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Tag: Bribery

  • Former Harvard fencing coach and Maryland businessman are both acquitted of bribery charges | CNN

    Former Harvard fencing coach and Maryland businessman are both acquitted of bribery charges | CNN

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    CNN
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    A former Harvard fencing coach and a Maryland businessman were both acquitted of conspiring to get the businessman’s two sons admitted to Harvard in exchange for more than $1.5 million in bribes, authorities announced Wednesday.

    Former fencing coach Peter Brand, 67, and businessman Jack Zhao, 61, were acquitted of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery and federal programs bribery – more than two years after they were indicted, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.

    Brand’s attorney said the verdict exonerates his client.

    “We are very grateful to the jury for their service and careful consideration of the evidence,” Attorney Douglas Brooks said. “Today’s verdict exonerates Peter Brand who is 100% innocent.”

    Attorney Bill Weinreb, who represents Zhao, told CNN, “We are grateful to the jury for their service and for doing justice in this case.”

    Brand was Harvard’s men’s and women’s fencing coach from 1999 until 2019, when Harvard University fired him, months after he was accused of selling his home to Zhao, whose son was actively looking to apply to the school.

    The sale of the Needham, Massachusetts, home in 2016 particularly drew investigators attention because Zhao bought it for almost twice what a tax document said it was worth.

    The purchase of the home was among $1.5 million in payments scrutinized by prosecutors in the case, including a large payment to Brand’s charitable foundation and college tuition payments for Brand’s son.

    Zhao has two sons who are fencers and were admitted to Harvard. He denied the bribery allegations and his attorney has called his children academic and fencing stars who got into Harvard on their own merit.

    After the two men were acquitted, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office in the District of Massachusetts told CNN in a statement that they fundamentally disagreed with but respected the verdict.

    “This case was prosecuted for the millions of high school seniors and their families who engage in the stressful and humbling exercise of applying to college every year. That process is supposed to be a meritocracy,” the US Attorney’s Office statement read. “The instant case exposed such profound levels of privilege, entitlement and wealth abusing the college admissions process that something had to be done. And I am proud that we did.”

    The case against Brand and Zhao came amid a sprawling college admissions scam, first revealed in March 2019, in which rich parents of college applicants used their wealth to cheat on standardized tests, bribe sports coaches and lie about the payments.

    “Our trial team worked tirelessly and tried an excellent case. Their efforts were not in vain,” US Attorney’s Office said. “This case and all of the college admissions prosecutions have led to significant reforms at colleges and universities across the country aimed at curtailing the ability of those with means and access to flagrantly ignore the rules that apply to everyone else.”

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  • Reformers take 6 of 14 UAW board seats, could win majority

    Reformers take 6 of 14 UAW board seats, could win majority

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    DETROIT — Reform-minded candidates won several races as members of the United Auto Workers union voted on their leaders in an election that stemmed from a federal bribery and embezzlement scandal involving former union officials.

    In unofficial results posted early Sunday on a federal court-appointed monitor’s website, challengers took six of 14 seats on the union’s International Executive Board. They could win as many as eight, including the presidency, and control a majority, depending on the outcome of three runoff elections.

    The reform candidates, most part of a slate called UAW Members United, campaigned on taking a more confrontational stance in bargaining with Detroit’s three automakers. They want to rescind concessions made to companies in previous contract talks, restoring cost-of-living pay raises and eliminating a two-tier wage and benefit system.

    The adversarial stance is likely to raise costs for General Motors, Ford and Stellantis, which almost certainly would be passed on to consumers. Even without the election, costs likely would have gone up as workers seek a bigger share of billions of dollars in profits.

    In the race for president, incumbent Ray Curry defeated challenger Shawn Fain by 614 votes. Curry had 38.2% of the vote to Fain’s 37.6%. But neither got a majority in the five-candidate field, so there will be a runoff election in January.

    Mike Booth and Rich Boyer, both from Members United, took two of three vice president slots. Two vice president candidates from Curry’s Solidarity Team slate, incumbent Chuck Browning and Tim Bressler, will compete in a runoff for the third vice president slot.

