Chaffetz subpoenas ATF agents who skipped hearing on death of ICE officer

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz issued subpoenas Thursday to two ATF agents after they failed to show at a hearing examining the 2011 murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata.
“I'm tired of hearing from just [Justice Department] management, I want to hear from the people that actually are on the front lines doing this,” Chaffetz, R-Utah, said.
The committee will now seek to compel testimony from William Temple, special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Division, and Ronald Turk, associate deputy director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, later this month.
The hearing Thursday was meant to examine alleged lapses in the ATF's investigation into the trafficking of guns later used in the February attack that killed Zapata and wounded his ICE colleague, Special Agent Victor Avila.
An inspector general report was completed more than five years after the committee and Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, inquired into Zapata’s murder. Zapata was killed by members of the Los Zetas drug cartel while on official business in Santa Maria del Rio, Mexico.
ATF Acting Director Thomas Brandon said Thursday he did not order Temple and Turk to skip the hearing -- but agreed with their decision not to appear, which drew a bipartisan rebuke from Chaffetz and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings.
“That puts us in a kind of awkward position. We got the boss, 'OK guys, you don't have to show up.' And that sends a hell of a message. That's a problem,” the Maryland Democrat said.
Chaffetz complained ATF “continues to insist” the committee should not speak with Turk and Temple.
The one other witness, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, did not escape unscathed when he contended he was not prepared for the hearing.
“That’s a bunch of crap,” Chaffetz snapped, noting he received a draft of the report in December.
Another invited witness, John Craft, a prosecutor in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, did not appear. But the chairman said due to the lateness of their invitation, he would not receive a subpoena.
Questions about the firearms used to kill Zapata surfaced during the separate congressional probe of Operation Fast and Furious and the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
The IG issued its Operation Fast and Furious report in 2012, but did not issue its report on the Zapata case until March 1.
According to the report, two weapons used in Zapata's murder were traced back to Otilio Osorio, who bought his gun at a Dallas gun show, and Robert Riendfliesh, who purchased a gun at a pawn shop in Beaumont, Texas.
The IG said the ATF were aware in 2010 that Osorio and his brother might be trafficking firearms to Mexico, but they did not follow up or further investigate until after Zapata’s death.
Otilio Osorio and Riendfliesh were arrested in late February 2011 after the ATF confirmed weapons used in Zapata's murder had been purchased by them.
The report faulted ATF for its handling of the case, saying there was "probable cause" to arrest Osorio and his brother "after ATF witnessed the Osorios complete a transfer of 40 firearms on November 9, 2010."
The IG said: “Overall, we found numerous problems with ATF’s assimilation of information concerning [the suspects] ... and the timeliness of ATF’s response to mounting evidence that they were committing firearms offenses.”
Last week, Chaffetz and Grassley sent a letter demanding Justice explain the reason the investigation has dragged on.
"It has been nearly five years since the probe was requested. Given the high level of congressional interest in this matter and the seriousness of the allegations, we are perplexed that your investigative work took so long,” they wrote.
Judiciary Committee Press Secretary Taylor Foy told Fox News that the panel is interested in part in “whether government employees involved in the debacle were held accountable.”

