Smoking Gun Lois Lerner Email Found, Discussed Faking Hard Drive Crashes; Criminal Probe Opened

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By Stephen Dinan. The IRS’s inspector general confirmed Thursday it is conducting a criminal investigation into how Lois G. Lerner’s emails disappeared, saying it took only two weeks for investigators to find hundreds of tapes the agency’s chief had told Congress were irretrievably destroyed.

Investigators have already scoured 744 backup tapes and gleaned 32,774 unique emails, but just two weeks ago they found an additional 424 tapes that could contain even more Lerner emails, Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told the House Oversight Committee in a rare late-night hearing meant to look into the status of the investigation.

“There is potential criminal activity,” Mr. Camus said.

He said they have also discovered the hard drives from the IRS’s email servers, but said because the drives are out of synch it’s not clear whether they will be able to recover anything from them.

“To date we have found 32,744 unique emails that were backed up from Lois Lerner’s email box. We are in the process of comparing these emails to what the IRS has already produced to Congress to determine if we did in fact recover any new emails,” Mr. Camus said. (Read more about Lois Lerner and the criminal probe HERE)


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Lois Lerner Email: ‘No One Will Ever Believe That Both Your Hard Drive and Mine Crashed Within a Week’

By Jason Howerton. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced on Thursday night that hundreds of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s previously “lost” backup tapes have been recovered, which could result in the recovery of a new trove of her emails.

IRS Deputy Inspector General Timothy P. Camus told Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Thursday that it took investigators just two weeks to recover 424 backup tapes that were previously said to be unretrievable.

“To date, we have found 32,744 unique emails that were backed up from Lois Lerner’s email box. We are in the process of comparing these emails to what the IRS has already produced to Congress to determine if we did in fact recover any new emails,” Camus said, according to the Washington Times.

In one of the new emails, Lerner apparently wrote, “No one will ever believe that both your hard drive and mine crashed within a week of each other.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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FCC Approves Net Neutrality Rules, Potentially a Massive Blow to Internet Freedom

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The Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines Thursday to approve sweeping changes to how it regulates the Internet, capping more than a year of noisy debate that sparked millions of public comments and drew the attention of President Barack Obama and congressional leaders.

The agency’s three Democrats voted to approve Chairman Tom Wheeler’s net neutrality order, which would treat broadband like a utility to ensure all Web traffic is treated equally. The commission’s two GOP members, Republican lawmakers and the nation’s telecom giants oppose the rules, saying they will dampen innovation and investment. AT&T has already threatened a legal challenge.

That shift incensed Republicans, who see the rules as drastic over-regulation and a federal government power grab. Ajit Pai, the FCC’s senior GOP commissioner, has said the plan could ultimately give the agency the authority to set rates for Internet service — a charge Wheeler and FCC officials have denied.

“The commission’s decision to adopt President Obama’s plan marks a monumental shift toward government control of the Internet,” Pai said at the agency meeting Thursday. “It gives the FCC the power to micromanage virtually every aspect of how the Internet works. It’s an overreach that will let a Washington bureaucracy, and not the American people, decide the future of the online world.?”

GOP lawmakers have been turning up the heat on Wheeler on net neutrality. They’ve launched investigations into what they see as inappropriate White House influence over the FCC’s decision making and offered an alternative legislative proposal that would institute weaker net neutrality rules and tie the FCC hands on future regulation of broadband. (Read more about why the FCC approves net neutrality rules HERE)

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TSA Issues Secret Warning on ‘Catastrophic’ Threat to Aviation Industry Which Terrorists Can Use to Cause the Death of Every Person Onboard

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Thermite — a mixture of rust and aluminum powder — could be used against a commercial aircraft, TSA warned in a Dec. 2014 document, marked secret [PDF here]. “The ignition of a thermite-based incendiary device on an aircraft at altitude could result in catastrophic damage and the death of every person onboard,” the advisory said.

TSA said it is unlikely to spot an easy-to-assemble thermite-based incendiary device during security screening procedures, and the use of currently available extinguishers carried on aircrafts would create a violent reaction. The TSA warning is based on FBI testing done in 2011, and a subsequent report.

A thermite device, though difficult to ignite, would “produce toxic gasses, which can act as nerve poison, as well as a thick black smoke that will significantly inhibit any potential for in-flight safety officers to address the burn.”

TSA warned federal air marshals not to use customary methods of extinguishing fires — the water or halon fire extinguishers currently found on most aircraft — which would make the reaction worse, creating toxic fumes. Instead, air marshals are told to “recognize a thermite ignition” — but TSA has provided no training or guidance on how to do so, according to multiple sources familiar with the issue.

