With West Philly state rep, 60 public officials have been arrested by PA attorney general

State Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell was charged Wednesday with stealing more than $500,000 from her nonprofit. She spent the money on lavish vacations, fur coats and other personal expenses, the indictment alleges. Johnson-Harrell, representing the 190th Pa. House District in West Philly, is expected to plead guilty and resign.

In any other city, this would be a rare offense. In Philadelphia, political corruption is almost seasonal. Indictment days are as regular as Halloween and Christmas.

When Pa. Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the charges, he put Johnson-Harrell’s arrest in a statewide context. She is public official No. 60 to have been arrested by his office since 2017, he said.

Billy Penn compiled the offenses of Shapiro’s five dozen arrestees.

Instead of some grand corruption scheme, the lists paints a picture of day-to-day malfeasance among small government bodies across the commonwealth.

Two-thirds of the 60 arrested over the past two years were police officers or other law enforcement officials, including prosecutors, probation and corrections officers. Charges against them ranged from falsifying police paperwork to soliciting prostitutes while on the job. There are also plenty of county officials who allegedly dipped into public coffers for their personal gain.

Some of the arrests were initially made by local police, who then passed the case onto state prosecutors.

Only six of Shapiro’s cases are in Philadelphia, where other offices often take precedent. It’s the local district attorney who traditionally brings charges against police officers and other city officials, and many of the city’s more prominent indictments — think the Local 98 case — thunder down from the federal prosecutor’s office.

(Full list of officials on the linked page)

https://billypenn.com/2019/12/04/with-west-philly-state-rep-60-public-officials-have-been-arrested-by-pa-attorney-general/

ALSO: '''Press Release /

Attorney General Shapiro Charges 60 Individuals in Statewide Insurance Fraud Sweep '''

https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/taking-action/press-releases/attorney-general-shapiro-charges-60-individuals-in-statewide-insurance-fraud-sweep/

Esteemed Liberal Legal Scholar Jonathan Turley: Democrats’ Committing High Crime And Misdemeanor, ‘Abuse of Power’ — Guilty of What They’re Accusing President Trump Of

Impeachment Witness Professor Jonathan Turley: Congress Committing High Crime And Misdemeanor In Impeachment

George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley slammed Democrats on Wednesday during their impeachment hearing on the House Judiciary Committee, suggesting that Congressional Democrats would be committing the high crimes and misdemeanors — not President Donald Trump — with the way that they are conducting their impeachment efforts.

Fox News’ Sandra Smith weighed in on Turley’s testimony, saying, “On multiple occasions he reiterated points from his opening statement, ‘The record does not establish obstruction in this case,’ and he called into question the timing of Democrats in their push for this process asking, ‘Why are you trying to break the record with fastest impeachment? Fast is not good for impeachment,’ said Jonathan Turley.”

Fox News anchor Bret Baier responded to Smith’s comments, saying, “I think … Jonathan Turley was effective in his presentation, clear, concise. Also just in the one witness being questioned enabled him to expand as opposed to the three witnesses on the Democratic side back and forth.”

“I think when he said, ‘fast and narrow’ is not the way to do impeachment, he said at numerous times, numerous ways, and Bill mentioned it before when he said if you make a high crime and misdemeanor out of this, without going to the courts to get the to continue this investigation, to get the goods essentially to make this case, then you are committing the high crime and misdemeanor as in Congress and I thought that that was the most powerful moment of his testimony,” Baier added.

The portion of Turley’s testimony that Smith and Baier appear to have been referencing came from Turley’s opening statement.

“If this Committee elects to seek impeachment on the failure to yield to congressional demands in an oversight or impeachment investigation, it will have to distinguish a long line of cases where prior presidents sought the very same review while withholding witnesses and documents,” Turley said, according to his prepared remarks. “Basing impeachment on this obstruction theory would itself be an abuse of power … by Congress. It would be an extremely dangerous precedent to set for future presidents and Congresses in making an appeal to the Judiciary into ‘high crime and misdemeanor.'”

“In the current case, the record is facially insufficient. The problem is not simply that the record does not contain direct evidence of the President stating a quid pro quo, as Chairman Schiff has suggested,” Turley continued. “The problem is that the House has not bothered to subpoena the key witnesses who would have such direct knowledge. This alone sets a dangerous precedent. A House in the future could avoid countervailing evidence by simply relying on tailored records with testimony from people who offer damning presumptions or speculation.”

“It is not enough to simply shrug and say this is ‘close enough for jazz’ in an impeachment,” Turley added. “The expectation, as shown by dozens of failed English impeachments, was that the lower house must offer a complete and compelling record. That is not to say that the final record must have a confession or incriminating statement from the accused. Rather, it was meant to be a complete record of the key witnesses that establishes the full range of material evidence. Only then could the body reach a conclusion on the true weight of the evidence—a conclusion that carries sufficient legitimacy with the public to justify the remedy of removal.”

https://www.dailywire.com/news/impeachment-witness-professor-jonathan-turley-congress-committing-high-crime-and-misdemeanor-in-impeachment-without-going-to-courts

Pearl Harbor shooting leaves 3 injured, sailor gunman dead

A shooting at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard has left at least three people injured and the gunman dead, both military and medical officials told Navy Times.

At 9:54 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, Navy officials confirmed that the shooter, who tentatively has been identified as a U.S. Navy sailor, is dead.

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam officials said that the sailor is reported to have gunned down three Department of Defense civilian workers near the shipyard’s Dry Dock 2 around 2:30 p.m. local time (7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time) before taking his own life.

Navy Times has been unable to independently confirm if all three victims were shot or suffered other injuries connected to the gunfire.

Queens Medical Center spokesman Cedric Yamanaka told Navy Times that one male passenger was transported to the Honolulu hospital. He described the patient as “in guarded condition.”

The installation was placed on lockdown while Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam security forces responded to the gunfire.

At 9:09 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, officials declared the active shooter incident over and the base reopened all gates, which had become clogged with traffic.

Officials at Naval Sea Systems Command, which oversees Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility, referred all questions about the incident to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam authorities.

It’s the nation’s largest fleet repair and maintenance facility between the west coast of the United States and Japan.

A probe into the shooting is being conducted by Naval Criminal Investigative Services and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam security forces.

Names of both the apparent shooter and the three victims are being withheld until their next of kin can be notified.

In a prepared statement, Hawaii Gov. David Ige said that the White House reached out to offer assistance from federal agencies.

The governor added that his state authorities also are "standing by to assist where necessary” if Pearl Harbor asks for help.

Base officials will keep the Emergency Family Assistance Center open until further notice. It’s located at 4827 Bougainville Drive (same building as the Personnel Support Detachment. The Center’s telephone number is 866-525-6676.

This is a breaking story and Navy Times will keep updating information from official sources.

https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2019/12/05/pearl-harbor-shooting-leaves-3-wounded-sailor-gunman-dead/