Corruption is Everywhere > Did the FBI and the DoJ cover up dozens of accusations of corruption by the Bidens? Money Laundering is Oz

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Dozens of FBI sources gave ‘criminal information’ on Bidens

that DOJ tried to discredit as ‘foreign disinformation’: Grassley

By Victor Nava, NYPost

Published Oct. 25, 2023, 6:38 p.m. ET

More than 40 confidential sources provided “criminal information” related to the Biden family to the FBI — which the Justice Department tried to discredit as “foreign disinformation,” according to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.

The confidential human sources, managed by several different FBI field offices, supplied the bureau with details of potential crimes by Hunter Biden, James Biden and Joe Biden dating back to his time as vice president, according to a letter, obtained by The Post, that was sent by the Iowa Republican to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday. 

“This letter is based on years of investigation, including the provision of information, records, and allegations from multiple Justice Department whistleblowers that indicate there is – and has been –  an effort among certain Justice Department and FBI officials to improperly delay and stop full and complete investigative activity into the Biden family,” Grassley wrote. 

“An essential question that must be answered is this: did the FBI investigate the information or shut it down? Indeed, if those sources were improperly shut down, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for the FBI,” he added. 

“Based on the information provided to my office over a period of years by multiple credible whistleblowers, there appears to be an effort within the Justice Department and FBI to shut down investigative activity relating to the Biden family,” Grassley continued. “Such decisions point to significant political bias infecting the decision-making of not only the Attorney General and FBI Director, but also line agents and prosecutors.”

The senator notes whistleblower allegations claimed that the bureau received information about first son Hunter Biden’s “criminal financial and related activity” in 2020, but “ultimately shut it down based on false assertions that it was subject to foreign disinformation.” 

The disinformation assessment was created by FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten, according to Grassley, who explains that the report was used by ”an FBI HQ team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.”

“The precise basis for how the FBI HQ team selected the specific information for inclusion in Auten’s assessment is unknown, but the focus of the FBI HQ team’s attention involved derogatory information about Hunter Biden and Joe Biden,” Grassley wrote. 

Grassley also citeed whistleblower claims that FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Thibault – the bureau’s “point man” on Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski – ordered that another 2020 probe into the first son’s alleged “criminal financial and related activity” be closed after pressure from “an FBI HQ and FBI Baltimore element.” 

The senator further revealed that in December 2019, the FBI Washington Field Office closed a “205B” kleptocracy case into Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings – at the same time Hunter Biden’s seat on Burisma’s board of directors was under heavy scrutiny as a result of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment over his infamous phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

Trump had asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden’s role in the firing of former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.

The probe into Zlochevsky had been ongoing since January 2016, according to Grassley, and was being investigated by a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act squad based out of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

An FBI informant alleged in June 2020 that Zlochevsky described a $10 million bribery allegation against Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, which was memorialized in an FBI FD-1023 form. 

The informant recalled Zlochevsky claiming during a 2016 meeting that “it cost 5 [million] to pay one Biden, and 5 [million] to another Biden,” according to the redacted FD-1023 form.

After the kleptocracy case into Zlochevsky was closed, Grassley says, a “guardian” assessment was opened by the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office to analyze information about the Biden family provided by Rudy Giuliani, during which DOJ and FBI officials located an FD-1023 from March 2017 related to the closed Zlochevsky probe. 

The 2017 document contained a reference to Hunter Biden being on the board of Burisma, which “the handling agent deemed at the time non-relevant information to the ongoing criminal financial case,” according to Grassley. 

“When that FD-1023 was discovered, Justice Department and FBI officials asked the handler for the Confidential Human Source to re-interview that CHS,” Grassley writes, noting that the re-interview led to the creation of the June 2020 FD-1023 containing the bribery allegations against the Bidens. 

During the guardian assessment, run out of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office, investigators were “limited in their investigative abilities,” according to Grassley, because it was only an “assessment.” 

The Iowan claims that Auten and the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force worked to “falsely discredit” the bribery allegations in August 2020 as “foreign disinformation” and  “attempted to shut down” further investigative steps. 

“It should be emphasized that the basis for trying to shut down the Biden family 1023 has been described to my office as highly suspect and is contradicted by other documents my office has been told exist within the Foreign Influence Task Force, FBI Seattle Field Office, FBI Baltimore Field Office, and FBI HQ holdings,” Grassley notes.

