Free Republic

After closed door meetings with FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday, top members of the Senate Judiciary Committee looked grim and rattled and refused to divulge the contents of the meeting to reporters. At around 5 p.m. E.T. on Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) faced reporters but revealed little about their meetings with Comey. “This briefing was all on sensitive matters,” Feinstein said, “and highly classified and it’s really not anything we can answer any questions about.” Comey has been at the center of multiple controversies lately, from his decision to make a later-discredited announcement...

Up to now, Donald Trump has slammed Democrats for stalling the Senate on confirmations for his political appointees. He may need to add Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to his list — or perhaps pat him on the back. The Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee made a hardball play yesterday with FBI director James Comey and the Department of Justice, after weeks of frustration over the status of rumored probes of the previous election: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley said Tuesday he will hold up the deputy attorney general’s confirmation vote as collateral until FBI Director...

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has opened an inquiry into allegations the FBI worked with the British spy who authored a controversial opposition research dossier on President Trump during the 2016 election. In a Monday letter to FBI Director James Comey, Grassley asked for records pertaining to any agreements the agency may have had with Christopher Steele.[snip] “The idea that the FBI and associates of the Clinton campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate the Republican nominee for President in the run-up to the election raises further questions about the FBI’s independence from politics, as well as the...

The Senate Judiciary Committee is recommending criminal charges against Planned Parenthood for allegedly trafficking in fetal body parts from abortions for profit. In a letter sent to the FBI and the Department of Justice on Tuesday, committee chair Chuck Grassley referred four of Planned Parenthood’s largest affiliates, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and three of the abortion provider’s business partners for potential prosecution.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said on Tuesday evening that he will not delay Sen. Jeff Sessions's attorney general confirmation hearing amid a Democrat push for more information. "Any suggestion that a nominee’s good faith efforts to locate and produce responsive material is cause for delay begins to look like a call for delay for delay’s sake, rather than a thorough review of a colleague’s character and qualifications," Grassley said. The Judiciary Committee chairman added that "I look forward to hearing from Senator Sessions on Jan. 10." His pushback comes after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) sent a letter to Grassley on...

A top Justice Department official leaked information to the Clinton campaign about the legal case concerning Hillary Clinton’s secret email server, according to a new email released Wednesday by WikiLeaks that could further taint the administration’s claims of impartiality. Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik sent a heads-up to Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta in May 2015 letting him know the government was going to try to delay posting Mrs. Clinton’s secret emails until 2016. In the message, sent from his private account rather than his government-issued account, he also warned of a looming House hearing where he expected a Justice...

Wednesdays's senate hearing regarding the Internet Giveaway revealed that ICANN has been not merely dishonest but truth is alien to them. Senator Grassley found no solid reason to believe that our .gov and .mil websites will be left alone. [Which means no website is safe]. That lack of assurance concerns him. According to Paul Rosenzweig [a cyber-war insider and former Homeland Administrator who wrote extensively about freedom-of-speech concerns] the only thing protecting the .mil and .gov websites is empty assurances in letters that have no legal value whatsoever. To put it bluntly: The senator and Rosenzweig both smell a rat....

In Iowa, a new poll finds Trump leading 44% to 39% with Johnson at 8% and Stein at 1%. Eight percent (8%) were undecided. In the US Senate race, Senator Chuck Grassley leads Patty Judge 51% to 40% with 6% undecided. This poll of 600 likely voters was conducted from August 31 - September 1. ... Iowa Iowa voters do not appear happy with either Presidential candidate. Trump holds a 37% favorable opinion and a 58% unfavorable while Clinton is even further behind with a 35% favorable and 62% unfavorable. In the Senate race the voters have a positive opinion...

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the FBI on Wednesday to correct what he called its “mistake” of restricting access to unclassified files from its closed investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, urged FBI Director James Comey to send his committee any unclassified records involving the investigation into the Democratic presidential nominee. Grassley set a deadline of Friday. Responding to requests from GOP House members, the FBI on Aug. 16 delivered two large binders containing both classified and unclassified documents to a secure room on Capitol...

Republican lawmakers are expressing annoyance that, although the FBI has passed Congress the documents detailing the investigation into the Clinton email scandal, the documents are not actually readable due to the format in which they were handed over. According to Fox News, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Republican Chuck Grassley, claimed that documents handed over by the FBI are largely unreadable because they published classified material together with unclassified material, so only a select few have the clearance to read the evidence. …

Congress may have the FBI’s documents on the Hillary Clinton email investigation – but Republicans are complaining that the way the files were handed over means only a few lawmakers can actually see them. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says the bureau has “improperly” limited access to the files, by mixing in classified information with the rest of the material. The result: a cache of documents that only some can see in their entirety.