    Members United candidate Margaret Mock ousted current Secretary-Treasurer Frank Stuglin. Reform-minded candidates took three regional director slots, with another headed for a runoff.

    Winners will be sworn in on Dec. 12. Ballots for the runoff elections will be mailed Jan. 12 with a Feb. 28 deadline to return them. Votes will be counted starting March 1, according to the website of Monitor Neil Barofsky.

    In an interview, Fain said the election puts the companies on notice “to get ready. We’re coming for you.” He said companies are making billions of dollars and have closed or spun off plants and failed to give the Stellantis plant in Belvidere, Illinois, a new vehicle to build after it stops making its current model.

    “It’s just a fact that over the years our leadership has become way too close to management,” he said.

    Curry’s slate said in a statement that it is fighting for all active and retired members. “Our member expectations are high, and our team has the experience and proven track record to both build coalitions for the fight and deliver results,” it said.

    Curry, elected by a vote of the International Executive Board in 2021 to replace retiring Rory Gamble, said at a September candidates’ forum that he has put financial safeguards and reforms in place and has plans to bring union members “back into greater days.” He said the union also has plans to recruit new members.

    “We don’t just make false demands and deliver false hopes,” he said.

    Turnout in the election for the 372,000-member union was low. Of about 1 million ballots mailed to active members and retirees, only 10.5% were returned.

    The 2023 contract talks come at a critical juncture for the union, which faces a transition from internal combustion vehicles to those that run on batteries. With fewer moving parts, fewer people will be needed to make electric vehicles, and jobs making engines and transmissions could be shifted to battery assembly plants that might not be unionized.

    The election came after union members last December decided to directly vote on leaders for the first time instead of having them picked by delegates to a convention.

    Under the old system, convention delegates were picked by local union offices. But the new slate of officers was selected by the current leadership, and there was rarely any serious opposition.

    The voting happened after 11 union officials and a late official’s spouse pleaded guilty in the corruption probe, including the two former presidents, Gary Jones and Dennis Williams. Both were sentenced to prison. The first criminal charges in the probe were filed in 2017.

    To avoid a federal takeover, the union agreed to reforms and Barofsky’s appointment to oversee the UAW and elections of the executive board.

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  • Reform candidates lead in UAW races with 68% of vote counted

    Reform candidates lead in UAW races with 68% of vote counted

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    DETROIT — Members of the United Auto Workers union appeared on Thursday to favor replacing many of their current leaders in an election that stemmed from a federal bribery and embezzlement scandal involving former union officials.

    Reform-minded candidates, many part of the UAW Members United slate, are leading or close in multiple key races with about 68% of the vote counted. Many challengers campaigned on rescinding concessions made to companies in previous contract talks, including cost-of-living pay raises, elimination of a two-tier wage and benefit system, and other items.

    That could raise costs for Detroit’s three automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — and almost inevitably will drive up already expensive auto prices.

    With tallies from six of nine UAW regions counted, incumbent President Ray Curry had a slim lead over Shawn Fain, an international union official who started at a Stellantis plant in Kokomo, Indiana, in a five-candidate race.

    Curry had 38.6% of the vote, while Fain was second with 38%. There likely will be a runoff election early next year between Fain and Curry since neither had a majority of the votes.

    In the race for three vice presidents, Rich Boyer and Mike Booth, both Members United candidates, are first and second in an eight-candidate field, followed by incumbent Vice President Chuck Browning. A runoff could happen there, too.

    Margaret Mock, the Members United candidate for secretary-treasurer, had 62.6% of the vote to lead incumbent Frank Stuglin at 37.4%. Where tallies have been completed, candidates who campaigned on reforming the union also won three of nine regional director positions, with another heading to a runoff.

    It wasn’t clear when the vote count would be finished. The ballots are being counted by a company hired by a court-appointed monitor who is overseeing the election and the union.

    Fain led the Members United ticket, which campaigned on reforming the 372,000-member UAW after the scandal. The election also has broad implications for contract talks with the Detroit auto companies that start next year.

    Fain has advocated for more of a confrontational stance and has accused union leadership of complacency. He has said the UAW has had a philosophy for 40 years of viewing automakers as partners rather than adversaries.

