Latest news with #OversightProject
Fox News
7 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Christopher Wray referred to DOJ over claims he misled lawmakers on Catholic memo, China probes
A Washington-based government transparency watchdog has referred former FBI Director Christopher Wray to the Department of Justice and the FBI, urging a criminal investigation into allegations that he had made false statements to Congress and obstructed proceedings in two high-profile cases. Oversight Project President Mike Howell told Fox News Digital that the group is specifically asking officials to examine Wray's congressional testimony on the so-called Richmond memo from the FBI office in Virginia that exposed an anti-Catholic bias there, and his testimony about a Chinese plot to disseminate illicit driver's licenses before the 2020 election. In July 2023, Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the FBI-Richmond memo that had labeled Catholics as potential domestic threats. "Well, what I can tell you is you're referring to the Richmond product, which is a single product by a single field office, which as soon as I found out about it, I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems," Wray said. The Oversight Project alleges that statement was ultimately misleading or false. Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., pressed Wray on the Richmond memo and so-called "Trump questionnaire," which was circulated at the FBI and asked about allegiance to the president and whether agents had attended any protests or rallies associated with the Jan. 6 Capitol Breach. "We keep hearing about these 'isolated examples' whether it's Richmond Catholics, this [questionnaire] -- isn't it a pattern?" Tiffany asked. The Oversight Project pointed to Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Charles Grassley's opening remarks from a June hearing on Biden-era "cover-ups," in which Grassley said the Richmond memo "used the shoddy research of the radical Southern Poverty Law Center to accuse traditional Catholics of being violent extremists." "Based on records I released the other week, there wasn't just one FBI document that used biased anti-Catholic sources, but over a dozen," Grassley said. The referral also notes that this remark by Grassley belies Wray's testimony suggesting a one-off incident. "And more FBI field offices were involved than we'd been led to believe," Grassley, R-Iowa, said. A second Richmond memo similar to the first that went unreleased following the backlash was part of a partially redacted series of documents Grassley's committee transmitted to FBI Director Kash Patel in June. It stated that the bureau "assesses RMVE (Racially Motivated Violent Extremism) interest in RTC (Radical Traditional Catholic) ideology is likely to increase … in the run-up to the [2024] general election cycle." "Director Wray's testimony was inaccurate not only because it failed to reveal the scope of the memo's production and dissemination, but also because it failed to reveal the existence of a second, draft product on the same topic intended for external distribution to the whole FBI," the Oversight Project said in a separate statement. "That draft product was intended for distribution as a Strategic Perspective Executive Analytic Report ("SPEAR"). It was clearly a separate product." The Oversight Project specifically alleged violations of obstruction of proceedings before Congress, perjury and false statements. Fox News Digital reached out to Grassley, who also told Fox News' Bill Hemmer in June that he had found 13 other documents similar to the Richmond memo. Grassley said the documents had gone out and that "at least 1,000 people had access to information that … was telling people that the Catholic Church needed to be watched because it could be considered a terrorist organization." Fox News Digital reached out to a phone number connected to Wray but did not receive a response. Patel cited the CCP influence case in a June statement, declaring that "former FBI leadership withheld the facts and misled the public on China's 2020 election interference. And they did so for political gain. This FBI is exposing all of it and giving Americans the truth they deserve." Patel claimed the FBI in 2020 "buried" evidence "for political convenience" and thanked Grassley for helping the current FBI brass bring the topic to light. During September 2020 testimony, Wray told Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., that the FBI had "not seen historically any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether by-mail or otherwise." Wray added that the FBI had identified localized voter fraud and that his testimony was not intended to downplay the overarching threat. Howell's group argues those statements were belied by documents Patel gave to Congress in June that reportedly showed concerns in August 2020 that China had mass-produced such fake IDs to help former President Joe Biden. The criminal referral against Wray also cites a related August 2020 seizure of 20,000 counterfeit licenses by Customs and Border Protection in Illinois. A Chicago port official told Fox News at the time that the proliferation "can lead to disastrous consequences." It is unclear if any ballots were cast as part of the scheme. During a 2020 address to the Hudson Institute, Wray did warn of the CCP threat to the upcoming election and beyond: "China's malign foreign influence campaign targets our policies, our positions, 24/7, 365 days-a-year. So it's not an election‑specific threat. It's really more of an all‑year, all‑the‑time threat. But certainly that has implications for elections, and they certainly have preferences that go along with that," he said. The FBI and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Fox News
