Gag order lifted: DOJ says informant can speak to Congress on Uranium One, Russia bribery case with Clinton links

The Justice Department said Wednesday night that it had lifted a gag order on a former FBI informant involved in a high-profile Russia bribery case, clearing the individual to speak to Congress about Moscow’s Obama-era uranium deals in the U.S. market and other schemes.

In a statement, the department said it had authorized the informant to speak to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, House Oversight Committee, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in addition to select staffers.

The department said the informant could provide “any information or documents he has concerning alleged corruption or bribery involving transactions in the uranium market,” including Russian company Rosatom, subsidiary Tenex, Uranium One and the Clinton Foundation.
Uranium One refers to the name of a Canada-based company with mines in the U.S. that was bought by Rosatom, a company backed by the Russian state. The State Department, then led by Hillary Clinton, was one of nine U.S. government agencies that had to approve the deal back in 2010.
All three congressional committees launched investigations after The Hill reported that the FBI had evidence that Russian nuclear officials were involved in fraudulent dealings – including extortion, bribery and kickbacks – as far back as 2009 in a case involving Rosatom’s subsidiary, Tenex. Congressional Republicans have since questioned how the Uranium One deal was approved the following year by an inter-agency committee, and sought to gain access to the informant.
Republicans also have raised concerns about efforts by interested parties to influence the Clintons – citing donations to the Clinton Foundation as well as a $500,000 speaking fee received in Russia by former President Bill Clinton, who reportedly met with Vladimir Putin around the time of the deal.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted Tuesday that the Justice Department should appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Uranium One deal.
The informant's attorney, Victoria Toensing, told Fox Business Network Monday that her client can "tell what all the Russians were talking about during the time that all these bribery payments were made." The informant earlier was prevented from testifying by former attorneys general Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, according to Toensing, after having signed a non-disclosure agreement.

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Clinton campaign, DNC helped fund research that led to salacious Trump dossier

The controversial dossier containing salacious allegations about President Donald Trump and his possible connections to Russia, including coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, resulted from funding by Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee to the firm Fusion GPS, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to Fox News.

Fusion GPS was retained by Marc E. Elias, an attorney representing the DNC and the Clinton campaign, The Washington Post first reported Tuesday. Fusion GPS then reportedly hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to write the now-infamous dossier.

Steele had ties both to the U.S. intelligence community and the FBI.
Prior to the firm being retained in April 2016 by Elias and his law firm, Perkins Coie, Fusion GPS’s research had been subsidized by an unidentified Republican during the GOP primary.
But the Clinton campaign – and the DNC – saw the research through, funding the firm through the end of October 2016, just days before Trump defeated Clinton in the general election, according to The Post's reporting.
Steele’s findings and other research were then submitted to Elias via Fusion GPS, The Post reported. The method and the amount of the information that was provided to the campaign and the DNC wasn't immediately clear. It also wasn’t known who in those organizations knew about the roles of both Steele and Fusion GPS.
Following Trump’s victory, The Post reported, the FBI arranged to pay Steele to proceed with intelligence gathering about both Trump and Russia. That deal was later nixed after the former intelligence officer was identified in news reports.
Perkins Coie was paid $5.6 million in legal fees by the Clinton campaign in a time period ranging from June 2015 to December 2016, The Post reported, citing campaign finance records. The DNC also paid the firm $3.6 million for “legal and compliance consulting” going back to November 2015.
Sources told The Post that neither the Clinton campaign or the DNC specifically directed Steele’s work, labeling the intelligence officer simply as a Fusion GPS subcontractor.

