Congress should hold Trump's top aides in contempt while it still can

House Democrats have already introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, because they believe they have the evidence they need. But without taking additional steps, they risk diminishing the House's oversight power in the long term. Congress Should Hold Trump's Top Aides in Contempt While It Still Can House Democrats have already introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, because they believe they have the evidence they need. But without taking additional steps, they risk diminishing the House's oversight power in the long term. Throughout the impeachment inquiry, Republicans have objected to this rushed process. The GOP witness during the House Judiciary Committee's hearing last week on impeachment, law professor Jonathan Turley, argued that the House is moving too fast and should make a more significant attempt to obtain further evidence. Keep reading on CNN New Updates: Impeachment Frequently Asked Questions There is no shortage of questions about impeachment and confusion about the process seems to have also enveloped Congress itself. But there’s an abundance of experts and historians on hand to help, including a few here at POGO. We’re using this FAQ to capture the many questions around impeachment, and provide the best answers we can find. Read more Private Prison Company Spending at Trump Hotel is “Possible Corruption,” Lawmakers Say A giant private prison company’s spending at President Donald Trump’s hotel in D.C. raises “serious concerns about possible corruption, or the appearance of corruption,” Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) wrote in a letter sent this week. Read more PODCAST: Corruption as a National Security Issue with Sarah Chayes Corruption is often viewed as a byproduct of unrest and ineffective government. POGO board member and former adviser to the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Sarah Chayes, in her book Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security, makes the case that corruption is the single largest source of unrest in the world. Listen to the podcast Phone Briefing: Current Congressional Oversight Litigation, with Steve Vladeck and Michael Stern Attorneys Mike Stern, who served as senior counsel to the House from 1996 to 2004, and Steve Vladeck, a constitutional law expert and professor at the University of Texas, discuss a dozen recent and ongoing cases, where they stand, and what they could mean for Congressional oversight. Listen to the briefing Jack Mitchell: Public Interest Warrior On December 5, POGO lost a close member of our family: Jack Mitchell, 69, died after a long battle with cancer. Jack Mitchell was a life-long investigator who had a rare trait for a Washington person—he never sold out. Read more ICYMI: New Newsletters Need more POGO in your inbox? We have two new email newsletters that we curate and deliver fresh to your inbox regularly. Indispensable is our new pop-up newsletter answering your questions about impeachment processes, the pressures on the figures involved, the facts uncovered, and their consequences. It's been recognized by The New York Times! Check out a recent edition and sign up! Sidebar is our quick takes on today’s most pressing constitutional issues, valuable and informative resources, and thought-provoking trivia and facts you can share. It's brief, interesting, and occasionally amusing. Check out a recent edition and sign up! POGO in the News The Washington Post The Plum Line: Happy Hour Roundup Danielle Brian argues that Congress should hold Trump’s aides in contempt while they still can. Politico's Morning Defense Newsletter Pentagon eyes smaller troop buildup while muddling its message to Congress MORE SECRECY: The Project on Government Oversight has released a report showing the Pentagon’s lack of transparency is on the rise. Buzzfeed News A Secret Report Exposes Health Care For Jailed Immigrants Romero returned to the US because of the lack of opportunity and dangerous conditions in his home country, his family said. Romero was arrested by Customs and Border Protection officials on May 9, 2018, and was transferred to ICE’s Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas, on May 14. By the next day, he began feeling sick and was in serious pain, according to a death review conducted by ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility and obtained by the Project on Government Oversight. The National Interest Did America Make a Big Mistake Building the New Ford-Class Carrier? Key point: The Ford-class makes a lot of promises but is very expensive and has had several issues. Pres. Donald Trump used the Navy’s next-generation aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R. Ford, as a backdrop to unveil his vision for the next defense budget in March 2017. The moment was meant to symbolize his commitment to rebuilding the military, but it also positioned the president in front of a monument to the Navy’s and defense industry’s ability to justify spending billions in taxypayer dollars on unproven technologies that often deliver worse performance at a higher cost. The Ford program also provides yet another example of the dangers of the Navy’s and industry’s end-running the rigorous combat testing that is essential to ensuring our fighting men and women go to war with equipment that works. The Navy had expected to have the ship delivered in 2014 at a cost of $10.5 billion. But the inevitable problems resulting from the concurrency the Navy built into developing Ford’s new and risky technologies, more than a dozen in all, caused the schedule to slip by more than three years and the cost to increase to $12.9 billion—nearly 25 percent over budget. Keep reading The Washington Examiner 'The case for a Space Force is overwhelming': Congress paves way for new branch of military “For the time being, all of our military space interests are tied to supporting the operations of the existing services for communications, navigation, weather observations, surveillance, and missile warning,” Grazier said. “It is a really bad idea to create bureaucratic barriers between the main effort and the support forces as it will actually hinder that relationship rather than enhance it.” Space News Space Force proponents in Congress warn Air Force: ‘We will watch you like a hawk’ “Taxpayers would pay a premium to make the military less effective: analyses have found that even the most conservative version of this proposal would increase costs by $3.6 billion through 2024,” Grazier said. Federal News Network A critical look at Army’s use of OTA for vehicle prototypes The Army is using other transaction authority to purchase prototypes of tactical vehicles that would be dropped from helicopters. Soldiers would then climb aboard and head to battle. That is a repeat of many old mistakes, according to Mark Thompson. The national security analyst for the Project on Government Oversight joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin for more discussion. Background Briefing with Ian Masters Background Briefing: December 11, 2019 We begin with today’s grilling of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice by the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Senator Lindsey Graham who focused on the phony Republican talking point claiming the Steele Dossier was the predicate for the Mueller Report and the investigation into Russian ties to the Trump campaign. Although the IG’s reports refutes that spin, Senator Graham castigated the Steele Dossier as “The first thing is about the golden shower – about the sexual encounter that President Trump supposedly had at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Russia”, then rising to an emotional climax, “it’s salacious and it’s a bunch of crap.” Jake Laperruque, Senior Counsel at the Constitution Project of the Project on Government Oversight joins us to discuss the partisan focus on criticisms in the IG’s report of mistakes and deficiencies in the FBI’s applications for extensions of the FISA warrants on the Trump campaign’s foreign policy advisor Carter Page who was recruited by Russian intelligence agents who were later expelled from the country. And while the new-found champions of civil liberties, the Republican’s spin had some basis in truth over problems which FBI Director Christopher Wray vowed to fix, the overall hearing today was yet another display of the alternative realities of a fact-based report versus the desperate political fictions the Republicans are barking into the wind. Listen to the broadcast The Post-Star EDITORIAL: President should exonerate himself, if he can In an article in the Atlantic magazine from 2016, Danielle Brian, head of the group Project on Government Oversight, said, “No doubt there have been some abuses by some committees, but it’s unfair to paint them with a broad brush.” Livingston Ledger White House adviser ‘counseled‘ after brand promotion In addition to the House Oversight Committee, two liberal-funded government watchdog groups pounced on Conway‘s comments, filing ethics violation complaints with the Office of Government Ethics. A third group, the Project on Government Oversight, asked Attorney General Jeff Sessions to open a Justice Department investigation into possible ethics violations. Lancaster Online Defense budget way too high (letter) The Center For Defense Information (a group of retired generals and admirals) around that same time said 25% less was where we should be. That said, in 40 years of defense spending of about $12 trillion, we’ve overspent by at least $3 trillion — and that doesn’t include fraud, waste and abuse, inherent in a department with 20 accounting systems that make it unauditable. Federation of American Scientists Secrecy News Round-Up “Across the Department of Defense, basic information is becoming harder to find,” wrote Jason Paladino of the Project on Government Oversight in “The Pentagon’s War on Transparency,” December 5, 2019.