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Fox Nation investigates Biden's controversial autopen use in brand new special
Who was actually running the country during former President Joe Biden's term in office? Conservative critics have asked this question since before President Donald Trump took the reins in January, but a sprawling probe into Biden's alleged use of an autopen to sign pardons and other documents has only invigorated the skepticism. The Oversight Project President Mike Howell's viral tweet declaring, "Whoever controlled the autopen controlled the presidency," was another catalyst. Howell joined the Fox Nation special "The Autopen President," which debuted on the streaming platform Monday, to offer his perspective in depth. "The autopen investigation showed how the White House could operate – did operate – without a president," he said. The 25-minute special investigates accusations from many in the conservative sphere who question whether Biden was aware of the presidential measures executed in his name. The saying goes, "the pen is mightier than the sword," but finding a pen mightier than one in the hands of a U.S. president would pose a challenge. The signature it creates can free some from prison or reduce their sentence, alter the lives of citizens across the country, impose actions that exert influence across the globe, or affirm the will of Congress. In this case, many, including President Trump, insist the validity of Biden's presidential signature is questionable given his alleged use of an autopen — a machine that physically holds a pen and features programming to imitate a person's signature. Though autopens have been used by presidents for decades, Trump says their use typically falls outside the scope of crucial presidential duties. Staffers may use them to respond to letters, for instance. Howell's team gathered images of Biden's signature, but when the documents came back, he noticed something unusual. "We realized this is a copied and pasted signature. This isn't a human hand signing these things," he said. The development sparked legality concerns, particularly since the Constitution requires the actual signature of the president to enact laws. However, a 2005 decision from the Justice Department (the Office of Legal Counsel) under former President George W. Bush complicates the situation. The OLC determined the president can legally sign bills and other documents with an autopen, meaning the president could authorize his staff to impose his signature using the device. Former President Barack Obama was the first president to reportedly use the measure to sign legislation with an autopen in 2011, but some argue concerns over Biden's cognitive health create lingering concerns. Biden has vehemently denied that others were executing the powers of the president during his tenure. In a statement responding to the Trump administration's investigation into his autopen use, he said the following: "Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false… "This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans who are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations." The full episode delving into the Biden autopen investigation is streaming now on Fox Nation.
New York Post
29-07-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Dems' failed makeover, ‘In-N-Out' of Cali and other commentary
Conservative: Dems' Failed Makeover Democratic leaders hoped to 'reverse the party's hard-left drift and reconnect with working-class voters' after the election, but Democrats instead ran 'straight back into the arms of their radical base,' marvels Mike Howell at The Blaze. They 'poured money and institutional support into the No Kings protests,' for example — and these 'weren't fringe outbursts. In fact, they revealed the party's core.' The Oversight Project compiled the Instagram activity of 'one key protest organizer, a group called 50501,' and 'tracked who its social media managers followed, and what emerged was a clear pattern of associations: communist, neo-Marxist, anti-American, and foreign-aligned groups.' 'These protests didn't bubble up from the grassroots. They were built from the same radical networks that have long tried to destabilize the country from within.' Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! West Coast watch: 'In-N-Out' of Cali Fast-food burger chain In-N-Out's owner, Lynsi Snyder is leaving 'deep blue California for the friendlier environs of red state Tennessee,' where her company is building a second corporate headquarters, reports USA Today's Nicole Russell. 'Snyder said she's leaving the West Coast for the Mid-South for the sake of her family and her business,' just as 'hundreds of thousands of regular people' and businesses like Tesla, Chevron and Hewlett Packard have done, seeking 'better lives and better business opportunities in other states.' California has 'pushed tax rates and the cost of living to ridiculous extremes even as residents' quality of life has declined.' 'People and companies are not just fleeing California — in many cases, they are relocating to red states with a drastically different approach to politics and policy.' It's 'another indicator of California's decline.' Tech beat: The Push for Unbiased AI President Trump's new executive order banning the federal government from buying 'woke AI' gives tech executives 'powerful incentives' to develop 'unbiased AI models,' argues Christopher Rufo at City Journal. All AI has 'ideological' formulas — some, including concepts like critical race theory, transgenderism and DEI — 'baked' into their code. 