North Carolina political consultant cited in probe of 2016 election: documents

A North Carolina political consultant at the center of a probe into possible election fraud in a Congressional contest last month appeared to have paid for the collection of absentee ballots in a 2016 contest, which would be a violation of state election laws, according to documents released on Wednesday. Interviews with voters led to information “strongly suggesting” that Leslie McCrae Dowless paid individuals to solicit absentee request forms and to collect absentee ballots from Bladen County voters in 2016, newly released records from a prior investigation by the state’s election board showed. Possession of an absentee ballot for delivery to a voter or for return by anyone other than the voter, the voter’s near relative, or the voter’s legal guardian is a felony, investigators wrote.

Dowless is currently a person of interest in a probe of possible absentee ballot fraud in a disputed U.S. congressional election in November, North Carolina’s board of elections said two weeks ago. Dowless’ attorney, Cynthia Singletary, did not respond to requests for comment by phone and by email from Reuters on Wednesday about the new disclosure. On Tuesday, Singletary, in a statement posted on Twitter in response to the probe into last month’s disputed congressional election in North Carolina, said her client has not violated state or federal campaign laws. “Mr. Dowless is a highly respected member of our community who is routinely sought after for his campaign expertise,” she said.

The board has refused to certify Republican Mark Harris as the winner of the Nov. 6 election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as it investigates possible fraud involving absentee ballots from two rural counties. If fraud is uncovered, the board could order a new election. Harris edged out Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes, but McCready withdrew his concession on Dec. 6. The North Carolina State Board of Elections opened an investigation in the fall of 2016 after receiving three complaints of possible fraud involving the handling of absentee ballots, according to the documents released on Wednesday.

One of the documents released on Wednesday was handwritten testimony during the investigation from one of the individuals who worked for Dowless. He wrote that Dowless promised to pay him half of $225 when he turned in 20 absentee ballot request forms and the remaining half when he gave him the 20 signed absentee ballots in 2016. The ballots were part of the federal and state elections in 2016 that included the presidential race won by Donald Trump.

Two women have told WSOC-TV in North Carolina that Dowless paid them to collect absentee ballots and deliver them to him in 2018. Lorrin Freeman, the district attorney in Wake County, who is handling the case because the district attorney in Bladen County had cited a conflict of interest, said her office was investigating concerns arising from the 2016 election when her office became aware of new allegations regarding the 2018 elections. “We certainly hope to bring it to conclusion quickly but it has been one of those things that during the course of the investigation it has continued to grow in scope,” she said to Reuters. Freeman said as recently as this week that her office began looking into voting irregularities in Columbus County, which neighbors Bladen County. She said her office was not identifying any individuals targeted in its investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Eastern North Carolina in an email to Reuters said it had no comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-north-carolina/north-carolina-political-consultant-cited-in-probe-of-2016-election-documents-idUSKCN1OJ0A1?il=0

El Salvador's top cop pursues politicians; now some want him gone

When El Salvador’s legislative assembly confirmed little-known Douglas Melendez as attorney general in 2016, many here thought it was business as usual in a country where high-level corruption has long gone unpunished. But in less than three years, Melendez has put one former president in prison, investigated another and has a third in his sights. He has also jailed his predecessor, a judge and a top businessman, among others. Some in El Salvador’s political class have seen enough.

Congress must vote before January 5 on whether the 52-year-old career prosecutor can stay on for another three-year term. Despite international support, Melendez has powerful opponents in the ruling leftist party. El Salvador’s lawmakers could make their decision as soon as this week. Even if he survives that vote, the backlash is likely to continue. Melendez said he has received death threats. And the leading candidate in February’s presidential contest has talked of jail time for Melendez.

The U.S. government has paid for bulletproof cars for Melendez’s team. His family now travels with body guards. “We do not have a lot of allies,” Melendez said in an interview at his offices in a wealthy area on the edge of San Salvador. “Often the public servant that does, or tries to do, their job independently makes people uncomfortable, and that brings repercussions.” Growing pressure on Melendez is the latest sign that an anti-corruption drive that swept parts of Latin American in recent years may be faltering. Judges and prosecutors across the region have made strides to clean up the region’s notoriously greasy politics. In addition to El Salvador, Peru, Guatemala and Brazil have all charged and imprisoned former presidents.

But those high-profile purges have bred resistance among political players whose power is threatened by their work. In Guatemala, conservative President Jimmy Morales declined to renew the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a United Nations-backed body investigating him for corruption. Set up to assist Guatemala’s justice system stem decades of impunity, CICIG helped topple his predecessor over another graft case, and it won a 15-year jail sentence for a former vice president convicted of fraud and influence peddling. Morales has said CICIG violated Guatemala’s constitution and due process, and that it was a “threat to peace”.

