Fun With The FEC: Elijah Cummings's Wife Is Just Like Every Other Wife In D.C.

I hope everyone understand that, for the first time in history, campaign finance operations are about to be exposed for what they truly are.

Money laundering operations.

This situation is small potatoes compared to what the GOP and DNC do.

I guess we will just have to wait and see what the FEC does because Terry McAuliffe and Betsy DeVos have yet to be addressed when it comes to their highly creative and sophisticated financial fraud schemes.

Elaine Chao, Trump cabinet member and wife of McConnell, used her post to promote a family business

I forgot to mention that #perkinscoiesucks.

ELIJAH CUMMINGS’S WIFE USED HER CHARITY TO PAY HER FOR-PROFIT COMPANY, DOCUMENTS SHOW

Rockeymoore Cummings’s charity is funded by companies with interests before her husband’s congressional committee, according to the Washington Examiner.

“It’s self-dealing. It’s taking the charity’s resources and turning them into personal profits,” National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) investigator Tom Anderson told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “IRS law doesn’t allow a charity for this purpose. This isn’t for the public interest, this is for her personal interest. You can’t do that.”

Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, listed his wife’s LLC on his most recent financial disclosure reports as an asset worth between $250,001 and $500,000.

The NLPC filed an IRS complaint against Rockeymoore Cummings’s charity and LLC in May, alleging that companies with interests before the House Oversight Committee are potentially buying favorable treatment from the congressman through their donations to the charity.

“The problem is there are millions of dollars coming into these entities from corporations and special interests with business before Elijah Cummings, and any time you have that, every rule has to be followed or else it opens the door for massive corruption,” Anderson previously told TheDCNF.

Multiple nonprofit experts are questioning why Rockeymoore Cummings’s private company charges a 5% management fee to her charity on top of a cost-sharing agreement.

Charity Watch President Daniel Borochoff said the funds flowing from Rockeymoore Cummings’s charity from the 5% management fee is problematic given her husband’s regulatory authority over the business interests funding her charity.

“That connection could be made,” Borochoff said. “All the more reason to get rid of that 5% arrangement.

“My advice to them: get rid of the percentage arrangement and pay the LLC for whatever work its performing, but also to do whatever it can to separate the for-profit from the nonprofit,” he added.

Sally Wagenmaker, a Chicago attorney who specializes in nonprofit tax law, said that while cost-sharing agreements between charities and other entities are common, the management fee Rockeymoore Cummings charges her charity “raises a potential red flag.”

“Given Rockeymoore’s involvement with both entities, there should be very robust documentation and practices showing that the Center’s charitable funds have been appropriately used for such ‘management’ fees paid to” the LLC, Wagenmaker told TheDCNF.

Scott Walter, the president of the conservative watchdog group Capital Research Center, added: “It’s a red flag for a powerful member like Elijah Cummings to have a family member receiving money from entities with issues before his powerful committee.”

Walter said the financial details of Rockeymoore Cummings’s charity and for-profit venture “raises lots of red flags that deserve investigation by the proper authorities, even though the full picture is unclear because of the complexity of the law and the incompleteness of the publicly disclosed information.”

Cummings pushed back against the NLPC’s IRS complaint against his wife’s companies in May, saying they were a “fabricated distraction” from an organization “funded by right-wing mega-donors known for their political hit jobs.”

Rockeymoore Cummings, who chairs the Maryland Democratic Party, added in a statement that her organizations “have been guided by legal and accounting professionals and comply with accepted industry and ethical standards.”

Neither Cummings or Rockeymoore Cummings returned a request for comment.

CGPS 2015 Audited Financial... by on Scribd

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Elijah Cummings Has Left Congress Forever

Much love, Elijah.

US Rep. Elijah Cummings has died from complications of longtime health challenges, his office said in a statement

October 17, 2019

BALTIMORE (AP) ⁠— Maryland Rep. Elijah E. Cummings died early Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital due to complications from longstanding health challenges, his congressional office said. He was 68.

A sharecropper's son, Cummings became the powerful chairman of a U.S. House committee that investigated President Donald Trump, and was a formidable orator who passionately advocated for the poor in his black-majority district, which encompasses a large portion of Baltimore as well as more well-to-do suburbs.

As chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Cummings led multiple investigations of the president's governmental dealings, including probes in 2019 relating to the president's family members serving in the White House.

Trump responded by criticizing the Democrat's district as a "rodent-infested mess" where "no human being would want to live." The comments came weeks after Trump drew bipartisan condemnation following his calls for Democratic congresswomen of color to get out of the U.S. "right now," and go back to their "broken and crime-infested countries."