'The question is not whether an AI system will be built upon a set of values; the question is which set of values the programmers will select.' Yet Trump's EO stipulates that the government will purchase only software that is ''truth-seeking' and committed to 'ideological neutrality.'' The president and his advisers 'have shifted the direction of artificial intelligence away from woke — and toward a vibrant American future.' Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters From the right: A Kamala Run Scares the Left 'California Democrats are rubbing their temples' at the thought of Kamala Harris running for governor, quips National Review's Noah Rothman. She'd be the heavy favorite, but the ex-veep might owe that 'less to her political acumen' than to 'California voters' bovine insouciance.' She'd have to defend Joe Biden and 'her role in the failed' coverup of his decline. And 'in the absence of any measurable charisma and 'notable risks' to the party overall, many Dems are attacking her. One state-level official even says she'd ruin the party's chance to 'win the House and hold on to three seats that we just flipped in 2024.' So 'Harris could get herself elected,' notes Rothman, 'while still serving as a net negative for her party.' Legal expert: Media's Russiagate Blinders Newly declassified material from the Russian collusion investigation reveals 'how high-ranking officials in the Obama Administration seeded' the false collusion narrative 'with the help of an eager, unquestioning press corps,' thunders Jonathan Turley at Fox News. Ex-CIA director John Brennan 'was the key figure insisting on the inclusion of the Steele dossier' in the Russian interference assessment. Ex-FBI director James Comey knew 'the Steele dossier was an unreliable political hit job,' yet he 'lied to a federal court to maintain' the investigation. 'The public is now learning about the real Russian conspiracy and its key players,' but 'the same media that pushed the false claims' are 'imposing a news blackout as they did with the Hunter Biden laptop.' — Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
Daily Mail
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
The shocking date of Biden's first use of the autopen exposed... and it's earlier than previously known
During an explosive Republican-led hearing on Joe Biden 's rapid decline over the course of his four-year presidency, shocking details emerged about the extensive use of an autopen by the former president. One of the witnesses called by the Senate Judiciary committee was Theo Wold, currently a Visiting Fellow for Law and Technology Policy at The Heritage Foundation, a Washington, DC - based conservative think tank. Wold is also a board member of the Oversight Project, an independent, nonprofit organization previously a part of Heritage. The Oversight Project's research discovered that the first time President Joe Biden used an autopen was five days into his presidency, Wold stated as part of his sworn testimony. "The autopen is a device that signs the president's signature to a document. The Oversight Project, of which I am a board member, has discovered that the Biden White House deployed an autopen to affix President Biden's signature to pardons, prison commutations, executive orders, and presidential proclamations,' Wold noted. "The Oversight Project's research has found that the Biden White House first deployed the autopen to affix President Biden's signature to a proclamation on day five of his administration and that there were at least three different autopen signatures in use throughout president Biden's tenure in the White House,' Wold continued. He added: 'In June 2022, the Biden White House began deploying the autopen to sign clemency warrants and executive orders. Autopen use skyrocketed from there. We found that of the 51 clemency warrants issued during the Biden presidency, over half, 32 in total, were signed with an autopen.' Another eyebrow-raising revelation Wold shared was that after a review of the president's public schedule, and publicly available media, the Oversight Project was not able to find evidence of Biden 'personally approving these actions, such as a statement.' Were legally binding documents signed without President Biden's knowledge or consent? The American people deserve to know whether unelected bureaucrats usurped presidential power via autopen. @ItsYourGov @RealTheoWold — Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) June 18, 2025 Wold additionally disclosed that many of the days the autopen was used were days that the President was in Washington, DC for at least part of the day. Wold was formerly the Acting-Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy at the Department of Justice and Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the first Trump Administration. Before that, he served as Deputy Chief Counsel to United States Senator Mike Lee on the Senate Judiciary Committee, before which he testified Wednesday. Echoing Wold's concerns about evidence of Biden personally approving the times his autopen was used, Senator Josh Hawley called up the former president to release documents. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on former President Biden and the autopen: "If you want an answer to the question 'Did Joe Biden actually assent to the use of the autopen?'