DEMOCRATS in the news

[Legion]

A PROVEN FRAUD

"Reporter" with checkered past comes up with Trump Tower Moscow story for BuzzFeed

The intense attention to the latest "scoop" has also resurfaced Leopold's checkered past.

Leopold, a former Los Angeles Times, Dow Jones, and Vice News reporter who has been at BuzzFeed since 2017, was involved in several major scandals that called into question the veracity of his reporting.

In 2002, Salon.com removed a story Leopold had written as a freelancer for the site. Salon said that as it investigated a piece he wrote about Enron, including an allegation of plagiarism against him, Leopold "distributed an account of events" that was "riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations."

Ultimately Salon said it "reluctantly had to conclude" Leopold's piece carried "an instance of plagiarism," despite his strong denials.

After the scandal, Leopold wrote a book in which he said he had engaged in "lying, cheating, and backstabbing" in his life; battled mental illness; and struggled with substance abuse.

"I have a checkered past, and I was hoping that by coming clean about my own past, it would allow me to move forward," Leopold wrote, according to a 2005 article in The Washington Post.

But in 2006, Leopold found himself again in controversy. He reported for Truthout.org that then-top White House aide Karl Rove had told then-President Bush and other administration officials that he was going to be indicted in relation to the Valerie Plame affair. Leopold cited "people knowledgeable about these discussions" and reported Rove's "indictment is imminent."

But Rove never faced any charges.

A 2015 profile of Leopold in The New York Times noted that he has "been through a series of scandals." "I love the score," he told the Times "So maybe there's this drug-ish thing in me that still exists, maybe that was always part of my personality. I love the score. I love the score!"

Leopold joined Vice News in 2014 and in 2017 was hired by BuzzFeed. Reached for comment on Friday, Leopold referred questions to BuzzFeed News spokesperson Matt Mittenthal.



https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/18/media/buzzfeed-reporter-jason-leopold/index.html

[Legion]

[Irish Exit]

Shutdown slows court-ordered inquiry into Clinton email setup

A series of depositions that a federal judge authorized this week to explore Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email account as secretary of State have been put on ice because of the partial government shutdown.
On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth granted a request from Justice Department lawyers to put the discovery process he ordered on hold and that all related deadlines be extended for as long as the budget standoff continues.

In an order Tuesday, Lamberth agreed to allow the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch to take depositions from 10 or more individuals to explore whether Clinton’s use of the private email setup was a deliberate effort to avoid the Freedom of Information Act and whether lawyers acted in bad faith by trying to settle a Judicial Watch FOIA suit in 2014 and 2015 even though some State Department officials were aware of Clinton’s private email arrangement.
Among the officials Lamberth agreed to subpoena for depositions are former Clinton deputy chief of staff Jake Sullivan, Clinton attorney and adviser Heather Samuelsohn, former Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell, and a former close adviser to President Bill Clinton, Justin Cooper.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/...utdown-1110674

[Legion]

Shutdown slows court-ordered inquiry into Clinton email setup

The motive for the Schumer shutdown?