Intern Spy Probe

87-Member Minority Caucus: Muslim 'Intern Spy' Hunt Smacks Of McCarthy Era

Justin Elliott | October 23, 2009, 4:36PM

Rep. Barbara Lee (at podium) with other members of the Congressional Tri-Caucus.

In a strongly-worded statement today, the Congressional Tri-Caucus, which represents three minority caucuses, denounced a call by four GOP lawmakers for an investigation into whether Muslim "intern spies" have infiltrated the Hill.

"These charges smack of an America of sixty years ago where lists of 'un-American' agitators were identified," said Reps. Michael Honda (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). They are the chairs of the Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Black Caucus, and the Hispanic Caucus, respectively.

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Right-wing extremism

Tea Partier Uses Army Email Address To Call For "Civil Disobedience"

Zachary Roth | October 23, 2009, 4:31PM

A crowd gathers at a tea party

A Tea Party activist today used a U.S. military email address to call for "civil disobedience" in opposition to the policies of the Obama administration.

In a message sent this morning to fellow members of the Tea Party Patriots, who had been discussing movement strategy, Richard A. Correa Sr., who identifies himself as a retired sergeant, wrote:

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Chamber of Commerce

Chamber Using Yes Men Hoax To Raise Money

Zachary Roth | October 23, 2009, 3:21PM

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue

The Chamber of Commerce is trying to raise money off of that hoax press conference organized this week by a group of activist pranksters.

In an email to supporters, obtained by TPMmuckraker, Chamber exec Bill Miller writes that his organization is "under attack" and claims "MoveOn.org and other extremist groups are harassing our members."

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Mary Beth Buchanan

New Allegations Against Bush-Appointed U.S. Attorney Linked To Firings Scandal

Zachary Roth | October 23, 2009, 2:00PM

Mary Beth Buchanan

The office of a top Bush-appointed federal prosecutor who played a role in the U.S. attorney firings scandal received improper recordings of telephone calls between defense lawyers and their clients, and appears not to have turned them over to authorities, as required by law.

On Wednesday evening, Lisa Freeland, a Pittsburgh-based federal public defender, sent a lengthy email to fellow defense lawyers, reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, exposing the episode. "I am incensed," Freeland wrote.

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John Stossel

Fox's John Stossel To Rally Against Health Care Reform

Zachary Roth | October 23, 2009, 12:58PM

FOX News' John Stossel

John Stossel of Fox News will join a conservative activist group for rallies designed to build opposition to health-care reform.

Americans For Prosperity (AFP) has announced that Stossel, a "renowned health care reporter and analyst," will participate in three "Health Care Town Halls," starting next week in Arkansas.

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Charles Rangel

GOP Congressman Leading Fight Against Rangel Has His Own Ethics Woes

Zachary Roth | October 23, 2009, 12:14PM

Rep. John Carter (R-TX)

In a rich irony, the Republican congressman leading the fight to have Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) ousted as chair of the House's top tax-writing body turns out to have ethics problems of his own.

Rep. John Carter (R-TX) had nearly $300,000 in unreported profits from oil stock sales in 2006 and 2007, Roll Call reported yesterday.

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Alaska

Young Mum On New Ties To Corruption Probe

Zachary Roth | October 23, 2009, 10:00AM

Rep. Don Young (R-AK)

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is refusing to talk about new claims that for over a decade, he received gifts from the same oil-industry executive whose ties to Ted Stevens were at the heart of that case last year.

Don't bother me, don't bother me," the congressman commanded a reporter from the Anchorage Daily News yesterday. A spokeswoman for Young did not respond to a request for comment from TPMmuckraker. And even Young's Washington lawyer, John Dowd, didn't get back to the ADN.

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Stewart Nozette

Did Alleged Spy's Moonlighting For Israel Raise Red Flag For Counterintel Officials?

Justin Elliott | October 22, 2009, 5:36PM

Stewart Nozette

How could a top government scientist with clearance to view a dizzying range of Top Secret weapons and technology information simultaneously work for an aerospace firm owned by a foreign government?

The question is prompted by one of the more curious sections of the criminal complaint against Stewart Nozette, who is accused of passing classified information to a person he believed was an Israeli agent.

"It's hard to imagine that there are many individuals who had a broader cross section of classified access -- overhead reconnaissance, signals intelligence, space technology, and nuclear weapons," secrecy expert Steven Aftergood told TPMmuckraker. "He was all over the place, probably because he was an exceptionally skilled and competent technologist," says Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy of the Federation of American Scientists.

