Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The top two acting Homeland Security leaders were not appointed through a valid process and therefore aren’t legally qualified to hold their positions, the Government Accountability Office has determined.

The appointments of Chad Wolf, acting Department of Homeland Security secretary, and Ken Cuccinelli, a senior official performing deputy secretary duties, violated the laws detailing who can fill Senate-confirmed posts, the GAO said. They have been serving in their positions since November.

“Because the incorrect official assumed the title of acting secretary at that time, subsequent amendments to the order of succession made by that official were invalid,” the GAO said Friday, as reported by The New York Times.

Without the ability to enforce its findings, the GAO was referring the case to Homeland Security’s inspector General and Congress.

The White House said it’s not acting on the findings.

“D.H.S. is expressly authorized by Congress in the Homeland Security Act to designate its acting secretaries,” Judd Deere, a White House spokesman, said. “G.A.O. is not. And G.A.O.’s opinion substituting its views for that of the agency’s is not only wrong, but laughable.”

Some Democrats called for the officials to resign and said their policy decisions could be invalidated.

“President Trump’s efforts to install political sycophants to implement his extreme policies in an end run around the law and Senate have finally caught up with him,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said in a statement. “The determination by an independent congressional watchdog today invalidates actions Mr. Cuccinelli and Mr. Wolf have taken and both should immediately step down from their illegal roles.”

Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A former FBI lawyer plans to plead guilty to altering an email used to seek the continued surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser as part of the investigation into how the Obama administration investigated Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Kevin Clinesmith, 38, is expected to plead guilty to a false statement charge involving mail, a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, The Washington Post reports.

Clinesmith, who worked with FBI on obtaining surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, is accused of doctoring an email to suggest that Page was not a source for the CIA, even though he had a relationship with the agency.

During a news conference Friday, Trump called Clinestmith “a very corrupt FBI attorney who falsified FISA warrants in James Comey’s very corrupt FBI.”

“That’s just the beginning, I would imagine, because what happened should never happen again,” Trump said.

Clinestmith’s attorney responded, “Kevin deeply regrets having altered the email. It was never his intent to mislead the court or his colleagues as he believed the information he relayed was accurate. But Kevin understands what he did was wrong and accepts responsibility.”

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Joe Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris now has Secret Service protection, CNN reports.

It’s typical for running mates to receive the protection of the Secret Service. What’s unclear is whether she has received a code name yet.

Biden’s code name is “Celtic.”

En route to her first public appearance with Biden since she was selected as his running mate, Harris was spotted in a motorcade in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.

The pair criticized Trump’s handling of the coronavirus.

“The president’s mismanagement of the pandemic has plunged us into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and we’re experiencing a moral reckoning with racism and systemic injustice that has brought a new coalition of conscience to the streets of our country,” Harris said. “America is crying out for leadership.”

FBI Director Christopher Wray in Atlanta. Photo via FBI.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

President Trump criticized his FBI director Christopher Wray on Thursday, saying he should be more “forthcoming” and cooperative with inquiries into the investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016.

When Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump if Wray should resign after documents suggested the FBI misled the Senate about the credibility of the Steele dossier, Trump responded that there was an upcoming election.

“I wish he was more forthcoming. He certainly hasn’t been,” Trump said. “There are documents that they want to get and that we have said we want to get. We are going to find out if he’s going to give those documents. Certainly, he’s been very, very protective.”

He added, “Let’s see how Wray turns out. He’s going to either turn out one way or another.”

Hours later, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., spoke in favor of Wray.

“I believe the Director is committed to being helpful – in an appropriate manner – by balancing the needs of privacy for Bureau employees with public transparency for the benefit of the American people,” Graham said in a statement, adding that they had a “very good discussion.”

File photo via Secret Service.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

An unarmed man shot by a Secret Service officer, prompting President Trump to duck out of a press conference Monday, was shouting that he was going to kill people near the White House, The Associated Press reports.

Myron Basil Berryman, 51, of Forestville, Md., was hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday and charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer.

When a uniformed Secret Service officer approached Berryman at the corner of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, a few blocks from the White House, Berryman said he had a gun and moved aggressively toward the officer, Secret Service Uniformed Division Chief Tom Sullivan told the Associated Press.

Berryman is a licensed boxer who had been charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct in the past, The New York Post reports.

Border marker at San Ysidro Port of Entry, via Border Patrol.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

An off-duty Border Patrol agent was arrested by Mexican army soldiers on claims that he crossed the border into Juárez with a cache of firearm ammunition.

The agent, whose identity wasn’t disclosed, was charged but later released after U.S. and Mexican authorities discussed the case, El Paso Times reports.

The agent was crossing the border in a personal vehicle using an international bridge connecting El Paso and Juárez on Aug. 4. A border inspection allegedly uncovered 30 rounds of ammunition, a loaded firearm magazine and a bulletproof vest.

“We don’t know what he came to do or what he wanted to do,” Mexican army Gen. Miguel Angel Hernandez said at a briefing on an unrelated issue.

In a statement, Border Patrol said, “Following a series of meetings between U.S. and Mexican authorities the agent was released and returned to the U.S. the morning of August 5.”

Photo via Border Patrol

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

A Border Patrol agent has been charged with drug trafficking after prosecutors say he loaded two duffel bags full of drugs into a vehicle at an airport in Phoenix.

Carlos Victor Passapera Pinott, 53, assigned to the Tucson Sector Ajo Border Patrol Station, was charged with multiple counts of conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, ICE says in a news release.

Prosecutors say the duffel bags contained 21 kilograms of cocaine, one kilogram of heroin and one kilogram of fentanyl plus some 350,000 pills believed to fentanyl.

Agents executed a search warrant at his Buckeye, Ariz., home and found about $329,000 in cash and another $40,000 in his vehicle, prosecutors say.

If convicted, Passapera faces up to life in jail and a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison.