Trey Gowdy: Comey-Brennan emails key to FISA abuse investigation

Former Rep. Trey Gowdy said on Monday there is damning evidence out there for investigators to find as they examine the FBI's conduct in the early stages of the Trump-Russia investigation. Top Republicans are talking up classified documents they believe will root out FBI misconduct in their use of an unverified dossier to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to wiretap Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. With Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in the final stages of a FISA abuse investigation, lawmakers have referred to him newly revealed information about the dossier's author.

Gowdy, now a Fox News contributor, was brought on Sean Hannity's show to discuss the development. Hannity asked if Gowdy was convinced there was fraud committed against the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, noting how the FBI did not disclose dossier author Christopher Steele's anti-Trump bias and Democratic benefactors. "I can tell you it is even worse than what you described," Gowdy replied. "It is what you described, in addition to the withholding of exculpatory information." Gowdy said the FBI made no effort to corroborate the dossier until after it was used in the application and a renewal.

Republican investigators have sent out a flurry of letters in recent days requesting documents from top agency officials related to a meeting between Steele and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec on Oct. 11, 2016, 10 days before the first warrant application was submitted, and admitted he was encouraged by a client to get his research out before the 2016 election on Nov. 8, signaling a possible political motivation. The meeting was described in notes taken by Kavalec that were obtained by conservative group Citizens United through open-records litigation. During a Fox News interview Sunday, Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said the classified documents Republicans seek will lead to accountability with former CIA Director John Brennan, former FBI Director James Comey, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Gowdy, the former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said before he left Congress that he saw the relevant information shared with the Gang of Eight, including the FBI's own assessment of whether Steele was reliable. Gowdy got even more specific when he made a plea: "To whoever is investigating this: Tell them to look for emails between Brennan and Comey in December 2016." Both Comey and former FBI General Counsel James Baker have said they are confident the bureau did nothing wrong in obtaining the warrants, although Baker admitted the DOJ inspector general's FISA abuse investigation will find "mistakes."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trey-gowdy-comey-brennan-emails-key-to-fisa-abuse-investigation

PG&E proposes court order for CEO, board to tour town destroyed by wildfire

(Reuters) - PG&E Corp on Monday submitted a proposed order to a U.S. District Court judge that would require the power provider’s chief executive and board to visit the California town of Paradise by July 15, to see the destruction caused by a wildfire in November that may be linked to the company’s equipment. The order, agreed to by the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. Probation Officer, awaits U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup’s signature. He is also overseeing PG&E’s probation stemming from a felony conviction over a deadly 2010 natural gas pipeline in San Bruno, California, that destroyed a neighborhood and killed eight people.

The judge last week called for PG&E officials to tour Paradise town. November’s Camp Fire leveled the town and killed more than 80 people, marking the most destructive and deadliest wildfire in California’s modern history. The Camp Fire also pushed San Francisco-based PG&E to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January in the expectation of, potentially, billions of dollars in liabilities. PG&E has said it expects its equipment may be found to have sparked the blaze. The proposed order also requires PG&E’s chief executive and board to visit San Bruno to meet with victims of the 2010 explosion there as well as city officials and firefighters.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pg-e-us-probation/pge-proposes-court-order-for-ceo-board-to-tour-town-destroyed-by-wildfire-idUSKCN1SK08R?il=0

Ex-Autonomy CFO sentenced in U.S. to 5 years prison over Hewlett-Packard fraud

(Reuters) - The former chief financial officer of British software company Autonomy was sentenced on Monday to five years in prison, after a U.S. jury found him guilty of fraud over the $11.1 billion sale of Autonomy in 2011 to Hewlett-Packard. Sushovan Hussain, 55, was also fined $4 million and ordered to forfeit $6.1 million by U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco. The defendant plans to appeal.

Hussain and former Autonomy Chief Executive Mike Lynch are also defendants in a $5 billion civil fraud trial in London’s High Court, where Hewlett-Packard claimed they caused it to overpay for Autonomy by fraudulently inflating its value. That trial began in March and is expected to last several months. Lawyers for Hussain were not immediately available for comment. The office of U.S. Attorney David Anderson in San Francisco had no immediate comment.

U.S. prosecutors accused Hussain, who moved to England at age 7 from his native Bangladesh, of using backdated contracts and other forms of accounting fraud to inflate Autonomy’s revenue, in an effort to attract potential buyers. Hussain, who is married and has two daughters, was convicted in April 2018 on 16 wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy counts.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hpe-autonomy-cfo/ex-autonomy-cfo-sentenced-in-u-s-to-5-years-prison-over-hewlett-packard-fraud-idUSKCN1SJ29H?il=0

Trump seeks extra $1.6 billion in NASA spending under goal of returning to moon

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration asked Congress on Monday to increase NASA spending next year by an extra $1.6 billion as a “down payment” to accommodate the accelerated goal of returning Americans to the surface of the moon by 2024. The increased funding request, announced by President Donald Trump on Twitter, comes nearly two months after Vice President Mike Pence declared the objective of shortening by four years NASA’s previous timeline for putting astronauts back on the moon for the first time since 1972.

The proposed increase would bring NASA’s total spending level for the 2020 fiscal year to $22.6 billion. The bulk of the increase is earmarked for research and development for a human lunar landing system, according to a summary provided by NASA. “Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars,” Trump tweeted on Monday. “I am updating my budget to include an additional $1.6 billion so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!”