Cummings replied that government officials must stop making "hateful, incendiary comments" that only serve to divide and distract the nation from its real problems, including mass shootings and white supremacy.

"Those in the highest levels of the government must stop invoking fear, using racist language and encouraging reprehensible behavior," Cummings said in a speech at the National Press Club.

Cummings' long career spanned decades in Maryland politics. He rose through the ranks of the Maryland House of Delegates before winning his congressional seat in a special election in 1996 to replace former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who left the seat to lead the NAACP.

Cummings continued his rise in Congress. In 2016, he was the senior Democrat on the House Benghazi Committee, which he said was "nothing more than a taxpayer-funded effort to bring harm to Hillary Clinton's campaign" for president.

Cummings was an early supporter of Barack Obama's presidential bid in 2008.

I'm begging the American people to pay attention to what is going on. Because if you want to have a democracy intact for your children, and your children's children, and generations yet unborn we've got to guard this moment…this is our watch. pic.twitter.com/ShTZwbQROP

— Elijah E. Cummings (@RepCummings) July 24, 2019

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

OVERSIGHT: House Oversight Committee to vote on holding Barr, Ross in contempt - SCOTUS v. Congress - Who Will Speak First Upon Trafficking Tiny Humans

This is about the 2020 Census question of citizenship.

So, riddle me this:

If a child is a citizen of Country A, and enters the County B "illegally", where the child from Country A, is placed in the legal custody of a state, privately contracted, foreign corporation, state licensed Child Placing Agency, through an ex-parte legal proceeding, under exigent circumstances, where parental rights are terminated and transferred to the new, foreign corporate parent, being Country C, what is the citizenship of that child?

No one wants to speak upon the industry of trafficking tiny humans.

Now, riddle me this:

If a U.S. child is legally kidnapped by Child Protective Services, functioning as foreign Public Private Partnerships, like Bethany Christian, through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, placed under aegis of the Guardian Ad Litem of the corporation, is the citizenship of the child Israeli?

Ok, now let us just bifurcate the body and the spirit, or the legal personae, the identity, and the deposit of the chattel of the child, or rather the identity, into a trust, where there are insurance policies, what is the citizenship of the soul?

This is about residuals of the peculiar institution and those databases and intellectual property, which are all part of the children's trusts that these people, who refuse to speak upon this, are in this Committee.

The Census counts body and souls because there is so much fraud, it would completely unravel society as we know it.

This is the destruction of voting rights.

This is gerrymandering.

These are crimes of war.

Welcome to Detroit.

#sayhisname

House Panel Votes For Contempt For Barr, Ross As Justice Dept. Holds Back Documents

Oversight committee Chairman Elijah Cummings can now, with the assent of the House leadership, file suit and ask a judge to order William Barr and Wilbur Ross to provide the census materials he wants.

The separation-of-powers standoff between Congress and the executive branch deepened on Wednesday over a dispute about access to materials involving the controversial citizenship question planned for the 2020 census.

The Justice Department notified the House oversight committee that it's withholding documents sought by the panel's chairman because it says they're shielded by executive privilege — the doctrine that permits an administration to conceal some of its internal workings.

House Votes To Let Its Leaders Pursue Contempt Lawsuits In Trump Inquiries

The letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd arrived electronically at the Capitol at the same time Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., had convened a hearing at which the committee debated whether to find Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt of Congress.

After a day's worth of discussion and amendments, it did, voting 24 to 15 by the late afternoon on contempt for the Cabinet officials.

Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., who has lately stepped up his criticism of Trump, broke with Republicans to support the measure.

The dispute over documents

Boyd's letter blamed Cummings for the administration's invocation of privilege.

The Justice Department has already provided tens of thousands of documents and access to witnesses but nothing is ever enough, officials say — and Democrats' threats of contempt meant these talks can't continue.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said after the Oversight Committee contempt vote made no sense.

"The committee's attempt to define the Department of Justice's good-faith cooperation as 'contempt' defies logic," she said. "Today's action by Chairman Cummings and his committee undermines Congress's credibility with the American people."

The Justice Department has provided Congress with tens of thousands of documents and access to witnesses on the census matter, Kupec said, over months of prior negotiations.

Cummings and the Democrats blame Barr, Ross and the administration for what they've called an effort to "stonewall" their investigation.

Critics argue that Trump's administration wants to use a question about citizenship on the 2020 census to suppress some responses, including those of Latinos, and Democrats say they want unredacted communications to see how the question was discussed inside the government.

