DOJ

Exclusive — CNN Camera Crew Present Outside Mike Pence Group in D.C. After Apparent Leak from DOJ

February 2, 2023 by Matthew Boyle Leave a Comment

A CNN camera crew was as of Thursday morning present on the street outside former Vice President Mike Pence’s advocacy group headquarters in downtown Washington, DC, Breitbart News has learned.

The group is called Advancing American Freedom and has headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C.

Photos of the CNN staffers—who had a camera on a tripod there—provided to Breitbart News suggest the camera crew was possibly awaiting action from the Department of Justice (DOJ) or FBI in the ongoing classified document scandals plaguing Pence, former President Donald Trump, and current President Joe Biden.

CNN and the DOJ have not replied to requests for comment.

Pence officials have previously made clear that staff-led searches have been conducted both at Pence’s home in Indiana and at this organization’s headquarters and that there are no other possible locations to search.

The presence of the CNN camera crew raises questions about whether or not the DOJ or FBI are leaking to establishment media any key facts or intelligence about the various investigations. At this stage, there is no reason to believe that any intelligence that CNN may have gotten is correct or incorrect either, and Pence’s office has not been raided or searched yet by federal agents—and it is unclear if it ever will be.

Pence voluntarily provided classified documents he discovered at his Indiana home recently to federal authorities, which somewhat roped him into the simmering scandal currently ripping Biden apart. Federal authorities searched Biden’s two homes in Delaware in recent weeks, and have been zoning in on troves of documents at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Delaware as well from his time as Vice President during former President Barack Obama’s administration and from his time as a U.S. Senator.

A source close to Pence said that the former vice president and his team will comply with the various authorities and have been in touch with the FBI about the possibility of scheduling additional searches.

Trump, meanwhile, saw his home at Mar-a-Lago raided back in August as part of that probe, which now is being overseen by a Special Counsel—a Special Counsel has also been appointed in the Biden case too.

Questions of leaks to media about flashy law enforcement action like executions of search warrants or even just voluntary searches have dominated each of these stories for weeks. It is unclear if the DOJ or FBI will take any action against leakers in their midst, or if the Department and Agency believe that such leaks are acceptable.

It is also unclear if the CNN news crew is still remaining outside Pence’s organization.

Poll: Nearly Half of Americans Consider Biden’s Handling of Classified Documents a ‘Major Scandal’

February 2, 2023 by Hannah Bleau Leave a Comment

Nearly half of Americans consider President Biden’s handling of classified documents a “major scandal,” a Rasmussen Reports survey released this week found.

The survey noted that a special counsel is investigating how classified documents — from Biden’s time as vice president during the Obama administration — ended up in multiple locations, including his Delaware home. When asked if it is a major scandal, minor scandal, or no scandal at all, nearly half, 48 percent, agreed it is a “major scandal.”

Nearly a quarter, 24 percent, consider it a “minor” scandal, and another 24 percent consider it “no” scandal at all. Four percent remain unsure.

Nearly three-quarters of Republicans, 73 percent, consider it a “major scandal,” as do 50 percent of independents and 23 percent of Democrats. A plurality of Democrats, 40 percent, do not believe it is scandal at all.

Ian Sams, with the White House counsel’s office, speaks to reporters outside of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023. The FBI has searched President Joe Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Del., home as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of classified documents. Biden’s attorney says that agents didn’t find any classified documents during the Wednesday search, but did take some handwritten notes and other materials relating to Biden’s time as vice president for review. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The survey also asked, “How likely is it that information from classified documents was used by Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, in his foreign business deals?”

Most believe it is at least somewhat likely, and of those, 44 percent believe it is “very” likely. Most, 59 percent, also at least somewhat agree that the Biden family has been “influence-peddling for a decade.”

The survey was taken January 26-29, 2023, among 900 likely U.S. voters and has a +/- 3 percent margin of error.

A recent survey from The Economist/YouGov found that more than three-quarters of Americans support a Department of Justice investigation into Biden over the classified documents found in multiple locations. Further, a CNN poll released last week found that 80 percent of Democrats, specifically, also support the DOJ’s appointment of a special counsel to investigate. Attorney General Merrick Garland made that announcement on January 12.

“I concluded that under the special counsel regulations, it was in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,” Garland said at the time, announcing that former U.S. attorney from Maryland Robert Hur will investigate.

Carefully worded statement reveals FBI seized more documents from Biden property, this time his vacation home

February 1, 2023 by Chris Enloe Leave a Comment

The search lasted approximately three and a half hours, according to Bauer. Though FBI agents discovered no classified documents, they seized materials dated from Biden’s tenure as vice president.

“The DOJ’s planned search of the President’s Rehoboth residences, conducted in coordination and cooperation with the President’s attorneys, has concluded,” Bauer said. “The search was conducted from 8:30 AM to noon.

“No documents with classified markings were found,” he added. “Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as Vice President.”

The carefully worded statement, emphasizing that agents found nothing with classified markings, does not exclude the possibility that what agents seized was classified. Indeed, not every document or parcel with classified information, such as handwritten notes, carry the proper markings indicating that it contains classified information.

What is the background?

The search is at least the third time the DOJ has searched one of Biden’s properties.

Last month, the Justice Department searched Biden’s private residence in Wilmington, Delaware, turning up additional classified documents. At the time, it was believed to have been the first search.

