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The Trump Justice Department is ending an Obama-era program that had attempted to cut off credit to shady businesses but came under fire from Republicans for unfairly targeting gun dealers and other legitimate operations.

Just days after top House Republicans had pressed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to shutter Operation Choke Point, the department confirmed in a response letter that the program is dead.

All of the Departments bank investigations conducted as part of Operation Chokepoint are now over, the initiative is no longer in effect, and it will not be undertaken again, Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said in the Aug. 16-dated letter, calling it a misguided initiative from the prior administration.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and the other GOP lawmakers had written to the DOJ last week asking the administration to formally repudiate the programs guidelines.

Goodlatte and others behind the letter applauded the reversal Friday, saying in a statement: The Obama Administration created this ill-advised program to suffocate legitimate businesses to which it was ideologically opposed by intimidating financial institutions into denying banking services to those businesses. By ending Operation Choke Point, the Trump Justice Department has restored the Departments responsibility to pursue lawbreakers, not legitimate businesses.

The program, launched when Eric Holder was attorney general, attempted to discourage banks from offering financial services tohigh risk customers a list that included short-term lenders and firearms dealers but was accused of hurting legal businesses in those categories.

REPUBLICANS PRESS DOJ TO END OBAMA-ERA PROGRAM

"Operation Choke Point was an Obama Administration initiative that destroyed legitimate businesses to which that Administration was ideologically opposed (e.g., firearms dealers) by intimidating financial institutions into denying banking services to those businesses," the GOP lawmakers wrote last week.

The lawmakers called for formal policy statements from several agencies to end such practices.

Boyds letter to Goodlatte and other lawmakers, obtained by Fox News, seemed to answer their call.

We share your view that law abiding businesses should not be targeted simply for operating in an industry that a particular administration might disfavor, Boyd wrote.

Boyd noted that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation earlier had rescinded its list of supposedly high-risk merchants, and said the Justice Department strongly agrees with that withdrawal.

The letter from Republican members of Congress last week said that list had hurt the ability of some businesses to borrow.

The letter also said Obama administration attorneys, over the course of six months in 2013, issued as many as 60 administrative subpoenas to banks doing business with gun-related entities including payday lenders.

Fox News' Judson Berger contributed to this report.

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Trump DOJ ends Holder-era 'Operation Choke Point' | Fox News - Fox News

Former Attorney General Eric Holder took to Twitter Sunday to criticize those who stopped short of calling the heinous attack in Charlottesville, Virginia, terrorism, but was instantly reminded of his own shortcomings on that topic.

If ISIS rammed a car into a crowd this would be labeled quickly & logically, he tweeted on his official account.

Charlottesville, he added, call it what it is, domestic terrorism.

President Donald Trump was widely criticized for his statement denouncing the attack that took a protesters life. Many said that it wasnt clear enough in condemning the violence from what appears to be a member of a white nationalist group.

But as many on social media pointed out, Holders criticism seemed disingenuous given that he was lambasted for designating the Fort Hood attack as workplace violence, instead of calling it terrorism.

The 2009 attack by Maj. Nidal Hasan left 13 dead and more than 40 wounded. Hasan had given many warning signs that he was being radicalized by Islamist ideology, but they were ignored until he went on his murderous spree.

The Charlottesville attack has occasioned an onslaught of criticism against the Trump administration, with many on the left attempting to blame the violence on rhetoric from the president.

Trump allies, like former Gov. Mike Huckabee,have defended the president, saying he would have been assailed by the left no matter what he said.

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Eric Holder calls out Trump over Charlottesville attack and ...

Former Attorney General Eric Holders foray into a debate on Saturdays violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, quickly elicited reminders of his early stance on convicted Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan.

It wasnt long after a white supremacist gathering Saturday turned deadly with the killing of Heather Heyer, 32, that former President Obamas top cop pronounced the ordeal domestic terrorism. Mr. Holders assessment of 20-year-old suspect James Alex Fields who careened his vehicle into a crowd of protesters prompted backlash by those familiar with the Justice Departments handling of the Nov. 5, 2009, Fort Hood massacre, which killed 13.

If ISIS rammed a car into a crowd this would be labeled quickly & logically. Charlottesville call it what it is, domestic terrorism, Mr. Holder tweeted Saturday night.

Jay Caruso of The Dallas Morning News, among many others, rhetorically fired back as Mr. Holders words spread across social media.

Seriously. Its not like some guy shot up a military base and people tried to call it workplace violence. Oh, wait, the writer tweeted Sunday.

Maybe you should sit this one out, Mr. Workplace Violence, added the popular social media pundit David Burge, aka Iowa Hawk.

Kind of like you calling the Ft.Hood shooting work place violence? Take a seat, youre dismissed, added another.

Hasan was eventually convicted Aug. 23, 2013, on 13 charges of premeditated murder and 32 of attempted murder.

President Trump condemned white supremacist groups Monday while speaking to reporters at the White House.

Racism is evil and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans, Mr. Trump said.

Mr. Fields was denied bail at an initial court hearing Monday, Reuters reported.

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Eric Holder hit with Fort Hood 'workplace violence' mockery after Charlottesville remarks - Washington Times

On Saturday afternoon,a man with white supremacist ties plowed his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protesters. One woman was killed, and more than two dozen were injured.

As news of the incident quickly spread, sometook issue with the fact that the White House hadn't come out immediately and labeled it a terrorist action.

