SWALWELL AND THE FBI

 

                                                  BY WILLIAM JUNEAU                      

                                Just when U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell figured that  his pillow talk with Christine Fang, the Red China spy,  was tucked away and protected by Nancy Pelosi, fourteen  Republican congressman have decided otherwise.  

                                New York Rep. John Kaito, ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, and 13 other U.S. Representatives have sent a letter to FBI Director  Christopher Wray requesting a classified briefing on the conduct and activities of Swalwell regarding his relationship with Ms. Fang. Otherwise known to politicians as "Fang Fang, " she was involved with Swalwell for six years, during which time the attractive native of China functioned as Swalwell's  key assistant, fund raiser and public relations face. 

                                Dating back to his first days as a California congressman in 2011,  Swalwell was seen and photographed regularly in the company of the grinning Fang Fang.  In 2012 and 2014  when he ran successfully for election to the Bay area's 15th district, Fang's job was to raise funds and sweet talk VIP donors  with deep pockets.  In 2015,  he was appointed by Speaker Pelosi to the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee and early this year, he was given a seat on the Homeland Security Committee.  

                                 As Swalwell busied himself in congressional matters, Fang Fang recommended an intern for work in his congressional office and the young Chinese woman assumed paper shuffling duties there, always maintaining her close friendship with  her mentor, Fang Fang. 

                                 In 2015, the FBI determined that the PR face  of Swalwell's inner circle was a planted Communist spy and that she reported regularly to her Asian superiors.  Agents buttonholed Swalwell and investigated the extent of their relationship and those of the intern she sponsored in his congressional office.  As inquiries moved forward,  Fang Fang  and her intern friend vanished and apparently returned to their homes in China. 

                                 Reputedly, the 40 year old Swalwell told agents that Fang Fang was just a friend who helped him.   It was all  business stuff, he averred, although agents were suspicious, having established in their investigation that Fang Fang had also befriended at least two mayors of midwest cities and became involved in romantic interludes with them. 

                                 In 2015, Swalwell and his wife were divorced and there were rumors that the young congressman and the alluring Fang Fang had more than a platonic relationship.  In 2016, he married Brittany  Ann Watts, a hotel sales director.

                                 Several months ago, Axios, a news website based in Arlington County, Va.,  began digging into Swalwell's activities and learned of his adventures with the Chinese spy and of FBI investigation of six years ago.  Speaker Pelosi was informed also, and Swalwell told agents that there was no intimate activity with Fang Fang and and that he did not discuss privileged information with her.  Her Communist affiliation was a surprise to him, he said.  With word of the investigation by the FBI, Swalwell told Axios reporters that Fang Fang "just disappeared" and he has not seen or heard from her since 2015. 

                                Swalwell is a favorite gopher for  Speaker Pelosi and was always vociferous in attacking President Trump with claims that he was a pawn of Russian President Putin.  He often asserted that he had seen evidence of Trump's seditious behavior and stood side by side with  Rep. Adam Schiff, Pelosi's other gopher and  California colleague, in denouncing the Republican Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief with an assortment of lies.  

                                 Swalwell also told reporters last December that he believed his role as a vocal critic of then-President Donald Trump was the motivation for the initial information leak orchestrated by the President.  "I’ve been a critic of President Trump.  I’ve spoken out against him. I was on both committees that worked to impeach him," Swalwell said. The FBI ought to look into that, he added.         

                                 The letter to the FBI read in part, 

                                 "As our nation faces a growing security threat from the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) attempts to infiltrate and undermine the United States Government, we write to request a full briefing regarding counterintelligence threats to Members of Congress, including information related to Rep. Eric Swalwell’s ties to a suspected Chinese intelligence operative."

                                 Kevin McCarthy, Republican minority leader in the House, has demanded that Speaker Pelosi remove Swalwell from his committee assignments. He has also criticized the aged Pelosi for having assigned Swalwell to top secret committees, knowing that he may have been compromised by a Chinese spy.

                                 Congressman Kaito said that Republicans have repeatedly called for Swalwell's removal from the Intelligence Committee, and yet Rep. Swalwell continues to serve on it and was appointed to the Committee on Homeland Security by Speaker Pelosi in the new 117th Congress. 

