Tag: FBI Investigation

Ghosts of Mississippi: FBI Target Clintonista Terry McAuliffe and the Strange Case of GreenTech Automotive

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

untitled (63)As the FBI Dragnet around the Presumptive Democratic Candidate for President of the United States, Hillary Clinton, continues to close, it is trapping more of her influential friends.

Terry McAuliffe is an American businessman, fundraiser, politician, and former chairman of the Democratic Party. He served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005 and served as co-chairman of President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign and as chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2009 Virginia gubernatorial election, w h o came back to win the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election.

Foxnews.com reports that

Federal officials are investigating whether Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s 2013 campaign accepted illegal campaign contributions, sources familiar with the investigation confirmed Monday to Fox News.

The Democratic governor and Clinton ally is the target of a Justice Department investigation into whether he violated campaign finance laws.

The probe, first reported by CNN, involves a $120,000 donation from Chinese businessman Wang Wenliang through his U.S. businesses. U.S. election law prohibits foreign nationals to donate to political races.

McAuliffe’s attorney, Marc Elias, said in a statement his office was not aware of the investigation, but would cooperate if contacted by federal officials.

“We cannot confirm the CNN report. Neither the Governor nor his former campaign has knowledge of this matter, but as reported, contributions to the campaign from Mr. Wang were completely lawful,” Elias said. “The Governor will certainly cooperate with the government if he is contacted about it.”

A spokesman for Wang told CNN the businessman holds permanent resident status in the U.S.

Wang also has been a donor to the Clinton foundation, pledging $2 million, CNN reported.

McAuliffe now becomes the second consective Virginia governor to be investigated by the Justice Department.

McAuliffe’s predecessor in the governor’s mansion, Republican Bob McDonnell, was convicted on federal corruption charges but has appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Before winning his gubernatorial campaign in 2013 over Republican Ken Cuccinelli, McAuliffe made his name in national Democratic politics as a prolific, well-connected fundraiser with close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Although McAuliffe is close to the Clintons, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press that the investigation of McAuliffe is unconnected to a separate FBI investigation looking at the legality of private email servers that Hillary Clinton used while serving as secretary of state.

Last year, McAuliffe’s political action committee, Common Good Va., returned a $25,000 donation from a company with ties to Angola’s state-owned oil company after The Associated Press raised questions about its legality. Federal law prohibits campaigns at any level from receiving money from outside the U.S.

McAuliffe’s international business connections also came under scrutiny prior to his gubernatorial campaign. He served as chairman of GreenTech Automotive, a company that hoped to bring supercompact automobiles to the U.S. market.

The company attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign investment, in part through a federal program that granted visas to investors who met certain job-creation thresholds.

McAuliffe resigned from the company in December 2012. GreenTech, which received millions of dollars in economic incentives from state and local officials to build a plant in Mississippi, faced criticism for falling well below expectations in production and job creation.

Yeah, about that. Sitting here at KJ Headquarters in Northwest Mississippi , I have a bird’s eye view of the whole unseemly mess.

Last week, the Memphis CBS Affiliate, WREG, filed the following report…

ROBINSONVILLE, Miss. — They promised jobs — and lots of them — but after accepting millions in taxpayer money, a Tunica County car manufacturer is refusing to say how many jobs were actually created.

GreenTech Automotive got a $3 million loan from the state of Mississippi in 2011 to build the Robinsonville facility with the promise that they would create 350 jobs. Close to $1.9 million was loaned to Tunica County to support the project.

But now the Mississippi Development Authority said GreenTech has fallen short of the promised 350 jobs.

“If we pay our taxes for it, it should be here,” said Tunica County resident Billy Jackson.

WREG called and emailed the spokesman listed on GreenTech’s website and never heard back.

Tuesday afternoon, we dropped by the Robinsonville plant, where we were promptly greeted by a manager.

“Right now, we’re building cars here, and we don’t talk to any kind of press,” said Terey Agner, manager of GreenTech’s plant.

Agner refused to say how many people the plant employed.

“No, no, I can’t do anything,” said Agner.

We received a similar response from the Tunica County Chamber of Commerce, which hailed GreenTech’s arrival when it opened its plant in 2014.

“My only statement is that GreenTech has people employed and they are working,” said Lyn Arnold, CEO of the Chamber.

“These companies that come in and expect to get tax breaks and make promises about jobs, they need to keep their word,” said Brooks Taylor, publisher of the Tunica Times.

