Tag: James Clapper

Former Trump Official Ric Grenell Sues Biden Admin Over ‘Expert Advisory Committee’ with Members Who Signed Hunter Biden Laptop Letter

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Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Richard Grenell along with America First Legal are suing the Biden administration, according to a copy of the lawsuit first obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the formation of the “expert” board to address issues of national security in September to include Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former CIA Operations Officer Paul Kolbe, who all signed an October 2020 letter casting doubt on the legitimacy of the Hunter Biden laptop and suggesting its release was a Russian disinformation ploy. The latest legal action alleges that the group’s creation was done in an illegal manner and that it lacks credible members, according to the copy of the lawsuit.

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Senators Tell Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Turn over All Correspondence with Hunter Biden

M.D. Kittle

Secretary of State Antony Blinken wasn’t straight with congress about his communications with President Joe Biden’s ne’er-do-well son Hunter, according to emails and a transcript of a 2022 interview first reported by The Star News Network. 

Now, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), whose committees have long investigated allegations of Biden family corruption, are demanding the Secretary of State “produce and preserve” all records related to his correspondence with Hunter Biden.

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Senator Lindsey Graham Sets Vote to Subpoena Comey, Brennan and Dozens More in Oversight of Crossfire Hurricane

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The Senate Judiciary Committee will vote on June 4 whether to authorize subpoenas for documents and testimony from more than 50 current or former government officials, including James Comey and John Brennan, as part of the panel’s investigation into abuse of the surveillance process during Crossfire Hurricane.

The committee will debate and vote June 4 on whether to issue the subpoenas, said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary panel.

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Commentary: A Deep Dive into the Monstrous Lie Behind CrowdStrike and the ‘Russian Hack’

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Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 presidential election was predicated largely on the claim Russian intelligence had hacked the Democratic National Committee’s servers ahead of the November election. Russia’s guilt is such an article of faith among our political class that a Republican-controlled Congress imposed sanctions on Russia and President Trump signed on, substantially worsening relations with an important and potentially dangerous nation. 

Since those sanctions were imposed, Mueller’s team confirmed the Russian espionage they were meant to punish. Since its publication last year, the Washington establishment has treated the Mueller report almost as a sacred document.

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Commentary: The Military-Intelligence Complex

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Much has been written about the so-called Resistance of disgruntled Clinton, Obama, and progressive activists who have pledged to stop Donald Trump’s agenda. The choice of the noun “Resistance,” of course, conjures up not mere “opposition,” but is meant to evoke the French “resistance” of World War II – in the melodramatic sense of current loyal progressive patriots doing their best to thwart by almost any means necessary the Nazi-like Trump.

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Commentary: Why Are Clapper and Brennan Not in Jail?

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by Angelo Codevilla   The clearest of all the laws concerning U.S. intelligence is Section 798, 18 U.S. Code—widely known in the Intelligence Community as “the Comint Statute,” or “the 10 and 10.” Unlike other laws, this is a “simple liability” law. Motivation, context, identity, matter not at all. You violate it, you are guilty and are punished accordingly. Here it is: (a) Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, . . . any classified information— (1) concerning the nature, preparation, or use of any code, cipher, or cryptographic system of the United States or any foreign government; or (2) concerning the design, construction, use, maintenance, or repair of any device, apparatus, or appliance used or prepared or planned for use by the United States …or (3) concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government; or (4) obtained by the processes of communication intelligence . . . Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. On Dec. 9 and 10, 2016, the New York Times and the Washington Post independently reported that anonymous senior intelligence officials had told them that,…

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Commentary: The Eternal Conflict of the Progressive Mind

