they use to recruit. We don’t need to build them up to show that we’re serious. And sure don’t need to push away vital allies in this fight by echoing the lie that ISIL is somehow representative of one of the world’s largest religions,” said Obama Tuesday.
Yoho says Obama offered nothing new.
“He’s been saying that since the beginning. It’s his failed policies in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he announced troop withdrawals and he pulled out with a date. That has led to the creation of ISIS. They didn’t pay attention to them. They allowed for a foothold to get started,” said Yoho.
He says the results of Obama’s weakness are obvious.
“Today, under this president and this administration, the Taliban controls more land mass than they’ve ever controlled in history. Number two, ISIS came out of our dropping the ball, not paying attention to the insurgency that was arising,” said Yoho.
Yoho says Obama has misplayed ISIS every step of the way, from dismissing it as the “jayvee team” to running a handful of sorties against the terrorists for months while they established their foothold and gained land and resources in Iraq and Syria.
“It was his miscalculations, his missteps and his lack of a strategy that has allowed ISIS to become the terrorists with the largest, most well organized, most well armed and the largest membership in the world,” said Yoho.
In first announcing U.S. policy against ISIS in September 2014, Obama cited Yemen and Somalia as examples of how the U.S. can influence major results with a light military footprint. Yoho says Yemen is now another depressing example of Obama’s foreign policy.
“Yemen is a perfect example of our intervention. Yemen is a disaster. He can tout some of the things he wants to about his accomplishments, but the one thing he can’t talk about are his accomplishments in foreign affairs and it’s made not just our country but the Middle East and the world less safe,” said Yoho.
While Yoho and others, including several GOP presidential candidates, urge a tougher ISIS policy from the military and through diplomacy and public statements, Obama insisted Tuesday he’s on the right course.
“Fortunately there is a smarter approach, a patient and disciplined strategy that uses every element of our national power. It says America will always act, alone if necessary, to protect our people and our allies. but on issues of global concern, we will mobilize the world to work with us and make sure other countries pull their own weight,” said Obama in his address.
Yoho pulled no punches in response.
“I think it’s BS. He doesn’t have a strategy,” said Yoho, who says military leaders he’s spoken with reach the same conclusion.
“I’ve sat with these guys. I sit on foreign affairs. There is no strategy to defeat ISIS.” he added. “He can say all those things like, ‘Oh, we have a smarter strategy. We built a coalition.’ We had no coalition. So what he’s talking about is pure, simple sophistry, concocting a story to make it sound good but underneath it’s a lie.”
The congressman says proof of Obama’s toothless approach includes dropping leaflets to let ISIS convoy drivers know we will drop bombs soon, clearing out the Guantanamo Bay detention center as quickly as possible and showing common cause with cities that refuse to hold criminal aliens so the federal government can deport them..
Yoho says the censure resolution is a warning to Obama that he needs to reverse course because Congress has only one more penalty to pursue but he insists impeachment is not something he wants to pursue now.
For now, Yoho says he needs the public to rally behind the censure resolution. It needs a simple majority to pass the House and would likely have to meet a 60-vote threshold in the Senate. He is asking citizens to apply pressure to every member to get on board.
“Members have a decision to make. They either get on this, condemning the president’s lack of a foreign policy that’s jeopardized not only us here domestically but around the world. Your constituents are going to put pressure on their members of Congress, whether House or Senate, to support this resolution,” said Yoho.
“If not, they say they agree with the president’s action and they think he’s doing a fine job. We all know that’s not true,” he said.
Three Martini Lunch 1/13/16
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Jim Geraghty of National Review cheer most of Nikki Haley’s Republican response to the State of the Union, especially her personal story and the contrast she paints between the visions of Republicans and Democrats. They also slam President Obama for telling everyone to calm down about ISIS since they can’t destroy our entire nation. And they shake their heads as Obama contends the arrest of one man for the Benghazi attacks shows he will do whatever it takes to bring terrorists to justice.
‘This Is Felony Corruption’
The FBI is expanding its investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server to examine whether Clinton used her office in a way that benefited the Clinton Foundation.
The story was first reported Monday by Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne of Fox News.
“The FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email as secretary of state has expanded to look at whether the possible “intersection” of Clinton Foundation work and State Department business may have violated public corruption laws, three intelligence sources not authorized to speak on the record told Fox News,” wrote Herridge and Brown.
“This new investigative track is in addition to the focus on classified material found on Clinton’s personal server,” they added.
The news greatly ratchets up the legal risk for Clinton.
“This is felony corruption. Is there a connection, the FBI says, between the government of whatever country giving Bill Clinton a million dollar speech fee and then the Secretary of States, who happens to be his spouse, making a decision that benefits that country,” said former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Victoria Toensing, for is also a former assistant U.S. attorney.