The Pittsburgh assessment was closed in September 2020 with its findings sent to the Justice Department by Scott Brady, then the US Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Brady’s report recommended that “additional investigative activity be done” on Biden bribery allegations.

“Notably, my office has been informed that, with respect to the CHS in the Biden family 1023, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania coordinated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in 2020 and found no hits to known sources of Russian disinformation,” Grassley wrote, adding that the information was transmitted to Delaware US Attorney David Weiss – the prosecutor overseeing the DOJ’s five-year-long criminal probe into Hunter Biden, which is ongoing. 

Grassley demanded a response to his letter from the FBI and DOJ by Nov. 17.

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This kind of gives you a new take on an old theme - Chinese Laundry

Australian Police charge 7 in money laundering scheme

for Chinese crime syndicate

By Clyde Hughes

 

Australian Federal Police officer watches a vehicle being towed way in Kew, Australia on Thursday

after arrests were made in a money laundering case. Photo by Australian Federal Police

Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Australian Federal Police on Thursday charged seven people for their involvement in a secret illegal billion-dollar money laundering enterprise.

Four Chinese nationals and three Australians were charged for their alleged involvement in the scheme to launder more than $145 million over the past three years and are set to appear in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday.

The AFP claimed the Changjiang Currency Exchange was run by the Long River money laundering crime syndicate, which laundered money acquired through cyber-enabled scams, trafficking of illicit goods and violent crimes.

AFP Eastern Command Assistant Commissioner Stephen Dametto said the syndicate allegedly purchased false passports for $126,000 each, which could have enabled members to flee the country in the event law enforcement agencies became suspicious.

"The AFP will allege the Changjiang Currency Exchange was able to hide its illegal behavior because it looked like a legitimate and lawful money remitter," Dametto said.

"The reason why this investigation was so unique and complex was that this alleged syndicate was operating in plain sight with shiny shopfronts across the country -- it was not operating in the shadows like other money laundering organizations."

The exchange has 12 shop fronts throughout Australia's mainland and is now subject to regulatory action.

Dametto said one of the tipoffs about the operation came during the COVID-19 pandemic when the Changjiang Currency Exchange appeared to be doing robust business despite global travel bans and lockdowns of many businesses.

Greed can make you really stupid!

"[The AFP] noticed Changjiang Currency Exchange opened and updated new and existing shopfronts in the heart of Sydney," Dametto said. "It was just a gut feeling. It didn't feel right. Many international students and tourists had returned home, and there was no apparent business case for Changjiang Currency Exchange to expand."

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Epstein's "Suicide" - Looking more suspicious every day

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The Epstein Files: US Bureau of Prisons bent facts

to support suicide narrative

The declassified papers on notorious pedophile case shed light on more suspicious details

Jeffrey Epstein © Rick Friedman / Rick Friedman Photography / Corbis via Getty Images

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information laws by RT investigative unit The Detail include startling records revealing how the US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) moved to shut down any and all public debate about the cause of Jeffrey Epstein’s death. Along the way, evidence was distorted, material facts ignored, and key anomalies unexplored and unpublicized.

After being found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019, the records show that the Bureau issued statements to journalists and Epstein’s family categorically stating he’d committed suicide.  The result was international news outlets universally and unquestioningly reporting that Epstein had taken his own life from the word go, despite Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson having reached no conclusion at that time, and making clear in a statement the next day that the investigation was open and ongoing. 

It was not until August 16 that Sampson publicly declared Epstein’s death had been a suicide. The ruling was contested by leading forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden, who’d been hired by the billionaire’s brother to monitor the autopsy process. Speaking to the Miami Herald two months later, he charged that “the autopsy did not support suicide,’’ and that the pathologist who conducted it had recorded this.

“Then Dr. Sampson changed it a week later, manner of death to suicide. The brother has been trying to find out why that changed,” Baden fulminated. “What was the evidence?”

No clarity on these questions has been forthcoming in the years since, although one rationale for the apparent volte-face may have been a shock Washington Post report a day prior to Sampson’s announcement. Sources familiar with the autopsy told the paper that the process had revealed several bones in Epstein’s neck, including the hyoid, were broken, and such breakages “are more common in victims of homicide by strangulation” than hanging.

