Page 101 - Quorum News Today

>> and this grand jury, what do you make of this decision not to bring charges? does that indicate that the grand jury was unable to agree the charges should be filed? what do you make of it? >> when the grand jury returns an indictment, they call it a true bill. very creatively, when they dont return an indictment considered or rejected, they call the no true bill. those are incredibly rare. there are other possible explanations. maybe the grand jury showed up and didnt have a quorum to do busi...

Explanations for why charges werent filed publicly? maybe they didnt have a quorum, maybe they wanted to hear more information. its a little bit hard to know. i do know this. when prosecutors present information to a grand jury and seek an indictment they tend to get it. >> yeah, doesnt mr. mccabe have a right to know why there was no true bill or charges were filed? >> thats a great question. grand jury rules by law are kept secret. if there was an investigation of me but i did nothing wrong, i...

Suggesting no matter what happens the process has been tainted. you dont have any president other than this one opining about who ought to be prosecuted by the justice department he oversees. and so even if they had have a valid case, even if prosecutors are acting in good faith, if they bring charges theres the danger toilet be perceived as unfair. >> and what do you make of this decision not to bring charges? does that indicate that the grand jury was unable to agree the charges should be file...

Undermanned fec. >> under personed. >> underpersoned. >> you hear that copy editor, yeah. >> i was reading for the record. but what is going on at the fec that you are now essentially smort a quorum and cant do anything. >> we have to have six member by law no more than three can have a political party. it takes four to make decisions. for the last couple of years weve been down bodies lost one a couple years ago. lost another a year and a half ago and havent been replaced. this week on monday i...

>> we dont. >> does that mean we dont have election monitor in america. >> not exact we have a triskt staff of dedicated servants who come to work every day. the core mission is to make sure we have disclosure of who is behind the money. we are the original follow the money agency created after watergate. and we track all the money put it up on the web make sure every american citizen can find out who supports which candidate and what they are spend the money on. that will go on. however, there ...

America? >> well, not entirely. so first of all, i want to say that we have a terrific staff of dedicated public servants who will continue to come to work every day. the core mission of the fec is to make sure that we have disclosure of whos behind the money. yes the original follow the money agency that was created after watergate, and we track all the money, put it up on the web, make sure that every american citizen can find out who is supporting which candidate and what theyre spending thei...

>> underpersoned. >> underpersoned. im sorry. you hear that? i was reading for record. what is going on at the fec that you are now essentially short a quorum and cant do anything? explain. >> so the fec by law is supposed to have six members. by law, no more than three of them can be of any one political party. and it takes four to make a quorum, to make most decisions at the agency. for the last couple of years weve been down bodies. we lost one a couple of years ago. we lost another one a yea...

Mr. chairman. >> they are serious allegations but they are also just that, allegations. they do need to be investigated because misuse of campaign funds particular such a large amount needs to be taken seriously in the preliminary work on that can be done by the fec staff. they do have a problem at the fec with only three commissioners now. i know the president has nominated one but the senate normally takes up both the republican and a democratic nominee the same time. that needs to happen so t...

If youre left feeling worn down, youre not alone. perhaps thats the presidents goal, to wear down his critics. its worked well for him in real welcome back, tonight im estate. he just wears people down. obsessed with the word fek lus, thats the art of the deal. whatever, just let trump have more specifically its first three letters, f-e-c. it. but it also might be a goal to rile up his critics as well. that is what you might call the sometimes the universe works so well. the federal election c...

Us back to full strength. i am sincerely hoping that we are not going to run into that situation again. >> if the president did decide that he wanted to fill these seats so the fec could be at full strength, could do things like open investigations, fulfill advisory expectations, things that you said they cant do without a quorum, the president would be responsible for filling both democrat and republican members to the open seats, right? >> yes. usually what happens is the seats of the oppositi...