Fusion GPS has recently been in the spotlight of congressional Republicans as they've tried to get the firm to reveal those who supported Steele’s work.
Fusion GPS has refused to do so, citing client confidentiality agreements.
Officials with the firm have also invoked their right to refuse to answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., subsequently subpoenaed the firm’s bank records in order to identify the client who subsidized the dossier.
Meanwhile, Glenn Simpson, the Fusion GPS founder, already gave a 10-hour interview to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
TRUMP DOSSIER FIRM'S 'SMEAR' TACTICS UNVEILED
The report on the dossier's funding come just days after the president tweeted about the controversial file. "Officials behind the now discredited 'Dossier' plead the Fifth," Trump tweeted on Oct 21. "Justice Department and/or FBI should immediately release who paid for it."
“Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization," DNC Communications Director Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement following the report's publication.
"But let’s be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened.” 
First published by Buzzfeed in January, the dossier contained a series of controversial financial and sexual allegations about Trump.

White privilege bolstered by teaching math, university professor says

Professor Rochelle Gutierrez says the ability to solve algebra and geometry perpetuates white privilege.  (University of Illinois)

A math education professor at the University of Illinois says the ability to solve geometry and algebra problems and teaching such subjects perpetuates so-called white privilege.

Rochelle Gutierrez laid out her views on the subject in an article for a newly published anthology for math educators titled, “Building Support for Scholarly Practices in Mathematics Methods.”

“School mathematics curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean Theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans," she says, according to Campus Reform.
She also says that addressing equity in mathematics education will come when teachers can understand and negotiate the politics outside the classroom.
“On many levels, mathematics itself operates as whiteness. Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as white,” she writes.
Further, she says mathematics operates with unearned privilege in society, “just like whiteness.”

Mathematics itself operates as Whiteness.

Gutierrez did not respond to an email from Fox News Tuesday seeking comment.
University of Illinois interim Provost John Wilkin told Fox News that Gutierrez is an established and admired scholar who has been published in many peer-reviewed publications.
“As with all of our faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Prof. Gutierrez has the rights of academic freedom necessary to pursue scholarship and research on important subjects and to reach conclusions even if some might disagree with those conclusions,” he said.
He added, “The issues around equity and access in education are real – with significant implications to our entire educational system. Exploring challenging pedagogical questions is exactly what faculty in a world-class college of education should be doing.”
In the book Gutierrez points out that mathematics operates as a proxy for intelligence, but asks, “are we really that smart just because we do mathematics?”
“As researchers, are we more deserving of large grants because we focus on mathematics education and not social studies or English?”
Gutierrez says evaluations of math skills can perpetuate discrimination against minorities, especially if they do worse than their white counterparts, Campus Reform reported.
“If one is not viewed as mathematical, there will always be a sense of inferiority that can be summoned” because the average person won't necessarily question the role of mathematics in society, she writes.
According to the website, Gutierrez adds that there are so many people who “have experienced microaggressions from participating in math classrooms… [where people are] judged by whether they can reason abstractly.”
NEW YORK PUBLIC COLLEGE OFFERING COURSE CALLED 'ABOLITION OF WHITENESS'
Her solution is a call for teachers to develop political "conocimeinto," or knowledge, to better prepare them in deciding on what learning opportunities work best for their students.
The book, published by Information Age Publishing, is a collaborative effort among more than 40 educators who teach mathematics methods courses for prospective pre-K‐12 teachers.

With Flake retirement, Steve Bannon claims scalp in bid to reshape GOP

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon speaks at a rally for U.S. Senate hopeful Roy Moore, in Fairhope, Ala., Sept. 25, 2017.  (Associated Press)

The unexpected retirement of U.S. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., will likely further inflame the Republican Party's civil war -- with former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon racking up the fruits of victory in his bid to reshape the party.

Flake announced his resignation Tuesday with a scathing attack on Trump from the Senate floor, calling the commander-in-chief’s behavior “reckless, outrageous, and undignified."

The senator also slammed the GOP, saying it had “given in or given up on the core principles in favor of a more viscerally satisfying anger and resentment,” and noted that “anger and resentment are not a governing philosophy."
But Flake's speech was likely music to the ears of Bannon, who has announced plans to run pro-Trump candidates against Senate Republicans who don't back the president's agenda. And Flake's emotional speech was unlikely to change the views of GOP voters who see establishment Republicans such as Flake as obstacles for executing Trump's “America First” agenda.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., accompanied by his wife Cheryl, leaves the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, after announcing he won't seek re-election in 2018.  (AP)

Recent polls show there is little appetite among voters for anti-Trump legislators in the Senate, especially in Arizona – a state Trump carried in 2016 presidential election. Flake was trailing his primary challenger, Kelli Ward, a former state senator who is backed by Bannon.
After Flake's announcement, Bannon quickly claimed a scalp for his anti-GOP establishment movement, warning incumbents that his recruited candidates “will defeat you in primaries or force you to retire," according to Breitbart News Network Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow, who tweeted the reaction.
"The days of establishment Republicans who oppose the people's America First agenda are numbered," Bannon added.
“Many more to come,” Bannon wrote to the Washington Post following Flake’s speech.
Andy Surabian, an adviser for Bannon's pro-Trump political PAC, Great America Alliance, told the Post that the resignation of Flake was a victory for the White House.
“This is a victory for President Trump and all of his supporters across the nation,” he said. “Jeff Flake was America’s top ‘Never Trumper,’ so getting his scalp is a signal to Never Trumpers everywhere that their time is up.”
From Alabama to Mississippi to Nevada, Bannon-backed candidates are emerging to challenge the establishment Republicans during the 2018 midterm elections, potentially reshaping the party beyond recognition.
And while the GOP is coming to realization that opposing Trump is bad politics, some top Republicans have criticized Bannon’s strategy to strengthen pro-Trump elements in Congress by replacing existing GOP senators rather than increasing the majority and taking seats from Democrats.
“Bannon’s so-called ‘war against the GOP establishment,’ is the worst strategic action Republicans could take right now,” wrote Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, noting that the candidates Bannon seeks to replace are senators who voted overwhelmingly for Trump’s agenda despite their public comments.
Noted Gingrich: "All voted to repeal Obamacare; all supported President Trump’s Cabinet nominations; all supported the American Health Care Act; all supported the so-called Skinny Repeal of Obamacare; and all voted to confirm conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.”

'Smoking gun' email reveals Obama DOJ blocked conservative groups from settlement funds, GOP lawmaker says

While Eric Holder was attorney general, the Justice Department allowed prosecutors to strike agreements compelling big companies to give money to outside groups not connected to their cases to meet settlement burdens.  (Reuters)

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee claims he obtained a “smoking gun” email that proves the Obama Justice Department prevented settlement payouts from going to conservative-leaning organizations, even as liberal groups were awarded money and DOJ officials denied “picking and choosing” recipients.

“It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday. “Here, we have it.”

While Eric Holder was U.S. attorney general, the Justice Department allowed prosecutors to strike agreements compelling big companies to give money to outside groups not connected to their cases to meet settlement burdens. Republican lawmakers long have decried those payments as a “slush fund” that boosted liberal groups, and the Trump DOJ ended the practice earlier this year.
But internal Justice Department emails released Tuesday by Goodlatte indicated that not only were officials involved in determining what organizations would get the money, but also Justice Department officials may have intervened to make sure the settlements didn’t go to conservative groups.

“It is not every day in congressional investigations that we find a smoking gun,” House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Tuesday. “Here, we have it.”  (Associated Press)

In one such email in July 2014, a senior Justice Department official expressed “concerns” about what groups would receive settlement money from Citigroup — saying they didn’t want money going to a group that does “conservative property-rights legal services.”
DOJ ENDS HOLDER-ERA ‘SLUSH FUND’ PAYOUTS TO OUTSIDE GROUPS
“Concerns include: a) not allowing Citi to pick a statewide intermediary like the Pacific Legal Foundation (does conservative property-rights legal services),” the official, whose name is redacted in the email, wrote under the title of “Acting Senior Counselor for Access to Justice.”
The official added that “we are more likely to get the right result from a state bar association affiliated entity.”
The Pacific Legal Foundation responded to the email release Tuesday by telling Fox News it believes “permanent reforms to prevent such abuse are needed.”
“We are flattered that the previous administration would be concerned enough about our success vindicating individual liberty and property rights to prevent settlement funds from making their way to Pacific Legal Foundation,” PLF CEO Steven D. Anderson said in a statement.

