Josh Hawley Archives

FBI interviewed priest, choir director when creating ‘anti-Catholic’ memo

December 5, 2023
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified on Capitol Hill Tuesday, Dec. 5, after a House investigative report revealed the FBI interviewed a Catholic priest and choir director to collect information for a memo which has since been rescinded. The memo raised the alarm about “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” with individuals who hold a “radical-traditionalist Catholic” ideology.

The memo was criticized by Republicans who said it targeted Americans for their religious beliefs. The report from the House Judiciary Committee also found “no legitimate basis for the memorandum to insert federal law enforcement into Catholic houses of worship.”

Wray told Congress that the individuals involved were not found to have engaged in bad faith conduct.

“A number of the individuals involved in writing that product in the Richmond office were themselves Catholics,” Wray said. “So the notion that they were targeting their own faith is nonsense.”

“Oh, so they had a get out of jail free card. I see,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., responded.

Wray said that the individuals involved in writing the memo have been admonished, and the incident will go into their annual performance reviews, which directly impacts their compensation.

The House Judiciary report also states that the agents who wrote the memo admitted to using information from sources they knew were politically biased.

“I can tell you that we don’t investigate people for their exercise of their constitutionally protected religious expression,” Wray said. “As for this particular intelligence product — is something that as soon as I saw it, I was aghast, I had it withdrawn,” Wray said.

As Wray mentioned, the memo has been retracted, but House Republicans contend that had it not been for a whistleblower, the memo would still be in systems across the FBI.
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Sen. Hawley aligns with Democrats on bill to limit corporate money in elections

November 3, 2023
Publicly traded companies spend millions of dollars on elections, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has introduced a bill to end that. Hawley’s proposal, the Ending Corporate Influence on Elections Act, would ban publicly traded corporations from giving money to super PACs and from making independent expenditures, political ads or other electioneering communications.

“I just don’t know why corporations — the people who have monopoly power in our economy, who have sent our jobs overseas, who have cut wages for workers — why should they be able to dominate our elections too? These aren’t individuals, these are for-profit business corporations. I just don’t think there’s any First Amendment rationale,” Hawley told Straight Arrow News.

Here are some examples of corporate spending in the 2021-2022 election cycle:

Blackstone: $42.3 million.

Charles Schwab: $18.6 million.

Alphabet (Google): $15 million.

Hawley said his bill will begin to undo the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision, which allowed corporations, nonprofits and labor unions to spend unlimited funds on elections. On this issue, Hawley finds himself aligned with Democrats, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has described Citizens United as “devastating.”

Democrats have tried to pass bills and a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.

“One of the biggest suppressors of the vote is big, dark special interest money in politics,” Pelosi said in 2022 in support of the For the People Act, which did not become law.

Hawley is being met with opposition from the Senate’s top Republican, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

CNN reported that McConnell told Republicans they will face “incoming” from the center-right if they support Hawley’s bill. McConnell then read off a list of candidates that his super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, has supported in recent years. That list included Hawley.

However, according to Open Secrets, McConnell’s spending in support of Hawley didn’t even come close to the $18 million that the Senate Majority PAC — aligned with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. — spent against Hawley in 2018.

Publicly, Schumer has called for a ban on this type of spending.

“Citizens United has disfigured our democracy almost beyond recognition,” Schumer said on Sept. 22, 2022.

“I can’t control who spends money,” Hawley said of super PAC spending in his races. “I can control what I do and I don’t take corporate contributions. I don’t take corporate PAC contributions.”

There have been a number of proposals similar to Hawley’s over the years.

In 2022, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., introduced the Ban Corporate PACs Act. The constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United is re-introduced almost every year.
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Menendez won’t attend classified Israel briefing as many call for his resignation

October 17, 2023
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., will not attend a classified briefing on Israel on Wednesday, Oct. 18. Pressure is building for him to resign in the wake of a new indictment accusing him of conspiring to act as a foreign agent on behalf of Egypt while he was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.

“He’s not going to attend the briefing tomorrow,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. “I’ve had private conversations. I don’t get involved in what happened in them on this kind of thing. He’s not attending.”

Menendez was first indicted in September under accusations of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in the form of cash, gold bars and a Mercedes in exchange for using his official position as senator to help a group of New Jersey businessmen and the government of Egypt.

On Wednesday, all senators will receive a classified briefing on Israel. When Menendez was the Foreign Relations chairman, this would have been directly under his purview. Now, senators are calling for his resignation.

