Day 48.4. Five EB5s, Four FISA Warrants, Three Wiretaps

Judge presiding over Michael Flynn criminal case is recused

(Reuters) - The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia judge presiding over the criminal case for President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn has been recused from handling the case, a court spokeswoman said on Thursday.

According to a court filing, U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras, who presided over a Dec. 1 hearing where Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his contacts with Russia, will no longer handle the case.

Court spokeswoman Lisa Klem did not say why Contreras was recused, and added that the case was randomly reassigned.

Reuters could not immediately learn the reason for the recusal, or reach Contreras.

An attorney for Flynn declined to comment.

Now, Flynn’s sentencing will be overseen by U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan. Sullivan was appointed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton.

Flynn was the first member of Trump’s administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging probe into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election and potential collusion by Trump aides. Russia has denied meddling in the election and Trump has dismissed any suggestion of collusion.

Flynn has agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s ongoing investigation.

A sentencing date has not yet been set, but the parties are due to return to court on February 1 for a status report hearing.

Contreras was appointed to the bench in 2012 by former Democratic President Barack Obama.

He was also appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in May 2016 for a term lasting through 2023.

That court issues warrants that allow Justice Department officials to wiretap individuals, a process that has been thrown into the spotlight amid the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election.

The most recent controversy related to FISA warrants involves Peter Strzok, a senior FBI agent who was removed from the Russia investigation for exchanging text messages with a colleague that expressed anti-Trump views.

At a hearing on Thursday at the House Judiciary Committee, Republican lawmaker Jim Jordan pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray on whether a former British spy’s dossier of allegations of Russian financial and personal links to Trump’s campaign and associates was used by Strzok to obtain a FISA warrant to surveil Trump’s transition team.

Judge Sullivan previously served on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals under appointments by Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, respectively.

Day 48.2. It’s the Russians again - of Centreville, Maryland

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

CONYERS, LEAHY & LOFGREN Send Letter To Kushner Companies Asking About EB-5 VISAs And Conflicts Of Interest

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

WASHINGTON (THURSDAY, June 1, 2017) – Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) on Thursday pressed the president of Kushner Companies for answers on the company’s use of EB-5 visas and its continued ties to Jared Kushner, President Trump’s top advisor and son-in-law.  At a time when Mr. Kushner is facing scrutiny over his contacts with Russian officials and his former company reportedly is facing financial trouble at its company headquarters and marquee building, there are mounting questions about Kushner Companies’ reliance on and recruitment of foreign investment through the EB-5 Immigrant Investor program.  Leahy has worked for years to reform the flawed EB-5 program, and he was joined by House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-Mich.) and House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who have worked for years to reform the EB-5 program in the House of Representatives.

The EB-5 program has recently been under scrutiny due to documented cases of fraud and concerns that it is not serving the disadvantaged communities that it was originally intended to benefit.  In the letter, Leahy, Conyers, and Lofgren ask about Kushner Companies’ lobbying efforts and about whether Kushner Companies’ practices, and those of its U.S. and Chinese partners, comply with EB-5 program rules and U.S. securities laws.  They also demand answers about Kushner Companies’ use of its relationship to the White House to recruit foreign investors.

Conyer, Leahy & Lofgren Letter To Kushner About EB-5 VISAS & Conflicts of Interest by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

CONYERS, GOODLATTE, LEAHY, GRASSLEY Remain Committed to Good-Faith Talks to Reform Investor Visa Program Ahead of Expiration

EB-5 reforms needed to curb fraud, abuse, national security risks 

Washington, D.C. - Bipartisan, bicameral Judiciary Committee leaders today reaffirmed their commitment to reform the troubled EB-5 investor visa program ahead of its scheduled expiration on April 28, or to let the flawed program expire if reforms are not possible.  Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senator Patrick Leahy, along with House Judiciary Ranking Member JohnConyers, Jr. and Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte reiterated requirements of any meaningful negotiation as they continue to search for a compromise on EB-5 reform.  The program has longstanding, well-documented fraud, abuse and national security concerns, and has drifted away from Congress’ original intent: spurring job creation in rural and economically depressed areas.

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“Despite the well-documented and rampant abuse of the EB-5 Regional Center Program that we have exposed in recent years, we remain committed to working in good faith with our colleagues and industry stakeholders to bring about much needed reforms to this troubled program. However, as we have made clear time and time again, any reforms must contain genuine and sincere changes to allow rural and distressed urban areas, the very communities this program is supposed to benefit, to compete for investment dollars. In addition, any reforms must address the many national security and fraud concerns by containing – without loopholes – compliance measures, background checks, and transparency provisions,” the lawmakers said.