Taylor has tracked GreenTech’s progress since 2009, when they promised their Robinsonville plant would create 1,500 jobs.

They later revised that figure to 350.

“There’s nothing here. $5 million could have did a whole lot more to the town, to the city and it went to one job, one company,” said Jackson.

In addition to the added jobs, GreenTech had said it would also produce 30,000 cars per year at its plant.

We don’t know if GreenTech is currently meeting that goal.

The company known as GreenTech Automotive has been a shady entity from its very beginning.

The Washington Free Beacon presented the following five points to remember about Greentech Automotive, in an article published in August of 2013…

1. GreenTech fell short on job promises multiple times

McAuliffe told Virginians in 2009 that the new car company would create 1,500 jobs for the state.

McAuliffe did not tell Virginians that the company was also in talks with the state of Mississippi, and would soon opt to move its operations there.

However, things have not panned out with GreenTech in Mississippi either.

McAuliffe projected that GreenTech would be churn out 10,000 cars in its first year and employ thousands.

At this point it is unclear whether GreenTech is producing any jobs. Further informationBelow.]

GreenTech is still operating at what was supposed to be a temporary facility in Horn Lake, Miss.

Although McAuliffe claimed that ground was broken at the company’s planed permanent facility, local investigators found that there was nothing but overgrown grass covering the plot on which it is supposed to be located.

2. GreenTech relies on a foreign “visa-for-sale” investment scheme

At the center of GreenTech’s fundraising operation is the controversial EB-5 visa program.

The program allows foreign nationals to get a visa if they invest $500,000 to $1 million in a project or business that provides U.S. jobs.

GreenTech partners with Gulf Coast Funds Management (GCFM), a company that is authorized by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to collect EB-5 investments for GreenTech.

GCFM has collected at least $45.5 million from foreign investors for GreenTech through the program. Anthony Rodham, a close friend of McAuliffe who also happens to be the brother of Hillary Clinton, runs GCFM.

Many have been skeptical about whether the visa program was being used properly.

Virginia officials labeled the company a “visa-for-sale scheme” and feared that doing business with GreenTech could eventually “give the Commonwealth a black eye.”

3. GreenTech is being investigated by the SEC

Both GreenTech and GCFM are targets of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation.

Although the details of the investigation are still unclear, both companies have confirmed that the SEC subpoenaed them for documents in May of this year.

Documents made available by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) make clear that the investigation centers around the use of the EB-5 visa program.

McAuliffe, who quietly resigned from the company in December, claims that he had no knowledge of any pending investigation at the time of his resignation.

4. GreenTech is at the center of a Homeland Security investigation

GreenTech and McAuliffe have also found themselves involved in a Department of Homeland Security investigation.

USCIS director Alejandro Mayorkas allegedly assisted Rodham and GCFM win approval for an EB-5 visa application, even after the application and the subsequent appeal were rejected.

Documents revealed that Rodham directly contacted Mayorkas and urged him to approve pending visa applications.

Concerns were also raised that Mayorkas expedited the approval of applicants that were held for “fraud/national security.”

5. GreenTech’s parent company is based in the British Virgin Islands

GreenTech is owned by Capital Wealth Holdings, an investment company incorporated in the tax haven, the British Virgin Islands.

GreenTech president and Chinese businessman, Charles Wang, owns the investment company.

Wang is an expert on the EB-5 visa program and has coached other U.S. companies on how to effectively make use of it.

Of course, Terry McAuliffe saw things differently.

According to McAuliffe, in an op ed piece he wrote at the time for the Washington Post…

I’ve not been contacted in any way by those conducting the investigation and have no knowledge of it beyond what has been reported. From what has been reported, the investigation appears to be looking at a document allegedly prepared for potential investors — something I was not responsible for as chairman.

Republicans have also criticized the company for employing only about 100 people. Of course, that’s about 100 jobs that would not have existed if we had not taken a risk on this company. The company has taken longer to develop than many people expected, including me, but taking a risk on an innovative company is a critical part of the American system, and most business leaders I speak with agree that it’s not uncommon for a company to face challenges meeting its goals.

GreenTech was started because those involved invested their own money in high-tech manufacturing. In this case, it was manufacturing a small electric vehicle that had already won an annual award. Like every start-up during the Great Recession, the company faced headwinds. Those included a bureaucratic slowdown in a bipartisan visa program known as EB-5, which brings capital from overseas to create jobs here in the United States for many companies. I joined a variety of business and political leaders from both parties who expressed frustration to officials at the agency overseeing the program.