It's my understanding that these bones can only be broken in hanging if there is a drop of 6 feet or more. Impossible in Epstein's cell.

Another explanation may be the then-ongoing “psychological reconstruction” of Epstein’s death compiled by Robert Nagle, BOP national suicide prevention coordinator. Files released to The Detail by the Bureau record how Nagle – whose name is redacted in the files – arrived at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on the morning of August 13 to commence his investigation. 

In his resultant report, Nagle noted that a video of an unspecified nature related to the “significant incident” was confiscated by the FBI prior to the review being initiated. He also said he’d been unable to conduct formal interviews with prison staff “to avoid interference with pending investigations” by the Justice Department, and that much of the information “typically gathered” in psychological reconstructions was not available.

These constraints “severely limited the ability to establish accurate timelines, confirm subjective reports, establish converging and diverging lines of facts, or discover new areas of inquiry,” Nagle wrote. 

For example, he was quite amazingly unable to piece together a “detailed description” of what the officers found when they discovered Epstein, as they “did not write memorandums and could not be interviewed.” Furthermore, as no pre-sentence report on Epstein had been completed prior to his death, numerous sections of the reconstruction – such as a review of the inmate’s “social history” – were avowedly incomplete in their appraisal.

Still, despite this glaring lack of hard evidence, the document ruled conclusively that Epstein had indeed committed suicide. His decision was attributed to being unable to sleep due to an “inability to tolerate the noise of prison,” plus the recent unsealing of thousands of records related to his 2008 conviction on child sex offenses, and the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison. 

Sound enough reasoning, one might think – though in building his case, Nagle drew repeated attention to Epstein declaring himself on several occasions to be a “coward” in the weeks prior to his alleged suicide as indicative of suicidal intent. It’s certainly true the prisoner was recorded making such statements – but explicitly in the context of denying any intention, or even ability, to kill himself. 

“He said he is not the type who likes pain or would ever attempt to harm himself,” one psychological assessment noted. “[He] even does not like when he has to give blood.”

This can only be considered a staggeringly dishonest inversion of Epstein’s comments, although Nagle’s manipulations went unremarked upon in an internal review of the reconstruction by Metropolitan Correctional Center Warden Marti Licon-Vitale. Nonetheless, in a section marked “documentation accuracy” she took aim at the failure of officials to log an incident report in a timely fashion, and seemingly submitting conflicting reports on the same incident. 

“Professional responsibility requires taking into account multiple descriptions of an incident as noted in your response. However, when discrepancies exist these should be compiled and noted in documentation to decrease the likelihood of conflicting conclusions,” she wrote. “Preconceived notions challenge the ability to remain open about alternative explanations … Please develop and provide local training for all staff that at a minimum reviews the timeframe for writing incident reports and offers guidance when there is not clear evidence of an infraction.”

While the specific episode criticized by Licon-Vitale is entirely redacted, one can infer that this section refers to the bizarre facts documented by The Detail in the first instalment of this investigative series. In brief, the initial incident report on Epstein’s alleged suicide on July 23, 2019 referred to “hanging/asphyxiation”, but another filed a week later was inexplicably amended to include “self-mutilation” by laceration, leading to him being disciplined for a penal code breach.  

These grievances aside, Nagle’s reconstruction was received with much delight by BOP higher ups. In an internal email dated August 23, the agency’s director Hugh Hurwitz effusively praised his “outstanding” work, remarking it was “unbelievable all you report without the benefit of interviews or video.” This email is ironic in the extreme, for it truly is “unbelievable” that a conclusive ruling of suicide could be reached without access to basic and vital evidence.

Four days earlier, Hurwitz was dismissed from his post by Attorney General William Barr without warning. Could this be attributable to attempting to shape the narrative on Epstein’s death, before the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Justice Department Inspector General had completed their respective probes of the case?

Whatever the truth of the matter, there is another supremely curious feature of the “psychological reconstruction” never hitherto publicized by any official or media outlet. A review of financial transactions associated with Epstein’s prison stay revealed that one of his attorneys “was depositing funds” into the commissary account of Efrain ‘Stone’ Reyes, Epstein’s final cellmate, “for unknown reasons.”

