Posted on 11/11/2018 11:38:50 AM PST by blam
After the midterm elections, speculation immediately began on how the incoming Democratic House majority would use their newfound power to challenge President Donald Trump.
Now, the incoming House Intelligence Committee chairman told Axios that Democrats intend to investigate Trump's attacks on the press.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California said in an interview that will air on HBO Sunday evening that they'll specifically focus on Trump's statements and actions against CNN and the Washington Post.
Trump has consistently badmouthed press outlets since the beginning of his 2016 campaign, but as president, he's taken specific actions against those two outlets that some perceive as legitimate threats to press freedom.
Read more:Trump administration accused of behaving like authoritarian regime after revoking CNN reporter Jim Acosta's credentials and sharing suspicious video
The first was Trump's reported efforts to raise mailing prices for Amazon, whose CEO Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post. Trump often highlights the connection by calling it the "Amazon Washington Post."
Schiff told Axios that Trump was "secretly meeting with the postmaster [general] in an effort to browbeat the postmaster into raising postal rates on Amazon."
"This appears to be an effort by the president to use the instruments of state power to punish Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post," he said.
Schiff appeared to be referencing a report from the Washington Post that cited three sources who said Trump had personally attempted to pressure Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the shipping rates applied to Amazon deliveries.
In December 2017, Trump publicly called for the Postal Service to charge Amazon more in a fiery tweet. And in April, Trump signed an executive order that created a task force to review the finances of USPS after days of rebuking the company.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
If God is for us, who can be against us?
Gee, I wonder what they thought of the Obama administration’s treatment of Bob Woodward? Crickets, I bet.
Great! Since 80% of Americans believe the media is biased and Trump has over 50% approval, that should work out just fine. In fact, only 14% of Republicans trust the media so all they’ll be doing is catering to the democrats who believe them already.
Executive Privilege.
How can anyone to the right of Mao and Stalin not think that the Democrats have become the wannabe politburo? Seriously.
With regard to your post, the President seems to have a particular “gift” for flushing out and exposing totalitarian ideas, no matter the source.
I love it. Amazon is ripping off the postal system. The president goes after him. Democrats squeal their frustration. More democrat eggo on face.
Must have missed the Democrats outrage about Obama using the IRS to investigate conservative groups.
Democrats do not care about the truth or the reality of their charges. They simply intend to level charges every hour of ever day until they get shut down or something sticks.
If I were a Republican Congressman, I’d simply boycott these Communist rodent show trials. If they’re going to waste time on a circus, no need to show up.
The issue isn’t the issue. The issue is revolution.
Separation of powers.
The Dims are playing right into his hands. In 2020 he will be able to say, “look at the obstructionist Dims, wasting time on trivial investigations instead of addressing the people’s needs”. And with a Republican Senate any impeachment proceedings will go nowhere so they’re wasting their time with that too, with their only positive being the extension of Democratic outrage into 2020.
REMEMBER THIS?---At his recent comeback appearance, Obama lacerated Pres Trump, saying: " I complained plenty about Fox News,
but you never heard me call them enemies of the people.” (Source —--comeback rally at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign).
REALITY CHECK----N-o-o-o-o, Obama didnt do that....he just unleashed the full force of the DOJ, in the person of AG Eric Holder, to pounce on Fox reporter James Rosen AND to intimidate Rosen's family. Holder and Obama issued a court order for Fox News reporter James Rosen's emails, that labeled Rosen a criminal "co-conspirator." More likely Fox News said things or published stories Obama didn't like.......or got too close to unveiling his criminality.
==================================================
SOURCE theguardian.com
Circa 2013
Obama and AG Holder did more than seize a Fox News reporter’s emails while suggesting he was a criminal “co-conspirator” in a leak case — it did so under one of the most serious wartime laws in America, the Espionage Act. It is now well known that the Obama justice department has prosecuted more government leakers under the 1917 Espionage Act than all prior administrations combined - in fact, double the number of all such prior prosecutions.
But as the controversy over the Obama and Holder’s pursuit of the phone records of AP reporters illustrated, this obsessive fixation in defense of secrecy also targets, and severely damages, journalists specifically and the news-gathering process in general.
New revelations emerged yesterday in the Washington Post that are perhaps the most extreme yet when it comes to the DOJ’s attacks on press freedoms. It involves the prosecution of State Department adviser Stephen Kim, a naturalized citizen from South Korea who was indicted in 2009 for allegedly telling Fox News’ chief Washington correspondent, James Rosen, that US intelligence believed North Korea would respond to additional UN sanctions with more nuclear tests - something Rosen then reported. Kim did not obtain unauthorized access to classified information, nor steal documents, nor sell secrets, nor pass them to an enemy of the US.
Instead, the DOJ alleges that he merely communicated this innocuous information to a journalist - something done every day in Washington - and, for that, this arms expert and long-time government employee faces more than a decade in prison for “espionage”.
The focus of a Post report is that the Obama DOJ’s surveillance of Rosen extended far beyond even what Obama did to AP reporters. The FBI tracked Rosen’s movements in and out of the State Department, traced the timing of his calls, and - most amazingly - obtained a search warrant to read two days worth of his emails, as well as all of his emails with Kim. In this case, said the Post, “investigators did more than obtain telephone records of a working journalist suspected of receiving the secret material.” It added that “court documents in the Kim case reveal how deeply investigators explored the private communications of a working journalist”.
But what makes this revelation particularly disturbing is that Obama's DOJ, in order to get this search warrant, insisted that Fox's Rosen - a journalist - committed serious crimes. The DOJ specifically argued that by encouraging his source to disclose classified information - something investigative journalists do every day - Rosen himself broke the law.
Describing an affidavit from FBI agent Reginald Reyes filed by the DOJ, the Post reports [emphasis added]: “Reyes wrote that there was evidence Rosen had broken the law, ‘at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator’. That fact distinguishes his case from the probe of the AP, in which the news organization is not the likely target. Using italics for emphasis, Reyes explained how Rosen allegedly used a ‘covert communications plan’ and quoted from an e-mail exchange between Rosen and Kim that seems to describe a secret system for passing along information. . . .
However, it remains an open question whether it’s ever illegal, given the First Amendment’s protection of press freedom, for a reporter to solicit information. No reporter, including Rosen, has been prosecuted for doing so.” Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment’s guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This newfound theory of the Obama DOJ - that a journalist can be guilty of crimes for “soliciting” the disclosure of classified information - is a means for circumventing those safeguards and criminalizing the act of investigative journalism itself.
These latest revelations show that this is not just a theory but one put into practice, as the Obama and Holder submitted official court documents accusing a journalist of committing crimes by doing this. ---Snip---
Obama and Holder wouldnt lie to a court of law. Would they?
Courts are what is ruining the country. Everyone does a run around through the courts so nothing actually ever get settled
As for the treatment of the media, how about the way the Obama Administration behaved? CBS' Sharyl Attkisson? Fox News? That is only two, there are a lot more.
LOL gotta love priorities..Dems not interested in ANYTHING to help improve this country other than investigating a President they despise. Gee, will they investigate Obama targeting James Rosen..nah I didn’t think so
more SOrozNazi “street drama” power plays....
a game SorozNazi learned well from his Nazi superiors in WW2
this is a big part of how the Nazis overthrew the Weimar Republic
You’re right, he does.
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