Who is Preventing a Citizen from Calling Members of Congress?

CALLS MYSTERIOUSLY REROUTED FROM CONGRESSIONAL OFFICES

by Sharon Rondeau

(Aug. 13, 2013) — In May, U.S. citizen, registered voter and Illinois resident Michael D. Jackson contacted The Post & Email to report that he was unable to reach members of the House of Representatives directly using his cell phone.  The phenomenon began on March 20 of this year when Jackson’s calls to Congress were redirected to a recorded message which said, “You have reached a non-working number of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

When that occurred, Jackson said, “My phone wouldn’t even ring.”

On May 14, Jackson shared his experiences with The Post & Email and the actions he subsequently took:

On March 20, after three calls to members of Congress, I concluded my phone was being blocked. It was the day before I met with a U.S. senator’s staffer.  I contacted my phone carrier and my congressman’s office at that time.  I’ve gotten some answers since then.  Both my U.S. Senator and U.S. congressman, Aaron Schock, have been shown that my phone will not dial through.

As of yesterday, I confirmed with my phone carrier that the problem is not on my end.  On May 9, I called Rep. Schock’s office after waiting since April 3 for a response as to why I was unable to call his Washington office.  I showed the staffer, Brian, the problem with my phone that day.

Brian called me back yesterday, immediately identified himself and told me that he had spoken to the chief of staff of Rep. Schock’s DC office and that they did not fill out any paperwork to block my number.

They suggested that I contact my phone service company, which is what I did yesterday.  I met with them in person, and they informed me at that point that there was nothing wrong on my end.  They mentioned that there would even be records of all my many attempts to contact members of Congress since the day they notated this.  There are also records of my calling and speaking with technical support.

After conferring with his service provider, Jackson said the technician’s “eyebrows were raised” over the problems with his phone which they could not explain.

The apparent blocking also occurred when Jackson called district offices of certain representatives.  “I normally sit there and wait, and it’s as if somebody picks up the phone and transfers me to voice mail,” he told us.

The Post & Email asked Jackson how many congressional offices in Washington he had been unable to reach at the time of his report in May, to which he responded, “Between 200 and 300.”  As of July 29, however, Jackson had documented that out of 435 members of the House of Representatives, his phone calls to 431 of them were rerouted to the voice message.  As of August 10, he could not reach any congressional offices directly.

He did not experience any difficulty in reaching members of the U.S. Senate or the Capitol switchboard.

Jackson has been outspoken about the Obama eligibility/identity issue, demanding answers as to why Obama’s identity documents, although declared forgeries, have not been investigated by Congress.  Jackson had filed a ballot objection to Obama’s candidacy during the 2012 primary period but was not allowed to speak at the ensuing hearing.  A subsequent general election challenge, as allowed by Illinois law, was “overruled.”  The Illinois Board of Elections accepted the long-form birth certificate image proffered by Obama’s attorneys as proof that Obama met the constitutional requirements to serve as president even though it had been declared a “computer-generated forgery” by a law enforcement investigation.

Last October, Jackson filed a complaint of treason against Obama, “aka Barry Soetoro,” with his local grand jury.  During calls to Congress, he has raised the issues of the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya last September and the lack of accountability Jackson sees in on the part of the Obama regime.  “I’m not saying anything wrong when I call,” Jackson said.

“I pretty-much figure that some of them took note of my communications and are sending me a subtle message,” Jackson explained.  “This is a blatant violation of my First Amendment rights.  I can be empathetic with whistleblowers because the same thing is being done to them.  How can you ignore something like this?”

In February, Jackson sent a request to his congressman’s district office asking that Rep. Aaron Schock sign a “declaratory statement” that Barack Obama met the definition of “natural born Citizen” and was therefore eligible to the presidency.

In March, Jackson met with an aide to Sen. Mark Kirk, to whom he showed a 500-page dossier he had compiled regarding the many questions surrounding Obama’s eligibility to serve as president and the declared forgery of his documentation by the Maricopa County, AZ Cold Case Posse.