“Just a few weeks ago, we were encouraged by a reasonable proposal offered by IIUSA, the nation’s largest EB-5 industry trade association, containing significant reforms to the program. The proposal was a good faith effort to address our concerns and provide long-term stability to the program, and could have served as a basis for reform negotiations.

“As we have in the past, we remain willing to work with our colleagues and industry groups to produce meaningful reform. This must include strong transparency and anti-fraud measures, meaningful investment differentials, adjustments of the investment amounts to appropriately account for inflation, adequate set asides for both rural and urban distressed areas, and an end to the program’s abusive gerrymandering practices.” 

In a recent letter, below, to congressional leadership, the lawmakers, along with Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, stated that the program should expire absent these reforms.

U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Letter To Leadership On Reform Investor Visa Program 4-6-2017 by Beverly Tran on Scribd

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

CONYERS Statement for the Hearing on, “The Department of Homeland Security’s Proposed Regulations Reforming the Investor Visa Program”

Dean of the U.S. House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

Thank you Chairman Goodlatte. Last Congress, I had the honor of working with you, Chairman Grassley, and Senator Leahy in an effort to reform the EB-5 Investor Visa Program. While the proposed DHS regulations would go a long way toward addressing many of our longstanding and serious concerns with the program, there is no substitute to a meaningful legislative solution.

I remain confident that we can accomplish these important legislative reforms this Congress and I look forward to continuing to work with you.

I have taken a particular interest in the EB-5 Investor Visa program because I believe it has drifted far from the program initially envisioned by Congress.  As a result the communities that need investment the most – specifically, rural and distressed urban areas – struggle to benefit from the program and are unfairly placed in direct competition with developed, affluent areas.

When Congress established the EB-5 investor visa program in 1990, the intention was to create jobs for American citizens and to bring new investment capital to the United States.  To help encourage investment and job creation in rural or high unemployment areas, the EB-5 Program offered a reduced investment level of $500,000 for projects in designated Targeted Employment Areas (TEAs).

However, as reported by the GAO, academics, The Wall Street Journal, and many other news sources, the vast majority of EB-5 investment funds are going to projects in some of America’s wealthiest corridors.  They qualify as TEAs, or economically distressed, only by aggregating census tracts across many miles, and often across natural boundaries such as rivers.

This practice has been criticized by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, noting that “the EB-5 Regional Center Program has dramatically deviated from its original purpose – to spur job creation and development in rural and high unemployment areas.”  Steering investments to projects in our cities’ well-to-do neighborhoods comes at the expense of EB-5 funds for urban and rural communities. 

According to the Center for American Progress, the Congressional District that I represent, for instance, is the second-most impoverished district in the United States.  I am pleased to say that under the Obama Administration our economic environment began to improve.  It is slow, and we have a long way to go.  But for those Americans living in my city of Detroit, and in many other cities across the country, manipulation of Targeted Employment Areas has diverted a potential source of jobs and neighborhood improvement away from those it was intended to help.

The Department of Homeland Security’s proposed rules make a number of important reforms:

First, the rules would raise the higher investment level to adjust for inflation from 1 million to 1.8 million and would raise the lower investment amount from $500,000 to $1.35 million.

Second, the rules would reduce the difference between the statutory and Targeted Employment Area investment levels and would allow for conforming adjustments based on inflation beginning five years from the effective date.

Third, the rules would significantly reign in manipulation of targeted employment areas.

I am encouraged by this development from the Department of Homeland Security and consider the proposed rulemakings as movement in the right direction. However, I must reiterate, to achieve the necessary reforms to the EB-5 program there is no substitute to a meaningful legislative solution. And, absent significant reform – either regulatory or legislative – I will not be able to support continued authorization of the program.

In closing, I want to thank the witnesses for their willingness to appear before our Committee and I look forward to an open and honest debate about the proposed regulations and the future of the EB-5 Program.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Immigration Matters Two Immigration Bills, on H-1B and EB-5, Stalled in the House Committee

U.S. House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte and Ranking
Member John Conyers, Jr.

A postponed markup, or floor vote, usually means that the leadership is having trouble rounding up the votes needed to move along the proposed legislation; such delays sometimes lead to revisions in the proposed bills that are substantive enough to secure the needed backing. This probably is what is happening with these two bills, but there may be other factors as well.