TSA circulated these Dec. 2014 materials through briefings, according to sources familiar with the issue, but did not offer up guidance on what to do with this information, and equipment that could mitigate this threat, like specific dry chemical extinguishers, has not been provided. According to the TSA advisory, federal air marshals and other on-flight officers should: recognize a thermite ignition, advise the captain immediately, ensure the individual who ignited the device is “rendered inoperable,” and move passengers away from the affected area.

“We’re supposed to brief our [federal air marshals] to identify a thermite ignition — but they tell us nothing,” said one current TSA official, who asked not to be named because the official is not authorized to speak to the press. “So our guys are Googling, ‘What does thermite look like? How do you extinguish thermite fires?’ This is not at all helpful.” (Read more about the threat to aviation industry HERE)

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Obama Dares GOP: Go Ahead, ‘Have a Vote on Whether What I’m Doing Is Legal…I Will Veto’ [+video]

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By Craig Bannister. Pres. Obama is daring Republicans to vote on whether or not his executive actions are legal.

Discussing opposition to his executive amnesty orders at an immigration town hall Wednesday, Obama said he would veto the vote because his actions are “the right thing to do”:

“So in the short term, if Mr. McConnell, the leader of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, want to have a vote on whether what I’m doing is legal or not, they can have that vote. I will veto that vote, because I’m absolutely confident that what we’re doing is the right thing to do.”

Obama argued that he has merely “expanded my authorities” – not broken any laws:

“What we’ve done is we’ve expanded my authorities under executive action and prosecutorial discretion as far as we can legally under the existing statute, the existing law. And so now the question is, how can we get a law passed.” (Read more about why Obama dares GOP HERE)

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Illegals Who Receive Obama’s Amnesty Can Claim Over $35K in First Year

By Colleen Conley. New Congressional Research Service memo indicates that illegal immigrants who are able to obtain Social Security Numbers and work permits as a result of President Obama’s executive amnesty could claim $35,521 per family with three children. And this is just the first year alone.

The report comes following the IRS confirmation that — as a result of Obama’s executive actions — illegal immigrants will be granted Social Security Numbers and they will be able to file back tax returns and obtain up to four years of tax benefits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC).


The new CRS report — dated Wednesday, gauges the tax benefits an amnesty beneficiary could potentially accrue and looks at the amount of EITC and CTC for a hypothetical family from from 2011-2014.

The memo focused on the value of these credits for a married couple with three and four children. CRS calculated the maximum level of tax credits available, and assumed that the hypothetical family’s income was equal to the maximum amount of earnings a taxpayer could have and still receive the maximum amount of the EITC.

In the years considered, the “phase-out threshold amount” for such families was $21,770 in 2011, $22,300 in 2012, $22,870 in 2013, and $23,260 in 2014. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Dad Hits Back After ‘False Arrest’ at School Meeting

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A New Hampshire man who was handcuffed and arrested for speaking his mind at a local school board meeting last year has filed a lawsuit against the police, alleging violations of his civil rights.

The criminal charges against William Baer of Gilford, New Hampshire, were tossed out of court by Belknap County Judge James Carroll in December, as WND previously reported.

Then-Acting Police Chief James Leach, who made the arrest, could have dropped the charges but elected not to, said Baer, who was arrested while addressing the board about a reading assignment given to his daughter’s ninth-grade class that included sexually explicit material.

“Lieutenant Leach, and Police Chief (Anthony) Bean Burpee, both took an oath to support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Baer told WND. “Lieutenant Leach violated my rights when he silenced and arrested me, and Chief Bean Burpee continued to violate my rights by prosecuting me for nearly seven months.

“These men abused their authority and their positions under color of law. The ‘law enforcers’ became lawbreakers and must be held to account. (Read more about “False Arrest at School Meeting” HERE)

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Scandal-Ridden Loretta Lynch Clears Committee With Three GOP Votes

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By Seung Min Kim. Loretta Lynch cleared a key vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday in her bid to become the nation’s next attorney general, picking up support from three Republicans on the panel in favor of her confirmation.

The vote was 12-8. The three Republicans who backed her nomination, along with all committee Democrats, were Orrin Hatch of Utah, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Jeff Flake of Arizona.

The next battle is on the Senate floor, where the federal prosecutor from Brooklyn is still expected to have enough GOP backing to be confirmed. But the controversy over President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration have overshadowed her nomination — particularly after her confirmation hearing last month, where she testified that those unilateral moves are legal.

Most GOP senators on the committee stressed that they could not support someone to be the nation’s chief law enforcement official who believes that the executive actions — which Republicans uniformly oppose and say are unconstitutional — are legal. (Read more about Lynch clearing with three GOP votes HERE)

Listen to New York Times Best Seller Dr. Jerome Corsi’s description of Loretta Lynch’s involvement in the HSBC multi-trillion dollar money laundering scheme here:


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Loretta Lynch’s Secret Prosecutions

By Johnny Dwyer. The office headed by the woman poised to become the next attorney general has used an unusual method to keep many of its prosecutions hidden from the public, an NBC News investigation has found.

