Wednesday, August 30, 2017
FBI shuts down request for files on Hillary Clinton by citing lack of public interest
Bringing Down America |
The FBI is declining to turn over files related to
its investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails
by arguing a lack of public interest in the matter.
Ty Clevenger, an attorney in New
York City, filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in March of
2016 asking for a variety of documents from the FBI and the Justice
Department, including correspondence exchanged with Congress about the
Clinton email investigation.
But in a letter sent this week and obtained by Fox
News, the head of the FBI’s Records Management Division told Clevenger
that the bureau has “determined you have not sufficiently demonstrated
that the public’s interest in disclosure outweighs personal privacy
interests of the subject.”"You must show that the public interest sought is a significant one"“Therefore, records regarding your subject are withheld pursuant to FOIA exemptions,” David M. Hardy of the FBI’s Records Management Division told Clevenger.
Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, was investigated by the FBI for using a private email address and server to handle classified information while serving as secretary of state.
In July 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey famously called Clinton’s email arrangement “extremely careless” though he decided against recommending criminal charges.
HILLARY CLINTON'S BOOK RELEASE HAS DEMS WORRIED, IRRITATED
Though Clinton lost the election, Clevenger is still attempting to obtain documents related to the investigation. He's seeking to prove she committed perjury, the Washington Times reported.
He specifically asked for all documents resulting from a September 6, 2016 referral to the Justice Department from then-House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican.
At the time, Chaffetz asked the department to “investigate and determine whether Secretary Clinton or her employees and contractors violated statues that prohibit destruction of records, obstruction of congressional inquiries, and concealment or cover up of evidence material to a congressional investigation.”
On Aug. 8, the FBI asked Clevenger to detail why the public would be interested.
“If you seek disclosure of any existing records on this basis, you must demonstrate that the public interest in disclosure outweighs personal privacy interests,” the letter stated. “In this regard, you must show that the public interest sought is a significant one, and that the requested information is likely to advance that interest.”
Clevenger expressed disbelief at the request.
“Frankly, I am stunned I should have to explain why my request pertains to a matter of public interest,” Clevenger wrote in an Aug. 11 letter to the FBI.
He cited how Clinton was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, a former secretary of state and a former senator.
Fox News’ Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
Feinstein stuns San Francisco crowd: Trump 'can be a good president'
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., stunned a San
Francisco audience Tuesday when she said that if President Trump "can
learn and change," he could “be a good president.”
The San Francisco Chronicle reported
that Feinstein made the comments during a sold-out Herbst Theater
interview. She was onstage with Ellen Tauscher, a former Bay Area
congresswoman.
The paper described the event as a “political
lovefest” — pointing out that Feinstein is wildly popular in San
Francisco, where she served as mayor for a decade. She was first elected
to the Senate in 1992, after a failed bid for governor of California.Toward the end of the evening, Feinstein reportedly shocked the crowd when she declined to say that Trump should be impeached and then told the audience that they should be prepared to see Trump complete his four-year term.
Feinstein serves on both the Senate Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, both of which are investigating Russia’s alleged involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
“The question is whether he can learn and change. If so, I believe he can be a good president,” she said.
"The question is whether he can learn and change. If so, I believe he can be a good president.”The report said, “the crowd reacted with stunned silence, broken only with scattered “No’s and a few hisses and some nervous laughter.” The article said that kind of talk is “never heard in Democratic circles.”
Feinstein has been a tough critic of Trump. She recently slammed his decision to pardon Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, saying Trump's action shows a “flagrant disregard for the rule of law in this country.”
She asserted that the pardon sent a message to police departments across the United States “that racial profiling is OK.”
On the topic of a border wall with Mexico, Feinstein said she believes Americans would rather send aid to Texas flood victims than pay for a border wall.
She has also criticized Trump’s transgender military ban and called the nature of Trump’s immigration policies “cruel and arbitrary.”
The conversation touched on many subjects, but the 84-year-old did not say whether she’ll seek re-election next year.
Still, Feinstein stood by her comments about Trump, saying, “We have to see if he can forget himself enough and have the type of empathy and direction the country needs.”
She said if he doesn't, "there are things that can be done."
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Edmund DeMarche is a news editor for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @EDeMarche.
Illinois Gov. Under Fire For Signing Bill Protecting Illegal Immigrants
Pres. Trump Says ‘All Options Are On The Table’ After N. Korea Missile Launch
OAN Newsroom
President Trump doubles down on his warning to North Korea saying, “all options are on the table.”In a White House statement Tuesday, the president said threatening and destabilizing actions only increase North Korea’s isolation from all nations.
This comes after the rogue nation fired an intermediate range ballistic missile over Japan that landed in the Pacific Ocean.
Earlier this month, the president warned Pyongyang the U.S. military will unleash “fire and fury” if an attack is launched.
The U.S., Japan, and South Korea requested an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting.
Meanwhile, South Korea sent a powerful response to North Korea’s missile launch.
The country’s Air Force conducted a live fire drill involving powerful bombs Tuesday morning.
President Moon Jae-in ordered the strike as a display of the country’s ability to punish Pyongyang if it were to attack.