... There should be a record of it. This is a binary question...I call on President the documents." — CSPAN (@cspan) June 18, 2025 Hawley's fellow Missouri colleague Eric Schmitt doubled down on he claims that nameless and faceless staffers were in control during the course of the Biden Presidency. Schmitt brought a graphic with him to Wednesday's hearing which showcased blacked out silhouettes, underneath which '46th, Liberal Staffers, 2021-2025' was written. . @SenEricSchmitt / @Eric_Schmitt calls out faceless nameless staffers as being truly in control during the Biden Presidency in today's Senate Judiciary Hearing titled Unfit to Serve: How the Biden Cover-Up Endangered America and Undermined the Constitution. Here for @DailyMail! — Victoria Snitsar Churchill (@snits_churchy) June 18, 2025 Earlier in the hearing, Democrat Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) tried to flip the script on his Republican colleagues. In his opening statement, Durbin attempted to paint Donald Trump, 79, as the one who is not fully mentally competent, not his predecessor Joe Biden. To prove his point, Durbin brought up the recent incident of Trump saying the UK was the same thing as the EU. A clip of Trump announcing the signing of the US/UK trade deal with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the G7 meeting in Canada earlier this week quickly went viral. 'Now, I'd like you to see a short video that includes some other examples of cognitive ability,' Durbin stated, prior to showing a video compilation of what he said were gaffes, not by Biden, but Trump. After the video, Durbin asked 'do any of these statements raise the question of cognitive ability?' Standing alongside Starmer, Trump said on Monday: 'We signed it and it's done', before mistakenly announcing the deal was with the European Union, rather than the UK. He added: 'It's a fair deal for both. It'll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.' And as Trump attempted to open a black folder with the signed agreement inside, several papers spilled out on to the floor, prompting Starmer to quickly bend down and intervene. 'Oops sorry about that,' the president said, before Starmer tried to brush off the gaffe by quipping: 'It's a very important document.' A majority of the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee did not show up to take part in Wednesday's hearing. Senate Republicans are doubling down on the efforts of Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, which has called former top Biden White House aides to appear for transcribed interviews. A number of these former aides were subpoenaed last C ongress, and had their subpoenas blocked by the Biden White House. Joe Biden's former White House Physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor has been issued a formal subpoena to appear before the House oversight committee, after not agreeing to appear before the committee voluntarily. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer announced earlier in June that he was issuing a formal subpoena to Biden's former White House Physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor. The move was the latest escalation as the top Republican-led committee ramped up its investigation into the 'cover-up' of former President Joe Biden's mental decline. Chairman Comer ordered O'Connor to appear for a deposition on June 27 before his committee. Commenting on the importance of his investigation, Comer told members of the media earlier in June that the 'American people deserve full transparency and the House Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation to provide answers and accountability. The cover-up of President Biden's mental decline is one of the greatest scandals in our nation's history.' Comer's subpoena comes on the heels of President Donald Trump's recent announcement via executive order, demanding a federal investigation into former President Biden's staff. 'This conspiracy marks one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history.' 'The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden's signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts,' Trump said in the order. Under Trump's order, all of the pardons, clemency grants, executive orders, presidential memoranda, and other presidential policy decisions issued by Biden will be investigated. Actions under review would include Biden's pardons for son Hunter and other family members and orders related to a variety of areas including education, immigration, health care, climate change and more. Trump has argued the use of the autopen invalidates Biden's orders. If his administration can get the courts to agree, it could undo thousands of actions taken by the former president. It's unclear which documents from the Biden administration were signed by the then-president and which may have been signed by an electronic pen. Biden hit back at Trump hours after the executive order was signed, accusing the president of seeking out distractions to avoid criticism over bad legislation making its way through Congress. 'Let me be clear,' he said. 'I made the decisions during my presidency. 'I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false. 'This is nothing more than a distraction by Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans,' Biden stated. Biden added at the time that Trump and his allies 'are working to push disastrous legislation that would cut essential programs like Medicaid and raise costs on American families, all to pay for tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.' During his time in office, Biden was pictured signing some orders while in office, including ones on the use of AI and on gun safety issues. Biden's allies have pushed back on reports his mental and physical health were on the decline during his tenure.
