Oversight Report Says Commerce Dept. Investigative Unit Went Rogue, Engaged In Biased, Retaliatory

[ancianita]

Investigations

Jul 29th 2021 3:29am — Tim Cushing
(17 paragraphs plus the original U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation Report)

Years after it was granted too much power, a federal internal investigations unit created during the presidency of George W. Bush is finally having its dirty laundry aired. The Senate Commerce Committee -- years after the fact -- is finally delivering some oversight of an entity created to root out internal threats.

The ITMS (Investigations and Threat Management Service) operated largely under the radar, thanks to its housing within the Commerce Department -- an entity that very rarely raises too many eyebrows. But its reach extended far past the confines of this department. And it was given broad discretion to initiate investigations -- something that led directly to the Justice Department crafting new rules for espionage investigations after a series of failed prosecutions indicated the intel coming from the ITMS was extremely questionable...

The ITMS originally had no power of its own. Its power was derived from the US Marshals Service, which provides protection to the Commerce Department and its "critical assets." It's the last term that caused trouble. Authority to protect "critical assets" allowed the ITMS to abuse the poorly-defined term to open investigations and engage in activities that went beyond its original purview, as well as limits placed on the Marshals Service...

Abuse of power, retaliation, unjustified investigations, violated rights, racial profiling… all of this overseen by no one and tracked solely by an Excel spreadsheet that provided no way for investigators to attach documentation or submit findings. With no internal tracking or external oversight, millions of tax dollars were misspent and resources utilized to engage in fruitless, pointless, or retaliatory investigations. In the end, the ITMS was mainly concerned about sustaining its own existence.

One former senior official even described the network as a “vanity project” designed to showcase an unusual volume of open cases rather than facilitate a user-friendly system for agents to use in processing them. The official said leadership of the ITMS is more interested in appearing productive to retain the ability to investigate a wide variety of purported threats with broad discretion––and continue receiving funding from Congress––than processing cases within an acceptable period of time....

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210718/12502447198/oversight-report-says-commerce-dept-investigative-unit-went-rogue-engaged-biased-retaliatory-investigations.shtml?fbclid=IwAR1XnA3uHwt9ia5xeyxmVpN1jv7VzOQJSd4vHo4HoDbL5VPTkK3Y2V-5kTs

This report reveals more than a history of Republicans' longstanding racist actions within (Bush, big surprise) the cabinet department that controls our government's largest databases. This racist, rogue department had set up conditions (Wilbur Ross of Cyprus Bank fame, big surprise) that Trump tried and failed to use through this already weaponized operation within the U.S. Commerce Department.

The Senate Commerce Report also raises one huge DOJ law enforcement issue: just how much will this DOJ hold the U.S. Marshals Service to account for its activities throughout the morphing of the Commerce Department since Bush. How much will Congress investigate for documents to prove who ran USMS's
-- counterintelligence operations,
-- CIA communications, and
-- mismanaged its funds by outsourcing to "security" firms with known criminal histories, firms that poorly secured federal courts.

Because, while USMS has declared itself underfunded to Congress, the USMS has also improperly spent appropriations for its own and outsourced illegal operations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marshals_Service