    He said it’s too early to declare a winner but said in an interview Thursday that the early vote totals are “a loud and clear message to the companies and the businesses to get ready, we’re coming for you.”

    The automakers, he said, are making making the best profits in their history, yet are closing factories and costing union jobs. He gave General Motors’ 2019 closure of its Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant as an example, plus a lack of new vehicles for Stellantis’ Belvidere, Illinois, plant, which he said has lost 3,000 workers.

    At a candidates’ forum in September, Fain said union leaders should have reversed concessions made starting in 2007 and should have won job security guarantees.

    “We’ve had at least 10 years with perfect conditions for regaining and improving what was lost during the Great Recession,” he said.

    The contract talks come at a critical juncture for the union, which faces a transition from internal combustion vehicles to those that run on batteries. With fewer moving parts, fewer people will be needed to make electric vehicles, and jobs making engines and transmissions could be shifted to battery assembly plants that might not be unionized.

    The election came after union members last December decided to directly vote on leaders for the first time instead of having them picked by delegates to a convention.

    Under the old system, convention delegates were picked by local union offices. But the new slate of officers was selected by the current leadership, and there was rarely any serious opposition.

    A company hired by Monitor Neil Barofsky mailed out about 1 million ballots to active and retired union members. But only 106,790, roughly 10.7%, were returned.

    The voting happened after 11 union officials and a late official’s spouse pleaded guilty in the corruption probe since 2017, including the two former presidents, Gary Jones and Dennis Williams. Both were sentenced to prison.

    To avoid a federal takeover, the union agreed to reforms and Barofsky’s appointment to oversee elections of the 14-member executive board.

    Curry, appointed in 2021 to replace retiring Rory Gamble to lead the union, said he has put financial safeguards and reforms in place and has plans to bring union members “back into greater days.” He said at the candidates’ forum that the union also has plans to recruit new members.

    “We don’t just make false demands and deliver false hopes,” he said.

    ————

    This story has been corrected to show that 68% of the vote has been counted, not 73%.

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  • Reform candidates lead in UAW races with 73% of vote counted

    Reform candidates lead in UAW races with 73% of vote counted

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    DETROIT — Members of the United Auto Workers union appeared on Thursday to favor replacing many of their current leaders in an election that stemmed from a federal bribery and embezzlement scandal involving former union officials.

    Reform-minded candidates, many part of the UAW Members United slate, are leading or close in multiple key races with about 73% of the vote in. Many challengers campaigned on rescinding concessions made to companies in previous contract talks, including cost-of-living pay raises, elimination of a two-tier wage and benefit system, and other items.

    That could raise costs for Detroit’s three automakers — General Motors, Ford and Stellantis — and almost inevitably will drive up already expensive auto prices.

    With tallies from six of nine UAW regions counted, incumbent President Ray Curry had a slim lead over Shawn Fain, an international union official who started at a Stellantis plant in Kokomo, Indiana, in a five-candidate race.

    Curry had 38.6% of the vote, while Fain was second with 38%. There likely will be a runoff election early next year between Fain and Curry since neither had a majority of the votes.

    In the race for three vice presidents, Rich Boyer and Mike Booth, both Members United candidates, are first and second in an eight-candidate field, followed by incumbent Vice President Chuck Browning. A runoff could happen there, too.

    Margaret Mock, the Members United candidate for secretary-treasurer, had 62.6% of the vote to lead incumbent Frank Stuglin at 37.4%. Where tallies have been completed, candidates who campaigned on reforming the union also won three of nine regional director positions, with another heading to a runoff.

    It wasn’t clear when the vote count would be finished. The ballots are being counted by a company hired by a court-appointed monitor who is overseeing the election and the union.

    Fain led the Members United ticket, which campaigned on reforming the 372,000-member UAW after the scandal. The election also has broad implications for contract talks with the Detroit auto companies that start next year.

    Fain has advocated for more of a confrontational stance and has accused union leadership of complacency. He has said the UAW has had a philosophy for 40 years of viewing automakers as partners rather than adversaries.

