Vigilant News

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Congress

As a Record Number of Hill Legislators Resign, Two More House Members Declare They Won’t Be Seeking Reelection

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This week saw two more members of the House, Democrat Wiley Nickel, and Republican Drew Ferguson, officially opting to not seek re-election.

According to Politico, Ferguson of Georgia stated that he would not seek reelection to his secure Republican seat. Reportedly, he unsuccessfully sought the position of majority whip while serving as chief deputy leader for the Republicans from 2019 to 2023.

Nickel is a first-term member of the House representing North Carolina. His reelection prospects were diminished when his district was redrawn by state Republican legislators.

“Republicans have rigged the system to favor themselves, and I don’t have a path to run for reelection,” said Nickel, who reportedly is considering a run in 2026 for the Senate seat held by North Carolina GOP Sen, Thom Tillis.

So far this year, a minimum of forty members of Congress (33 House members and seven senators) have declared their intention to abstain from running for re-election. TruthOut.org reports that thirteen senators and members of the House of Representatives withdrew their candidacies in November, the highest number to do so in a single month in over a decade.

 

Surveillance “Reform” Legislation Pulled by GOP Leadership
Last week we reported on two bills that would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

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Two bills seeking reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act were withdrawn from the floor by the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives. This action was taken in response to the criticism directed at Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for permitting the introduction of the bills.

RELATED: Surveillance “Reform” Legislation Proposed by the House Intelligence Committee Is Deceptive at Best, Destructive at Worst

Late Monday evening, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, a member of the House Rules Committee, verified to the Washington Examiner that neither of the Section 702 reform bills would be brought to the floor for a vote this week.

Republicans have been divided regarding the extension of Section 702 of FISA; therefore, Johnson had planned to introduce both bills on Tuesday and have the one that receives the most votes proceed to the Senate. The House Judiciary Committee introduced the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, whereas the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence introduced the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023.

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a member of the Judiciary Committee, allegedly accused Mike Turner, R-Ohio, chairman of the Intelligence Committee, of “f***ing lying” regarding the judiciary measure.

In the end, several members voiced their discontent with what they referred to as the “queen of the hill” strategy, in which a single measure would prevail, and they urged Johnson to choose and support one.

For now, the bills have been pulled.

 

 

Surveillance “Reform” Legislation Proposed by the House Intelligence Committee Is Deceptive at Best, Destructive at Worst

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Both the House Committee on the Judiciary (HJC) and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) marked up two bills that would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)—but in very different ways. The bills in question were H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, in HJC, and HR 6611, the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023, in HPSCI). Under a procedural rule known as “Queen of the Hill,” both measures will be presented on the House floor the following week. The bill that receives the most votes will be forwarded to the Senate for further deliberation.

Renewing any surveillance authority remains a convoluted and intricate matter; however, this decision is unambiguous: we strongly urge all Members to vote NO on H.R.6611, the FISA Reform and Reauthorization Act of 2023, the bill introduced by the Intelligence Committee.

A report published by HPSCI on November 16 advocated for the reauthorization of Section 702, stressing the need for only minimal reforms. The following legislation, H.R. 6611, was as disastrous as anticipated. It would extend for an additional eight years Section 702, which authorizes mass surveillance. It would establish new authorities that have been denied by the courts despite years of pursuit by the intelligence community. It would sustain the unrestricted gathering of communications from American citizens engaged in conversations with individuals located overseas, to provide such information to domestic law enforcement. This was not the intent of this national security program, and due to a vulnerability, communications of individuals on U.S. soil should not be collected without a warrant.

If the last decade is any indication, FISA is due for reform.

To reiterate, the purpose of Section 702 was to authorize warrantless surveillance of non-U.S. citizens overseas to gather foreign intelligence. Domestic law enforcement agencies are progressively surveilling this portion of digital communications that occur within the United States, without producing a warrant. Millions of intrusive searches for American communications, including those of dissidents, racial justice activists, 19,000 donors to a congressional campaign, journalists, and even members of Congress, have been conducted by FBI agents using the Section 702 databases.

This is not a partisan initiative, these resolutions affect us all while bolstering the surveillance state.

The HPSCI bill also includes a call “to define Electronic Communication Service Provider to include equipment.” Earlier this year, the FISA Court of Review released a highly redacted opinion documenting a fight over the government’s attempt to subject an unknown company to Section 702 surveillance. However, the court agreed that under the circumstances the company did not qualify as an “electronic communication service provider” under the law. Now, the HPSCI bill would expand that definition to include a much broader range of providers, including those who merely provide hardware through which people communicate on the Internet. Even without knowing the details of the secret court fight, this represents an ominous expansion of 702’s scope, which the committee introduced without any explanation or debate of its necessity.