“When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people— not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said.  (Associated Press)

Goodlatte, who is sponsoring the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2017, disclosed the emails during a speech on the House floor, taking aim at then-Associate Attorney General Tony West.
“Aiding their political allies was only the half of it,” Goodlatte said. “The evidence of the Obama DOJ’s abuse of power shows that Tony West’s team went out of its way to exclude conservative groups.”
The documents indicate West played an active role in helping certain organizations obtain settlement information.
“Can you explain to Tony the best way to allocate some money to an organization of our choosing?” Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Elizabeth Taylor wrote in one November 2013 email.
Groups who received funding also expressed appreciation for West’s efforts, according to the emails.
“Now that it has been more than 24 hours for us all to try and digest the Bank of America settlement, I would like to discuss ways we might want to recognize and show appreciation for the Department of Justice and specifically Associate Attorney General Tony West,” wrote Charles R. Dunlap, executive director of the Indiana Bar, in an August 2014 email.
Dunlap wrote that West “by all accounts was the one person most responsible” for the Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts group receiving money.
One person, Bob LeClair, responded to Dunlap’s email by saying, “Frankly, I would be willing to have us build a statue [of West] and then we could bow down to this statue each day after we get our $200,000.”
West, who now works as an executive vice president at PepsiCo, did not immediately return an email from Fox News seeking comment.
In 2015, however, Geoffrey Graber, who oversaw the Justice Department’s big banks settlements, told Goodlatte during a congressional hearing that the department “did not want to be in the business of picking and choosing which organizations may or may not receive any funding under the agreement.”
“But internal DOJ documents tell a different story,” Goodlatte said Tuesday. “They show that contrary to Graber’s sworn testimony, the donation provisions were structured to aid the Obama administration’s political friends and exclude conservative groups.”
Even before the release of Tuesday’s emails, Republicans had blasted these settlements as a “slush fund” for favored groups.
Gibson Guitars was forced to pay $50,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in 2012, though that organization has nothing to do with the case. In 2014, Bank of America gave money to the National Urban League, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America and the National Council of La Raza as part of a major mortgage fraud settlement stemming from the 2008 financial crisis.

'Aiding their political allies was only the half of it.'

Asked about the emails, the Justice Department on Tuesday referred Fox News to Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ statement in June after he announced the end to the practice.
“When the federal government settles a case against a corporate wrongdoer, any settlement funds should go first to the victims and then to the American people — not to bankroll third-party special interest groups or the political friends of whoever is in power,” Sessions said.
Goodlatte on Tuesday praised Sessions’ move to end mandatory donations, but called his legislation a “good governance measure,” and called it necessary to prevent a future Justice Department from reversing the action. The bill prohibits the Justice Department from requiring defendants to donate money to outside groups as part of a settlement with the federal government.
The Obama administration has been accused of unfairly targeting conservative organizations before — most famously after the revelation the IRS applied extra scrutiny to groups with “Tea Party” in their names.

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Pres. Trump Urges House GOP to Move Quickly on Budget, Tax Reform

FILE – In this July 24, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks about healthcare in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

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President Trump urges House Republicans to move quickly on the budget and tax reform in order to avoid a “political failure” during next year’s election season.
President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence held a conference call with House Republicans on Sunday.
Sources say the president told lawmakers the GOP cannot afford to disappoint the nation by failing on fiscal overhaul ahead of the looming midterm elections.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reaffirmed his commitment to work with President Trump and House Republicans to speed the progress on tax reform.
“We’ve been waiting for the opportunity to do it, and Donald Trump being elected President, and Republicans having a majority in House and Senate, give us an opportunity to accomplish something really important for the country, to get it growing again,” announced McConnell.
During Sunday’s call House Speaker Paul Ryan said he hopes to pass a revised senate budget this week, which would allow them to enact tax reform by the end of the year.
President Trump also expressed confidence his tax reform is — quote — “the right thing to do for the country.”