    He hasn’t declared victory but said in an interview Thursday that the early vote totals are “a loud and clear message to the companies and the businesses to get ready, we’re coming for you.”

    The automakers, he said, are making making the best profits in their history, yet are closing factories and costing union jobs. He gave General Motors’ 2019 closure of its Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant as an example, plus a lack of new vehicles for Stellantis’ Belvidere, Illinois, plant, which he said has lost 3,000 workers.

    At a candidates’ forum in September, Fain said union leaders should have reversed concessions made starting in 2007 and should have won job security guarantees.

    “We’ve had at least 10 years with perfect conditions for regaining and improving what was lost during the Great Recession,” he said.

    The contract talks come at a critical juncture for the union, which faces a transition from internal combustion vehicles to those that run on batteries. With fewer moving parts, fewer people will be needed to make electric vehicles, and jobs making engines and transmissions could be shifted to battery assembly plants that might not be unionized.

    The election came after union members last December decided to directly vote on leaders for the first time instead of having them picked by delegates to a convention.

    Under the old system, convention delegates were picked by local union offices. But the new slate of officers was selected by the current leadership, and there was rarely any serious opposition.

    A company hired by Monitor Neil Barofsky mailed out about 1 million ballots to active and retired union members. But only 106,790, roughly 10.7%, were returned.

    The voting happened after 11 union officials and a late official’s spouse pleaded guilty in the corruption probe since 2017, including the two former presidents, Gary Jones and Dennis Williams. Both were sentenced to prison.

    To avoid a federal takeover, the union agreed to reforms and Barofsky’s appointment to oversee elections of the 14-member executive board.

    Curry, appointed in 2021 to replace retiring Rory Gamble to lead the union, said he has put financial safeguards and reforms in place and has plans to bring union members “back into greater days.” He said at the candidates’ forum that the union also has plans to recruit new members.

    “We don’t just make false demands and deliver false hopes,” he said.

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  • Former tribal leader gets 3 years in casino bribery case

    Former tribal leader gets 3 years in casino bribery case

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    BOSTON — The former leader of a Massachusetts Native American tribe convicted of accepting bribes including exercise equipment and a weekend stay at a luxury hotel from an architectural firm working with the tribe to build a casino has been sentenced to three years in prison.

    Cedric Cromwell, former chair of the Mashpee Wampanoags, was also sentenced in U.S. District Court in Boston on Tuesday to a year of probation and was fined $25,000, according to prosecutors.

    David DeQuattro, 56, the owner of the Rhode Island architecture and design firm, was sentenced to a year of probation under home confinement and fined $50,000.

    The Cape Cod-based tribe, which currently has about 2,600 enrolled citizens, in an impact statement signed by current Chair Brian Weeden said it has been “irreparably harmed” by Cromwell’s conduct.

    “For over 400 years, the Tribe has fought to preserve its culture, lands and protect its people from constant exploitation and oppression,” Weeden wrote. “And yet, we are now facing the ultimate betrayal by one elected and entrusted to lead and act in the best interests of our Tribal Nation and future seven generations.”

    He noted that while Cromwell was enriching himself, tribal members “struggled under the pressures of increased homelessness, unemployment, alcohol and opioid addiction, and other traumas.”

    Cromwell, 57, apologized in court.

    “I will spend the rest of my life seeking redemption,” he said, The Boston Globe reported.

    DeQuatto’s attorney called his client’s actions an “aberration.”

    Cromwell, who also was the president of the tribe’s five-member gaming authority, received $10,000 from DeQuattro in November 2015 that was deposited into an account for a company called One Nation Development LLC, which Cromwell founded to help Native tribes with economic development, prosecutors said.

    But One Nation Development had no employees and Cromwell spent the money on personal expenses, prosecutors said.

    He asked for, and received from DeQuattro and his business partner, a $1,700 home gym in August 2016, prosecutors said.

    Cromwell also asked DeQuattro to pay for a three-night stay at a luxury Boston hotel in May 2017 so he could celebrate his birthday with someone he described as a “special guest.” The stay cost $1,800, prosecutors said.