Another unusual event occurred involving Mr. Jackson on April 3, 2013. As he was approaching his congressman’s district office, Jackson was stopped by a U.S. marshal and told he could not enter.  Of that encounter, Jackson said:

I was in the federal building probably 30 mins.  After I showed my photo id then I was told I wasn’t allowed to go in to the office.  I was not given any specific reason other than he said “I had some trouble a couple years ago when I went there”.  Well, the only other time I went there, there was no such occurrence, so where [he] got that answer is your guess.  Within the first few mins of the U.S. Marshall speaking with me, Brian Rudolph a staffer shows up out of thin air.  Don’t ask me why he just showed up, it was really weird to say the least.  I asked him why I couldn’t come into Schock’s office and he told me he didn’t know this was an issue one way or the other, basically he seemed like he was clueless to this.  I told him why I came down was to show them my phone wouldn’t dial through which I preceded to show him right out in the middle of the lobby and checkpoint.  He told me this was unusual and there should be no reason why I shouldn’t be able to call the Congressman and he would look into it.  I also shared with him briefly that we had a fraud in the WH and that Congress needed to address this issue.  He basically let me share my thoughts and said he would look into this.  Of course I never got any return correspondence with regards to my visit which then precipitated me to call Schock’s district office on May 9.  I went from April 3 to May 9 before I made any attempt to contact Schock’s office. As far as how my visit ended.  I went back up to the U.S. Marshall and asked him if I came back down in the future would I not be allowed in.  He then told me I was the wrong person and that I would be allowed to go the Congressman’s office.

Jackson told The Post & Email that the name of the marshal was “D. Nelson.”

When Jackson spoke to us in May, revelations about NSA domestic spying programs, which reportedly collect virtually every electronic communication made by U.S. citizens, had not yet become public, as former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden began speaking to The Guardian in early June.

At approximately the same time as Jackson contacted us about his phone being blocked, the IRS divulged that it had targeted applicants for non-profit status based on their perceived political positions.  Those targeted for additional scrutiny and delays included pro-Israel groups, abortion opponents, supporters of traditional family units, religious organizations, adoption groups, and possibly donors to the the Romney campaign and Republicans during the 2012 election cycle.

Since the 2008 campaign cycle, Obama opponents have been ridiculed, slandered and libeled, accused of being racist, and marginalized by politicians and Obama sycophants alike.  On August 9, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said publicly that he hoped that Republicans did not oppose Obama because of “the fact that he’s an African American.”

On May 24, Jackson wrote to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan about the apparent block on his phone.

Madigan’s office then responded:

Jackson then wrote back to Madigan:

 

Madigan’s office then responded a second time:

Jackson wrote to Rep. Schock’s chief of staff, Carol Merna, to ask if anyone had purposely blocked him from being able to call the Washington, DC office.  Ms. Merna responded that “Not only is your number not blocked, we’ve not blocked anyone else’s phone number.”

After failing to find any other solution, Jackson found that he could use “*67” to obscure his phone number to reach the congressional offices with no difficulty.  However, Jackson told us that “even when I dial *67 I cannot always get the call to go through, but get the ‘g3b’ (rerouted voice message) recording like I do when I call without using *67.”

On July 25, 2013, Jackson unexpectedly received a call from a female who identified herself as “Agent Smith” and a member of the Capitol Police in Washington, DC.  Smith left a message stating that Jackson “needed to call them back in relation to some conversations he had had with some congressmen’s offices.”  Jackson promptly returned the call.

When he reached Smith on the phone, she thanked him for responding and then told him that “The reason I called you is about some of the phone calls you’ve made are to Congress.  You know what conversations I’m talking about, don’t you?” to which Jackson answered in the negative. Paraphrasing, Jackson said that Smith responded, “You know exactly what I’m talking about.  How about that conversation of July 15 when you contacted Mr. Schock’s office and said to the staffer that the next time you go to the airport and you see Congressman Schock, you’re going to shove this in his face?”

Jackson said he never made any such statement and tried to say so to Smith.  He said he did not call Schock’s office on July 15, as he keeps a running list of congressional offices he calls and on which days.  He said Smith “refused” to answer the questions he tried to ask.  Jackson elaborated:

She was very loud and boisterous.  She kept saying, “Who am I supposed to believe, the congressman or you?  Do you understand what I said to you?” I said, “This is a lie.”  She then said, “I can sign an affidavit right now to indicate that you said such things.”

