Atty. Gen. William Barr tries to restore confidence in Justice Department

In his first month in office, Atty. Gen. William Barr has sent a reassuring message to the beleaguered Justice Department — he wants a return to basics after years of disruptive firings, tweet storms and scandals. In briefings, Barr has asked detailed questions about cases, suspects and legal arguments. He has wandered his fifth-floor hallway to converse about the law. And he declined the traditional “clap in” where a newly confirmed attorney general walks through the building and subordinates applaud. Instead, Barr held a three-hour reception in his conference room.

Advisors and associates said the approach reflects Barr’s low-key persona, and his top goals of steering the Justice Department out of the line of political fire, boosting public confidence in it, and improving the morale of its 110,000 employees. “Everything the attorney general is doing right now is about restoring the [department’s] reputation as a nonpartisan institution whose only allegiance is the law and to the rule of law, not politics,” said J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge and close friend.

Barr could soon face the toughest test of his tenure. Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is expected to release his final report in coming weeks, and Barr must decide how much to release to the public. The pressure on Barr intensified Thursday when the House voted 420-0 to demand he release to Congress and the public the full findings of Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s attempts to sway the 2016 election and whether President Trump’s campaign or associates aided the Russians. “With wide bipartisan support the House has agreed: The American people deserve to know the truth about what, if anything, special counsel Mueller has uncovered, and now we should finally see this investigation come to a close,” Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the second-ranking Republican, said in a statement. A White House spokesman, Hogan Gidley, later called the nonbinding resolution “ridiculous,” and it is unlikely to pass the Senate. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, blocked a Democratic effort to bring the measure up.

Barr will have to weigh those bipartisan demands against the privacy rights of those not charged with crimes and federal rules governing the release of classified and other sensitive information. Regulations leave much to Barr’s discretion, and he has been circumspect about his plans, beyond promising to be as transparent as the law allows. Aides said Barr understands the political stakes. “If he tries to hide the report and evidence, it will not only tar his reputation but also the reputation of the Department of Justice,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. “His decision will have lasting consequences.”

Barr, 68, is hardly a novice. Three decades ago, he served as U.S. attorney general under President George H.W. Bush after previously holding other Justice Department posts. He later served as the top lawyer for two major corporations, GTE and Verizon. A stalwart of the Republican legal establishment, Barr was in semi-retirement when Trump tapped him in December to again serve as attorney general. He is only the second person in history to hold the post twice. He has told associates he took the job because the Justice Department faced a critical juncture. “He reveres the Justice Department as an institution,” said Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School and a friend. “To understand Bill Barr is to understand he has come to the Justice Department with a mission and it is to entirely benefit the institution, not any individuals.”

Barr is particularly concerned that politics may have influenced several high-profile investigations. Barr was flabbergasted, associates said, at news reports that Peter Strzok, a top FBI agent, and Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer, had exchanged private text messages critical of Trump in 2016 even as they investigated Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of State. Strzok later led the FBI’s inquiry into Russia’s interference in the election and potential links between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. He was fired last year.

https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-william-barr-attorney-general-justice-department-20190315-story.html

Pompeo Heads to Israel Ahead of Contested Election

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to head to Israel next week ahead of a contested Israeli election that is seen as no guarantee for longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The timing of Pompeo's trip has generated much speculation about whether he is throwing the Trump administration's support behind Netanyahu as he is locked in the race of his political career, an election being followed closely across the Middle East as it could reshape the Jewish state's government at a critical juncture in the United States's regional fight to thwart Iran and its terrorist proxies.

Pompeo, State Department officials said, has no plan to wade into Israel's election, with sources saying his talks with Netanyahu and other senior Israeli diplomats will focus on the destabilizing role Hezbollah plays in Lebanon, another country Pompeo is slated to visit while in the region. With the Israeli elections heating up, Israel has experienced a rash of terrorist attacks in recent days, making Pompeo's appearance in the Jewish state all the more remarkable. Sources expect the secretary of state to affirm Israel's right to self defense and, in private meetings, discuss aiding the Israeli military's efforts to combat Hezbollah, which still asserts control in Lebanon. However, Pompeo is facing a tricky diplomatic hurdle during his trip: How to convince concerned Israeli leaders the United States is combatting Hezbollah at the same time is provides the Lebanese Armed Forces with weaponry (LAF), some of which has made its way to Hezbollah militants embedded in that fighting force.