A further headwind is that manufacturing isn’t easy, and manufacturing a new kind of car is even harder. The company has invested in research and development, testing and safety to perfect the design. While Nissan worked to develop electric vehicles for about 18 years before launching the Leaf, GreenTech made progress in just a few years during a more challenging economic time. If GreenTech succeeds, it will be a step forward for innovative manufacturing.

I have an interest — both personally and financially — in the company succeeding, and I believe that it will. As a minority shareholder, my return will be determined by the success of a long process of testing, manufacturing, marketing and selling vehicles all over the world.

Like his dear friend, Hillary Clinton, Terry McAuliffe has a history of promising the world and delivering squat.

Democrats incessantly Proclaim that they are the party of the average American.

In reality, under the rule of a democrat congress, and the last seven years of a Democrat president , America’s economy has been on a plunge straight down the old porcelain receptacle.

The “temporary” Greentech Automotive Plant, which was supposed to provide a lot of jobs here in Northwest Mississippi, sits just a couple of miles down the road from where I am writing this post. The fact is, according to both current and former employees, fewer than 100 workers produced no more than one car every two or three days…a legacy of over-promising and under-delivering, which is continuing at their state-of-the-art plant just outside of Tunica Mississippi.

This legacy is what we have to look forward to if Hillary Clinton is allowed to gain the Presidency of the United States of America.

Hopefully, those who still work for the cause of justice and the FBI will indict both of these malefactors before the November Presidential Election.

Relative morality and situational ethics of the Obama Administration has sent America heading toward a brick wall of economic Despair and mediocrity, like Crash Test Dummies in the commercials we have seen for decades on television.

It’s time to hit the brakes.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Hillary’s E-mailgate Worsens. FBI Wants to Indict Both Hil and Huma.

On By kingsjesterIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Her-shadow-600-LI (2)The Talk of Capitol Hill is the meltdown-in-progress of the Party-in-Power’s Number One Presidential Hopeful, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Her mistaken belief that the rules of our country, regarding Protocol and Top Secret Information, as regards her former position as Secretary of State, did not apply to her, is coming back to bite her in the hindquarters…and endanger our Sovereign Nation.

Foxnews.com reports that

EXCLUSIVE: The intelligence community has deemed some of Hillary Clinton’s emails “too damaging” to national security to release under any circumstances, according to a U.S. government official close to the ongoing review. A second source, who was not authorized to speak on the record, backed up the finding.  

The determination was first reported by Fox News, hours before the State Department formally announced Friday that seven email chains, found in 22 documents, will be withheld “in full” because they, in fact, contain “Top Secret” information.

The State Department, when first contacted by Fox News about withholding such emails Friday morning, did not dispute the reporting – but did not comment in detail. After a version of this report was first published, the Obama administration confirmed to the Associated Press that the seven email chains would be withheld. The department has since confirmed those details publicly.

The decision to withhold the documents in full, and not provide even a partial release with redactions, further undercuts claims by the State Department and the Clinton campaign that none of the intelligence in the emails was classified when it hit Clinton’s personal server.

Fox News is told the emails include intelligence from “special access programs,” or SAP, which is considered beyond “Top Secret.” A Jan. 14 letter, first reported by Fox News, from intelligence community Inspector General Charles McCullough III notified senior intelligence and foreign relations committee leaders that “several dozen emails containing classified information” were determined to be “at the CONFIDENTIAL, SECRET, AND TOP SECRET/SAP levels.” 

The State Department is trying to finish its review and public release of thousands of Clinton emails, as the Democratic presidential primary contests get underway in early February.  

Under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, there is an exemption that allows for highly sensitive, and in this case classified, material to be withheld in full — which means nothing would be released in these cases, not even heavily redacted versions, which has been standard practice with the 1,340 such emails made public so far by the State Department.

According to the Justice Department FOIA website, exemption “B3” allows a carve-out for both the CIA and NSA to withhold “operational files.” Similar provisions also apply to other agencies. 

Fox News reported Friday that at least one Clinton email contained information identified as “HCS-O,” which is the code for intelligence from human spying. 

One source, not authorized to speak on the record, suggested the intelligence agencies are operating on the assumption there are more copies of the Clinton emails out there, and even releasing a partial email would provide enough clues to trace back to the original – which could allow the identification of “special access programs” intelligence.  