"The census is critical to our democracy and our constituents," Cummings said. "We must protect the integrity of the Census, and we must stand up for Congress' authority under the Constitution to conduct meaningful oversight.

The action in the committee on Wednesday followed a vote by the full House on Tuesday authorizing chairmen such as Cummings to file civil contempt lawsuits in order to try to obtain testimony or evidence.

That's what may happen now following the oversight committee session on Wednesday: Cummings, with the assent of the House leadership, could file suit and ask a judge to order Barr and Ross to provide the census materials he wants.

Republicans have criticized Democrats' litigation strategy as a waste of taxpayer dollars given the court costs involved and also as a dangerous road for the House. If members of Congress file suit but lose, Republicans warn, they could harm the oversight powers of the House over the long term.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

OVERSIGHT: Cummings Calls Snyder Back Over Flint

It is my belief that Snyder's advisors lied to him.

Snyder was rejected by the Michigan Democratic Party for a candidate no one could even pronounce his name let alone pick him out of a line up.

Engler and Corrigan advised Snyder.

This should be interesting to see what is flushed out in testimony because Nestle' funded Snyder's legal defense, after only having to pay $200 for a permit to expand water production, while Flint water rates skyrocketed.

Snyder said Nestle "followed the rules as they exist" and that Michigan's water withdrawal fee structure is an "issue for the legislature to decide."

But the legislative bodies refuse to make law which becomes another transposable model.

Cummings is ready to bring Snyder back before Congress over Flint

Washington — The incoming chairman of the House Oversight committee said he's likely to bring Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder back before Congress after Democrats take control of the House next year.

"I'm not done with Flint," U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings said Friday at the U.S. Capitol.

Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, is set to take the helm of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in January, which will give him subpoena power and the authority to call hearings and reopen the panel's investigation into the Flint lead-contaminated water crisis.

Snyder testified before the committee in March 2016, where Cummings and other committee Democrats called for his resignation.

Cummings later raised questions over whether the governor lied in his testimony about when he learned about the 2014-15 Legionnaires' disease outbreak in the Flint area after hearing of contradictory testimony in an involuntary manslaughter preliminary exam by Snyder's urban issues adviser.

"It is very difficult for me to sleep at night with what happened and continues to happen to Flint — that wonderful municipality," Cummings told The Detroit News.

"I know that much has been done with regard to Attorney General Bill Schuette, but there are still questions as to whether the governor was completely honest with us when he appeared before our committee. I would love to at some point — soon — see him come back to address the committee's concerns."

Cummings said he's not sure yet when that could happen, but "we cannot let go."

"We must do everything in our power to make sure something like this never happens again, and we must also make sure the people of Flint are not forgotten," Cummings added.

"The damage that has been done to many of Flint's children will have negative impacts on their lives until they die."

Snyder's office declined to comment Friday. The Republican governor leaves office at the end of December and would be a private citizen if he were to be called to testify again.

Schuette's special prosecutor has charged two Snyder health officials with involuntary manslaughter and other crimes.

Two state-appointed emergency managers also have been criminally charged, as have four current and former Department of Environmental Quality officials.

In his March 2016 testimony, Snyder accepted responsibility for not questioning the conclusions of state experts on Flint's water quality after the city shifted its water source from the Detroit area water system to the Flint River.

But the governor blamed DEQ officials for not telling him about lead-contaminated water, maintaining he did not know about elevated lead levels until shortly before he announced an action plan in October 2015.

He insisted that he did not learn about an outbreak of deadly Legionnaires’ disease until January 2016.

Currently the top Democrat on the House Oversight committee, Cummings last year asked Republicans leading the panel to subpoena Snyder to direct him to comply "in full" with the panel's bipartisan request for documents relating to the Flint crisis.

Cummings has been particularly interested in documents relating to when Snyder became aware of concerns relating to Flint's outbreak of Legionnaires' disease, a deadly form of pneumonia that killed 12 people and sickened dozens of others in Genesee County in 2014-15.

After a top aide contradicted Snyder's statements to the Oversight panel, committee leaders last year asked Snyder about his congressional testimony that he first learned about the Legionnaires' concerns in January 2016.

Urban affairs aide Harvey Hollins had testified that he informed the governor about the Legionnaires’ outbreak in December 2015 but didn't indicate what he specifically told Snyder about the Legionnaires’ cases.

Snyder stuck by his testimony, but that didn't satisfy Cummings and other Democrats.