Federal prosecutors in New York’s Brooklyn-based Eastern District pursued cases against secret, unnamed “John Doe” defendants 58 times since Loretta Lynch became head prosecutor in May 2010. Two of the 58 are terrorism cases.


Eastern District prosecutors have also sought permission to close the courtroom to the public for 11 different Doe cases during the same period, and judges have granted permission in at least 10 of the cases, as recently as February 12.

Critics are concerned the practice may infringe the Constitution’s guarantee of a public trial. (Read more from this story HERE)

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You Could Hear a Pin Drop During Father’s Devastating Testimony on Illegal Immigration

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By Jason Howerton. Jamiel Shaw, whose son was murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2008, blasted the Obama administration’s immigration policies during a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing on Wednesday.

“My son, Jamiel Andre Shaw II, was murdered by a DREAMer, a DACA recipient, a child brought to this country by no fault of his own,” Shaw began. “My family’s peace and freedom was stolen by an illegal alien from Mexico. He was brought here by his illegal alien parents and allowed to grow up as a wild animal.”

He continued: “Some people believe that if you are brought over by no fault of your own that it makes you a good person. They want you to believe that DREAM Act kids don’t murder. I am here to debunk that myth.”

Though Shaw’s son was murdered in 2008, before Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program was implemented, he said his son’s killer would likely be qualified under DACA.

Shaw then delivered a gut-wrenching account of how his son was murdered by an illegal immigrant with a criminal record. (Read more about the testimony on illegal immigration HERE)

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Ann Coulter Finds ‘Illegal Aliens’ Way Scarier than ISIS

By Matt Wilstein. Last week, Ann Coulter complained to Sean Hannity that Fox News only talks about immigration “a tenth as much” as they talk about ISIS. Now, she has turned that argument up to 11 with a column for WorldNetDaily titled “For death by ISIS you have to go out, but illegals deliver!”

“ISIS has killed four Americans — in Syria. We’re not exactly talking about another 9/11,” Coulter writes. “Here’s a tip: If you don’t want to be killed by ISIS, don’t go to Syria.”


By contrast, she continues, “illegal aliens have killed, raped and maimed thousands of Americans — in America. If you don’t want to be killed, raped or maimed by illegal immigrants in your own country, I have no tips for you. There’s nothing you can do. You’re on your own. Good luck.”

Coulter accuses U.S. politicians of being “obsessed with cleaning up the rest of the world, while we’re getting our clock cleaned at home.” (Read more from this story HERE)

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Top U.S. Counter-Terrorism Director Charged with Soliciting Sex from Minor, Obscene Communications [+video]

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By The Associated Press. A U.S. State Department official appeared in court Wednesday afternoon following his arrest in D.C. on a charge of soliciting a minor.

Daniel Rosen was arrested at his Washington home around noon Tuesday, said Lucy Caldwell, a spokeswoman with the Fairfax County Police Department in northern Virginia.

Rosen, 44, was in custody with the D.C. Department of Corrections and was arraigned during an initial appearance in D.C. Superior Court.

Rosen was arrested “following a series of online exchanges” with a detective assigned to the Fairfax County Police Department’s Child Exploitation Unit, Caldwell said. He was charged with one count of using of a communications device to solicit a juvenile. (Read more from ‘Top U.S. Counter-Terrorism Director Charged with Obscene Communications, Soliciting Sex from Minor’ HERE)


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Senior State Department Official Arrested for Allegedly Soliciting Sex from a Minor

By James Rosen. A senior State Department official in charge of federal counterterrorism programs will face trial in Virginia after he was arrested Tuesday afternoon for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor.

Fairfax County Police officials say Daniel Rosen was arrested by a county detective about noon Tuesday at his Washington, D.C. home after he allegedly sought to arrange sex with a minor. The detective, a female officer working in the county’s Child Exploitation Unit, had been posing as the minor in online exchanges with Rosen, police said.


Rosen, who is the director of counterterrorism programs and policy at the State Department, appeared in D.C. Superior Court Wednesday and waived extradition to Virginia. A judge ordered him held without bond, and authorities said he would be transferred to a Fairfax County jail sometime in the next ten days.

An online court record did not list an attorney for him, and a message seeking comment left by The Associated Press on Wednesday at a telephone number associated with his address was not immediately returned. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Obama’s Net Neutrality Plan Could Lead to United Nations Control of Your Internet

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By Brendan Sasso. The U.S. government’s plan to enact strong net neutrality regulations could embolden authoritarian regimes like China and Russia to seize more power over the Internet through the United Nations, a key Senate Republican warned Wednesday.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune of South Dakota argued that by claiming more authority over Internet access for net neutrality, the Federal Communications Commission will undermine the ability of the U.S. to push back against international plots to control the Internet and censor content.