“I think that Senator Menendez ought to make a decision about what is the right thing to do,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said. “I think he should resign, and I think he should resign before the briefing.”

“We’re getting into the— to the T-word territory here. You know, where we’re trading secrets on behalf of a foreign nation. I mean that’s pretty serious stuff,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said.

New Jersey’s junior senator, Cory Booker, has called on Menendez to resign but stopped short of saying he should be expelled.

“You’re asking a person that’s served with this guy for 10 years. Everything about this makes me feel uncomfortable. Having to call for his resignation makes me feel uncomfortable,” Booker told CNN’s Manu Raju.

More than 30 Senate Democrats are calling for Menendez to resign. New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy also called on the senator to step down.
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Romney says his generation should step aside. Younger lawmakers react.

September 14, 2023

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is retiring. He cited his age as one of the main reasons.

“The fact that at the end of a second term I would be in my mid 80s and I think it’s time for guys like me to get out of the way and have people in the next generation step forward,” Romney told reporters, according to C-SPAN.

About 100 members of Congress are older than 70. The average age in the Senate is 64. The average age in the House is 57. So SAN asked younger lawmakers if they think the older generation is doing enough to prepare the next generation.

Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn.

“There is little political reward for preparing the next generation. Because nobody here wants to be replaced. It’s just the way it works. People, that’s why we have people in their 90s in this institution.”

“I think it’s good to have some institutional knowledge and experience to help us with that. But increasingly, we are devoid of a generation that has the competency to deal with issues like artificial intelligence, like FinTech issues, like climate issues.”

Phillips called for 18 year term limits in the House, Senate and Supreme Court.
Senate Republicans doubt impeachment inquiry will end with Biden’s removal

September 12, 2023

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., directed the chairmen of three committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. McCarthy said House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct regarding his son’s overseas business dealings.

“Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption,” McCarthy said when making the announcement Tuesday morning.

The Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees will lead the probe.

McCarthy is opening this impeachment inquiry without a vote by the full House. In 2019, McCarthy called on then Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to suspend the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. He asked Pelosi whether there would be a vote to proceed with the inquiry. McCarthy wrote, “By answering no, you would create a process completely devoid of any merit or legitimacy.”

https://twitter.com/SpeakerMcCarthy/status/1179778155340603392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1179804457112129537%7Ctwgr%5E979db8088fa2f9c42573c408c869c4a5f942b4d8%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frollcall.com%2F2019%2F10%2F03%2Fmccarthy-asks-pelosi-to-suspend-impeachment-inquiry-until-she-defines-procedures%2F

If Biden is impeached in the House, a trial in the Senate would determine whether he should be convicted and removed from office. But Senate Republicans have warned their House colleagues that this needs to be done by the book.

“The American people deserve to know the truth and this all ought to be done in public. I mean, where you all can be there, report on it, not behind closed doors, not a bunch of hearsay ‘well, so and so told me that’ — no, no, no. Put it out there in public and let the American people decide,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said.

“If they’ve got facts and evidence, if they want to run through a traditional process, we’ll see what the result is. I don’t think that it’s going to result in the removal on the Senate side. But if there’s meaningful information that they think the American people need to know about, I’m okay with it,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said.

Tillis is not the only Republican who questions whether an impeachment could lead to a removal.

“We’ve only got a year left, you know, to the election. I don’t know whether they’ve got enough time. I know I sat through one impeachment trial, I don’t want to sit through another one,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said Sept. 6.

Tuberville said he hopes the House case is “rock solid.”

The House needs a simple majority vote to impeach. Removal requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate, so for that to happen, Democrats would have to vote against the president.
AI can create deepfake child porn. State AGs want Congress to address that.

September 7, 2023
Every state attorney general in the country is asking Congress to investigate and pass new laws that address artificial intelligence’s ability to make child pornography. In a letter to congressional leaders, the attorneys general said AI is “creating a new frontier for abuse that makes such prosecution more difficult.”

The letter detailed exactly how the crimes are committed.

“AI tools can rapidly and easily create ‘deepfakes’ by studying real photographs of abused children to generate new images showing those children in sexual positions,” the letter said. “This involves overlaying the face of one person on the body of another. Deepfakes can also be generated by overlaying photographs of otherwise unvictimized children on the internet with photographs of abused children to create new CSAM involving the previously unharmed children.” 

The letter is reaching a receptive audience in Congress.

“Child Sexual Abuse material is rampant, and vicious. And we need more protection against AI propagation and spread of it,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal D-Conn., told Straight Arrow News.