Republicans want to know why Trump hasn't fired the IRS head

Nearly two months into the Trump administration, the IRS commissioner House Republicans once threatened with impeachment remains on the job.
John Koskinen's continued tenure may be surprising, considering how aggressively Republicans went after him under the Obama administration. But despite a sustained push by congressional Republicans to oust the IRS chief before his five-year term expires this November, President Trump so far has made no move to do so.
Just last week, Koskinen was seen in the Capitol and told Fox News he was there to meet with “old friends.” Asked if he intended to stay on as commissioner during the Trump administration, Koskinen simply said, “They haven’t talked to me.”
A White House official, asked about the commissioner's future, also told Fox News on Wednesday they had no personnel announcements “at this time.”
House Republicans aren't giving up their quest to show Koskinen the door.
“President Trump should fire Commissioner Koskinen and replace him with someone that will bring integrity and competence to the IRS,” House Judiciary Committee Chariman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., told Fox News on Tuesday.
Just days after Trump took office, Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker, R- N.C., along with 53 other House Republicans, also wrote a letter asking the new president to remove Koskinen.
“The consideration of the impeachment of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen in the House in late 2016 was a clear indication that Congress and the American people have no confidence in Commissioner Koskinen or his ability to discharge his duties,” Walker wrote, nudging the president by citing statutory language giving him authority to strip Koskinen of his title. Doing so, he claimed, would “restore the credibility” of the federal tax authority.
“We have not received a response to our letter,” an aide at the Republican Study Committee told Fox News. “We understand, however, the administration remains busy putting its team in place, and we look forward to its response.”
A White House spokesperson told Fox News they received the January letter and "are currently reviewing it."
Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., reportedly also asked Vice President Mike Pence at the GOP retreat in Philadelphia if he would seek Koskinen’s resignation. According to the report, the vice president told the congressman he would look into the matter and follow up with him the next week.
SEKULOW: KOSKINEN SHOULD RESIGN
Neither DeSantis’ nor the VP's office responded to Fox News’ request for comment on whether there was any follow-up.
But DeSantis issued a statement to Fox News saying: “The IRS will not be reformed under Koskinen’s leadership and I urge [Treasury] Secretary Mnuchin and President Trump to take action to replace Koskinen with someone willing to reform this troubled agency.”
An IRS spokesperson told Fox News, "The Commissioner remains focused on the important tax administration work being done at the IRS, including a successful start to the nation's tax season."
GOP angst toward Koskinen stems from claims he obstructed their investigation of the targeting of Tea Party and other conservative groups before he was commissioner. The matter culminated at the end of 2016, when the full House turned back an attempt to impeach him.
The controversy itself hasn't died off. Judicial Watch said Wednesday that the IRS reported to a U.S. District Court that it located an “additional 6,924 documents of potentially responsive records” relating to the FOIA lawsuit on the targeting scandal.
Goodlatte said it's “outrageous” that “years have gone by” and no one at the IRS has been held accountable for the targeting.
At the IRS, the commissioner serves a five-year term—this, after a statute was added in 1998 in a bid to maintain continuity for the American people throughout the tax season in the first year of a new presidency.
Koskinen's term is set to end Nov. 13, unless the president were to remove him.
Charles Rossotti, an IRS commissioner under then-President Bill Clinton and the first to serve the five-year term, defended the importance of the statute -- telling Fox News while the head of the IRS is a political appointee, he or she is only in charge of administering the tax code.
“If you’re going to run an agency as huge as the IRS, you need time and continuity to make improvements, so the distinction was made as an administrative leadership management position as opposed to a policy position,” Rossotti said, citing the “demanding” situation that surrounds the April tax deadline. “You really wouldn’t want to have no commissioner when the administration changes just two months before Americans file their returns.”
While Koskinen is a favorite target of congressional Republicans, he and Trump do have a history.
In 1975, when the future president reached an agreement to purchase New York's Commodore Hotel from the bankrupt Penn Central Transportation Company, Koskinen handled the sale of the properties in his capacity as vice president of consulting firm the Palmieri Company, according to a New York Times article.
The purchase was one of Trump's first major real estate deals.
Fox News asked the White House for comment on the president’s relationship with Koskinen. “We don’t comment on the President’s personal relationships,” a White House spokesperson responded in an email.
Republicans and conservative groups alike say it would be “frustrating” to keep Koskinen through the end of his term.
But Rossotti defended both Trump and Koskinen.
“When I did the transition to Bush, if someone had come to me and said, 'look, we don’t want you here,' I wouldn’t have stayed,” Rossotti said. “But anybody sensible would look at this situation and decide there are a lot of people who need to file their tax returns next month.”

Mnuchin calls for Congress to raise federal debt limit

Never Ending Cycle.