There was no comment to Fox News from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Office of the Intelligence Community Inspector General, or the agency involved. Fox News has chosen not to identify the agency that provided sworn declarations that intelligence beyond Top Secret was found in the Clinton emails.

The State Department was scheduled to release more Clinton emails Friday, while asking a D.C. federal court for an extension. 

FBI investigators looking into the emails are focused on the criminal code pertaining to “gross negligence” in the handling and storage of classified information, and “public corruption.”

“The documents alone in and of themselves set forth a set of compelling, articulable facts that statutes relating to espionage have been violated,” a former senior federal law enforcement officer said. The source said the ongoing investigation along the corruption track “also stems from her tenure of secretary. These charges would be inseparable from the other charges in as much as there is potential for significant overlap and correlation.”

Based on federal regulations, once classified information is spilled onto a personal computer or device, as was the case with Clinton and her aides, the hardware is now considered classified at the highest classification level of the materials received.

While criticized by the Clinton campaign, McCullough, an Obama administration appointee, was relaying the conclusion of two intelligence agencies in his letter to Congress that the information was classified when it hit Clinton’s server — and not his own judgment.   

Joseph E. Schmitz, a former inspector general of the Department of Defense, called the attacks on McCullough a “shoot the watchdog” tactic by Clinton’s campaign.

The developments, taken together, show Clinton finding herself once again at the epicenter of a controversy over incomplete records.

During her time as the first female partner at the Rose Law firm in Arkansas during the mid-1980s, she was known as one of the “three amigos” and close with partners Webb Hubbell and Vince Foster. Hubbell ended up a convicted felon for his role in the failure of the corrupt Madison Guaranty, a savings and loan which cost taxpayers more than $65 million. Hubbell embezzled more than a half-million dollars from the firm. 

Foster killed himself in Washington, D.C., in July 1993. As Clinton’s partner in the Rose Law firm, he had followed the Clintons into the White House where he served as the Clintons’ personal lawyer and a White House deputy counsel.

Clinton’s missing Rose Law billing records for her work for Guaranty during the mid-1980s were the subject of three intense federal investigations over two years. Those records, in the form of a computerized printout of her work performed on behalf of Guaranty, were discovered under mysterious circumstances in the Book Room of the private White House living quarters.

The discovery of those records was announced during a  blizzard in January 1996 by attorney David Kendall, who still represents Hillary Clinton. After Clinton testified before a grand jury, prosecutors concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt she committed perjury or obstruction of justice.

Despite Clinton’s recent public statements about not knowing how the technology works, at least one email suggests she directed a subordinate to work around the rules. In a June 2011 email to aide Jake Sullivan, she instructed him to take what appeared to be classified talking points, and “turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure.” 

A State Department spokesman could not say whether such a fax was sent. 

The was a Direct Report to Secretary of State Clinton, who never should have been given chosen for her position in the first place, given her “troubling Familial Affiliations”, who as Hillary’s “Right-Hand Woman”, received all of these unsecured e-mails, as well.

And, it appears that when the Hammer falls on Hillary, it will fall on her, as well.

The Washington Examiner reports that

MANCHESTER — California Congressman Darrell Issa, who previously led an investigation into Benghazi as former chairman of the House Oversight Committee, says the FBI “would like to indict both Huma [Abedin] and Hillary Clinton” for conducting sensitive government business on an unsecure, private email server.

“I think the FBI director would like to indict both Huma and Hillary as we speak,” the Republican heavyweight told the Washington Examiner Thursday, during a debate watch-party at Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s New Hampshire campaign headquarters.

“I think he’s in a position where he’s being forced to triple-time make a case of what would otherwise be, what they call, a slam dunk,” Issa said, referring to FBI Director James Comey, who previously told the Senate Judiciary Committee he would conduct a “competent,” “honest” and “independent” probe into Clinton’s handling of classified information during her tenure as secretary of state.

Still, Issa suggested Clinton’s wrongdoing is obvious.

Let’s look a little closer at Ms. Abedin’s background, and her “troubling Familial Affiliations”, shall we?

According to discoverthenetworks.org,

Huma Abedin was born in 1976 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her father, Syed Abedin (1928-1993), was an Indian-born scholar who had worked as a visiting professor at Saudi Arabia’s King Abdulaziz University in the early Seventies.

