Trump judicial nominee facing allegations of unethical practices and conflicts of interest

Conflict of interest and allegations of unethical legal practices are surfacing against Patrick Wyrick, a Oklahoma Supreme Court justice and a nominee by President Trump for the federal bench, who is set to get a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate in the coming weeks.

Earthjustice, one of the most prominent Democratic-aligned groups involved in the recommendations and scrutiny of the federal bench, wrote an eight-page letter to lawmakers on their concerns about the Trump nominee. According to the group, Wyrick, 38, who is to move through the confirmation process in the U.S. Senate to sit on the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, did not disclose that he was still financially benefiting from his wife’s healthcare company in Oklahoma while he led the state's lawsuit against Obamacare as Oklahoma's solicitor general.

"Mr. Wyrick also failed to disclose that he is (and has been since early 2014) the Registered Agent for an Oklahoma based LLC owned in part by his spouse, 'B2LPT, LLC.' This LLC is a health-care-industry related company, in which his spouse owns an approximate $800,000 equity share," the letter said. "Mr. Wyrick also initially failed to disclose his material financial interest in the company to the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, as required for state Supreme Court justices. Moreover, despite this substantial financial holding in a health-care-industry company, Mr. Wyrick did not recuse himself from the federal case Oklahoma ex rel. Pruitt v. Burwell.”

The case Wyrick led against Obamacare sought to revoke provisions that imposed legal and financial obligations on companies in the same industry as B2LPT. In his initial nomination hearing, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., pressed Wyrick on the undisclosed conflict of interest allegations, asking him about any potential roles he held in his wife's company while he was suing Obamacare.

“What has your role in B2LPT, LLC been up to the present," asked Whitehouse. “Other than my attempts to be a supportive spouse, I have no role in that business,” Wyrick responded.

Oklahoma law states that a registered agent is “a person or company who agrees to accept legal mail” and “may serve as a general point of contact for receiving business and tax notices, payment reminders, and other documents."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-judicial-nominee-facing-allegations-of-unethical-practices-and-conflicts-of-interest

EarthJustice

Opposition to the Re-Nomination of PatrickWyrick as United States District Judge for theWesternDistrict of Oklahoma

https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/Opposing-Patrick-Wyrick-OK-Dist-Court-nom.pdf

Republican releases transcript of top FBI lawyer during Clinton, Trump-Russia investigations

Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., released the transcript of former FBI General Counsel James Baker on Tuesday, the latest in a series of such disclosures by the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee. The 152-page transcript is from a closed-door interview that Baker gave on Oct. 3, 2018 in front of a joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees. “The Americans deserve transparency and they deserve to know what transpired at the highest levels of the FBI and at the origin of the probe into President Trump’s campaign," Collins said

Baker was the FBI's top lawyer from 2014 to 2018, and he held that key role during two high-profile investigations — the Clinton investigation and the Trump-Russia investigation. The FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server and her mishandling of classified information, dubbed Midyear Exam, ended with no charges ultimately being filed. During his testimony, Baker described Clinton’s behavior as “alarming” and “appalling." Baker said he “argued with others about why they thought she shouldn’t be charged” although he ultimately agreed with the decision not to charge her. Baker also admitted that, upon seeing some of the texts exchanged between FBI special agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page, he was “quite alarmed” and “concerned about is whether any decisions had been taken — or not taken — in the Midyear case that were driven by political bias of any sort.”

The FBI’s investigation of Russian interference and its possible ties to Trump or Trump associates, dubbed Crossfire Hurricane, would eventually carry over into special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation which ended in March with no charges of criminal collusion. Baker admitted he was “concerned” about the investigation, saying it was “novel” and “highly unusual.” Baker further testified that in 2016 he met with Michael Sussmann, a lawyer from Perkins Coie, who gave him unspecified information from “cyber experts” not related to the dossier but still related to the Trump-Russia investigation. Perkins Coie was the law firm hired by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 presidential election. It’s the same firm that hired Fusion GPS, which then in turn hired ex-British spy Christopher Steele, whose infamous memos were used in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act applications against at least one Trump associate.

When asked if an outside counsel had ever before tried to pass along information to him as general counsel for the purposes of then passing along to the FBI, Baker said, “That’s the only one I can remember.” Baker said he passed Sussman’s information to either Strzok or former assistant director of the FBI's counterintelligence division Bill Priestap. He said Sussman told him that he’d given the information to the New York Times as well. Beyond his contacts with Perkins Coie, Baker also admitted talking with at least one journalist about these issues in 2016, testifying that he repeatedly spoke with David Corn, whom he called a “long-time friend.” Corn is a journalist at Mother Jones who wrote an article titled “A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump” on Oct. 31, 2016 — just days before the 2016 presidential election.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/republican-releases-transcript-of-top-fbi-lawyer-during-clinton-trump-russia-investigations

Baker Testimony Redacted

This is a House Judiciary Committee transcript of an interview with James Baker.

https://www.scribd.com/document/405617854/Baker-Testimony-Redacted#from_embed

>>6110894

I was thinking he looked quite young for his position, but not that you mention it, I do see the resemblance.

