When Did Ajit Pai Know?

[babylonsister]

When Did Ajit Pai Know?
Dell Cameron
Today 1:00pmFiled to: FCC


Set to appear before a Senate oversight committee next Thursday, Ajit Pai will face a barrage of questions about why multiple senior officials at the agency he leads, the Federal Communications Commission, provided false information to members of Congress—a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, had they done so knowingly.

The top question, which the commission has yet to answer, and which Democratic lawmakers are itching to ask, is exactly how long Pai knew that Congress and the American people were being misled.

A report from the commission’s own inspector general this week revealed that in January 2018, FCC investigators became convinced three senior officials—David Bray, Tony Summerlin, and Leo Wong—may have broken the law after providing false information in response to congressional inquiries about a purported cyberattack on the FCC. The so-called attack had disrupted the FCC’s comment system, the officials claimed, as the commission sought public input over a proposed rollback of net neutrality protections established during the Obama administration.

After speaking with security professionals at the agency, and after conducting extensive interviews with senior FCC officials and FBI agents contacted after the incident, the inspector general’s office concluded that the comment system was, in fact, overwhelmed by a flood of legitimate traffic and that the problem was further exacerbated by a number of system design flaws.

In June, fraud and public-corruption investigators with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., declined to prosecute the officials behind the false statements to Congress, which included mischaracterizations of conversations with FBI agents, according to the IG report.

While Pai publicly acknowledged this week that the cyberattack was a hoax, sources say he has yet to reach out to the lawmakers who were deceived (several of whom are traveling) to correct the record personally or rescind letters containing false information that Pai signed over the past year. Multiple Democratic lawmakers are also incensed that Pai, who knew the report’s findings at least a full day before it was released, has done nothing but publish a press release placing the blame solely at the feet of Bray, his former chief information officer, in an apparent attempt to clear his own name.

“It was a calculated move,” said a senior Democratic aide, “meant to frame the IG report to his advantage before anyone else was able to read it.”

more...

https://gizmodo.com/when-did-ajit-pai-know-1828254203

[Achilleaze]

1. Humongous is the STENCH of republican mendacity, cupidity, and outright evil

in all that they do.

[erronis]

2. Not a bad characterization. I wish I knew any decent repuglicons for counter-argument

While some like McCain have done a few good deeds all of their actions have overwhelmed decency.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

7. Oh snap.

This will be worth watching.

[Fritz Walter]

3. Drain the swamp?

drumpf turned it into a festering, stagnant cesspool instead!
Swamps are very useful ecosystems. What agolf twittler has installed is a festering, toxic dump, which will take years — if not decades — to rectify.

Get. Out. The. Vote.
Now, more than ever, every vote counts!

And I’m determined to avoid making an insensitive pun with the FCC head’s name. For now. Despite his Net Neutrality stance, and blatantly obvious conflict of interest with the failed SINclair-Tribune merger.

[not fooled]

4. "The dog ate my homework"

criminality and lying pervade this entire maladministration.

[elmac]

5. lock him up!!!

the piece of shit corporate pig

[Autumn]

6. I signed a petition about net neutrality. There were 4 in my name.

Mine to preserve it and 3 fake with my information that were against preserving it. I want to know why nothing is being done about that.

[FakeNoose]

8. I know - I signed it several times too

The number of signatures didn't mean shit because nobody ever looked at them.

Nobody in the GOP cares or ever cared about this issue. Only a small number of major internet provider companies (who donated heavily to the GOP) stood to gain anything by banning net neutrality. Those few ISP's got what the paid for, and all the rest of us got screwed.