Snyder's office has said it provided the Oversight committee with tens of thousands of pages of records, in addition to documents from the state's attorney general, health and environmental departments.

Former House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, closed the panel's Flint inquiry in December 2016 over the objections of Cummings, who called the move premature and "inconceivable" at the time.

Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, endorsed Cummings' plan to re-examine the Flint crisis, calling it a "man-made disaster caused by the state of Michigan and its emergency financial managers, appointed by Gov. Snyder, that failed to protect public health."

“Justice for Flint families comes in many forms, including the governor testifying under oath and his administration being held accountable for their actions that led to this crisis," Kildee said.

"Congressman Cummings has been a champion for Flint families, and I know he, as the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will continue the fight for justice for the people of Flint.”

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Cocktails & Popcorn: Trump v. Cummings - Who Will Be The First To Say TARP In Detroit?

Contrary to what the media wishes you to believe, their #coloredrevolution psyoptic has absolutely nothing to do with the epidermis of another human.

Privatization 301 - Gerrymandering & Cartology:
"If you do not live there, you cannot vote there."
(Fall enrollment for the next #coloredrevolution
 starts soon!)

This #coloredrevolution is about the color of property ownership heat ramping maps based upon meshed governmental databases through Public Private Partnerships of foreign operations for the purposes  of stealin', and in this particular instance, I am focusing on TARP, Hardest Hit Funds, because I am the world's expert on stealin'.

Forced migration is a war crime, you know.

Elijah Cummings was the first to speak out upon the stealin' of TARP, a sophisticated, complex fraud scheme developed by "Legal Geniuses" (trademark pending) to execute the foreign invasion of the bloodless war using Predictive Modeling Crap to implement privatizations by stealin' the children, the land and the votes.

But, Trump is the first person to bear witness to stealin' in the public cybersquare by calling out Baltimore.

President Trump: "Baltimore has been very badly mishandled for many years. And you know Congressman Cummings has been there for a long time, he's had a very iron hand on it. It's a corrupt city, there's no question about it." pic.twitter.com/XE5Ds4rXy6

— The Hill (@thehill) July 30, 2019

Now, the only question left is to figure out who will be the first to say TARP in Detroit.

#sayhisname 

State is 'gold mine' for human trafficking

Baltimore Received $1.8 Billion from Obama’s Stimulus Law

City burned despite ‘massive investment’ implemented by president

Cummings Introduces TARP Accountability Legislation

Companies receiving TARP funds would be required to publicly disclose expenditures

Washington, DC—Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), a senior member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and member of the Joint Economic Committee, introduced the Accountability from Corporations for Outlays Under TARP (ACCOUNT) Act, which would require institutions receiving assistance under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to report expenditures on corporate junkets, executive compensation and bonuses, and other employee perks.

“When these companies come to us on their knees begging for money and then turn around and continue the partying on Wall Street with the corporate junkets and million-dollar bonuses, it is nothing less than a slap in the face of the American taxpayers,” Congressman Cummings said. “The American people are now shareholders in these companies, and it is only right that we know how our money is being managed and spent.”

Congressman Cummings has been a leading critic of profligate spending by companies that have received TARP funding—particularly expenditures on executive compensation and bonuses, corporate junkets, and sports sponsorships—and is concerned about the lack of transparency with regard to how these institutions are spending taxpayer dollars.

Under the ACCOUNT Act, any company receiving TARP funds would be required to prominently disclose on its website its expenditures on corporate events and junkets, bonuses and compensation, corporate jet use and executive travel, club memberships, and lobbying. The information would be updated monthly.

“While my neighbors in Baltimore continue to lose their jobs and their homes, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to understand why AIG is taking their hard-earned money and then giving away more than a billion dollars in bonuses or why Citigroup is taking this money and then spending $400 million to put its name on a baseball stadium in New York,” Congressman Cummings said. “This bill is an important first step in bringing transparency and accountability to the distribution of TARP funds.”

111th CONGRESS

1st Session

H.R. 846

To require institutions receiving assistance under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to report certain corporate data, and for other purposes.

---

February 4, 2009

Mr. Cummings introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

---

A BILL

To require institutions receiving assistance under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to report certain corporate data, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Accountability from Corporations for Outlays Under TARP Act” or the “Account Act”.

REPORTING BY ASSISTED INSTITUTIONS ON CERTAIN EXPENDITURES.

(a) In General.—Title I of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (12 U.S.C. 5211 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new section:

REPORTING BY ASSISTED INSTITUTIONS ON CERTAIN EXPENDITURES.