Mike Huckabee raised the point that it wasn't always advisable for the President of the United States to jump to conclusions before all of the evidence had been compiled, but that didn't stop former Attorney General Eric Holder from calling him out anyway:

But Jay Caruso of the Dallas Morning News was ready for him:

Caruso was referring to the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood committed by admitted Jihadist and Army Psychiatrist Nidal Hasan. The Daily Beast reported:

As U.S. Army psychiatrist turned jihadi Nidal Hasan finally goes on trial for shooting 13 fellow soldiers to death at Fort Hood, here is what the government continues to classify the 2009 attack:

Workplace violence.

In what might be termed the audacity of nope, the government has declined to call this al Qaedainspired mass murder an act of terrorism because to do so would be unfair to the victims.

The official reasoning is that it would jeopardize the case because, as stated in a Pentagon memo, defense counsel will argue that Major Hasan cannot receive a fair trial because a branch of government has indirectly declared that Major Hasan is a terroristthat he is criminally culpable."

Because the shooting was classified as workplace violence rather than an act of terror, the victims and their families were denied Purple Hearts and certain other benefits available only to service-members who were injured in combat.

Holder was serving as Attorney General at the time.

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Eric Holder Complains That Charlottesville Wasn't Labeled 'Terrorism' Gets Smacked in the Face With Karma - Independent Journal Review

Clovis was a conservative radio host and political activist in Iowa before gaining national attention as one of the more vocal supporters of Trump during the presidential campaign. His nomination to head science at the USDA requires Senate confirmation.

The material shows how Clovis regularly engaged with fringe theories that were prevalent in the right-wing radio and blogosphere during Obama's presidency.

Clovis did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson for the USDA and the White House also did not respond to emails requesting comment.

"For over a decade, Obama allowed his publisher to carry a biography that had him born in Kenya. Only after beginning his pursuit of public office did he 'correct' the entry," Clovis wrote. (The literary agent who edited the biography has said the error was hers, and that she made it with no direct communication with Obama.)

Clovis then theorized that Obama's past connections to left-wing figures went unscrutinized by the media because Obama is black.

"Could it be that the first African-American president is being given a pass because he is Black? How incredibly racist is that? The logical conclusion is that because he is Black, he cannot help himself. This kind of thinking is the absolute worst," Clovis wrote.

Clovis also discussed the race of Holder and then-Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, who now heads the Democratic National Committee. In a 2013 episode of "Impact with Sam Clovis," Clovis called Holder "a racist black" and Perez "a racist Latino."

"This goes right in line with Tom Perez who is a racist Latino and goes to (inaudible) who is a racist Latino, Eric Holder who is a racist black," according to a transcript of the show obtained by CNN's KFile.

Clovis would frequently attack prominent Democratic leaders with insults and epithets. He called then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "mentally ill" during a September 2013 local Iowa radio appearance and referred to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as "the Batwoman of Alcatraz" and said "something's happened to her brain" in a May 2013 episode of "Impact with Sam Clovis.

Clovis also denied the veracity of climate change science, a belief cited by Senate Democrats and climate activists who have expressed opposition to his nomination for the USDA job.

Clovis told Iowa radio host Jan Mickelson in June 2013 that climate change wasn't settled science and argued that progressives changed the term from "global warming" to "climate change" to imply they were going to create the ideal climate around the world.

"What we have to examine is how the language changes, and when you start to go away from 'global warming' to 'climate change,' this goes right into the heart of progressive thinking because what it says, or what the implication is, is that somehow the progressives are going to figure out a way to create the ideal climate in all regions of the earth," he said. "And so how nonsensical is that? If you follow that logic to its logical conclusion, that's the conclusion in which you arrive -- is that there is some perfect weather or some perfect climate that we will have for everyone -- everyone will thrive."

Speaking with the same Iowa radio host in February 2014, Clovis agreed with Mickelson's assessment that climate change was a way to redistribute wealth and "a big hustle." Clovis also made reference to "Agenda 21," a United Nations action plan on sustainability that right-wing figures have long claimed is an attempt by the internal organization to strip local governments of their sovereignty.

Clovis repeatedly engaged in conspiratorial theories, particularly ones that cast the Obama administration in the most sinister light.

"This president is a dangerous person," Clovis wrote. "He is dangerous in that he does not have the interests of the nation in mind and is more than willing to do anything to advance an ideology that is absolutely opposed to American exceptionalism. Four more years of this man as president could very well mean the total deconstruction of our Constitutional republic. He wants to be a dictator and he wants to enslave all who are not part of his regime. As Althusius advised in the 17th Century, we have a right to throw off imprudent magistrates. The current president certainly qualifies. Vote in November."

In a September 2012 episode of his online radio program "Serious Civics with Sam Clovis," Clovis observed that Obama appeared "happy" after the attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya that month.

"This is something that tells you that he is dismissive of the entire affair and in fact, I would even hate to stretch this out but it's almost as if it was intentional. As if he is happy that these things have occurred." Clovis said. "Now I know that's harsh and I don't have any evidence to support that. But look at his actions. Right after the event, where does he go? He goes and he does an interview on the hip hop guy who is a pimp and on top of everything else. The fact that he goes to Las Vegas and essentially just mentions in passing that we've had four Americans killed in Libya under a premeditated orchestrated attack and he doesn't seem to have any more attachment to it than that. This is frightening."

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Trump pick Sam Clovis stoked birther conspiracy, called Eric Holder ... - CNN