NASA previously aimed to return crewed spacecraft to the lunar surface by the year 2028, after first putting a “Gateway” station into orbit around the moon by 2024.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-exploration-moon-trump/trump-seeks-extra-1-6-billion-in-nasa-spending-under-goal-of-returning-to-moon-idUSKCN1SJ2FG?il=0

Facebook facing 20-year consent agreement after privacy lapses: source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The social media giant Facebook Inc is headed toward an agreement with the U.S. government over its privacy policies and practices that would put it under 20 years of oversight, according to a source knowledgeable about the discussions. The agreement would resolve a probe of whether the company violated a similar consent pact reached in 2011.

There had been expectations a deal was imminent after Facebook set aside $3 billion to pay what it said it expected to be a $3 billion to $5 billion penalty. But two sources said on Monday that no deal was expected this week. One of the sources said that announcement of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission could be a month away.

Several U.S. lawmakers have criticized aspects of a potential agreement between the FTC and Facebook that would elevate oversight of privacy policies and practices to Facebook’s board of directors and require the social media company to be more aggressive in policing third-party app developers. In a letter to the FTC, Senators Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, and Josh Hawley, a Republican, told the agency that even a $5 billion civil penalty was too little and that top officials, potentially including founder Mark Zuckerberg, should be held personally responsible.

Facebook’s 2011 settlement with the FTC also required it report to the government agency about its privacy practices for 20 years. The FTC has been investigating allegations that Facebook inappropriately shared information belonging to 87 million users with the now-defunct British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. The probe has focused on whether the sharing of data and other disputes violated the 2011 consent agreement.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-ftc/facebook-facing-20-year-consent-agreement-after-privacy-lapses-source-idUSKCN1SJ2C2?il=0

Trump urges judge not to fast-track his lawsuit over House subpoena

Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday objected to a judge’s plan to fast-track his lawsuit seeking to block a congressional subpoena for information about eight years of his personal and business finances.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington proposed holding a trial on Tuesday, May 14, but Trump’s lawyers said that plan would deny the president a “full and fair” hearing. Trump’s lawyers said the hearing should only deal with his request for a preliminary ruling. Mehta will decide whether Mazars LLP, Trump’s long-time accounting firm, must comply with a subpoena issued by the House Oversight Committee seeking financial records for Trump and his company.

The committee says it needs Trump’s records to examine whether he has conflicts of interest or broke the law by not disentangling himself from his business holdings as previous presidents did. Lawyers for Trump and the Trump Organization, his company, last month filed a lawsuit to block the House Oversight subpoena, saying it exceeded the constitutional limits of Congress’s investigative power. Trump argued that, rather than fulfilling its constitutional lawmaking duties, Congress was on a quest to “turn up something that Democrats can use as a political tool against the president now and in the 2020 election.” In Monday’s court filing, Trump’s lawyers said they need more time to collect evidence and develop their cases, and that his right to due process would be undermined by the judge’s accelerated timetable.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-court-mazars/trump-urges-judge-not-to-fast-track-his-lawsuit-over-house-subpoena-idUSKCN1SJ25M?il=0

>>6493396

That's great I like it, kek..Wonder what the normies reaction will be when the truth does come out, though.

>>6493430

100% absolutely agree, but then again we do already know they will go after any thing they can especially if they think it will take the focus off of them.

ICE Breaks up Massive Marriage Fraud Scheme, Charges Nearly 100 People

Nearly 100 people have been indicted, including an attorney, for participating in a massive marriage fraud ring in Houston, Texas, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The federal agency said the grand jury returned an indictment on April 30 with 206 counts, charging 96 people. So far, 50 people are in custody, according to the agency. According to the indictment, the scam involves creating sham marriages to help foreign people to attain immigration status and admission into the United States. The main purpose of the scam was to circumvent U.S. immigration laws.

“Marriage fraud is a serious crime,” said District Director Tony Bryson from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Houston. “This indictment reveals how successful our working relationships are with our law enforcement and intelligence partners when it comes to investigating marriage fraud,” Bryson added. “USCIS remains steadfast in our commitment to ensuring national security, public safety and the integrity of the immigration system.” According to the statement, marriage fraud, or conspiracy to commit marriage fraud, has a maximum sentence of five years.

The indictment accused 53-year-old Ashley Yen Nguyen, also known as Duyen, of running the organization based in southwest Houston. She allegedly also had associates around Texas and in Vietnam. Prosecutors say the marriages were shams because the alleged couples did not live together, nor did they have any plan to do so, even though their statements and official documents indicated that they did. Moreover, in some cases, these “spouses” had only met briefly and usually just before obtaining their marriage license. In other cases, they never met at all. To make a wedding appear real, the organization created fake wedding albums and photos, along with false tax, utility, and employment information so as to not raise suspicion from USCIS and ensure the immigration forms were approved, prosecutors alleged. As part of the agreement, Nguyen allegedly received $50,000 to $70,000 from the “beneficiary spouse” for helping them to obtain a full lawful permanent resident status, according to the statement. Additionally, she would be allegedly paid more for extra immigration benefits the “spouse” would receive.

A second person, Trang Le Nguyen, also known as Nguyen Le Thien Trang, 45, an attorney in Texas, was also indicted in the case. She had been charged with “obstructing and impeding the due administration of justice and tampering with a witness, victim, or informant.” Prosecutors said Trang was allegedly responsible for preparing paperwork related to at least one of the fraudulent marriages. She also told one of the witnesses to go into hiding, not to travel by plane, and to not provide any further information to authorities.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/ice-breaks-up-massive-marriage-fraud-scheme-charges-nearly-100-people_2922222.html