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REP. CHRIS COLLINS: The Republican congressman resigned Monday. He previously dismissed the charges as “meritless” and the result of a “witch hunt.”

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to felony charges related to insider trading, two years after dismissing the allegations as a “witch hunt.”

Collins resigned Monday amid reports of his guilty plea, the Associated Press reported.

All three face charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements. All three are expected to change their pleas, though it’s unclear which exact charges they will plead guilty to.

Collins served on the board of a small Australian biotech company called Innate Immunotherapeutics. He allegedly told his son and Zarsky about the unpublicized trial failure of a drug the company had developed, which would later cause stock prices to plummet 92 percent.

Cameron and Zarsky both unloaded their shares before the stock tanked, thereby avoiding $768,000 in losses, according to an indictment.

OOPS! This was from a MONTH AGO.
Today's "Witch Hunt" Rep is Duncan HUNTER.
Yep - it sure gets confusing!
See story above

🎵Another one bites the dust!

After calling the charges a "witch hunt" - 🤔 - when he was first arrested two years ago, he is now pleading guilty and has resigned.

https://www.huffpost.com/…/chris-collins-insider-trading-gu…

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HUFFPOST.COM

Rep. Chris Collins Expected To Plead Guilty To Insider Trading Tuesday  

The Republican congressman resigned Monday. He previously dismissed the charges as "meritless" and the result of a "witch hunt."