EXCLUSIVE: Documents Detailing Google’s ‘News Blacklist’ Show Manual Manipulation Of Special Search Results

Google does manipulate its search results manually, contrary to the company’s official denials, documents obtained exclusively by The Daily Caller indicate. Two official policies dubbed the “misrepresentation policy” and the “good neighbor policy” inform the company’s “XPA news blacklist,” which is maintained by Google’s Trust & Safety team. “T&S will be in charge of updating the blacklist as when there is a demand,” reads one of the documents shared with The Daily Caller. “The deceptive_news domain blacklist is going to be used by many search features to filter problematic sites that violate the good neighbor and misrepresentation policies,” the policy document says.

That document reads that it was, “approved by gomes@, nayak@, haahr@ as of 8/13/2018.” Ben Gomes is Google’s head of search, who reports directly to CEO Sundar Pichai. Pandu Nayak is a Google Fellow, and Paul Haahr is a software engineer, whose bio on Google’s internal network Moma indicates that he is also involved in, “fringe ranking: not showing fake news, hate speech, conspiracy theories, or science/medical/history denial unless we’re sure that’s what the user wants.” “The purpose of the blacklist will be to bar the sites from surfacing in any Search feature or news product. It will not cause a demotion in the organic search results or de-index them altogether,” reads the policy document obtained by the Caller. What that means is that targeted sites will not be removed from the “ten blue links” portion of search results, but the blacklist applies to most of the other search features, like “top news,” “videos” or the various sidebars that are returned as search results. The “ten blue links” may not be impacted by the blacklist, but virtually every other kind of Google search result is. While hard numbers are not available for how much traffic is directed through the 10 links versus the other search blocks, since the latter appear so high on the results page, the impact could be significant. “Focus on the user,” said a source at Google who described the program to the Caller. “Users need to trust any content that Google shows them, whether it’s the 10 blue links or other special search results.”

Sundar Pichai testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 11 of last year. Democratic California Rep. Zoe Lofgren asked why a search for the term “idiot” returned a photo of President Trump. In response, Pichai said, “This is working at scale, we don’t manually intervene on any particular search result.” A memo about the deceptive news blacklist was also obtained by the Caller, showing its last edit as Dec. 3, 2018, a week before Pichai’s congressional testimony. This document, which describes the process by which a site can be blacklisted for deceptive news, clearly shows that there is a manual component.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/04/09/google-news-blacklist-search-manipulation/

Sen. Susan Collins Gets Snubbed In Home State Of Maine

Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins only donations above $200 from 15 residents of her home state — a possible snub in response to her strong stance against President Donald Trump, according to a report from Roll Call. Collins reported that she raised $1.1 million in the first quarter of 2019, but only $9,200 came from supporters that actually lived in Maine from 17 itemized donations coming from 15 residents. The senator won reelection during the 2014 election cycle and raised $52,000 from 46 itemized contributions in the first quarter of 2013. Those in-state donations made up 41% of her total for the same time period in 2013. Collins earned $6,228,159 during the 2014 election cycle and $8,039,750 during the 2008 cycle. The senator has a history of relying on out-of-state funding. She has an average of 70% total funds from donors outside of Maine between her elections in 2014 and 2008. Maine has supported Democratic candidates for president every year since 1992.

Collins recently told Axios she was “appalled” by Trump’s health care plan: “I think the Justice Department has a duty to defend the duly enacted laws. … I’m appalled. He should not try to get rid of it through the courts.”

She also announced in January that she was “not prepared” to endorse Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential race. As the senator told PBS’s Judy Woodruff at the time: I’m really focused on my own campaign for 2020, and I really haven’t focused on the presidential campaign. So I’m not prepared at this point to make that decision. I don’t know. I’m going to have to see what happens between now and then and look at what his record is. I can’t imagine that I would endorse any of the Democrats who are running right now, but I’m going to focus on 2020 in 2020.

Collins was threatened and targeted in the mail with a suspicious package during the Kavanaugh hearings from Democrats who wanted her to oppose the Supreme Court Justice. Her vote in favor of Trump’s pick ultimately set the stage for his confirmation in the Senate.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/04/09/collins-15-donors-in-maine/

>>6111447

She seems to suffer from, "I'm better than everybody else" syndrome. She doesn't seem to care what her constituents have to say, she does what she wants. Never had any trust in her opinions/statements, they always strike me as self serving in some way.