Presumptuous Politics

Friday, April 1, 2016

Reince Priebus Cartoon

'One shot at the queen': FBI, AG intensify focus on Clinton email probe

As the FBI enters the final phases of its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized email server for government business, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey are meeting frequently to discuss the progress and handling of the highly sensitive case, a source told Fox News.
Among the issues discussed in the meetings, which have been taking place several times per week, are who will be interviewed and in what order, according to an intelligence source close to the ongoing case. Emails released by the State Department have already shown Clinton and several key aides used the personal, unsecured network to send more than 1,000 messages which have been deemed classified.
“In a case like this you get one shot at the queen,” the source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said referring to Clinton, the former secretary of state and current front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. “The pressures are enormous on the agents, as the case has to be airtight and perfect.”

“In a case like this you get one shot at the queen.”
- Source with knowledge of investigation

Comey and Lynch are likely involved in daily briefings on the status of the explosive investigation, said Ron Hosko, former assistant director of the FBI’s criminal investigative division.
“This in an incredibly high stakes, high-wire act,” Hosko said. “Timing is of the essence, but being right is absolutely critical. Comey must be the one to make the case that the law has been broken and a prosecution is recommended.”
Nearly a dozen people who worked with Clinton at State, as well as others linked to the Clinton family’s nonprofit foundation have received, or are expected to receive, formal interview requests from the bureau, the source told Fox News. The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that the FBI was setting up interviews with Clinton’s closest associates and would likely seek an interview with her.
“The authority for these formal interview requests by the Bureau is granted by the Attorney General,” the source added.
The formal interview requests are now being rapidly organized to set a time, date and place for the individuals to speak with federal agents about how their names have surfaced in the FBI’s ongoing criminal investigation. The interviews would not require any statements under oath, and subjects could decline them.
As the interviews evolve, the FBI, as first reported by Fox News last fall, will explore possible violations of Criminal Code section 1001, which covers "statements or entries generally," and can be applied when an individual makes misleading or false statements that cause federal agents to expend additional resources and time. Legal experts, as well as a former FBI agent, told Fox News Section 1001 could apply if Clinton, her aides or attorney were not forthcoming with FBI agents about her emails, classification and whether only non-government records were destroyed.
High-profile names convicted of violating Section 1001 include Martha Stewart, as well as former CIA Director David Petraeus.
Clinton recently insisted to Fox News’ Bret Baier during a town hall that neither she nor her lawyers have been formally notified that they are targets of an FBI investigation.
“Absolutely not,” Clinton said.
But such formal notification typically comes at the end of a process that sometimes spans months or even years of investigation, and even then only if it is determined that a subject’s activities likely merit prosecution.
Former Clinton campaign staffer and State Department information technology specialist Bryan Pagliano, who installed Clinton’s private server, was granted immunity by the Justice Department and is cooperating with the FBI.
“His importance as a witness cannot be underestimated,” a source told Fox News.
Pagliano has first-hand knowledge of who held and used accounts on the server from Clinton’s dealings in politics, philanthropy and private enterprise. Understanding how these worlds intersected is “causing rats to leave the ship and others to sweat blood,” said the source.
Who was doing what while getting paid by whom is key to the ongoing criminal probe, as the FBI’s No. 1 priority is ferreting out public corruption. Putting the pieces together is a challenge for federal investigators and investigative journalists.
Key Clinton aide Huma Abedin told the State Department in a July 5, 2013, letter that, “in addition to my work for the Department of State, I performed work for three others.”
Those jobs included working during parts of 2012 and 2013 for the Clinton-allied firm Teneo Holdings, which paid Abedin $105,000 even as she earned another $135,000 as a State Department “consultant.” Teneo, which was founded by longtime Clinton insider Doug Band, “advised clients on communications and investor relations for 10 different merger and acquisition deals worth a total of over $60 billion,” according to Fortune magazine.
In the same letter, Abedin stressed that “it is my understanding that Teneo does not conduct business with the Department of State. I also was not asked nor did I provide insights about the Department, my work with the Secretary or any government information to which I may have had access.”
The Clinton Foundation, founded in 1997, before President Bill Clinton left the White House, was renamed the “Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Foundation” six weeks after Hillary Clinton left the State Department in February 2013. Abedin worked for the foundation before and after it was renamed.
Critics, including Republican lawmakers, have suggested that Clinton may have used her influence as Secretary of State to reward donors to the foundation, which Hosko believes is an aspect of the email investigation.
“I am certain the FBI is looking at the nexus of State and the business of the foundation enrichment,” Hosko said. “Is there a shell game being played out on a global grand scale that creates a challenging paper trail?”

Trump meets with RNC chief in DC, days after backing out of pledge

Donald Trump met with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus Thursday, just days after the Republican frontrunner backed out of a pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee.
Trump was in Washington D.C. to meet with his recently-formed team of foreign policy advisers, and met with Priebus at RNC headquarters in an unscheduled meeting behind closed doors.
Trump said in a tweet that he had a “very nice meeting” with Priebus and that he looked forward to bringing the party together.
The RNC called the meeting "productive."
"The Chairman and Mr. Trump had a productive conversation about the state of the race," Lindsay Walters, RNC national spokeswoman, said in a statement. "Meeting and phone conversations with candidates and their campaigns are common and will increase as we get closer to November."

Carl Cameron reports from Washington, D.C.

In an interview Thursday night with on Fox News' "On The Record" with Greta van Susteren, Priebus said he could not say exactly what he talked about in the meeting with Trump, but that candidates aren't "going to get the data and tools of the RNC, run to be our nominee, and tell me they’re not going to support the party."
The meeting came just two days after Trump said at a CNN town hall Tuesday he had taken back his pledge to support the nominee as “I have been treated very unfairly” and listed both the RNC and the party establishment as those responsible.
Trump had previously said he would honor the pledge only if he was treated fairly by the Republican Party.

Fox Business Network Poll: Cruz leads in Wisconsin

Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump in the Republican nomination contest in Wisconsin, according to a Fox Business Network Poll released Thursday.
Cruz garners 42 percent among Wisconsin likely GOP primary voters, while Trump receives 32 percent. John Kasich comes in third with 19 percent.
Among just those who say they will “definitely” vote, Cruz’s lead over Trump widens to 46-33 percent, and Kasich gets 16 percent.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS
There is a big gender gap. Women back Cruz over Trump by a 19-point margin (46-27 percent). The two candidates are much closer among men: Cruz gets 40 percent to Trump’s 35 percent.
Cruz’s advantage over the real estate mogul also comes from self-described “very” conservative voters, who give him a 36-point lead (61 percent Cruz vs. 25 percent Trump).
White evangelical Christians voting in the GOP primary prefer Cruz over Trump by 49-28 percent. Trump has beaten Cruz among this key voting bloc in more than 10 contests so far, according to the Fox News exit poll.
Cruz is ahead of Trump among those with a college degree (42-30 percent) as well as those without a degree (44-34 percent).
Independents can vote in Wisconsin’s open primary -- and are more inclined to back Trump (37 percent) than Cruz (26 percent) or Kasich (26 percent).
Meanwhile, independents are equally likely to opt to vote in the Republican primary (50 percent) as the Democratic primary (50 percent).
The Wisconsin primary is April 5. Even so, more than one in five likely GOP primary voters say they might change their mind over the next few days (22 percent). That includes 40 percent of Kasich supporters, 18 percent of Cruz supporters, and 15 percent of Trump supporters.
The ambivalence of Kasich supporters is better news for Cruz than Trump, as the Ohio governor’s backers are more than twice as likely to name Cruz as their second choice candidate.
Dissatisfaction with the current slate of candidates is clear.
Many wish there were another name on the ballot. If Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker were still in the race, 44 percent of GOP primary voters say they would vote for him. That puts him more than 20 points ahead of the pack: Trump gets 21 percent, Cruz 17 percent and Kasich 12 percent.
In that hypothetical scenario, 59 percent of Cruz’s supporters and 31 percent of Trump’s, defect to Walker.
Walker, one of the first GOP heavyweights to drop out of the race, endorsed Cruz Tuesday.

