Judicial Watch FOIA Lawsuit

On Wednesday, conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch issued a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Justice Department demanding a number of documents be turned over. The lawsuit comes after the DOJ failed to respond to a December 4, 2017, FOIA request for those records.

Judicial Watch is looking for all records of communications, including but not limited to, emails, text messages and instant chats, between FBI official Peter Strozk and FBI attorney Lisa Page; all travel requests, travel authorizations, travel vouchers and expense reports of Peter Strozk (dating back to Feb. 1, 2015); all travel requests, travel authorizations, travel vouchers and expense reports of Lisa Page (dating back to Feb. 1, 2015).

In a statement from Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, he said, “I don’t believe for one minute that the Strzok-Page texts are really missing. The IRS told us that Lois Lerner’s emails were ‘missing,’ and we forced them to admit they existed and deliver them to us. The State Department hid the Clinton emails but our FOIA lawsuits famously blew open that cover-up. We fully intend to get the ‘missing’ Strzok and Page documents. And it is shameful the FBI and DOJ have been playing shell games with these smoking gun text messages. Frankly, FBI Director Wray needs to stop the stonewalling.”

Last Friday, the Justice Department informed six congressional committees that the FBI “failed to preserve” five months’ worth of Strzok-Page texts, from Dec. 14, 2016 to May 17, 2017.

The agency said that “many” FBI-issued Samsung 5 phones failed to back up texts to bureau servers because of “misconfiguration issues.”

Missing Text Messages Between Two FBI Employees Have Been Located

The Department of Justice has recovered missing text messages between anti-Trump FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, the DOJ’s inspector general said Thursday. 

In a letter sent to congressional committees, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said his office “succeeded in using forensic tools to recover text messages from FBI devices, including text messages between Mr. Strzok and Ms. Page that were sent or received between December 14, 2016 and May 17, 2017.” 

“Our effort to recover any additional text messages is ongoing,” Horowitz said. “We will provide copies of the text messages that we recover from these devices to the Department so that the Department’s leadership can take any management action it deems appropriate.”

On Wednesday night, Fox News host Sean Hannity reported exclusively that the Department of Justice is currently in the process of recovering the missing text messages from anti-Trump FBI employees. 

The news comes one day after Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered an investigation into the missing text messages.

Report: House Intel Denied Senate Intel Committee Access To Surveillance Memo

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes has reportedly denied Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr’s (R-N.C.) staff access to a classified memo detailing allegations of government surveillance abuse that is tied to the ongoing Russia election meddling investigation. 

The memo is the four-page summary of Nunes’ investigation into the FBI and Justice Department's use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. 

Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who drafted the memo along with the help of his staff, denied Burr’s staff request for a copy of the document. 

The panel voted last week to allow House lawmakers to view the memo in the committee's secure spaces. A House Intelligence Committee spokesman told The Hill that vote applied only to House members, which means senators were not granted access to view its contents. 

Nunes could call for a vote to release the report on his panel. If a majority on the committee agrees to declassify the report, the executive branch would then need to sign-off to make it public, said Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), another Freedom Caucus member. 

President Donald Trump is inclined to allow the memo that alleges FBI abuses of surveillance laws to be released if the House Intelligence Committee approves it being declassified.

The Department of Justice warned House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes against releasing the memo. Such a move would be "extraordinarily reckless," Stephen Boyd, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, wrote in a letter to Nunes last week.

Trump Meets with May and Netanyahu at Davos

In a pair of bilateral meetings with the prime ministers of Great Britain and Israel today, Trump touted his White House’s warm ties with each nation, both longtime steadfast U.S. allies. 

As he entered the forum’s hall, Trump declared that he had arrived with a message of “peace and prosperity.” 

With Theresa May, Britain’s prime minister, Trump offered the pool of reporters traveling with him at the forum in Davos assurances that the pair continues to share “a really great relationship,” that he has “tremendous respect” for his British counterpart and that “the feeling is mutual from the standpoint of liking each other a lot.” 

In Trump’s meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, the conversation in front of the cameras focused largely on the president’s announcement last month that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and begin the process of moving its embassy there. 

Netanyahu heaped praise on the president for the controversial decision, criticized even by close U.S. allies, telling him that the decision would be “forever etched on the hearts of our people for generations to come.”

UConn Offers Counseling, Restricts Access to Shapiro Event

The University of Connecticut decided to restrict public access to Wednesday’s speech featuring Ben Shapiro following a new “review” process that will be applied to all campus speakers.

According to Young America’s Foundation, the organization that sponsored the event, said that the only guests allowed to attend Shapiro’s January 24 lecture were UConn students, faculty, and special pre-registered guests. 

YAF Spokesperson Spencer Brown asserted that the review process was adopted by the public university after a controversial scuffle between Gateway Pundit journalist Lucian Wintrich and a protester at his on-campus lecture in November. 

“This level of review was imposed upon the conservative students at UConn who are hosting Shapiro due to the school’s inability to maintain the rule of law at a previous lecture hosted by the campus conservative club,” Brown remarked. 

“Student safety may seem a noble cause for UConn to cherish, but why isn’t the same level of restraint imposed on speaking events by prominent leftists?” he asked, noting that “just last week, Anita Hill spoke on campus at UConn in an event advertised as ‘free and open to the public,’ with ‘no tickets required for entry.’” 

Earlier this month, Associate Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Joelle Murchison sent a letter to UConn students offering counseling services to those who might feel offended by Shapiro’s upcoming event, according to The Daily Wire.

Writing course calls inclusive language 'an ethical obligation'

A Western Michigan University student says she was surprised by the emphasis her professor placed on an “inclusive language policy” on the first day of a Professional Writing course taught by professor, Dr. Brian Gogan. 

The policy, which calls inclusive language “an ethical obligation,” closely parallels university guidelines that, among other things, advise against the use of words like “mothering” and “fathering” in order to avoid gender bias. 

In an email interview with Campus Reform, Professor Gogan clarified that “the policy does not have repercussions that would influence a student’s grade” 

Western Michigan University’s Writing Style Guide referenced by Gogan does, in fact, use the “chairman/chairwoman” example, telling readers to “use chairman, chairwoman or chairperson only if that is the person's official job title and always if it is the person's official job title” 

In addition to the common admonitions against terms like “fireman” and “mankind,” the guide also advises that students avoid the words “mothering” and “fathering,” suggesting “caring” or “nurturing” in place of “mothering” and “begetting, creating, [or] fostering” as an alternative to “fathering.” 

According to Western Michigan University the style guide’s purpose is “to bring consistency to correspondence and print and electronic publications written for and about Western Michigan University. It addresses many of the more commonly asked questions about style and several of the more common errors.”

Mail Time!

• "Bill, if this FBI corruption issue is eventually confirmed to be true, do you believe it will have an impact on 2018 elections?"
• "Part of my evening routine is listening to the podcast while thumbing through the daily papers. Last night while listening to your FBI ElectionGate coverage, I realize there's not a word in either Newsday or the New York Daily News about the story."
• "Mr. O, this week's podcast are the best you've ever done. But something is bothering me. You and several of your viewers have said that the political mess in the USA scares you. I wonder what you think could possibly happen. I'm concerned but not necessarily scared. So what's up with the fear?"

Word of the Day: Picayune