This may account for why Reyes became a person of interest in the FBI’s investigation and was duly questioned. He reportedly feared that cooperating with the Bureau might “affect him negatively,” but in return for his help, he was moved to a minimum security correctional center in Queens, New York, which housed high-value cooperating witnesses like rapper Tekashi69.

While there, he was reportedly interviewed personally by Attorney General William Barr as part of the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General’s probe, who thanked him for his input. Strangely, though, the department has refused to confirm or deny the claim, while Kerri Kupec, its former spokesperson, charges that it’s “100% false.”

Reyes died in September 2020, five months after being released from the prison, due to a facility-wide Covid-19 outbreak, purportedly through complications arising from the virus. Subsequently, his niece told mainstream news outlets her uncle had frequently voiced intense skepticism that the six-foot Epstein could’ve hanged himself from the bunk frames in the cell, as they simply weren’t tall enough.

In January 2021, federal prosecutors ruled that all records related to Reyes would remain sealed, despite requests for disclosure from journalists due to the potential impact on issues allegedly unrelated to Epstein. In dismissing the request, authorities listed information concerning the billionaire included in all files related to Reyes, which ran to two pages – all of it redacted.

Almost a year to the day later, it was reported that the Inspector General report on Epstein’s death was nearing completion, with a Justice Department investigator suggesting all the team had left to do was “dot their I's and cross their T's,” and stating they’d be “surprised if it's not released in the next 30 days or so.”

Whether it will shed any light on the countless serious matters raised by the declassified Bureau of Prisons documents is anyone’s guess, although in light of the revelation Reyes was in receipt of funds from Epstein’s lawyers, The Detail has lodged a request with relevant authorities for the seal to be reconsidered.

By Keelan Balderson is a UK-based journalist interested in security services, and misuse of state power. Follow his work at @altnewsuk.

By Kit Klarenberg, an investigative journalist exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions. Follow him on Twitter @KitKlarenberg

Covid-19 > India - Major Safety Concerns over Merck's Covid-19 Pill; US Gov't Shuts Down Competition for Big Pharma; Scientist Petitions Parliament to Stop Vaccinating Kids

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India concerned by Merck Covid pill side effects

Delhi has restricted the use of the company’s coronavirus cure

amid concerns about its safety

(FILE PHOTO) © Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

India has announced it won’t be adding Merck’s Covid-19 pill to its national treatment protocol due to concerns about its safety. It can cause fetal defects and cell changes, according to the country's medical research council.

On Wednesday, the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said it had become aware of “major safety concerns.”  

“It can cause teratogenicity and mutagenicity, and it also can cause cartilage damage and be damaging to muscles,” ICMR Director-General Balram Bhargava stated. “More importantly, contraception will have to be used for three months if this drug is given, because the child born could be problematic, with teratogenic influences.”

A teratogen is an agent than can harm the development of a fetus, while mutagenic drugs change the genetic makeup of the subject.  

Merck claims a study of its drug proves it does not lead to birth defects or cancer, and that study had actually used even higher doses and longer periods of administration than those normally used in humans.

“The WHO has not included it, the UK has not included it as of now. As of now, the current recommendation stands that it is not part of the national taskforce treatment,” Bhargava said. 

The drug was approved by the Indian regulator in December and had been due to go on sale on the private market next week.

Neither Merck nor Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, an Indian drugmaker that had planned to launch a generic version of the pill, has so far responded to media requests for comment.

The drug has been approved for use elsewhere in the world, including in the UK, Japan, and Denmark. 

Nonetheless, the trial data was disappointing, with many countries opting to use Pfizer’s more effective Covid-19 pill instead. 

Company Stands Ground Over Claim That Nasal Spray Treats,

Prevents COVID-19

US Gov't doing its best to shut down alternative medications that work

By Alice Giordano 

January 5, 2022

A lead researcher in a study showing that the use of an all-natural over-the-counter nasal spray is effective in treating and preventing COVID-19 says that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is covering up the truth with a lawsuit that it has filed against the Utah company that makes and promotes the spray as a treatment for the disease.

Dr. Mark Cannon, a global researcher in the use of the natural sweetener Xylitol to combat viruses and other serious diseases, said the use of the Xylitol-based spray made by the company Xlear should be promoted by the government, rather than suppressed through a DOJ lawsuit.