“(a) In General.—The Secretary shall require any financial institution that receives any assistance in any form under this title on or after October 3, 2008 (hereafter in this section referred to as the ‘assisted institution’), to publicize on the corporate website of such institution, in a prominent location on the homepage or on a dedicated tab or window accessible through a link prominently displayed on the homepage, the following information, which shall be updated on a monthly basis:

“(1) Total expenditures made by the institution on travel during the month for which the report is being made, including reports on expenditures on each of the following: plane fares, rental cars, hotel expenses, food purchases, and any other expenses incurred by corporate employees during travel.

“(2) Total expenditures made by the institution on lobbying (as defined in the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995) at both the Federal and State levels, including a list of the individual States where lobbying activity was conducted.

“(3) A list of the corporate events, including retreats, conferences, planning sessions, and office parties held at the assisted institution’s place of business or organized at any other location by the assisted institution, citing the city, State, and venue of the event; date of the event; number of attendees at the event; and the entire sum of expenses associated with the event paid by the assisted institution.

“(4) A list of the corporate jets owned and a list of the trips taken by corporate and non-corporate officials on these jets which shall cite the total cost to the assisted institution of operating the jets for each listed trip.

“(5) A list of the corporate sponsorships supported by the company citing the name of each entity sponsored and the amount provided to each sponsored entity.

“(6) A list of the automobiles provided by the assisted institution to employees of the institution and their values together with the cost to the assisted institution of the operation of each automobile.

“(7) The total amount of compensation provided to the employees of the assisted institution, including expenditures on each of bonuses of any kind, retention payments of any kind, and any other form of compensation, citing the form thereof.

“(8) A list of all club or corporate memberships maintained by the assisted institution citing the cost of each membership.

“(9) Total corporate expenditures on furniture, office equipment, and office renovations made during the period by the assisted institution.

“(10) Such other information as the Secretary may require to be disclosed or the assisted institution wishes to disclose.

“(b) Regulations And Compliance.—The Secretary shall—

“(1) prescribe appropriate regulations to implement and carry out this section; and

“(2) establish appropriate mechanisms to ensure appropriate compliance with the requirements of this section”
.

(b) Clerical Amendment.—The table of sections for title I of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is amended by inserting after the item relating to section 136 the following new item:

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Conyers & Top Democrats Call for End to House GOP’s Abuse of Power, Demand Vote to Condemn Issa’s Actions

(WASHINGTON) – Today, House Democrats stood in solidarity on the House Floor and filed a privileged resolution that condemns the actions of Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa for violating House Rules during yesterday’s hearing on the IRS when he tried to silence Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings by deliberately cutting off his microphone.

The resolution, offered by Rep. Marcia Fudge, states: “The House of Representatives strongly condemns the offensive and disrespectful manner in which Chairman Darrell E. Issa conducted the hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on March 5, 2014, during which he turned off the microphones of the Ranking Member while he was speaking and adjourned the hearing without a recorded vote or a unanimous consent agreement.”

Today, for the first time, the top Democrats on several Committees came together to call on House Republicans to stop wasting taxpayer money and resources obstructing the legislative process and shutting out Democrats for political gain, and instead, focus on the priorities of Americans. Participants included the top Democrats on five House Committees, Reps. Cummings (D-MD), John Conyers (D-MI), Sandy Levin (D-MI), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), the Ranking Members of the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform, Judiciary, Ways and Means, Rules, and the Budget respectively.

Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Ranking Member on House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: “I understand that House Republicans have already called it quits in terms of legislating any more this year, but the result is that all they have left are these reckless and abusive investigations.  This is a huge waste of taxpayer resources, and it does absolutely nothing for the American people.  We need to do the work that the American people elected us to do.”

Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Ranking Member on House Committee on the Judiciary: “In recent months, the Majority’s agenda has been disheartening and their leadership wanting. The public business of the Judiciary Committee has been bogged down by partisan messaging bills - with no chance of passage - simply to pander to their conservative base. The situation is shameful. Yet, it does not have to be like this; I remember a time - not too long ago - where meaningful, bipartisan reform was considered, thoughtful legislation was debated, and the Committee process worked. At some point we need to lay down the legislative armor and do something simply because it’s the right thing to do.”

Congressman Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), Ranking Member on House Committee on Ways and Means:“House Republicans are desperate to keep their baseless allegations alive, even if it means silencing the truth by turning off microphones. The endless Republican drive to appeal to the Tea Party and taint the White House has pushed them to new extremes.”