In contrast, H.R. 6570, the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act, a measure from the House Judiciary Committee, would prohibit warrantless backdoor searches of Section 702 databases containing communications of Americans, thereby addressing a significant issue with that legislation. In addition, this legislation would forbid law enforcement from acquiring data on Americans that would otherwise require a warrant, thus bypassing fundamental constitutional safeguards. Significantly, this legislation would additionally reestablish this authority for a limited duration of three years, affording Congress an additional chance to reassess the implementation of the reforms and propose additional modifications should the government continue to exploit the program.

 

At Least Six Suspicious Activity Reports Were Lodged by Banks with Joe Biden’s Residence Listed, According to Senator

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U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin spent years investigating the first family’s finances and now claims that banks submitted a minimum of six reports pertaining to Hunter Biden’s international business dealings. These reports highlighted the Delaware address of President Joe Biden and sparked concerns regarding potential criminal activity such as money laundering and even human trafficking.

Thursday night, as the ranking Republican on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Johnson disclosed to John Soloman’s outlet Just the News that the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARS) documented transactions totaling approximately $12 million over multiple years, with a portion of those funds traversing Joe Biden’s residence in Wilmington, Del., where he had granted permission for his son to reside.

Johnson stated that Joe Biden would have undoubtedly detected his son’s use of his residence as a business and banking address, if only by observing the mail that arrived at the address. Further, he stated that there are ample reasons for House impeachment investigators to suspect Joe Biden of collusion in his son’s international dealings. Next week, the House will consider whether to formally authorize an impeachment investigation.

“There’d be so much activity coming into his address, in this case, Hunter Biden’s businesses, that he obviously would have to be aware,” Johnson claimed. “So, again, I just use the word obvious, It has been so obvious for so long, that Biden Inc. is a corrupt enterprise. And that this president is corrupt, that he is compromised.

“And he fully was aware of this, that he fully benefited from it. The members of his family benefited from all these millions of dollars flowing in from countries that are adversarial to America,” he added.

A few hours prior to the unsealing of a nine-count indictment against Hunter Biden in federal court in California by Special Counsel David Weiss, Johnson made this revelation. The indictment accuses Biden of engaging in a years-long tax evasion scheme, wherein he avoided paying $1.4 million in federal taxes on millions in foreign incomes originating from countries such as China, Ukraine, and Romania.

According to the indictment, “Rather than pay his taxes, the Defendant spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle.”

Johnson, in conjunction with OG Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), conducted a two-year investigation into the Biden family scandal. The investigation concluded in 2020 that Joe Biden’s family amassed millions of dollars in foreign currency from adversarial nations, thereby jeopardizing the first family’s national security. Johnson is one of the most knowledgeable members of Congress regarding the matter.

Since then, revelations from House investigators, IRS whistleblowers, and subpoenaed documents have only served to heighten Johnson’s concerns, he stated on Thursday.

“They (Biden family) did nothing for it (the money) other than they had the right name. And they were influence peddling. And the people paying these millions expected favors in return, some kind of public policy coming from the former vice president and maybe even a potential president of the United States. Now they got him. Now he’s compromised.”

Johnson stated that his team has been assisting House impeachment investigators and will provide the SAR-derived information regarding Joe Biden’s residence.

“We found six of the Treasury reports on Hunter Biden, listing his suspicious activities,” Johnson said. “The money flows in those reports are over $12 million. Now, there might be double counting in there, you just don’t really know exactly what the activity is. These reports are really meant to obviously raise awareness to prompt further investigation, which of course this Department of Justice, FBI, I don’t think did an honest job of doing.”

“But it does point out we know what’s suspicious about them and there are terms like money laundering, human trafficking, those types, that that’s why these transactions raise suspicion,” he continued. “I mean, Hunter Biden has dozens and dozens and dozens of these Treasury reports that are concerned about suspicious activities he’s undertaking in terms of money transfers. I mean, this is, again, it’s just to me, it just underscores and confirms the criminal nature, the corrupt nature of Biden family, Inc.”

Inquirers from Congress claim they have not identified over 150 SARs that have been lodged involving Biden family businesses and associates for nearly a decade. While Hunter Biden has faced charges related to firearms and taxes, it is noteworthy that neither he nor his father have ever faced formal accusations in court regarding money laundering or human trafficking. However, IRS witnesses have testified before Congress that concerns about a foreign human trafficking operation prompted the tax investigation into Hunter Biden.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) states that a Suspicious Activity notification is submitted “to report known or suspected violations of law or suspicious activity observed by financial institutions subject to the regulations of the Bank Secrecy Act.”