“Xylitol has a long history of inhibiting a number of respiratory viruses,” Cannon told The Epoch Times, noting that it was successfully used in other countries to combat the severe influenza strains of H1N1 and HRSV.

He said Xylitol can kill pathogens and has “very strong anti-inflammatory” properties.

The Justice Department filed the lawsuit against Xlear on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The DOJ and FTC both declined to comment about the suit beyond a statement announcing the complaint.

In the suit, the agencies allege that Xlear has profited from making false claims about the benefits of treating COVID-19 with its nasal spray.

As if Pfizer, Moderna, Merck, Astra Zeneca and a bunch of other pharmaceuticals hasn't been profiting from false or exaggerated claims about their products.

Xylitol, which is often used in lieu of fluoride in toothpaste, is found naturally in raspberries, strawberries, mushrooms, and cauliflower. It’s produced in the human body by the liver. In addition to being used to ward off viruses, Xylitol has long been used in other countries against diabetes, E. coli, heart disease, and inflammatory Alzheimer’s and has been added to intravenous drips to treat patients with sepsis, according to Cannon.

The government is seeking fines against Xlear and a permanent injunction against its promotion of the over-the-counter nasal spray as a treatment and prophylactic for COVID-19.

The DOJ filed the lawsuit after Xlear ignored warnings from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to stop promoting its nasal spray for COVID-19 treatment and after the FDA denied the company’s request for pre-emergency use authorization of the spray.

So, here we have 3 government departments involved in shutting down Xlear. Have they done some clinical research to prove that it doesn't work? Or, are they just responding to lobbying by Big Pharma? And it's not just Xlear they are after:

The FDA issued similar warnings to other makers of saline nasal sprays, including the Michigan-based BlueWillow Biologics and the Miami-based company Halodine, which was promoting its proprietary iodine-based nasal antiseptic swabs as a nasal sanitizer that kills COVID-19.

Both companies discontinued promoting their products as treatments for COVID-19 after receiving the FDA warnings.

But Robert Housman, an attorney for Xlear, said the company is far from backing down.

In a 248-page answer it recently filed to the federal lawsuit, the company stated that the only litigation should be against the federal government for using legal bullying tactics to cover up alternative cures for the virus.

“Defendants aver that the greater harm to consumers—in fact, the American public generally—comes from the Government’s refusal to adopt scientifically-substantiated countermeasures to COVID-19, and the Government’s efforts to silence those who seek to educate the public about these countermeasures, of which this lawsuit is part and parcel,” the company wrote in response to the federal lawsuit.

“I think the government lawsuit shows exactly why our approach to the pandemic is failing so miserably,” Housman told The Epoch Times.

Some of the studies cited by Xlear in the lawsuit were funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases along with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In addition to the NIH, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report in February 2021 in support of the use of saline sprays against COVID-19, noting that their effectiveness was of no surprise since the viral load of COVID-19 is concentrated in the nose and upper airways.

The lawsuit also highlights the 2020 study conducted by Cannon with a team of scientists at Northwestern University in Illinois. The study concluded that the Xlear spray, which contains Xylitol and grapefruit seed extract, has proven anti-viral properties against COVID-19.

A study completed in December 2021 by the Institute for Antiviral Research and Utah State University reached similar conclusions, finding that both Xylitol and grapefruit seed extract—both combined and separate—are proven virucidals specifically effective against the Delta variant of COVID-19. The study also noted that the two ingredients both had greater antiviral efficacy than remdesivir, which is FDA approved as a treatment for COVID-19.

I have no proof, of course, but there is little question in my mind that Big Pharma is behind the attempt to shut up and shut down any medication that cut into their profits. That is, any medication that might keep people from getting Covid-19 and reduce the need for their expensive, experimental vaccines. Profits come before people in Big Pharma.

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Petition by Eminent Scientist to Stop Immunization of Children

Against Covid-19

Mostly ignored by Canadian media. I found it 2 hours after the petition closed.

Initiated by Steven Pelech from Vancouver, British Columbia

Dr. Pelech is a tenured UBC (University of British Columbia) professor of Immunology and Neurology and chair of the scientific and medical advisory committee for the Canadian COVID Care Alliance. 