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Justice Department

Head Of DOJ Unit That Botched Stevens Case Steps Down

Zachary Roth | October 22, 2009, 4:39PM

Fmr. Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK)

The head of the Justice Department's beleaguered Public Integrity unit is stepping down.

William Welch, who supervised the department's botched prosecution of former Alaska senator Ted Stevens, will remain with DOJ but return to Massachusetts, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

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John Shadegg

GOP Reps File Request With Sergeant At Arms For Muslim 'Intern Spy' Investigation

Justin Elliott | October 22, 2009, 4:20PM

Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), Rep. Paul Broun, (R-GA), Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), and Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ)

After a week delay, four Republican lawmakers have formally asked the House sergeant at arms to investigate whether a Muslim advocacy group placed interns in national security committees, a spokesperson for the sergeant at arms confirmed to TPMmuckraker this afternoon.

Spokesperson Kerri Hanley would only say that a letter requesting a probe of the Council on American Islamic Relations was received today and that it is under review.

The letter, which you can read in full here, claims that CAIR is tied to "HAMAS" and cites the new WND-published book Muslim Mafia, written by a man who has labeled President Obama "Muslim":

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Voting

DOJ Vet: Plan For Panther Hearings Shows Key Voting-Rights Panel Is "Kind Of A Joke"

Zachary Roth | October 22, 2009, 3:24PM

USCCR Commissioner Todd Gaziano

Democrats and civil-rights advocates are slamming conservative members of a key federal voting-rights panel for a plan to hold hearings on the controversial "New Black Panthers" voter intimidation case, and are expressing intense concern that the commission is being shifted away from its traditional role as a protector of the rights of minority voters.

Yesterday, Main Justice reported that the commission, dominated by Bush appointees, planned to hold hearings on the New Black Panther case, which the Justice Department dismissed earlier this year. In a now-famous incident from Election Day 2008, a member of a group called the New Black Panther Party was caught on camera clad in combat boots and brandishing a night stick at a Philadelphia polling station.

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Steve Buyer

Fore! Was Iffy Foundation A Vehicle To Support GOP Rep's Golf Habit?

Justin Elliott | October 22, 2009, 11:43AM

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN)

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) has long been a passionate golfer. Last year, Golf Digest ranked the lawmaker 32nd, with a handicap of 5.6, on its list of the top 200 golfers in Washington.

Like many members of Congress, Buyer has a history of mixing business and pleasure on the golf course. Now, it looks like the financial dealings of a questionable foundation created by Buyer were even more golf-driven than previously known.

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Bernard Kerik

Ex-Commissioner Kerik's Mug Shot Released; NYC Tabloids Revel

Justin Elliott | October 21, 2009, 5:48PM

Fmr. NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik

Former New York Police commissioner, Homeland Security secretary nominee, and beefsteak dinner honoree Bernie Kerik is now inmate 210717 at the Westchester County jail, after a judge revoked Kerik's bail yesterday.

The New York Post declares, "Bernie Kerik in the clink." The Daily News blows up the mug shot to grotesque pixelation.

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Chris Christie

Lautenberg To DOJ: Christie-Brown Ties Raise "Serious Concerns"

Zachary Roth | October 21, 2009, 5:27PM

Fmr. top aide Michele Brown (inset) and NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie (R)

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has released a letter he sent today to the Justice Department calling for an investigation into the possible politicization of the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey in the service of Chris Christie's campaign for governor.

In the letter to Mary Patrice Brown, who runs DOJ's internal ethics unit, Lautenberg, the chair of the Jon Corzine campaign, focuses on ties between Christie, a Republican, and his former top aide Michele Brown, which Lautenberg says raise "serious concerns." We laid out many of those ties here.

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David McKalip

In Tea Party Civil War, McKalip Appears To Ditch Former Comrades In Favor Of GOP Consultants

Zachary Roth | October 21, 2009, 4:13PM

Tea-Partiers, and Dr. David McKalip (inset)

In a bitter internecine feud that is creating serious divisions in the Tea Party movement, David McKalip -- the Florida doctor and health-care reform foe who got in hot water this summer after forwarding a racist picture showing President Obama as a witch doctor -- appears to have sided with a group run by GOP consultants, rather than with his former grassroots allies.

In an email to fellow members of the Tea Party Patriots, sent yesterday and obtained by TPMmuckraker, Texas-based activist Gerald Merits wrote that he has been "approached by a neurosurgeon very active in the movement in Florida asking for me to get involved with the Tea Party Express because the Tea Party Patriots just don't seem to get it."

