Tag: attorneys general
Hacked Court Documents Implicate Gaetz In Misconduct Or Worse

Hacked Court Documents Implicate Gaetz In Misconduct Or Worse

Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz's problems are growing by the day.

The New York Timesreported on Tuesday that a hacker obtained "damaging" testimony both from the Department of Justice investigation into the former congressman’s alleged child sex trafficking, and from the House Ethics Committee's probe into his alleged drug-fueled sex parties.

According to the Times, the hacker obtained 24 exhibits, including sworn testimony from two women: one who said she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17, and another who said she witnessed the two having sex.

The Times reported:

The material apparently taken by the hacker is unredacted and includes the names and other personal information of the witnesses but is otherwise said to be more damaging to Mr. Gaetz than to his accusers, according to the person familiar with the hack. The hacker had not contacted the lawyers as of Tuesday morning, and it was not clear what motive the person might have.

Also looming over Gaetz is whether the House Ethics Committee will release its report from its yearslong probe into a number of allegations around him, including whether he “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”

The committee will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to publicly release the report.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to help Trump get Gaetz confirmed by keeping the report private, saying the Ethics Committee shouldn’t release the report because it would “be a terrible precedent to set” and “open a Pandora’s box” by saying the committee could release information on other former members of Congress. Gaetz resigned his seat shortly after Trump nominated him as attorney general, likely in an effort to keep this report from becoming public since the committee no longer has jurisdiction over former members.

House Ethics Committee Chair Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi said he won't be influenced by Johnson's desires.

“I appreciate Mike reaching out,” Guest told Politico, saying that Johnson called him to express his wishes for the report to remain sealed. “I don't see it having an impact on what we as a committee ultimately decide.”

Nearly 100 House Democrats also signed a letter urging the Ethics Committee to release the report.

From the letter:

We are aware that traditionally, the Ethics Committee stops investigations into alleged misconduct when a member of Congress resigns. However, there is precedent for the House and Senate ethics committees to continue their investigations and release findings after a member has resigned in a scandal. For example, the Committee continued investigating Rep. Eric Massa for inappropriate sexual behavior even after his resignation. Similarly, in 2011, the Senate Ethics Committee publicly released its report on Sen. John Ensign in the days following his resignation and forwarded the report to the Department of Justice and the Federal Election Commission.

We strongly believe that this situation meets or exceeds those standards. This is not a partisan issue. In a statement to reporters on November 14th, Republican Senator of Texas John Cornyn, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted, “I think that there should not be any limitations on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.”

Given the seriousness of the charges against Representative Gaetz, withholding the findings of your investigation may jeopardize the Senate's ability to provide fully informed, constitutionally required advice and consent regarding this nomination. Representative Gaetz’s abrupt resignation from Congress should not circumvent the Senate’s ability to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities.

We urge you to immediately release the Ethics Committee’s report into allegations of serious misconduct by former Congressman Matt Gaetz.

Meanwhile, Gaetz’s former House colleagues have been trashing Gaetz publicly.

Republican Rep. Max Miller of Ohio said that Gaetz is "literally worse than gum on the bottom of my shoe.”

“I’m looking at him as a member of Congress and the job that he has done here, and it has been abhorrent,” Miller told CNN. “I'm not the only one who thinks this way. I just say the quiet part out loud, and I wish other of my colleagues would have the same courage to do so.”

Republican Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia criticized Trump for nominating Gaetz in the first place, telling CNN of Trump’s decision to pick Gaetz, “It wasn't my decision to make, but I would have made it differently, I can tell you that."

What’s more, Politicoreported late on Monday that nearly a dozen Senate Republicans wouldn't commit to voting to confirm Gaetz. Of course, most Republicans are cowards who regularly cave to Trump, so you can't count on that many "no" votes in a potential confirmation vote. But the fact that they aren’t gung ho to defend Trump on this one is a telling signal that they don’t want to put their necks out for Gaetz.

Meanwhile, a poll from Echelon Insights, a Republican firm, found that Gaetz is the least popular of the cast of misfits Trump has so far nominated to serve in his administration. According to the survey, just 26 percent strongly or somewhat support Gaetz, while 37 percent strongly or somewhat oppose him—an 11-percentage-point deficit.

Even Trump seems to understand the peril Gaetz’s nomination is in.

The Timesreported that Trump believes Gaetz's chances at confirmation are less than 50-50.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

State Prosecutors Push Congress To Examine Herbal Supplement Industry

State Prosecutors Push Congress To Examine Herbal Supplement Industry

By Andrew Khouri, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Attorneys general from 14 states are calling on Congress to investigate the herbal supplements industry following a report from New York’s top prosecutor that alleged many products contained ingredients that were not listed on their labels and that could pose serious health risks.

The group, led by New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller, asked Congress to give the Food and Drug Administration more authority to oversee the industry.

“We believe the safety and efficacy of these supplements is a matter of deep public concern across the country. We therefore urge you to take swift action,” the attorneys general said in a letter Thursday to lawmakers.

In February, Schneiderman sent letters to General Nutrition Corp., Target Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Walgreen Co., demanding that they stop selling their store-brand herbal supplements.

His office alleged that 79 percent of products tested from the four retailers had no DNA of the plants listed on the labels or were contaminated by wheat, pine, rice, beans, and other materials.

Schneiderman’s testing method — DNA bar-coding — was criticized by the supplement industry and outside experts.

In a settlement Monday, Schneiderman’s office cleared GNC to sell some of its most popular products, including echinacea, ginseng, and St. John’s Wort.

State investigators found “no evidence” that GNC had deviated from Food and Drug Administration standards or from standard industry practice in producing the supplements, according to a letter Schneiderman sent to GNC’s chairman, Michael Archbold.

However, the two sides continued to disagree on whether federal rules, which don’t require DNA-based testing to authenticate herbal supplements, are sufficient.

GNC said its own testing had shown that its store-brand herbal supplements were “safe, pure” and “properly labeled.”

But GNC said it agreed to expand testing, including the use of DNA bar-coding, to give customers “even greater confidence.”

Photo: Heather Bauer via Flickr

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