Contact Form

Name

Email *

Message *

Saturday, March 17, 2018

The Plot Thickens!

BOMBSHELL: Anti-Trump FBI Officials Conspired To Meet Judge In Flynn Case, Had Personal Relationship, Report Says

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via Getty Images
On Friday, newly-revealed text messages showed that two senior federal law enforcement officials who were key figures in investigations into Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton allegedly conspired to meet with the judge who presided over the case against Michael Flynn.
The judge, Rudolph Contreras, was recused from handling Flynn's case but only after he accepted a "guilty plea of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser who was charged with making false statements to federal investigators," The Federalist's Mollie Hemingway reported.
The never-before-seen text messages about Contreras were between anti-Trump FBI Special Agent Peter Strzok and anti-Trump FBI attorney Lisa Page. Sara A. Carter reports on the July 25, 2016, exchange between Strzok and Page:
Page: “Rudy is on the FISC! Did you know that? Just appointed two months ago.”
Strzok: “I did. We talked about it before and after. I need to get together with him.”
Page: “Thought of it because you had to Google FISC judges and him there. I’m telling you.”
Strzok: “….She brought up a good point about being circumspect in talking to him in terms of not placing him into a situation where he’d have to recuse himself.”
Page: “I can’t imagine you either one of you could talk about anything in detail meaningful enough to warrant recusal ... Anyway, maybe you meant to, but didn’t.’
Strzok: “Really? Rudy. I’m in charge of espionage for the FBI. Any espionage FISA comes before him, what should he do? Given his friend oversees them?”
Page: “Standards for recusal are quite high. I just don’t think this poses an actual conflict. And he doesn’t know what you do?”
Strzok: “Generally he does know what I do. Not the level or scope or area but he’s super thoughtful and rigorous about ethics and conflicts. (redacted) suggested a social setting with others would probably be better than a one on one meeting. I’m sorry, I’m just going to have to invite you to that cocktail party. Of course you’ll be there. Have to come up with some other work people cover for action.”
Page: “Why more? Six is a perfectly fine dinner party.”
Contreras accepted Flynn’s guilty plea in federal court on December 1, 2017, which was the day before The New York Times revealed that Strzok had been removed from the case by Special Counsel Robert Mueller for text messages that revealed his extreme bias against the president. The Federalist further notes:
The text messages that show Page and Strzok conspiring to meet with Contreras were originally hidden from Congress. In records provided by DOJ to Congress, the exchanges referencing Contreras, and plans to meet with him under the guise of a cocktail party, were completely redacted by federal law enforcement officials. The exchanges obtained by The Federalistinclude information that was never turned over to Congress.
The Federalist adds that neither Contreras nor any other federal judiciary official had ever indicated the reason that Contreras was removed from the Flynn case.

Ellison Should Be Gone

Dershowitz: Democrats Have To Fire Ellison Over Farrakhan Lies

Come for the Democratic schadenfreude, stick around for … more Democratic schadenfreude. Liberal firebrand Alan Dershowitz demanded the firing of Rep. Keith Ellison as deputy chair of the DNC after lying about his contacts with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, on whom new scrutiny has been applied to his long history of anti-Semitic declarations. “He ought to be treated the way we treat David Duke,” Dershowitz demanded, adding, “If any Republican dared to meet with David Duke, that would be the end of their career. … We don’t have affirmative action when it comes to bigotry.”
Don’t hold your breath, Dersh:
Ellison has repeatedly stated that he cut off all contact with Farrakhan prior to 2006, when he began his career in electoral politics. His colleague, Rep. Andre Carson, contradicted those claims earlier this week. Peter Hasson reported for the Daily Caller that Carson said he continues to meet with Farrakhan, and so did Ellison as recently as 2015:
Democratic Indiana Rep. Andre Carson has confirmed that he took part in a private 2015 meeting with Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan and Democratic Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison.
Ellison, deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), claimed repeatedly that his relationship with Farrakhan ended well before he first ran for Congress in 2006. New reporting has shown that Ellison repeatedly attended meetings with Farrakhan while in Congress, including privately visiting Farrakhan in his Washington, D.C., hotel room in 2015.
Last Friday, Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler gave Ellison four Pinocchios for his claims of severing the Farrakhan relationship:
Ellison repeatedly has danced around the question of his association with Farrakhan, including whether they have crossed paths since he publicly cut ties with the Nation of Islam in 2006. But he needs to provide a better explanation for what he was doing in Farrakhan’s hotel suite in 2016 and what they discussed. He cannot claim to have “disavowed” Farrakhan more than a decade ago while moving in the same circles and apparently having a friendly chat behind closed doors.
Carson at least acknowledged he met with Farrakhan to discuss issues related to community concerns. Ellison is trying to have it both ways, publicly distancing himself while privately doing something else. He earns Four Pinocchios for suggesting his interactions with Farrakhan ended in 2006.
Desrhowitz is correct that not only is Farrakhan the same kind of bigot as Duke, he’s actually worse — in large part because of the Democratic Party. Republicans have disowned Duke repeatedly and Duke has no influence within it; as Dershowitz says, he’s “a joke.” Not so with Farrakhan, who continues to be engaged and sought after by Democratic officeholders like Carson and Ellison.
But it has been ever thus, and probably will be too. The national media doesn’t seem terribly interested in holding Democrats accountable for their own bigots, with notable exceptions like Jake Tapper and Kessler few and far between. Not even a bald-faced lie seems to interest the media when it comes from a high-ranking Democratic Party official and member of Congress. Besides, Democrats should fire Ellison and his boss Tom Perez for their disastrous leadership of the DNC, which has barely been able to keep pace with its debt since they took the helm, while the RNC far outstrips them in fundraising and infrastructure development. If Ellison ever gets canned, that’ll be the reason.
Stick around to the end for Dershowitz’ thoughts on Hillary Clinton’s latest excuse for losing in 2016, but don’t expect too much there, either. Rather than criticize Hillary, Dershowitz talks about trying to learn the proper lessons, and Pete Hegseth nearly jumps out of his chair to get a more direct reaction. Does Pete succeed? Alas, you’ll have to look for the rest of the segment on Fox News for that answer.