But CBS News reported on Tuesday that FBI agents conducted a search of the Washington office where classified documents were first discovered on Nov. 2. That search was conducted sometime in “mid-November.” It’s not clear if the FBI found classified documents in that search.

It’s also unclear why the Biden administration and Justice Department refused to previously disclose the search.

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Watch: Here’s the Shoving Incident Biden’s DOJ Tried to Use to Imprison Pro-Life Activist Mark Houck for 11 Years

January 31, 2023 by Katherine Hamilton Leave a Comment

President Joe Biden’s pro-abortion Department of Justice (DOJ) tried — and failed — to imprison pro-life activist and Catholic father of seven Mark Houck for 11 years over a shoving incident that occurred in October of 2021.

Houck, 48, testified in district court that he pushed Planned Parenthood escort, 73-year-old Bruce Love, because Love was verbally harassing his 12-year-old son as he was sidewalk counseling outside a Philadelphia abortion clinic. Video of the incident obtained by Breitbart News shows Love going out of his way to approach Houck and his son, although Love has denied verbally provoking Houck.

More than a year after the incident, the DOJ decided to press charges against Houck, despite the fact that even local authorities declined to press charges. On September 23, 2022, the DOJ sent a team of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents to his home and allegedly arrested him at gunpoint in front of his wife and children.

The DOJ accused Houck of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE Act), a 1993 law created to prosecute crimes at pro-life pregnancy centers that has “been used almost exclusively against pro-life activists,” Catholic News Agency’s (CNA) Joe Bukuras detailed. The FACE Act outlaws “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”

Jury deliberations began Friday but were “deadlocked” by the evening. The jury resumed deliberations Monday, and an alternate juror subsequently took the place of one of the original jurors by 1:30 p.m. The jury then found Houck not guilty on both counts. Houck was charged with two counts of violating the FACE Act and faced 11 years in federal prison if he had been found guilty.

According to Bukuras, supporters of Houck “cried and hugged one another” after the verdict was read in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.

Mark Houck’s first comments after being acquitted: pic.twitter.com/undSF3oiRx
— Joe Bukuras (@JoeBukuras) January 30, 2023

Bukuras noted that even “U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert himself raised the possibility that the case should never have been brought to trial, asking the prosecution Thursday whether the federal FACE Act didn’t ‘seem to be stretched a little thin here.’”

Houck’s arrest came after the DOJ established a “Reproductive Rights Task Force” to “protect access to reproductive health care” in anticipation of the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

The DOJ went after 26 pro-life individuals in 2022 with alleged violations of the FACE Act, even though FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted in November that approximately 70 percent of abortion-related threats of violence in the United States since the Dobbs decision have been against pro-life groups. Out of more than 100 attacks of churches and pro-life pregnancy resource centers, the DOJ finally indicted two pro-abortion activists out of Florida accused of vandalism and FACE Act violations last week.

Peter Breen, Thomas More Society Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation, celebrated the victory and condemned the Biden administration’s “intimidation against pro-life people.”

“We are, of course, thrilled with the outcome. Mark and his family are now free of the cloud that the Biden administration threw upon them. We took on Goliath — the full might of the United States government — and won,” Breen said. “The jury saw through and rejected the prosecution’s discriminatory case, which was harassment from day one. This is a win for Mark and the entire pro-life movement. The Biden Department of Justice’s intimidation against pro-life people and people of faith has been put in its place.”

Biden’s DOJ refuses to cooperate with congressional investigation into classified docs scandal

January 31, 2023 by Chris Enloe Leave a Comment

Jordan announced his probe on Jan. 13, one day after Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed former U.S. attorney Robert Hur as special counsel to investigate Biden. Specifically, Jordan wants all documents and communications related to the investigation.

“It is unclear when the Department first came to learn about the existence of these documents, and whether it actively concealed this information from the public on the eve of the 2022 elections,” Jordan wrote in his letter. “It is also unclear what interactions, if any, the Department had with President Biden or his representatives about his mishandling of classified material. The Department’s actions here appear to depart from how it acted in similar circumstances.”

How did the DOJ respond?

In a letter on Monday, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte told Jordan the DOJ will not hand over any of the requested materials for congressional oversight.

“Disclosures to Congress about active investigations risk jeopardizing those investigations and creating the appearance that Congress may be exerting improper political pressure or attempting to influence Department decisions in certain cases,” Uriarte wrote.

“Judgments about whether and how to pursue a matter are, and must remain, the exclusive responsibility of the Department,” he asserted.

To divulge information related to the DOJ’s ongoing special counsel investigation would, according to Uriarte, violate “longstanding policy.”

“Disclosing non-public information about ongoing investigations could violate statutory requirements or court orders, reveal road maps of our investigations, and interfere with the Department’s ability to gather facts, interview witnesses, and bring criminal prosecutions where warranted,” he said.

How did Jordan respond?

Russell Dye, a spokesman for Jordan, said the decision indicates the DOJ is “playing politics.”

“It’s concerning, to say the least, that the Department is more interested in playing politics than cooperating,” Dye said, CNN reported.

Meanwhile, Jordan disclosed last week that he was “definitely looking at asking for documents via subpoena,” but said at the time he was only considering it. Perhaps the DOJ’s refusal to cooperate with his investigation has made his decision easier.

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