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Chris Christie

Beyond Brown: Did Another Top Christie Aide Politicize Prosecutor's Office To Help Former Boss?

Zachary Roth | October 21, 2009, 2:35PM

U.S. prosecutor Ralph Marra

So far, the charges that Chris Christie turned the U.S. attorney's office into a "branch office" of his campaign for governor, as Jon Corzine put it yesterday, have centered on the relationship between Christie and Michele Brown, a close friend and top aide to Christie when he was US attorney. Brown reportedly took several actions this year that benefited Christie's GOP bid for governor, and in 2007 got an undisclosed $46,000 loan from him.

But did another of Christie's former top aides also put the prosecutor's office in the service of his one-time boss's political aspirations? Ralph Marra, who until this month was the acting U.S. attorney, has several times appeared to insert himself into the political back-and-forth over the race, appearing to pointedly criticize a request by the Corzine campaign for public information, and even triggering a Justice Department probe into whether he made inappropriately political public comments that may have boosted Christie.

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Ken Calvert

Report: FBI Looking At Land Deal Linked To Rep. Calvert

Justin Elliott | October 21, 2009, 2:34PM

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA)

An FBI agent has been poking around in southern California looking at a lawsuit over land bought by a group including Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA), the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported Friday. But Calvert says he has not been contacted by the FBI and the dispute that is the subject of the lawsuit has nothing to do with his group.

The Press-Enterprise reported:

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Stewart Nozette

AP: Investigators Thought Scientist Was Working For A Foreign Government

Justin Elliott | October 21, 2009, 11:50AM

Stewart Nozette

Investigators began looking at a possible espionage case against Stewart Nozette after they "found indications" in a separate case that he was working for a foreign government, an anonymous law enforcement official told the AP yesterday.

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Cameron Todd Willingham

Perry: Death Penalty's Working Fine!

Zachary Roth | October 21, 2009, 10:01AM

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX)

A little thing like being shown to have probably executed an innocent man isn't going to get in the way of continuing to put people to death, if Texas governor Rick Perry has anything to do with it.

Said Perry yesterday:

Our process works, and I don't see anything out there that would merit calling for a moratorium on the Texas death penalty. It's fair and appropriate, and we will continue with it.

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Birthers

Birther Taitz Decries 'Political Lynching' In New Filing Against Judge's $20K Fine

Justin Elliott | October 21, 2009, 9:13AM

Orly Taitz

In a colorful eight-page filing, Birther attorney Orly Taitz declares that she will appeal a federal judge's $20,000 fine, which she was ordered to pay within 30 days last week.

In his lengthy order imposing the fine, Judge Clay Land promised to authorize the U.S. Attorney to "to commence collection proceedings" if Taitz did not pay the fine. So stay tuned -- we may be building up to some kind of climactic final showdown.

Here's a taste of Taitz's latest (bolded text in original):

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Charles Rangel

Awkward! Rangel Honored By Jamaican Government, While Ethics Panel Probes Caribbean Trips

Zachary Roth | October 20, 2009, 6:04PM

Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)

You might think that for Charlie Rangel, being bestowed an honor -- any honor -- would come as a welcome respite from the steady stream of bad PR he's been getting lately. But this might not be an honor that the embattled New York congressman will welcome.

Yesterday, Rangel received the Order of Jamaica, for his for "outstanding contribution in promoting the interests of Jamaica and the Caribbean," as the Jamaican government put it in a statement.

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Frank Lautenberg

Lautenberg Calls For Federal Probe Into Whether Christie Politicized Prosecutor's Office

Zachary Roth | October 20, 2009, 5:42PM

NJ Gov. Chris Christie (R)

Sen. Frank Lautenberg is calling for a federal investigation into whether former U.S. attorney Chris Christie used his office for political gain, reports the AP.

The New York Times reported this morning that a close Christie aide and friend in the office took several steps that benefited Christie's campaign for governor, after receiving a $46,000 loan from him. We took a broader look at the case that Christie may have improperly politicized the U.S. attorney's office here.

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Stewart Nozette

Could The Israeli Spy Case Really Be An Indian Spy Case?

Justin Elliott | October 20, 2009, 5:15PM

Stewart David Nozette

Since the Feds unsealed a criminal complaint against a former high level NASA scientist yesterday, charging him with attempted espionage, media interest has focused on the Israel angle: an FBI employee posed as a Mossad agent and gave Stewart Nozette money for classified satellite information.