Pollpourri
If the general election ends up being Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton, only 55 percent of GOP primary voters would be happy with their choices, while 42 percent would “seriously consider” voting for a third party candidate or not vote at all.
Among Cruz backers, over half would consider voting for a third party (43 percent) or stay home (13 percent).
This Fox Business Network Poll was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). The telephone poll (landline and cellphone) was conducted March 28-30, 2016 with live interviewers among a random sample of 1,602 Wisconsin voters selected from a statewide voter file. Results for the 742 likely Republican primary voters have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Embattled Erdogan visits US as mysterious nemesis watches from compound in Pa. mountains

Among the mounting headaches for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan – in Washington this week for a visit that notably does not include a formal sitdown with President Obama – is a 74-year-old Muslim cleric quietly living on a private compound in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.
Fethullah Gulen, a one-time Erdogan ally, is the head of a faith-based social movement that boasts a global following, has deep roots in Turkish society, and cultivates notable influence in the U.S. education through a network of roughly 150 secular charter schools.
But a nasty split between the two over Erdogan’s years-long crackdown on domestic dissent and Turkey’s once-open media landscape has now spread to the United States, and threatens to further destabilize an already frayed alliance.

“It is Erdogan’s way of fighting the corruption without obviously confronting the issue of corruption.”
- Professor Henri Barkey, expert on Turkey

More than 2,000 Gulen supporters have been arrested in Turkey on various charges since the 2013 split, though many were later released. And Turkish authorities recently seized control of one of Turkey’s largest newspapers, Zaman, which was associated with Gulen.
But what’s relatively new to many Americans only now hearing about Gulen is a high-profile, multimillion-dollar public relations and legal effort by the Erdogan government to extradite him to Turkey, and raise myriad questions about the propriety of the charter schools.
“This is a really dangerous group,” charged Robert Amsterdam, a lawyer whose firm Erdogan hired to launch an international investigation of the Gulen organization - particularly its business and political dealings in the U.S. “When it comes to these charter schools and Gulen, nothing is transparent.”