We Would Hate To Be This Engineer Or The Company For Which He Works

Engineer advised of cracking on bridge two days before collapse

Story highlights

  • The engineer's message about the cracks wasn't retrieved until Friday
  • Workers were trying to strengthen parts of bridge when it collapsed, NTSB says
(CNN)An engineer for the company that designed a pedestrian bridge that collapsed Thursday, killing at least six people, left a voice mail two days earlier for a Florida Department of Transportation employee advising there was "some cracking that's been observed on the north end of the span."
The state employee was out on assignment Tuesday and didn't hear the voice mail from W. Denney Pate of FIGG Bridge Engineers until he returned to the office Friday, the DOT said.
Pate's voice mail said the design company didn't see any safety concerns on the project near Florida International University but that the cracking was not a good development and would have to be repaired.
    The news came as the National Transportation Safety Board disclosed that construction crews were working on diagonal beams on the north end of a future pedestrian bridge when the structure collapsed.
    The NTSB investigator in charge, Robert Accetta, said Friday night it was too early to tell whether the bridge failed at the point construction workers were applying post-tensioning force to strengthen the beams.
    When asked about the cracking, Accetta said: "I would have to say that a crack in the bridge does not necessarily mean that it is unsafe."
    FIGG said it was working with the construction team to figure out why the bridge fell.
    "We are heartbroken by the loss of life and injuries, and are carefully examining the steps that our team has taken in the interest of our overarching concern for public safety. The evaluation was based on the best available information at that time and indicated that there were no safety issues," the company said.

    First victim identified

    The bridge, due to be finished in 2019, was supposed to enhance safety -- letting walkers cross a busy eight-lane street with less worry after a vehicle last year struck and killed an FIU student.
    Instead, it collapsed Thursday, months before it was to open, crushing cars below, killing at least six people and leaving investigators with the difficult task of trying to figure out why it happened and who might be held responsible.
    "If anybody's done anything wrong, we'll hold them accountable," Florida Gov. Rick Scott said.
    The structure's 950-ton main span had just been installed Saturday using an accelerated construction process meant in part to reduce the time that street traffic was halted.
    Emergency crews on Friday shifted their focus from a rescue mission to the "very slow process" of digging through the rubble for more victims and preserving evidence around the unstable bridge remnants, Miami-Dade police spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said.
    One of the things crews hope to do is raise the bridge off vehicles using a large inflatable airbag, a source close to the bridge collapse investigation told CNN.
    Recovery workers expect to find more bodies as debris is removed, Miami-Dade police Director Juan Perez said Friday. Of the six people who died, five bodies still were under the bridge wreckage Friday morning, Zabaleta said.
    Alexa Duran
    The first to be identified was an 18-year-old FIU student. The father of Alexa Duran told el Nuevo Herald newspaper in Miami that his daughter had died. "My little girl was trapped in the car and couldn't get out," Orlando Duran said.
    Duran was driving an SUV under the bridge. A male passenger was able to get out and is at a hospital with neck and leg injuries.