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member on House Committee on Rules: “We have reached the boiling point. What has happened in this place week after week in the House of Representatives is nothing short of legislative malpractice. Think about the money that is being wasted here week after week to make a political statement—it’s  costing us not just in terms of infrastructure, education, and healthcare, but think about how it’s costing us our self-respect and the way we look to the rest of the world.”

Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ranking Member on House Committee on the Budget: “Last fall, by changing the rules to keep the government shutdown, Republicans suspended democracy in the full House of Representatives. What we saw yesterday was democracy being suspended in House committees,” said Congressman Chris Van Hollen. “As a result of the abuse of power we saw from Chairman Issa, we’re not able to focus on the things that are important to the American people – creating more jobs and expanding opportunity to more people.” 

Yesterday, every Democratic Member of Oversight Committee sent a letter to Chairman Issa calling on him to apologize immediately for denying Ranking Member Cummings his right under House Rules to speak at the IRS hearing.

Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. alongside his colleagues - Representatives Cummings, Slaughter, and Van Hollen - at a press conference discussing House Republican offenses.

Issa Letter on IRS Hearing Shutdown March 5, 2014

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Conyers, Durbin, Cummings & Bicameral Members Request Justice Department Collect More Data on “Stand Your Ground” Laws

(DETROIT) – Today, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), along with Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Congressman Bobby Scott (D-Va.),  Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), and Congressman Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requesting that the Department of Justice collect additional information on “Stand Your Ground” laws to fully document their disparate racial impacts in communities across the country.

U.S. Representative
John Conyers, Jr.

Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.): “As the recent tragic shooting in Wayne County, Michigan demonstrated, the increasing prevalence of ‘stand your ground’ laws are having a negative impact on public safety. While some studies exist demonstrating how ‘stand your ground’ laws have a disproportionate impact on minority communities, it is important for the Department of Justice to collect the information necessary for us to better understand the impact of 'stand your ground' laws on the escalation of conflicts and the tragic use of firearms. This is an important opportunity for the Department and the FBI to work with the states to shed more light on this threat to public safety.”

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.): “More than half of all Americans live in states with ‘stand your ground’ laws on the books. We learned in a recent hearing I chaired that these laws have led to increased violence and wider racial disparities, but the federal government does not collect adequate data on these laws’ impact. That must change.”

Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.): “The acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s killer and the proliferation of stand your ground laws across our nation have added fuel to the flames of racial profiling and discrimination. Getting states to collect and examine data regarding the impact of stand your ground laws in our communities will provide local leaders and advocates with the tools necessary to address the disparate and deadly outcomes that can arise from the expansion of these laws.”

Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.): “Studies show that ‘stand your ground’ laws contribute to increases in homicides and exacerbate racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The Department of Justice, however, has no comprehensive, accurate way of monitoring the impact of these laws on public safety and civil rights.  The steps we call for today will help the DOJ evaluate the impact of these laws.”

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio): “The use of ‘stand your ground’ laws by civilians and the application of the law by courts too often rely on decisions made by those with cultural biases. These prejudices often affect determination if one’s life was truly in danger, while also eliminating all responsibility by those invoking the law to retreat and peacefully end an incident. No individual in our country should live with the fear of death based on race or age, and no individual’s death should be justified because they had the appearance of guilt, rather than being proven to have done anything wrong.”

Congressman Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.): “The use of a weapon to kill another human being is very rarely ‘justified’ in my mind, so I am joining with Senators and Congressmen requesting that more data be collected about the circumstances and sheer volume of killings that are ruled ‘justified’ under ‘stand your ground’ laws and how these laws have a disparate racial impact in our communities.”

In their letter today, the Members requested that the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Report for “Justifiable Homicides” be amended to include data on the location of the homicide, whether it resulted in arrest or prosecution and the justification if not, and whether the basis for the finding of “justifiable homicide” was “stand your ground.”

Letter from Conyers, Durbin, Cummings & Bicameral Members Request Justice Department Collect More Data...

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Rep. Lawrence to host press conference regarding the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Hearing on Flint’s water crisis

TODAY, February 3, 2016, 2 p.m.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Brenda Lawrence (MI-14) will host a press conference today following the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Hearing regarding the Flint water crisis. She will be joined by Reps. Elijah Cummings, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; G.K. Butterfield, Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus; Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva, Co-Chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; Dan Kildee, who represents the Flint community; and many more Members committed to ensuring a crisis of this magnitude never occurs again in America.

WHAT:

Press Conference re: OGR hearing on the Flint water crisis.

Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD-07), Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform;

Rep. G.K. Butterfield (NC-01), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus;

Rep. Keith Ellison (MN-5), Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus;

Rep. Raul Grijalva (AZ-03), Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus;

Rep. Dan Kildee (MI-05), Congressional Representative for Flint, Michigan;

Rep. Brenda Lawrence (MI-14), Ranking Member of OGR Subcommittee on the Interior and host;

Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (MI-13), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee

WHEN:TODAY, February 3^rd, 2016 at 2 p.m.

WHERE:Capitol Visitor Center studios, HVC 114, House Studio A.

RSVP: Tracy.Manzer@mail.house.gov

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Thomas D'Alesandro III, Nancy Pelosi's Brother Has Passed

Elijah Cummings also recently died.

Nancy Pelosi's brother and former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro III has died

Thomas D'Alesandro III

(CNN)Thomas D'Alesandro III, a former Baltimore mayor who led the city during the 1968 riots and brother of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has died.

"My husband Paul and our entire family are devastated by the loss of our patriarch, my beloved brother, Thomas D'Alesandro III," Pelosi said Sunday in a statement released by her office. "Tommy was the finest public servant I have ever known."

The Baltimore Sun reported D'Alesandro, who served as Baltimore's mayor from 1967 to 1971, died Sunday at his Baltimore home after complications of a stroke. He was 90.
Born to an Italian-American family and known as "Young Tommy," D'Alesandro had a political upbringing.

His father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., served in the US House of Representatives from 1939 to 1947 and as the mayor of Baltimore for 12 years after that. His sister, Nancy, became the first woman to serve as speaker of the House in 2007.

His mother Anunciata, who also went by Nancy, was an inventor who patented a device to apply steam to the face -- effectively an at home facial. She helped her husband in politics, supporting him as he became Baltimore's first Catholic mayor.

Pelosi, who just last week lost colleague and friend Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings at age 68, also remembered her brother as someone dedicated to the family's hometown of Baltimore.
"His life and leadership were a tribute to the Catholic values with which we were raised: faith, family, patriotism. He profoundly believed, as did our parents, that public service was a noble calling and that we all had a responsibility to help others," she said.

Devout Catholics, Pelosi said her brother is now with the angels.

"All his life, Tommy worked on the side of the angels. Now, he is with them," she said.
D'Alesandro is survived by his wife Margaret, his children Thomas, Dominic, Nicholas, Patricia and Gregory, and his grandchildren "whom he adored," Pelosi said in the statement.

Baltimore Mayor Jack Young, a Democrat, expressed his condolences to Pelosi and the D'Alesandro family in a statement Sunday, saying the former mayor will be "remembered for his commitment to and love for" the city.

"He guided the city at a tumultuous time and made important strides while in office like creating summer recreation programs for youth, removing racial barriers in employment and education and laying the groundwork for what would become the world-famous Inner Harbor," Young said.
This story has been updated.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Conyers Joins First Responders in Calling for Legislation to Combat Gun Trafficking

(WASHINGTON) – This afternoon, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) participated in a bipartisan Gun Trafficking Forum put on by Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Congressman Scott Rigell (R-Va.), and Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.). Following the forum, Rep. Conyers issued the following statement:

U.S Representative
John Conyers, Jr.

“Today, I stand with my colleagues at a bipartisan forum on gun trafficking in support of the ‘Gun Trafficking Prevention Act of 2013,’” said Conyers.

“Firearms violence remains an unacceptable epidemic of crime and death that impacts every community in this country. Each day on average, 32 Americans are murdered with guns, amounting to 12,000 lives each year. We simply cannot live with this horrifying status quo.

“Illegal gun trafficking is a critical enabler of gun violence.  Research suggests that only about one of every six firearms used in a crime was obtained legally, and a noteworthy portion of crime guns are illegally diverted from legal commerce.  We know that some federally licensed firearms dealers are disproportionately the source of guns used in crime, and we know that there are longstanding trafficking route for crime guns. 

“Simply put, current law is not adequate to provide federal law enforcement with the tools needed to investigate and prosecute gun traffickers.  As it stands, there is no law that specifically prohibits firearms trafficking and that reflects the seriousness of the threat of straw purchasing. 

“To address the inadequacy of current law, I have joined Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Elijah Cummings, Scott Rigell and others in sponsoring H.R. 452, the ‘Gun Trafficking Prevention Act of 2013.’ This bill will prohibit straw purchasing and penalize those who run gun trafficking rings that engage in straw purchasing. 

