Harvard faces pay-to-play admissions scandal as fencing coach investigated

Harvard University is investigating its fencing coach, Peter Brand, in an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving the sale of his house to the father of an applicant for nearly double its estimated value in exchange for admission to the university.

In 2016, the coach sold his Needham, Mass., home to Jie Zhao for nearly $1 million, despite its estimated value of $549,300, the Boston Globe reported. Soon after the sale closed, Zhao’s son was admitted to Harvard and joined the fencing team. Zhao sold the house a year-and-a-half later at a $324,000 loss.

This episode comes as several top universities, including Stanford, Yale, and Georgetown, have been implicated in scandals involving college counselors bribing coaches to ease admission for children of well-heeled parents. USC has also been at the center of the college admission scams, with actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin allegedly facilitating payments to grease the skids for admission of their respective daughters.

Harvard said this appears to be a one time event and not related to that college admissions scandal, known as “Operation Varsity Blues.” “Our current understanding is that these allegations are not related in any way to the ‘Operation Varsity Blues’ scheme to influence student college admissions decisions at several prominent American research universities,” Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay said in a statement Thursday.

Zhao has denied the allegations, saying he bought the home as a personal favor to Brand, who he contends is a close friend.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/harvard-dealing-with-its-own-possible-pay-to-play-admissions-scandal

Judicial Watch rightly puts the screws to Justice and the FBI

Because Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., seems loath to do real oversight, the outside organization Judicial Watch is very much on target in filing a lawsuit demanding “records of the planning and preparation of the raid of the home of former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone.” Former Trump lawyer John Dowd, whose judgment is not always the best but who is a savvy veteran of the Justice Department and of white-collar criminal battles, was right this week to compare the heavily armed commando-like raid of Stone’s home to “an amphibious landing.” “I used to be in the Marines,” he said. “I've done an amphibious landing. I couldn't believe they were doing one at Stone's house! It's muscular, it's over the top, it's designed to scare.”

Indeed, it was. And as I noted immediately after Stone’s arrest, over-amped raids such as this one are more likely to cause unintended violence and injury than to prevent it, sometimes quite literally with deadly consequences. Judicial Watch, well known as a vigorous watchdog, filed three separate Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of Justice and the FBI in the days after Stone’s arrest. According to the organization’s press release, neither the department nor the FBI has responded to the FOIA filings. By law, FOIA requests must either be honored or acknowledged with an explanation for why the requested information is exempt from disclosure. Because the nation’s chief law enforcement agencies seem to be ignoring the law, Judicial Watch has filed suit to compel compliance.

Judicial Watch wants specific information both on why CNN was on hand to air the raid live, a question that looks to have been adequately answered, but still is worth double-checking, and on internal planning records and communications among various key actors at the FBI and at the Justice Department. It is the latter set of records that is probably most important. SWAT-team-like raids of the sort used against Stone are usually reserved for targets considered dangerous, likely to suddenly destroy evidence, or a risk for sudden flight. None of those considerations would appear, to the layman’s eye, to apply to Roger Stone. If they did not apply, then the commando tactics certainly seem to run afoul of rules in the FBI Investigations and Operations Guide that says arresting agents should “employ the least intrusive means” that will accomplish the mission. The public deserves to know why the FBI considered the Stone raid to be “the least intrusive” possible. “That we’re being stonewalled suggests that someone has something to hide,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch is investigating the investigators, and it’s time for them to come clean.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/judicial-watch-rightly-puts-the-screws-to-justice-and-the-fbi

Trump To Skip White House Correspondents Dinner, Hold Rally Instead

President Donald Trump said Friday he will skip the 2019 White House Correspondents Dinner for the third year in a row and hold a political rally instead during a brief pool spray before departing for California. “Thee the dinner is so boring and so negative that we’re going to hold a very positive rally instead,” Trump said. “The correspondents’ dinner is too negative. I like positive things.”

Trump has skipped the annual dinner every year of his presidency, which was particularly mired in controversy in 2018 after comedienne Michelle Wolff made several jokes at the expense of White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Wolff attacked Sanders appearance and made several jokes about abortion which were considered offensive. Trump has teased the prospect of attending the dinner after the White House Correspondents Associations announced that in lieu of a comedian telling jokes, they would invite a respected presidential historian. The president floated the idea of attending the dinner after the announcement in November 2018.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/04/05/trump-to-skip-white-house-correspondents-dinner-hold-rally-instead/

>>6059357

It certainly would be epic!