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by Victor Davis Hanson   One of the strangest things about the series of psychodramas that surround the ongoing effort to remove President Trump before the 2020 election is progressive schizophrenia. In teenage fashion, one moment a player in the Trump removal intrigue is deemed by the media-progressive nexus a demigod. The next moment, he’s a devil. It depends solely on his perceived sense of utility. Robert Mueller, Saint to Sinner  When Robert Mueller was appointed in May 2017 as special counsel to investigate alleged Trump campaign “collusion” with Russia following the firing of FBI Director James Comey, he was practically canonized as a secular saint. The media was giddy over his “all stars” and “dream team” of almost all liberal lawyers who shortly would prove the supposedly obvious: sure winner Hillary Clinton lost only because the vile Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin to sabotage her campaign by leaking John Podesta’s emails. As the Mueller investigation lumbered along over the last 22 months, the media periodically announced that their newfound hero had inside information, privileged but unnamed sources, and high-ranking anonymous officials who confirmed “the noose was tightening,” the “walls were closing in,” and “a bombshell” was about to go…

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Commentary: The Tables Turn in Russian Collusion Hunt

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by Victor Davis Hanson   The irony of the entire Russian collusion hoax is that accusers who cried the loudest about leaking, collusion, lying, and obstruction are themselves soon very likely to be accused of just those crimes. Now that Robert Mueller’s 674-day, $30 million investigation is over and has failed to find the original goal of its mandate—evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government to sway the 2016 election—and now that thousands of once-sealed government documents will likely be released in unredacted form, those who eagerly assumed the role of the hunters may become the hunted, due to their own zealous violation of the nation’s trust and its laws. Take Lying  Former FBI Director James Comey’s testimonies cannot be reconciled with those of his own deputy director Andrew McCabe. He falsely testified that the Steele dossier was not the main basis for obtaining FISA court warrants. On at least 245 occasions, Comey swore under oath that he either did not know, or could not remember, when asked direct questions about his conduct at the FBI. He likely lied when he testified that he did not conclude his assessment of the Clinton illegal…

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New Details Emerge of the Path the Steele Dossier Took through Media and the Government

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by Chuck Ross   Court documents released last week in a lawsuit involving the Steele dossier revealed new details about the campaign to disseminate the infamous anti-Trump report to the press and within the U.S. government. Much was already known about Fusion GPS and dossier author Christopher Steele’s efforts to seed the dossier with reporters and government officials. Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson orchestrated several meetings between Steele and Washington, D.C.-based journalists prior to the 2016 election. It has also been widely reported that Steele and Simpson met with government officials in an attempt to ensure that Steele’s unverified findings landed on the government’s radar. A deposition given by David Kramer, a longtime associate of former Sen. John McCain, shed light on even more contacts with reporters and government officials. Kramer’s Dec. 13, 2017 deposition was released on March 14 along with a batch of other documents from a dossier-related lawsuit against BuzzFeed News. By giving the dossier to government officials, Fusion GPS and Steele were able to create news hooks for journalists to write stories airing the dossier’s unverified allegations. That was the case with Yahoo! News, Mother Jones, CNN and BuzzFeed News, all of which published stories not about…

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Commentary: A Tight and Tangled ‘Collusion’ Web

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by Roger Kimball   Most people reading this will know Sir Walter Scott’s famous couplet (from the narrative poem Marmion): Oh, what a tangled web we weave When first we practise to deceive! Less well known, but undeservedly so, is the excellent completing couplet by J. R. Pope, published under the sly title “A Word of Encouragement”: But when we’ve practiced for a while, How vastly we improve our style! Indeed. You really have to give it to the suits in Barack Obama’s intelligence services and Department of Justice (many of whom, of course, are still strutting about in Donald Trump’s administration). It was quite a web they wove, and tangled with complexity. Yet their prodigious practice also made it nearly impenetrable to anyone not inside their charmed circle. That adamantine carapace of impenetrability is a sign of their high style, their assiduity, the reason that a “word of encouragement” did not come amiss. Put your hand on your heart. Can you really tell me what happened and who all the major players are in the Get Trump farce that has been occupying the nation for more than two years now? There have been various worthy efforts to unpack the drama—I’ve made a…

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Trump Revokes Security Clearance of Former CIA Director John Brennan

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Brennan, Rice, Comey, Clapper

