congressional investigations

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It's a '5-Alarm Fire' for Tax-Prep Firms
It's a '5-Alarm Fire'
for Tax-Prep Firms
NEW REPORT
Jul 12, 2023 11:40 AM CDT

It's a '5-Alarm Fire' for Tax-Prep Firms

H&R Block, others allegedly shared millions of taxpayers' private info with tech firms

(Newser) - Members of Congress are calling for criminal charges against some of America's largest tax-prep companies for allegedly sharing tens of millions of taxpayers' legally protected data with Google and Meta. As far back as 2011, H&R Block, TaxSlayer, and TaxAct allegedly shared private information entered into its website...

White House Investigates Loans to Energy Department

Two dozen loans worth $36 billion will be reviewed after Solyndra mess

(Newser) - In the ugly aftermath of Solyndra , the White House yesterday ordered a 60-day independent review of the Energy Department's entire loan guarantee program, reports the LA Times . The review will encompass three loan programs and about two dozen loans worth about $36 billion. "While we continue to take...

GOP Itching to Investigate Obama
GOP Itching to Investigate Obama
Aug 27, 2010 7:07 AM CDT

GOP Itching to Investigate Obama

Republicans to launch gaggle of probes if they take House

(Newser) - Republicans are already preparing to launch a host of congressional investigations against the White House if they prevail in November, handing out subpoenas at a rate not seen since the Clinton administration, Republican staffers tell Politico . A group of would-be committee chairmen, led by Darrell Issa and Lamar Smith, are...

WaMu 'Poisoned' Financial System: Senate Report

Senate panel says lender knowingly built 'mortgage time bomb'

(Newser) - Washington Mutual made subprime loans it knew would go bad, then packaged them into risky securities, creating a “mortgage time bomb,” according to a Senate report. The permanent investigations subcommittee is grilling former WaMu execs this morning. The report also says the bank packaged and sold loans it...

House Eyes Ethics Probes on 30 Members
House Eyes Ethics Probes on 30 Members
UPDATED
Oct 30, 2009 4:50 AM CDT

House Eyes Ethics Probes on 30 Members

Reps under scrutiny named in leaked document

(Newser) - As the House ethics committee yesterday was voting to go forward with full investigations of Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson, it was putting out a bigger fire started when an internal document revealed more than 30 lawmakers were under scrutiny was leaked on the Internet. “No inference...

Goldman Sachs Subpoenaed in Fraud Probe

Senate seeks evidence that banks foresaw mortgage meltdown

(Newser) - A Senate committee has subpoenaed Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and other financial institutions as part of an investigation into mortgage-market fraud, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. The probe appears to focus on emails and other internal communications that may show bankers' doubts about the safety of mortgage-backed securities, which...

Bush Could Block Probes Even After He Steps Down

Soon-to-be ex-prez has Truman, Nixon precedents for keeping executive privilege

(Newser) - President Bush may be able to maintain his executive privilege to block investigations even after he leaves office, the New York Times reports. Harry Truman successfully claimed he had the right not to testify in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, and Richard Nixon later used Truman's case...

Senate to Hold Drug Water Hearings
Senate to Hold Drug Water Hearings
Mar 11, 2008 6:50 AM CDT

Senate to Hold Drug Water Hearings

Lawmakers press EPA to establish task force on contaminants

(Newser) - Alarmed by an AP story, two top senators vowed yesterday to probe drug traces in US drinking water. Sen. Barbara Boxer and Sen. Frank Lautenberg plan to lead hearings next month to "protect our residents and clean up our water supply," Lautenberg said. The first of AP's three...

House Page Program Under Fire Again
House Page Program Under Fire Again
Dec 13, 2007 3:07 PM CST

House Page Program Under Fire Again

Bipartisan support for probe into charges about teen pages

(Newser) - House leaders called for an independent investigation yesterday into “allegations” related to teenage pages after two Republican resignations from the House Page Board. The Republicans faulted House Clerk Lorraine Miller, a page program administrator, for not “immediately” alerting them to misbehavior. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, who resigned, said four...