Even the Justice Department's press release on the arrest played up the Mossad ploy, while noting that Israel is not accused of breaking any laws.

But a curious section in the criminal complaint suggests that there was a foreign country -- identified only as "Country A" -- to which Nozette may have passed information.

And there's circumstantial evidence suggesting one "Country A" candidate is India.

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Joe Arpaio

Not So Fast! DC GOP Power Couple Roadblocked On Arpaio-Linked Case

Zachary Roth | October 20, 2009, 4:52PM

Republican lawyers Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing

The effort by a conservative county prosecutor in Arizona to hire a big-name Washington lawyer power couple to go after a local official has hit a roadblock.

Earlier this month, we told you how Maricopa county prosecutor Andrew Thomas, working closely with the notorious anti-immigrant sheriff Joe Arpaio, had hired Joseph diGenova and Victoria Toensing, a famed Republican husband-and-wife team, to investigate a local county official -- and political antagonist of both Thomas and Arpaio -- on campaign-finance charges.

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Chamber of Commerce

Sound and Fury From the Chamber, Signifying Nothing?

Zachary Roth | October 20, 2009, 3:08PM

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue

What's the deal with conservatives saying they're going to contact law enforcement over their political opponents' latest outrage -- before turning out to apparently be full of it?

Last week, Rep. Sue Myrick's office told us that, despite her claims to have uncovered a plot by radical Islamists to use interns to infiltrate Capitol Hill, they hadn't actually gotten around to formally asking the authorities to investigate.

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Chris Christie

Did Christie Politicize U.S. Attorney's Office?

Zachary Roth | October 20, 2009, 2:00PM

NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie (R) and his fmr. top aide Michele Brown

Back in August, when it was revealed that Chris Christie had given an unreported $46,000 loan to Michele Brown, his top deputy at the US attorney's office, we had a sense there was more to the story than we'd yet learned.

And today's revelations from the New York Times help fill out the picture. Simply put, a close look at the unusually close relationship between the two -- as well as at other evidence that Christie retains ties to his former colleagues in the prosecutors' office -- strongly suggests that in the service of his bid for governor, he may have improperly politicized an office that's supposed to be an independent administrator of justice.

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Bernard Kerik

Bernie Kerik Jailed As Judge Revokes Bail In Corruption Case

Justin Elliott | October 20, 2009, 1:48PM

Fmr. NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik

A federal judge has revoked $500,000 bail for former NYC police commissioner Bernard Kerik in his corruption case and ordered him to jail, Fox reports.

Prosecutors allege that Kerik got renovations on his co-op in the Bronx in exchange for recommending the construction company for city contracts. The trial in the case is set to begin Monday.

Fox 5 in New York reports:

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Chris Christie

Christie's Top Aide Got Loan Then Helped His Campaign: Report

Zachary Roth | October 20, 2009, 10:03AM

Fmr. top aide Michele Brown (inset) and NJ Gov. Candidate Chris Christie (R)

Did a top prosecutorial deputy to Chris Christie improperly use her position earlier this year to boost his run for governor -- despite the candidate's recent claim that she had done nothing to help his campaign?

The New York Times has assembled some pretty good evidence.

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Tom Coburn

Coburn, Price Not Rushing To Embrace Award From Doctor Who Sent Racist Obama Pic

Zachary Roth | October 19, 2009, 4:33PM

Dr. David McKalip

David McKalip, the Florida doctor and health-care-reform opponent who apologized this summer after sending a racist picture of President Obama as a witch-doctor, is trying to cozy up to some of the most extreme Republican reform foes in Congress. But even they want little to do with him, it seems.

Yesterday, McKalip sent an email invitation, obtained by TPMmuckraker, announcing that Doctors for Patient Freedom, the anti-reform group he runs, plans to honor Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) for their work in fighting to preserve "the freedom patients deserve" in health care. According to the invitation, the ceremony is set to take place November 7th, in conjunction with the upcoming American Medical Association meeting in Houston.

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Muslim Mafia

White House Says President Hasn't Talked About Intern 'Spy' Accusations On Capitol Hill

Christina Bellantoni | October 19, 2009, 3:59PM

Rep. Andre Carson (D-IN) and "CAIR intern" Dave Marshall, aka Chris Gaubatz

TPM asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs during his briefing today about the Republicans who claim the Council on American Islamic Relations planted Muslim spies on Capitol Hill.

When we asked if President Obama was aware of the Republican charges, which have not moved an inch since they first announced the claims last week, Gibbs demurred.