"The secretary will meet with a range of senior Israeli officials," a senior State Department official, speaking only on background, told reporters. "We'll be talking about regional issues, obviously, discussing the challenges posed to the region, to Israel, to the United States by Iran and by Iranian proxies. The secretary will reaffirm both privately and publicly during that visit our unwavering commitment to Israel's security and its right to self-defense." Asked why Pompeo has chosen to arrive in Israel while the country's elections are unfolding, the State Department emphasized that U.S.-Israeli cooperation on various military situations cannot stop. "Obviously, in those discussions the secretary will be discussing quite directly the challenges posed by Iran, its illicit activities, its threatening behaviors, Lebanese Hizballah, their illicit activities and threatening behaviors, and how this all plays for a promising future—or against—for the people of Lebanon," the senior State Department official said.

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/pompeo-heads-to-israel-ahead-of-contested-election/

>>5714110

>in context of the 63 space Brackets

Agreed

FEMA Contractor Arrested For Cocaine Distribution… To Kids

Joseph Lipsey III, CEO of Chattanooga-based transportation companies Lipsey Logistics and Lipsey Trucking, was arrested on Tuesday in Aspen, CO, for distribution of cocaine to a minor, three counts of serving alcohol to a minor, possession of drug paraphernalia, and providing nicotine to minors. Lipsey’s wife Shira and son, Joseph Lipsey IV, were arrested Monday on similar counts. Under Colorado law, if convicted of the distribution charge, the Lipsey parents would each face a mandatory sentence of between eight and 32 years in prison. The Lipseys were each released on $100,000 cash-only bonds. In January, Joseph Lipsey IV was charged with two counts of vehicular assault after a Tesla SUV he was alleged to have been driving careened off the road, injuring himself and four other teens in the car.

The Lipseys saw an opportunity in freight brokerage when the second Bush administration began privatizing and outsourcing disaster relief, where previously the federal government had leaned on the military. A small water company in the family’s portfolio helped the Lipseys secure an award to provide bottled water for hurricane relief.

In 2003, Lipsey had engaged UPS for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) logistics and transportation support for disaster relief, but almost immediately Hurricane Isabel hit the global logistics conglomerate realized that the task of providing disaster relief logistics was more realistic with an asset-based truckload provider than through independent brokerage capacity. UPS handed over the business to US Xpress, which managed relief logistics on behalf of Lipsey. Joe Lipsey soon realized that there was a lot of money to be made in using brokerage capacity and by the 2005 hurricane season, the Lipseys had launched their own brokerage to move water and ice on a cost-plus basis for the government.

Lipsey Logistics has been investigated on numerous occasions for failure to comply with federal rules around deadlines, botched paperwork, and according to a government investigation, in billing more than $800,000 in unsupported Federal payments. On September 5, 2017, Lipsey Water was awarded a $143 million FEMA contract to provide bottled water. As of October 2017, Bloomberg reported that Lipsey won at least $215 million in FEMA relief services since Hurricane Harvey.

If the cocaine charges stick, Lipsey’s government contracts could be under threat. FreightWaves estimates that Lipsey was able to build a nearly $200 million per year transportation and logistics operation on the back of FEMA and state government contracts. Not all of Lipsey’s logistics business is from FEMA. The firm, benefitting from being located in Chattanooga, has hired brokerage and trucking staff from truckload giants US Xpress, Covenant Transport, and Coyote Logistics. Major clients that Lipsey have provided 3PL services include Home Depot, Niagara Waters, and Proctor & Gamble.

Reporting by the Aspen Times based on police accounts depicted the Lipsey's' Aspen home as a sordid drug den. According to a police affidavit, during a February 19 search of the Lipsey home, officers and deputies found charred tin foil, a crystalline powder-caked spoon, baggies of white powder that tested positive for cocaine, unprescribed Xanax pills, and codeine syrup. Needless to say, the prospect of multiple felony drug convictions, especially ones involving kids, puts Lipsey Logistics’ federal contracts under threat.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-15/fema-contractor-arrested-cocaine-distribution-kids

>>5714569

Watch the Water?

>>5714530 FEMA Contractor Arrested For Cocaine Distribution… To Kids