Budget Batters FDA Oversight of Foreign Drugs

Commissioner to testify before Congress today

(Newser) - The federal Food and Drug Administration's spotty record inspecting foreign drug manufacturers will be even worse next year as its budget drops just as developing countries are flooding the market with new medications, reports the Washington Post. Foreign drug plants are inspected only once every eight to 12 years because...

Did Drug Officials Boost GOP Reps?
Did Drug Officials Boost GOP Reps?
Jul 18, 2007 5:16 PM CDT

Did Drug Officials Boost GOP Reps?

White House arranged appearances to prop up weak candidates, Dems charge

(Newser) - Public appearances by top guns in the Office of National Drug Control Policy may have been used to support vulnerable GOP Congressman in the run-up to the '06 elections, a Democratic lawmaker charged yesterday. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said it was part of a larger White...

CIA Dirty Deeds Detailed in Documents

Illicit 'family jewels' of Watergate era declassified

(Newser) - Assassination plots, illegal wiretapping and spying at political conventions were among the lowlights illuminated in hundreds of pages of CIA documents from the Watergate era declassified yesterday. Illicit acts known in the agency as the "family jewels" included a $150,000 CIA payment to a mobster to kill Fidel...

Democrats Don't Live Up to Hype
Democrats Don't Live Up to Hype
Jun 12, 2007 4:36 PM CDT

Democrats Don't Live Up to Hype

New majority's accomplishments are few, and mostly symbolic

(Newser) - Seven months after wresting control of Congress from Republicans, Democrats have failed to make good on their promises, writes the Economist. Almost none of the bills introduced in the first "100 hours" has become law, AG Alberto Gonzalez still has a job, and an Iraq pullout is nowhere in...

No. 2 at Justice to Step Down
No. 2 at Justice to Step Down
May 14, 2007 6:02 PM CDT

No. 2 at Justice to Step Down

(Newser) - Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty will quit the Justice Department after admitting he misled a Senate committee in its investigation into nine fired US attorneys. Three other top Justice officials have resigned in recent weeks, but McNulty, AG Alberto Gonzales' second-in-command and himself a former US attorney, is the highest-ranking...

Comey Defends Fired Attorneys
Comey Defends Fired Attorneys
May 4, 2007 8:52 AM CDT

Comey Defends Fired Attorneys

Most were strong performers, former deputy AG tells House panel

(Newser) - Most of the U.S. attorneys axed en masse by the Justice Department last year weren't underperforming, former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told a House panel yesterday. Comey, who left Justice over a year before the firings, said he'd rated the attorneys' performance for Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson...

Bush Still Gonzo For Alberto
Bush Still Gonzo For Alberto
Apr 24, 2007 7:06 AM CDT

Bush Still Gonzo For Alberto

Senate testimony "increased my confidence," says President

(Newser) - President Bush is sticking with his beleaguered attorney general despite negative reviews of his performance at last week's Senate hearing from both sides of the aisle. Bush said the testimony from Alberto Gonzales on the pink-slipped U.S. attorneys, roundly characterized as evasive, "increased my confidence in his ability....

Gonzales Refuses to Resign
Gonzales Refuses to Resign
Apr 19, 2007 4:53 PM CDT

Gonzales Refuses to Resign

Bipartisan criticism peppers AG's Senate testimony on U.S. attorney firings

(Newser) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said under oath today he had only limited involvement in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and "did not do anything improper." Testifying before  clearly hostile lawmakers, he spurned calls that he step down, saying, "The moment I believe I can no...

Four Years of Rove E-mails Go Missing

E-mails may have covered attorney firings

(Newser) - Four years of emails from Karl Rove that are being sought in a congressional investigation are missing and may have been deleted by Rove himself, the Republican National Committee acknowledged yesterday. The RNC operates the server for non-official e-mail accounts Rove and other White House players use for political business;...

Email Outs Politicized Attorney Firings

(Newser) - Emails the White House handed over to investigators today outline a systematic plan to fire U.S. attorneys who were too independent. D. Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Alberto Gonzales, shot off a memo just after Bush's second inauguration suggesting Justice retain only attorneys who had "exhibited loyalty...

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