The U.S. Treasury Secretary on Thursday encouraged Congress in a letter to raise the federal debt ceiling, which has been suspended since 2015, as soon as possible to prevent a U.S. default.
Reuters reported that Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan and called paying back the U.S.’s outstanding debt “is a critical commitment.” He said “extraordinary measures” will have to be taken to avoid default.
It is not uncommon for Congress to use the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip with the sitting administration. But Republicans control the House. Some of these Republicans may challenge President Trump on the debt ceiling like they are with his ObamaCare replacement.
TREASURY SECRETARY MNUCHIN ON ECONOMIC GROWTH, TAX POLICY
In one standoff in August 2011, the Standard & Poor's rating agency issued a first-ever downgrade of a portion of America's debt, citing the 11th-hour maneuvering that was need to raise the limit that year to avoid a default.
Mnuchin said that he will employ measures to avoid breaching the borrowing limit once the current suspension of the limit expires on March 16.
Once that happens, Treasury will use a variety of bookkeeping maneuvers to continue to finance government operations, including making interest payments on the national debt. However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in a report earlier this week that those measures will be exhausted by sometime in the fall.
At the point that Treasury can make no other bookkeeping moves, Congress will have to enact an increase in the borrowing limit to avoid the first-ever default on the government's obligations, an event that would send shock waves through global financial markets. While Congress has often delayed action until the last minute, it has always approved an increase in the debt limit rather than run the risk of a default.

Sanctuary City Cartoons

Hawaii sues to block Trump's revised travel ban

Hawaii’s Attorney General Doug Chin, a Democrat

Lawyers for the State of Hawaii on Wednesday asked a federal judge to temporarily block President Trump’s revised executive order on immigration. The move could signal a wave of lawsuits expected to follow over the constitutionality of the proposal.
Hawaii’s Attorney General Doug Chin, a Democrat, filed the legal challenge in federal distict court in Hawaii. Lawyers for the state argued that “the new executive order is resulting in the establishment of religion in the State of Hawaii contrary to its state Constitution.”
The filing also says the revised ban will damage Hawaii’s “economy, educational institutions, and tourism industry; and it is subjecting a portion of the state’s citizens to second-class treatment and discrimination, while denying all Hawaii residents the benefits of an inclusive and pluralistic society.”
Lawyers for the state said they will move for a temporary restraining order on March 15, a day before the new executive order is supposed to take effect.
"This new executive order is nothing more than Muslim Ban 2.0," Chin said in a statement Monday. "Under the pretense of national security, it still targets immigrants and refugees. It leaves the door open for even further restrictions."
The new order bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim nations and temporarily shuts down America's refugee program, affecting would-be visitors and immigrants from Iran, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya.
Hawaii was among several states that took the Trump administration to court over the first ban that was rolled out hastily by the White House.
In all, more than two dozen lawsuits were filed to the original travel ban. One suit, filed in Washington state, succeeded in having the order suspended by arguing that it violated constitutional protections against religious discrimination.
After a federal appeals court upheld the Washington State Judge’s nationwide restraining order early last month, the Federal District Court in Hawaii hit the pause button on its initial lawsuit. The same federal appeals court, the 9th Circuit, has jurisdiction over Hawaii and would handle any appeal stemming from a ruling there.

San Francisco asks federal judge to block Trump's executive order on sanctuary cities

City Attorney Dennis Herrera

San Francisco asked a federal judge Wednesday to block President Trump’s executive order threatening to cut off federal funding for sanctuary cities.
San Francisco argued that Trump’s executive order steamrolled state sovereignty and that the president overstepped his authority, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The motion asked the court to prohibit Trump from withholding federal funds and rule that San Francisco’s sanctuary city status complies with federal law.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera accused Trump of “bullying” sanctuary cities by his threats to withhold funds that would be used for programs that provide meals and medical care for seniors and families.
“These entitlement programs are not the president’s to take away from those in need, and San Francisco is not one to back down from a bully,” Herrera said.
San Francisco is one of numerous cities nationwide that have sued to have Trump’s order blocked. More than 400 cities and counties have refused to comply with federal agencies’ requests to detain residents who have immigrated to the U.S. illegally or participate in immigration raids.
The city’s suit claims it will lose $1.2 billion funds over the executive order.
A hearing on the request has been scheduled for April 5.