In Honduras, the head of a MACCIH, a similar body backed by the Organization of American States, resigned over lack of support from authorities. “There are good things happening but it’s incredibly fragile,” said Eric L. Olson, a Latin America expert at the Seattle International Foundation, highlighting pushback across the region. “There’s been a tremendous backlash against the attorney generals who attempt to be independent,” he said.

Tiny El Salvador borrowed practices from its neighbors for its anti-corruption drive. Similar to graft-busters in Honduras and Guatemala, Melendez created a separate unit called the “Group Against Impunity”, which now has some 25 handpicked prosecutors working on the most high-profile corruption cases. Local civil society has criticized the attorney general’s office for its lack of investigative ability, pointing out that successful cases have often relied on evidence gathered by others, such as the Supreme Court or journalists. Melendez says he is working with a lean budget, and the attorney general’s office was infiltrated by organized crime when he arrived. He is currently prosecuting his predecessor Luis Martinez for money laundering, illicit negotiations and a slew of other crimes. Martinez allegedly accepted bribe payments in cash, trips and cars from powerful people to protect them. Martinez denies the charges. His lawyer declined to comment.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-elsalvador-corruption-insight/el-salvadors-top-cop-pursues-politicians-now-some-want-him-gone-idUSKCN1OJ0GT?il=0

Progressive Nonprofit Caught Trying To Conceal References To Its Employee, Unmasked Antifa Leader Joseph ‘Jose’ Alcoff

The progressive nonprofit organization that employs Antifa leader Joseph “Jose” Alcoff, who has advocated for the violent overthrow of the government, obscured references to the radical communist in its past press releases after Alcoff’s extreme ideology was exposed. Alcoff, 36, has made significant efforts to separate his true identity from his fanatical personas, “Chepe” and “Jose Martin,” which he uses to lead Antifa groups and promote radical communist rhetoric, The Daily Caller News Foundation revealed Tuesday night. As Alcoff, he advocates for reforms of predatory loans before members of Congress as payday campaign manager for Americans for Financial Reform (AFR). When speaking as Chepe and through his Twitter handle @sabokitty, Alcoff has called for the murder of the rich and encourages using violence to bring “a world without capitalism, without private property … that is socialist and communist.” He’s used his Jose Martin persona to promote socialism on MSNBC and on BBC radio programs.

In July 2017, Alcoff urged his nonviolent followers on Twitter to “stop limiting yourself,” adding that “the left wins nothing w/ nonviolence.” He said it “feels good” to see Antifa’s “militant tactics” “mainstreamed” the following month. Alcoff is also an organizer of Smash Racism DC, the Antifa group responsible for mobbing Fox News host and DCNF co-founder Tucker Carlson’s house in November and for chasing Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz from a D.C. restaurant in September. AFR did not respond to multiple requests for comment asking if it was aware of Alcoff’s extreme and violent rhetoric or if it planned on taking any action in regards to the radical’s statements. Instead, the progressive nonprofit obscured references to Alcoff on its website after TheDCNF exposed Alcoff’s radical personas. AFR modified references to “Jose Alcoff” in at least seven press releases to “Jose A” sometime before noon local time Wednesday. TheDCNF contacted AFR at 12:13 p.m. local time Wednesday to inquire why it scrubbed Alcoff’s last name from its press releases. Less than 30 minutes later, his full name was added back to the press releases. For example, “Jose Alcoff” was originally quoted in a May 31 press release on AFR’s website, according to Google’s Dec. 3 cache of the web page. His name had been modified to “Jose A” when TheDCNF archived the press release at 12:19 p.m. Wednesday. By 12:36 p.m., the press release was modified again to read “Jose Alcoff.” TheDCNF archived three AFR press releases with timestamps showing the modifications. AFR did not respond to multiple requests for comment asking why the changes were made. Additionally, Stop The Debt Trap Campaign, the AFR arm where Alcoff works, tweeted individual pictures of its employees on June 21, 2016. Each tweet included the employee’s full name, except Alcoff, who was only listed as “Jose.”

https://www.dailycaller.com/2018/12/19/progressive-antifa-violent-leader/

BREAKING: John McCain Associate Gave Dossier To BuzzFeed

A longtime associate of late Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain provided a copy of the infamous Steele dossier to BuzzFeed News, according to an explosive court filing released Wednesday. David Kramer, a former State Department official who was an executive at the McCain Institute, met on Dec. 29, 2016 with BuzzFeed reporter Ken Bensinger, according to a filing submitted Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro. BuzzFeed published the dossier, which was authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, on Jan. 10, 2017.