    Voice mail: 'I don't see safety concerns'

    According to a state DOT transcript, the voice mail message said: "Hey Tom, this is Denney Pate with FIGG Bridge Engineers. Calling to, uh, share with you some information about the FIU pedestrian bridge and some cracking that's been observed on the north end of the span, the pylon end of that span we moved this weekend.
    "Um, so, uh, we've taken a look at it and, uh, obviously some repairs or whatever will have to be done but from a safety perspective we don't see that there's any issue there so we're not concerned about it from that perspective although obviously the cracking is not good and something's going to have to be, ya know, done to repair that.
    "At any rate, I wanted to chat with you about that because I suspect at some point that's gonna get to your desk. So, uh, at any rate, call me back when you can. Thank you. Bye."

    Witness: 'Sounded like the world was ending'

    Witnesses described hearing a loud boom Thursday and moments later, finding victims, including construction workers, strewn throughout the wreckage. Other people were trapped in cars, they said.
    Giovanni Hernandez said it "sounded like a bomb, like multiple bombs in one."
    "It sounded like the world was ending, and when you look back, all you see is the bridge on the floor. It was awful," he told CNN affiliate WSVN.
    Sweetwater police Sgt. Jenna Mendez was stopped at a red light one intersection away when she saw the bridge crumble. At first, she thought, "Why would they have brought the bridge down during the day?"
    Mendez drove forward, saw crushed vehicles and realized "this was not on purpose, this was a catastrophe," she told CNN.
    She rushed into the debris and saw injured construction workers atop the detritus, she said.
    Two men had broken bones, and two others were unconscious -- one who wasn't breathing and the other with a major cut to this head. Mendez started chest compressions on the one who wasn't breathing, she said.
    "I started yelling to civilians in the crowd, 'Please get me doctors. ... I need help up here.' A doctor jumped up, and she started helping," Mendez said.
    Doctors and medical students ran to the scene from a nearby building and started treating victims, said Isabella Carrasco, a student at the University of Miami who had passed under the bridge in a car just before the collapse.
    Carrasco saw at least five cars crushed beneath the bridge, she said.
    "Someone on the side of the road had asked a police officer if she had heard any response from the people inside the car," Carrasco said, "and she shook her head and said no."
    Kendall Regional Medical Center received 10 patients, including two in critical condition, said Dr. Mark G. McKenney, the trauma medical director.

    Bridge designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane

    The under-construction bridge was meant to connect the FIU campus to the Sweetwater neighborhood, home to more than 4,000 of its students, according to a news release on the school's website. FIU is the second-largest public university in Florida, with about 50,000 students.
    The 174-foot main span had been assembled on the side of the road, allowing traffic to continue. Then, on Saturday -- at the start of FIU's weeklong spring break -- a rig moved the span into position over the street as community members gathered to watch. The process took about six hours.
    time-lapse video that FIU posted to YouTube shows some of the assembly, as well as Saturday's maneuvering of the span into place over 8th Street.
    The bridge was scheduled to open to foot traffic in 2019, and was designed to boost safety on busy 8th Street, where an 18-year-old FIU student was fatally struck by a vehicle in August.
    "It is exactly the opposite of what we had intended, and we want to express our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of those who have been affected," Rosenberg, the university's president, said in a video.
    "The bridge was about collaboration, about neighborliness, about doing the right thing," he said. "But today, we're sad. And all we can do is promise a very thorough investigation, to getting to the bottom of this and mourn those who we have lost."
    The bridge was designed to withstand the strength of a Category 5 hurricane, according to a fact sheet on FIU's website, and it was supposed to last for more than 100 years. It cost $14.2 million to build and was funded through a $19.4 million grant from the US Department of Transportation.
    Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) technology was used in the construction, according to the university. ABC streamlines the building process so bridge construction projects can be completed more quickly and be more cost-efficient.

    Construction firms vow to investigate

    Companies involved in the bridge construction expressed sympathy for the victims and pledged to find out what happened.
    Bridge collapse
    Map data ©2018 Google
    MCM, a construction firm building the bridge, said in a statement it would "conduct a full investigation to determine exactly what went wrong and will cooperate with investigators on scene in every way."
    FIGG Bridge Engineers stated: "We will fully cooperate with every appropriate authority in reviewing what happened and why. In our 40-year history, nothing like this has ever happened before."
    Bolton Perez and Associates, a third company involved in the construction of the bridge, would not immediately comment.
    The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the federal inquiry, and a team of investigators arrived Thursday night.
    CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the number of people killed.