Sens. Blumenthal and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said they will be introducing legislation that addresses this soon. The bill is expected to target Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which creates a liability shield for online service providers, like Facebook and Twitter, for content users post on their sites.

“Artificial intelligence should have no, none, legal immunity like many social media outlets now have. AI can spread and propagate Child Sexual Abuse Material that does enduring a devastating harm to kids,” Blumenthal said.

“I would make it clear that they are liable for civil suits. And I think people ought to be able to get into court and sue them,” Hawley said.

The Senate is holding its inaugural AI forum Wednesday, Sept. 13, when a bipartisan group of lawmakers will meet with the top minds in AI to develop a plan for congressional action.

“We can’t put our heads in the sand like ostriches. If we don’t do anything AI is going to move forward without us and the dangers could be maximized and the opportunities could be minimized,” Sen. Chuck Schumer D-N.Y. said.

Congress is also working on legislation that will regulate how AI companies handle intellectual property and name, image and likeness.
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Manhattan Project radioactive waste made people ill. Should the gov’t pay the medical bills?

July 21, 2023
Should the U.S. government pay for the medical bills of people who were exposed to radioactive waste created during the Manhattan Project? Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced a bill to do just that after people living near a creek in his home state became ill and had to move.

Hawley wants the government to compensate people who lived near Coldwater Creek in St. Louis where waste was stored. Hawley said covered illnesses should include cancer, autoimmune disease or genetic disorders.

Mallinckrodt Chemical Co. helped process the uranium that was used to make the first atomic bomb near downtown St. Louis. An investigation by The Associated Press, The Missouri Independent and MuckRock found that the materials were transported and stored haphazardly. They even spilled out of the trucks en route to storage.

In 1949, a federal contractor left radioactive waste in steel drums along Coldwater Creek that leaked into the water.

In the 1970s, the government paid another contractor to dispose of more waste, but it was illegally dumped into a public landfill.

In 1976, a government test revealed levels of radiation in Coldwater Creek were extremely dangerous.

The report found that federal agencies knew of the risks to the area but described it as “low level” or “minimum.”

“This is their government dumping radioactive material into their water, their soil and then lying to them about it. Not even for a year or two years, but for three quarters of a century, Hawley said.

People who lived near the creek, and even swam in it, have suffered severe illness. During a recent press conference, former Coldwater Creek resident Christen Commuso cried as she described what she went through.

“In 2012, in an 11-month period, I had a total hysterectomy due to masses on my ovaries. I had an adrenal gland removed due to a tumor. I’ve had thyroid cancer,” Commuso said according to KSDK News.

Jana Elementary School, which sits right alongside Coldwater Creek, is now closed. A private scientist found that the school was contaminated while the Army Corps of Engineers said it was safe. Hawley and Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., sent a letter to Army Corps of Engineers’ Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon calling for additional radioactive testing at all Hazelwood School District properties.

“These are parents who sent their kids to the school trusting that they’d get a great education. And what did they get instead? Exposure to radioactive contamination,” Hawley said.

The government is now working on a remediation project at Coldwater Creek that is not scheduled to be finished until 2038.
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Sens. want Pentagon to stop accounting method that sends more Ukraine aid

July 13, 2023
Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, have introduced legislation to prevent the Defense Department from making more accounting errors when sending aid to Ukraine. In June, the Pentagon revealed it had overvalued aid it provided by $6.2 billion, allowing the DOD to send more.

The Pentagon said the accounting errors can be attributed to using the replacement cost of the equipment, not its book value. The book value is depreciated because the equipment is used and sitting in storage. The replacement cost is higher because everything has to be purchased brand new.

“The so-called ‘valuation errors’ around U.S. aid to Ukraine is a transparent attempt to bypass Congress for additional funds, while continuing to prioritize Ukraine over more vital U.S. interests, including deterring China in the Pacific,” Sen. Hawley said in a statement.

The bill would require the Biden administration to calculate the cost of aid by using the equipment’s purchase price plus any improvements, modifications, or how much it costs to replace, whichever is greater.

“You realize that we’re spending way more money than I think the Biden administration or the American people are fully aware of. So that’s a problem. Because if we don’t know how much we’re spending, how can we possibly evaluate whether the cost benefit calculus makes sense for the American people,” Sen. Vance told Straight Arrow News.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Hawley, Vance and other Republican senators said, “By using creative accounting to conceal the actual cost of supporting Ukraine, you appear to be circumventing the American people’s elected representatives. Congress, not DOD, possesses the power of the purse.”