[She is]

Daughter of Saleha Mahmood Abedin, a pro-Sharia sociologist with ties to numerous Islamist organizations including the Muslim Brotherhood
Longtime assistant to Hillary Clinton
Wife of former congressman Anthony Weiner
Longtime former employee of the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs, which shares the Muslim Brotherhood’s goal of establishing Islamic supremacy and Sharia Law worldwide.
…From 1997 until sometime before early 1999, Abedin, while still interning at the White House, was an executive board member of George Washington University’s (GWU) Muslim Students Association (MSA), heading the organization’s “Social Committee.”

It is noteworthy that in 2001-02, soon after Abedin left that executive board, the chaplain and “spritual guide” of GWU’s MSA was Anwar al-Awlaki, the al Qaeda operative who ministered to some of the men who were among the 9/11 hijackers. Another chaplain at GWU’s MSA (from at least October 1999 through April 2002) was Mohamed Omeish, who headed the International Islamic Relief Organization, which has been tied to the funding of al Qaeda. Omeish’s brother, Esam, headed the Muslim American Society, the Muslim Brotherhood’s quasi-official branch in the United States. Both Omeish brothers were closely associated with Abdurahman Alamoudi, who would later be convicted and incarcerated on terrorism charges.

From 1996-2008, Abedin was employed by the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA) as the assistant editor of its in-house publication, the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (JMMA). At least the first seven of those years overlapped with the al Qaeda-affiliated Abdullah Omar Naseef’s active presence at IMMA. Abedin’s last six years at the Institute (2002-2008) were spent as a JMMA editorial board member; for one of those years, 2003, Naseef and Abedin served together on that board.

Abedin went on maternity leave after giving birth to a baby boy in early December 2011. When she returned to work in June 2012, the State Department granted her an arrangement that allowed her to do outside consulting work as a “special government employee,” even as she remained a top advisor in the Department. Abedin did not disclose on her financial report either the arrangement or the$135,000 she earned from it, in violation of a law mandating that public officials disclose significant sources of income. Abedin’s outside clients included the U.S. State Department, Hillary Clinton, the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, and Teneo (a firm co-founded by Doug Band, a former counselor for Bill Clinton). Good-government groups warned of the potential conflict-of-interest inherent in an arangement where a government employee maintains private clients.

In June 2012, five Republican lawmakers (most prominently, Michele Bachmann) sent letters to the inspectors general at the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and State, asking that they investigate whether the Muslim Brotherhood was gaining undue influence over U.S. government officials. One letter, noting that Huma Abedin’s position with Hillary Clinton “affords her routine access to the secretary [of state] and to policymaking,” expressed concern over the fact that Abedin “has three family members—her late father, mother and her brother—connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations.” Some other prominent Republicans such as John McCain and John Boehner disavowed the concerns articulated in the letters.

On February 1, 2013—Hillary Clinton’s final day as Secretary of State—Abedinresigned her post as Mrs. Clinton’s deputy chief of staff. Yet she would continue to serve as a close aide to Clinton.

On March 1, 2013, Abedin was tapped to run Clinton’s post-State Department transition team, comprised of a six-person “transition office” located in Washington.

Huma Abedin’s brother, Hassan Abedin, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and is currently an associate editor with the JMMA. Hassan was once a fellow at the Oxford Center for Islamic Studies, at a time when the Center’s board included such Brotherhood-affiliated figures as Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Abdullah Omar Naseef.

Huma’s sister, Heba Abedin (formerly known as “Heba A. Khaled”), is an assistant editor with JMMA, where she served alongside Huma prior to the latter’s departure.

Speaking straight from the heart, as an American Citizen, I find it beyond the pale that, during the time of Hillary Clinton’s tenure as Secretary of State, someone with direct ties to our sworn enemies, the Muslim Brotherhood, had access to the highest level of Top Secret Information contained in our State Department, being sent to her over Secretary Clinton’s own unsecured e-mail Server.

And, the thing is, she not only had access through her job as Assistant to Secretary of State Clinton, she also had access to government information through pillow talk with her husband, then-Congressman and “Professional Sexter” Anthony Weiner.

Being the “proud Muslim” that she has proclaimed herself to be, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that this information found its way to her “troubling Familial Affiliations”?

Which brings up another troubling question:

What if the Obama Administration and their minions are shouting down the voiced concerns of Republican Primary Candidate Donald J., Trump, the American People, and those in Congress, and dragging their feet on having the DOJ issue indictments, because they knew “what was going on” all along?

…and simply did not care?

Until He Comes,

KJ