Illegal border crossings decrease by 40 percent in Trump's first month, report says

The number of people illegally crossing the U.S. southern border has dropped 40 percent in President Trump’s first full month in office, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Wednesday.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reported that the number of illegal border crossings dropped from 31,578 to 18,762 persons. Kelly said border agents usually see a 10 to 20 percent increase in illegal immigrant apprehensions from January to February.
“The drop in apprehensions shows a marked change in trends,” Kelly said. “Since the administration’s implementation of executive orders to enforce immigration laws, apprehensions and inadmissible activity is trending toward the lowest monthly total in at least the last five years.”
The new numbers are welcoming news for Trump who campaigned on illegal immigration crackdown.
Trump signed an executive order increasing border security and authorizing the construction of his promised border wall along the southern border in the first few days of his presidency. Trump also seeks to hire about 5,000 additional border patrol officials and 10,000 ICE agents and seeks to fast-track deportations.
“We will remain vigilant to respond to any changes in these trends, as numbers of illegal crossings typically increase between March and May,” Kelly said. “However, the early results show that enforcement matters, deterrence matters, and that comprehensive immigration enforcement can make an impact.”

FBI's specialized mole-hunting team deployed to catch CIA leaker

Less than 24 hours after WikiLeaks published what it described as the “entire hacking capacity of the CIA,” a federal criminal probe by a specialized FBI unit has begun, Fox News confirmed.
But while tracking down moles is nothing new for the FBI or the CIA, experts are suggesting that this search could prove to be particularly difficult.
The 2010 leak perpetrated by Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning, then known as Bradley Manning, inspired President Obama to create a group dedicated solely to tracking down & catching government leakers. Manning was caught after revealing the extent of her actions to an American hacker, who later testified against her. A short time later, Obama would announce the creation of the National Insider Threat Task Force.
The NITTF was formed "to prevent, deter and detect compromises of classified information by malicious insiders," according to its website. Despite the group’s singular focus on this issue, the NITTF was pointing out in a foreboding Tweet earlier this week that "all of the firewalls in the world won’t stop an insider who is already on the inside of these firewalls."
The formation of the group also did little to stop NSA leaker Edward Snowden from giving WikiLeaks a trove of documents on government surveillance back in 2013. In Snowden's case, he actually unmasked himself as the leaker, and has been on the run ever since.
FBI Director James Comey didn't address the WikiLeaks dump specifically during remarks he made at a cybersecurity conference at Boston College today. However, he made clear that since Snowden's infamous leak, technology has made the search for criminals of all kinds, cyber or otherwise, much more difficult.
"There's always been a corner of the room where the FBI operates where sophisticated actors were who had access to encryption," Director Comey said. "What's happened to us since Snowden… is that more and more of that room has gotten dark as encryption has become the default."
WikiLeaks claims that there are more than 5,000 employees working in the breached unit, the CIA’s Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI). And while security experts tell Fox News that number may be "a bit high," others are pointing out that this is the first hack of its kind at the famously clandestine agency.
Gregory Keeley, an expert in the security of digital devices and co-founder of the consulting company Phosphorus, says “what we have to understand is… the CIA’s never been hacked like this before. With 5,000-plus users in that particular unit, how will they track that leak?"
Potentially even more concerning, Keeley added, is the fact that “it wasn't just documents and data that was stolen, it was actual software and that’s a much bigger deal… If you're someone using things like Google Chrome or McAfee anti-virus software on your devices, this hack is potentially the keys to that kingdom. And once the bad guys can access that, it's going to be very difficult to shut that door.”