House Judiciary Committee subpoenas FBI agent who sent anti-Trump texts
by John Bowden
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) issued a subpoena on Friday commanding FBI agent Peter Strzok to testify before the committee next week, despite Strzok’s offer to testify voluntarily.
Strzok’s testimony is scheduled to take place on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m., according to a press release from the Judiciary Committee.
“The Committees have repeatedly requested to interview Mr. Strzok regarding his role in certain decisions, but he has yet to appear,” the statement said. The committee was referring to the joint investigation between the Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee examining the FBI’s conduct during the 2016 presidential election.
Strzok was one of two FBI officials removed from special counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia after it was revealed that he and his colleague, Lisa Page, had sent text messages that were highly critical of then-candidate Trump.
Here’s what’s happening and why I like it. The tables have turned. Rep Goodlatte is doing to Strzok what Mueller did and is doing to those coming before the Special Counsel: squeezing their spleens until they start to fall all over each other in an attempt to cut the first and best deal. Andrew McCabe has already said that if he goes down others go down. Andrew McCabe has already accused Jimmy “The Leak” Comey of lying.
Then there may actually be a squalor, like pigs, of federal government officials such as Strzok and McCabe and Comey and Moyer and Kleinsmith and Lynch and Page and Rosenstein all vying to fellate those with the power of the subpoena.
Pier 14 killing: S.F. sheriff asked feds to send immigrant here
by Jaxon Van Derbeken
San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi has deflected blame in the release of a Mexican national now facing murder charges in the Pier 14 slaying by demanding to know why federal authorities returned him to San Francisco to face a 20-year-old marijuana charge in the first place.
An excellent question. Why? Finally, a journalist with an inquisitive mind.
The answer, it turns out, is that the Sheriff’s Department asked federal officials to do so.
Mirkarimi’s agency requested custody of Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez as he was completing a 46-month stint in federal prison in March in San Bernardino County, according to a Sheriff’s Department letter obtained by The Chronicle. Lopez-Sanchez had been deported five times to Mexico, and had been imprisoned for illegally re-entering the U.S.
Curiouser and curiouser.
The federal Bureau of Prisons alerted the Sheriff’s Department in March that Lopez-Sanchez was going to be released. Mirkarimi’s agency, realizing that Lopez-Sanchez was wanted on a $5,000 bench warrant related to a 1995 marijuana possession for sale case, asked prison officials March 23 to hold onto him and to notify San Francisco authorities “when the subject is ready for our pick-up.”
“Also, please notify us if the hold cannot be placed or the named subject is released to another jurisdiction prior to our receipt,” said the letter, signed by Vic Gaerlan of the sheriff’s warrant bureau.
Lopez-Sanchez arrived in San Francisco on March 26, and the marijuana case against him was discharged the following day. He was returned to jail, however.
For the next three weeks, sources with knowledge of the matter told The Chronicle, sheriff’s deputies sought clarification from the department’s legal division on whether to hold onto Lopez-Sanchez so Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials could pick him up for possible deportation. ICE had requested that the city detain Lopez-Sanchez.
About now, you’re asking yourself a question, aren’t you?
Lopez-Sanchez was scheduled for release from federal prison in southern California in March. Given that information, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began processing a reinstatement of removal order for the five-time deportee, Breitbart News previously reported.
The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department was also alerted to Lopez-Sanchez’s impending release from federal Bureau of Prisons custody in March, according to a Sheriff’s department letter obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. Noting Lopez-Sanchez had a 20-year-old bench warrant on possession-for-sale of marijuana, on March 23 the Sheriff’s department requested notification when Lopez-Sanchez was “ready for our pickup.”
“Ready for pickup” on a $5,000 dope charge about which the SF District Attorney couldn’t care less.
Lopez-Sanchez was transferred from the federal Bureau of Prisons in Victorville, California to San Francisco Sheriffs’ department custody on March 26.
A court dismissed Lopez-Sanchez’s charges the day after he arrived in San Francisco, March 27.
It was not until after Lopez-Sanchez was delivered to San Francisco County custody that ICE was notified of the transfer. ICE then issued a detention request for Lopez-Sanchez. That request simply asked for notification prior to Lopez-Sanchez’s release, not that he be detained for an extended period of time.
In other words, as a “sanctuary city,” San Francisco chooses not to comply with the law.
So why request his return?
Please allow me to state what, in my opinion, may be the answer to: why did they request Sanchez?
I believe it’s because they are a “sanctuary city” and that, by acquiring physical custody of Sanchez, they could assure his release prior to being detained by the feds for deportation back to Mexico.
San Francisco quite proudly declared itself a sanctuary city 26 years ago. It is proud of that fact. A “sanctuary city” means that Illegals of all shapes and sizes will, according to the mindset of Leftists, not be “ratted out” to various authorities for deportation just because they are “undocumented” — LeftSpeak for illegal.
San Francisco is proud of that label.
San Francisco is proud, even after a 32-year-old Pleasanton woman, Kate Steinle, was shot and killed in front of her father at Pier 14 on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, on Wednesday, July 1st, at about 6:30 PM.
Her last words were: “Dad, help me, help me.”
Her father was powerless, considering Kate Steinle had been shot directly in the chest three times by an illegal immigrant who purposely sought out San Francisco because he knew it was a sanctuary city.