Countries like Russia already have made it clear that they want the International Telecommunications Union or another United Nations body to have more power over the Internet, Thune said.

“It seems like reclassifying broadband, as the administration is doing, is losing a valuable argument,” Thune said at his panel’s hearing on Internet governance. “How do you prevent ITU involvement when you’re pushing to reclassify the Internet under Title II of the Communications Act, and is everyone aware of that inherent contradiction?”

On Thursday, the FCC is set to vote on net neutrality regulations that would declare Internet access a “telecommunications service” under Title II. Advocates, including President Obama, argue that the move is the only way the FCC can enact rules that will hold up to legal challenges in court. The rules aim to prevent Internet providers from acting as “gatekeepers” and controlling what content users can access online. (Read more about the net neutrality plan HERE)

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FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai: Net Neutrality is a “Solution That Won’t Work to a Problem That Doesn’t Exist”

By Nick Gillespie & Todd Krainin. Net Neutrality is “a solution that won’t work to a problem that doesn’t exist,” says Ajit Pai, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Pai is an oustpoken opponent of expanding government control of the internet, including FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s plan to regulate Internet Service Providers (ISPs) under the same Title II rules that are used to govern telephone-service providers as public utilities. Under current FCC regulations, ISPs are considered providers of “information services” and subject to essentially no federal regulation.

He is also sharply critical of President Barack Obama’s very public push to influence policy at the FCC, which is technically an independent agency. Last year, it was widely believed that Wheeler, a former head of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, would not push for Title II. Pai calls the president’s actions—which included “creating a YouTube video of with very specific prescriptions as to what this agency should do”—unprecedented in his experience. Coupled with the fact that “the agency suddenly chang[ed]course from where it was to mimic the president’s plan,” says Pai, “suggests that the independence of the agency has been compromised to some extent.”

The FCC is scheduled to vote Thursday, February 26 on Wheeler’s plan. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Soros, Ford shovel $196 million to ‘net neutrality’ groups, staff to White House

By Paul Bedard. Liberal philanthropist George Soros and the Ford Foundation have lavished groups supporting the administration’s “net neutrality” agenda, donating $196 million and landing proponents on the White House staff, according to a new report.

And now, as the Federal Communications Commission nears approving a type of government control over the Internet, the groups are poised to declare victory in the years-long fight, according to the report from MRC Business, an arm of the conservative media watchdog, the Media Research Center.

“The Ford Foundation, which claims to be the second-largest private foundation in the U.S., and Open Society Foundations, founded by far-left billionaire George Soros, have given more than $196 million to pro-net neutrality groups between 2000 and 2013,” said the report, authored by Media Research Center’s Joseph Rossell, and provided to Secrets.


These left-wing groups not only impacted the public debate and funded top liberal think tanks from the Center for American Progress to Free Press. They also have direct ties to the White House and regulatory agencies. At least five individuals from these groups have ascended to key positions at the White House and FCC,” said the report which included funding details to pro-net neutrality advocates. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Trump 2016: Donald Trump Says He is Serious About Presidency

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Photo Credit: Gage SkidmoreBy Robert Costa. This time, Donald J. Trump says, he really means it.

The billionaire real-estate mogul, who has long amounted to a one-man sideshow in GOP presidential politics, said in an interview Wednesday that he is “more serious” than ever about pursuing a run for the White House in 2016.

In recent days, Trump said, he has hired staffers in key primary states, retained an election attorney and delayed signing on for another season as host of NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice” because of his political projects.

“Everybody feels I’m doing this just to have fun or because it’s good for the brand,” Trump said in an interview with The Washington Post. “Well, it’s not fun. I’m not doing this for enjoyment. I’m doing this because the country is in serious trouble.”

The moves are the most significant steps yet by Trump, 68, toward a bona fide presidential bid, which he considered briefly and flamboyantly in 2011 before deciding against a run. (Read more about how Donald Trump says he is serious about a run HERE)

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Reporter Mocks Scott Walker for Claiming to Communicate with God through Prayer

By Alex Griswold. Political Wire publisher Taegan Goddard caught a lot of flak on Twitter after mocking Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker for claiming he could discern God’s will, only to admit that he had no idea Christians believed they could communicate with God through prayer.

It all began with a rather snarky tweet about Walker’s comments that he was still waiting for “God’s calling” before he announced a presidential run.

Gov. Scott Walker’s office was unable to provide any transcripts of his conversations with God https://t.co/R8dcqhNpqR — Taegan Goddard (@politicalwire) February 24, 2015

@lachlan I don’t pretend I can talk with God. But perhaps Scott Walker can. — Taegan Goddard (@politicalwire) February 24, 2015

(Read more from this story HERE)

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