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What are autopens? Here's what to know about the machines.
The autopen — a machine first patented centuries ago — is having a moment in the political spotlight, following allegations made by President Trump that former President Biden used one to sign pardons. That's prompting questions about what autopens do, how they work and why the device is now stirring up controversy. The devices use pens or other writing instruments to place a person's signature on documents, books or other papers, such as in the case of a college president, for example, who would otherwise be required to sign hundreds or thousands of diplomas for graduating students by hand. Mr. Trump raised the issue in March when he claimed Mr. Biden's alleged use of an autopen to sign preemptive pardons to members of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol rendered them "void" and "vacant." Mr. Trump raised the issue again on Wednesday, when he posted on Truth Social, "With the exception of the RIGGED PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2020, THE AUTOPEN IS THE BIGGEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN AMERICAN HISTORY!!!" The autopen has also become a focus of the right-leaning Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, which claims that Mr. Biden's alleged use of an autopen given his "clear cognitive decline ... raises additional questions for investigators." Regardless of the allegations, the autopen is hardly a novel device for the political sphere, with the Shapell Manuscript Foundation noting that one of the devices was bought by Thomas Jefferson soon after it was patented in 1803. Throughout U.S. history, presidents have relied on autopens, although the Shapell Manuscript Foundation notes that some commanders-in-chief have been guarded about their use of the machine. "Whereas once the official White House position was to deny the existence or usage of the autopen, today its existence is more of an open secret," the foundation notes. A spokesperson for Mr. Biden didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. What is an autopen? An autopen, also called a robot pen, is a machine that automates a person's signature with a pen or other writing instrument, versus a scanned signature, which is a digital image of a signature. Unlike people, the machine will never get writer's cramp, and can replicate a person's signature on high volumes of letters, certificates, diplomas and other documents, according to Automated Signature Technology, an autopen manufacturer. Its Ghostwriter machine uses a smart card or USB flash drive to store signatures and phrases that can be replicated on paper. The company's machines "write at human speed ... to produce quality handwriting reproductions," Automated Signature Technology says. The Ghostwriter can use any type of writing instrument, from a ballpoint pen to crayons, and can write on a variety of materials with different thicknesses, it added. Another autopen manufacturer, the Autopen Company, said its machines can be used for "signing certificates, correspondence, photographs and posters, almost anything up to 1/4 inch thick. Factory modifications can be incorporated for signing books and sports memorabilia." One site that sells autopens says that high-end machines used by governments can cost between $5,000 to $20,000 each. Neither the Autopen Company nor Automated Signature Technology immediately responded to requests for comment from CBS MoneyWatch. Have other presidents used autopens? Yes. President Johnson even allowed the autopen to be photographed in the White House. The photo appeared in The National Enquirer with a 1968 article titled, "The Robot That Sits in for the President," according to the Shapell Manuscript Foundation. Other presidents who have relied on autopens include John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama, among others. Presidents have typically used an autopen to sign routine correspondence to constituents, like letters recognizing life milestones, as well as legislation and pardons. During the Gerald Ford administration, the president and First Lady Betty Ford occasionally signed documents and other correspondence by hand, but White House staff more often used autopen machines to reproduce their signatures on letters and photographs. Mr. Trump has also used an autopen, telling reporters on Air Force One in March that he'd used the device "only for very unimportant papers." "You know, we get thousands and thousands of letters, letters of support for young people, from people that aren't feeling well, etcetera. But to sign pardons and all of the things that he signed with an autopen is disgraceful," Mr. Trump said at the time, in reference to his claims former President Biden used the technology to sign pardons. President George W. Bush asked the Justice Department in 2005 if it was constitutional to use an autopen to sign a bill, with the department concluding that "the president need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill he approves and decides to sign in order for the bill to become law. Sneak peek: Where is Jermain Charlo? Baldwin grills McMahon on unallocated funds for students, schools, approved by Congress Hegseth orders Navy to rename USNS Harvey Milk, Jeffries calls it "a complete and total disgrace"