“The ‘Gun Trafficking Prevention Act’ is critical to strengthening our firearms laws, but it is only one part of a comprehensive strategy that includes: Requiring background checks for all gun sales, banning semi-automatic assault weapons, banning high capacity ammunition magazines, addressing the root causes of violent crime through prevention programs, and providing better evaluation and treatment to address our mental health crisis.

“The magnitude of the problem demands that we do all of these things. Supporting the Gun Trafficking Prevention Act is a critical first step in addressing the national problem of gun violence. I will continue in this struggle against gun violence and this forum until our bill becomes law.”

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

OVERSIGHT: Hearing On Testimony Of Michael Cohen - Voting Rights & Its Legacy

Rashida Tlaib is terrified.

Rashida was mean to Elijah Cummings because she was very nasty mean to Mark Meadows, including to the people of the world in public record, because she tried to bring the "Colored" Revolution to Congress.

I truly hope Elijah Cummings censures her on the House Floor.

Michael Cohen dropped just about every name of attorneys, banks, and trusts he could during the limited testimony.

I would like to see how many get swept up after this first round of hearings because he introduced the real estate mortgage fraud schemes of LLCs on foreign entities.

Cohen was recently disbarred, similar of being defrocked, where the attorney client privilege has been stripped, and he now falls into another realm of legal existence.

This is the prelude to Detroit.

Backgrounds on our case of characters:

Lanny Davis

Michael Cohen

Defango is setting precedent in constructing the new model of reporting, through live technology.

#waterbottlegate - No one standing or walking past the doors to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee has taken the time to remove the water bottle on the floor, before the threshold of justice?  That is quite disrespectful to the Chairman Emeritus.

#perkinscoiesucks

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Cummings and Nadler Seek Subpoenas for Trump Campaign Consultants Refusing to Deny Foreign Contacts During Election

Washington, D.C. (Dec. 14, 2017)—Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, sent a letter, below, asking their respective Chairmen, Reps. Trey Gowdy and Bob Goodlatte, to issue subpoenas for documents from two Trump Campaign data consultants—Cambridge Analytica and Giles-Parscale—after they refused to deny any communications with foreign actors during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“We understand that you declined to join the original request for documents from these companies, but this is a matter that directly affects our citizens and their exercise of their right to vote,” Cummings and Nadler wrote.  “We owe the American people robust and meaningful oversight of matters affecting the integrity of our electoral process.”

On October 26, 2017, Ranking Members Conyers and Cummings sent a letter to five data consultants—Cambridge Analytica, Giles-Parscale, Target Point, Deep Root, and Data Trust—requesting documents relating to their possible engagement with foreign actors such as WikiLeaks, communication with foreign governments, or the use of misappropriated data.

Cummings and Nadler disclosed today that three of these companies—TargetPoint, Deep Root, and Data Trust, below,—sent responses on the same day, using language that was nearly identical and apparently coordinated, denying any foreign contacts.

In contrast, a letter from Brad Parscale of Giles-Parscale notably failed to deny that his company had contacts  with or received information from foreign actors or governments during the 2016 campaign. 

Recent press accounts have reported that Donald Trump, Jr. emailed Parscale about his correspondence with WikiLeaks.

In addition, Cambridge Analytica refused to respond at all and thus did not deny that the company had contacts and communications with foreign actors or received any stolen or misappropriated data. 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange confirmed that Cambridge Analytica approached WikiLeaks during the campaign to coordinate the release of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails. 

Alexander Nix, CEO of Cambridge Analytics, also confirmed this outreach.

“Because the first three companies have asserted unequivocally that none of their employees had contacts with any foreign agents during the presidential campaign, we are willing to delay any further inquiry unless or until evidence to the contrary emerges,” Cummings and Nadler wrote.  “However, neither Giles Parscale nor Cambridge Analytica have denied these contacts.  We therefore request that our committees issue subpoenas to these companies to compel the production of the information they are withholding from Congress.”

If the Chairmen decline to issue these subpoenas, then Cummings and Nadler request they place this matter on the agenda for the next regularly scheduled business meeting so Committee Members may vote on motions to subpoena these documents.

Cummings & Nadler to Gowdy Goodlatte Regarding Cambridge Analytica and Giles-Parscale 12-14-2017 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Giles-Parscale Response to Conyers Regarding Russian Interference 11-3-2017 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

TargetPoint Response to EEC Conyers Re Russian Interference 10-30-2017 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

DeepRoot Response to Conyers Regarding Russian Interference 10-30-2017 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

DATA TRUST Response to Conyers Re Russian Interference 10-30-2017 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©