Toensing believes the probe was expanded a while ago and the rest of us are only finding out about it now. She also suspects that while the rest of Washington was waiting for Benghazi-related emails, the FBI was able to recover additional messages that led their work in this direction.
“I’m sure when they got into her server and saw all the emails they saw all kinds of back and forth between Bill Clinton getting paid and her making decisions at the State Department,” said Toensing.
She says it doesn’t take much to widen an FBI investigation.
“You’d be looking at certain emails, whether they’re classified or not, and all of a sudden you might come across these that are talking about the quid pro quo of the speech payments and Hillary’s decision. You wouldn’t need more than a couple of those,” said Toensing, who says corruption charges aren’t that hard to prove.
“You just need something in a reasonable period of time frame. The issue comes up, Bill’s giving a speech, there’s a decision pending and that happens within the next two or three months. That’s all you need,” said Toensing.
“There are a number of those that have been alleged in newspaper accounts. He comes in, gives a speech for them. He gets a lot of money and then she gives them favorable decisions at the State Department. It’s like the State Department is a RICO organization under the Clintons,” said Toensing.
Toensing says Clinton ought to be big trouble given the precedent already set by the Obama Justice Department.
“This Justice Department under this administration prosecuted and convicted Gov. (Bob) McDonnell of Virginia for just making a few phone calls for somebody he had known for several years,” said Toensing.
“This is far beyond what McDonnell did. He made a few phone calls which never amounted to anything. If Bill Clinton got paid for a speech…and Hillary Clinton made decisions favorable to that entity, business or country in a reasonable time frame, that is per se a violation of law,” added Toensing.
The expanded FBI investigation into Clinton’s activities comes on the heels of a potentially damaging email in which Clinton appears to instruct a top aide to send a secure message through non-secure means and without markings that the information was classified.
In June 2011, State Department official Jacob Sullivan was attempting to send Secretary Clinton some talking points but ran into technical problems.
“They say they’ve had issues sending secure fax. They’re working on it,” emailed Sullivan.
“If they can’t, turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure,” replied Clinton.
On Sunday, “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson asked Clinton whether she broke the law.
“No. And it wasn’t sent. So I think this is another instance where what is common practice, namely, look, I need information, I had some points I had to make and I was waiting for a secure fax that could give me the whole picture, but often times there’s a lot of information that isn’t at all classified so whatever information can be appropriately transmitted unclassified often was – that’s true for every agency in the government and anyone who does business with the government,” said Clinton on Sunday.
Toensing says that answer makes her gag and says it runs counter to what her sources in the State Department have told her.
“I have been told by people that the word in the State Department was that she had instructed people to take the markings off of classified material,” said Toensing.
She says this is the latest twist in the ever-evolving Clinton explanation of her server and her handling of classified materials.
“First of all, remember the line was every secretary of state had their own personal email account. But we’re not talking about the email account, we’re talking about the server. It’s the server, stupid. When people started talking about that, she said, ‘Well I didn’t receive classified information on it,'” said Toensing.
“That got to be a problem when all of a sudden people were finding classified information. Then she said, ‘I didn’t receive anything that was marked classified,'” said Toensing.
Toensing says Clinton has two problems on this front: that she kept classified information on an unauthorized server and that she had a responsibility to know what information is classified whether it is marked or not.
She says the law in 18 U.S.C. §1924 is crystal clear.
“It says it is a crime to put classified information in ‘an unauthorized location.’ It’s as simple as that,” said Toensing.
The statute does say the person must knowingly engage in the behavior. Toensing says the email to Sullivan shows willful intent.
“That would show that she had knowledge that she was getting information that was classified and that it was coming into the server in the bathroom,” said Toensing.
While the FBI has announced no timetable for making any recommendations to Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Toensing is uncertain whether the Obama Justice Department would ever charge Clinton, she says the political realities require something to happen soon on this case, probably in the next 60-90 days.
“Although the government is never supposed to take politics into account, it would not be a good thing to allow a political party to nominate somebody and then the next day indict them,” said Toensing.
Toensing and her husband, former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova, have both stated multiple times that they believe large portions of the FBI will revolt if Lynch fails to indict Clinton and would make it their mission to get their findings to the public.
She says Lynch is feeling immense pressure from both sides.
“I think there will be a recommendation from the FBI to the Justice Department. Maybe the Clinton people will get to Loretta Lynch. Maybe people will tell her she’ll never eat lunch in this town again. But I think if she doesn’t go along with the FBI recommendation, she won’t eat lunch in this town again anyway,” said Toensing.
Three Martini Lunch 1/8/16
Greg Corombos of Radio America and Ian Tuttle of National Review applaud Taya Kyle for pointing out the Obama hypocrisy on guns and explaining why we need the right to keep and bear arms. They also shudder as terrorism arrests in the U.S. show more holes in our refugee screening. And they scold Mike Huckabee for claiming evangelicals aren’t with him this time because he will address abortion and marriage and they just want the issues to raise money.