The feud between the FBI and the Department of Justice over whether or not to proceed with charges against Hillary Clinton in the ongoing email investigation just took an unexpected turn. Recall that one month ago, we found out that on one hand, the FBI is seemingly hell-bent on chasing down every possibly angle involving Hillary's email abuse, when we reported that one hundred forty-seven FBI agents have been deployed to chase down clues and leads and that the FBI has accelerated the investigation because officials want to avoid the possibility of announcing any action too close to the election....

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) fired back Thursay at Minority LeaderHarry Reid for criticizing his probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "I want to ... respond to Sen. Reid's juvenile attacks on my Judiciary Committee's investigations and to Sen. Reid's frequent crying about my previous State Department holds," said Grassley, who chairs the Judiciary Committee. The Iowa Republican's comments come after Reid said this week that Grassley's committee "continues to waste millions of dollars" on opposition research against Clinton. Grassley, however, said Reid's comments "ring hollow" and are "nonsense." "Let me empahsize, the Judiciary Committee cannot ignore these important...

WASHINGTON — The other day, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, decided to lecture Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Senate Republicans, Mr. Grassley said, were not to blame for the partisan deadlock over President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. The real culprits? The chief justice and his colleagues. Mr. Grassley’s tongue-lashing, delivered on the Senate floor, was in response to an analysis in this column last month of the chief justice’s stance as Senate Republicans refuse to consider the nomination. Chief Justice Roberts has said, for instance, that partisan confirmation hearings feed a...

Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley told Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland to his face Tuesday that the Senate won’t consider his nomination. Over breakfast, the Iowa Republican “explained why the Senate won’t be moving forward during this hyper-partisan election year,” his office said. The statement added that Mr. Grassley “thanked Judge Garland for his service,” and that their 70-minute meeting in the Senate dining room was “cordial and pleasant.” Both men arrived early for the meeting and avoided journalists later. Mr. Grassley and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are blocking Judge Garland’s nomination, saying voters should have a role in...

Hillary Clinton on Monday called on Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa to "step up and do his job," just hours after he warned the former secretary of state that law enforcement was coming for her. "He should hold a hearing, and he should schedule it as soon as the Senate returns from recess," Clinton said . . . Grassley brushed off Clinton's comments as an effort to evade talking about news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is reportedly going to begin questioning Clinton's aides, and eventually Clinton herself, about her use of a private server as secretary of...

It seems Donald Trump and Vermont’s NEK mega developer Bill Stenger have something in common-they both love EB-5 investors from China. Considering all his anti-immigration and China is “killing us,” stealing our jobs and money rhetoric, Trump surprisingly has no qualms accepting Chinese investor financing for a development project in New Jersey under the Trump® name. chairmantrump1 The Federal EB-5 visa program provides foreign investors with a US green card, for them and their families, and (after two years) permanent resident status in exchange for agreeing to invest $500,000 in an approved US business. In recent years the majority of...

The Democrats have pulled out all the stops to pressure Senate Republicans to hold a vote on President Obama's eventual replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. In particular, they are targeting Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) with vile op-eds in partisan Iowa newspapers and threatening him with a challenge in his re-election bid. Grassley's challenger, former Lt. Governor Patty Judge, said she will focus on Grassley's refusal to cave into the Democrats' wishes hold hearings on Obama's nominee as part of her campaign. Like I said: ALL THE STOPS. Soon-to-be-retired Minority Leader and Chief Obstructor Harry...

With Senator Charles E. Grassley under attack for his handling of the Supreme Court nomination process, a formidable Democratic challenger will run against him this November, the most significant sign yet that Democrats see the court and the candidacy of Donald J. Trump as twin liabilities for Republicans. Patty Judge, a former Iowa lieutenant governor and state agriculture secretary, is expected to announce her challenge this weekend to Mr. Grassley, who is seeking a seventh Senate term and had previously been seen as having little opposition to re-election.

There were no signs of a breakthrough as President Obama met Tuesday with Senate Republican leaders pledging to block anyone he nominates to the Supreme Court. Senate Majority Leader (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) both sat down with the president in the Oval Office. “They were adamant. They said ‘no, we’re not going to do this at all,’ ” Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said after the meeting. “All we want them to do is to fulfill their constitutional duty, and at this stage, they are deciding not to do that,” he added. “They’re going to...