The disclosure was made as part of a final report ahead of Ungaro’s ruling in favor of BuzzFeed in a defamation lawsuit. The revelation that Kramer was BuzzFeed’s source settles one of the main mysteries of the dossier, which alleges a vast conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian government to influence the 2016 election. According to Ungaro, BuzzFeed and Kramer dispute how Bensinger obtained a copy of the dossier. “Kramer testified that Bensinger took photos of the Dossier when Kramer was out of the room, even though he asked Bensinger not to,” wrote Ungaro, adding that, “in a later declaration, Kramer stated that he had no objection to Bensinger taking a hard copy and had provided hard copies to other journalists.” The other journalists Kramer met with are not identified.

Kramer obtained copies of the dossier after meeting in late November 2016 with Steele. He and McCain became aware of Steele’s investigation of then-candidate Donald Trump earlier that month at the Halifax International Security Forum. McCain dispatched Kramer to London to meet with Steele. After that Nov. 28, 2016 encounter, Kramer obtained a copy of the dossier from Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, the firm that hired Steele on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC. Kramer met Nov. 30, 2016, with McCain and McCain’s chief of staff, Christopher Brose, to review Steele’s reports. “Kramer advised McCain to share the reports with the FBI and the CIA,” according to Ungaro.

Days later, Kramer met at McCain’s behest with Victoria Nuland, who served then as assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasian affairs and the State Department, and Celeste Wallender, the top Russian affairs official at the National Security Council. Nuland and Wallender were aware of the dossier and Steele, according to Ungaro. “Kramer reviewed with Bensinger what he knew about the Dossier and explained that he took the allegations seriously,” according to the court filing.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2018/12/19/buzzfeed-mccain-associate-dossier/

Paul Ryan Aide And Rep. Adam Kinzinger Were Early Recipients Of Steele Dossier, Documents Say

A federal judge on Wednesday revealed just how widely Christopher Steele distributed his infamous anti-Trump dossier. Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Paul Ryan chief of staff Jonathan Burks received Steele’s reports in December 2016, before BuzzFeed would publish the dossier in full. Court documents say that Steele gave the dossier materials to Kinzinger and Burks, though Paul Ryan’s office claims that Burks has never met Steele and did not receive documents directly from the former British spy.

A Republican lawmaker and the chief of staff to House Speaker Paul Ryan were early recipients of the infamous Steele dossier, according to a court memo released Wednesday as part of BuzzFeed’s dossier-related lawsuit. The judge handling the case filed a document that stated that Christopher Steele, the dossier author, provided at least one memo from the dossier to Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Jonathan Burks, a longtime Ryan aide. “Steele gave Report 166 to Kramer, an unnamed senior British security official, Ms. Wallender [sic] at the NSC, Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), and House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Chief of Staff, John Burks,” wrote Judge Ursula Ungaro, who ruled in favor of BuzzFeed in a defamation lawsuit filed by a Russian businessmen identified in Report 166, which Steele produced on Dec. 13, 2016.

That report, which is one of 17 written by Steele, accused Russian businessman Aleksej Gubarev of using his companies to hack Democrats’ computer systems during the 2016 campaign. Gubarev vehemently denied the allegations and sued BuzzFeed for defamation, claiming that the website failed to investigate Steele’s claims. Ungaro noted in her filing Wednesday that BuzzFeed did not reach out to Gubarev prior to its publication of the dossier on Jan. 10, 2017. The website apologized to Gubarev and redacted his name from its report after the Russian sued. The Kramer referred to in Ungaro’s memo is David Kramer, a former State Department official and longtime associate of late Sen. John McCain, who provided a copy of the dossier to BuzzFeed. Wallander is Celeste Wallander, the Obama National Security Council’s top official on Russia-related matters.

Though Ungaro wrote that Steele provided Burks and the others with parts of the dossier, a spokeswoman for Ryan’s office said that Burks never met Steele and did not receive information directly from the former British spy. “Burks has never met Christopher Steele nor received any document directly from him. However, he was aware of and had read the dossier prior to its publication,” AshLee Strong told The Daily Caller News Foundation. She did not respond to follow-up questions about how Burks obtained the report, whether he disseminated it, and whether Ryan knew he had received the document. Kinzinger’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

Ungaro’s filing shows just how widely the dossier was disseminated prior to BuzzFeed’s decision to publish the document. It was not previously publicly known that Steele gave his reports to Wallander. It was also not known, as Ungaro revealed, that Kramer shared the dossier with numerous reporters, in addition to BuzzFeed, and Obama State Department official Victoria Nuland.

Gubarev’s legal actions also led to revelations that Steele and the firm that hired him, Fusion GPS, met with numerous reporters during the 2016 campaign. Steele was forced to reveal in London, where he is being sued by Gubarev, that he and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson briefed reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Yahoo News and Mother Jones. Yahoo! and Mother Jones published articles based on Steele’s unverified information prior to the election.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2018/12/19/christopher-steele-dossier-paul-ryan/

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