The country also threatened to exterminate North Korea’s leadership as annual joint-drills between South Korea and the U.S. continue.
Following the launch, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and South Korea’s foreign minister agreed to consider tougher sanctions against Pyongyang.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Arpaio opens door to return to public office, after Trump pardon
Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who received the first
presidential pardon of the Trump administration last week, is
considering getting back into the “political field,” he told Fox News on
Monday.
“When I left office, I said I’m
probably going to be done with politics, but I’m back in the political
field again—whatever that means, I don’t know,” Arpaio, 85, told Fox
News.
Early Monday, the Washington Examiner reported that Arpaio may challenge Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake, who has been in a public feud with Trump for weeks.But Arpaio clarified to Fox News that he's not sure what office he might seek or if he'll even run again, claiming he didn’t specifically mention Flake by name.
“I don’t know what office I would run for if I even decided to run for office—I’m undecided on the issue,” he said.
Flake was unsupportive of President Trump’s Arpaio pardon, tweeting late Friday: “Regarding the Arpaio pardon, I would have preferred that the President honor the judicial process and let it take its course.”
Arpaio, the former Maricopa County, Ariz., sheriff, had been found guilty of criminal contempt for defying a judge’s order to stop traffic patrols that allegedly targeted immigrants.
The White House announced Trump’s pardon late Friday, saying that “after more than 50 years of admirable service to our nation, he is a worthy candidate for a Presidential pardon.”
Trump went on to post his announcement on Twitter.
“I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio,” Trump tweeted Friday night. “He kept Arizona safe!”
SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO WINS PARDON FROM TRUMP
Arpaio thanked the president, while saying in an earlier tweet that his conviction was the result of a “political witch hunt by holdovers in the Obama justice department.”
Brooke Singman is a Politics Reporter for Fox News. Follow her on Twitter at @brookefoxnews.
North Korea's launch of ballistic missile over Japan sends clear message to US, allies
North Korea on Tuesday-- in an act of defiance--
fired a midrange ballistic missile designed to carry a nuclear payload
over Japan for the first time, sending a clear message to Washington and
Seoul.
The distance and type of missile
test seemed designed to show that North Korea can back up a threat to
target the U.S. territory of Guam, if it chooses to do so, while also
establishing a potentially dangerous precedent that could see future
missiles flying over Japan.
Any new test worries Washington and its allies
because it presumably puts the North a step closer toward its goal of an
arsenal of nuclear missiles that can reliably target the United States.
Tuesday's test, however, looks especially aggressive to Washington,
Seoul and Tokyo.North Korea will no doubt be watching the world's reaction to see if it can use Tuesday's flight over Japan as a precedent for future launches. Japanese officials made the usual strongly worded condemnations of the launch. There were no immediate tweets from Trump.
"We will do our utmost to protect people's lives," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. "This reckless act of launching a missile that flies over our country is an unprecedented, serious and important threat."
A U.S. congressman visiting Seoul said Washington is now pressuring North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions by shutting down the impoverished country's access to hard currency, the lifeblood of its expensive weapons program.
The Pentagon told reporters that it was investigating the launch over Japan, adding: "North American Aerospace Defense Command determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America." The U.S. Missile Defense Agency said the Japanese military did not attempt to intercept the missile.
South Korea's air force effectively fired back at North Korea's missile launch over Japan by conducting a live-fire drill involving powerful bombs, officials said early Tuesday.
Four F-15 fighters dropped eight MK-84 bombs that accurately hit targets at a military field near South Korea's eastern coast, Seoul's presidential spokesman Park Su-hyun said. Each bomb has an explosive yield of a ton, according to the country's air force.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missile traveled around 1,677 miles and reached a maximum height of 341 miles as it traveled over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
The North has conducted launches at an unusually fast pace this year -- 13 times, Seoul says -- and some analysts believe Pyongyang could have viable long-range nuclear missiles before the end of Trump's first term in early 2021.
Seoul says that while the North has twice before fired rockets it said were carrying satellites over Japan -- in 1998 and 2009 -- it has never before used a ballistic missile, which is unambiguously designed for military strikes.
Tuesday's missile landed nowhere near Guam, but firing a Hwasong-12 (Hwasong is Korean for Mars, or Fire Star) so soon after the Guam threat may be a way for the North to show it could follow through if it chose to do so. Guam is 2,200 miles away from North Korea, but South Korea's military said the North may have fired the most recent missile at a shorter range.
Another interesting aspect of this launch is that it was the first-ever reported from Sunan, which is home to Pyongyang's international airport. Some outside observers wondered if North Korea had launched a road-mobile missile from an airport runway -- something South Korea's military couldn't immediately determine.
Tuesday's launch comes days after the North fired what was assessed as three short-range ballistic missiles into the sea and a month after its second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, which analysts say could reach deep into the U.S. mainland when perfected.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last week, said he welcomed the restraint Pyongyang showed by not firing any missiles in July.
“(North Korea) think that by exhibiting their capability, the path to dialogue will open,” Masao Okonogi, professor emeritus at Japan’s Keio University, told Reuters. “That logic, however, is not understood by the rest of the world, so it’s not easy,” he said.
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