RNC Chairman Tells Holder to Investigate Obama over Fundraising Video

Not sure how much traction this one is going to get but RNC Chairman Reince Priebus will certainly ingratiate himself with the Tea Party by going on offense like this. Priebus has sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, demanding that the details behind Barack Obama's fundraising video be investigated and that there may have been a federal crime committed. The charge, levied by Preibus, is that it is illegal to solicit political contributions from where Obama was seen in the video.

Via Jake Tapper at ABC News:

The Republican National Committee has asked the Justice Department to investigate what it calls a matter of “grave concern:” President Obama’s appearance in a campaign video filmed inside the White House.

“If President Obama recorded the video in the Map Room, then it appears he has committed a crime under federal law,” RNC chairman Reince Priebus wrote in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder.

The letter attempts to revive an issue Republicans first raised weeks ago but that has failed to gain much attention or traction. Many good government groups and independent legal experts have dismissed the claims.

Still, Priebus says Obama’s use of a “place of official government business” to solicit political contributions is against the law, and that all money collected in response to the video should be returned. He stopped short of calling for the appointment of a special counsel.

The odds of Eric Holder responding to the Priebus LETTER are not even worth considering. They are zero. Nonetheless, Holder's got quite a few problems to deal with these days and if this helps his department become even further overwhelmed, so be it.

This is also a good precedent for the RNC to set. The Tea Party is tired of a reluctance to fight. As long as this is an honest attempt to do so, it will be appreciated, regardless of the outcome.

Hopefully, Boehner and McConnell are paying attention because the Tea Party wants to see similar fight in them.

h/t Drudge

Will James Murdoch be Arrested?

The NewsCorp empire appears to be crumbling at breakneck speed. Both Rupert and his son, James, will be in front of British Parliament today to explain what they knew and when they knew it. Rupert is likely to come off as the older, top guy who was quite removed from the details of the hacking scandal. James, on the other hand, is in charge of NewsCorp's Europe division and appears to have been intricately involved, even signing checks made out to victims of the hacking scandal, checks that ostensibly were to buy those victims' silence. The pen James used to sign them may be a smoking gun.

Via ABC News:

The Murdoch dynasty may be coming to an end.

James Murdoch, considered the heir apparent to his father Rupert Murdoch's media empire, may be forced to resign or, worse, could face arrest as News Corp's phone hacking scandal continues to unravel.

"I don't see how he can survive," Howell Raines, former executive editor of The New York Times told ABCNews.com. "Seems to me that the movement both politically and legally is ominous."

As for Rupert Murdoch, Raines said, "I think he's seriously wounded."

Raines resigned from the New York Times in 2003 amid the newspaper's own scandal after a reporter, Jayson Blair, had committed plagiarism and fabricated stories.

Father and son are expected to appear before a committee in the British parliament today to tell what they knew about News of the World employees illegally eavesdropping on the phone messages of celebrities, politicians, royal staffers and, as recently revealed, terror and murder victims.

By all accounts, James is a leftwing ideologue who has a cozy relationship with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Those things don't seem to be getting any media attention.

Feds Withholding Evidence in Fort Hood Jihadist's Trial

Claims by the defense lawyer for Fort Hood Jihadist, Nidal Malik Hasan, that the government is preventing him from seeing a White House Intelligence report on the shooting. Attorney John Galligan's claims that he has been denied access to important evidence appear to be quite accurate at this point. Ironically, this may be the one thing on which Galligan should be able to garner public support. It looks like he's not getting access to all of the emails between Hasan and Anwar al-Awlaki. This could say quite a bit about what the Feds don't want revealed about them.

Via Fox News:

A new filing in the Fort Hood case shows that a key White House Intelligence report on the Fort Hood Shooting in November 2009 is still being withheld from the defense. The Army also admits it does not have all of the emails exchanged between the accused shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan and the first American on the CIA’s kill or capture list, Anwar al-Awlaki.

The documents, filed on July 14 as part of the Fort Hood prosecution, state:

“Trial counsels (Army lawyers) have produced all electronic communication in their possession between the Accused and Anwar al-Awlaki. On information and belief, trials counsels do not believe they possess all electronic communications between the Accused and the individuals (al-Awlaki.)”

Hasan’s defense lawyer, John Galligan, says he was given nine emails by the military as part of the discovery process. Yet, sources who have reviewed the email exchange between Hasan and Awlaki which began in December 2008 tell Fox News there are at least 18 emails.

Based on the history of our federal government's behavior, there is possibly something in the Intelligence report that is very damaging.

Characterization of the emails exchanged between the accused Fort Hood shooter and the cleric range from benign to clearly concerning in tone. In one email, Hasan reportedly asked if it was okay to kill Americans – though U.S. officials will not comment publicly on the accuracy of those reports or the contents of the emails.

Yet, some former intelligence officials say the mere contact between Hasan and Awlaki – an American citizen who leads the new breed of Digital Jihadists who spread their ideology of hate through the web – should have prompted immediate action. Fox News’ investigative unit, in its special “Secrets of 9/11,” has shown that Awlaki’s contact with three of the 9/11 hijackers was not a series of coincidences but rather evidence of a purposeful relationship.

Cover-up, damage control, and CYA?

Read it all.