Turkey Overview | FindTheData

Gulen cloisters himself on the grounds of an Islamic retreat owned by Turkish Americans in Saylorsburg, Pa., and rarely gives interviews to news media. But his sermons appear online. He preaches what many consider a moderate form of Islam. And he has regularly and stridently condemned jihadist terror attacks – much more so than Erdogan, say the president’s critics – and typically advocates interfaith dialogue.
Gulen’s Hizmet movment -- meaning “service” in Turkish -- is marked by business savvy and a successful push to build political connections. The movement is believed to be worth billions of dollars.
Troubling statements from Turkey's Erdogan
“This is not a proselytizing movement. This is not a glory-of-Islam movement. This is a glory-of-the-Gulen-movement movement,” said Joshua Hendrick, an associate professor of sociology and global studies at Loyola University of Maryland who wrote a book about Hizmet.
Hendrick disputed Amsterdam’s argument the organization is dangerous. But in Erdogan’s view, Gulen is an arch-enemy of the state, whose followers represent a seditious “parallel state” within Turkey.
Gulen is specifically accused of scheming to have his followers infiltrate the Turkish government for the purpose of overthrowing Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish acronym as the AKP. Gulen also faces espionage charges, and two trials are now being held in absentia.
“Those accusations are laughable; they have no evidence,” said Y. Alp Aslandogan, executive director of the Alliance for Shared Values, a New York-based organization that promotes Gulen’s teachings.
Several scholars in the U.S. interviewed by FoxNews.com also defended Gulen and criticized the Turkish prosecution of him, citing Erdogan’s aggressive crackdown.
“There is no evidence that I am aware of to support the idea that the movement is at all violent or terroristic,” Zeki Saritoprak, professor of Islamic studies at John Carroll University in Ohio, told Fox News. “Allegations to the contrary are absurd.”
Another scholar, A. Kadir Yildirim, of Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, agreed. “All opposition groups, including the Gulen Movement, are being targeted by President Erdogan,” he said, listing Kurds, non-Muslim minorities and liberals as other victims of Erdogan’s autocratic tilt.
Professor Henri Barkey, director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a longtime expert on Turkey, said Gulen supporters have been scapegoated to draw attention from Turkey’s complex domestic and foreign policy problems -- which range from increased internal unrest and a Kurdish insurgency to Russia’s menacing influence in Syria and Turkey’s fraying alliance with the U.S. over – among other factors -- the Obama administration’s support for Kurdish militias in the battle against ISIS.
“It is convenient for the government to blame the Gulenists for everything,” Barkey said. “It is Erdogan’s way of fighting the corruption without obviously confronting the issue of corruption.”
One scholar argued for a more careful approach. Abraham Wagner, a lecturer at Columbia Law School and a board member at the Center for Advanced Studies on Terrorism, said the next U.S. administration should pay close attention to Hizmet activities in America.
“They are trying to undermine the (Turkish) government … We have to be aware of what they are and how they are operating,” he said. “It’s not an open and shut case. What I am urging is, let’s take a closer look at what they are doing.”
Some have done just that. A number of Gulen-affiliated schools have been investigated over accusations that include mismanagement of public funds and possible visa fraud. Amsterdam alleges the network has a history of receiving a disproportionate share of H-1B visas -- temporary non-immigrant work visas -- that allow foreign teachers to work in the U.S. He said Gulen’s U.S. charter network, however loosely organized, generates massive profits, and that “a percentage of that is going back to Turkey” and being used to foment “instability.”
Barkey said Gulen-affiliated charters aren’t necessarily engaging in illegality, but they “skirt good practices or common sense sometimes.” He said he was infuriated when he saw a recent report on the CBS program “60 Minutes” about Gulen charters that highlighted one example of a school bringing a Turkish national to the U.S. to teach English.
“You are going to tell me that a Turk, who is going to speak with an accent, is going to teach English to kids in the U.S.?” Barkey asked.
The Chicago Sun-Times also reported last year that the Justice Department launched an investigation into alleged misuse of federal grant money at Concept Schools, a Gulen-linked network of some 30 charters in Illinois and five other states. Federal officials did not respond to multiple inquiries from FoxNews.com, but Concept management said, through a spokeswoman, they “continue to cooperate with authorities.” To date, no one affiliated with a Gulen charter has been convicted of any criminal activity.
Amsterdam and other Hizmet critics also accused some Gulen-linked charters of targeting selected students to proselytize.
“Our investigation has uncovered that … there is a proselytizing campaign where these Turkish teachers, we are told, actually target youths in these schools -- not a lot, maybe four or five per class -- to bring them into the movement,” Amsterdam said.
When asked, Amsterdam, who reiterated many of the charges in a news conference in Washington Thursday, would not immediately provide specifics.
That charge, too, was met with skepticism by those who note Gulen schools are often highly regarded and more focused on science and technology instruction.
“Worldwide, to my knowledge, there has been no credible evidence of religious indoctrination at any school established or run by Hizmet sympathizers,” said Saritoprak.
Amsterdam vows his investigation is far from over. His efforts have thus far produced one court case -- a pending civil suit in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania -- which alleges Gulen used a 2009 sermon to signal his followers in law enforcement in Turkey to falsely arrest three political opponents.
Gulen’s lawyer in that case, Michael Miller, argues U.S. law does not apply, and called it “an abuse of the U.S. courts to try to initiate a lawsuit like this as part of a global campaign, a political campaign, to harass Mr. Gulen.”
Meanwhile, Aslandogan and other Hizmet supporters want Americans to see through these anti-Gulen efforts, and recognize this as an international political fight led by the increasingly autocratic Erdogan.
“We are talking about a person with dictatorial ambitions in Turkey, and he is taking his battles to American shores,” Aslandogan said.

Thursday, March 31, 2016

Rubio Cartoon

Sanders off the DC primary ballot after Dems bungle paperwork


Clinton fights off challenge from Sanders in New York

Sen. Bernie Sanders' name will not appear on the Washington, D.C., primary ballot at this point, after Democrats failed to turn over Sanders' paperwork in time.
The Democratic Party failed to submit Sanders' primary registration paperwork on time to the D.C. Board of Elections. While the party received paperwork and fees from both Sanders and Hillary Clinton's campaign, it only turned over Clinton's forms on time.
That means as of today, Clinton is slated to appear on the ballot, but Sanders isn't, according to a report by NBC-4. Sanders' campaign said it handed in its forms and $2,500 in fees earlier this month and ahead of schedule.
Democrats did not inform the board of its oversight mistake until a day after the March 16 registration deadline, which will create another hurdle to including him. A Washington, D.C., voter has already filed a challenge against Sanders' eligibility.
The Democrats called the incident a minor administrative dispute, according to NBC's reporter Tom Sherwood. Party chairwoman Anita Bonds, a member of the city council, said the city could choose to fix the problem by holding an emergency vote.

Rubio moves to keep delegates on lockdown until convention, to 'stop Trump'


Spoiler

Marco Rubio is moving to lock down his delegates until the Republican convention so no one else can claim them just yet, in an unconventional move that represents the latest bid to stall Donald Trump’s front-running campaign – and perhaps give the Florida senator and ex-candidate a bigger role to play in July.
A Rubio spokesman confirmed the push Wednesday, while suggesting it’s more an effort to thwart Trump by denying him the necessary delegates than to somehow get Rubio back in the game in the event of a contested convention.
"Of course, he's no longer a candidate and wants to give voters a chance to stop Trump," spokesman Alex Burgos told FoxNews.com.
Rubio is making his personal appeal in a letter to the chairs of state Republican parties across the country, the entities that decide how to divvy up delegates.
While some of the senator’s delegates might otherwise be allowed to support other candidates before the July convention, Rubio is asking that those delegates be “bound” to him through at least the first round of voting at the convention.
The letter, a copy of which was obtained by FoxNews.com, says the decision to suspend his campaign was “not intended to release any National Convention Delegates bound to me as a result of the 2016 delegate selection process that took place in your State.
“It is my desire at this time that the delegates allocated to me by your rules remain bound to vote for me on at least the first nominating ballot at the National Convention.”
According to MSNBC, Rubio is sending the letter to parties in all 21 states and territories where he won delegates.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Rubio had 171 delegates to his name. In a normal year, such a delegate haul might not matter much – but in the competitive 2016 GOP primary race, keeping all those delegates off the field could potentially keep Trump from clinching the nomination pre-convention with the necessary 1,237.

Delegates Allocated to Marco Rubio by State | InsideGov

Trump currently has 736; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has 463; and Ohio Gov. John Kasich has 143.
Under the complex set of rules governing each state’s primary, dozens of Rubio’s delegates – though not all of them -- would normally become “unbound” before the convention and free to vote for whomever they choose.
Ever since Rubio suspended his campaign, those delegates have been an attractive target for the remaining candidates. Barry Bennett, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, recently told FoxNews.com the campaign already had started “going after” the “unbound” delegates.
“We aren’t going to waste resources on them, but if you’re 'wooable' we plan to woo,” Bennett said.
It’s unclear whether any sizeable number of Rubio’s delegates would back Trump anyway, as Rubio himself describes Cruz as the only true conservative left in the race. But Rubio’s letter-writing push is an attempt to prevent Trump from peeling off any before the convention.
MSNBC reported that the chairman of the Alaska GOP already has agreed to grant Rubio’s request.
Alaska previously had divvied up Rubio's five delegates to Trump and Cruz. However, since the actual people have not been selected yet, the state party said the delegates will go back to Rubio.
In Oklahoma, state party Chairwoman Pam Pollard said she also received a letter from Rubio saying he has not released his 12 delegates from that state.
Meanwhile, the three remaining Republican candidates are ramping up efforts to win over Rubio's delegates, in addition to claiming dozens more unbound delegates, in the contentious battle for the 1,237 delegate majority.
Acknowledging a late start in the nuts-and-bolts business of political wrangling, Trump's campaign will open a Washington, D.C. office in the coming days to run its delegate operation and congressional relations team, Bennett told the AP. In addition to the new space, Trump has hired a veteran political operative to serve as the campaign's convention manager. Paul Manafort, a seasoned Washington hand, will oversee the campaign's "entire convention presence" including a potential contested convention, said Bennett.
There are certain states where the allocation of delegates to the GOP convention is so complicated that they could produce outcomes where a candidate who did not prevail in a given primary might yet win that state’s delegates to the convention.
Trump has vowed to both file a lawsuit and an internal challenge within the Republican National Committee over reports that Cruz, despite losing the Louisiana primary to Trump in early March, could draw the support of enough “unbound” delegates and from Rubio supporters to actually overtake Trump in the state by as many as 10 delegates.
Asked on March 15 if he was preparing for a contested convention, Cruz told Fox News, “We make preparations for every contingency.”

Friday, April 1, 2016

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Thursday, March 31, 2016