    Cromwell was convicted in May of bribery and extortion charges. DeQuattro was convicted of a bribery charge. Cromwell still faces multiple counts of filing a false tax return.

    Meanhwile, plans for the proposed $1 billion casino in Taunton remain on hold.

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  • Former North Dakota tribal official pleads guilty to bribery

    Former North Dakota tribal official pleads guilty to bribery

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    BISMARCK, N.D. — A former government official of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks from a construction contractor pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges in North Dakota.

    Randall Phelan, 58, of Mandaree, North Dakota, was an elected representative of the governing body of the Three Affiliated Tribes from the end of 2012 to the middle of 2020. Investigators said Phelan used his official position to help the contractor’s business by awarding contracts, fabricating bids and managing fraudulent invoices.

    His trial had been scheduled to begin Tuesday.

    Phelan and two others were originally charged with receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from the bribery scheme that lasted for eight years on the oil-rich Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The contractor has pleaded guilty to bribery and has been cooperating with prosecutors. Prosecutors said the business received more than $17 million over the past decade for construction work on the reservation.

    Phelan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds, honest services wire fraud and bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. Sentencing is set for Feb. 22.

    Michael Hoffman, an attorney for Phelan, did not immediately respond to an email request seeking comment.

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  • Former veteran California FBI agent convicted of bribery

    Former veteran California FBI agent convicted of bribery

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    LOS ANGELES — A former FBI agent in Northern California who handled national security issues was convicted Tuesday of accepting at least $150,000 in gifts and cash bribes to provide confidential information to a man with organized crime ties, prosecutors said.

    Babak Broumand, 56, of Lafayette, was found guilty in Los Angeles of conspiracy, bribery of a public official and monetary transactions in property derived from unlawful activity, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

    He could face 15 to 45 years in federal prison when he is sentenced in January.

    Broumand, who joined the FBI in 1999, worked until 2018 in the bureau’s San Francisco office, where he was responsible for national security investigations, prosecutors said.

    Prosecutors said from 2015 to 2018, Broumand accepted “cash, checks, private jet flights, a Ducati motorcycle, hotel stays, escorts, meals, and other items of value” in return for searching law enforcement databases to help a self-proclaimed lawyer and his criminal associates learn if they were under investigation and avoid prosecution.

    Court documents refer to the lawyer only as “E.S.” but his name was Edgar Sargsyan, who earlier pleaded guilty to bribing Broumand and another federal agent and testified at his trial.

    The two men were introduced at a Beverly Hills cigar club.

    Sargsyan has admitted making a fortune by stealing identities, making credit card charges and taking out bank loans in their names, and while he falsely claimed to be an attorney he acknowledged actually paying a friend to take the bar exam under his name, the Los Angeles Times reported.

    “To conceal the nature of their corrupt relationship, Broumand made it falsely appear that E.S. was working as an FBI source” and wrote false reports stating he was making legitimate database queries, according to the Department of Justice.

    One involved Levon Termendzhyan, whom prosecutors described as an Armenian organized crime figure for whom Sargsyan had worked.

    Termendzhyan was convicted in 2020 in a Utah federal court of involvement in a $1 billion fraud scheme involving renewable fuel tax credits, prosecutors said. He awaits sentencing.

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  • ‘Maybe they don’t exist’: Republicans question legitimacy of alleged audio recordings of Biden bribery scheme | CNN Politics

    ‘Maybe they don’t exist’: Republicans question legitimacy of alleged audio recordings of Biden bribery scheme | CNN Politics

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    CNN
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    Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa claimed on the Senate floor earlier this week that the foreign national who allegedly bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter has 17 audio recordings of their conversations but questioned whether those tapes even existed in an interview with CNN days later.

    “I don’t even know where they are. I just know they exist, because of what the report says. Now, maybe they don’t exist. But how will I know until the FBI tells us, are they showing us their work?” Grassley said Thursday.

    And Grassley is not the only Republican questioning the validity of the supposed tapes.

    House Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, who is overseeing the GOP investigation into the Biden family business dealings and has been quick to make the alleged bribery scheme a focus of his work, admitted to not knowing whether the tapes were legitimate.