Here’s where the pride of San Francisco comes in:
Had San Francisco authorities not refused a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer request, Lopez-Sanchez may not have been in the United States and Steinle might still be alive.
San Francisco’s Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi is defending the intentional April release of five-times-deported Mexican national Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, who has since confessed to the Wednesday shooting death of a young woman at Pier 14.
Sheriff Mirkarimi appeared agitated as he spoke to San Francisco-based KRON 4 News, casting blame on U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for not filing a formal court application to detain Lopez-Sanchez. In a separate CNN interview, Mirkarimi defended his refusal of ICE detainers. He called ICE policy the “imperfect deportation and transferring of people.”
It is San Francisco Sheriff’s department policy to deny all ICE detainer requests. He indicated that he only honors court orders.
Mirkarimi also told CNN’s Jake Tapper that sanctuary city policies “make us safer.”
Safer, yes, of course. Why didn’t I think of that?
Further, the San Francisco mayor, Edwin Lee, said in part:
As I said in 2013, we must protect both civil liberties and uphold public safety. Which is why, at the time, I promised to veto any legislation that completely eliminated the Sheriff’s ability to make a case-by-case determination about honoring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers. Our sanctuary policies should not create a safe harbor for convicted, violent felons.
Translated: Mayor Lee just threw Mirkarimi under the bus. But of course Lee takes the golden opportunity to turn a death into a political wiffle ball. It’s the fault of the Republicans:
Even after repeated attempts by President Obama and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi to reform our immigration laws, Republicans in Congress have blocked those efforts, unfortunately, leaving cities and local municipalities to act upon immigration issues that affect its residents. I will continue to work with the Obama Administration on Comprehensive Immigration Reform to ensure cities aren’t forced to make and enforce immigration law.
That said, what actually happened with Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez? He shouldn’t have even been in the United States. With seven felony convictions — not arrests, but convictions — Sanchez had been deported to Mexico five times. And came back each time.
Even CNN wrote about the circumstances surrounding the multiple releases of the murder suspect:
In March, Lopez-Sanchez was turned over to San Francisco authorities and ultimately released after completing a federal prison sentence.
U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement said San Francisco wanted Lopez-Sanchez on a drug warrant, so the agency handed him over with a request to let it know if he was to be released.
Despite that request, San Francisco authorities let him go in April after the drug charges were dropped.
Freya Horne, chief legal counsel to the San Francisco County Sheriff, said city officials believe such requests violate Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.
Question, Freya: if a federal detainer violated federal law, then how has the federal government been getting away with its various USC sections over the numerous years regarding deportations of illegals? When I worked Booking in the Sacramento County Main Jail as a deputy in the 80s, I would pick up the phone and call the USBP when we suspected a LE agency had arrested an illegal. The USBP did the rest. Simple.
Sanchez confessed to the murder but his Public Defender subsequently insisted he was not guilty.
It is San Francisco Sheriff’s department policy to deny all ICE detainer requests. He indicated that he only honors court orders.
ICE had begun processing the reinstatement of Lopez-Sanchez’s removal order before the prisoner was transferred on March 26 from a Bureau of Prisons facility in Victorville to San Francisco Sheriff’s custody pursuant to an old drug warrant.
ICE was informed of the transfer afterwards and alternatively issued a detainer request for the prisoner.
A San Francisco court dismissed Lopez-Sanchez’s drug charge on March 27.
On April 15, 2015, authorities dismissing the ICE request for detention released the seven-time convicted felon Lopez-Sanchez onto the streets.
Finally, I submit to Leftist sheriff Ross Mirkarimi (he is, you should know, a co-founder of the Green Party of California) that you, sir, are damned near equally responsible for the death of Kate Steinle. You go explain your philosophy and mindset to the parents, siblings, friends and relatives of Kate Steinle. Personally.
But you won’t. Because you are a coward and your belief system is “Leftist Mindset Uber Alles.” It’s funny, however, how you call Trump an “opportunist” when he dared to speak the truth about Mexico. Mexico is out for Mexico — but of course on your planet of purple skies you hadn’t remotely thought of that. Mexico does not give us our best and brightest. Its children have brought disease to this nation. It sends us more MS13 gangbangers. Its illegals commit crimes in this nation and commit murders. Yet your purple skies, Mirkarimi, “Trump all.”
You are absolutely disgusting in your willingness to forsake your law enforcement oath for murdering Leftist values. You sicken me. You are unfit to wear your badge. I say this, sir, as a recently retired (two weeks ago) Sergeant with a California department much larger than yours, after 41 years of service: you sicken me.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me finally write: wake up. Some of your police and sheriff departments are killing you in the fashion of the SFSO. They are killing you either by fear, cowardice, ignorance or by dint of wishing to be politically correct. But they are doing it nevertheless.
They are killing you because they are not obeying the law. Their not obeying the law is because they have chosen to do so for expedience — AND — because the federal government does not obey its own laws. More on that in a subsequent post.
I submit: the American taxpayers are not too terribly far away from picking and choosing which laws they will or will not obey.
Because the federal government and some agencies in law enforcement have already led the way on the issue.
Gavin Newsom has had the link to his Executive Order 07-01 Sanctuary City Policy REMOVED. The link, when clicked, now indicates: For Your Information – Page Not Found
Isn’t that just terribly convenient, as Stick points out, since it would appear that Newsom will likely be running for governor?
First, from TheHill.com:
