Inspector General: Top DHS Official Showed Favoritism to Hillary Clinton’s Brother

[Valin]

National Review/The Corner:

Joel Gehrke

March 24, 2015

 

A senior Department of Homeland Security official “created an appearance of favoritism and special access” by intervening on behalf of a company run by Hillary Clinton’s brother, a finding that contradicts the official’s testimony during his Senate confirmation hearing.

 

The issue pertained to the EB-5 program, which provides visas to immigrants who invest in the United States.

 

“In three matters pending before USCIS, Mr. Mayorkas, now deputy secretary of DHS, communicated with stakeholders on substantive issues outside of the normal adjudicatory process, and intervened with the career USCIS staff in ways that benefited the stakeholders,” the DHS inspector general reports. “Regardless of Mr. Mayorkas’ motives, his intervention in these matters created significant resentment in USCIS. This resentment was not isolated to career staff adjudicating within the EB-5 program, but extended to senior managers and attorneys responsible for the broader USCIS mission and programs.”

 

The report “specifically focused on allegations of special treatment afforded to a Las Vegas casino project championed by Sen. Harry Reid, then the Senate majority leader, and an electric car enterprise led by Terry McAuliffe, who is now Virginia governor, and involving Anthony Rodham, the brother of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,” according to ABC..

 

(Snip)

 

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Hillary Clinton...Harry Reid....Terry McAuliffe involved in a scandal!

 

More At Breitbart

 

[Valin]

@Geee

 

Moved

 

Report: Terry McAuliffe, Tony Rodham Received ‘Unprecedented’ Favoritism from DHS

Free Beacon

 

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security gave an “unprecedented” level of special treatment to GreenTech Automotive, an electric car company run by Virginia Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Hillary Clinton’s brother Tony Rodham, according to a report from the department’s inspector general.

 

The report states that McAuliffe and Rodham’s treatment by DHS “created an appearance of favoritism and special access.”

 

The Washington Post reports:

 

The intervention, on behalf of McAuliffe’s GreenTech Automotive company, “was unprecedented,” according to the report, which noted that “staff perceived it as politically motivated.” [...]

 

The report did not find evidence of law-breaking. It focuses on decisions by Deputy Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that appeared to show favoritism for politically powerful applicants, notably McAuliffe.

 

The long-anticipated report reviewed Mayorkas’s management of the EB-5 program, which allows foreign nationals who create jobs in the United States to obtain green cards. The report concluded that Mayorkas’ actions “created an appearance of favoritism and special access.’’

 

McAuliffe’s GreenTech Automotive was working with a company, Gulf Coast Funds Management, that specialized in obtaining EB-5 visas and was run by Rodham.

[Valin]

Investigation finds Mayorkas used visa program to help White House allies

 

WASHINGTON D.C. – Alejandro Mayorkas, the man President Obama and Senate Democrats once hoped would head the Department of Homeland Security, overruled his own U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staff to expedite visa approvals for foreign investors in businesses with connections to prominent Democrats, a federal investigation released Tuesday concludes.

 

“In three matters pending before USCIS … Mr. Mayorkas communicated with stakeholders on substantive issues, outside of the normal adjudicatory process, and intervened with the career USCIS staff in ways that benefited the stakeholders,” wrote John Roth, the Inspector General. “In each of these three instances, but for Mr. Mayorkas’ intervention, the matter would have been decided differently.”

 

Mayorkas elbowed his way into each of the issues as the USCIS director responsible for the federal EB-5 program. The EB-5 program was created in 1990, and offers green cards to foreign nationals who invest at least $500,000 to create 10 or more jobs in U.S. companies.

 

In the three cases the IG investigated, the projects were linked to politically prominent individuals.

 

http://watchdog.org/...e-house-allies/

[Valin]

@WestVirginiaRebel

 

Moved

 

Report: Va. governor received special treatment from Homeland Security

Washington Post:

 

Not long before he became governor of Virginia, Democrat Terry McAuliffe received special treatment on behalf of his electric-car company from a top official at the Department of Homeland Security, according to a new report from the department’s inspector general.