EB-5. As we reported earlier this week, HR 5992 called for much more restricted use of investors' money in the future, targeting it to depressed areas, rural and urban. The language of the bill was such that one industry commentator wrote that it would effectively terminate the use of EB-5 moneys in downtown urban areas.

Critics of the program have long pointed out that too much of the EB-5 money was going into luxury real estate projects in glitzy downtown areas of New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Miami, when the intent of the original legislation was to use the aliens' money to prop up the economy in distressed locations. The authors of the reform bill, Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.), saw to it that the areas where these projects can be built, called Targeted Employment Areas (TEAs), were defined more narrowly.

http://www.oyetimes.com/lifestyle/immigration/98527-two-immigration-bills-on-h-1b-and-eb-5-stalled-in-the-house-committee

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©

Statement of the Honorable John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member, Hearing on “Is the Investor Visa Program an Underperforming Asset?”

Dean of the U.S House
of Representatives
John Conyers, Jr.

“Today’s hearing focuses on the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program. When Congress established the program in 1990, the intention was to create jobs for American citizens and to bring new investment capital to the United States.

“I believe that the EB-5 Program can have a positive impact on distressed urban and rural communities by providing a source of jobs and investment. However, there are fundamental questions about how the Program is currently being used and whether adequate integrity safeguards exist. 

“To begin with, the current practices used to draw Targeted Employment Areas must be reformed.

“To help incentivize investment and job creation in rural or high unemployment areas, the EB-5 Program offered a reduced investment level of $500,000 for projects in designated Targeted Employment Areas (TEAs).

“However, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, as well as many other news sources, the vast majority of EB-5 investment funds are going to projects in some of America’s most affluent areas that qualify as TEAs only because of gerrymandering.

“By stringing census tracts together from high unemployment neighborhoods to wealthy ones, project developers have been able to take advantage of the lower Targeted Employment Area investment level while still investing in projects in more desirable and affluent areas.

“This practice has been strongly criticized by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.  It notes that ‘the EB-5 Regional Center Program has dramatically deviated from its original purpose – to spur job creation and development in rural and high unemployment areas.’

 “Steering investments to projects in our cities’ wealthiest neighborhoods – at the expense of the urban and rural communities that need it most – is not what Congress intended when it established Targeted Employment Areas and the lower investment level.

“The Congressional District that I represent, for instance, suffers from an unemployment rate of more than 300% the national average.  I am pleased to say that today we are starting to come back.  But for those Americans living in urban poverty, in my city of Detroit, and in many other cities across the country, manipulation of Targeted Employment Areas has diverted a potential source of jobs and neighborhood improvement away from those it was intended to help.

 “As the Leadership Conference points out, it is not enough to have development in more affluent areas where low- income workers might commute to because the projects will still leave ‘these communities of concentrated poverty no better off in terms of development and infrastructure after their conclusion.’

“Secondly, the EB-5 program suffers from the absence of good data on projects and jobs created.

“In order to receive a green card, a foreign investor must prove that the investment will create at least 10 jobs for U.S. workers.  Under the Regional Center program, investors can account for the 10 jobs by counting direct, indirect, and induced jobs.  These indirect and induced jobs are calculated by econometric models.

“While some data exist on the more than $13 billion of foreign direct investment since 2008, there is very little hard information on actual jobs created by EB-5 Regional Centers.  We don’t know whether these are jobs that pay a living wage, whether they offer long-term employment, and whether they have benefitted workers from distressed communities.
   
“The AFL-CIO shares these concerns and states that increased data will ‘shed light on whether the program is meeting its mandates - to spur growth and create jobs in underserved areas.’   

“Finally, I remain committed to working with Chairman Goodlatte and others to improve the EB-5 Program.

“The reforms that Chairman Goodlatte, Senate Judiciary Chairman Grassley, Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Leahy, and I negotiated last year demonstrate that meaningful bicameral, bipartisan reform is possible.

“Our sensible and widely supported proposal addressed the integrity concerns that we will be discussing today.  It raised the minimum investment levels for the first time since the program was created in 1990, and included provisions to protect investors from unscrupulous actors. 

“Most importantly, our proposal would have helped to reign in current abuses of the EB-5 investor visa program so that increased investment would be directed to the distressed urban and rural communities that need it most.
   
“I remain confident that we can accomplish these important legislative reforms this Congress and I look forward to continuing to work with Chairman Goodlatte on this effort.

“I thank the witnesses for their participation today and I yield back the balance of my time.”

Click here to read all testimonies by today’s witnesses.

Voting is beautiful, be beautiful ~ vote.©