                        The potential for a security leak from the Committee on Homeland Security by a member who had either hired a Chinese spy to run his office, and possibly share pillow talk, or who was too dumb to recognize a Communist spy after six years of close contact, could have disastrous impacts on national security.

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TRUMP DEFENSE ATTORNEY VAN DER VEEN

                                 BY WILLIAM JUNEAU

                           The impeachment attack on former President Trump is over, and the antics and emotions of the liberal prosecuting managers is now just ashes from a worthless and unnecessary conflagration. Each of us who followed the political circus, which was aimed at destroying the name and the legacy of the nation's 45th president, remember parts and segments of the whole fabricated political package.  

                           For me, one of the takeaways was the legal and reality skills of Michael van der Veen, the defense lawyer who took on the House managers and decimated their howling demands that the President be adjudged guilty of "inciting an insurrection."  Van der Veen walked away a winner having achieved vindication for the former President; and having successfully pushed mud into the faces of the the eight Congressmen masquerading as dedicated and professional prosecutors seeking justice. 

                           Selected as one of the President's defense attorneys,  Van der Veen  emerged from anonymity.  He was not a fast-on-the-draw criminal lawyer who did away with his opposition in Perry Mason style. No, Michael Thomas van der Veen called out the scripted Democrat "managers" for their unprofessional and make- believe evidence of an "insurrection" ordered by President Trump, and for their shameful distortions and doctoring of evidence.  He also castigated them for having deprived the former President of his basic and  constitutional rights to due process of law. 

                            As the trial in the Senate moved forward, it brought difficulties for Van der Veen on the home front.  Vandals smashed windows and spray-painted “Traitor"  on the driveway of his Pennsylvanian home  after he had spent hours on the Senate floor condemning the former president’s second impeachment trial as unconstitutional. But he did his job  and never looked back.  

                            After the verdict by the Senate exonerating the former President of orchestrating the January 6 mob violence in the Capitol,  the 57-year-old laid-back Van der Veen was summoned by liberal, Trump-hating  TV  pundits for interviews and he let his opinion of the conduct of the "managers" and of the media be known.  Some wanted to know about attacks on his home and conversations that he had with the President, but he declined to discuss those matters.  

                     Lana Zak of CBS, righteous and overbearing,  wanted to demonstrate that the House lawyers had made their case against the evil Trump. The tone and intent of her biased questions with which she sympathized with House managers for their "doctoring "of evidence, infuriated Van der Veen and he lashed back--and not in a friendly manner.   

                        "You are bloodthirsty for ratings, and as such, you’re asking questions now that are already set up with a fact pattern," Trump's attorney said.  "I can’t believe you would ask me a question indicating that it’s all right just to doctor a little bit of evidence. There’s more stuff that we uncovered that they doctored, to be frank with you, and perhaps that will come out one day.

                            "They (Democrat lawyers) switched the date of a Twitter post to try to connect it to this case. That’s not a small thing. ma’am. The other thing they did is they put a check mark on something to make it look like it was a validated account when it wasn’t. And when they were caught, they didn’t say anything about it. They didn’t even try to come up with an excuse about it. And that’s not the way our prosecutors or our government officials should be conducting themselves."

                                 The media ought to be investigating the House managers concerning their conduct, he said.   "The media has to start telling the right story to this country. 

                            What this country wants,  what this country needs, said Van der Veen, is for this country to come together;  to take the left and the right and find a middle ground and start responsibly being our public officials, our elected officials.  And the media needs to do an honest job which it doesn't do, he told Zak.      

                                At the end of the interview, van der Veen tossed his microphone aside and walked off the camera, while Zak looked flushed.

                                Van der Veen is a partner in a Philadelphia law firm and he specializes in personal injury matters. He was one of three lawyers picked by the ex President to represent him in the impeachment trial in the senate.  The other attorneys were Bruce Castor of Pennsylvania and David Schoen of Georgia. 

                               After mediocre  opening statements by Shoen and Castor were criticized by Trump and his supporters,  the heavy lifting for the trial fell upon Van der Veen. He stepped to the front and for the duration of the litigation made the key arguments and assumed the starring and lead role.           