 

McAuliffe was among several politically powerful individuals from both parties, including Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), seeking special visas for foreign investors through a program administered by the department. But intervention on behalf of McAuliffe’s GreenTech Automotive company by Alejandro Mayorkas, now the department’s No. 2 official, “was unprecedented,” according to the report.

 

The long-anticipated report found no evidence of law-breaking. But members of the department’s staff perceived Mayorkas’s actions as “politically motivated,” and the report concluded that he had “created an appearance of favoritism and special access.”

 

The report is likely to stir up renewed scrutiny of the department’s management of the EB-5 visa program, which allows foreign nationals who create jobs in the United States to obtain green cards. And it is likely to rekindle examination of McAuliffe and GreenTech, which at the time of Mayorkas’s actions was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission over its conduct in soliciting foreign investors.

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The party of corruption...

 

[Valin]

Scandals force Hillary Clinton to delay 2016 bid announcement

S.A. Miller

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

 

Many of the key figures cited in a scathing inspector generals report this week are allies of Hillary Rodham Clinton, marking the latest in a series of stumbles for the former first lady and secretary of state that likely forced her to delay her planned presidential campaign announcement.

 

A Democratic strategist familiar with her teams thinking said they are scrambling to limit the damage and readjust the campaign rollout schedule after the Homeland Security Departments inspector general revealed an apparent cronyism scandal that ensnared Mrs. Clintons brother, Anthony Rodham, and two of her political confidants, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and former Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell.

 

The accusation that a top Obama administration official did favors for the three politically connected Democrats follows other damaging revelations swirling around Mrs. Clinton, including that the Clinton Foundation pocketed foreign donations while she was secretary of state and that she exclusively used a private email account that concealed official business while she was in office.

 

She is being tarnished before the race starts. Its kind of like if youre a race horse having a leg broken on a regular basis and the wound never heals, said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran Democratic campaign adviser who worked for President Clintons 1996 re-election campaign.

 

(Snip)

[Geee]

Latest McAuliffe Aide Hired by Clinton Campaign Linked to Cash-for-Access Scheme

 

The most recent operative of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D.) to join Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was at the helm of a political action committee that offered access to McAuliffe in exchange for cash.

 

Michael Halle, a top McAuliffe aide who worked as executive director of the Common Good VA PAC, will join Clinton’s Iowa team and is expected to serve in a senior role in the campaign’s political department, according to a report from the New York Times’ Jonathan Martin.

 

Halle was in Iowa for the 2008 campaign, but was working for the Obama team that defeated Clinton. He also worked on the Obama campaign in 2012.

 

Halle then managed field operations for McAuliffe’s successful 2013 gubernatorial campaign, working under campaign manager Robby Mook, who is slated to be Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager.

 

Following the 2013 campaign in Virginia, Halle became executive director of Common Good VA PAC, which came under fire for offering access to McAuliffe, his wife, and policy experts in exchange for large contributions.

http://freebeacon.com/politics/latest-mcauliffe-aide-hired-by-clinton-campaign-linked-to-cash-for-access-scheme/

[Geee]

DHS Official’s Visa Intervention Explanation Just Doesn’t Add Up

One of the claims Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deputy secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made defending himself against recent accusations of improper intervention on behalf of politically-connected Democrats just doesn’t add up.

Last week, DHS’ inspector general (IG), John Roth, released a scathing report detailing Mayorkas’ “unprecedented” intervention during his stint as director of U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) to help companies seeking approval for EB-5 visa applications.

USCIS whistle-blowers said they had never witnessed interventions like Mayorkas’ and felt that they were politically motivated.

 

When interviewed by IG investigators about his intervention in Sept. 1, 2011, on behalf of a firm called L.A. Films, Mayorkas denied talking to a politically-connected Los Angeles attorney about EB-5 visas. Instead, he said that he talked to the attorney, John Emerson, about an organization whose board he sat on with Emerson’s wife.

http://dailycaller.com/2015/04/03/analysis-dhs-officials-visa-intervention-explanation-just-doesnt-add-up/