POLITICS 

09/30/2019 

The Republican congressman resigned Monday. He previously dismissed the charges as “meritless” and the result of a “witch hunt.”

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) is expected to plead guilty Tuesday to felony charges related to insider trading, two years after dismissing the allegations as a “witch hunt.”

Collins resigned Monday amid reports of his guilty plea, the Associated Press reported.

Collins, his son Cameron, and Stephen Zarsky, the father of Cameron’s fiancée, had all initially pleaded not guilty after the FBI arrested them in August 2018. 

Federal court records show Collins is scheduled to appear for a “change of plea hearing” at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. Cameron and Zarsky are scheduled to appear for similar hearings Thursday.

All three face charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements. All three are expected to change their pleas, though it’s unclear which exact charges they will plead guilty to. 

Collins served on the board of a small Australian biotech company called Innate Immunotherapeutics. He allegedly told his son and Zarsky about the unpublicized trial failure of a drug the company had developed, which would later cause stock prices to plummet 92 percent.

Cameron and Zarsky both unloaded their shares before the stock tanked, thereby avoiding $768,000 in losses, according to an indictment. 

At the time of his arrest, Collins told reporters the charges were “meritless” and that he would “mount a vigorous defense in court to clear my name.”

The charges incensed President Donald Trump, who attacked then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for allowing the indictments to move forward, brazenly suggesting the Justice Department should prioritize party affiliation over criminality.

Collins owned 37.9 million shares, worth just over $20 million, in the company before things went south.

The three-term congressman was narrowly reelected in 2018 by less than one percentage point. Lawmakers convicted of felonies aren’t barred from holding their seats, but they aren’t allowed to vote.

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WE have work to do!

Let's work together to restore ETHICS, INTEGRITY, HONESTY and IMPARTIAL OVERSIGHT to our government.

Elected office is not an opportunity for WEALTH!

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MARKETS.BUSINESSINSIDER.COM

US senators have reportedly piled up to $96 
million into stocks, including companies they 
regulate | Markets Insider

51 US senators and their spouses have up to $96 million invested in corporate stocks, according to an analysis by Sludge and the Guardian, raising conflic...

US senators have reportedly piled up to 

$96 million into stocks, including companies 

they regulate

Theron Mohamed

 Sep. 20, 2019

• 51 US senators and their spouses have up to $96 million invested in corporate stocks, according to an analysis by Sludge and the Guardian, raising conflict of interest concerns.
• Sen. Richard Shelby, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, and Sen. Jacky Rosen own significant amounts of stock in companies they oversee.
• Together, 10 members of the Senate banking committee hold up to $8 million worth of stock in finance, securities, and real estate companies.
• View Markets Insider's homepage for more stories.

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Fifty-one US senators and their spouses have up to $96 million invested in corporate stocks, raising conflict of interest concerns because many of them could pass laws that help those businesses and thus enrich themselves.

An analysis by Sludge and the Guardian — a deep dive you can check out here — looked at the senators' disclosed stakes totaling $28 million to $96 million across finance, defense, health, communications and electronics, and energy and natural resources companies.

Members of Congress aren't legally barred from owning stock in companies they oversee, but having a vested interest in their success could affect their impartiality and willingness to pass laws that hurt those businesses.

Read more: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez invented a 'corruption game' to slam lax government ethics laws during a viral oversight committee hearing

Legislators are under mounting pressure to crack down on predatory lending, abuse of user data, climate change, sweetheart military deals, prescription drug prices and the opioid crisis. Senators' stakes in banks, tech giants, fossil-fuel companies, defense contractors, and healthcare giants could temper their desire to tackle those issues. 

The median investment range was between $100,000 and $365,000, Sludge and the Guardian said. The most popular stocks included Apple, Microsoft, Google-owner Alphabet, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and Wells Fargo. The biggest single investment was Sen. John Hoeven's stake in Westbrand — a private holding company for banks — which is worth between $5 million and $25 million.

Several lawmakers hold shares in companies they oversee, the analysis found. Sen. Richard Shelby owns between $1 million and $5 million worth of stock in Tuscaloosa Title Company, a private real estate insurance firm, despite sitting on Senate housing and insurance subcommittees. Nine other members of the Senate banking committee hold financial stocks including Sen. Doug Jones, Sen. John Kennedy, and Sen. Robert Menendez.

The trend extends beyond banking. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito owns substantial stakes in Microsoft, Intel, AT&T, and Verizon, despite sitting on technology and consumer protection subcommittees. Sen. Jacky Rosen, who also sits on those subcommittees, owns up to $480,000 worth of Amazon, AT&T, and Adobe stock.

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