He has dozens of other credits and titles to his name. In other words, he is a brilliant scientist which Canada's media completely ignored as they (far-left lunatics) think they know better.

Petition to the House of Commons

Whereas:

Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is now authorized for use in Canadians 5 years or older, and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for those 12 years and older;

These mRNA vaccines enable presentation of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein on the surface of healthy body cells to evoke inflammatory and thrombotic responses that lead to cellular damage and destruction;

The injected vaccine nanoparticles spread throughout the body, with accumulation in endocrine and reproductive organs, raising concerns of possible infertility, autoimmune and other health issues;

Safety studies for these mRNA vaccines in children are too brief and underpowered in terms of number of participants to rule out risks greater than 1 in 1000 for short- and long-term adverse reactions;

The American Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System has documented over 800,000 reports of adverse reactions and 8000 deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccines, and this registry is considered to document only about 2% of actual injuries;

The degree of natural immunity in children and youth is unknown, but it is robust, complete, and long-lasting, and vaccinating COVID-19 recovered individuals increases their risk of vaccine-induced injury; and

Children and adolescents are at extremely low risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality and for transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Compared to COVID-19, their risk of vaccine-induced injury is at least a magnitude higher, including a 1 in 5000 risk of myocarditis.

We, the undersigned, Citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to suspend the use of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant women, children, youth, and adults of child-bearing age until the ongoing short- and long-term safety trials are fully completed and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Trump’s Drug Control Pick Abdicates After Opioid Scandal

Corruption is Everywhere

President Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Tom Marino, has withdrawn his name from consideration following whistleblower claims that he pushed a law that protects opioid drug distributors

“Rep. Tom Marino has informed me that he is withdrawing his name from consideration as drug czar. Tom is a fine man and a great Congressman!” President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, two days after CBS’ 60 Minutes program featured several former employees of the Drug Enforcement Administration saying that the legislation that Marino (R-Pennsylvania) championed last year made it all but “impossible” for the government to go after unscrupulous distributors of addictive opioid pills.

The Justice Department, under which the DEA operates, said Tuesday it will review the law’s impact on the government’s enforcement powers.

The bill, called Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, was signed into law by president Obama last year, after it was passed by both chambers of Congress. Critics say it effectively stripped the DEA of its authority to investigate suspicious transactions as the government is now required to meet a higher standard before taking enforcement actions.

In the CBS program, former head of the DEA's Office of Diversion Control Joe Rannazzisi also suggested that Marino put pressure on the DEA to get rid of him last year, after Rannazzisi accused Marino and the bill’s co-sponsor Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) of protecting distributors he was investigating.

Marino and Blackburn wrote the DOJ inspector general, demanding that Rannazzisi be investigated for trying to "intimidate the United States Congress." Soon after, Rannazzisi was stripped of his responsibilities. He went from supervising 600 people to supervising none - so he resigned, Rannazzisi told CBS.

Marino and Blackburn should be investigated for possible corruption, and the DOJ Inspector General should be fired for giving in to questionable pressure from Congress. - just my humble opinion!

Last month, Trump nominated Marino to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In August, the president said the opioid epidemic was a “national emergency,” after his Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis reported that the US faces the death toll equal to “September 11th every three weeks” as opioid abuse claims the lives of up to 142 Americans every day.

But Trump has yet to formally declare the emergency status, which would then unlock additional resources to fight the epidemic.

“We are going to be doing that next week... It’s a very important step. And to get to that step, a lot of work has to be done, and it’s time-consuming work,” Trump said at a news conference Monday.

Former DEA officials featured in the CBS program also alleged that their bosses at the agency during the Obama administration ‘shut off’ investigations into large distributors of addictive opioid pills, even when there was ample evidence of suspicious dealings. The drug industry used their money and influence to pressure top lawyers at the DEA, Rannazzisi said.

The ex-employees said one of the reasons for the roadblocks was the “revolving door” between the DEA and the drug industry, as a number of the administration’s top lawyers landed lobbying jobs for the pharmaceutical companies and drug distributors upon leaving the government, including the former DEA attorney who wrote the legislation for which Marino is now in hot water.

It would seem corruption is not confined to 3rd world countries. Who else thinks there needs to be a full-scale investigation into the lobbying of Congress?