Prior to the September 2020 presidential election, it was reported that Senate committees chaired by Grassley and Johnson had obtained SARs detailing concerns raised by FinCEN regarding a number of foreign transactions involving companies connected to Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden’s work for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma and the millions of dollars he was paid for his board seat were detailed in the report by Grassley and Johnson. The Senators emphasized in particular how Hunter Biden’s work intersected with his father’s, then-Vice President Joe Biden’s, administration of official U.S. policy in Ukraine.

A $3.5 million wire from the widow of a Russian oligarch and Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ye Jianming, an energy executive with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, were also detailed in the report.

The Daily Mail had previously reported that it had reviewed Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) issued by the Treasury Department. These SARs allegedly indicate that payments from Hunter Biden’s personal and business accounts were monitored as late as December 2019 and that payments from those accounts were linked to an “Eastern European prostitution ring.”

Wells Fargo identified 25 individuals associated with the foreign prostitution operation and approximately $7 million in suspicious transactions, including checks from Hunter Biden that “could have been forged to conceal his payments to prostitutes from his business account,” as reported by the Daily Mail.

In addition, documents from IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler that were made public by the House Ways and Means Committee revealed that Hunter Biden spent money on escorts and claimed tax deductions for a portion of those payments. An investigator conducted an interview with one of Hunter Biden’s accountants and an alleged escort who described an encounter with the younger Biden for these documents.

Furthermore, it was testified by the IRS whistleblowers that they informed the Justice Department about a possible Mann Act violation while investigating Hunter Biden’s tax evasion. The Mann Act prohibits the interstate transportation of females “for the purpose of prostitution, debauchery, or any sexual activity that may result in criminal liability for any individual.”

Joe Biden’s residence has been linked to Hunter Biden’s dubious transactions on multiple occasions for this reason. Hunter Biden received two wire transfers from China in 2019 totaling $250,000 and $10,000, according to records of bank wires obtained by the House Oversight Committee in September.

James Comer, R-Kentucky, chairman of oversight, stated that two wires originating from China designated the Wilmington address of Joe Biden as the recipient. These payments were transmitted during Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

“Bank records don’t lie, but President Joe Biden does,”  Comer said in a press release at the time. “In 2020, Joe Biden told Americans that his family never received money from China. We’ve already proved that to be a lie earlier this year, and now we know that two wires originating from Beijing listed Joe Biden’s Wilmington home as the beneficiary address when he was running for President of the United States.”

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Sources:

“$24 Million From Foreign Nationals”: House Republicans Officialize Impeachment Inquiry Into Biden, Issue Resolution Prior To Scheduled Vote

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In anticipation of the vote scheduled for next week, which will officially commence the Biden impeachment investigation, Representative Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) has introduced a fourteen-page resolution endorsing the inquiry.

The resolution, which is scheduled for markup on Tuesday, December 12 and is therefore on track for a vote on Wednesday, reads:

“Directing certain committees to continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Joseph Biden, President of the United States of America, and for other purposes…”

Rep. Armstrong said in a statement:

“It’s time for the House to take the next step in the Biden impeachment investigation and adopt an impeachment inquiry resolution. The White House and multiple witnesses have repeatedly refused to cooperate with the investigation and have rejected subpoenas. Despite this refusal, the investigation has uncovered alarming details that demand further scrutiny,”

“The Biden family and associates received more than $24 million from foreign nationals. Joe Biden received $200,000 from his brother, James Biden, the same day James received a $200,000 loan from a failing rural hospital operator. Joe Biden also received $40,000 in laundered Chinese money from his brother and sister-in-law. It’s become clear that the Biden family sold influence around the world using Joe Biden’s name as the product. An investigation in any jurisdiction around the country would move forward if it had these facts. A vote on an impeachment inquiry puts the House in the best position to prevail in court and uncover the truth,”

The White House has put forth the argument that the Republican Party’s ongoing impeachment investigation lacks the formalization required by a vote, which is unconstitutional. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has strongly opposed this assessment.

“Constitutionally, it’s not required. Speaker said we’re [in] an impeachment inquiry, [then] we’re in an impeachment inquiry,” said Jordan. “But if you have a vote of the full House of Representatives and the majority say we’re in that official status as part of our overall oversight work or constitutional oversight duty that we have, it just helps us in court.”

As per the Hill:

In anticipation of that vote, Democrats and the White House in recent days pointed to previous statements from swing-seat Republicans and moderates casting doubt on whether impeachment is warranted. 

They have also pointed to cries from Republicans when Trump’s impeachment began without taking a formal vote. 

But many of those same GOP members say that taking the step to authorize an inquiry is a much different question than a vote on actual impeachment articles. 

The House’s Judiciary, Oversight, and Ways and Means committees have for months investigated both what they have deemed the Biden family finances and a Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden’s failure to pay taxes