The security clearance of a former Central Intelligence Agency director has been revoked by U.S. President Donald Trump, who said in a statement that John Brennan has been sowing “division and chaos” about his administration. The clearances of other former officials also are under review, including those of former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, former Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice, former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. “Security clearances for those who still have them may be revoked, and those who have already their lost their security clearance may not be able to have it reinstated,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said to reporters on Wednesday, reading out the statement in the president’s name. Sarah Sanders Reads Trump Statement Revoking Clearances Sanders, responding to reporters’ questions, denied that Brennan and others are being singled out because they are critics of Trump. The president’s statement accuses Brennan of “erratic conduct and behavior” that “has tested and far exceeded the limits of any professional courtesy that may have been due to him.” It also accuses Brennan of “a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility.”…

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Commentary: The ‘Self Licking Ice Cream Cone’ of Mueller’s Russia Probe

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James Brennan

by George Rasley   Senator Rand Paul met with President Donald Trump Monday and asked him to consider revoking former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance. Our friend Sara Carter reports the Kentucky Senator later took to Twitter and wrote, “Just got out of WH meeting with @RealDonald Trump. I restated to him what I have said in public: John Brennan and others [sic] partisans should have their security clearances revoked.” Prior to his meeting with the President, Carter reports Rand Paul questioned on Twitter if Brennan was “monetizing” his clearance by divulging secrets to the “mainstream media.” White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders said during today’s press briefing that President Trump is seriously considering revoking Brennan’s privilege, along with other senior top intelligence officials from the Obama and Bush administration. “Not only is the president looking to take away Brennan’s security clearance, he’s also looking into the clearances of (former FBI Director James) Comey, (former Director of National Intelligence James) Clapper, (former CIA Director Michael) Hayden, (former National Security Advisor Susan) Rice and (former FBI Deputy Director Andrew) McCabe,” Sanders told reporters. Senator Paul is on to something with his charge that Brennan and others have “monetized” their clearances by…

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Corker Likens Trump Administration to ‘Banana Republic’ For Wanting to Yank Security Clearances of Misbehaving Ex-Officials

Jason M. Reynolds
Bob Corker

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker likened the Trump Administration to a “banana republic” for wanting to yank security clearances of ex-government hacks who are using their positions to attack the president. The administration’s proposal is “the kind of thing that happens in Venezuela,” Tennessee’s junior senator told MSNBC, as reported by Politico. “I can’t even believe that somebody at the White House thought up something like this. I mean, when you’re going to start taking retribution against people who are your political enemies in this manner, that’s the kind of thing that happens in Venezuela. “So you just don’t do that. I can’t believe they even allowed it to be aired, to be honest,” he said. “I mean, it’s a banana republic kind of thing.” Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s administration is considered a dictatorship. Corker met with the dictator in May to secure the release of an American prisoner, surprising the Trump Administration and members of Congress. The meeting came one week after Maduro won re-election in a sham election. “Not all members of Congress welcomed Corker’s visit to the South American country, especially in the wake of a presidential race the United States, several Latin American countries and some European…

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James Clapper Discussed Dossier With CNN, According To House Intel Report

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by Chuck Ross   Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper gave inconsistent testimony to a House panel about his contacts with CNN’s Jake Tapper regarding the infamous Steele dossier, according to a report released by congressional Republicans on Friday. The report, published by the GOP side of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, shows that Clapper acknowledged speaking with Tapper about the dossier while he was still serving as director of national intelligence. That is in direct conflict with Clapper’s claim to CNN’s Don Lemon last month that he did not interact with the media prior to leaving the Obama administration on Jan. 20, 2017. “I didn’t have any contact with media until after I left the government on the 20th of January, so I don’t quite understand, at least what I’ve read, that somehow I leaked about the dossier,” Clapper told Lemon in the interview. “So you didn’t leak anything about the dossier to any media?” Lemon asked. “No, not — I mean, I talked about it after I left the government, but not during that period, and certainly not between the 6th of January and the 10th when the president-elect himself talked about it.” CNN, where…

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