They asked him to answer questions including:
- How does DOD justify the use of net book value vice replacement costs when the equipment given to Ukraine must be replaced with new equipment?
- How is DOD calculating the net book value of equipment given to Ukraine?
The senators want the answers by Aug. 10.
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Biden administration has to declassify COVID origin documents by Sunday

June 16, 2023
The Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines must declassify information relating to links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of COVID-19 by Sunday, June 18. The release is mandated by the COVID-19 Origins Act which Congress passed unanimously and President Biden signed into law in March.

The law requires the release of information regarding:
- Activities at the institute on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army.
- Coronavirus research or other related activities at the lab.
DNI Haines must also declassify information about individual researchers at the institute who got sick in the fall of 2019, including:
- Their name.
- Symptoms.
- Whether they were hospitalized.
- Whether they were involved in, or exposed to coronavirus research.
The law states the DNI must submit a declassified report to Congress which can only have redactions that protect intelligence-gathering sources and methods.

Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Mike Braun, R-Ind., who sponsored the bill, wrote a letter to President Biden reminding him of the deadline.

“The American people deserve to know how this pandemic began, and their democratically elected representatives have expressed their will unanimously,” the letter stated.

When President Biden signed the bill, he also said it was important to release as much information as possible to help prevent future pandemics.

“In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security,” the president said in a statement.

But Hawley and Braun took issue with the way President Biden described the redactions his administration would make.

“The act does not allow for redactions based on your administration’s view of ‘national security’ broadly defined, as you claimed in your signing statement. Rather, the act only provides for much narrower redactions to protect intelligence sources and methods,” the senators wrote.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has repeatedly said he believes the pandemic most likely began in a lab. This release will be the first time the American people can see some of the information the FBI used to draw that conclusion.
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Bipartisan bill would let FDIC claw bonuses back from failed bank execs

June 8, 2023

The collapse of Signature Valley Bank is doing something few things can: bringing polar policy opposites, like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, together. A group of progressives and conservatives want to give the FDIC the authority to claw back executive bonuses if a bank fails.

“This is something that’s not Republicans feel one way and Democrats feel a different way. Nobody in America thinks that’s right,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren D-Mass., told Straight Arrow News.

The Failed Bank Executives Clawback Act would apply to directors, officers, controlling shareholders, and other high-level employees involved in decision-making at banks with $10 billion or more in assets. The bonus money would be put into the FDIC Deposit Insurance Fund.

In addition to Warren and Vance, sponsors include Sens. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

“I think we ought to give the FDIC the tools to go in and say, ‘If your bank fails, and you are in charge at the time, you should have to fork over the money that you made.’ I just think that that is a good basic, common sense solution here,” Hawley said.

SVB raised eyebrows after it was revealed bonuses were paid out hours before the bank collapsed. Those were scheduled payments for work performed in 2022. According to reports, SVB’s CEO received $9.9 million in compensation in 2022, including a $1.5 million cash bonus. Other SVB executives made a collective $17 million.

The collapse of SVB also created conditions in the banking market that also led to the failure of Signature and First Republic Banks.

The bipartisan bill would allow the FDIC to take back compensation from the three years preceding the collapse.

“It was years before the crash when they said, ‘By not doing the interest rate hedge, we can save a lot of money and boost our short term profits and start paying ourselves these huge bonuses.’ And that’s exactly what the executives did,” Warren said. “So by having a longer reach back, we want them to understand that, yes, you may make money in the short run right in front of you. But you’re gonna have to pay all that back if you crash your bank.”

The bill’s sponsors want the Banking Committee to approve the bill in the near future so it can move on for a vote in the full Senate. The bill has bipartisan co-sponsors in the House too.

FBI interviewed priest, choir director when creating ‘anti-Catholic’ memo

Sen. Hawley aligns with Democrats on bill to limit corporate money in elections

Menendez won’t attend classified Israel briefing as many call for his resignation

Romney says his generation should step aside. Younger lawmakers react.

Senate Republicans doubt impeachment inquiry will end with Biden’s removal

AI can create deepfake child porn. State AGs want Congress to address that.

Manhattan Project radioactive waste made people ill. Should the gov’t pay the medical bills?

Sens. want Pentagon to stop accounting method that sends more Ukraine aid

Biden administration has to declassify COVID origin documents by Sunday

Bipartisan bill would let FDIC claw bonuses back from failed bank execs

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