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Frontier Foundation

About Face: Buyer Admits Ties To Questionable Foundation, Posh Golf Junkets

Justin Elliott | October 19, 2009, 3:52PM

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) golfing in 2006

Last we checked, Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) was maintaining that he had nothing more than a casual connection to the Frontier Foundation, which has collected lots of money from industry groups seeking to curry favor with Buyer, spent a lot on travel, meals, and salary, but given out nothing for its stated purpose of helping students get through college.

Now, after several media outlets questioned the legitimacy of the setup, Buyer is pushing back and he has a totally new story: the foundation is his, after all, and his selfless efforts to help poor Indiana children are now the focus of "vicious and ugly" attacks.

Oh yeah, and even though everything is on the up-and-up, Buyer has decided to review the foundation's activities and potentially change how it operates.

But wait, there's more!

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Chamber of Commerce

Chamber Wants Criminal Probe Of Yes Men Hoax

Zachary Roth | October 19, 2009, 3:43PM

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants a criminal investigation into the hoax perpetrated this morning by activists, who sent out a fake press release from the Chamber falsely announcing that the group had shifted its opposition to serious efforts to tackle global warming.

A Chamber spokesman put out the following (real) statement this afternoon:

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Global Warming

Yes Men, Activist Group, Teamed Up On Chamber Hoax

Zachary Roth | October 19, 2009, 2:08PM

Well, it looks like we were right.

The Chamber of Commerce hoax was perpetrated by the Yes Men, in tandem with a group of activists known as the Avaaz Action Factory.

Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum showed up at the 11am press conference that had earlier been announced by a "Chamber of Commerce" press release, and, impersonating a Chamber executive, declared:

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Muslim Mafia

GOP Lawmakers Dawdle While Muslim 'Intern Spies' May Be Conspiring Further

Justin Elliott | October 19, 2009, 12:34PM

Rep. John Shadegg (R-AZ), Rep. Paul Broun, (R-GA), Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC), and Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ)

Four Republican lawmakers have not submitted a request to the House sergeant at arms to investigate a threat that one of the four described as a terrorist-linked group possibly "running influence operations or planting spies in key national security-related offices."

A spokesperson for the sergeant at arms told TPMmuckraker this morning that the office was aware of the charge by GOP members at a press conference Wednesday that the Council on American-Islamic Relations planted Muslim intern spies on the Hill for purposes of subversion. But, says spokesperson Kerri Hanley, the office hasn't received a request for an investigation, and it wouldn't launch any probe until such a request is made.

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Chamber of Commerce

Were Yes Men Behind Chamber Hoax?

Zachary Roth | October 19, 2009, 12:26PM

Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men

It's not yet clear who perpetrated the hoax announcing that the Chamber of Commerce had changed its position on climate change. (It hasn't, and remains opposed to serious efforts to deal with the problem.)

But some evidence points to the Yes Men, a group of activists known for similar stunts.

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Global Warming

Announcement Of Chamber Shift On Global Warming Is Hoax

Zachary Roth | October 19, 2009, 11:53AM

Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue

A press release sent out under the banner of the Chamber of Commerce, announcing a major shift in the group's position on climate change, is a hoax.

J.P. Fielder, a spokesman for the Chamber, confirmed the hoax to TPMmuckraker. He said the Chamber was unaware of who was behind it.

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Barack Obama

Feds: Indicted Man Had Been Warned About Threatening Emails

Zachary Roth | October 19, 2009, 10:00AM

President Barack Obama speaks at a Human Rights Campaign event.

We're getting a few more details on John Gimbel, the California man we told you about Friday, who's been charged for sending a racist, profanity-filled email that called for the death of President Obama and for the words "Fed shit" to be written on his chest -- an apparent reference to the recent death of a Census Bureau worker in what seems to have been an act of anti-government violence.

This wasn't the first such email Gimbel has sent, say the Feds. He fired off a similar one earlier last month, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Secret Service, and reported by the AP.

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American Private Police Force

Reporter-Turned-APPF Spokesperson Becky Shay Is Now On The Job Market

Justin Elliott | October 19, 2009, 9:54AM

Becky Shay

Becky Shay, the beleaguered spokesperson for the American Private Police Force who as recently as last week was a true believer in her company and its felon leader, never received a paycheck for her work and is now gunning for a job as the chief of the Hardin, MT, agency that made the jail deal with APPF in the first place.

The AP reported Friday, in an article that refers to APPF's Michael Hilton as a "con artist":

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