The White House pressured a General to change his testimony before the Congress in order to protect a campaign donor
The Obama regime is already caught in the middle of two potentially huge and devastating scandals; the first being the deadly Gunrunner/Gunwalker/Fast and Furious/Castaway scandal which I have written about extensively, and the second being the burgeoning Solyndra scandal in which it appears as if the Obama regime had a cozy relationship with the green energy company which received $500 million in taxpayer stimulus money just months before going belly up. But now it looks as if the Obama regime is about to get caught up in a third major scandal.
According to this article the story goes like this: A company called LightSquared which is run by a major Democrat donor, Philip Falcone, was developing a new technology which the Pentagon feared would interfere with the military’s GPS system and the Congress was beginning to hold hearings about the Pentagon’s worries. A four-star Air Force general, William Shelton, was set to testify in front of the Congress but his prepared testimony was leaked to the White House. The White House was unhappy with the testimony because it was unfavorable to a major Democrat campaign donor, so they asked the general to change his testimony when he appeared before the Congress.
General William Shelton walked into the Congress and testified that the White House did indeed try to “convince” him to change his testimony:
Pressed by members, Gen. William Shelton said the White House tried to pressure him to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a company tied to a large Democratic donor.
According to officials familiar with the situation, Shelton’s prepared testimony was leaked in advance to the company. And the White House asked the general to alter the testimony to add two points: that the general supported the White House policy to add more broadband for commercial use; and that the Pentagon would try to resolve the questions around LightSquared with testing in just 90 days. Shelton chafed at the intervention, which seemed to soften the Pentagon’s position and might be viewed as helping the company as it tries to get the project launched, officials said.
“There was an attempt to influence the text of the testimony and to engage LightSquared in the process in order to bias his testimony,” Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) said in an interview. “The only people who were involved in the process in preparation for the hearing included the Department of Defense, the White House, and the Office Management and Budget.”
We can only assume that when the general was set to testify in front of the Congress that he was prepared to tell the truth as he saw it, because after all nobody wants to willingly lie to the Congress, and won’t unless they have something to hide. But the Obama regime was not happy with the text of the testimony and so they tried to convince General Shelton to change his story. If the general was set to tell the truth to the Congress and the president wanted him to change his story than it can easily be concluded that the White House was asking General Shelton to lie to the Congress in order to make his testimony more favorable to a major Democrat contributor.
Barack Obama promised to change the culture of Washington if he was elected, and the Democrats promised to drain the swamp of corruption if elected, and yet we are beginning to learn that the only change Barack Obama has brought to Washington is to bring the depths of corruption to new lows.
It seems as if the Obama regime has no concept of right and wrong–other than doing right by their campaign contributors–and is more interested in protecting the interests of campaign donors than he is in protecting the American people from the corruption he promised to end.
America's Watchtower 
According to the Daily Beast article, the OMB does have a legitimate role to play of circulating prepared testimony to relevant parties for comment and then passing these comments on the agency testifying. Apparently the General considered this as pressure to change his testimony yet he was allowed to present his prepared remarks without changes. So, I’m left wondering was it pressure or was it comments from a relevant party? I’m all in favor of exposing those that want to circumvent the truth. But I also wouldn’t want the Republicans to lose credibility by going on witch hunts. Do you know anything about Rep. Turner, Steve? I know nothing.
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I guess there are more questions that need to be answered and hopefully we will find out soon. I don’t know anything about Rep. Turner, sorry.
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All I can figure is that there is a certain agenda that has to be followed no matter what. Who is really in control here? How many people have been pressured to either not tell the truth or been put in a position that it is near impossible to get them to talk? The more fanning out that is done on so many different issues, I think will overwhelm most citizens and they will give up trying to make any sense of this, or they will direct their anger at the ones trying to bring it to their attention. You know how they say the messenger is attacked and not the message. I think it is getting to the point that alot will turn a deaf ear to it and this is not good. They need to step up and pace and not drag this out.
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You make a good point, with all of this news coming out people may eventually stop paying attention to it and that may be what the regime is hoping for.
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I just think when there is too much going on that people shut down pretty quickly. It has gotten to the point that this has become the “norm”, that is what is scarey. I also think that this administration is not only in the damage control mode, but the attack mode, as well. Let’s hope the whole thing explodes in their faces. I remember watching what is my favorite movie of all times, Doctor Zhivago, at one point Lara makes a comment about that being a horrible time to be alive. That was during the Russian Revolution. Is this in our future?
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Yes, these continual stories of corruption will eventually make the American people complacent because it will seem as if it is simply the way things work and that is a dangerous mindset.
Doctor Zhivago has been on my list of must watch movies for a long time, but I still haven’t seen it.
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