Jackson then asked Smith to name the staffers to whom he had allegedly spoken, claiming that he issued threats, but Smith reportedly refused to provide any names.  “‘You have no proof of this,'” Jackson said to her.  He then said that Smith respond, “I’ll tell you what…This is the final warning:  you are not to call Mr. Schock’s office at all from this point forward, because if you do, we will have an arrest warrant set up with the police to come in and arrest you.”  Jackson replied, “What’s the First Amendment for? I don’t have an opportunity to bring a petition of redress to my congressman?” to which Smith allegedly responded, “The only way you can contact Mr. Schock’s office is the USPS or by email.'”

Jackson then said “Goodbye” and hung up.  “Everything she was saying was a flat-out lie,” he said.  “My friends and family know me, and they know I would not make threats.  It’s not just about Mr. Obama; I’ve brought other issues to them as well.  I never even called Schock’s office on July 15.  For more than two years, I have kept records of the times I’ve called my congressman.”

Jackson said during recent calls to Congress, he has raised the matters of Extortion 17, HR36, and the Cold Case Posse’s investigation of Obama’s long-form birth certificate and Selective Service registration form.  He said that some staffers were “condescending” towards him, while interns tended to be better listeners than staffers.  “I’ve never been threatening to anyone, ever,” Jackson said.  He said the call from the Capitol Police was “out of the blue” and “very disturbing.”

“They’re accusing me of something that never happened,” Jackson said.  He said he made several phone calls to members of Congress on July 25 but not to Schock’s office. He said he inadvertently used an inappropriate word once with a staffer but quickly apologized.  “This is about the truth vs. the lies,” Jackson said.  “Are they going to start threatening my friends and my family now?  I know they’re listening to everything we’re saying on the phone.”

“Whatever they have written up I would like to see,” Jackson said of the Capitol Police’s justification for calling and threatening him.

On July 26, Jackson again communicated with Rep. Schock’s chief of staff, who confirmed in an email that Jackson had not been blocked from contacting “any of Congressman Schock’s offices.”

 

On July 27, after speaking with his county sheriff’s office, Jackson went to the local police department to file a report about the call from the Capitol Police.  Of the encounter, Jackson reported, “I could tell the officer believed me and he came across as an honorable man.”

Jackson said that the officer, Eric Herman, called the Capitol Police to verify that it was they who had actually called Jackson.  Jackson told us:

He made a call and spoke with the same agent Smith I talked to.  One of his concerns was if this was a real agent calling me. Indeed it was.  He told me she told him I could not call the congressman’s office because I tied the phones up too long for up to an hour.  That was a lie, maybe around a 1/2 hour, but certainly no hour.  So what if I’m on the phone for 1/2 hour.  He also said she said that I raised my voice and yelled at the interns.  Another lie…He told me he would document this.  He was also shocked when I first brought this to his attention because he had never encountered something like this. I also shared with him that my phone was blocked or rerouted or whatever.  He called the same number from his land line and confirmed he could get through and saw that I couldn’t. I gave him a copy of the e-mails I got from Carol Merna in response to my concern about all these things.

Jackson prepared a notarized statement summarizing his account of the exchange between Agent Smith and himself and sent it to his state representative, The Post & Email, and a private attorney.

On July 26, The Post & Email contacted the Capitol Police at 202-224-1495 and was directed to the Public Information Officer at 202-224-1677, where we were informed that the Capitol Police are exempt from FOIA requests for communications between their officers and members of the public.  However, the agent was happy to provide us the information for the Office of General Counsel if we chose to pursue a FOIA request.

On August 12, The Post & Email contacted the Capitol Police a second time to ask how a citizen could file a complaint.  We were directed to the Office of Professional Responsibility and spoke with Monique Johnson, who advised that complaints can be sent by email or standard mail.  She provided an email address which we passed on to Jackson.

On August 6, Jackson mailed out 83 letters to members of Congress requesting that they launch an investigation into the fraudulent long-form birth certificate posted on the White House website since April 27, 2011.  This week, he is working on sending another 80 similar letters.