    “We don’t know if they’re legit or not, but we know that the foreign national claims he has them,” Comer said of the alleged recordings during a Tuesday interview on Newsmax.

    House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, who also serves on the Oversight panel and has made the Department of Justice and FBI a target of his investigative efforts, told CNN of the tapes, “I have no reason to doubt anything Senator Grassley says, but I don’t know if they exist or not.”

    And Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, who led his own investigation into the Biden family in 2020 and has long peddled the notion of wrongdoing, said in a separate Newsmax interview, “I’m not even aware that we verified those recordings exist.”

    The tapes are the latest unverified allegations Republicans have raised as they’ve launched investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings as well as the work of the FBI. While Republicans have used their subpoena power to go after the Biden family’s foreign business dealings, they have still not established a direct link to President Biden.

    Grassley first raised the existence of audio recordings after the FBI document that memorializes these allegations redacted them in the version shown to House Oversight Committee members.

    Prior to the full committee viewing the redacted document, Comer and the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, had viewed a version of the document that included mention of the recordings, according to two sources familiar with their briefing.

    In a statement to CNN the chairman said, “The FBI’s Biden bribery record contains several investigative leads, but it is unclear what, if anything, the FBI has done to verify these allegations.”

    The FBI document at the heart of this debate, known as an FD-1023, summarizes multiple conversations a trusted FBI informant had with a foreign national alleging that an executive with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma offered both Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden bribes of $5 million.

    Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump to serve during his administration, said when these bribery allegations came to light he tapped Pittsburgh US Attorney Scott Brady to look into the 1023 form and other claims. Barr has described this effort as a “screening, clearing house function” and said once the information was checked out the allegations were passed on to Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, who is overseeing an ongoing criminal investigation into Hunter Biden. Investigators were unable to corroborate the claims in the 1023.

    “That information was checked out, and it was determined that it was not likely to have been disinformation. It doesn’t say whether it’s true or not, but there was no sign there was disinformation. And so it was provided to the ongoing investigation in Delaware to follow up on and check out,” Barr said on Fox last week.

    Acting assistant director for the FBI’s office of congressional affairs Christopher Dunham has explained in previous correspondence with Congress that an FD-1023 form is “used by FBI agents to record unverified reporting from a confidential human source,” and noted that there are strict Justice Department guidelines about when that information can be provided outside of the FBI.

    Comer subpoenaed the document last month, and House Republicans have railed against the FBI for continuing to keep an unclassified document under close hold.

    “Congress still lacks a full and complete picture with respect to what that document really says. That’s why it’s important that the document be made public without unnecessary redactions for the American people to see,” Grassley said on the floor earlier this week.

    House Republicans were poised to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress earlier this month for his refusal to turn over the document, but a last-minute deal between Comer and Wray that included allowing the full committee to view the form halted the contempt proceedings. They are still publicly clamoring for the FBI to provide more detail about what steps were taken to investigate the claims in the document.

    Democrats meanwhile continue to dismiss the allegations. The White House continues to frame Republicans’ investigative efforts as politically motivated. White House spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement to CNN, “Everything in their so-called investigation seems to be mysteriously missing: informants, audio tapes, and most importantly of all – any credible evidence.”

    Raskin, who has painted the allegations as secondhand, told CNN, “It was thoroughly checked out by the Trump Justice Department, and they couldn’t find anything there. And if anybody would have an incentive to find something there it would have been the Trump Justice Department.”

    Another Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida, accused Republicans of having alternative motives for surfacing the allegations in the first place.

    “What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to muddy the water because Trump is in so much trouble. They got to distract from that and pretend like, you know Joe Biden, which they say he’s sleepy and boring, is now somehow Tony Soprano,” he said.

    But Republicans who viewed the version of the FD-1023 form that redacted mention of the audio recordings are continuing to raise questions.

    One of those members, GOP Rep. Russell Fry of South Carolina, told CNN, “My assumption was that if they were going to redact things in that document that it would have been names and places and not actual corroborating evidence. So I think it’s unfortunate that the FBI decided to do that. And I look forward to seeing hopefully an unredacted copy of that 1023.”

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