                                   The tone and conduct of the Zak interview seeking to torpedo and demean Trump and his supporters has been typical of the biased and unprofessional Democrats during the past five years, including four years of the Trump presidency. Trump has regularly said that the media provides "fake news," and that lying reporters and their employers are the true  "enemies of the people." 

                                  Former President Trump has said that he believes that the 2020 election was part of a massive fraud and that had there been honesty and a counting of only verified and legitimate  ballots, he would have won reelection.  Some 75 million Americans voted for Trump's reelection.  Millions of his supporters are questioning the integrity of the election and are encouraging Trump to run again for President in 2024--- and Trump has indicated that he will do so, and that his movement is very much alive.   

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REP HASTINGS AND THE DOUBLE STANDARD

         

                                 BY WILLIAM JUNEAU

                           In the House of Representatives, with questions on "impeachment" and its processes and appeals, Democrats know where to go for  answers.  They have an in-house expert on the subject, and he is a former United States District judge.  He was a judge until he got booted from the bench for bribery and dishonesty, and he now sits as a member of the House, and is a favorite of the aged and venomous Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. 

                          Wearing this unique and unprecedented hat is Florida Congressman Alcee Lamar Hastings, 84,  who wants the Trump impeachment to go forward, and is cheering and coaching his colleagues in the ways of the world.  He sits on many key committees in the People's House, and his background as a dishonest judge and thief is no barrier. 

                          Under present House pronouncements, past misdeeds would bar a congressman or congresswoman from sitting on committees.  But Hastings deserved forgiveness, unlike new Republican Representative Michelle Taylor Greene who was ousted from all committee work for past comments which she made.  

                          Prior to election from a Georgia district last November, Greene had made some far out comments on the social media which tended to side with some conspiracy theories.  A few days ago, she made a public apology and said that she regretted her statements. and requested that the House  allow her to remain on committees. Overwhelmingly, the House Democrats with Hastings part of the majority said no and had Rep. Greene  removed as a member on all committees. 

                          So what is Hastings all about? 

                          In 1979, President Carter nominated him to the federal bench from  sunny Florida and he became the first African American district court judge in that state.  Hastings was a smooth talker, but a few years later he got caught reaching for $150,000 in bribe money in exchange for his favorable rulings.  

                          In 1983, he got arrested, was charged and went to trial,  but the key witness for the prosecution declined to testify and he was acquitted.  New investigations ensued and it was determined that Hastings had perjured himself and tampered with evidence. In 1987, after years of legal wrangling, evidence against Hastings was so glaring that an impeachment action was brought against him by the House of Representatives as is provided for in the Constitution.  In 1989 he was found guilty by the Senate and removed from the bench.  

                          He appealed to the U.S. Supreme court, but there was no turning around the verdict of Congress and Hastings had to put his robes aside permanently in exchange for a business suit.  The disgrace, disbarment and appellation of being a thief,  did not slow down the bearded, silver haired and silver tongued Hastings from embarking on a change of professions and a  new political career.  But that's the way it goes when Democrats give the green light to a loyal party guy. With Democrats, there is always mercy and a second chance.  

                           Liking Florida where he was well known, he ran for Secretary of State but lost in a tight race.  But then in 1992, the 20th district caught his eye, and Hastings ran with zest in the heavily African American area. At one point he labeled his white opponent as a racist bitch and when the votes were counted he was the new  congressman and took office in January, 1993.  No one seemed to care that he was an ex-judge who had been kicked off the federal bench for dishonesty, and at one point Pelosi even wanted him to be chairman of a key and  powerful committee, but Democratic advisers  persuaded her to do otherwise. Last November, he was reelected for the 13th consecutive time.                                        

                            Overlooking Hastings' thievery and disgrace was never a  problem for Democrats who always take care of their own. The double standard is a way of life for Democrats. 

                            Presently, Rep. Hastings is the Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process, which deals with legislation regarding relations between Congress and the Executive Branch.  Also, he is the Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission), charged with monitoring compliance with the Helsinki Accords and advancing comprehensive security through promotion of human rights, democracy, and economic, environmental and military cooperation in 57 countries.

                           Congressman Hastings also serves as Dean and Co-Chairman of the Florida Delegation, and Senior Democratic Whip.

                            

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